Crooks' Migration Begins
Wandering Con Artists Who Prey On The Elderly And Other Vulnerable People Are Back Again.
November 22, 1993|By Christopher Quinn of The Sentinel Staff
The Terrible Williamsons are not the Williamsons anymore.
They couldn't take the notoriety, so they changed their names. They continue to be terrible, however, and they continue to plague Florida's weak and elderly.
Like migratory birds, the Williamsons and other traveling bands of con artists are swooping once again into Florida. The English, Irish and Scottish groups come from points north to escape the winter cold.
They bring with them a battery of home repair and other scams. They will ''re-tar'' your driveway with oil that washes off in the rain. They will paint your house with tinted water. They will install lightning rods on your house with substandard wire.
They also will pretend to be electricians or telephone repairers. They will ask you to go pick up your phone or hit a light switch, and while your back is turned, swipe your wallet.
For decades police and deputy sheriffs have sounded an annual alarm to beware of the Williamsons and other wandering clans.
The travelers are organized criminals who cost Floridians hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Fighting this brand of crime takes unusual law enforcement techniques. Victims don't want to prosecute; they just want their money back.
The travelers attack geographically, setting up a base in a camp-
ground or a hotel and striking victims within 80 miles.
''They want the elderly and weak,'' said Sue Taylor, who tracks travelers for the Orange County Sheriff's Office. They want victims who answer to no one about finances. ''They look at your manicure, your jewelry. They are very observant.''
They find their marks by looking for older homes with unkempt yards, Taylor said. An unkempt yard is a sign that whoever lives at the house no longer can care for it.
The travelers look, too, for old-style Venetian blinds in windows or automobile bumper stickers that mention grandchildren.
Two years ago, some travelers targeted a Maitland woman in her 80s. They knocked on her door and offered to repair her roof, and when she agreed, they demanded $3,700 up front. She paid, they pretended to do the work, then billed her again, collecting another $3,700. She was afraid, so she paid.
Investigators were at a loss. Even if they found the suspects they would have no case. The victim was nearly blind and could not identify anyone.
Then a traveler's child was caught shoplifting $139 in goods from a Walt Disney World store. Inspector Bill Morris, who investigates the travelers for the Orange sheriff's office, has sources among the travelers. One called him and offered to pay the $139 if investigators let the child go. Morris refused. The source said he'd pay the $139 and identify the suspects in the Maitland case, and Morris cut a deal.
He tracked down the Maitland suspects and threatened to arrest them. They handed over the money. The victim was so grateful that she sought out Sheriff Kevin Beary earlier this year to thank him.
''I can't buy that kind of good will,'' Beary said in an interview.
Home repair scams are just one way travelers seek to collect money. An Irish traveler is accused of staging her own rape in October 1992 in an attempt to collect huge damages from Walt Disney World. According to detectives, she posed as a tourist, had sex with an acquaintance and then asked her brother to bind and beat her. In June she sued Disney.
Orange County investigators announced last month that the rape was a hoax. The woman, identified by investigators as Wanda Mary Normile, 21, has disappeared. She is wanted on charges of filing a false report, conspiracy to commit grand theft and attempted grand theft.
The travelers are not ethnic Gypsies, and have no relation to the dozens of people of Gypsy descent who for years have operated palm reading and psychic businesses in Orlando.
Investigators rarely receive complaints about the locals, who settled down years ago. In fact, they collect information on the travelers and inform police.
''These people come into town. They do a lot of bad scams. They leave a bad taste in our mouths,'' said one, who has been in business in Orlando for 30 years. He spoke on condition he not be named because he does not want the travelers to know he cooperates with investigators.
''We don't want to have anything to do with them,'' he said.
The travelers who plague Florida today are of English, Irish and Scottish descent, Morris said. They have names like Mitchell, Halliday, Murphy and Carrol.
''It's a secret culture. A closed culture,'' Morris said.
The Williamsons have long been Central Florida's best-known clan, mostly because law enforcement agencies have warned residents to beware of them for more than 40 years.
''We identified 106 families in 1991-92,'' said Morris, and each family has dozens of members. Morris and Taylor estimated that they identified only a quarter of the families here.
They already are arriving for the winter, coming from Texas, Illinois, Delaware and elsewhere.
''Normally they'll begin to show up here a week to 10 days before Thanksgiving,'' Morris said. Many leave for a week during Christmas, return and stay until March.
So, following a decades-old law enforcement tradition, Morris and Taylor are again warning you to beware of the Terrible Williamsons, or whoever else comes knocking at your door. If you need work done, hire a licensed contractor.
''We've got to make it unprofitable for them,'' Morris said.
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