DUPING A WIDOW

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4466, 20 September 1901, Page 5

DUPING A WIDOW

EXPERIENCES WITH CONFIDENCE MEN. STORY OF AN AUSTRALIAN LADY. (Received September 19, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, September 18. George Thompson, miner, and Charles McNally, who said ho was a dentist have been sentenced te five years’ impri s onaiont for conspiring to defraud a widow from Melbourne. The case referred to above has frequently been mentioned in cable messages of late, owing to the fact that the victim was a resident of Melbourne, and that the prisoners were well-known colonial spielers. The story of the complainant, Mrs Rcnwick, was the story cf a trick that has been practised for years. In April last gbo left Melbourne, accompanied by her daughter, on the s.s. Omrali. They called at Marseilles, where Thompson came on board. Me messed at the same table with them, and in the course of conversation said, ho had come from Bendigo. Australia, which place Mrs Reuwick also knew. They landed at Tilbury on May both, and on the advice of I'hompsou, stayed at a Southampton Row hotel. A day or so later they all went and dined at a restaurant in Leicester square, where Thompson introduced them to McNally. whe.m ho called “Mr McKay,” and said he was a friend of his. Thompson subsequently told Mrs Rcnwick that ho was a widower, and asked her to go with him to Paris and got married. McKay also proposed marriage to the daughter. They agreed to go to Paris, but shortly before starting Thompson asked for a loan of £IOO. Ho saidTuc was a man of moans, and was expecting every day to receive a draft from Melbourne for £1200; also that in about fourteen mouths his affairs in Australia would bo settled, and that ho would then receive a lot of money. Mrs Rcnwick thereupon handed him 100 sovereigns, bub received no receipt. Thompson then noticed that she was wearing a diamond ring worth £SO, and Iwj asked for the ' loan of it. She declined, saying that it was. given to hor by her late husband ; but he told ber he was going to bo hor husband, and forcibly took it from her finger. A few days later, while they wore walking along Holborn, she asked Thompson to mind her purse. He took it, emptied the contents—£4o in sovereigns—into his pockets, and handed the empty purse back tc. hor. While in Peris, Thompson introduced her to a third man, ‘‘whose undo had left him £100,000.” In Mrs Renwick’s presence this third man said to Thompson, “If you can prove to me that you arc a man cf means I will give you £500.” Thompson then asked the widow if she would lend him £SOO for a few moments so that he could show it to this third man. A clay or two later she handed him £SOO in hank notes and gold. Sho several times asked him for the return of the money she had lent—about £BOO in all—but without avail. He did not marry her in Paris, as he said it would bo illegal, so they returned to London, and stayed at St. Emin’s Hotel. One day Thompson went out, saying he was going to got the marriage license, but ho did not return, and she never e aw him again until his arrest.