A HIGH-FLYING SWINDLER.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 18

A HIGH-FLYING SWINDLER.

A. detective of Scotland Yard is in communication with Detective Byrnes, of New York, with a view to his assistance in running down a «T-n- dler i° IJ|.^fild1 J|.^ fild^ nb in the citv ' known as William Griffith, alias Griffin, alia* Graham alias Stempter. Colonel Roberts, chief of the London Detective Bureau, considers the fugitive the most brazen rascal with whom he has been called upon to deal for years. His address maybe placed in New York or Burton, but his field of " operations" is not confined by even the bounds of a continent, for he has operated in the United State 3, Canada, and Australia, and has just mauaged to make his visit to England one prolific of wealth to himself. He has the appearance of being what he pretends to be— a highly prosperous speculator. Among his American victims in London is said to have been Mr Frank D. Merrill, representing the Venezuelan Government. His plan was to give out quietly that he was a confidential agent of the Standard Oil Company, and then to dispose of fraudulent paper. He is known ia New York as "Big Griffin." He went through Australia a fewyears ago and worked the same scheme, returning to 'Frisco with a sum estimated at from 150,000d0l to 200,000d01. He postd as Lord Ashburton some years ago, and at San Francisco a banquet was given in his honour by the mayor. In the latter part of the seventies he was associated with the most powerful band of international band forgers and counterfeiters that ever worked America and Europe. He deceived his "pals" and fled to San Francisco from New York, first doing a stroke of business to a large amount in jewellery and diamonds at Kirkpatrick's at the corner of Nineteenth street and Broadway. In San Francisco he was arrested, and after a term in San Quentin wa3 released in the spring of 1874. On his return to New York he was arrested for the Kirkpatrick affair. He i^eaded guilty and as he was in poor health at the time, or assumed he wa?, ho vras released and allowed to go to his home at Dartmouth, Devonshire, England.