£10,000 DEMANDED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 16 (Supplement)

£IO,OOO DEMANDED

Boy's Letters to Well-Known People

letters said to have been written by a boy of 15 to Lady Bowater, the Lady Mayoress of London, and to Mrs. Karen Ostrer, wife of Mr. Mark Ostrer, were read at a juvenile court at Airdrie, Scotland. It was alleged that the boy attempted to extort £SOOO and 4000 American dollars from the Lord * Mayor and Lady Mayoress of London, while Mrs. Ostrer was alleged to have received a letter demanding £SOOO and 3000 American dollars for the return of stolen jewellery. In both cases the writer signed himself "Tho Burglar."' The accused boy was placed on probation for one year. The charges related to two letters posted in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, on December 22. In one of the letters, which was to Mrs. Karen Ostrer, tho boy was accused of attempting to defraud her. The letter was ns follows: — "If you send mo £SOOO in one pound notes and 3000 American dollars in five afld ten notes, I, the burglar of your fiat in Portland Place,' will give you back your favourite jewellery, including tho diamond bracelet and the miniatures of a woman and two boys which I took, and I also want you to give irte one of tho bracelets 1 did not take and also you will buy me a revolver with 50 cartridges. I want the money by December 29 or you won't see your jewellery again," went on tho letter. , "Get A Gun" "Send money, gun, etc., in a blue paper parcel to the post office in the little town of Whifflet, Scotland, as I am now staying near there. Put on parcel that it will be called for by a boy or a man named Heid. Tho address is 'Postmistress, Whifflet Post Office, Whifflet Street, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland.' Your friend, the Burglar.

tempting to extort money and articles by threats, read as follows: — "To wife of Mayor of London: Unless you want mo to 'pinch' your wife's jewellery like I did the wife of Mark Ostrer, the film magnate, pay £SOOO in small notes with 4000 American dollars in five and ten notes in a blue parcel, and send to Postmistress, Whifflet Post Office, Whifflet, Coatbridge. Ostrer would not pay, so I pinched his wife's.

"You better pay. I give you to December 29 to pay, and don't tell Scotland Yard.

"Signed, 'The Burglar.' "Also got a gun and 50 bullets and one of your wife's bracelets. You had botter pay. "Signed, Arsene Lupin Second. "Put on the parcel, 'To be called for by Mr. Reid.' The address is 'Postmistress, Whifflet Post Office, Whifflet, Coatbridge, to be called for by Mr. Reid.' " "Highly Coloured Accounts" Mr. A. G. Anderson, the Fiscal, said that the case had its origin in tho appearance of tho highly coloured and lurid newspaper accounts of a burglary at Mrs. Ostrer's house, where the anxiety to get back certain property was mentioned. The two lotters sent on December 24 were at once handed to the police, and the postmistress at Whifflet was told to refer anyone calling for a parcel which had been prepared to tho head office at Coatbridge. A telephone message was received on December 31 regarding the parcel, and tho person was referred to tho head office.

On the following Saturday a similar message was received at tho head office, and the person was asked to call. The accused arrived, but when asked to wait while a receipt was made out, though tho clerk had really gone to inform the police, the boy left. The following Saturday there was a third telephone message, and when the boy arrived the police were in attendance.

The Fiscal described the whole thing as futile and juvenile. Mr. Hugh Uallacher (for tho boy) said that his employer considered him reliable, and was anxious to retain his services. Tho boy had suffered from meningitis, and Unit trouble might have left mental disorder.

"I\S. —Don't let Scotlniul Yard hear about this, and burn letter." Tlio second letter, with regard to which the boy was charged >vith at-

"Tlie gravity of the offence is only equalled by its absurdity," said Sheriff Gillies, when placing the boy oil probation*