$173,000 Missing at U.S. Treasury
March 3, 1907
Summary
The US treasury in Chicago experiences the greatest robbery of federal money in history.
Transcription
$173,000 Missing at U.S. Treasury
Strange Disappearance of Big Sum at Chicago.
Chicago, Feb. 26.-One of the largest, if not the largest, thefts from the United States treasury has been unearthed in Chicago. Somewhere between $170,000 and $175,000 was stolen from the local sub-treasury last week. The money has disappeared as completely as if it had vanished form the face of the earth.
When interviewed in regard to the robbery, Sub-Treasurer Boldenweck admitted that a theft of $173,000 had been perpetrated, but refused to go into details.
Mr. Boldenweck declared later that it had been definitely determined just where the shortage occurred, but he declined to say where it had been traced. He declared himself positive, however, that the money had never reached the vaults. He said that the only reason for believing that the stolen money had been in bills of large denomination was that it would have been impossible for anybody to take $173,000 from the office in small bills and escaped detection, but that a package of $173,000 in $1,000 bills could have been carried about the person easily without exciting suspicion.
Every man who could have had anything to do with the case was called into Treasurer Boldenweck’s office and put through an exhaustive examination and a still more rigid cross-examination.
Strange Disappearance of Big Sum at Chicago.
Chicago, Feb. 26.-One of the largest, if not the largest, thefts from the United States treasury has been unearthed in Chicago. Somewhere between $170,000 and $175,000 was stolen from the local sub-treasury last week. The money has disappeared as completely as if it had vanished form the face of the earth.
When interviewed in regard to the robbery, Sub-Treasurer Boldenweck admitted that a theft of $173,000 had been perpetrated, but refused to go into details.
Mr. Boldenweck declared later that it had been definitely determined just where the shortage occurred, but he declined to say where it had been traced. He declared himself positive, however, that the money had never reached the vaults. He said that the only reason for believing that the stolen money had been in bills of large denomination was that it would have been impossible for anybody to take $173,000 from the office in small bills and escaped detection, but that a package of $173,000 in $1,000 bills could have been carried about the person easily without exciting suspicion.
Every man who could have had anything to do with the case was called into Treasurer Boldenweck’s office and put through an exhaustive examination and a still more rigid cross-examination.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Benton Camper
Citation
“$173,000 Missing at U.S. Treasury,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed May 12, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/460.