Show JOSEPH VON aiiOTTO A SMOOTH SWINDLER WHO LATELY OPERATED IN SALT LAKE City Marshal Pratt Ins Anxious Enquiries En-quiries from Honolulu About Him He AVorUed the Islanders for 1 Few Thousands Instead of being a general of the Hawaiian Provisional army as claimed by himself with a great deal of braggadocio brag-gadocio Joseph Von Grotto wanted in this city and a large number of other cities of the world for obtaining goods and money under false pretenses was simply a smooth swindler when in Hawaii with much the same methods as when in Salt Lake Through the intervention of Blood To The Bridles Waite of Colorado the fellow was allowed al-lowed to escape from the justice of this territory and that of the Hawaiian islands where he would be made very welcome by the government officials Chief of Police Pratt yesterday morning morn-ing received a letter from the chief of detectives of the government detective bureau of the islands approved by the marshal in which the information is contained that Von Grotto while in Honolulu went under several names and succeeded in swindling the people out of several thousands of dollars The letter is as follows and the description des-cription given is that of the festive jeweler Marshals Office Honolulu H I Jan B i r ow esNft Chief of Police Salt Lake f utah Dear SirWe see by the papers that some time ago a man was arrested at your place for passing bogus checks He gave his name I believe as Joseph Von Brand or something of that sort I and claimed that he had messages from the Hawaiian government to President Cleveland I i Now on September 27 1893 a man left here for San Francisco calling himself Joseph Frank Von Berg alias Frank Howard He arrived here from Australia where he had been in business busi-ness and swindled a lot of people He did not go into business here that is outside of the swindling business He did that to the tune of several thousand thous-and dollars I Please let me know whether or not your man answers this description Height 5 feet 7 or 8 inches complexion fair had a full red beard spare build is given to the morphine habit claims I believe to live in Philadelphia is German orGerman descent when here used to wear a dark coat and pants black sash had a goodlooking young wife and small babe took them with him from here age uncertain beard and morphine no doubt makiner him look older than he Is should take him to be about from 30 to 35 years of age By communicating with us you will greatly oblige Hoping to hear from you at your convenience I remain Yours truly WILLIAM LARSEN Chief Hawaiian Detective Bureau Approved E G HITCHCOCK Marshal Hawaiian Islands Captain Donovan has written the gentleman full particulars of the case and no doubt his account of Governor Waites actions will give the Hawaiian gve some idea of the esteem in which Waite is held by the officials of Utah I |