AMAZING CAREER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 257, 29 October 1931, Page 5

AMAZING CAREER.

Thief was Crime Writer of Underworld. TREACLE OUTRAGE. (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, September 20. George Charles Gordon, 47, a mechanic, who said that he had earned £6OO to £7OO in writing articles on crime, told a remarkable story of his career at the Old Bailey. He was sentenced to .-eighteen months’ hard labour for having stolen a diamond pendant and chain, worth £SOO, from a woman leaving the Hippodrome. Tl!e articles had not been recovered. It was stated that among Gordon’s previous sentences was one of seven years’ penal servitude at the Old Bailey in 1913, for what Gordon called “ the Blackfriars treacle-plaster outrage.” He declared that he was innocent of this crime. Detective-Sergeant Leslie said that Gordon had written numerous articles on crime, and they had been published in book form under the title of “Crooks of the Underworld.” Gordon went into the witness-box. “ I knew no home from infancy,” he said. “ I was put out to a decent .school until I was thirteen. Then, as those responsible failed to pay the fees, I; was put into the workhouse. “ I escaped the first night, and, unfortunately, I fell among thieves. I went right into the lap of crime. I was taught to be a sneak-thief and pilferer until I was seventeen, when I was caught and sentenced for housebreaking. a “Absolutely Innocent.” “ There was no Borstal system in vogue then, and I was herded with criminals and old lags. When I had finished, I can say that my education in crime was complete. “ I came out and carried on throughout the years until I was arrested for what was known as the Blackfriars treacle-plaster outrage. I was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude, although I swear I was absolutely innocent on that occasion. “ In 1920 Mr Fox-Davies introduced me to an editor, who engaged me to write a series of articles on crime. I received from £6OO to £7OO in three or four years. Then my powers of writing became exhausted. I had to throw my hand in, and went back to crime.” The Recorder told Gordon that but for the fact that for nearly five years he has gone straight, he would have been sent to a long term of penal servitude.