“Nineteen hundred and nine?” Rexroth thundered. “The Horse Racing Journal isn’t an historical magazine, Phillips, it’s a racing daily. Have you forgotten that?”
Aided by another larrup of the Maalox-Cutty fortifier, Phillips stubbornly persisted. He said he thought the more than eighty-year-old case could be vividly recalled in a series to be authored by Clyde Senzell, one of Horse Racing Journal’s feature writers.
“Mr. Rexroth,” Phillips pleaded, “it’s a sensational story. Nobody on our staff had ever heard of this case. What these guys tried to get away with, well, we think it has real appeal. Racing’s Past Thieves, we could title it. And remember, Mr. Rexroth, the Racing Daily won’t have this.”
“All right,” Rexroth barked, “send Senzell out here with the clippings. I’ll go over the material with him before I decide if we’ll run this.” He hung up on the hapless Phillips without a goodbye.
Senzell arrived at Willowdale from his New York City base the next morning, having flown coach class, as he hastened to assure Rexroth. After Senzell, a very thin, tightly wound man of forty-five, had opened his briefcase and extracted a folder of fragile, faded clippings, Rexroth waved him away and began to read. Almost immediately, Rexroth found himself fascinated, intrigued, even somewhat jealous of the larceny and imagination that had been displayed decades previous by one John B. Cabray.
The first story in the file was dated Sept. 24, 1909. Like all the others, it bore a Council Bluffs, Iowa, dateline and the byline of Richard Lloyd-Brown, who was identified as staff reporter. Lloyd-Brown wrote:
DES MOINES, Iowa-John B. Cabray and eighty-four alleged associates were indicted by a federal grand jury here today in a case that is believed to involve one of the most gigantic swindles in the police annals of the country.
The indictments were for conspiring to defraud by illegal use of the mails, to wit, persuading people to send money through the postal system, money that was supposed to be bet on what Cabray and his far-flung ring of accomplices promised would be a “fixed” horse race, one with an outcome Cabray claimed had been determined in advance.
Unfortunately for the naive investors, Cabray arranged so that the actual outcome of the fix would be for all of them to lose their money because of an unexpected development leading to an “upset.”
When those duped began to communicate with each other in the days and weeks after the race, and after Cabray and his ring had gone to ground, the fraud victims went to law enforcement officials with their complaints. None of the money sent to Cabray to be “bet” has been recovered.
Enticed into this scheme by Cabray and his slick-talking confidence men were prominent businessmen and civic leaders all over the country. Victims in eighteen states, the territory of Alaska, and the Dominion of Canada are named, indicating the wide range of territories over which Cabray and his associates are alleged to have plied their vocation.
Although specific amounts are not mentioned in the indictment, the amounts lost by the alleged victims reportedly exceed one million dollars. The sums lost by individuals range from $1,500 to $30,000, the latter amount having been placed on the race by a Missouri bank owner named C. D. Arnett.
Harvey Rexroth placed the file of clippings down on his desk for a moment, shifted his glasses to his forehead, and began pondering these facts from eight decades ago. After a minute or two, he said aloud, “My God! A million dollars in 1909…what would that be worth today?”
Senzell, who had been goggle-eyed for the past few minutes as Deirdre skated through her paces wearing nothing but a serious expression, came to attention at the question. He’d done his homework. “In the neighborhood of thiry million, Mr. Rexroth.”
Rexroth shook his head admiringly as he considered the scope of Cabray’s larceny. “What a nice neighborhood!” he said. He then resumed reading from the file.
Cabray is in custody here, along with three of his associates: Harlan Kornkven, James Draeger, and Stafford Appleby. The names of the other eighty-one people indicted were not made public. It was stated, however, that the list includes many persons known in the criminal annals in all parts of the country, and that nearly every such name is followed by from one to four aliases.
Each of these alleged confederates apparently had a coded number by which they were referred to in Cabray’s complicated file of records, recovered by U.S. Marshall Marcus Gordon from Cabray’s temporary headquarters in Altoona, Iowa.
It is expected that the trials will begin in Des Moines during the November term of court. Patrick Rafferty, special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States, at the insistence of the Department of Justice, is taking part in the prosecution and will doubtless have entire charge of the case when it comes to trial.
That concluded Richard Lloyd-Brown’s first report. Examining it more closely, Rexroth said, “Senzell, where’s the rest of this? Part of this last page has been torn off. Goddamit, man, I want to know what kind of fix went on? How did Cabray pull this off?”
Senzell ventured a small, nervous smile. He was beginning to sense that he had the boss hooked on doing this series.
“The bottom part of Brown’s first story is missing, Mr. Rexroth,” Senzell said, “but keep on reading. Not all of Brown’s coverage was retained for the file. Or else parts of it were lost, or stolen, over the years. But the sequence is solid enough to paint the picture. It all becomes clear-how Cabray did it.”
Senzell sat back in his chair, keeping one eye on the circling Deirdre, the other on his engrossed employer.
DES MOINES, Iowa-As the date draws near for trial of people accused in one of the most gigantic and sensational frauds in the nation’s recent history, more details have emerged regarding the case.
The million-dollar swindle of numerous prominent citizens, allegedly masterminded by John B. Cabray, was spread over at least eighteen states.
Cabray and his associates are alleged to have used as bases of operation such towns as Council Bluffs, Burlington and Davenport, Iowa; St. Louis, Little Rock, Seattle, Denver and New Orleans, to which sites many victims were either taken by Cabray’s numerous “steerers” to deliver their betting money, or to which places they were instructed to mail their funds.
All were assured that their promised “profits” could either be picked up in those towns, or would be mailed to them if they so chose. No profits, of course, were ever delivered to the duped investors in this so-called “fixed” race that took place at a track in the eastern part of the country.
Included in the court documents are copies of many sensational letters alleged to have been exchanged between Cabray and his associates, missives that refer to alleged “deals” and specify various sums of money as having changed hands as the result of the operations of those mentioned in the indictment.
One of these letters is dated from a New York City hotel and invites “Friend John,” who, it is alleged, is Cabray himself, to go to New York, declaring “I have a town right across the river in New Jersey, a swell track, and absolute protection. The sheriff and prosecutor and police will be absolutely right on the job for us during our working hours.”
In a letter written four days later, the same man informs “Friend John” that the race “fixing” can be done “for $750, which will cover everything-that is, the sheriff, his brother-in-law the police chief, and the prosecuting attorney.”