DICTOGRAPH ARREST.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2142, 27 December 1920, Page 5

DICTOGRAPH ARREST.

SIGNOR CARUSO'S LOST JEWELS An arrest was made, under dramatic circumstances in New York recently of a man alleged to havo been connected with the robbery of a large quantity of jewellery from the summer home of Signor Caruso, the tenor, three months ago, while the singer was in Cuba. Two women known to the New York police as the Poillon sisters, whose escapades have frequently made them the subject of newspaper notoriety, are responsible for this latest development in the robbery, which caused consternation in the fashionable colony of Hampstead, Long Island. A few days ago they visited the offices of the company with which Signor Caruso had had his wife's jeweles insured, and said they believed they were in communication with a man concerned in the robbery who.-had offered to sell them "a quantity of Caruso's gems." The police were notified and dictographs [small machines easily concealed and containing an extremely sensitive microphone or telephone' transmitter] were installed in the women's flat, one behind a tapestry and the other under a'bed, with wires leading to the roof, where detectives and shorthand writers hid. The man, who gave his name as Harry C. Toback, called at the hour he had fixed. According to the police Who listened he offered to sell to the sisters £9OOO worth of Caruso's diamonds for £6OOO. . He is said to have suggested that the amount be paid in cash at an hotel in Baltimore where the stones were hidden. Tho women tentatively assented, and made plans to accompany him back to Baltimore, but as the man left the flat he was met at the door by a detective and arrested. He denied any connection with the jewel theft, although he admitted the trend of the conversation, which, he said, was a ruse to get the two women to Baltimore, where he hoped to sell them an expensive sable coat. « The Poillon sisters, Katherine and Charlotte, who have previously been conspicuous as volunteer and amateur detectives, will share the reward of £2OOO offered by Signor Caruso if the arrest Jesuits in the recovery of the stolen jewels.