I‘m currently writing a crime novel set in the 1890s in the Old West. I basically have two problems that I‘m currently working on. I‘m happy about any help or hints.
Was it possible during those times for a normal person to set up a bank account for a fake company? The name of the fake company is supposed to sound ALMOST SIMILAR to a major existing company (that way, he can fool others). Would the bank let him do that? Would they check his background?
The same person (he’s the villain) writes the name of his fake company in the last will of his murder victim. He does so convincingly. But how did the legal process of transferring money in that era look like? When would the murder victim’s lawyer sense something’s wrong? Or would he just wire the bank and transfer the money? What legal documents of the money recipient would he need?
Basically I’m trying to figure out if the villain COULD get away with it. Are there any web sources for these kind of questions that I somehow didn‘t find?
Thanks and much love!
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.