Larkin v. United States
| Decision Date | 09 April 1901 |
| Docket Number | 755. |
| Citation | 107 F. 697 |
| Parties | LARKIN v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
The plaintiff in error was convicted of a fraudulent use of the mails, in violation of section 5480 of the Revised Statutes Act March 2, 1889 (1 Supp.Rev.St.p. 694) which, in so far as now pertinent, reads as follows: 'If any person having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud * * * to be effected by either opening or intending to open correspondence or communication with any person, whether resident within or outside the United States by means of the post-office establishment of the United States, or by inciting such other person or any person to open communication with the person so devising or intending shall, in and for executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, place or cause to be placed any letter packet, writing, circular, pamphlet or advertisement in any post-office, branch post-office, or street or hotel letter-box of the United States, to be sent or delivered by the said post-office establishment, or shall take or receive any such therefrom, such person so misusing the post-office establishment shall, upon conviction, be punishable by a fine or not more than $500 and by imprisonment for not more than eighteen months, or by both such punishments at the discretion of the court.'
The body of the indictment on which the conviction was had reads as follows:
'The grand jurors for the United States of America, inquiring for the Northern division of the Northern district of Illinois, upon their oath present that Patrick Larkin, late of the city of Chicago, in the said division and district, before and at the several times of committing of the several offenses hereinafter mentioned, at Chicago aforesaid, in the division and district aforesaid, had devised a scheme and artifice to defraud divers other persons then resident within the said United States, by inducing those persons, respectively, to send to him divers valuable articles of merchandise on credit, under the pretense on his part that he would buy the same and give good security for the payment of his indebtedness therefor, but merely intending thereby, and giving fictitious security, to get possession of such articles as should be so sent to him, the said Patrick Larkin, and fraudulently to convert the same to his own use, and sell and dispose of the same, and intending not to pay for the same, and to defraud thereof the several persons who should so send the same; which said scheme and artifice was a scheme and artifice which he, the said Patrick Larkin, when so devising the same as aforesaid and committing the offense hereinafter mentioned, intended to effect by opening correspondence and communication, by means of the post-office establishment of the said United States, with the several persons so intended to be defrauded, and by inciting those persons to open communication with him, the said Patrick Larkin, by means of the said post-office establishment. And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present that the said Patrick Larkin, on the eighth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, at Chicago aforesaid, in the division and district aforesaid, so having devised the said scheme and artifice in and for executing the same, and attempting so to do, unlawfully did place in the post office of the said United States there, to be sent and delivered by the said post-office establishment, a certain writing, to wit, a writing of the tenor following, that is to say: -- signed 'Allen Larkin,' directed to certain persons then doing business at South Bend, in the state of Indiana, under the name of Winkler Brothers, as manufacturers of and dealers in sprinkling carts; against the peace and dignity of the said United States, and contrary to the form of the statute of the same in such case made and provided.
'(2) And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present that the said Patrick Larkin, on the twenty-third day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, at Chicago aforesaid, in the division and district aforesaid, so having devised the scheme and artifice to defraud described in the first count of this indictment, in and for executing the same and attempting so to do, unlawfully did place in the post office of the said United States, at Chicago aforesaid, to be sent and delivered by the said post-office establishment, a certain other writing, to wit, a writing on a postal card, of the tenor which here follows; that is to say: -- which said postal card then bore on the address side thereof the following direction and address, to wit: 'Phelps & Bigelow Wind Mill Co. Kalamazoo Michigan,' against the peace and dignity of the United States, and contrary to the form of the statute of the same in such case made and provided.
'(3) And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present, that the said Patrick Larkin, on the sixth day of August, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight at Chicago aforesaid, in the division and district aforesaid, so having devised the scheme and artifice to defraud in the first count of this indictment described in and for executing the same, and in attempting so to do, unlawfully did place in the post office of the said United States at Chicago aforesaid, to be sent and delivered by the said post-office establishment, a certain other writing, to wit, a writing upon a postal card, of the tenor following; that is to say: '532 Cornelia Avenue Lake View Chicago Aug 6 1898 Sir Please send me your colour card and prices of your mixed paints Yours respt P. Larkin,'-- which last...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Capone v. United States
...with conspiracy to injure certain named persons in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right, not naming the right. In Larkin v. United States (C. C. A.) 107 F. 697, a charge was made of fraudulently using the United States mails to defraud definite individuals — not the public nor a class......
-
Ader v. United States
...sufficient reason for the omission. The indictment, in our opinion, falls outside that under consideration in the case of Larkin v. U.S., 107 F. 697, 46 C.C.A. 588, within the class considered in the case of Mounday v. U.S., 225 F. 965, 140 C.C.A. 93, and Finnegan v. U.S., 231 F. 561, 145 C......
-
Bush v. United States
...a conviction on one count only — a violation of 26 U.S.C. § 4705(a). Relying on United States v. Simmons, supra, and Larkin v. United States, 107 F. 697 (7th Cir. 1901),2 the court in Lauer, supra, states that "the identity of the purchaser of the narcotic is not an element of the offense o......
-
United States v. Spada, 419
...up the bar of double jeopardy. The cases of United States v. Hess, 1888, 124 U.S. 483, 8 S.Ct. 571, 31 L.Ed. 516, and Larkin v. United States, 7 Cir. 1901, 107 F. 697, relied upon by Spada are Affirmed. * Sitting by designation. ...