REMARKABLE MATRIMONIAL ADVENTURES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 19 January 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

REMARKABLE MATRIMONIAL ADVENTURES.

THE CRIMINAL CAREER OP JOHN HALL.

"I've had a pretty good innings, and I must put up with it," remarked Frederick Hall, alias Woodgate, Kinsella, etc., when arrested on a charge of bigamy (writes our London correspondent).- A good innings the heartless ruffian certainly has had, for during the last six years he has duped and betrayed at least a dozen confiding women solely with a view to gaining their little hoards. Hall did not go for big game, his victims being mainly derived from the respectable servant girl class, but occasionally he ventured a little higher, and once, discarding Tony Welter's sage advice, ventured upon matrimony with a widow. Hall's usual uicdLuui for making himself acquainted, with ladies desirous of marriage was W advertise himself U9 a. "superior "mechanic 1' with £40 or £50 saved up, anxious U fenter intd the holy bonds with a lady possessing about the same-sized nest-egg. The number of silly women who can be trapped by scoundrels of his class is simply enormous, as shown by Hall's matrimonial record since January last. On January 6th last be married Mary Beale, a widow, at the Cheltenham Registry Office. For that marriage he assumed the name of John King. Four days .later1 he married Marian Jennings, a housemaid, at St. James's Church, Cheltenham, assuming the name of Frederick Ball; On September 27th he mari^eA Agnes Lane, a domestic servant, at the Registry OSce, Kingston-on-.Thames, representing himself as Reginald Wilson. On October 18th he contracted a marriage with Wary Ann Dormer, a laundress, at the Registry Office, Beading, signing the marriage certificate in the name of Harry .Wilson. All the women, with the exception of Marian Jennings, he

DEBBRTED IN A'MOST HEARTLESS FASHION. He was living with Jennings when he was arrested. He has had money from all of them. He obtained £40 from Agnes Lane, ttua deserted her five days after the marri-

age at Dover. In a- letter he wrote to Mary Ann Dormer he described himself as 2'J years of age, dark; medb n height, total abstainer, wages £2 10/ weekly. He said his aim would be to make her life happy. He urged speedy "marriage, as liis promotion to foreman at a cabinetmaker's where lie was employed depended on getting martied. So far as the police have at present traced Hall's first dip into the matrimonial bag tools: place >n 1894, when he married at I*eds Seilna Clisby/ his own cousin, ahd he appears to have kept up some sort of matrimonial relations with that lady till July last. ........ Mrs Beale's'gtdry, told In the witness-box, gives a good Idea of Hall's procedure. In uer, evidence she said that in November, •899; she was. llvittg at Cheltenham, whereshe has a furnished house. On November 9th she saw an advertisement in a local newspaper: "Matrimony. — Mechanic, 32, wishes to correspond with a domestic servant or widow with little means, with a view to early marriage. Write, enclosing photo., in strict confidence." She answer-

Ed the advertisement and corresponded with the advertiser. Subsequently he called at her house and said his name was John fling.. On January 6tH this year she married hilii at the Registry Office, Cheltenham. The day before the marriage he asked her tor a little money, and she gave him **. On January lOtn (that is the day he married Marian Jennings) he asked her for money to enable him to go to Birmingham, where he said he had a position as sub- ■ raS&ector On the Midland Railway. She gave him a sovereign that day, and he returned home in the evening. (He left MariSfi Jennings at Gloucester that day). Witness said that he told her he had a berth at St. Pancras Station, London, with a salary of £3 2/ weekly. She agreed to 80, and he SOLD UP HER HOME, Which realised £20. He took from her a gold watch and chain and a gold ring, "as Jt would not be safe for her to have them In London." They lived for some days in Charrington-street, St. Pancras, and afterwards be left her, stating that he had to go .to Hereford "for the firm." On January 31st He wrote to her from Hereford urging her ,td Send him £3. She wrote to iilin and Suggested that he was living with another I woman. He replied from Leeds stating that be was surprised at the tone of her letter, and that he loved her tod much to think of another woman.. He .continued that he. was very, apwnhearted, and trusted that his war Polly" would not Insult him again with such a letter. "Now, Polly," the letter went on, "send me £3; you only sent toe £2 before. When I am knocking about I must hav£ some money, and I cannot get « from- the firm. Also send me slippers and shifts. Iteiriember that when I ask . for £3 I want it." She sent him £3, and afterwards, in response to a telegram, »t. sent nlm another £3. He returned on FJprnary 22nd, stayed with her two days, and deserted her at Liverpool-street Sta : Hon. When she arrived home she found i vr?'. a sealskin jacket and other articles [ .-Taiue £5 had been stolen from her boxes. am ller at the station between 3 and 4 .. 0 clock in the afternoon, and she waited «ntll 9 o'clock at night for him, but he i sover turned up. 1 Hall stands committed for trial.