'MONTE CARLO" WELLS

A CAREER OF CRIME

A cablegram yesterday stated that Wells and Jeanne Pairis have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment. "The Man that Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," Charles Wells, was arrested on board the luxuriously-fitted steam yacht Harbinger in Fahnouth Harbor in January last. Since May, 1911, Wells, whose'age is about 70, and a much younger woman, Jeannie Pairis, had been Hying on board the yacht with a Cornish crew, who described them as ideal employers. They spent most of their time fishing, and only landed to visit a theatre or a travelling booth, in the market place. Upon being arrested, Wells appears to have admitted his identity with Lucien Rivier, whom the French police had been wanting for an alleged remarkable fraud. The allegation is that from June, 1910, to April, 1911, Wells carried on business in Paris as "La Rente Bimensuelle," offering 1 per cent, per day for all moneys deposited with him. This 365 per cent, interest attracted hosts of investors, especially as, while comparatively few took the bait, the interest was duly paid fortnightly. Rivier is stated to have disappeared eventually with £40,000, and Jeanne Pairis, who passed as his niece, disappeared with him. When arrested. Wells had £1200 standing in his name at Barclay's Bank. Finally they were extradited to France. "Monte Carlo" Wells, also known as "the man with 36 aliases," has had a remarkable career. Born, it is said in 1842 (though in 1906 he received a light sentence on the ground that he was then 71), he was educated in France as a civil engineer. In 1885 he was sentenced in France, in his absence, to two years' imprisonment, having previously run an industrial bank. Coming to England with £8000, he took out nearly one hundred patents for all sorts of tilings, from musical skipping ropes to torpedoes and electric lights, and advertised for financial assistance. He raised nearly £50,000 (including £18,000 from the sister of a High Court Judge which he was to turn into £355,000). Then came the Monte Carlo' campaign. Wells was financed there, he said, by two American gentlemen, and claimed to have made £63,000 in five months, of which his own share was £20,000. In 1893 he was awarded eight years' penal servitude. When he came out he married a French woman, with whom he lived in a log cabin on Bantry Bay. He next appeared in London as the South and South-west Coast Travelling Syndicate. This earned more money and imprisonment. Wells speaks English, French and Italian fluently, and has passed as a professor of languages and a piano teacher.