MARRIAGE “MILL”

Hokitika Guardian, 16 November 1932, Page 6

MARRIAGE “MILL”

NEW YORK WEDDING RACKET

FALSE LICENSES ISSUED

NEW YORK, November 3. A gigantic “marriage mill” scheme, by which a ring of clergymen supply false marriage certificates, and licenses to young couples after a inock wedding ceremony, has been exposed in New York.

The gang flourished on three sorts of fake marriages:—

l_When young men and women knowingly connived at the imposture in order to spend an illicit week-end together. 2—When a man deluded an innocent girl whom he could not otherwise legally marry—the girl, of course, believing in the validity of the mock marriage. 3 When an ignorant young couple, unable to marry in New York city because of some technical difficulty, believed they were being properly married outside the city by the agents of the “marriage mil!.’’ Many hundreds of couples are living happy “married” lives "to-day, bite*fully unaware of the fact that, in the eyes of the law, they are not wedded at, all. They are the victims of the •“mill.” AH the young couples turned away from the (New York register office.-:, unable/ to marry through not fulfilling the age or residence qualifications, are met outside by well-dressed “marriage runners” who offer to solve all their problems. The “runners” took the to one of the many towns surrounding New York, where parsons and even registrars did a flourishing business. The fees charged are whatever the couples appear able to pay from £3 to £6O. Some 1500 couples have been +*ms “married” this year. The wedding “racket” has led to the establishment of love polonies in many suburban centres. The swindle has been exposed at last by the “New York Journal,” which gent two reporters, a man and a woman, to find out the truth by pretending to fall into the trap as “victims.” The newspaper identifies a Baptist pastor of west New York and another from New Jersey as implicated iq the “marriage mill.” i )ne of the parson lS gave the newspaper pair a false marriage license when told that they wanted to make a holiday trip to Canada.