EXTRAORDINARY CRIMINAL CAREER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7826, 19 August 1904, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY CRIMINAL CAREER.

Sentences Aggregate Over Seventy-two Years.

A notorious character, whose life forms a convincing argument in favour of the application of indeterminate sentences was Frederick Clarke, better known as "Josh " Clarke, who was at tbe time of his death serving concurrent sentences of four years and two years respectively for shop-breaking and receiving. Ho was bom in Yorksbiro in 1829, according to the gaol records, but he stated in recent years that that was not tho correct year of his birth, and it is believed that ho was eightytour years of age at tho time of his death. Altogether ho had been sentenced to terms of imprisonment aggregating seventy-two years and six months. He commence! his criminal career at nineteen years of age with robbery with violence, in tho company of two others, one of whom was afterwards banged. Clarke, while in England, served ono sonteoco of ten years, and in 1817 he was transported in tho ship Eliza to Van Diemen's Land, where he was Hogged four times, receiving no fewer than 100 lashes on each occasion. Since 1854 he has hardly ever been out of gaol.