DEVIL'S ISLAND REFUGEE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14932, 4 March 1912, Page 8

DEVIL'S ISLAND REFUGEE.

GUERIN'S ROMANTIC? CAREER.

[from ocn own correspondent.]

London, January 24. Eddie Gueuin, tho man who escaped from Devil's Island, the French penal settlement off the coast of French Guiana, was charged at Glasgow this week with loitering in tho Central Station Hotel with intent to steal. Ho denied tho charge, and said ho was dealing in cinematograph films.

Guerin's career is a romance. Born of English parentage, ho was extradited to Franco after a jury in this country had wrongly found a verdict that he was a French citizen. There ho became connected with tho woman "Chicago May," a noto rious person, and, through tho jealousy of an accomplice known as "Dutch Gus," was arrested by tho French police for burglary, 'tried, and sentenced to bo sent to tho Devil's Isle. In 1905 he escaped in a "dug-out," with two others, ono of whom was eaten by sharks, s and Gucrin managed to reach Dutch Guiana. Pearly in 1906 Guorin came to London, and by an unlucky chance ho mot; "Chicago May," who betrayed him to tho police as tho man who had escaped from Devil's Island, and his trouble began again. He was promptly arrested, at tho request of the French Government, who claimed his extradition. This timo ho successfully contested tho claim for extradition on the ground that ho was a British subject, born in Hoxton, 1860, and on Juno 14, 1907, he was set at liberty. On tho following evening, Guorin was standing at the corner of Marehmont-stroet, Russell Square, when a hansom cab drove up rapidly. In. it wore "Chicago May" and tho man Smith, or "Dutch Gus," who had been tracking him all tho evening. Smith leaped out, and fired several revolver shots at Guorin, one of them striking him in tho foot. At the Old Bailey, on July 25, 1907, when Smith wis sent to penal servitude for life, and "Chicago May" to 15 years, De-tectivo-Inspector Stockley had much to tell of their careers. Smith, a man of 25, had been convicted several times, ho said. But tho woman was the remarkable figure. She made an attractive figure as she sat smiling in tho dock in a dainty white blouse, with her auburn hair piled up artistically. " One of tho most notorious criminals in Europe," tho inspector said, of her. . Sho had been many times in prison, had lived by blackmailing men. and had driven several to suicide.