A Blind Burglar.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 223, 3 December 1896, Page 3

A Blind Burglar.

The Leeds police havo in custody two remarkably interesting young burglars. One is James William : Lawson, 19, the son of an independent lady residing afc Poplar terrace, Upper Armley, and the other Ernest Ingham, 17, the son of a coal merchant, _ Wingate drove, Upper Armley. Lawson is totally blind, but he has displayed ■ mechanical skill, ingenuity, and wealth , of resource of a high order. After his arrest his mother's house was searched ' and in a chest of drawers in his bedroom I was found a large quantity of tools, since identified as the proceeds of a burglary committed in the silk mills of Lawson's uncle at Upper Wortley. On removing the bed a loose board was disclosed, underneath which was found a quantity of jewellery, a watch, and some tools which had been stolen. There were no fewer than fifteen skeleton keys. In a small room which Lawson used as a workshop the officers discovered thirty loose padlocks, doors, and box locks, which had been broken off various premises, a large quantity of keys, tools and property, j the proceeds of robberies which had i taken place during the past two or ' three years. A square iron plate in I one of tho walls was discovered to be ' the door of a safe which had been let into the wall, and was full of stolen I tools. Lawson's mother stated that, ' notwithstanding his blindness, he had , made the pattern, had got the castings ! made, and had fixed the thing himself, ' telling her that is was a ventilator. i