A FAKED DEATH
SCHEME THAT FAILED MAN COLLECTS £2,400. SENT TO PRISON. (United Press Association-By CableCopyright.) (Received 29, 1.10 p.in.) Vancouver, Dec. 28. John Harold Rutledge, aged 27, faked his own death and collected £2,400 from sympathetic relatives and friends, but the police caught him as he tried to leave the country and he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. He took modest lodgings in Vancouver, described himself as a salesman and then began sending sad telegraphic messages to Eastern Canada, signing himself "Eric Van Duren.” He telegraphed: “Harold Rutledge died here to-night in agony, calling for you and his mother to send me money to bring his body east for burial.” Unfortunately for the scheme, the relatives got together after sending the money and realised that they had sent sufficient cash to bury Harold a dozen times over. The police quickly established that Rutledge was alive and well at least two days after the supposed body was sent away for burial, and be was easily traced after that.
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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 13, 29 December 1930, Page 5
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169A FAKED DEATH Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 13, 29 December 1930, Page 5
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