DARING BURGLAR.

Waikato Independent, Volume VII, Issue 462, 18 January 1908, Page 5

DARING BURGLAR.

THIEF WHO MA.DE £15,000 A YEAR. The most amazing cracksman in Europe, the exact prototype in'real life of “ Raffles,” has been arrested at Munich after a series of burglaries probably unequalled in modern criminal history by. one man. He is a Swede, Carllson by name, who prepared himself for his career as a burglar by serving an apprenticeship as a blacksmith. Since then he has posed as a nobleman, an author, a millionaire, and a diplomat, with consummate skill, living in princely style in Berlin, Munich, Paris, Vienna, and several other cities under different names and in different disguises. All the time he has lived by the most daring burglaries, usually at hotels, although at times he was not averse from ■looting the private residence of a millionaire or art connoiseur. He has changed his role and his address according to necessity, and avoided arrests with great skill, although the best detectives in Europe have been searching for him for months. Carllson is described as a man of “ very gentlemanly appearance, with refined tastes, and pronounced artistic and literary inclinations.” He was a great favorite among women, who were charmed by his exquisite manners. Carllson was noted for his taste in dress, and while liv* ing in Vienna in a guise of a diplomat on leave he is said to have inaugurated a new fashion in neckties. When arrested, Carllson was staying at the most fashionable hotel in Munich, where he occupied an expensive suite, und posed as a Danish nobleman of great wealth. The police found £2500 in his possession, in addition to jewellery valued at £IOOO. It is estimated (says a Berlin correspondent) that his annual income from burglaries averaged £15,000 during the past ten years. Carllson took his arrest philosophically, and contemplates writing his memoirs while in prison. • ,