ARCH-IMPOSTOR’S SUICIDE

Hokitika Guardian, 1 August 1929, Page 8

ARCH-IMPOSTOR’S SUICIDE

AMAZING CAREER OF . CRIME. BRUSSELS, June 25. Suicide has ended the career of Otto Sicphane, who was known throughout Europe, under the name ol Otto de Beney, as one of the most amazing imposters of modern times. 1 De Beney, who yesterday threw himself from, the roof of a Brussels notel and died later in hospital had .crowded into his 29 years of life as much adventure honest and dishonest, as won!.l fill a couple of novels. When the European war broke out de Beney was 131 years of age hut he insisted on following the Belgian army as a Boy Scout, and was later cit'd in army orders; for his corn ago and exemplary conduct. He began his careed of crime immediately .after the war. when his sole object in life seemed to he to don ’brilliant uniforms,' prey on gullible peon!'- -V.U Vi j 1 Ic hotel proprietors. Posing as the “Duke of Dervueren” lie “decorated” in the name of the King of the Belgians, General Allen, then commanding the American Army of Occupation in Germany. , Once, he attached himself to the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission as a French officer, and later appeared as “Captain Lord Ashton” of the British Navy. He also pretended to ho Prince Charles of Belgium, committed fraud on the Sultan of Turkey, and once passed himself off as private secretary to Trotsky, the ex-Russian Commissar for War. It is not long since lie published his Reminiscences, in which ho called himself “the ; modern Villon’ —a name to which he probably thought his poetry entitled him.

AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE. Do Bency’s exploits were not confined to the other side of the Channel 111 1922, wearing the uniform of c major in the Belgian air service, he called at Buckingham Palace and said he hail come t" interview the rpiko of York.' Desoito his-linguistic powers and confident manner suspicion was aroused, and when it was found tliat his papers were forged he was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment •and ordered tb he deported . In 1927 Ikoi was hack again and at as sonttenced in othertseemh Crewe was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for defrauding a clergyman and for disobeying the deportation 0rder.......

He served repeated sentences in other countries fpr obtaining money by false pretences, passing at different times as the son of M. Maurice Mne ferliuf 1 - the nephew of Mr Mellon, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, and the nephew of a- Cardinal. While posing, as. “Lord Ashton’’ h«> pretended tlpiF he, was on a mission to purchase'a. villa, on the Riviera for 'bO'Fr’nce of Wales, and it was said that while in the occupied territory of Germany he obtained loans from 400 officers of the British and American forces.