Times Leader headline on Oct. 12, 1915.
In the present era of dealing with tidal waves of scams, fraudulent offers and emails from African kings seeking to deposit millions into personal bank accounts, one such flim-flam artist from Wilkes-Barre targeted a Scranton clothing merchant.
Jacob Snyder, alias B. Snyder, took some of his clothes to be cleaned and pressed by Joseph Nudelman, who owned a clothing store and dry-cleaning business at 411 Penn Ave. in Scranton, in December 1914. As Snyder waited for his suits to be cleaned, he chatted with Nudelman but the conversation was more getting to know his target.
When the moment came, Snyder launched his scheme.
Snyder told Nudelman he had an incubator box that could turn a blank piece of paper into cash by pressing it in the machine between two other bills by using acid. Snyder pledged any denomination could be used. If two $10 bills were pressed against a blank piece of paper, Snyder told Nudelman he would earn an extra $10.
Nudelman fell for it.
“The Scranton man drew $300 from the bank and raised $500 by selling a quantity of clothing, and brought the $800 to Snyder in Wilkes-Barre on an agreement that he would receive $1,200,” the Times Leader reported Oct. 12, 1915.
After Nudelman gave Snyder the $800, Snyder told Nudelman he placed the cash in the incubator with instructions he had to keep the box locked for a day.
“Nudelman thought he saw Snyder place the $800 in the box and was told there would be $1,200 the next morning,” the Times Leader reported.
Nudelman returned to his home in Scranton and the next morning, he forced open the box to find a bundle of blank paper.
Nudelman filed a report with Scranton police who arrested Snyder in February 1915 and kept him in jail for five months before authorities in the Electric City realized the alleged crime happened in Wilkes-Barre.
Snyder was transferred to the Luzerne County Prison and was taken before Judge Peter A. O’Boyle on Oct. 11, 1915.
“The story of the flim-flam game was rehearsed before Judge O’Boyle on a habeas corpus hearing granted to Snyder, who has been in jail for some time,” the Times Leader reported.
O’Boyle kept Snyder in jail on charges of larceny and scheduled a trial on Nov. 22, 1915.
As Snyder remained jailed, detectives learned he was a scam artist who fled New York City in November 1914 and ended up in Wilkes-Barre where he scammed street merchants into buying skin oil that was water mixed with vinegar.
Realizing street merchants he scammed were going to testify, Snyder pled guilty to larceny and cheating Nudelman.
“The incubator box was nothing more than a wooden box with two bolts. Snyder admitted that he placed a piece of paper between two good bills and sealed it in the box, a good bill would be made but he described in court the process was a flim-flam act,” The Wilkes-Barre Record reported Nov. 23, 1915.
