CREDULOUS AMERICANS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20761, 2 January 1931, Page 10

CREDULOUS AMERICANS.

WIZARDRY OF A SALESMAN. ALLEGED FRAUD OF £200,000. NEW YORK. Dec. 31. Tho astonishing credulity of simpleminded investors was again revealed when the police interfered in the activities of the Automobile and Royalties Corporation. Clark Parker and his son Wyman, have been indicted for an alleged extraordinary fraud. They aro charged with hoodwinking 700 aged couples and clergymen, and defrauding them of £200,000 which they invested in Farker's rotary motor, which refused to motivate. Parker is a veneralilo "high pressure" promoter, and a trustee of tho "Church of tho Stranger." He was associated with tho late Dr. Eugene Christian in tho latter's success in " putting over" vitamins, and with a famous health faddist's mailing list. Parker assured his customers that his motor-car royalties would do for their purses what vitamins had done for their bodies. Tho police found Parker's sales wizardry astounding. Dozens of Parker's victims wero mulcted of thousands of dollars, not onco but on several occasions, by their own testimony. But they wrilo in his defence and argue that ho suffered because unscrupulous motor manufacturers withheld tho royalties on his patented inventions. Tho police regard Parker as the most, prolific and persuasive letter writer in the recent history of fraud.