BROADMOOR LUNATIC

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1931, Page 8

BROADMOOR LUNATIC

£lOOO A YEAR FROM DEALINGS.

In the Broadmoor Criminal Mental Institution is an inmate whose clever financial operations on the Stock Exchange result in his earning more than £ 1000 a year. This fact amazed members of Parliament when they Were introduced to this man on the occasion of a recent visit to Broadmoor.

The financial genius was convicted ot murder, but subsequent investigation proved him to be insane, and his sentence was commuted to detention during His Majesty’s pleasure. He has been at Broadmoor’ now for several years, and during this period he has successfully negotiated seyeral coups as a result of shrewd speculation.

His command over figures is astonishing, and he can accomplish wonders in calculation, without referring to pen or paper. He posseses a really uncanny knack of sensing the rise* and fall of stocks and shares. That there are many othei- examples of T-rison cells that house genius is revealed by Mr Herbert Arthur in “All the Sinners/' a book on the psychology of criminals. “There is a prisoner serving a long sentence for forgery,” says Mr Arthur “Whose handwriting skill is in great demand for the production of 'souvenirs/ which take the form of the Lord’s Prayer written out in full in a circle of which the diameter is one quarter of an inch. “The amazing feature is that the man uses an ordinary pen, and although he is G 7 years old, he does all his work without the aid of spectacles. “Another genius is ‘Qld Bob/ whom I met while he was serving a sentence |of 15 years’ penal servitude for man-

slaughter. He would certainly have been the world’s record tipster, and would have plunged the bookmakers into bankruptcy, for he has a most amazing gift for picking winners. “His turf speculations ovei* a period of a few years netted him a huge fortune—on paper—for he never had a penny of hard cash with which to bet, and, of course, the prison regulations would not permit of money being used for such a purpose.”