"AN IMPOSTER"
HEDGES IN PANAMA DAILY EXPRESS LIBEL ACTION CONTINUES (A. and N.Z.) LONDON, Feb. 13. Opening for the defence in the Mitchell Hedges libel action, Mr Jowitt said: “1 suggest that Hedges is an imposter, making a claim he cannot substantiate. No doubt he has been to Panama and has talked with Indians and had certain interesting experiences, but a man who has written up those experiences as Hedges has is an imposter.” William Shaw, a chartered accountant, of Dublin, one of the attackers, detailed the abortive hold-up of January 6, 1926, and the successful attempt on January 14, when Kenneth Taylor was tied up, but neither Hedges nor Edgell was knocked down or hurt in any way. Edgell deliberately made the grass untidy in order to suggest that a scuffle had taken place. The whole thing was a prank to advertise monomarks, the idea being that Hedges’ bag should be discovered in a sensational manner by means of a monomark.
Cross-examined, .Shaw admitted that after Hedges issued a writ against the Daily Express he (Shaw) signed a statement to Hedges’ solicitor that Hedges and Edgell were in no way privy to the hoax. Shaw added he was thoroughly ashamed of having signed the statement.
DEFENCE WINS
JUDGE’S COMMENT PARTICIPANTS IN THE HOAX < A r ;, & LONDON, Feb. 14. The Chief Justice summing up in the Mitchell-Hedges case in which judgment was given for the Daily Express said it was remarkable that Hedges had not called Bagot Gray, the originator of the hoax and other partiepants to swear that Hedges was not associated with it. It would not have been surprising had the jury intimated after hearing Hedge’s evidence, that they were satisfied he was in the hoax.
If you obtain the title of a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Zoological Society for a guinea the thing becomes grotesque” he said, “when we see these titles enumerated on the title page of a book or a menu card we cannot help feeling that the man must be an imposter. The jury may or may not think Air Jowitt put the case over high when he said that Hedges was ap imposter.’®
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Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20074, 16 February 1928, Page 7
Word Count
367"AN IMPOSTER" Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20074, 16 February 1928, Page 7
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