LIFE OF CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 84, 10 April 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

LIFE OF CRIME.

AMAZING CAREER.

** MEEK-VOICED LITTLE MAN."

GANGSTER "EXPLOITS" IN U.SJL

Spectator* in Court at Exeter Quarter Sessions watched in the dock a prematurely grey, meek-voiced little man, and then listened with thrilled astonishment as a detective revealed his amazing career of crime. Before them, it was disclosed, stood a notorious crook and former Chicago gunman and gangster, who had escaped from prison to return to his life of crime. Not until he had been sentenced to three years' penal eervitude did the little man's cloak of meekness fall off. Then, in a voice that rang through the Court, he shouts: "I will commit more crimes when I come out!" Warders hustled him out of the dock to the cells before he could shout more defiance at the Bench. The man, Frederick Allen, alias Her-j bert Kendall, 41, a native of Accrington, Lanes., confessed to 31 charges of shopbreaking and housebreaking. Detective Martin outlined Ipis exploits, and told how Allen served in the war and was dishonourably discharged from the army. He went to Canada, and crossed the border into the United States. There he became associated with, gangsters and gunmen, and led •& life of crime, robbing freight trains, department stores, and petrol stations. . After serving sentences in different partsof the United States,' Allen escaped from Cleveland prison in '1930 by cutting his way out with a hacksaw curled inside a pork pie, which was smuggled into gaol by a friend. Once at liberty, Alien returned to Chicago and resumed his life of lawlessness. In one of the hold-ups in which he was concerned a man was shot dead—not by Allen. For that exploit one of Allen's accomplices, a man named Doran, was electrocuted. Third Degree Ordeal. Allen himself was arrested on a murder charge, and for weeks went under the ordeal of third degree at the hands of the police to make him confess. But : Allen stood firm, although his hair turned grey under the strain. When lie appeared before a jury he was acquitted. In September, 1030, he was arrested at Davenport, lowa, on a charge of complicity in an armed hold-up. Deportation to England was his sentence. Back ra his native Lancashire, he had another brush with the police, and began to tramp the country, hawking and begging. He served various sentences, and was released from Gloucester prison last July.

From July until his arrest last December ho visited different parts of the country, living entirely on the proceeds of shopbreaking-, and earning the title of the "wooden wedge robber." His method was to stay at workhouses before "doing a job," and there make wooden wedges with which he could break open doors and windows. Trapped by Wedge. Frequently the wedges were left behind, and this fact was circulated among the police. When Allen wae arrested an observant officer noticed a wedge in his pocket. Comparisons were made with the wedges... that had been left on entered premises, finger-prints were taken, and Scotland Yard was approached, with the result-that Allen was identified. From the dock Allen said he had never had a chance, and for the first time in , any Court of law he would ask for one. , "Give me that chance," he pleaded i and I will pack the lot up." "\ou ask for a chance," replied the chairman, Sir Archibald Bodkin. "You ' had your chance. You were in the Army j and if you behaved yourself you could j have been quite well off with a career of that kind, but you determined to act differently. You are a danger to the public, and the least sentence the Court can pass upon you is three years' penal servitude."