AN OLD SWINDLE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3826, 28 October 1936, Page 8

AN OLD SWINDLE

IN 1936 COSTUME. REVIVAL OF “SPANISH PRISONER." Perpetrators of the age-old swindle known as the Spanish Prisoner Romance are taking advantage of the Spanish civil war to persuade impressionable people in England and other parts ot the world to part with money. But instead of sympathy in cash being sought for a man, who, though a prisoner, is in possession of the secret of the hiding place of a huge fortune, the appeal this time is for help for a major in the insurgent army who has been captured by Government troops. In one respect, however, he is the same as the Spaniard of old. He knows where there is a fortune waiting to be picked up by anyone who will help him in his distress. A letter postmarked Valencia has been made public. It was written in sprawling style and the English was bad. After claiming a distant relationship with the person to whom it was addressed, the writer of the letter went on to say that he was dying from a wound received at the time of his arrest by the Government militia, who had brought him to Valencia. Before the revolt broke out, he said, he realised all his fortune, amounting to about £60,000, changed it into English banknotes, and hid it in a trunk with .a secret compartment. Unfortunately all his trunks were seized by his captors, who, being suspicious that he was a man of means, demanded £3OO as the price of the restoration of his property. HOW TO FIND THE MONEY. He has a daughter aged 16, and to secure part of the hidden fortune for her he suggests that he will make any benefactor who send the money to redeem the trunk legal’ guardian of the girl and assign a third ol the £60,000 in his will to him (or her). He explains that his father confessor, who has been permitted to see him in his extremity, helped to smuggle the letter out-of prison. How to find the fortune is described as follows: “When the Rev. will deliver you at your home my trunk you will perform the trunk opening, and opened once you will see in its interior and on its left side of Spanish shield and in its centre you will with your forefinger push, and quickly the secret will appear in full view in which you will find my fortune and you know only my trunk secret.” If the first appeal fails other letters are sent urging speedy action and containing “evidence” of the genuineness of the facts. The Spanish police estimate that in normal times one in five of those who receive the letter reply asking for further details, and at least one in 20 sends money, but in no case has any person received a share of the sidden fortune or traced the writer of the letter.