ROGUES IN SOCIETY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 10 June 1927, Page 8

ROGUES IN SOCIETY

WOMAN’S WEST END CAREER

gang sent to prison

LONDON, Ist June. The amazing career of a farm-labour-er’s beautiful daughter, who successfully invaded West End society and entertained as a fashionable hostess, while , she was running a “thieve’s kitchen ’ in another part of the flat, was revealed when Josephine O’Dare and five associates were sentenced at Old Bailey today on charges of.forging and swindling. O’Dare’s real name, was Skryme. She was born in Herefordshire in 1901 and was brought up in a cottage until 15 years of age. At 20 she burst into Mayfair society with ( such audacity, wit, and personality that She became “the toast” in certain circles.

She hunted with The Quorn, owned a racehorse, and was a guest at the exclusive house-parties and dances. Playing the part of a sportswoman, she was able to back horses, making bets of £IOO a time.

O’Dare later obtained mental mastery over a rich, -elderly man, whom she described as her guardian, thus enabling her to rent a Mayfair flat at £520 a year.-

RECEPTIONS IN MAYFAIR She kept four servants, and gave receptions and dances which were attended not only by society people, but also by numerous members of the underworld, including the notorious Australian crook, “Bludger Bill” Warren, now imprisoned in France; Morrison, an international cardsharper, now imprisoned in Austria, and the black sheep of respectable families. Forgers and thieves mixed with Josephine’s fashionable friends, and reaped a:rich harvest.

Finally, when she had become bankrupt O’Dare’s real character was suspected, but she further imposed on three wealthy friends, who provided her with fresh funds, which she squandered on horse-racing, and expensive living.

FORGERY OF A WILL I When charged at the Old Bailey, O’Dare pleaded guilty to forging a will, under which she purported to receive £15,000, which amount figured among her assets. She was sentenced to> four and a-half years’ penal servitude. William Davies, convicted of conspiring to forge a will, and of uttering forged cheques, with which he had systematically swindled London banks, was sentenced to 12 years. Another of the gang, Adrian Morton, ■was convicted of conspiring to forge a will, and was sentenced to three years, while his wife, for uttering fogged cheques, was given 15 months. Frank Miller, for uttering cheques, was sentenced to five years and aha]f, and John Noonan, for slealin 0 * cheques, to three and a-half years. Davies, after a term in prison, it was said, wrote a sensational but untrue account of his reminiscences;, and later lived with 0 Dare as man and wife. Ilis forgeries resulted in his obtaining £3500, while unsuccessful attempts involved another £2500. x-on'mo 6 i’ ad ( , ob I ta!ned approximately £20,000, chiefly by means of sharp practice and forgery, and, with a sister, under assumed titles, incurred debts. Once she advertised for a butler, and engaged an.old man to whom a former employer had bequeathed £IOOO, of which she robbed him in six weeks, besides an additional £I4OO, which constituted his life’s savings. The Recorder, Sir Ernest Wild, inpassing sentence, said that both socially and commercially London would be better for the enforced absence of ) Ly's hornets’ nest of rogues.