CRIMINAL'S ESTATE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19285, 14 April 1928, Page 18

CRIMINAL'S ESTATE.

VALUED AT £15,900. ENQUIRY FOR NEXT-OF-KIN. (raoji ora own correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 5. An amazing affidavit indicating that a well-known criminal had died intestate leaving an estate valued at £15,900 was read "in the Equity Court last week, when the Public Trustee ot New South AY ales asked for an enquiry as to who should share in the distribution. The Publio Trustee stated that he had been informed by the ComptrollerGeneral of Prisons that deceased, Teresa Alice Taylor, of Sydney, who died in May, 1920, was a well-known criminal. She had a large number of aliases, including Amy Wilson, wit® of Reginald John Wilson, -fireman of Sydney; Amy Hose Wilson, and Alice Rose Payton. He had ascertained that she had left surviving her four brothers, one sister, and two children of a deceased sister. He had further been informed that Teresa Alice Taylor left her parents' home in the country when she was sixteen years of age, and came to Sydney, where she entered domestic service. Another sister was already in service in Sydney. Out of their small savings the two sisters purchased a block of land in the suburbs and sold it at a profit. The Comptroller of Prisons stated that Taylor then embarked on a career of crime as a thief and a pickpocket, and amassed some wealth. Her first conviction was in October, 1910, and hei last in March, 1924. During that period she was convicted thirteen times, her total sentences amounting to seven years, four of which she served in gaol. She had just completed a sentence of eighteen months about three months before her death. She acquired a great deal of house property in tli6 slums of Sydney at different times_ under various aliases. Deceased's surviving sister was the only one of her relatives with whom she had been in touch during the last twelve years of her life. That sister said that she_ was sure that she was never married. She had informed the woman who attended her during her last illness that she was never married, and on that basis the Publio Trustee was convinced that she died a spinster. The Jud{*e referred the matter to the Master in Equity for an enquiry as to the deceased's next-of-kin.