JAMES LEE

Alias: COLEMAN, HARTMAN

Specialties: BOGUS CUSTOM-HOUSE COLLECTOR

No: 108 Last Displayed: 12/27/2022

Description:

Forty-five years old in 1886. Born in United States. No trade. Single. Stout build, Height, 5 feet 9 1/4 inches. Weight, 175 pounds. Hair sandy, eyes gray, sandy complexion, reddish-brown mustache. Has a naval coat-of-arms, anchor and eagle, in India ink, on right arm.

Record:

JAMES LEE was evidently in the government employ, so well is he posted in custom-house matters. He was arrested in New York City on April 23, 1882, charged by Mrs. C. F. Chillas, of Livingston Place, with defrauding her and thirty others out of $9.98. Lee claimed to be a custom-house collector, and would collect this amount and give the parties an order on the custom-house stores for a package which he claimed was consigned to them from Europe. In this case Lee was sentenced to two years and six months in State prison on May 5, 1882, by Judge Gildersleeve. His sentence expired on May 5, 1884. He was arrested again in Baltimore, Md., on September 17, 1884, charged with swindling eight persons in that city under similar circumstances. In several instances Lee sat at the piano and played "Nearer, my God, to Thee," while the ladies left the parlor to procure the money for him. He was again sentenced to three years in State prison on October 15, 1884. His sentence will expire April 14, 1881. Lee's picture is an excellent one, taken in April, 1882.