OWEN SUFFOLK, THE PRISONER POET.

West Coast Times, Issue 944, 1 October 1868, Page 3

OWEN SUFFOLK, THE PRISONER POET.

(From the Melbourne Herald.)

One of the most remarkable criminals ■who has figured in the annals of Victorian crime is Owch Suffolk, a London pickpocket, who was transported to this colony in the year 1847. Suffolk was a man of considerable tibiliiy, arid has appeared as an author in a story i üblished in Mcl bourne under the heading of " Days of Ciiine and Years of Suft'eriug." The narrative was prepared in Pcntridge, and given to tlife Victorian public shortly before the writer left the shores of fife Cbl6''iy, and showed that he had a considerable knowledge of criminals and gaol discipline. Suffolk was one of the class of convicts who were not confined on their landing in tile Colony, ,but iv6re placed under surveillance. Tlrls grace} hoiv&ver,' did not do much good to Suffolk ; for in the year 1850 or 1851 he was arrested for robbing the Fyansford mail, and received a long sentence which at least extended over four or five years, and during this time he was engaged as clerk in the Melbourne Gaol. His acquaintance with the criminals of Victoria at this time was very extensive, and some of them had large sums of money secreted, the roceeds of robberies. Suffolk, by the position he was placed in, aided no doubt by a lax discipline, was enabled to change their warrants, and alter the years of imi>risonment through the books, so that many ruffians escaped with much shorter sentences than they received from the Judges of the Supreme Court ; but one of the forgeries was not so clever as the others was discovered, and Suffolk was informed of the circumstance. lie said nothing, but with the calm, clear smile peculiar to him, quietly submitted to the heavy irons which were placed on his arms and legs, and without an effort went to the hulks in Ilobson's Bay. In 1858 we next hear of him, when he regained his freedom by ticket-of-lcave, and went to Ballarat. There he kept about some of the gnllies, and going into a hotel said he was Detective Sincox (then in charge of the district), and by his easy and persuasive manners made the landlord believe he was on important duty, and roquiicd money and a horse. Both Avere provided for him, and he got clear away ; but lie again fell into the society of his old friends the police, and received another long fentence. He was then in Pentridge, and known under the slang term of a *' billet man," which means that he was clever enough when in ' gaol to 1 receive sonic important position. In the year 1866 he left Mr Champ's establishment incut, and made his way to the house of a barber named Mannix,in business in Lousdale street (at present serving three years for receiving stolen property), and was received as a species of hero. About this time Suffolk, Manuix, and a few other notorious crimm-ls who were released about, the same time (one of these fellows was an expert engraver), formed a scheme for manufacturing a quauty of forged notes for

the Indian market; but when the notes were manufactured, the detectives received "the ofiice, " find though they prevented the "flimsies" being- used, they could not bring the crime home to the principal actors in it, as the " plant" Avas 1 removed a few hours before a raid was made upon the forging house. Suffolk kept in the background during the investigation of the affair, and with some interest used by his brother, who is in a large way of business near Bristol, he received a conditional pardon, the understanding being that he would leave the colony. His story of " Days of Crime and Years of Suffering" was published, and with the money he received from that work, the cash he got from the criminals whose warrants he had altered and the proceeds of a few of his other swindles, he managed to take his adieux of Victoria with a considerable amount of money. During his passage home he made a number of friends by his supercillious mafntei', and landed in Eng-land as a wealthy squatter from Australia. He made his way to his brother's house and edged his way into several drawing-rooms, his hosts thinking he was slightly aulre for English s&oiety; but it was excusable, at so they said, as he was from Australia* There he talked cautiously, but as poor Artemlis Ward would say, largely, of his squatting and "banking interest in Australia, also admitting that he had dabbled in journalism, and was part proprietor of the Melbourne Argus. In time he was invited to several houses, and at last was introduced to a charming widow, of about forty years of age, who was possessed of a house and grounds, wellappointed -, and some £1500 m the funds. Suffolk immediately made a dead set at this lady, and after a little 1 thrte wrote a letter— she being present — to Mr Read, solicitor, Melbourne,- telKng him to dispose of the mansion and grounds at Malmsbury, his Colonial Bank shards, and also his interest in the Argtis newspaper, wh'icß he could do by the power-of-attorney given to him. Mr Head was. of course, very much astonished at this epistle ; but no doi'tbt tjiinjring that Suffolk — whom he had defended rii&rif times—was following some of his old practices, atfd Wanted Mr Reid's reply so that he could make use' df the envelope bearing the Melbourne postmark, find forge a letter to answer his own purposes, gave information to Superintendent Mcolson, who forwarded it to Ins\ltiCtot Field in Scotland-yard. In the meantime Suffolk married the widow, much against the wishes of her friends, and went With his blooming bride to London. Re had two accomplices — tine was a female, whom he said was his niece — and otic day they werit-oh' the river in A wherry near' liicn-< mohd. Suffolk m'ancrged to, capsize the boat. The female was saved irf one of the accomplices, and Suffolk got clear awaj>, the police thinking he was drowned. A paragraph, evieently written by himself, headed " Melancholy Accident to an Australian Gentleman," appeared in the papers, and regret was evinced that his body was lost in a " public river." This expression astonished the journalists, and it was ultimately discovered that he escaped to America, witli b¥ wifels, moneys,-, and the proceeds of the sale ofnis wife's furniture, which he sold before he left England. By the latest advices he was enjoying himself in New York.