BACK FROM ’FRISCO

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7930, 13 October 1911, Page 1

BACK FROM ’FRISCO

THE KOHN BURGLARY SUSPECTS ARRIVE BY THE . M AIT AX. "WUliain and Maud Rodgers, who are alleged to have committed the theft of jewellery valued at £IOOO at the establishment of Adolph E-ohn, Queen street, Auckland, on the night of Saturday, March 18th last, arrived from San Francisco yesterday by tho Maitai, in the charge of Detective Scott, of Auckland. The history of the doings of tho pair in San Francisco and their subsequent arrest is interesting.

AMERICAN POLICE SUSPICIOUS. William Rodgers arrived in California from Hongkong (whence bo had apparently gone, via Sydney, from Auckland) on April 20th. Maud Rodgers arrived two days later by tho Manuka. The suspicions of the police were attracted to them by the sudden inundation of jewellery into pawnshop circles. Pursuing a broad trail that led to almost every pawnshop in San 'Francisco, Detective-Sergeants Duncan, Matheson, and Edward O'Day, early on the morning of May 4th, arrested Rodgers (whose alias is Furnan), Rodgers was kept incommunicado un-

til shortly before 8 o’clock that night, when his wife, Maud, was lured to the City Prison by a decoy message, and taken into custody. Both wore charged with having violated section 497 of the Penal Code by smuggling £lobo worth of stolen property into the State. More than £6OO worth of jewellery was recovered from the various pawnshops, together with £l2O worth of pawn tickets, thirty-nine in all, and several bills of sale, which is said to be what Rodgers had raised on the pawned baubles. In a room at the Winchester Hotel £4OO worth of property was found by the detectives, also a pair of delicately-adjusted scales, such as are used to weigh gold. Rodgers and his wife absolutely refused to discuss their predicament, but when confronted with the various articles recovered by the detectives they admitted having gone to San Francisco from Sydney. Most of the jewel-

lery recovered was marked “Kohn,”

but Rodgers declared that it belonged to a brother in England, and that ho had taken it to America in order to

create a market for I the disposal of the

articles. The latter included ladies’ brooches, rings, watches, jade ornaments, chains, and a few small diamonds and pearls. The efforts of the couple to dispose of the jewellery began on April 27th (just prior to the arrest of William Rodgers) at a pawnshop across tho street from police headquarters, Rodgers being alleged to have received £39 from the proprietor. MRS RODGERS TRAPPED. When Rodgers was placed in a cell he attempted to smuggle out a note to Mrs, Rodgers by a messenger boy. It was intercepted, and the boy was sent to ask Mrs Rodgers to come to meet her husband. Her arrest followed. Tho note read as follows: “Dear Maud, —I am in the court opposite the shop you saw this morning. Gome to see me, and say that you saw me arrested. Do not say anything about the Holy City. They are thinking of charging mo with smuggling goods from London to New York. Say we arrived ten days ago in Now York from London, W.C. Do not say Warwickshire, ns I would not like the old people to hear about it. Dump all things N.Z. Come at once.—Billy." Beneath was signed W. Rodgers, as if to show what name he had given. The toms “ Holy City ” and “ N.Z." were at first believed to be secret code, but it was afterwards learned that “ Holy City " was the popular name for Christchurch and that “ N.Z." was undoubtedly an abbreviation of New Zealand.

How the articles were successfully smuggled into the port of San Francisco is a mystery. The pawn tickets indicated a value of £BOO for the pawned valuables, and showed that llodgers obtained £l2O on them. After their arrest the couple sought to gain their liberty on a writ of habeas corpus. ~ "When Detective Scott arrived to obtain the extradition of the couple the matter had to go before the Supreme Court of the United States in order to see whether there was ground or not for them to be handed over to the Zealand authorities. On the matter being proved the charge of smuggling - goods into California was abandoned, and Detective Scott was handed the extradition papers on September 18th and„ sailed with the suspects on the Maitai two days later. The detective was detained in the States for three months all but two days over the matter, the delay being occasioned by communications having to bo sent from 'Washington to tho authorities in London. Both of the accused will be taken to Auckland by tho Main Trunk train to-day. , '