Heavy Forgery in Boston
--Startling Disclesure of Fraud.
The Boston Post, of Thursday, gives the subjoined particulars of a case of fraud briefly mentioned by telegraph Friday morning.--It seems that
Mr. H. D. P. Bigelow, shoe and leather dealer at No. 75 Pearl street, has been guilty of forging paper of various descriptions.
but principally notes, to a very large sum, amounting in the aggregate, it is thought, to nearly $50,000, and that he has borrowed great sums of money from friends and business acquaintances — and that with all this wealth he has left for parts unknown.
The Post says:
‘
Having done a large and profitable Western business for a long while, he had the reputation of standing A 1, and from a general knowledge of this fact does the surprise at the occurrence principally arise.
In 1857 the firm of
Bigelow, Ball &
Knight failed, but they gave the excellent dividend of eighty cents on the dollar, and continued under the new title of
Bigelow &
Knight.
So organized, the firm remained until a month or two ago, but recently
Mr. Bigelow purchased the interest of his partner, (
Mr. Samuel D. Knight, who resides at
Cambridgeport,) and paid him with his own notes endorsed by a brother at the
West.
These Mr. Knight still holds, and there is at present the possibility, if not the probability, of his being one of the greatest sufferers.
On Friday night last, on leaving the store,
Mr. Bigelow told his book-keeper that he should return at 12 M. on the following day. The promise was not fulfilled, nor has he, up to the present time, made his appearance.
As surprise began to be created at the store at his non-arrival, and as the hands of the clock told the highly important hour of 2 o'clock, there marched in a Bank messenger with two protested notes, of the amount of $800 each, and purporting to be signed by a single customer of
Bigelow's in
Minnesota.
Investigation revealed the fact that the notes were forgeries, and there then followed discoveries of much other paper of the same character as in circulution — some of it having been purchased by
Alderman &
Gore, bankers and brokers, No. 26 Kilby street. Everything in the shape of notes receivable, both genuine and bogus, which he could possibly dispose of, seemed to have been turned into cash, and in addition to the amounts which he is said to have borrowed from various parties, one of his clerks, named
Edwin W. Stratton, is a victim to the amount of about $1,500. Upon inquiring at his house, No. 62 West Newton street, the wife of the absconding merchant stated that her husband had left home at 7 P. M. on Friday last, with the remark that he couldn't meet his creditors, that he must fail, and that he should leave home for a short time.
[It is surmised that he took the night train for
N. York, and left on the following day in the steamer for
Europe.]
Although the amount forged will not fall short, as it is thought, of the sum of $50,000, the amount discovered as certainly involved up to the present time is only $10,000. Each succeeding day for a week or two will probably bring to light fresh instances.
The motive of
Mr. Bigelow is unaccountable.
He has at certain periods of his life been deemed quite wealthy, and those who ought to know say that his concern was solvent at the time of these illegal transactions.
One of those who know him intimately gives the opinion that ‘"he probably desired to get rid of old associates, and live alone and independently."’ But the secret is locked in his own heart, and we only wonder at the picture as shown us. He is a man nearly fifty years of age, and has two daughters of sixteen and ten.
He came originally from
Grafton and has numerous relatives in that vicinity.
’
