WM H LITTLE

Alias: " AUSTIN, "TIP LITTLE

Specialties: CONFIDENCE, FORGER, SNEAK

No: 172 Last Displayed: 6/28/2021

Description:

Forty-five years old in 1886. Born in New York. Married. No trade. Slim build. Height, 5 feet 6 inches. Weight, 140 pounds. dark complexion. Generally wears a black curly beard. Dark curly hair, gray eyes, Has a peculiar expression about the eyes.

Record:

"TIP" LITTLE is an old New York "panel thief," confidence man, sneak thief and forger. He is well known as the husband of Bell Little, alias Lena Swartz, alias Eliza Austin, a notorious pennyweight worker, shoplifter and "bludgeon thief." This team is well known all over the United States. They worked the "panel game" in New York and other cities for years, and their pictures adorn several Rogues' Galleries. Of late they have been working the "bludgeon game" or "injured husband racket" with considerable success, as their victims are generally married men and will stand blackmailing before publicity. "Tip" and "Bell" have been arrested in New York City several times, but with the exception of a few short terms in the penitentiary, they have both escaped their just deserts (State prison) many a time. Little was arrested in New York City on November 28, 1885, in company of a negro accomplice named Isaac Hooper, for attempting to negotiate a check that had been raised from $4 to $896. About one week before the arrest Hooper obtained a check for $4, on the Nassau Bank of New York, from Henry Carson, a grocer, of Fulton Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., by pretending that he wanted to send money to a relative, and that he had only silver dollars. He raised the check himself from $4 to $896, and also made a spurious check for $1,200, on the Nassau Bank of New York, and signed Carson's name to it. With the $1,200 check, Tip Little, on November 25, 1885, went to Wm. Wise & Son's jewelry store on Fulton Street, Brooklyn, and selecting articles worth $400, tendered the check in payment. He was so indignant when it was suggested that it would be nothing more than a common business transaction to ask Mr. Carson if the check was all right, that he snatched it up and left the store. Then he planned to swindle Daniel Higgins, a furniture dealer on Eighth Avenue, New York City, with the raised check of $896, which had been certified by the cashier of the Nassau Bank. He visited Mr. Higgins on November 27, 1885, and selected furniture worth $300. Higgins went to the West Side Bank, which was close by his store, and its cashier ascertained by telephone that Mr. Carson repudiated the check. When Mr. Higgins returned to the store, "Tip" had left without his change. Hooper (the negro) was tried, convicted, and sentenced to seven years in State prison on January 15, 1886, by Recorder Smyth, in the Court of General Sessions, Part I. He had been previously convicted and sentenced to State prison for forgery in Providence, R. I. "Tip" Little pleaded guilty on January 15,1886 (the same day), and was sentenced to five years in Sing Sing prison, by Judge Gildersleeve, in the Court of General Sessions, Part II. "Little's" picture is a very good one, taken in April, 1879.