THE WAGES OF SIN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5205, 18 November 1927, Page 3

THE WAGES OF SIN.

CRIME THAT DOES NOT PAY. MORE PRISON THAN PROFIT. Adam Worth, perhaps the greatest criminal of the past half-century, robbed other people of money and jewejlery wprth £600,000. Safe-crack-ing, diamond robberies, burglary—all came alike to hint At one time he owned a racing stable, a steam yacht, • and had magnificently appointed flats in London and New York. Yet he died penniless. Between them, George White and Max Shinburn netted, £540,000 .out of the robbery of the Ocean Bank. Yet in 30 years each spent 25 in prison, and they, too, left nothing behind them. Goudie, the, Liverpool bank clerk, defrauded the Bank of Liverpool of £170,000, but it profited' him nothing, for what he did not, waste in betting other criminals got out of blackmail. George Manolescu,' known as the “Prince of' Thieves,” stole £30,000 in Paris, £40,000 in Argentina, and thousands elsewhere. He travelled with a secretary apd a valet, visited thei best clubs, but eventually became poor, and was sentenced to a long term °f imprisonment. He has written a book on his experiences in which he confesses that crime does not pay. The newspapers continually tell of huge hauls made by thieves. It has been stated that the value of jewellery stolen in Lopdon alone exceeds £1,000,000 a year, of. which only about a quarter is recovered. Figures of this kind give unprincipled y°ung men the idea that crime pays, but it is a mistaken impression. It was stated recently that the average earnings of four criminals who worked on a fairly large scale were 12s, 14s, 19s 6d, and 25s • a week respectively. Each spent about half his time in prison. Most thieves spend so much of their time in prison that the total amount of their thefts does not average up to the wages of a junior clerk or an assistant in a small shQp- Even when they are at liberty their earnings are not larger While planning and executing a burglary the robber spends weeks of such tense excitement that when the job is carried through he feels forced to take a holiday. ' The brain and nerves, relax, the erring man drinks and gambles, and probably falls into the hands of parpies who prey on him until he is penniless. Then he must fix up another “job,” and the whole dreary round is enacted all over again. Sooner or later he is caught and goes to prison for a long tejrm. It must also be, remembered that the thief is always in the hands of the “fence,” or receiver, and never in any circumstances will he. get more than oner third of the value of the goods he has stolen. ■A typical case was that of Frederic Landau, who stole £l§oo worth of jewellery form a South African diamond merchant. He also stole a few notes. Less than a fortnight later he ■was caught changing one of the notes. He had already spent all the money

he got, for the jewellery, which was teabout £3OO. p There is, however, pnei record of a man making a. burglary pay. This was a Frenchman named Chicot, who was arrested in Paris some years ago and charged with stealing linen. In his rooms was found a diary containing details of nearly 1500 burglaries. Ohicot robbed small houses, and his average haul was worth no-more than • £5. But he told the police that he “went to prison happily,” because he had saved a nice sum and hidden it where they would never find it.