A BOGUS PEER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 78, 3 April 1926, Page 27

A BOGUS PEER.

HIS FORTY WIVES. Representing himself to be "Baron Beaverbrook," Sigmund Engel married a wealthy widow, who believed him to be the British newspaper proprietor. He said that he was visiting the United States "on a secret diplomatic mission." He escorted the widow to an hotel and there decamped, taking with him £ 8000 of her money. This set his wife thinking. She communicated with the police and identified a photograph of a man called Weidemier as being the "Baron Beaverbrook" she had married. PoUce investigations led to the arrest of Sigmund Engel, alias Karl yon Edwards, alias John Weidemier, and many other names, on a charge of having married a number of women variously estimated at 10 and 40. So far ten have claimed Tiim as their husband. Engel married a woman in almost every town he visited, and after having secured their money he deserted them. It is staf'ed that his operations extended to England and Scotland, and that he has a real wife and three children living to whom he regularly send 3 money obtained from hia other wives.