£l0,000 TO FORTUNETELLER

Evening Star, Issue 22891, 24 February 1938, Page 11

£lo,ooo TO FORTUNETELLER

More than £IO,OOO is involved in an amazing fortune-telling swindle with which the Lyons police are dealing. The victims are a well-known Lyons woman and a wealthy manufacturer. M. Foex, head of the Lyons police, received a visit from the Lyons woman, who said she had got in touch with a fortune teller through an advertisement in:a newspper. She stated: ■ “ I was short of pocket money, and I went to see this fortune teller, whose predictions had won my confidence. She told me that she would let me know the winning number of the national lottery, but I would have to confide to her a considerable sum of money, jewels, and furs. “ I took £I,OOO from my husband’s safe and gave it to her. together with my jewels and furs. She paid everything would be all right, and asked me to return the following evening to be told the winning sweepstake number after she had consulted the stars. When X called at her home the next day she had vanished.” The police chief had hardly recovered from his astonishment at this extraordinary statement when ho was visited by a wealthy local manufacturer, who said ip him: “ I had been badly hit by the business slump and went to see the fortune-teller. “After consulting a pack of cards, she said that I had a tremendous future. She gave me the address of a woman astrologer in the Rue de ’Hotel-deVille, whom she described as the cleverest diviner in the city. I went to see this woman, Mme. Blanchet (the same name given by the woman complainant who had called previously). “ Mme. Blanchet gave' me an exact account of my private affairs, and I was astonished by her science. She said to me: ‘ I can get you out of : all your troubles, but I must employ a medium, whose intervention may be rather costly, as he will risk his life in his trances.’ “ I called upon her several times, paying from £1 to £5 on each visit. Finally she told me that not far from my estate was hidden a treasure of about 10,000,000 gold coins of square form, adding that to determine the exact spot where the treasure was buried the medium would have to have a considerable sum of gold. ASTROLOGER VANISHES, “ She asked me first of all to bring £1,500 in gold coins and to confide them to her care for three hours. She scrupulously returned the gold to me after the stipulated time. “The following day I gave her £3,000 in bank notes, which she returned to me the following day. She said that this was not enough money to enable the medium to work efficiently, and I gave to her more than £2,000 in English and French gold coins, jewellery, and bank notes, until finally she haa about £9,000 of my money. “ The astrologist said to me: ‘ Now everything is all right. Go back to your home and do not go out until 9 o’clock this evening. Here is the key of my flat. Come back after 9 o’clock, open the door without ringing the bell, and I will give you back your money and tel] you where the treasure is hidden.’ ” The manufacturer carried out the instructions. When he returned to the astrologer’s fiat he found that the key which she had given him did not fit the lock.

He returned the following morning. The astrologer had vanished. It has been established _ that she learned of the private affairs of her clients by employing private inquiry agents.