New York Times, November 16, 1912, page 24:
SAY WIRELESS HAD A WIRE.
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New Telephone Promoters Deceived Investors, Government Charges.
Cameron L. Spear, who, according to the postal authorities, was the compiler of the original "suckers' list," that is, a roll of those likely to subscribe to doubtful companies when attractively presented; Archie F. Collins, an inventor of a wireless telephone instrument; Charles L. Vaughn, formerly Vice President and Treasurer of the Continental Wireless Telephone and Telegraph Company, of 56 Pine Street, and Joseph H. Reall were put on trial yesterday before Judge Hunt and a jury in the Federal District Court on the charge of having used the mails to defraud.
Assistant United States District Attorney Stephenson, in opening the case, told the jury that it was charged that investors were informed that the money they subscribed was to be used to promote the sale of wireless instruments, but that as a matter of fact the greater part of the cash received never found its way into the company's treasury. The Collins Wireless Telephone Company, one of the original concerns which was afterward merged in the Continental Company, issued statements, he said, to the effect that the wireless telephone had already passed the experimental stage, and only required capital to be developed greatly.
Outlining the methods of the defendants Mr. Stephenson asserted that their most profitable advertising was to open stands in public places for the exhibition of the Collins instruments, and he alleged that the demonstrators were warned to make the conversations short, as if a wireless telephone was used for any length of time the transmitter would become hot and burn off. Even with these limitations, counsel asserted, the precaution was taken of using a ground wire, unknown to those who were examining the invention.