Word: thompson
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...maestros of them all is an innocent-looking man of 50 who calls himself, among many aliases, Michael Leo Thompson. He has moved slightly less rubber than Malaysia. Authorities suspect that for most of the past 20 years in at least 26 states, he has cashed bad checks almost once a day, fleecing the credulous of close to $1 million. Now Thompson's spectacular career has come to an end. When he tried to cash a phony $93.40 payroll check at a small hotel in Rantoul, Ill., the manager's wife grew suspicious and stalled him while...
...Thompson's modus was dismayingly simple. He usually worked towns with populations between 7,000 and 25,000, where he reckoned that people are more trusting than in street-wise big cities. Stores and gas stations in these towns often stock the blank counter checks of state banks, and he would simply go in and collect a clutch of such paper. Then with a shoe-box-sized checkwriting machine, he would imprint the amount of the check in a neat, official-looking script. The amounts were always the same: a small odd-dollar figure that seemed like a reasonable...
...Thompson became a legend among state cops. "We were always one step behind him," says Indiana Police Captain Doug Buck. Declared Thompson last week before dictating his 13-page confession: "I wouldn't attempt to guess how many states I've worked." He immediately ticked off eight. He had been arrested for check forgery only once before: in Peoria in 1974, where he posted bond, quickly jumped it and was back forging in a matter of hours...
Grifter's Gift. How did Thompson work his con for so long? "He was a genius at his craft," says Robert Steigmann, Champaign County assistant state's attorney. "He had the ability to snow anybody." Ruddy-faced, ingratiating and gregarious, Thompson had the grifter's gift for spinning a convincing yarn. His face stamped with Main Street openness, Thompson never carried a fake I.D. "I don't imagine I've been asked for identification over half a dozen times," he says. Countless WANTED flyers distributed around the country gave rough descriptions...
...Thompson faces the prospect of residing in an Illinois prison for up to 40 months. Other states have asked for information on him and are making extradition plans. Yet the forger will not devote the rest of his career to making license plates. So impressed are Illinois investigators with Thompson's exploits that they have offered him a guest lectureship. If the offer is approved, he will be escorted out of the pokey for brief periods to explain to state police just...