VOW AGAINST GANG

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3422, 20 February 1936, Page 2

VOW AGAINST GANG

“I WILL DO SOME SLEUTHING.”

A grey-haired stockily-built man of 60 sat with me in an hotel near the Old Bailey (says a writer in the London “Daily Mail”) and made a vow to pit his brains against one of the cleverest gangs of confidence tricksters on the Continent.

Ie is Mr Nicholas Mutton, a wheat salesman who, a few minutes earlier, had heard passed in court sentence of three years’ imprisonment on Ernest Slater, aged 39, a butcher. Slater w'as one of the gang who defrauded Mr Mutton of £2s,ooo;‘two partners, Marshall and Gilmour, have so far evaded capture. Sentencing Slater, Judge Dodson said: “The cupidity of human nature makes your task sometimes very simple. You have been playing for high stakes and you have lost.” An order was made for the restitution of £IO,OOO found on Slater when he was arrested. “All my life I have had to pay for my experience,” said Mr Mutton, “but I have never paid as heavily as this before. Well—we shall now see the sequel. “I do not think I am beaten, and, anyway, the £IO,OOO helps a bit. Suppose I do a little sleuthing on my own? Judge Dodson said something about cupidity; I guess these fellows have their share. 9 “I was fooled all right. When I came over here to see the old country again after being away for 42 years I thought I had my money safely tucked away and that all the smart fellows in Europe couldn’t get it. I was wrong. They managed to. “But remember, when I say I am going to do some sleuthing myself, I have some allies a bit cleverer even than Marshall and Gilmour—Scotland Yard. They are the finest detectives in the world, as they showed by picking up Slater so quickly. “I shall not go back to Australia yet, although my family 'have cabled me asking me if I have enough money to return. I shall go down to Cornwall, where I have some relatives and where I was born.

“Seems a long time since I left there to go to Australia, where I landed with £l2—far-off happy days; maybe I’ll write a book about my life—when Mr Slater’s friends have their tails salted.”

The police search for Gilmour ; ,and Marshall is proceeding. The authorities believe that, in addition to this pair, there is a third missing man who finances them.

In confidence tricksters' parlance Slater was the “minder” (the man who looked after the proceeds but took no active part in the “coup”); Gilmour was the “player” (the man of persuasive manner and charm who put up to the victim the scheme for making big profits); and Marshall the “intro” (the man who sought the victim and then introduced him to the “player”).