United States v. Calwer

BOURQUIN, District Judge.

The indictment charges that defendant used the mails to execute a scheme and artifice to defraud various persons by obtaining money from them by false and fraudulent pretenses, viz. by mailing to them circulars in substance representing that evil spells or curses can be cast upon persons, and that evil spirits worry them in sleep, that charms or talismans will defeat the evils aforesaid, and that he possessed supernatural power to magnetize said articles, and sells them for $25 each. He demurs, contending that the scheme or artifice is absurd and impossible, cannot…