Flim-Flam Artist Sells Fake Railroad Tickets with Promise of Job in Cleveland, Ohio, April 27, 1926

Blacks Fleeced Out of Big Sum by a Brother. . . Listened to the Sirene Song of Colored Man and Were Stung for $700

Wilmington April 26, (AP)—More than 300 negroes who bought continuous passage “railroad tickets” over the “Seaboard AirLine” from Wilmington to Cleveland, Ohio, for $3 from an unidentified negro, expected to find remunerative employment awaiting them upon arrival, were put off a Seaboard passenger train at Navassa yesterday afternoon and returned to the city, man of them on foot. The police were in quest of the negro “Ponzie” last night, but he, unlike the bad penny, was conspicuous by his absence.

Just how much the traveling agent realized from his ticket sale locally could not be definitely determined, but the amount is believed by the police to have been in excess of $700, since many of his victims, selected as bosses and gang leaders, were required to pay a bigger sum for their tickets.

The confidence man is believed to have limited his activities to Brooklyn. He is known to have circulated hand bills in that section prior to his “clean-up” but he worked so swiftly that police were unable to interfere before he had fleeced his victims and had them on the train.

His story was a very simple one and was accepted at face value. In fact, one negro said that he, fearing all tickets would be sold before he could secure one, fought and clawed his way through the crowd surrounding the agent, in order to give him his money.

His offer was to sell them a railroad ticket to Cleveland for $3 and provide them with employment upon their arrival in that city. They were going as ironworkers at wages ranging from 50 cents to $1 an hour with plenty of overtime if they cared to make it. Furthermore, he was quoted as saying the company had 500 vacant houses at present, and that living conditions were very cheap. It was the biggest opportunity offered. The agent agreed to provide the men with their meals while in transit, this money to be paid back to the company out of the first wages drawn after they went to work.”

From page 5 of The Goldsboro News, Tuesday, April 27, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064755/1926-04-26/ed-1/seq-5/