Croydon Mystery

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 67, 21 March 1935, Page 5

Croydon Mystery

THE GOLD ROBBERY THREE MEN CHARGED [By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright] LONDON, March 19. ‘ ‘ The Croydon gold theft was as dramatic as an Edgar Wallace novel/' said the prosecuting police officer in Court proceedings agaiust Swanland, Mazardo and O’Bri'en, He added that boxes of coin and. bullion had been collected in the afternoon aud placed in a strongroom, the keys of which had been handed to a clerk named Johnson. The only other strongroom keys were locked in a drawer iu the aerodrome superintendent’s office, which had not been tampered with. Johnson, who was alone in the aerodrome at night time, locked the office door and slept in accordance with custom with the strongroom keys in his pocket until he was awakened by an alarm at 4.15 a.in. to attend to the arrival of a German air-liner, when the door was still locked and the keys were in his pocket. Johnson returned to the office at 5 a.m. Other officials arrived at 7 a.m. and found the strongroom unlocked, and the gold missing. Meanwhile, Mansion, a taxi-driver living in North London, was knocked up at 1 a.m. by a man whom he knew as “Little Harry” and ordered to be at King’s Cross at 3 a.m., where he found “Little Harry” and three others, whom he drove to Thornton Heath near the aerodrome, arriving at 4.40 a.m. “When Johnson was attending the German air-liner the Imperial Airways premises were unattended. The four walked from the taxi and returned at 5 a.m. in a dilapidated small car, transferred three boxes to the taxi, one remarking, “This is geld.” Mansion told them to take it out, but they refused. He did not protest further owing to being outnumbered. One man, allegedly Mazardo, drove off in the car, and the remainder took the taxi to- Swanland’s lodgings at Harringay. Swanland’s landlady, Mrs. Scholz, was awakened by the noise of the breaking up of something, after which a fire in Swanland’s grate set fire to the chimney. Mrs. Scholz later saw Swanland de part carrying a heavy suitcase. The police found in Swanland’s room an Imperial Airways timetable paper referring to the freightage of geld, also a wire key with which the strongroom could allegedly have been opened; also a used child's plasticene outfit, although the Swanlands have no children; five burned seals which the Japhetand Company, one of the consignees, used on the gold boxes; also a steel band from another box and nineteen nailheads similar to those used to nail up the boxes; also burned nails. Mansion, giving evidence, was unable to identify any of the accused, but denied that he had. been approached regarding the case since he had identified O’Brien in the Croydon Police Court. Mrs. Scholz, in her evidence, said a man told her to keep her mouth shut. The accused were remanded. Packages of gold for transshipment to Europe by air were placed in a strongroom at Croydon on March 8, but next morning they had vanished. All keys of the strongroom were accounted for and very slight clues were available for the detectives to work upon.