proposes to accompany him. They walk along some distance together, when
this man will say, “I don’t much like these two men you have left your
money with; do you know them?” He will then advise him to go back, and
see if his cash is all right. On his return he finds them both gone,
and his money has also disappeared.
We shall now notice several of the tricks they practise to delude their
victims.
[Illustration: LIBERATION OF PRISONERS FROM COLDBATH FIELDS HOUSE OF
CORRECTION.]
_The Card tricks._--These are not often practised in London but
generally at racecourses and country fairs, or where any pastime is
going on. Only three cards are used. There is one picture card along
with two others. They play with them generally on the ground or on
their knee. There are always several persons in a gang at this game.
One works the cards, shuffling them together, and then deals them on
the ground. They bet two to one no one will find the picture card (the
Knave, King, or Queen). One of the confederates makes a bet that he can
find it, and throws down a sovereign or half-sovereign, as the case
may be.
He picks up one of the cards, which will be the picture card, or the
one they propose to find. The sharp dealing the cards bets that no
one will find the same card again. Some simpleton in the crowd will
possibly bet from 1_l._ to 10_l._ that he can find it. He picks up
a card, which is not the picture card and cannot be, as it has been
secretly removed from the pack, and another card has been substituted
in its place.
_Skittles._--They generally depend on the ability of one of their
gang when engaged in this game, so that he shall be able to take the
advantage when wanted. When they bet and find their opponent is expert,
he is expected to be able to beat him. In every gang there is generally
one superior player. He may pretend to play indifferently for a time,
but has generally superior skill, and wins the bet.
_Thimble and Pea._--It is done in this way. There are three thimbles
and a pea. These are generally worked by a man dressed as a countryman,
with a smock-frock, at country fairs, race-courses, and other places
without the metropolitan police district. They commence by working the
pea from one thimble to another, similar to the card trick, and bet in
the same way until some person in the company--not a confederate--will
bet that he can find the pea. He lifts up one of the thimbles and
ascertains that it is not there. Meantime the pea has been removed. It
is secreted under the thumb nail of the sharp, and is not under either
of the thimbles.
_The Lock._--While the sharps are seated in a convenient house with
their dupe, a man, a confederate of theirs, may come in, dressed as
a hawker, offering various articles for sale. He will produce a lock
which can be easily opened by a key in their presence. He throws the
lock down on the table and bets any one in the room they cannot open
it. One of his companions will make a bet that he can open it. He takes
it up, opens it easily, and wins the wager.
He will show the stranger how it is opened; after which, by a swift
movement of his hand, he substitutes another similar lock in its place
which cannot be opened. The former is induced possibly to bet that he
is able to open it.
The lock is handed to him; he thinks it is the same and tries to open
it, but does not succeed, and loses his wager.
There are various other tricks somewhat of a similar character, on
which they lay wagers and plunder their dupes. They have a considerable
number of moves with cards, and are ever inventing new dodges or
“pulls” as they term them.
They chiefly confine themselves on most occasions to the tricks we have
noticed. Sometimes, however, they play at whist, cribbage, roulette,
loo, and other card games, and manage to get the advantage in many
ways. One of them will look at the cards of his opponent when playing,
and will telegraph to some of the others by various signs and motions,
understood among themselves, but unintelligible to a stranger.
The same sharpers who walk the streets of London attend country fairs
and race-courses, in different dress and appearance, as if they had no
connexion with each other.
It often happens one of them is arrested for these offences and is
remanded. Before the expiry of the time his confederates generally
manage to see the dupe, and restore his property on the condition he
shall keep out of the way and allow the case to drop. The female who
cohabits with him, or possibly his wife, may call on him for this
purpose, and give him part or the whole of his money.
Their ages average from twenty to sixty years. Many of them are married
and have families; others cohabit with well-dressed women--pickpockets
and shoplifters.
Some are in better condition than others. They are occasionally
shabbily dressed and in needy condition; at other times in most
respectable attire--some appear as men of fashion.
They are generally very heartless in plundering their dupes.
Not content with stripping him of the money he may have on his
person--sometimes a large sum--they try to get the cash he has
deposited in the bank, and strip him of his watch and chain, leaving
him without a shilling in his pocket.
There is no formal association between the several gangs, yet from
their movements there appears to be an understanding between them. For
example, if a certain gang has plundered a victim in Oxford Street, it
will likely remove to another district for a time, and another party of
magsmen will take their place.
Magsmen are of various grades. Some are broken-down tradesmen, others
have been brokers and publicans and french-polishers, while part of
their number are convicted felons. Numbers of them are betting-men and
attend races; indeed most of them are connected with this disreputable
class. Many of them reside in the neighbourhood of Waterloo Road and
King’s Cross, and in quiet streets over the metropolis.
They are frequently brought before the police-courts, charged with
conspiracy with intent to defraud; but the matter is in general
secretly arranged with the prosecutor, and the case is allowed to drop.
Sometimes when the sharps cannot manage to defraud the strangers they
meet with, they snatch their money from them with violence.
In the beginning of November, 1861, two sharps were brought before the
Croydon police-court, charged with being concerned, with others not in
custody, in stealing 116_l._, the property of a baker, residing in the
country.
As the prosecutor, a young man, was going along a country road he met
one of the sharps and a man not in custody. At this time there were
four men on the road playing cards. He remained for a few minutes
looking at them. The man who was the companion of the sharp asked him
to accompany him to a railway hotel, and ordered a glass of ale for
himself.
A man not in custody then asked a sharp to lend him some money, saying
he would get him good security; upon which the latter offered to lend
him the sum of 50_l._ at five per cent. interest. On the stranger being
represented to this person as a friend, he offered to lend him as
large a sum of money as he could produce himself, to show that he was
a respectable and substantial person. The sharp then told the baker to
go home and get 100_l._ and he would lend him that sum. He did so, one
of the sharps accompanying him nearly all the way to his house. The
dupe returned with a 10_l._ note. They told him it was not enough, and
wished him to leave it in their hands and to bring 100_l._ He went out
leaving the 10_l._ on the table as security for his coming back with
more money.
He returned with 100_l._ in bank notes and gold and counted it out on
the table. The sharp pretended then to be willing to lend 100_l._ at
five per cent., but added that he must have a stamped receipt. The dupe
left his money on the table covered with his handkerchief, and went out
to get a stamp, and on his return found the sharps and his money had
disappeared.
A few days after, the victim happening to be in London, saw one of them
in the street, and gave him into custody.
A few weeks ago three skittle-sharps, well-dressed men, were brought
before the Southwark police court, charged with robbing a country
waiter of 40_l._ in Bank of England notes. It appeared from the
evidence, that the prosecutor met a man in High Street, Southwark, on
an afternoon, who offered to show him the way to the Borough Road.
They entered a public-house on the way, when the other prisoners came
in. One of them pulled out a number of notes, and said he had just
come into possession of a fortune. It was suggested, in the course of
conversation, they should go to another house to throw a weight, and
the prosecutor was to go and see they had fair play.
They accordingly went to another house, but instead of throwing the
weight, skittles were introduced, and they played several games. The
prosecutor lost a sovereign, which was all the money he had with
him. One of the sharps bet 20_l._ that the waiter could not produce
60_l._ within three hours. He accepted the bet and went with two of
them to Blackheath, and returned to the public house with the money,
amounting to 40_l._ in bank notes and 20_l._ in gold. They went to the
skittle-ground, when one of them snatched the notes out of his hand,
and they all decamped.
They were apprehended that night by Mr. Jones, detective at Tower
Street station.
The statistics of this class of crime will be given when we come to
treat of swindlers.
SWINDLERS.
Swindling is carried on very extensively in the metropolis in different
classes of society, from the young man who strolls into a coffeehouse
in Shoreditch or Bishopsgate, and decamps without paying his night’s
lodging, to the fashionable rogue who attends the brilliant assemblies
in the West-end. It occurs in private life and in the commercial world
in different departments of business. Large quantities of goods are
sent from the provinces to parties in London, who give orders and are
entirely unknown to those who send them, and fictitious references are
given, or references to confederates in town connected with them.
We select a few illustrations of various modes of swindling which
prevail over the metropolis.
A young man calls at a coffeehouse, or hotel, or a private lodging, and
represents that he is the son of a gentleman in good position, or that
he is in possession of certain property, left him by his friends, or
that he has a situation in the neighbourhood, and after a few days or
weeks decamps without paying his bill, perhaps leaving behind him an
empty carpet bag, or a trunk, containing a few articles of no value.
An ingenious case of swindling occurred in the City some time since.
A fashionably attired young man occupied a small office in White Lion
Court, Cornhill, London. It contained no furniture, except two chairs
and a desk. He obtained a number of bracelets from different jewellers,
and quantities of goods from different tradesmen to a considerable
amount, under false pretences. He was apprehended and tried before the
police court, and sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment with hard
labour.
At the time of his arrest he had obtained possession of a handsome
residence at Abbey Wood, Kent, which was evidently intended as a place
of reference, where no doubt he purposed to carry on a profitable
system of swindling.
Swindlers have many ingenious modes of obtaining goods, sometimes to
a very considerable amount, from credulous tradesmen, who are too
often ready to be duped by their unprincipled devices. For example,
some of them of respectable or fashionable appearance may pretend they
are about to be married, and wish to have their house furnished. They
give their name and address, and to avoid suspicion may even arrange
particulars as to the manner in which the money is to be paid. A case
of this kind occurred in Grove Terrace, where a furniture-dealer
was requested to call on a swindler by a person who pretended to be
his servant, and received directions to send him various articles
of furniture. The goods were accordingly sent to the house. On a
subsequent day the servant called on him at his premises, with a
well-dressed young lady, whom she introduced as the intended wife of
her employer, and said they had called to select some more goods. They
selected a variety of articles, and desired they should be added to the
account. One day the tradesman called for payment, and was told the
gentleman was then out of town, but would call on him as soon as he
returned. Soon after he made another call at the house, which he found
closed up, and that he had been heartlessly duped. The value of the
goods amounted to 58_l._ 18_s._ 4_d._
Swindling is occasionally carried on in the West-end in a bold and
brilliant style by persons of fashionable appearance and elegant
address. A lady-like person who assumed the name of Mrs. Gordon, and
sometimes Mrs. Major Gordon, and who represented her husband to be
in India, succeeded in obtaining goods from different tradesmen and
mercantile establishments at the West-end to a great amount, and gave
references to a respectable firm as her agents. Possessing a lady-like
appearance and address, she easily succeeded in obtaining a furnished
residence at St. John’s Wood, and applied to a livery stable-keeper for
the loan of a brougham, hired a coachman, and got a suit of livery for
him, and appeared in West-end assemblies as a lady of fashion. After
staying about a fortnight at St. John’s Wood she left suddenly, without
settling with any of her creditors. She addressed a letter to each of
them, requesting that their account should be sent to her agents, and
payment would be made as soon as Captain Gordon’s affairs were settled.
She expressed regret that she had been called away so abruptly on
urgent business.
She was usually accompanied by a little girl, about eleven years of
age, her daughter, and by an elderly woman, who attended to domestic
duties.
She was afterwards convicted at Marylebone police court, under the name
of Mrs. Helen Murray, charged with obtaining large quantities of goods
from West-end tradesmen by fraudulent means.
A considerable traffic in commercial swindling in various forms is
carried on in London. Sometimes fraudulently under the name of another
well-known firm; at other times under the name of a fictitious firm.
A case of this kind was tried at the Liverpool assizes, which
illustrates the fraudulent system we refer to. Charles Howard and John
Owen were indicted for obtaining goods on false pretences. In other
counts of their indictment they were charged with having conspired with
another man named Bonar Russell--not in custody--with obtaining goods
under false pretences. The prosecutor Thomas Parkenson Luthwaite, a
currier at Barton in Westmoreland, received an order by letter from
John Howard and Co. of Droylesden, near Manchester, desiring him to
send them a certain quantity of leather, and reference was given as to
their respectability. The prosecutor sent the leather and a letter by
post containing the invoice. The leather duly arrived at Droylesden;
but the police having received information gave notice to the railway
officials to detain it, until they got further knowledge concerning
them. Howard and Russell went to the station, but were told they could
not get the leather, as there was no such firm as Howard and Co. at
Droylesden. Howard replied that there was--that he lived there. It was
subsequently arranged that the goods should be delivered, on the party
producing a formal order. On the next day, Owen came with a horse and
cart to Droylesden station, and asked for the goods, at the same time
producing his order.
They were delivered to him, when he put them in his cart and drove off.
Two officers of police in plain clothes accosted him, and asked for a
ride in his cart which he refused. The officers followed him, and found
he did not go to Droylesden, but to a house at Hulme near Manchester,
as he had been directed. This house was searched, and Howard and
Russell were arrested. Howard having been admitted to bail, did not
appear at the trial.
On farther inquiries it was found there was no such firm as John
Howard and Co. at Droylesden, but that Howard and Russell had taken a
house there which was not furnished, and where they went occasionally
to receive letters addressed to Howard and Co., Droylesden. Owen was
acquitted; Howard was found guilty of conspiracy with intent to defraud.
A number of cases occur where swindlers attempt to cheat different
societies in various ways. Two men were tried at the police court a few
days ago for unlawfully attempting to cheat and defraud a loan society
to obtain 5_l._ The prisoners formed part of a gang of swindlers,
who operated in this way:--Some of them took a house for the purpose
of giving references to others, who applied to loan societies for an
advance of money, and produced false receipts for rent and taxes.
They had carried on this system for years, and many of them had been
convicted. Some of the gang formerly had an office in Holborn, where
they defrauded young men in search of situations by getting them to
leave a sum of money as security. They were tried and convicted on this
charge.
There is another heartless system of base swindling perpetrated by a
class of cheats, who pretend to assist parties in getting situations,
and hold out flaming inducements through advertisements in the
newspapers to working men, servants, clerks, teachers, clergymen, and
others; and contrive to get a large income by duping the public.
A swindler contrived to obtain sums of 5_s._ each in postage stamps, or
post-office orders, from a large number of people, under pretence of
obtaining situations for them as farm bailiffs. An advertisement was
inserted in the newspaper, and in reply to the several applicants,
a letter was returned, stating that although the applicant was among
the leading competitors another party had secured the place. At the
same time another attempt was made to inveigle the dupe, under the
pretence of paying another fee of 5_s._, with the hope of obtaining a
similar situation in prospect. The swindler intimated that the only
interest he had in the matter was the agent’s fee, charged alike to the
employer and the employed, and generally paid in advance. He desired
that letters addressed to him should be directed to 42, Sydney Street,
Chorlton-upon-Medlock. He had an empty house there, taken for the
purpose, with the convenience of a letter-box in the door into which
the postman dropped letters twice a day. A woman came immediately after
each post and took them away.
On arresting the woman, the officers found in her basket 87 letters,
44 of them containing 5_s._ in postage stamps, or a post-office order
payable to the swindler himself. Nearly all the others were letters
from persons at a distance from a post office, who were unable to remit
the 5_s._, but promised to send the money when they got an opportunity.
On a subsequent day, 120 letters were taken out of the letter-box, most
of them containing a remittance. This system had been in operation
for a month. One day 190 letters were delivered by one post. It was
estimated that no fewer than 3000 letters had come in during the
month, most of them enclosing 5_s._; and it is supposed the swindler
had received about 700_l._, a handsome return for the price of a few
advertisements in newspapers, a few lithographed circulars, a few
postage-stamps, and a quarter of a year’s rent of an empty house.
Another case of a similar kind, occurred at the Maidstone assizes.
Henry Moreton, aged 43, a tall gentlemanly man, and a young woman aged
19 years, were indicted for conspiring to obtain goods and money by
false pretences. The name given by the male prisoner was known to be an
assumed one. It was stated that he was well connected and formerly in a
good position in society.
At the trial, a witness deposed that an advertisement had appeared in
a Cornish newspaper, addressed to Cornish miners, stating they could
be sent out to Australia by an English gold-mining company, and would
be paid 20_l._ of wages per month, to commence on their arrival at the
mines. The advertisement also stated that if 1_s._ or twelve postage
stamps were sent to Mr. Henry Moreton, Chatham, a copy of the stamped
agreement and full particulars as to the company, would be given.
The prisoner was arrested, and 41 letters found in his possession,
addressed to “Mr. H. Moreton, Chatham:” 25 of the letters contained
twelve postage stamps each and some of them had 1_s._ inside. It was
ascertained the female cohabited with him. It appeared that he had
pawned 482 stamps on the 14th February, for 1_l._ 15_s._, 289 on the
21st, for 1_l._, and 744 on another day.
Eighty-two letters came in one day chiefly from Ireland and Cornwall.
On searching a box in his room they found a large quantity of Irish and
Cornish newspapers, many of them containing the advertisement referred
to.
He was found guilty, and was sentenced to hard labour for fifteen
months. The young woman was acquitted.
The judge, in passing sentence, observed that the prisoner had been
convicted of swindling poor people, and his being respectably connected
aggravated the case.
We give the following illustration of an English swindler’s adventures
on the Continent.
A married couple were tried at Pau, on a charge of swindling. The
husband represented himself to be the son of a colonel in the English
army and of a Neapolitan princess. His wife pretended to be the
daughter of an English general. They said they were allied to the
families of the Dukes of Norfolk, Leinster, and Devonshire. They
came in a post-chaise to the Hotel de France, accompanied by several
servants, lived in the style of persons of the highest rank, and run
up a bill of 6000 francs. As the landlord declined to give credit
for more, they took a château, which they got fitted up in a costly
way. They paid 2500 francs for rent, and were largely in debt to the
butcher, tailor, grocer, and others. The lady affected to be very
pious, and gave 895 francs to the abbé for masses.
An English lady who came from Brussels to give evidence, stated that
her husband had paid 50,000 francs to release them from a debtors’
prison at Cologne, as he believed them to be what they represented. It
was shown at the trial that they had received letters from Lord Grey,
the King of Holland, and other distinguished personages. They were
convicted of swindling, and condemned to one year’s imprisonment, or to
pay a fine of 200 francs.
On hearing the sentence the woman uttered a piercing cry and fainted
in her husband’s arms, but soon recovered. They were then removed to
prison.
The assumption of a variety of names, some of them of a high-sounding
and pretentious character, is resorted to by swindlers giving orders
for goods by letter from a distance--an address is also assumed of a
nature well calculated to deceive: as an instance, we may mention that
an individual has for a long period of time fared sumptuously upon the
plunder obtained by his fraudulent transactions, of whose aliases and
pseudo residences the following are but a few:--
Creighton Beauchamp Harper; the Russets, near Edenbridge.
Beauchamp Harper; Albion House, Rye.
Charles Creighton Beauchamp Harper; ditto.
Neanberrie Harper, M. N. I.; The Broadlands, Winchelsea.
Beauchamp Harper; Halden House, Lewes.
R. E. Beresford; The Oaklands, Chelmsford.