CRIMINAL'S LONG TONGUE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18275, 16 December 1922, Page 2 (Supplement)

CRIMINAL'S LONG TONGUE.

"THE DIAMOND EATER,"

A REMARKABLE THIEF, -In the annals of crime there is no moi* extraordinary figure than Eugene Labord Gilpy, a French thief, who achieved am amazing coups with the aid of a W* tongue and immense daring. When h* was 70 years of age he confessed, •< n* Lord gave me a long tongue, and th« devil put evil thoughts into my heart, So between the two I have been trouble for 40 years." He made Park hie headquarters, but the police of Lo n . don, and of New York, often had this ingenious scoundrel under observation. A student of criminology has declared that there never was Gilpy's counterpart —that is to say, no counterpart of him physically, as a man, or methodically aa a thief. When he was in the full tide of his daring career ha was thus described* He is sft. 6in. in height, weighs 1801b' measures 40in. around the chest, and while he has biceps that measure 16iu, he wears a 12in. collar. His neck is lftj the neck of a giraffe.

The distanco from the upper surfac* of the chin bone is 13in., and he p 0 ». sesses the power of turning his head at least two degrees further around on its axis than any other living humaa being. Without offort or inconvenieence he can look almost directly behind him without the slightest njotion of hj. I body. jjut this peculiar conformation is a> nothing compared with the abnormality c-f Gilpy's vocal organs. Despite hu small neck, his gullet is large enough to admit of the passage of an ordinary ej»'" without inconvenience, and his tongu* ' is, in all probability, the longest and most sigularly constructed tongue that naturg ever has bestowed upon any man or woman in tie world.

Extended at its full length, it measures from teeth to tip 4|in., and can be thrown down so that it covers and turns tinder the chin, and if turned upward covers and extends beyond the end of tb* nose.

When he was about 50 he was known on the Boulevard des Italiens as "l e petit mangeur de diamants," which, freely translated;, stands for "Uhe diamond eater."

Carrying a card from which he pretended to study the ruling quotations of precious stones, it was his: habit to enter shops in the Rue Royal a and lean over trays placed on high tables for th» inspection of customers who called to look over glittering lines of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds. This was the mode in Paris, and still obtains.

Watching closely the attendant, h« would bend over the tray as though to 'discover a possible flaw in any one cf the several stones he was examining. With a rapidity almost inconceivable, his long tongue would shoot out and touch a stone, and with the same swiftness of movement the long, preheusfls organ would be drawn in, carrying with it the diamond, the ruby, the sapphire, or the emerald, or whatever gem had been selected as booty. So swift was the motion that Gilpy was not detected until he had been engaged in the business for at least foul years. Then he was caught by Paille, one d the students of the school of Vidocq, and after a long and tedious trial, in which the proof of his guilt was not very strong, he was sent to gaol for thres years.