BOGUS MARQUESS

Taranaki Daily News, 4 June 1935, Page 7

BOGUS MARQUESS

AMAZING CAREER DISCLOSED.

SPENT MONEY LIKE WATER. > - An astonishing story lies behind the sentence of three years’ penal servitude passed on the bogus “Captain the Marquess de Goldstone, Count D'Avisonn, K.C.0.D.,” at the Old Bailey, London. He was charged with obtaining £3OOO from a rich widow With intent to defraud. Here is the record of his strange career, told by F. W. Walters in the Sunday Chronicle.

Morris Joseph Goldstein—the real name of the “Marquess”—was probably the riiost amazing imposter who ever found hospitality in Britain. I first met Goldstein in Cairo in 1915 when I was working for Prince Kemal-el-Din (the brother of the King of Egypt). Goldstein. belonged to the Jewish Boy Scouts—he was only 15 <hen—and even at that early age he gained attention by ms love of decorations. He would sometimes have extra buttons on his suit and decbrations Which, while looking important, meant nothing at all. His father was a captain in the Egyptian Army who had fought in the Sudan, and his mother was the daughter of ? wealthy jeweller called Sussman. He. was educated at the Jesuits’ College in Cairo. He was brilliant at his studies, on which he concentrated, under the impression that there was prejudice against him on account of his religion.

Later, he joined the Cairo City Police, where he distinguished himself by a'war on drug traffickers, who used to supply drugs to the young Government officials. For months the Cairo City Police had been trying to get the man behind it, and Goldstein, after risking his life, caught the man red-harided. Some of the officials were not too fond of him, so when one day Goldstein made a mistake it was seized on as an excuse for his expulsion. Until then he had been scrupulously honest.

His mother was fighting a High Court case against her brother, claiming money left by her father, and, after losing the case, she appealed against the judgment. Goldstein conducted his mother’s appeal, won the case for her, and was complimented by the judge on his able advocacy. One day he said to me: “From today I am the Marquess of Goldstone,” and from that day he assumed that title. He had an impressive uniform made, wore decorations, and had visiting cards bearing crests. No one ever questioned the distinction he claimed. He toured the world, meeting famous people and impressing them, and making enormous sums of money. I have never known a man with such a huge wardrobe. He had literally hundreds of suits, shirts, and shoes, all of the finest quality. One night I was with Goldstein at his flat in Cleveland gardens—a magnificently-furnished place. There was a knock on the door, and as soon as I opened it two'hefty men pushed Ti and b'egan to move the furniture. They were bailiffs'. Goldstein was frantic, and, seizing a. sword from the wall—once the property of the King Of Greece—he threatened them _ with it. However, they carried on, and in a short while the place was denuded of everything. Goldstein cried with rage at the humiliation. His shirts cost £3 3s or £4 4s each, and as for ties he could have opened a shop with them. The order indicating Knight Commanded of Danilo which he wore around his neck was genuine, and was conferred on him by the Prince of Montenegro. Most of his orders, however, he was not entitled to. . Nothing so tickled his vanity as to be entrusted with some important commission connected with royalty, and he would always accept these missions, however dangerous. Mention, for instance, was maue auring the trial of King Alfonso. Actually he did render great service to that monarch,