“PRINCE OF TRICKSTERS"

Evening Star, Issue 23680, 13 September 1940, Page 12

“PRINCE OF TRICKSTERS"

LITERARY SWINDLER'S LIFE AND DEATH Regarded by the police, book publishers, and literary agents and journalists as probably the greatest literary hoaxer and swindler of the present century, 37-year-old Netley Lucas, alias Evelyn Graham, ex-borstal boy and fake biographer of many royal and titled persons, has died, states the ‘ News of the World,’ Loudon. And, as so often happens to impudent frauds of Ids kind, the manner of his death was even more fantastic than any of the thousands of incidents in the lives of other people which were concocted by his own vivid and fertile imagination. For two mouths Lucas had been living under one of his pen-names as Robert Tracy in a beautifully furnished house which he had rented at Fete-ham, near Leatherhead, Surrey. Most of his time was spent in drinking, and one morning lately he was found dead in the partly-burnt-out lounge of the house. ROGUE AT HEART. Few people will mourn the passing of this prince of tricksters, for, in spite of his pe.rsonal charm, his plausible tongue, and bis undoubted cleverness, Lucas was a crook and a rogue at heart. He spared no one’s honour or reputation to achieve his own ends. While still in his early twenties, Lucas wrote a biography of his own called ‘ The Autobiography of a Crook.’ In this he inferred that he was the illegitimate son of a famous admiral. He was. in fact, the son of a man of means. His mother, an actress, died at his birth, and his father a few years later. Placed under the care of fosterparents, lie was sent to Bedford School, where, according to his own account, he began a course of petty pilfering at a very early age. He first came under the notice of the police in 1917, when he was only 14 years of ago. Ho was then bound over at Westminster Police Court for attempting to obtain money by false pretences. Sent to an industrial school at West Drayton, Middlesex, ho ran away, but was later arrested in London for begging. This time he was sent to the training ship Cornwall at Purfleet, Essex, where he was ordered to stay until he was 19 years old-. However, he absconded from the ship after a few months. Beginning n real career of crime, he kept out of the hands of the police until 1920, when, at London Sessions, he was sent to borstal for stealing cheques and obtaining money by fraud. He was released on license in 1922, and within a few days was engaged in swindling girls. . Dressed as a naval officer, he posed as the son of an influential man who was seeking a secretary. He was sent back to borstal, where he remained until October, 1922. Upon his release he was befriended by a journalist, who gave him a home in Chelsea and taught him the rudiments of journalism in the hope that he might go straight. Lucas showed his gratitude by victimising the very man who had befriended him. He took to almost every form of crime, and at the Old Bailey, in 1923, was sentenced to 10 months in the second division for larceny and forgery. ROYAL BIOGRAPHIES. It was then stated that he had associated with every form of crooik and confidence trickster imaginable, and had run through some £IO,OOO of other people’s money. He posed as a lord,” ‘‘ honourable,” or “ colonel ” as the fancy took him. His capacity for spending was said to be inherited from his father, who, after inheriting £20,000, married an actress and ran through his fortune in three years. He, lived entirely on his wits. Befriended by a colonel who offered to pay for an operation which would enable him to join the Army, Lucas went to live with him, and then decamped with all his benefactor’s jewels. Later, in conjunction with Sir George Ashton, an innocent victim of his plausible tongue, Lucas wrote the Duke of Connaught’s biography, with, it was stated, the Duke’s permission. He followed this with ‘ Lord Darling and His Famous Trials,’ and a biography of the Queen of Spain. _ Later came biographies of King George, King Albert of Belgium, the Prince of Wales, Princess Mary, and a number of distinguished public and sporting figures and famous actors and actresses.

With every publication Lucas grew bolder and bolder. In December, 1929, a publishing firm which he had started was made bankrupt by the action of a newspaper to which he had sold an unauthorised and fictitious life story. Lucas hurriedly left the country, but returned' later and started all over again. In 1931, however, he was arrested by the police in connection with a fraudulent attempt to sell a fake biography of the late Queen Alexandra. And at the Old Bailey he was sentenced to 18 months’ hard labour. After his release from prison Lucas returned to Fleet Street and started, a number of literary agencies and journalistic enterprises. By this time he was so well known that his contributions were barred by most reputable newspapers and publishers.