ADVENTURES OF AMY BOCK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 454, 29 April 1909, Page 3

ADVENTURES OF AMY BOCK.

AN ASTONISHING CAREER. Dunkdin, April 28. “ E. C. Redwood ” who was arrested at Nugget Bay recently, has been posing as a man, turns out to be a woman named Amy Bock, with several aliases, who has been before the Courts several times during the last twenty years on charges of false pretences- In January last she was in service in Dunedin, and during the absence on holidays of her employer, she borrowed money on the furniture. It is on that charge that she is now arrested. She is about 40 years old, and highly accomplished. The police have been looking for her for the past three months, but found no trace of her till Saturday last, when something they heard about a recent wedding put them on the track. It is said that Amy Bock, in man’s attire, stayed at Ottaway’s boarding-house at Nuggets, and succeeded in winning the hand of the proprietor’s daughter, the wedding being celebrated last week in great style. Mr Malcolm, M.P., was among the guestsThe prisoner, still in man’s clothes, was brought to Dunedin this morning. With hair cut short and dressed in the latest fashion, Amy Bock, who posed as Percy Carol Redwood, nephew of the Archbishop, became a very pronounced favourite at the Nuggets. She had plenty of money, and represented that her wealthy mother lived in Waikato. The wedding last week at Nuggets was on a big scale. Mr Malcolm, M.P., and the officiating clergyman, made speeches eulogistic of bride and bridegroom, and the Clutha paper gave a lengthy report of the proceedings. The main subject of conversation here at present is the astonishing adventures of Amy Bock. It appears that the lady is fairly well known in the city, and in Canterbury, and wherever she has been she appears to have made herself very agreeable, and at the same time wheedled money out of unsuspecting males. About eighteen months ago it was reported that Amy Bock was engaged in a boarding house in the city, and won the affection of boarders by her . obliging and kindly ways. Not by any means prepossessing in her appearance she still possessed an engaging personality. From one of the boarders to whom she told a pitiful tale of a male friend of hers on the West Coast, who was hard up, and desired to leave the country, she obtained twelve pounds, and was approaching another boarder with a like intention when the unexpected appearance of the landlady prevented the completion of the fleecing of the susceptible boarder. She had been an inmate of some of the institutions of this city, and whilst in the Samaritan Home showed her versatility by organising theatrical performances, which she produced very excellently. The adventuress is credited with being able to write no fewer than seven different styles of caligraphy, an accomplishment that has stood her in good stead in many of her plans. Amy Bock is well-known almost from one end of the Dominion to the other by the guardians of the peace, and is known by aliases of Shannon and Chapel. She was before the Supreme Court in this city on February 13th, 1905, on a charge of forgery at Rakaia on November 15th, 1904. The facts alleged were that John Gardiner, of Rakaia, had given her a cheque for £2, with which to pay an account. The cheque was altered to £l2, and was given by the > woman to a man Ashby,

whom she asked to purchase some goods for her. He did this, and gave her the goods and the change. Bock, when on trial, alleged that she had only got £l, half a sovereign and some silver from Ashby, who she further alleged had confessed to her that he had altered the cheque. She _ was found guilty, and Mr Stringer, Crown Prosecutor, gave a record of previous convictions, commencing with a month’s imprisonment in 1886 to her then latest conviction in this city in 19°3Mr Justice Deuuistou sentenced Bock to three years’ imprison , ment. The probable reason of Bock’s latest escapade has probably been divined by a Christchurch police officer, who remarked that Bock had once been heard to say that she was tired of defrauding men ; they were too soft and easy to work upon, and that women were much more difficult to deceive. The inference now drawn is that the air of novelty of deceiving one of her own sex into a marriage ceremony with her appealed to her more strongly than the duping of men.