"MONTE CARLO" WELLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11056, 6 May 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

"MONTE CARLO" WELLS.

RELEASE OF A CONVICT WITH AN ASTONISHING HISTORY. "Monte Caiilo" Wells, the notorious con* vict, has just exchanged the severe life of Portland for the comfort and glamour of one of the big West End Hotels. Sentenced at the Old Bailey in 1833 to eight years' penal servitude, he has now been liberated. His story is nil astonishing one. Educated in Franco in the profession of a civil engineer, lie came to England about 1885, and took out nearly 100 patents, after which lie commenced to advertise for persons with capital to assist him in the working of them. It was his misuse of the sums thus obtained that brought him to the Old Bailey. Purchasing two steam yachts, the Palais Royal and the Kettledrum, ho had them fitted out most elaborately, and was in the habit of taking on board those who responded to his advertisements. Pointing out that the engines, boilers, etc., were worked on a new plan, of which lie owned the patents, lie induced the sister of one of our present, judges of the High Court to place £15,860 in his hands, in return for which, after investment- in the patents, he promised to pay her £355,000. Other large sums were obtained from other confiding people on similar promises, amounting altogether to £53,000. With this Wells betook himself to Monte Carlo to test' a " system" lie had for breaking the bank. Wells' own story was that it was not with the money of the dupes that he gambled, but with £10,000 lent to him by an American gentleman whose name he" declined to disclose. Wells was highly successful for a time at the tables, and was the origin of the song, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo." He says his share of his net winnings was £20,000, and that he spent that sum on his patents and the fitting up of Ms yachts to use as places tor displaying his inventions. But an incredulous jury disbelieved him, after the police had done Mm the disservice of arresting him and interrupting his " system" at the tables— " system" which required six years to work out, by continuous attendance at the tables from eleven in Ihi morning until the closing time. It remains to be seen whether Wells will return to the problem the demonstration of which he lias' had interrupted by the best part of seven years in prison.