CONFIDENCE TRICKSTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1923, Page 9

CONFIDENCE TRICKSTER.

LONG LIST OF FRAUDS. NOTED CRIMINAL CAUGHT. London, Nov. 24. No capture of a criminal recorded for a long time has given Scotland \ard more satisfaction than the arrest of Daniel Melancy, known as “Nobby” Melaney, who has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for obtaining £4OO from, a Filipino doctor by a confidence trick, says the Weekly Dispatch. Melaney’s real name is believed to be Delaney. His parents were humble Irish folk who settled in Australia before his birth. He is a heavy-jowled, clean-shaven man of enormous strength, and is a cold, calculating villain. He dominated the men and women with whom he worked. He was always carefully groomed, and did not look his age of 52, in spite of his irregular life. He aimed only at the “biggest game,” and usuaOv stayed at the kind of hotels which millionaires patronise. His genial habits and the w?y in which he threw money about disarmed suspicion, and suggested that he was a simple-minded overseas visitor enjoying the new-found wealth left to him by his rich uncle. The “rich uncle” story was often the foundation of his confidence tricks. Melaney and his confederates waited four months and spent £lOO on one victim, from whom they eventually took several thousands. It is estimated that Melaney cleared £250.000 by confidence tricks. Manv of his victims were too mortified by the wav they were taken in to inform the police. Melaney first appeared in London 16 years ago.