News: Owen Man Gets Stolen Money Back (Sep 1933)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Lonergan, Guest, Shiver, Wedding, Keller, Slattery, Brody

---------Source: Evening Star, Washington, D.C. (26 Sep 1933)

A Washington woman who lost $190 in a fraudulent stock deal two years ago had all the money back again today.

Except for the unusual ending, it was the old, old story. Mrs. Cathryn F. Lonergan, 3432 Connecticut Avenue, gave the money to Richard C. Guests, who represented himself as a stock broker, with instruction to invest it for her.


“That was in Wilmington, Delaware,” Mrs. Lonergan said today. “The man told me he had an office in New York, and I took his word for it.”

Six other persons, a woman and five men, also were mulcted by Guests, who promptly disappeared after pocketing their money, a total of $7,320.

Mrs. Lonergan, an employee of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, reported the matter to the department of Justice, and an investigation was begun.

Yesterday Guest was taken into United States District Court in Wilmington, charge with using the mail to defraud. Pleading guilty, he was fined $500 and ordered to make restitution.

The victims met him in a postal inspector’s office a short time later and he returned their money. Among the victims, besides Mrs. Lonergan, were Harry W. Shiver, Hope, Arkansas, $1,500; Henry W. Wedding, Owen, Wisconsin, $504; Mrs. Gertrude Keller, Chicago, $470, and Thomas Slattery, St. Louis, $2,006.

“All others lost their money,” Mrs. Lonergan explained, “by giving Guest securities to be exchanged for others. I was the only one who actually put up cash to buy stock. Needless to say, after I found out the truth about Guests, I had no expectation of ever getting the money back.”

Leo Brody was accused of having operated a fraudulent brokerage house with guests in Wilmington, but he failed to appear in court.