LARGE-SCALE CONFIDENCE TRICKS

Northern Advocate, 3 February 1936, Page 10

LARGE-SCALE CONFIDENCE TRICKS

London is not the only place in the world where visitors fall victims to the confidence tricksters, says the “Sunday Graphic and Sunday News.” In the United States, for instance, gullible citizens are being swindled to the extent of £8,000,000 each year.

Canadian detectives tell the story of a wealthy English business man who was swindled of £140,000 by one set of confidence men in the country, and then allowed himself to lose another £30,000 at the hands of another gang. Although detectives tracked some of the swindlers, the victim made no charge because he feared letting the world know his gullibility.

Biggest On Record

The biggest confidence swindle on record was that worked by “Scarface” Spencer, an Italian, who was reputed to have swindled an English family of £150,000 while they were spending a holiday in Italy. Spencer went to prison—but the money was never found.

An Australian named Mack is—or was, for it is not known whether he is still alive—the leader of one of the greatest confidence gangs in the world. English visitors to all parts of the globe had been warned about him, but the swindles went on with unceasing regularity.

“Australian Mack” must, so detectives state, have piled up a huge fortune. He had been reported dead, but it is thought he may be living in retirement in comfortable ease on his victim’s money.

Many Britishers have cause to remember him.

Another big haul was the £30,000 which Dick “Buttermilk” Davis took from a British drug-store owner in Honolulu in 1927. Davis died at Los Angeles last year. A police lieutenant at Los Angeles is said to have fallen a victim to Stew Donnley, “the best-dressed man in Indianapolis.” Donnley is awaiting trial on the lieutenant’s charge that hei swindled him of £4400.

According to the Chicago police, one of the oldest men in the confidence racket is John J. Van Camp, known as “Peaches.” He is seventy-five years