Whitson

The appellant was convicted by a court sitting with a jury of violating the Federal mail fraud statute, Section 338, Title 18 United States Code Annotated. The indictment contained three counts (the first of which was thereafter dismissed) in each of which it is alleged that the defendant appellant having devised a scheme and artifice to defraud “the Catholic Welfare Society, Monsignor Thomas J. O’Dwyer, St. Boniface’s Orphanage, Rev. Gerard Brenneke, and divers other persons to the grand jurors unknown”, made unlawful use of the United States mails for the purpose of executing said fraudulent scheme.

The sole question presented by this appeal is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict of guilty. No question is raised as to the sufficiency of the evidence to support a finding that the mails were in fact used by the defendant for the purpose of executing his plan, or that fraudulent misrepresentations were made as a part of the attempted execution of the plan, the claim of insufficiency resting entirely on the appellant’s argument that no fraudulent scheme was proved.

It appears from the evidence that the defendant attempted to obtain from the organizations…