USA: Man Who Cheated Elderly Gets 42 Years In Prison

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (St.Louis Post Dispatch), December 1, 2007: Few crimes could be worse than preying on the elderly, Judge David Mason told a convicted con man before sentencing him to 42 years in prison. T.C. McGee, 67, of Memphis, Tenn., had posed as a police detective to cheat three victims out of money. A St. Louis Circuit Court jury convicted him September 5 of kidnapping, robbery, impersonating police and stealing. One victim had picked pictures of McGee and another man as the two who got into her car and coerced her to drive to multiple bank locations to withdraw money. Mason heard testimony Friday from a frail victim who wept in her wheelchair at the loss of her life savings. She said her doctor doubled her blood pressure medicine because of the stress. "I lost thousands of dollars," she said, her voice shaking. Another woman testified about her mother, a victim who is now afraid to leave her house. The judge told McGee: "You took advantage of the elderly's instinct to trust police officers. In this case, the crimes are severe." McGee told the court he wished he could apologize. "But I'm not the gentleman who perpetrated this crime," he insisted. One of the victims was cheated by a man using the name "Callahan," officials were told. Detectives who arrested McGee in August 2005 found a fake police badge in his pocket and an ID card with his picture under the name "Richard Callahan." McGee also carried a piece of paper with the name and phone number of an 81-year-old victim in his breast pocket, officials said. A second suspect, 50, was acquitted in September by the same jury. Police said he had a "private detective" badge and handcuffs but carried nothing to link him to the victims. By Heather Ratcliffe Copyright © 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch L.L.C.