Nature of Embezzlement in the Star
In secondary literature, it is common for the phrase “boodler” to be used. These are infamous embezzlers who made off with large sums of money and fled to either remote parts of America or Canada. These cases do not appear in the Star, and neither does the word “boodler.” The term “boodler” is a sensationalist slang term. The Star does not use this term because it had tried to be informative and factual most of the time.
This stereotype of embezzlement highly suggested that these were people in high-ranking private sector positions who were stealing money in an ingenious attempt to climb the socioeconomic ladder of American life (Unterman, K. (2012). Boodle over the Border: Embezzlement and the Crisis of International Mobility, 1880–1890. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 11(2), 151-163.) According to the Star, the reality is that these people were mostly either skimming a little off the top of their daily profits or corrupt bureaucrats and con artists who preyed on the institutions they worked for or the innocent citizens of the area. See examples of articles and chart below.
Many low-level embezzlers were solicitors, sometimes selling very suspicious items and then taking money from their daily earnings to put in their pocket. These criminals rarely reached stolen money more than $500. Many reports include the selling of suspicious certificates and other paper documents. These men’s trials were always quick, with most of them pleading guilty. However, sentences for these men were light at only a month in jail.
The second type of embezzler was more commonly stolen while enlisted in the military. These were not low-ranking officers but high-ranking captains. One of these alleged embezzlers also lived a double life which his enormous amounts of stolen money allowed him to do (see second article below).
According to the paper, these types of criminals were not climbing a social or economic ladder and appeared to think what they were doing was completely fine. These men just wanted more, and they did that through the crime of embezzlement.