STORY OF SPANISH FORTUNE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 113, 6 February 1937, Page 19

STORY OF SPANISH FORTUNE

An Old Confidence Trick? AUCKLANDER SUSPICIOUS OF DUNEDIN CASE Au Auckland resident whose father some years ago received certain correspondence from Spain bearing all the characteristics of the notorious "Spanish prisoner” confidence trick, told an Auckland newspaperman that similarities lu names and circumstances led him to form suspicious of a case reported on Saturday from Dunedin. The Dunedin report stated that it was possible that steps would be taken by a tobacconist to share in an estate which, in 1921. was reported to be worth over £30,000. This estate was concerned in a will said to have been made in a Spanish hospital in that 5 The report told of the late Enrique de Fonesca Goughian —said to be an uncle of the tobacconist, Mr. J. Goughian—who was stated to have made his will from a hospital bed. after being severely wounded in a 1921 rebellion. The will provided that his daughter. Anna de Fonesca, then a minor, should be his heiress, and that her guardian should be “Don” J. H. Coughlan, to whom was made a conditional gift of one-fourth of all the testator's goods. Duplicated Letters. When Mr. J. W. M. Lindop, of Auckland, read the story, sudden recognition caused him to turn to a sheaf of papers that had belonged to his father, the late Mr. IV. A. Lindop. He found a long letter, dated Madrid, .September 11, 1921, and signed Enrique de Fonseca ; a black-bordered note, in pathetic but uncertain English, from one Anna do Fonseca; her reputed photograph ; a will and its translation; letters purporting to be from a priest, Jorge Pena; and other communications. It was a cunningly devised set of documents, and yet it showed almost' childish weakness in one respect. It was patent that several of the letters were cyclostyled; perhaps they had been run off by the thousand on some form of duplicating machine. Although there was some genuine handwriting, even the death-bed letter for “Enrique de Fonseca” was obviously not an original, and typed documents, supposed to be personal, were plainly from stock supplies, with the name of Mr. Lindop added where necessary in an entirely different ink. “My Darling Daughter.” The first to arrive was a letter from Enrique de Fouseca, referred to in other documents as Enrique de Fonseca Lindop, claiming near relationship and telling of his part in a rebellion. He said that he had been empowered to go to London to buy war material, and that he took with him all his fortune, totalling £85,700. But the plot was discovered, and the rebellion committee arrested, “denouncing me as a defrauder of .a large sum of money to the War Ministry.” lie stayed in London until the death of his wife, and then decided to return to Spain, “to recover my darling daughter.” The letter continued: “Thinking it was an imprudence to take with me my fortune, I decided to place it in a sure bank of London, but saying that money of mine could be payed in any branch office of said bank in your country, which bank gave me as a warranty of it a cheque payable to bearer transferred for to collect it in your country, where I was going to life. This cheque hidden in a secret partition I make myself in one of my

trunks impossible to be discovered for anybody.” Cheque in Luggage. Briefly, he then returned to Spais (with luggage and “perfectly” disguised) ; he was arrested, shot a policeman, and was gravely wounded (thinking at first he was dead); he was tried, and all his luggage—with the cheque—was seized by the court. Writing apparently from a prison hospital, he said ho had confided in the priest or chaplain, who had promised to help all he could to recover the luggage—and the cheque. “I invite you if you wish it to come here to Spain, for you can yourself raise the seizure of my luggage, redeem my luggage and with it' and my dear daughter return to your country, where you can recover my cheque.” He intended to make his wilk appointing the chaplain his executor and Mr. Lindop his daughter’s guardian. If the New Zealander promised to be a great protector for his daughter and aid the priest in all he wanted for redeeming the luggage, the dying man would reward him with £21,422, the fourth part of all his fortune, plus interest. A second letter came from Enrique de Fonseca just before he “died.” Death, in fact, came quite quickly. The priest, Jorge Pena, wrote the day afterward, enclosing the alleged will and its translation, and the alleged court sentence and its translation, in which it, was pointed out that if the fine and costs, totalling £l5O, were not paid within 150 days, the luggage (still with the precious cheque) would be sold “to benefit public treasure.” The £l5O was obviously to come from the New Zealander, and was asked for in a. later letter. There were also a pathetic letter from Anna de Fonseca and her alleged photograph. Mr. Lindop did nothing, and nothing further has been heard.