DECEITFUL MURDERERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 102, 2 May 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

DECEITFUL MURDERERS.

AMAZING RECORD OF DOUBLE LIVES.

PIOUS MURDERER WITH SEVEN WIVES—LOVE INTRIGUES AND INFLUENCES THAT LED TO THE SCAFFOLD—ARCH-VILLAINS IN THE ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS—DOUBLE-DYED CROOK OF BENEVOLENCE AND BURGLARY—FAMOUS CASES IN HISTORY OF CRIME.

The history of crime can show no more amazing sidelight than the home lives of its most femoua figures. Notorious thugs, forgers, thieves and murderers, whose crimes have shocked nations have often, in the privacy of their homes, been model husbands and fathers. The intimate disclosures given below are of engrossing interest. The remarkable double life of Alfred Arthur Kouse, and the amazing maimer in which he for so long, and so successfully contrived to carry on his many love intrieues—what time his lawful wife and doubtless thought him a most pxemplary husband—has been strikingly Jaralleled, even outdone, by the astounding and almost incredible dual lives led by many of the world's most notorious criminals. Less than a year ago, for instance, Henry Colin' Campbell, a -torch murderer, who had become known as the Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of America, was electrocuted for a crime which in some resnects, resembles the murder for which Kouse has been executed, only in this ease the victim was a woman. The woman was Mrs. Mildred Mowry, whose body was found burnt beyond recognition on a.lonely New Jersey road, She had been shot before the body was set alight. The identity of the murdered woman remained a mystery for some months, when the shoes worn by her eventually established her name. Investigations proved that the woman lad been "married" to Campbell, who was 60 years of age, and he was arrested. Campbell had committed bigamy to marry Mrs. Mowry, being already married to Mrs. Eosalea Campbell, who is the mother of four girls. An astounding criminal history was ravened by the police when they investigated Campbell's career. He was proved to have led a double life for years. Known to his family and friends as a quiet, affectionate, home-loving man, he was at the game time one of the most heartless criminals in the records of American justice. Campbell was married to seven women. He confessed that he killed Mrs. Mowry to gain her savings, amounting to £200. To the end his wife was his most constant supporter. She described the strange paradox who was her mate as "a model husband and father," and to everyone he was known as a respected citizen of liia 'New Jersey town. Devout Churchgoer. aS She time he was carrying on intrigues and committing bigamy and embezzlement, ending with the callous murder of his paramour on the lonely roadside. Police searching his home found hundreds of dolls and a number of teddy bears which were the favourite toys .of this extraordinary double personality. "He ds & wise man who knows his own neighbour," declared one of our High Court judges during a certain sensational trial. "Here,.; for "example, is a man who has for years been regarded by his suburban neighbours? as a person of high refipectabihiy and blameless life. "He has been a devout churchgoer, a Eberal contributor to local charities, an exemplary husband and father, a good friend, and a popular companion. And yet this model of all the virtues, as we now know, has for years been living a life of crime, committing a long series of the most daring buglaries, in several cases accompanied by violence." Criminal records abound with cases of men who have led similar dual lives, masking their villainy under the cloak of a respectability which has often for years completely deluded their neighbours and friends.

A number of years ago, the district of Peckham had no more popular resident than the arch-villain, who was known as "Mr. Johnson," a benevolent old man with snow-white hair and beard, who Hved in one of its most expensive villas. He was a churchwarden of his parish; a man 'of gentle speech, who seemed to Spend his days in good works when he was not playing one of his beloved Cremona violins. His neighbours kept their sweetest smiles for "the dear old gentleWan," and their children loved him for himself, and not merely for the eweets with which his pockets always seemed so full. Five Shots at Constable. Conceive the consternation of the good people of Peckham when one day it was rumoured that Mr. Johnson was lodged to gaol on a charge of housebreaking and attempted murder. He had been discovered, as was learned later, in a house on Blackheath Common, in which he had n » ngll i to be; and had on] y t)een arrested after a fierce struggle, during which he had teed five shots at and severely wounded • constable. 'When his villa was searched it was found to be full of rich plunder of gold ana silver plate and jewellery, the spoil « many years of burglary; and he was « last identified as Charles Peace, the cleverest and most ferocious burglar in We country—a man, moreover, who had committed two murders, for one of which an innocent man had been sentenced to Penal servitude for life, less notorious than Peace,dtS? mi . Palmer wa s another double- ! «yea villain, who practised benevolence «m burglary. He was one of the most "jccessful and scientific house-breakers of ™ day, yet he gave hundreds a year •way ur charity and kindnesses. Although «e committed more than one murder wiring his career, nobody was better loved , m lug neighbourhood. He hved at Norwich, in a quiet little house, where he was known Sv -fcumemore," and was supposed » oe a well-to-do retired tradesman. Out knJ.i . mone y he gained by his countless S laries (. especially the Marsden Bank uooery he founded a private infirmary, were he looked after and paid for the «Pi.eep of six old and infirm villagers. Paid on the Nail. '•mSi?? 1 ever baffled the noliee more «jmpletely; and he ran the infirmary for j.>2 years > in addition to which any or farm hand in difficulties t£° u f a misfortune had only to come to 2S.*° he helped out with a gift. He "JstriDuted hampers of provisions among People who needed them, and all his bills 1)\ \l* id ?* the nail " .J~~ tnis time he was keeping up an Sow f °A at least five burglaries a month, t„ ot tnem being very big ones indeed. ,Jf uo case was there any trace of a clue, tho ? 08t scientifi c tools were used, and i«„ utmost cleverness displayed in coverrag all traces. :J- n the Marsden Bank affair he and his jeeomphee, who lived in London, netted °™ie thousands of pounds in gold and becur raes.- At Norwich he was supposed tß° to London to " look after his stments," and to the day of his fall no HSjji police or public, dreamt who he was) . ihere was no, man in all Staffordshire }«« suspected of leading a double life (nan William Palmer, the most popular doctor in Rugeley. He had the largest practice in the place; had a ■ considerable [pome, and drove a pair of the finest n °rses in the county. ■the poor loved him for his kindness; his RPy friends for his geniality' and hosfltamy. He was reputed to be the best of Plsbands and fathers in an ideally happy ??We, and he was seldom missing from "S'Pew in the church. It was thus with a sense of amazement *na incredulity that Rugeley awoke one ° a y to learn that the doctor had been on the charge of poisoning one ** iufl intimate friende, A man

named Cook; and that he was more than suspected of causing the death of his wife and his brother. When conviction followed his trial at the Old Bailey, a thrill of horror passed through the whole of England. Indignation meetings were held in London and the provinces, and petitions for his reprieve were signed by hundreds of thousands — amazing tributes to the enormous popularity of this " wolf in sheep's clothing." But the evidence against him left no loophole for mercy, and he paid the penalty for his dastardly crime. The criminal career of Adam Worth was the most successful the world has ever known, but to the last he cleverly hoodwinked all his intimate friends, including his wife and family, as to the dual life he led and the real source of his vast illicit wealth. He stole in all quite £500,000, but he never resorted to violence. An American of German-Jewish ancestry, he came to . London after many exploits, and rented a costly flat in the centre of Piccadilly, with his own staif of well-trained servants. It. was the regular meeting-place of all the noted thieves of England and the Continent. Worth plannea the robbery of the French mail between Boulogne and Folkestone that cost the Post Office £30,000. He also planned the theft of the famous Gainsborough picture. " The Duchess of Devonshire," which Messrs. Agnew, the art dealers, did not recover for twenty-six years. The canvas 'was concealed in the false bottom of a trunk and taken to America, and rested in furniture depositories for a quarter of a century. In South Africa, Worth got away with £150,000 worth of diamonds. All his life he worshipped his wife and children. Tney never knew that he was a professional criminal, and even years after his death they were unaware of the real character of the husband and parent whose end had brought them such anguish and bereavement. A brilliant career came to a sad conclusion at the Old Bailey, when Professor Goodfellow pleaded guilty to forging and uttering a bill of exchange for £500 in the name of the firm of jam makers who employed him as analyst. Up to the age of 40, when he was laid by the heels, it was made quite clear by the evidence that the professor had for a long period lived two distinct lives. The world knew him as a doctor of science of the German University of Wurzburg, a writer of standard works, and one of the leading authorities on the dietetic properties of bread. He had been consulted by most of the leading confectioners in the country, and at one time had been employed at the Bromley Institute as lecturer in science at an income of £1500 a year. He ws>.s married and had one child. What the world, including his wife, did not know for a long time was his identity with the gay, pleasure-seeking master of one of the smartest bungalows at Thames Ditton, the owner of a trim steam launch on the river, and the lavish entertainer of feminine friends. At last this Jekyll.and Hyde existence terminated, as might have been anticipated, through financial stress; its -actor had recourse to moneylenders, and, finally!, to stave off their accumulating demands, he committed forgery. Then his house of cards crumbled to the ground. Financier's Downfall. In his day there was no more popular member of the House of Commons than John Sadlier, Junior Lord of the Trea-sm-y, and one of the most respected financiers in the city. With simple tastes and frugal habits, his purse was always open to the poor, for his heart was as large as his honour was considered above reproach. And yet, when he was found dead on Hampstead Heath, with a halfempty bottle of prussic acid in his pocket, a life of >almost unexampled villainy was brought to light. For years he had been reaping large harvests of gold by wholesale forgeries which brought ruin to.thousands. " I cannot live," he wrote in one of the letters he left behind him. " I have ruined too many by my villainy. I could not live to see their agony." Criminal annals are full of such amazing cases: the man of two 1 distinct and utterly opposed personalities, cultivating each bent at practically the same time—forgery and philanthropy, murder and metaphysics, burglary and benevolence! Amazing complexities of that ingenious twist of mind which riots in deception and double dealing. Murderers like the notorious Dr. Pritchard, the equally callous Dr. Lamson, Dr. Crippen, Major Armstrong—to name only a few—were all clever, well-educated men, moving in circles where they were highly respected for their many sociable, even lovable qualities—and yet, all the time, they were darkly scheming, cunningly planning and plotting to encompass the deaths of their innocent victims. Volumes could be filled with the doings of these " wolves in sheep's clothing"; and with others high in the world of finance, such as Henry Mercer, who posed as Sir Henry Mercer, Bart., and filled his pockets with dishdnest gold; Robert Taylor, who masqueraded as a peer of the realm and owner of vast estates; Fauntleroy, who robbed his clients of £300,000; Royland Stephenson, who absconded with £70,000 of his dupes' money: and Watts, Robson, and Reidpath, ill-paid clerks, who, away from their city desks, were men of wealth, famed for their luxury, their generous hospitality and charity, as the result of robbing their employers of hundreds of thousands of pounds. .>