A BLACK-COATED SCOUNDREL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9734, 2 February 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

A BLACK-COATED SCOUNDREL.

IA STRANGE STOKY FROM REAL 1 ■?■- * LIFE. ;:■: One of the most contemptible cases of criminal record is told by a detective officer in Cassell'a Family Magazine. A clergyman, the rector of a church in Brixton, was committed to prison for stealing money from collecting boxes. He was caught more than once, and then, plunging deeper, he forged a name to a cheque, tor which he got a long sentence. Then his smartness came in. . Soon after going into prison he managed to ingratiate himself with the prison doctor, and the doctor how, I really don't know—consented to be a party to. an attempt to get him * freed. The parson induced the doctor to bring in some sheep's liver. He then complained of bloodSpitting, managing the symptoms by chewing the liver, and the doctor ordered him to the hospital. There he pretended to be very ill indeed, and the doctor wrote to the authorities, representing the man as dying and not having many hours to live. He recommended that he should be released at once and conveyed home to die, the doctor offering to attend him to the bosom of his family. It was done and the parson taken carefully home. . As soon as he arrived there he turned on the doctor and demanded £20 as the price of his silence. He pointed out how easily he could ruin the doctor, and perhaps benefit himself by doing so, and the doctor weakly yielded. That parson, sir, bled the doctor dry, till the poor man died broken-hearted. It was a smart trick, but an ungrateful one.

The interviewer (Mr. W. E. Grey) at this point asked the detective officer, " What happened to the smart parson ?" "lb was another case of clever tricks. He went to Islington and started in the money lending line. There he became known to ludies as ready to lend money on their jewellery without their husbands knowing of it. A great many, naturally, have objections to going to the ordinary pawnshop. The rev. gentleman raised his money by putting everything into the pawnshop and letting it remain there. Pawn-tickets expire in time. He would be pressed to return the articles, and then he wrote something in this strain :— *'' Dear Madam, — you again annoy me with regard to the article to which you refer I shall be under the painful necessity of disclosing the whole of our intimacy to your husband.'" Yes, that was what you would call a mean swindle."

" You see, none of them would say a word for fear of what the old villain might write to their husbands. His son turned out in a similar way. I had him in custody myself. And as a contrast, if you like, I will tell you how I caught him. He was a collector for a sewing-machine company. He was found to have been cheating the firm and was discharged, but managed to ; keep a book, and still went on collecting. Be was a most slippery customer, and I had great difficulty in catching him. I got him finally through a woman he had collected money from, and who was not afraid, as so many of them are, to assist the police. I saw her and arranged with her that she should tell him to call at one o'clock another day because her husband was in the country and she would not have money till he returned. Now the trick with those fellows is to go to the place before the time appointed ; they never keep the exact time. This woman was equal to the occasion. He called at eleven o'clock, and I turned up at twelve. But the woman knew what she was about, for she seemed surprised at his calling so soon, reminded him that she said her husband would not be there before one, and told him to come back. I thought I had lost my man, but he had been taken in, and the woman showed him into the little front room, and ostensibly called her husband downstairs. I had nothing to do except put the handcuffs on. It was marvellous how the man collapsed when I appeared. Both father and son were in the. dock together." "By the wuy, what sort of man was this criminal parson in appearance ?" "Tall, with a fine figure and a beautiful voice—a clever man and a good preacher, the sort of man women like to hear. He could look very pleasing when inclined, to smooth his own way to roguery, and could produce good impression before he spoke." " Well, he seems to have had a curious warp in him and apparently some versatility."