END OF FAMOUS FORGER

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1925, Page 4

END OF FAMOUS FORGER

SUICIDE IN mI.ICE CELL. I.ON DON. Sept. 21. A man who was arrested on Thursday night in the Strand and taken to Row-street on charges of forgery and attempted forgery on Barclays Bank, High Holhorn. was found dead in his cell in the police station early yesterday morning. He was hanging from the hot-water pipes by a belt which he had taken from his overcoat. The man's real name was John Hurley, and he was arrested in a West End restaurant while dining with a woman. Before the man was placed in the cells lie was soil relied and found to le in possession of about £2OO. lie had been (barged with obtaining £250 by means ~f a forged cheque on l uesda v lasi. EXPERT PENMAN. The police of many countries knew Hurley to have been one of the most expert criminal penmen in the world, lie was born 12 years ago at Toronto, lie first, came into the hands of the police in Chicago, where he was sentenced for theft of 150 dollars. Since then he had committed audacious limits in- many parts of tTie world, and had been sentenced to imprisonment in Paris. Antwerp, Bristol, and Loudon. In lOlli. using the alias of Bruce, he was sentenced loDd years’ penal servitude at the Old Bailey, and his conviction was the result of a will that had been forged to obtain a loan from money-lenders. At the trial a letter was produced from the Church of England Chaplain of Antwerp Prison, in which he said that Bruce and another man had behaved in a very heroic manner in assisting himself and his wife to escape from Antwerp during; the bombardment. Since then Hurley had specialised ill the same form of crime, and he invariably succeeded in getting a woman to cash the cheques in the belief that they were genuine. HIS FINAL SCHEME. 11l his last coup, the one for which he had been arrested. Hurley, from a West End hotel, rang up a typewrit- : ing agency and demanded the services : of an expert typist. He dictated a number of letters at the hotel to a young woman who had been sent from the typewriting offices, anil when he had apparently completed the job for which site had been engaged lie asked the woman to do him a favour. “Run round the corner,” he said, “and cash this cheque for me.’' When the girl was relit ruin;; to the hotel he met her, and when lie found out that she had got the money he politely thanked her for ILe service tendered. He had previously opened a small account at tin* bank and by some means bail obtained the name of a client to whose credit stood a substantial amount. It was the name of this man that lie forged the cheque. Almost at once lie adopted similar methods in an attempt to obtain a further C“()tb The '■croud attempt was nut successful, however. A woman who i ailed with a cheque was questioned because it Imd been discovered that the £250 paid over was due In a forgery. A trap was set fur Hurley, but he failed to walk into it. THE “KITE MOB.”

Ilmley wits mi intimate friend of .I nines Duncan Huberts. who was sentenced at the Old Hailey on Thursday. Both men were known to lie leaders in a iran*j known as the “Kite M 01,." whose activities have cost the eonintercial world thousands of pounds through the robbery of letters containing che(|iK's and money orders. In hi- days of freedom Hurley was always well dressed and his plausible tongue made him a favourite with

women, upon, whom ho spent his money In visit! v.