A VERSATILE CRIMINAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1015, 5 March 1912, Page 4

A VERSATILE CRIMINAL.

BOGUS KNIGHT’S AMAZING CAREER.

FRAUDS IN MANY BANDS

San Francisco, Feb. 23

The California!! police are just now energetically looking for a “Dr” Milton Abraham, a notorious forger and bigamist. This clever criminal, one of whose many aliases is that of Sir Harry Westwood Cooper, has had a most remarkable career.

He worked in Sydney from 1889 to 1891, and under the name of Charles Ernest Chadwick was tried but acquitted on charges of obtaining money by false pretences in connection with which he represented himself as the heir to vast estates in England. In 1893 he was prosecuted on a similar charge, and sentenced to eighteen mouths’ imprisonment. Two years later, as the police allege, he married in Sydney a Miss Helen Scott, whom, however, he soon deserted. He then fled to Brisbane, and while there, in June 1596, courted and dually married another girl. In the following August he sailed for England. The bogus knight subsequently went to America, and in Philadelphia, towards the end of 1896, he was again in trouble in connection with a worthless cheque for Making his way to Canada, he visited Toronto, and during his stay in that city he is said to have occupied the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church.

After having contracted another bigamous marriage the “Doctor” turned up in Chicago, where he is alleged to have fleeced his landlady of by means of forged drafts.

In 1597 he made his appearance in San Francisco, and having deserted his latest wife, planned an elopement with a young lady living in this city. Towards the end of the year he again found himsell in the hands of the police charged with forgery, in connection with which he was convicted and sentenced to three years.

While serving his time in Sau Quentin gaol he is alleged to have formed a plan for the murder of the prison guards in order to escape the period of solitary confinement to which he was condemned.

Abraham was discharged from Sau Quentin in 1901, but be had not been out of gaol long betore he was again arrested. He was released on parole only last year after having served another sentence, and the offence for which he is now sought is that of having attempted to forge a draft for on the Oakland National Bank.