ROMANCE OF RAILWAY ROBBERY.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1022, 14 April 1857, Page 3

ROMANCE OF RAILWAY ROBBERY.

Capital and skill are the great requisite 1 ? in trade, commerce, and manufactures. The operations of modern times are distinguished from those of a century past by the more intelligent employment of these elements. Enterprises, too hirge for the means of one man, or of a lew, are carried out by association in jointstock companies; and, in another direction, we secure speedy and cheap production by a v.ell-divided division of labour. As our wealth and property increase, so do our precautions to guard it from depredations. "We have strong rooms, iron safes, Biahma locks, and Hobbes locks ; and by means of our bankers vre carry o*i our ordinary transactions without carrying about or keeprng injjour homes any large amount of money. Our remittances are managed by bills and drafts, useful only to the owners, and the invention of the Lombard merchants, carried out to its full development, enables us to transmit large sums through the post with perfect security. Stage coaches have departed, and if there were Turpins in these days they would not venture to stop a railway traiu. Still there is a vast amount of ponderable property in transit; and, notwithstanding all our improvements, thieves do sometimes break in and steal. G#ld is a commodity, as the political economists teach Us, and it is imported and exported. Gold offers great temptation to the thief and we neglect no means of securing it from him: but the skilled depredator keeps up with the ad;ancc of science; he must have capital to conduct groat operations, and therefore he saves up money ; enterprises beyond the powers of one may be achieved by more, and therefore he takes partners; he knows also the advantage of division of labour, and allots to each of his associates the part of the work suited to hie means and his abilities ; he requires agents and factors to dispose of his booty, and lo ! they are ready at his command. The march ot intellect is not confined to any »ne class, and the same ingenuity and perseverance, which lead to fortune in honest pursuits, are applied by the thief to his peculiar industry, which usually leads to the hulks in the long run. The South-Eastern Railway Company carry on their line a great quantity of bullion and gold coin, passing between London and Pans ; they are of couise most careful of the valuable and tempting fieight. They lock the precious metal into an iron safe at one tertni nus, and it is taken out at another, by a clerk entrusted with the key ; the lock is of the best, an I loss by accident or theft would seem impossible In the month of May last, bullion of the value of £15 000 was entrusted to the company by a London firm en route to Paris. VVhen the boxes in which the gold had been packed arrived at their destination they were found to cont lin only lead. To all appenrance the pickages arrived in t'le same state in which they were dispatched ; and, al though some persons weie suspected, and one was arrested on suspicion of having received some of the gold, the mystery of the robbery remained without explanation until a few days back. The story of the robber, and the denunciation of the criminals, makes a little romance of the railroad. The principal actor in the affair was a man named Agar, now under sentence of transportation for life for forgery. This man is an adept in crime. Before his conviction he seems to have been engaged in forgeries, and to have been in the habit of travelling between England and America to dispose of the bank-notes so obtained. A man named Pierce, employed by the company as a printer, first conceived the idea of stealing the bullion, and he imparted it to A *ar. The latter, like a man of business, inquired at once into the details and the number of persons to be concerned Learning that there were four in all— Pierce, a clerk named Tester, and Burgess, a guard, all in the company's employment —Agar agreed togo in At that time he "had a capital of £400, which he hnd brought from America ; and, as he stated in his evidence, "he did not then Veep any banking account." A thief with a balance at his banker's suggests a new idea, even in these days of extraordinary revelations. Money was required in this case, for the preliminary preparations could not be made without expense. The first necessity was to get the means of opening the iron safe in which it W3S the custom to convey the bullion. It could only be done by false keys ; and to m ke these, impressions must be had of those in use It so happened that the chest was sent to Chubb's to have a new key made, and so the keys were for a short time in the possession of Tester. This man was brought by Pierce to a beer-shop at the corner of Tooley. street, where Agar took impressions in wax. Thus, one part of the difficulty was got over ; but there were two locks and a second key in the keeping of a clerk at Folkstone. Agar and Pierce went down ; the yput up at the Pavilion Hotel, played billiards and smoked cigars with the railway clerks, and hung about the station watching the course of business. In order to obtain a closer view, Agar sent Pierce to London ; and the latter wrote a letter, addressed to Mr. Archer, advising him of a box of bullion by train. This box was made up of Agar's sovereigns, brought from America, and some other things to fill and give it weight. Armed with the letter of advice, Agar went to the station, saw the box opened and the place where the key was kept. Next he managed to slip into the office, in a temporary absence of the clerk, and to take an impression. The making of the false keys was done by Agar, and took some time. When they were so far completed, he travelled up and down several times, entering tht guard's vnn through the connivance of Burgess, and patiently working until the false keys opened the box. They had then only to wait until the bullion was «ent d->wn and carry it off dt their ease ; and a vulgar thief would not have thought of more, but Agar had a higher touch of art. If the boxes had been found emptied on the arrival of the train at Folkstone, there would have been immediate inquiry. It w^s necessary to provide a substitute for the gold, and he and Pierce bought a quantity of shot, which they put into bags, made with straps so that they could sling them about their persons. They exercised great care and ingenuity in preparing and testing the bags and straps, and in training themselves to carry the heavy load without exciting suspicion. All this took time and then they had to wait and watch for the despatch of the gold. Eve.nng after evening Agar and Pierce drove to St Thomas's-street and waited patiently in a cah for the concerted signal. When the time arrived they took firstclass tickets to Dover. Carpet bags containing shot, and carried in their hands, were handed to Burgess, who put them into the van. Agar contrived to slip in also, and the train started Then the work began. The safe was opened, and the boxes of bullion taken out. With box wedges and a wooden mallet, Agar removed the iron hoops and drew the nails. The shot was poured in to make up for ihe weight of the abstracted gold. At an interm diate station Tester wa»in waiting to carry off part of the booty and before the train arrived at Folkstone the boxes were nailed up and showed no appearance ot having been disturbed Agar and Pierce got back to London by a return train, leaving no clue by which they could be traced. Pierce disposed of a quantity of foreign coin, *nd the gold bars were melted down in a room of Agar's house at Shep herd's bush They found agents who bought it of them, "well knowing it to be stolen," at the rate of £3 2b. 6d. an ounce, and finally the proceeds were divided amongst the accomplices.

So far-nil went weil, but Agar, who was arrested on another charge, was convicted, and sentenced to transportation. V young woman, named Fanny Kay, was livmtc wilh him as his wife, and had boine him a child not two ycais old He left the woman>nd child m i harge of Pierce, with about £7000 to be invested for their benefit. Pierce proved false to his t-ust, and turned the wnmftn out of dnnrn. Although she halt been kept in ignorance of the robbery and all its particulars, her suspicions had been excited, and >»he knew enough to make her dangerous. She gave information to the railway comp-inv. which led to the arrest of Pierce and Burgess, and the appearance ot Agar as a witness against them. Toster has Jor the pre-ent found an asylum in some foreign countiy. The case as against Pierce and Burgess rests on the evidence of Agar, cor roborated in some particular 1 ' by Fanny K-iv. Other lorroboration is forth cominar, and the final catastrophe \i ill take place at the bar of the Old Bailey.

redpath's part carbeb. . A.« time advances, and as fresh opportunities present themselves for inquiry, it becomes more and more nstonishmg how a man, who had gone through such an extraordinary career during the years previous to his appointment as a clerk with the Great Northern Railway, could have had so much trust reposed in him, and have been advanced to a position for which the strictest integrity and the most irreproachable life should have been indispensable conditions. When the Peninsular and Oriental Company was started, it being rather a private concern than a public company, Redpath was engaged as clcik by its promotors. In this service nothing particular is remembered of him, nor is it known exactly under what circumstances he left. Before, howe\ er, ho ceased that connection he obtained an introduction to Mr. Thomas Fox, the well known estate agent, ot BishopsgateStreet, to whom it was represented that he was a highly respectable young man, and that he was about to marry the daughter of one of the directors ot the company in which he was a clerk Upon his introduction to Mr. Fox, Redpath informed him that, in anticipation of his marriage, he had taken a house in Dartmouth terrace, noar Blackheath hill After a little hesitation. Mr. Fox supplied him with furniture to the amount of about £600. Redpath vras soon afterwards married, it is thought, to a person in humble circumstances, and he then left his employment, and started m business as a ship insuiance broker. This business he carried on at 44, Lime-street, City. Meanwhile he lived in good style at his suburban residence, and seems to have there first entered upon that apparently religious and ehaiitable course with which, up to the time ot his capture, he was so intimately identified. The time which he could spare from his commercial purstiits he devoted to the advocacy of the claims of chaiitable institutions, to the dtstiibution of religious tracts, and to other subjects of a kindred character. _The delusion he successfully ! maintained by contributions of a liberal chiiiacter to the institutions in which he evinced an interest. This portion of his career was a short one, for in less than three months lie was made a bankrupt, and it was then found that he had incurred debts to the extent of £5,000 Mr Fox applied unsuccessfully for his money, and. on calling personally upon Mr. Redpath, he found that some of the tradesmen w..-re taking away the goods they had supplied. He then made Mi. Redpath a bankrupt, on the 20th of April, 1840. Redpath's effects were sold by auction at his residence in Darmouth-teirace, and the estate realised two dividends— one of Is. 6d , and the other Is. In the course ot the sime year, Red path obtained his certificate under circumstances which showed that, even at that time, he was an adept at clearing himself from difficulties. Before the Court of Bankruptcy Redpath was extremeh insolent, and was severely reprimanded by the commissioner. From this time and during the peiiod of railway speculation which resulted in the "mania' 1 of 1845, although a man without chaiacter or means, Leopold Redpath managed to pick up a precarious lhing out of the bewildering excitement which th<>n prevailed. While the Gtpat Northern were struggling with a lival company in Pailiarnent foi their Bill Redpath was of great assistance to them in promoting their cause ; and when they started as an organised company he was engigpd .i« a clerk For some time he occupied humble 1( djuri"-, in UnnbeiLmd-maiket, his salarj uot wanant- ! ing any further display His finances, indeed, were at | this time of such a limited character that, in order to meet their expenses, his wife was obliged to accept a .situation as companion to Mrs. Simmonds, an invalid lady residing at No 3, Cumberland- place, Regent's park. In course of time, his circumstances began to improve, and be then removed to lodgings at 43, Uppor Albany street, after which he took the house No. 2, Park-village West where his taste for elegance and his extravagant habits first began to develop themselves. He lived in. a style very far beyond the means of a man who had a salary of £500 or £(00 a year, his own receipts from the company being at that time less than £100 a year. While occupying this inferior position as a servant of the Great Northern Railway Company he made the acquaintance of Mr. William James Robson, who is now under sentence on account of the Crystal Palace frauds. Robson at this time occupied an obscure lodging in the neighbourhood of Chancery- lane When the business ot the Great Northern Company increased, Robson was engaged as an assistant, and to this extent only was he ever a clerk and servant of the company. In this capacity Robson and Redpath formed an acquaintanceship, which at length ripened into a confirmed friendship, and it is believed they were ultimately connected in the traffic in shares until the discovery of Robson's frauds put an end to his dishonest career. Redpath was not only well known as a constant guest at fashionable parties, but even contrived to get presented at Court. He was almost equally as w< 11 known in Paris as in London, he being a frequent visitor there, and being in the habit of patronising the Hotel Windsor, where he lived in most princely style, his hotel bill being said to have averaged £100 a week. During a recent visit, it is stated that he became a competitor with the Emperor for a beautiful antique model of L<?da and the Swan in silver. The Emperor offered £700 and Redpath £750, and the coveted ornament was duly conveyed to the mansion at Weybiidge. Redpath, like Robson, was a great patron of the theatres, and might be nightly seen at the Royal Italian Opera or the Haymarket, to the stage of which he had ready access, and where his love of display, which he seems to have possessed in an extraordinary manner, was fully displayed. Thus, he on one occasion said to a leading actor, " , my dear fellow, you never take a benefit, and I have no opportunity of showing my appreciation of your character as a man, and your talents as an actor, as I wish to do : do me, therefore, the pleasure to accept this slight acknowledgement of my opinion of you '' — at the same time forcing a cheque for £50 into his hands. The box book-keeper of the same theatre hating died a few weeks since, leaving a widow and 7 children, an appeal was made to Redpath to assist in getting one of them into St. Ann's Asylum. He promised to use his best endeavours, and next day sent the requisite number of proxies to secure the election. Nor does his conduct appear to have been always controlled by ostentation — he having been known, upon more than one occasion when attending the elections at the institute we have alluded to, to go up to some poor widow whom he has seen bathed in tears, fearing that she had no prospect of securing the election of her child — to enquire into the case — desire her to ascertain how many more proxies she required, and then give her a cheque to secure them ; whilst in other cases, he has presented the mother with £20 or £25 to assist her until the next election. On the occasion of the annual festivals of one or more of the charitable institutions of the metropolis, Leopold Redpath was in the habit of paying from £50 to £100 from his own pocket, in order to add to the splendor of the dinner — a fact of which very few of the guests were cognisant. At the first dinner of one of these societies, alter the return of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge from the Crimea — an occasion on wh° eh his Royal Highness presided— loo guineas were so expended— the subscription list also bearing th names of " Leopold Redpath, Esq., £50 ; and Mrs. Redpath, £50." But this was not all ; for in the evening Redpath handed in another cheque for £105, as a donation from a " Citizen who admires the character of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, and who wishe- to congratulate his Royal Highness on his return from the Crimea."