Everyone in Tombstone knows honest hard working Abe Leyda and no one would expect to find him the victim of a Buncon game known as “Marriage bureau" but it is a fact a man named Wilson has been running  such a bureau in Fresno and Abe told the story before the U. S. court in Los Angeles Monday, which is taken from the Herald of that city and is as follows:

 When the first witness was called in the examination, it proved to a working man from Bisbee, Arizona A." V. Leyda He acknowledged replying to the following advertisement, appeared in the New York Police Gazette last spring:

A Spanish girl handsome and wealthy, who for certain reasons, will give half her fortune to any respectable man that will give her his name. Sealed particulars 10c. Address the ACME, Box 207 Fresno Cal.

  In response to this insinuating advertisement, Mr. Leyda who was old enough to know better, replied, describing himself. His summing up of his points was naïve in the extreme. He wrote that he was 48 years old “pretty, pretty gray and a little bald” but honest and could references if necessary. He wanted the half of the fortune, no matter how soiled the character of the Spanish girl. In reply He received the following letter from Bain, then masquerading as Wilson.

                                                                                   Fresno. March 16, 1891. 

 

Dear Sir- I’you mean business, please fill out the enclosed blank. Return it with $2 fee and we will arrange matters between you and the Spanish girl. She is a handsome dark eyed young woman age 19. She has been indiscreet and must marry soon. She owns a large ranch in Fresno County and has money in bank. She is yours if you want her. She will go to any place you name to be married, San Jose if you wish. We can’t give full details or send photo till you satiety us that you mean business.

                                                                                       Resp. Yours

                                                                                                H.C. Wilson

  Hi. Leyda sent $2 to Bain and in response received a letter that the lady had started for Phoenix. But she never arrived. This was where the Cunning Cupid got off. He had the $2 and the victim had the memory of a pleasing dream of wealth and voluptuousness.

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Results of the federal  trial  against  Bain Wilson

Bain, who ran the marriage bureau at Fresno, through which Abe Leyda of Bisbee, was swindled, has just been convicted in Los Angles of using the mails for carrying of swindling matter.