SENT TO DEVIL'S ISLAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17436, 7 April 1931, Page 7

SENT TO DEVIL'S ISLAND

.; END OF A FEUD "TERROR OF SOHO" MURDERER LONDON, Feb. 20. Juan Antonio (Ai.staner who has been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment on Devil's Island, moved as a sinister figure in the underworld of. London for 10 years before the "clean-up'' of Lord iiyng, Commissioner of Police, entailed his deportation in- L 929. lie was found guilty of the minder of an'ofhei' notorious leader of London and Pans underworld life—Casiniir Michelem, "the Temr of ISohu." Castaner was known to the police as a "bad man," without a redeeming quality. He lived on women and on blackmail, but he was so cunning in his illicit money-making that the detectives of Vine street and Tottenham Court road could never get sufficient evidence to justity a serious charge. He was a perfect dancer, and for a time ran a dancing school in Regent street. There were strong suspicions aliotil that school and some of the women who passed through it—hut never more than suspicions. At that time Castaner undoubtedly obtained money by threats from a number of, middle-aged and wealthy London women whom he met as a professional dancing partner. He frequented hotels and some of the more notorious night clubs.

ILLS FAVORITE WEAPON

His chief associate and friend in London was Casiniir Micheletti, for whose murder he. has been sentenced in Paris.

Micheletti, with Castaner as an assistant, organised a "traffic"—that is the only word—for bringing undesirable foreign women to London. He also arranged marriages of convenience between some of these women and Englishmen, so that the women became naturalised and could not be sent back to their own countrv.

"The Terror of Soho" was a nickname well earned by Micheletti, for lie was a slasher and used a knife as his favorite weapon. There, are several men in London today who (any the marks of Micheletti on' their faces" He was suspected of at least two murders, but they could not be brought home to him, and the only offence he was charged with before an Knglish court was a breach of the aliens' regulations.

Castaner and Micheletti quarrelled over a girl and the division of money she had obtained. Three was a desperate fight between them and their two factions in a London club. Castaner was beaten up and wounded. He swore a vendetta from that moment.

Both men were denorted in 1929. They met again in Paris, and a truce was' called—hut Castaner never forgot or forgave.

STORY OF SHOOTING

His chance came one night last August, when Micheletti was shot in the Rue de Petrograd. Castaner was arrested, and told an extraordinary story to tin examining magistrate. ' He said that he was with Micheletti. and a man known as the "Marsellais," when a dispute arose.

Then Marsellais drew a magazine pistol and shot' Micheletti. Then he thrust the smoking pistol into Castaner's pocket and cried, "Yon are a toreigner, get away !" The Paris police were never able to trace the Marsellais. ■