CAREER OF FRAUD.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 40, 16 February 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

CAREER OF FRAUD.

\.i.iouffa there was no real mystery about it, tne woman who, as Mrs. Gordon Bail he, afterwards occupied so much public attention, always made one about Jier birth. Thus, according to herself •be was born in 1368, the "unacknowledged daughter of a Scottish nobleman." According, however, to the parish register ahc v> as born in 1848, the illegitimate offspring of John Sutherland, a pedlar, and Cathcrins Bruce, a washerwoman. At the age of eighteen, Mary Ann Sutherlaud, as the girl was known, dedared she had received a "call.'-' It' was not, however, as her hard working mother had hoped, to the domestic mangle, but to "religion." Blossoming into publicity as an "evangelist," she conducted a series of meetings in different Scottish villages At the same time, she was also employed in a model lodginghou.se in Dundee

As these dual activities offered little ••cope for the development of her ambition, somewhere about 1870 Mary Ann left Dundee and went to London. How she supported herself there is not known. Still, she must have discovered a remunerative line, as she managed to make a prolonged tour in Belgium, Prance, and Italy. Tbe tour was not without incident Thus, While in Rome, she called on the minister of the Scottish Church there, and announced that she intended establishing a school where English girls would he taught "Protestant Christianity." As the prospectus she exhibited to subscribers bore the name of Lord Shaftesbury, the British Ambassador undertook to become « "patroD."

Bui the promises of the prospectus were not fulfilled. No school developed from them; and, at the end of a month, the pr<lselytising Miss Sutherland left Italy. She left under something of a cloud. As a matter of fact, she was "wanted" by the Turin police for neglecting to liquidate various hotel bills.

Miss Sutherland was next heard of in Scotland, where she resumed her evangelical activities with fresh vigour. The programme she now offered had for its specific ipurptoae the "weaning of the Italians from the errors of Catholicism to the Truths of Presbyterianism." This proved very attractive in Edinburgh; and she won the hearts of several prominent clergymen and philanthropic ladies. But, «s eoon «* a good round sum had been collected, the organiser disappeared. The place to which she went off with her tracts and her subscription-lists was Dundee. There she took a villa, which she ±urnish.*d on credit. Her gifts must have included a singularly persuasive tongue, since the Dundee tradesmen supplied her with quantities of goods without demanding cash down. At last, she went a little too far. This wa» to the nearest pawnbroker, where she pledged the goods thus s">tained. The result was that in December, 1872, she was sentenced to nine months imprisonment in Perth gaol. On being set at liberty, she went to .Liverpool. There she changed her name •to Ann Sutherland Bruce. She did not, however, change her methods; and, equipped with another flowery prospectus, she collected subscriptions for conducting a. Girls' School in Rome on Protestant Principles." Funds came in very satisfactorily. Aa was her "method," she disappeared with them, hurrying off to London. A new address meant a new nam*. Calling herself Miss Ogilvie Bruce, she announced that she wanted to buy a newspaper, and to conduct a theatre. Thus heralded, she had no difficulty in securing a furnished house. But although her journalistic plans came to nothing, she did form a theatrical connection by marrying a Mr. Thomas White, a member of the chorus of the Carl Rosa" Opera Company. The union does not appear to have been one of hearts, *>r the bridegroom very soon left his bride. Took a Title.

A* a grass-'widow, Mrs. Thomas White •evidently regarded society as * Tom Tid3er'« ground to be exploited in every direction. Representing herself as the "Countess of Moray," she ran up bills for whatever took her fancy. A great many things did this; and she soon amassed a large stock of jewel* and fuia and clothes. With a view to possible eventualities, perhaps, one such account was for a supply of baby linen. Hypnotised by her manner, and the smart brougham (hired) in which she drove up to their establishments, obsequious shopmen offered her credit as a matter of course. In fact, <ash appeared to be the very last thing they wanted. It was eertainly the last thing they got. She had aliases by the dozen. For the Biott part, she preferred such as had an 'aristocratic" ring. It was, however, as Mrs. Gordon Baillie that she was best known. Somewhere about the year 1884, •he engineered a really big coup. This "was to get on terms of close intimacy with a wealthy and half-witted old baronet. Sir Richard Duckworth King. »he ensnared him to such an extent that he set her up in a house in Mayfair, and let hep draw on him for £18,000. She also induced him to back bills for considerable sums. The baronet's "paper" ▼as discounted for her by a man with whom his Delilah was having (but, of course, unknown to him), a second liaison. The go-between was one, Robert Frost, whose other activities included the proanotion of bogus companies. He was entirely without mesne. He exploited the public to such an extent that, .before long, he was adjudicated a bankrupt, with liabilities of £130,000, and assets next to nothing. This system of "finance" being so nearly akin to her own, Mrs. Gordon Baillia decided to join forces with him. Since (and oblivious of her earlier vows to the Carl Rosa chorister) she had presented him with three pledges of affectioD, she considered it as well to give him the brevet lank of "husband" when they set up house" keeping together. In the winter of 1884-85 the position of the crofters in the Isle of Skye was attracting the sympathy of the charitable public. They were threatened with Starvation and ejectment from their homes; the police and troops were being employed to put down the rioting that had arisen. Jn this juncture there suddenly appeared on the scene a woman who announced herself eager and ready to champion the cause of the islanders. Her interest was also practical, for she distributed blankets and warm clothing, Started a subscription list, took the chair at public meetings, and organised bazaars •nd concerts, and, one way and another, collected a substantial sum for the benefit of the wretched crofters and their wives and children. By her tact and sympathy she interested the Government in a scheme for furnishing the sufferers with new homes in the colonies. As the plan looked Workable enough, on paper, official approval was given it; and its author declared her intention of leaving for Australia to complete the details. "Crofters' Champion." The 'Vrofters' champion" was none other than Mrs. Gordon Baillie. But, instead of going to the Antipodes, she went to Barton Hall, in Staffordshire, where she was joined by the plausible and smoothtongued Mr. Frost. The couple kept up a large establishment, with a retinue of servants, and a stable filled with carriages sand horses. When creditors began to fPow prosing, Mrs. Gordon. Bsalfce, leaving

WOMAN'S AMAZING RECORD

ADVENTURESS IN TWO CONTINENTS

<Zy HORACE WVNDHAM, Author of •Judicial Dramas," "Crime on the Continent,- etc

her alleged -husband'' to cope with them, auctioned the furniture and effects, and moved to Margate. All went well there until the first quarter-day. Then all went wrong. The landlord wanted his rent; the servants wanted their wages; and the tradesmen wanted their accounts settled. Still, it was not until the gas company cut off the gas that Mrs. Gordon Baillie felt it time to start for the Antipodes. The financial results of the Australian visit were at first very satisfactory. Touched by the eloquent appeal she made on behalf of "the poor crofters,'' the citizens of Melbourne and Sydney subscribed liberally. There were social triumphs, too. The Bishop of Tasmania received her into his house as his guest. Colonial big-wigs took the chair at her meetings; and in Victoria she was given a grant of 70,000 acres of pasture land on which to settle her proteges and their families. For some time all went merry as the proverbial marriage bell. Suddenly, however, a jangling note was struck. A demand arose for a balance-sheet. What was worse was that a shrewd young Melbourne journalist wrote to England, asking some very pointed questions. Answering cables were dispatched from Scotland Yard, suggesting that the lady with the subscription list was not the woman she represented herself to be. They added quite plainly who she really was.

Mrs. Gordon Baillie could take a bint. Realising that she had exhausted both her welcome and her credit, she at once returned to England. On arriving in London, in the spring of 1888, she victimised the editor of the "Pall Mall Gazette," whom she induced to publish columns of descriptive matter dealing with her "good work" among the crofters, and disinterested efforts to transplant them to happier surroundings. Then, having run up bills for large sums among the West End tradesmen, she slipped off to Edinburgh for another visit.

This Edinburgh trip only lasted five days. Still Mrs. Gordon Baillie made the most of them. She began by hiring a brougham and ordering a quantity of expensive goods. Scotch "canniness" is proverbial, yet it went badly astray, for, although they were drawn on a London bank, the cheques she offered were accepted and the purchases were delivered at her hotel.

She. had timed her arrival well, since the troubles of the crofters were once more attracting public attention and there was much sympathy being expressed with two women who had been committed to prison for assaulting a landlord. As the opportunity of championing them was too good to be missed, Mrs. Gordon Baillie introduced herself to the Lord Provost and received permission to visit these women. She also called on Professor Blackie and aroused bis interest to such an extent that he invited her to a dinner party. As a gift for her host she took with her an elaborate bouquet, which had been procured on credit from a florist.

The day after the dinner party a number of tradesmen, bringing with them dishonoured cheques, called at her hotel. But it was then too late, for Mrs. Gordon Baillie had returned to London. During this portion of her career she, together with the accomplished Mr. Frost, was living in Westminster. A member of the household there was a certain Robert Gigner. His nominal role waa that of butler. His real function, however, was to spread stories of the "wealth" of his mistress and thus induce tradesmen to supply goods without requiring their bills to be settled on delivery. A second direction in which he waa employed was that of saying "not at home" to unwelcome callers. He had to say thia very often. Laid by the Heels.

For some months Mrs. Gordon Baillie lived on the edge of a mine. At last it exploded. Despairing of getting satisfaction by any other method, an individual, whom she had swindled out of a houseful of furniture, caused her to be arrested, together with her two accomplices. The charge against the trio was that of obtaining goods by false pretences. The list of items ranged from sacks of coal to elaborately fitted dressing cases, and when the despoiled tradesmen appeared in person to get their bills settled it was always to find a notice on the front door reading, "Family left town. Call again." The Westminster magistrate committed all three prisoners for trial at the Central Criminal Court. Owing to the fact that he managed to break his leg, the servant Gigner did not join his master and mistress in the dock, when they appeared there in October, 1888.

The charge of "conspiracy" was supported by a long array of dressmakers, milliners, jewellers, merchants and jobmasters, etc. These witnesses were followed by a number of pawnbrokers to swear that Mrs. Gordon Baillie had pledged with them the goods she had improperly obtained by means of dishonoured cheques. A detective said that Scotland Yard had received complaints about her for upwards of fifteen years, and that during this period she had gone under forty-one aliases. Mrs. Gordon Baillie could fascinate a great many people. She could not, however, fascinate the members of the jury. In less than' five minutes they found her guilty, as also her companion in the dock. Thereupon the judge, showing what he thought of the pair, sentenced Ilobert Frost to eighteen months' imprisonment and Mrs. Gordon Baillie to five years' penal servitude. The mask of the philanthropist goes ill with the cloak of the adventuress. For all her pretensions and her long and imposing list of aliases, this washerwoman's daughter was nothing but an impudent and systematic swindler. While it is, of course, no excuse, her victims had only themselves to thank. Had it not been for their gullibility she could not have lasted a month. Yet she lasted seventeen years.