A FAMOUS FORGER

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 22

A FAMOUS FORGER

VICTIMISED BY GIRL

ADVENTURES OF ENGLES

PREYING ON EUROPE

George Englcs, a good-looking man with naturally charming manners and possessing intellectual gifts far above the ordinary, might have become a great lawyer if he had trod the straight and narrow path which is not nearly as difficult as many people imagine, writes Charles Kingston in "The Yorkshire Weekly Post." With his gilt for languages, his magnetic personality, and his ready wit, Engles could have held his own in any society. Yet he preferred to specialise in forgery.

Perhaps, it was his special misfortune that in his younger days he should have come' under the influence of Adam Worth, the most spectacular and.for a time most successful of American criminals, for it was the stealer of Gainsborough's "Duchess of Devonshire" who persuaded young Engles that crime can be made a paying proposition. ■ ■

Adam Worth, by the way, died in poverty, and Engles's last days wero spent in a slum, but the latter, believing what he had heard from his friend and leader, was all optimism and confidence when he left New York for his first tour of Europe.

He began by paying the expenses of the trip by forging a cheque lor two thousand pounds on a London bank. and with the object of preparing the ground for further visits, he toured Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, picking up useful information and the language in each country, studying in particular the banking systems and compiling a list of wealthy business men and others. HIS CHIEF ASSET. It was said that George Engles could imitate a signature so closely that bank cashiers could not tell the difference between it and the genuine, but it was his impressive appearance and likeable manner that was his chief asset when he came to cashing the cheques. Bank officials who would have scrutinised sharply a cheque for a large amount presented by a stranger of average appearance, instantly accepted Engles at his face value and did not hesitate to pay. The rogue, however, was too cunning to overdo it on that initial visit to Europe. In common with the rest of America's army of crooks he had a wholesome fear of European justice and of European gaols. '..„.-. It was not until his third visit that he carried out to the full a great campaign of forgery. By now he could speak German and French fluently, knew sufficient of Italian and Spanisn to converse intelligently in these languages, while his private directoryof people who kept large sums to then account was a very valuable asset. It was easy for him to pose in France as a Frenchman and in Germany as a German, though, oddly enough ho could never get rid of the nasal intona.ion of English which in England stamped him as a citizen of the United States. ' This proved very awkward for him, for the depredations of the Bidewell brothers, who had recently depleted the Bank of England of nearly one hundred thousand pounds, had made every English bank cashier fearfully suspicious of any one with an American.accent and George Engles had hoped -o make London contribute at least ten thousand pounds to his income LEFT LONDON. But he was in some respects no fool, and when he realised that the odds were against him in London, he shook the dust of the city off his feet and went to Paris. , ~ There he dallied for an unproductive month with a pretty waitress who had attracted him in a cheap restauran : U had happened one night that he was seized by an unus- ' thirst when exploring the less reputable byways c, the great city and, entering the fust restaurant to which he- came, was waited on by a dainty and charming rir There and then Engles fell in fove with her, and Julie, who had the national weakness for money, responded quickly to the American's advances. Convinced that Julie would make a valuable ally in a city where he had none he gave her a good deal of his confidence and, when the lowness of hta funds reminded him that he must raise a considerable sum, immediately he left in her charge all the luggage while ne paid-a hurried visit to Madrid. The time was not ripe for a coup on aFrehch bank, and in the meantime he would explore the possibilities of the Spanish capital. So in due course l« arrived in Madrid, took up his quarters in a comfortable hotel in a quiet square, and having selected a-suitable banking account-suitable because it was kept by a Spanish gentleman who was in the habit of drawing cheques for large sums of money-he produced after a little trouble a cheque payable to a' mythical Spaniard and bearing the signature of a well-known Madrid merchant. . The forger met with his usual reception, that is, a smile and a bow, which the crook rightly interpreted as an expression of confidence. USED LOCAL NAMES. When he handed the cheque over the cashier merely glanced at the highsounding name and the amount before beginning to count out in Spanish notes the equivalent of two thousand pounds. Engles never presented a cheque payable to a foreigner. A foreign name, he knew, would be scrutinised, whereas a native one would, by reason of its familiarity, earn no more than a glance. That was why in Germany he was a German and in France he was a Frenchman—at least when he stood within the precincts of a bank in order to turn his skill into cash. He was watching the cashier adding to the pile of notes when suddenly the official began to address him in the most fluent Spanish. The quickwitted Engles saw at once that if he responded in his broken Spanish he would arouse suspicion—the name on the cheque was obviously that of a native Of Spain—and suspicion must lead at once to, discovery and arrest. Seizing one of the pens on the counter, he dipped it in the ink bottle and scribbled in Spanish on a paying* in slip lying handy the information that he was deaf and dumb. Instantly the cashier's expression became one of respectful sympathy, and Engles, picking up the notes, walked out of the building feeling as though he had had a narrow escape from death,. The notes were at once changed and the proceeds changed again until Engles was able to take the express to Paris with only French money in his pockets. The next evening he and Julie dined together, and an evening paper having recorded the forgery on the bank in Madrid, the forger handed over the proceeds to Julie for safe keeping. warned'by waitress. Some six or seven weeks after his coup in Madrid, George Engles was strolling down the Avenue de l'Opera when, out of a dark side street—it was about 9 o'clock —there came the sound of his first name gently pronounced. Turning hastily to the left, he was astonished to see Julie and further astonished when she gripped his arm and drew him into a convenient doorway. There in agitated whispers she

told him that the police were after him. She had a friend in the restaurant who was the sweetheart of a detective, and he had confided to her the news that an American of the name of George Engles1 was wanted for a daring forgery on a bank in Madrid.

According to the detective the Spanish police had traced the various changings of the notes and were in possession of the numbers of the larger denominations of the collection now in Julie's keeping. The girl was so terrified that she implored Engles to take the notes from her and so relieve her from the anxiety of arrest. The police would be sure to visit her apartment, it would not be long before they knew oJf her friendship with the man for whose arrest' they had a warrant —and it would be cruel luck if she went to prison for many years. She was sobbing bitterly wheri her story ended. Engles did not waste precious moments by asking questions. It was sufficient that the police were on his track, and that unless he got away he would experience the horrors of a French penal establishment. "Julie," he said, when her sobs had died away in a half-strangled gasp, "you. must go back to your apartment at once and destroy those notes. I shall leave Paris now. Good-bye." RETURNED TO NEW YORK. He was walking rapidly away before she was fully conscious of the fact that she was alone, but George Engles was not thinking of her as he made for the railway station. Like a good general, he always had his line of retreat prepared, and \\e was in London the next day. Twenty-four hours after that he sailed from Liverpool to New York, and Europe did not see him again for six years. When he reappeared in Paris it was under the name of George Astor, and the reason was that he wished to convey the impression that he was, a member of the famous .American family i of that name. To further the illusion he had his secretary and valet, and he engaged a "suite of rooms at a leading hotel. Here he entertained, among others, a millionaire Frenchman who had large dealings with New York firms and whose banking account Engles intended to deplete to .the extent of £20,000 at least. By way of returning the American's hospitality, ' the Frenchman , invited "Mr. Astor" to a little dinner in what he described as the latest and most exclusive of Bohemian restaurants in Paris, and "Mr.r Astor" at once accept- J cd. And "because of his acceptance, he had one of the biggest surprises of his life, for, on entering the new restaurant, he recognised in the beau-tifully-dressed lady presiding at the cash desk, his old flame, Julie. She came forward with a beaming countenance, and it was under her direction that they found their table in the best position in the crowded room. There was, to Engles's regret, no . opportunity for a sentimental tete-a-tete with the still lovely and youthful Julie, but his intention to resume his old relations with her was never fulfilled because his host informed him that Julie was not only the proprietor of the restaurant, but the. wife of the good-looking head waiter who attended to their needs. BOUGHT THE RESTAURANT. "It's just six years since Julie came to me," said the Frenchman with a reminiscent smile, "and asked me to buy this restaurant for her. I remember she had two thousand pounds, a large sum for a young girl, and I ;wondered how she got hold of it." "Mr. Astor" did not wonder, he knew, and his knowledge, while it increased his admiration for Julie's astuteness, decreased his affection for her. . i ■ "But I ' suppose," the Frenchman continued, "that an admirer presented her with it. I know that for two or three years she had been engaged to marry Henri, and it did not surprise me when, they married before taking possession of the restaurant. With Henri as head waiter and Julie herself as cashier, the business is thriving. They are rich already, but they owe everything to the admirer who presented Julie with the two thousand pounds. They ought to drink to him every night in champagne:"