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The Mysterious Mister
by William T. Brannon
D urinc the years they chased him without quite
catching up, the FBI learned a lot about
the man known to them only as Mr. X. He
was an expert burglar, an accomplished penman, a
master confidence man and a narcotics addict.
He started in Boston in the '30s, and his trail
extended through New York, Philadelphia, Chi
cago, Atlanta, and other large cities all the way to
Miami. Painstaking study of the evidence gave a
clear picture of how he operated, though it didn't
reveal his identity.
His first step was to locate a prosperous firm in
an office building. When he was satisfied that the
company had enough money to make his efforts
worthwhile, he would wait until after closing, then
enter the office, using a strip of celluloid to pry
open the spring lock. His main interest was the
bookkeeper's desk.
First, he examined bank statements to determine
the firm's average cash balance. Then he lifted two
or three cancelled checks bearing signatures of
company officials, and from far back in the check
book he removed two blank checks. With a rubber
stamp, he put an endorsement on the stubs: "Void
defective." If the bookkeeper happened to notice
the checks were missing, she would assume the
printer had removed them.
The next day, Mr. ' X opened an account at a
bank other than that of the firm, depositing a
forged check for $8,300. Two days later he de
posited another, for $4,000.
Five days elapsed before the firm's office man
ager received a phone call: "This is Police Captain
Allman. A ring of burglars has been operating in
your building and we're checking all the offices.
Did you lose anything?"
"No," the office manager replied. ,
"In that case, you needn't worry. This mob never
goes back to the same building a second time."
It was only a short time later that Mr. X ap
peared at the bank and drew out $6,000. He drew
an additional $6,000 the following day. It wasn't
until after the first of the next month that the
forgeries were discovered. The signatures were so
good they weren't questioned at the firm's bank.
Pouring this time, Mr. X had stolen some pre
scription pads from a doctor's office and
forged orders for narcotics, which- he bought
at a drugstore. The pharmacist's best description
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was that the purchaser was about the same size
and age as Lionel Barry more. This jibed with the
description of the man who recently had opened
the phony bank account.
This procedure recurred many times. in many
cities. Finally, the banks issued instructions that
every new depositor offering a large check was to
be closely checked. Mr. X apparently knew this
and devised a new scheme.
It called for burglarizing two offices, several
blocks apart, on the same night. For more than a
week, he hung around the two office buildings,
making it a point to get acquainted with the night
elevator operators. When he decided to raid the
two offices, nobody questioned his presence.
From the office of Mr. Adams, who had a sub
stantial account at the First National Bank," he took
two cancelled checks bearing Adams' signature
and a few blank checks. Then he entered the office
of Mr. Jackson, who had an account at the Central
National Bank. He lifted only some cancelled
checks, but he studied Jackson's records, noting
particularly the names of his best customers.
The following day, posing as Jackson, he went to
the Third State Bank and opened an account,
depositing a check for $6,000 forged on the account
of Adams. The bank official checked the references
and soon learned that Jackson had a fine reputa
tion, so it looked like a very good new account.
After three days, Mr. X called Adams, posed as
the head of a private detective agency, and said he
was checking on forgeries. Had Mr. Adams had
any trouble with forgeries? Mr. Adams replied
that he hadn't. Mr. X went immediately to the
bank and withdrew $4,200 with a counter check.
With no trouble at all, he signed Jackson's signa
ture in the teller's presence.
The next day, he deposited another forged
Adams check for $3,800. He waited three days and
made another withdrawal of $3,600. Then he ap
parently left town. On the first of the month,
Adams discovered two checks he didn't write and
Jackson received a bank statement showing he had
withdrawn $7,800 and still had a balance of $2,000
in a bank where he didn't have an account.
Mr. X had many other schemes and he got away
with them for years, meanwhile buying narcotics
by forging prescriptions on blanks stolen from
physicians' offices. On June 13, 1943, Mr. X walked
into a drugstore in Chicago, offered a forged
prescription for morphine, and was nabbed by
Federal narcotics agents. They had been watching
this and several other drugstores where prescrip
tions with the forged signature of one particular
doctor had been used to buy morphine.
Mr. X was identified as Alexander Thiel. He
had a prison record, but this was his first arrest in
24 years. He was sent to the U.S. Public Health
Service Hospital in Lexington, Ky., for treatment
as an addict. After a year, he was removed to
New York City, where he faced Federal and state
larceny and forgery charges. He confessed . the
crimes and gave details, many of which the FBI
men already knew.
In July, 1945, Thiel was sentenced to four years
in Federal prison. In Februai-y, 1946, he was
sentenced to an additional term of five to 10 years
to be served in New York State Prison after the
Federal hitch.
Thiel's narcotics habit led to his undoing. He
knew that Federal agents check narcotics prescrip
tions, but he had such confidence in his ability to
make convincing copies of signatures that he
thought he was safe. When the agents saw the
prescriptions supposedly signed by a Chicago
physician, however, they set a trap and Mr. X
walked into it.
No matter how fine the forgery, the agents knew
the doctor hadn't written the prescriptions because
he was in the Army overseas!
30 Family Weekly. February 16, 195H