BURGLARS BOLD.

NZ Truth, Issue 76, 1 December 1906, Page 6

BURGLARS BOLD.

Rawson Run to Earth, Bowled Out by a Finger-print. A Couple of Cunning Scoundrels Corralled at Christchurcli. A couple of lovely scoundrels who played the burglar m their spare time, and fooled round with revolvers, searchlights, and masks and other things that are the stock-in-trade of the midnight marauder, have been effectually corralled at Christchurch, and there is some sort of feeling of safety amongst the public. For the armed burglar is about the worst kind of animal knocking round. It may mean murder as well as burglary, and individuals who- are of criminal instinct, and chronic criminal instinct at that, shouldn't be allowed their literty on any account. Maoriland has supplied a few historic cases of this kind of person, and we don't want any more. The armed burglar who finds himself suddenly attacked from an "unsuspected quarter wouldn't hesitate to use his worse weapon if he thought that he wouldn't be able to get away. And that weapon would be a revolver— else why should he carry it ? What does he line his pocket with it for— to shoot sparrows ? The man Arthur Rawson, arrested m Christchurch with a five-chambered barker m his possession, and 24 revolver cartridges, and an electiric flash lamp, and a small file, is a very dusty piece of goods m the after dark line. He is one of the WORST CRIMINALS IN MAORILAND. Although his lodgings contained masks it is pretty fair to conclude that he wasn't m the theatrical line of business. He had been kicking round with a low specimen of manhood named Frank William Howell, who sometimes called himself Rodgers, but. whether he was proud of his alias is doubtful' under the circumstances. Well, 'Tecs Ward and Gibson had information from the Finger Print Dr..:tment at Wellington presumably. .Nat Rawson was the man whose dii i y left forefinger corresponded with the imprint found on a chisel discovered m a house which had been burgled m Christchurch. So he was at once arrested, and all his naranhernalia was found, m the pockets he didn't use for jewellery, cash and clothes that he would be able to abstract from the victims of his nightly- visitations. The particular burglary that .he Was wanted for was only a small three r<uid affair, but the chisel ["■aye.him absolutely away. Those finder prints are pensioning off a lot of noted criminals right enough. When Rawson was nabbed by Ward m the spprious thoroughfare of High-street (which contains a lot. of low characters') Gibson,' who threatens to run to flerh unless he indulfes m more hm\ step and jump, strolled alon n> after Howell and asked him to go to tbf> station. It wasn't a mere comnliimnt'arv amble, it was a compulsory stroll with no points about it. On beinf pearclifid tihis chan Howell had a flashlip-h 1 " m his possession. He I didn't claim that he was going to walk alon<r " the b'smVs of the Avon to see who were,, luxuriating m LOVE'S SHADY BOWERS and ,to ascertain their identity ; he said m a frightened voice when iskod i what he wa£ doing with an*''iihiiL.. : Nat- i i.mr:, ajJjfjaratus , m,, hiC^ocket : - '.'I. .rat 1 this from Rawspn i'"':he :1 bought 'isKe two lights and gave me brie, which I can prove." That was all ; but why ' did he take a flashlight from Rawson, anyhow, and what did he want it for. i There is ample reason to believe that jhe was m league . with Rawson when j that Ren-tl-eriaanly scoundrel burgled i the house of Robert White Glen. At all. events when the police charged ! Rawson with burglary next morning j they also accused -Howell of being no ; class,- being a man who consorted with thieves. This meant that he was a disorderly person within the meaning of the Act, and he pleaded not guilty. It was shown by Maddern. 'tec, who is consorting with' other police friends at Christchurch during Exhibition time, that he had been previously convicted on a similar charge at Palmerstdn North, where his phvsog is well known, and where his footprints could have been more than once photographed m the dust of the dock if the microbes which haunt the Court bible hadn't had them for supper. It was then shown .by Charlie Chapman, who slept with Howell, that he came m with Rawson to bed .at 5 a.m. on October 20. That was the date of the burglary- at Glen's. Others of, the foorce gave evidence as to Howell being a consort of criminals, and then he himself told the Court Ihat he came out of chokey after doing a stretch last March and had . TRIED TO KEEP STRAIGHT. He had been a porter at the Caversham Hotel, the Cafe de Pairis and the Royal Cafe. He had served grog to the villain Rawson at the Caveror so, and make a fine haul. And any was too thin for Magistrate Day, who said the evidence *vas against him, and he gave. him a sixer. Now, publicans should be very careful to whom they give the billet, of night porter. Of course every one isn't alike, but a, night porter, m league with a noted criminal like Rawson, could strip a "good" hotel m a night of" everything its owner and lodgers possessed m way of cash, m an hour or so. and make a fine haul. But any ordinary hotel m Christchurch just at present would yield a pretty fair har- '■ vest. And ' this six mpnthser wag : Rawson's friend. It isn't very plea* sant for hotel boarders to rontem- 1 "late. If a new chum m a town Can , tret a billet as night porter, and he ! has criminal pals, the rest is. easy. And he need not know anything of the business next morning, p'+her ; the gentleman can be an innocent of the first water and say that the burglars p-ot m by, and escaped by, the fire escape. N However, to revert to Arthur Rawson, when he entered White Glen's house he got into | THE BOSS'S BOUDOIR, ' and flashed his searchlight on the owner's face. That may be a good bus-ine^s proceeding on the part of the burglar, but from writer's wav of thinkinT it was a nincompoopish act fraught with possible disaster. I And disaster it proved to be for Glen is a IMit sleeper, and as the li^ht lit unon his coun+cn"ire he lit after the burglar who iroi out the kitchen window, leaving V>is Hhi«*el behind him - Ihs implement lie had v pcd hi m-i filing oP«n the window. That cold

o! steel and woodwork had a lovely imprint on the handle, aud 'Tec Ward packed it oft' to the Finger Print' Museum m Wellington, where it was photographed and subjected to other indignities, and the conclusion was at once arrived at that the left foirefinger belonged to thieving, ;• Ruining Rawson, and that as there were 24 points of similarity between the two awful prints there was only one conclusion. As a matter of plain fact the expert who travelled to Christchurch said the possibility of the mark on the chisel being made by any other forefinger than that of Rawson (whose digit they had photoed previously) was 2384 billion chances to one. This scribe isn't guaranteeing the exactness of this momentous sum m arithmetic, but inserts it on general principles, and mainly because the expert said it m evidence. That expert should have been 1 a totalisator man who could count up the odd fractions that clubs can stick to, or an astronomer, who talks m billions as it tiiev were so many butterflies friskine round his green lawn. At all events the Finder P. business seems to have put Riotous Rawson off his dot ; it is putting all professed criminals off their dot now-a-days, and he caved m right awa*'. He was asked how he pleaded arid he admitted his squalid three nukl offence, and Day. R.M committed him to the Supreme Court for sentence.