CROOK'S CROOK CONDUCT.

NZ Truth, Issue 475, 25 July 1914, Page 5

CROOK'S CROOK CONDUCT.

Broaches a Bar Belle's. Bullion Box

Sent to Supreme Court for Sentence.

(From "Truth's" Christchurch Rep.)

The Christchurch Sleuth Department was not many miles out of its latitude a couple of weeks ago when it fixed its eagle optics on one Thomas John Crook. The expected happened last Thursday week at the Oxford Hotel when a little pile of lucre hoarded by Maggie Ryan, the chief bar belle at that fermented liquor dispensary, suddenly disappeared from its repository amongst the fal-de-rals m Maggie's bedroom and caused Maggie's heart to fall with a sickening thud. At the same moment the storeman at the pubbery tumbled to having lost I a gold-mounted fountain pen and a boarder couldn't find his gold ring. 'Tec. Tom Gibson at once hit out on

On "Byles on Bills" and "Blackstone" This gent is rather erudite, And "plants" and . "writs" and caveats He always is prepared to meet. Let's hope that now he's going some, His "costs" won't make his client glum. Crook's trail and brought up. with him m the City Hotel. .Crook admitted that he had been m the Oxford Hotel on the date of the robbery, but denied that he had gone upstairs- • But, as the 'tecs, and Crook were on the way to the police station THE IxA/TTER'S MEMORY REVIVED and he told his walking partners that he had N gone upstairs at the Oxford to have a wash. When he was searched at the "cooler" he yielded a gold mounted fountain pen, a gold ring and 21s 6d m silver. He explained to 'Tec. Ward, that a bloke down Timaru way had presented him with the fountain pen last year. •.-.'.' On Wednesday last, when Crook was i brought before a couple of Jays Pee m the S.M.s Court, Maggie Ryan, a Hebe at the Oxford, was one of the chief j witnesses against him. . She said Crook was m her bar and asked her where the bathroom was. She directed him upstairs. Later m the day she went to her boudoir to draw on her bank and discovered that the "plant" at the bottom of her box had been broaohed and her little heap of golden quids taken. Maria (pronounced "Mar-ee-a") Ives, wife of the Oxford Hotel president, reckoned she was officiating at the beer engine half an hour after Maggie directed Crook to the bathroom. Crook came into the bar and mopped up a liquor, for which ho paid from a handful, of quids and siller. He mentioned that he had been upstairs to wash his hands. Then the 'tecs, commenced to hammer nails m Crook's coffin by producing Edward I*helan, the Oxford pubbery storeman, who identified this fountain pen as his property. He had left it m his coat pocket, hanging m his bedroom on the 16th inst. There was apparently a small slice of romance attached to the writing implement, which bore identification marks In the form of an inscription, ' "FLO TO TED," chopped out on one of the gold mounts. James Bradley, a boarder at the Oxford identified the ring (produced) as his property, pinched from his room on July 16. : ■» • 'Tec. Ernie Regan landed the king hit by mentioning that a couple of days prior to the theft he had interviewed Crook at his hotel when the latter had stated his capital at 8s 6d m silver. Two days later, when searched at the Police Station, Crook was worth £1 Is '6d. Having listened attentively and apparently optimistically to the first batch of the prosecution's witnesses, Crook received Phelan's and 'Tec. Regan's statements with manifest disfavor, and when asked to plead, he thought things over for a brace of moments and finally. In a voice filled with sorrow, more than anger, admitted his guilt. He was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.