Look back: Doctor impersonator arrested in 1920

Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, PA)

Apr. 26--A federal prohibition agent, a utility bill collector, a jewelry salesman and a physician, Ernest A. Hamilton pretended to be all.

Hamilton, born and raised in Nanticoke, was a con artist swindling money from hotel saloon keepers, insurance companies, families who suffered during the Spanish flu pandemic and purchased jewelry with bogus cash throughout the Wyoming Valley in the late 1910s until 1920.

After a series of minor arrests for passing fake cash to buy jewelry in 1915, Hamilton graduated to a higher fraud by impersonating himself as an inspector of the United States Internal Revenue Department.

"His method of operation, it is charged, was to display a badge, go into the cellar of a saloon to inventory the stock of whiskey and then approach the proprietor with an offer to falsify his supposed report for a $5 consideration," the Wilkes-Barre Record reported Oct. 16, 1917, a day after Hamilton was arrested on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre.

Hamilton's arrest came after he entered a saloon on Coal Street and identified himself as a prohibition agent, telling the saloon keeper he needed to count the number of whiskey bottles he had in the cellar, the Record reported.

Eventually charged in federal court, Hamilton pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison, the Times Leader reported Jan. 19, 1918.

Hamilton's swindling did not stop.

Stories in the Times Leader, Evening News and Wilkes-Barre Record in 1919 and 1920 reported Hamilton would often visit homes identifying himself as a doctor using the name Dr. E. A. Harris.

During this time, the Spanish flu was rapid across the Wyoming Valley eventually killing approximately 3,500 people in Luzerne County.

When an arrest warrant was issued for Hamilton on charges of impersonating a public servant and stealing a diamond ring and two gold watches from a Forty Fort resident, he fled Pennsylvania but was captured in Newark, N.J., on April 1, 1920.

"Hamilton is reputed to be one of the cleverest 'con' men in the country and his operations in this county required several weeks, during which time he collected a considerable amount of money from local people. He is charged with illegally practicing medicine, he impersonated a Luzerne County officer, sold fake jewelry and posed as an electric light inspector," the Evening News reported April 1, 1920.

The Evening News reported Hamilton had offers to be in movies but he decided his schemes were more fruitful.

"He worked chiefly among unsuspecting housewives where his good looks was an incentive to make an impression and enable him to collect money on the promise that his extensive medical practice gave him a standing as one of the best medicine men in the country," the Evening News reported.

Faced with separate cases, a jury convicted Hamilton of larceny for stealing the diamond ring and two gold watches. He pleaded guilty to illegally practicing medicine.

"Hamilton was sentenced on Saturday to a total of 18 months imprisonment on the larceny conviction and was sentenced to pay a fine of $1 and serve six months for practicing medicine illegally," the Wilkes-Barre Record reported June 21, 1920.

As Hamilton served his sentence at the county jail, his wife, Alma Stanaway Hamilton, divorced him in December 1920 citing abandonment and desertion.

After Hamilton was released from jail, he worked in a coal mine before moving to New York City where he found work in the construction field, which ultimately led to his death in 1924.

"Ernest Hamilton, formerly of Nanticoke, met instant death yesterday afternoon when he fell several stories while engaged at his employment as a plasterer on a building in New York City," the Times Leader reported May 13, 1924.

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