REAL-LIFE DRAMA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20037, 8 September 1939, Page 2

REAL-LIFE DRAMA

MYSTERY WRITER VICTIM SCOTLAND YARD CALLED LONDON, July 25. Mr. E. Phillips Oppenheim, who as a novelist has invented probably more mysteries of spies and Secret Service men than any other writer, has returned from tile Riviera to find himself featuring in another crook drama —a real one. He has asked Scotland Yard to help him solve the mystery. In the last few months Mr. Oppenheim, now 72, has been the victim of a forger and of a fraudulent literary agent; now his Guernsey -house has been looted and first edition books, prints and other valuables have been stolen. In .May Mr. Oppenheim discovered that some one had forged his name to a ’three-figure cheque, and that two diamond rings worth £4OO had been ordered in his name. He said to-day: “It must be the same man who has now looted my house. I think I know who it is, but lie has disappeared and Scotland Yard have not traced him yet. “I don’t know how much I have lost, but it is a considerable amount. “The worry and trouble of it all has tired me, and my writing has had to stop—for the first time in 50 years.” The literary agent who victimised Mr. Oppenheim pleaded guilty in New York last month to stealing royalties worth £4OOO. He was sent to Sing-Sing for two and a half years.