RICH MAN'S CAREER AS THIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 70, 21 March 1908, Page 13

RICH MAN'S CAREER AS THIEF.

I POCKET-PICKING AS A HOBBY^ The double life of a wealthy and respected man has been disclosed by the remarkable confession o£ Louis Wolf, a manufacturer, of Brooklyn, who is in prison for a series of remarkable thefts. For years Wolf lived in the high esteem of his fellow citizens, who considered him the acme of respectability. When, three weeks ago, he was arrested and charged with being a common pickpocket, ins influential friends rallied to his rescue, and the police released him with fervent apolosies for their blunder. Wolf was a prominent clubman and had a thriving business, but despite this he was arrested again two days ago, and now confesses that he has all his life been a professional thief. When fifteen years old he fell into the clutches of a New York Fagiu. and was educated in all the tricks of pocket-picking. At this nefarious trade he proved wonderfully apt, but after a career of crime, chequered by several periods of imprisonment in Chicago and St. Louis, he returned to New York with the firm determination to be honest. He established a rug-manu-factory with his ill-sotten gains and thrived. About three years ago he became intoxicated, he says, by a craving for excitement which proved irresistible, aud, though he ditl uot need the money, returned to his evil courses, robbing for the mere fun of it. lie made in this way, he says, £>000 a year. "I really desire nothing more than to be sist the call of the wild inbred in mc." In astonished grief the wealthy friends of thd prisoner have now abandoned him to his fate.