AFTER MANY YEARS

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1929, Page 12

AFTER MANY YEARS

TEXAS GRAIN FRAUDS SMART PRIVATE DETECTIVE. THE HELENSVILLE CASE. The. events leading to the arrest of John Grey, the Helensville land agent, on a charge of forgery committed thirteen years ago in the town of Temple, Texas, makes a fascinating story. Although the -Texas sheriff, Mr.. J. Bigham. made strenuous efforts to locate. A.°B. Crouch, it - fell to the lot of Mr. J. Goddard,-an. Auckland private detective, to make the inquiries as an outcome of which the arrest was effected. When Mr.'Goddard was -interviewed on Friday last by a representative of the Auckland Star he made.the following statement: “I was* approached by. a °highly - respected, Auckland business manfwho informed me that he had received a communication from a friend iit Texas who stated that he had' been a victim of the Grouch , grain forgeries arid,he had reason to believe that Crouch was residing, within five. miles of Auckland. This was oh July 11 last. The Auckland business- man handed, me a letter from.hi& Texas friend?which stated, interalla:—- • ; ' “May I impose on yow to secure some - confidential ' information- foi me ? lam trying -to locate Ai B. Crouch, alias ■ Cameron .And.lron Grey. This party left Texas itt 191(r and defrauded me by issuing forged bills of lading on <rrain shipments. I have information to, the effect that 1* is. residing within, five miles of Auckland, but I don’t know what business he is in now. “I had him located' jn Christchurch, New Zealand, at one time, but evidently someone gave him the tip that he had been seen and he: riioved. I went to the trouble of sending a man over to New Zealand, and he spent three months in an endeavour to find him, but he did not succeed. I thought that probably you might have some friend, either an officer o° a detective, in whom you could place implicit confidence and see if you could locate the man, I would be willing to pay any reasonable expenses and if°he is located, I would like the matter handled very quietly so that I could have a man sent over with the necessary papers to bring him back. : “If we could secure his arrest and return to the United-States I would be willing to pay a .good reward. lam enclosing a photograph of him which was taken after he left here, showing a beard on his face. When he left Texas he was smooth shaven. He was a very active member of the First Presbyterian Church and always took a leading part in church work. He had a wife, two sons and two daughters, who will be grown up now.” “I immediately set to work,” paid Mr. Goddard, “but * after exhausting all inquiries within the radius of Auckland specified, I failed to get any trace of the wanted man. On July 30 my client again called on me and stated, he had received further information from Texas to the effect-that Crouch was believed to be residing at Helensville under the name of Grey. “I went to Helensville and spent' two davs there making observations. I called on John Grey, land agent, and made an inquiry in regard to a farm he had advertised for sale, and was able to secure a specimen of hie hand-writing by asking him to write down the name of the person who would show me over the farm. Feeling .satisfied with the result of my inquiries, I reported to my client and advised him to cable to Texas the result, and to request that' the escort sent out be a person who was personally acquainted* with Crouch. This was done in order to expedite extradition. I had been up against a similar predicament on a previous occasion when I was sent to Australia to bring back a criminal who denied his identty when epurt proceedings for extradition were being heard. “As the result of the inquiries I had made Mr. J. Bigham, sheriff of Bell County, Texas, was sent out by the first boat, as he was a man who had known Crouch all his life. He arrived by the Maunganui. at Wellington on Monday last and came to Auckland the following day. He consulted my client and sent for me. As a consequence he went to Helensville the same afternoon in company with Detective-Sergeant Doyle, and John Grey was arrested.” According to the Texas sheriff if Grey be* extradited--and protracted proceedings are anticipated he will be charged in°the town of Temple with forging bills of ladincr by which means he oueceeded in drawing from two banks the sum of IGO,OOO dollars.