PEARL THIEF CONJURER

Shannon News, 10 June 1927, Page 4

PEARL THIEF CONJURER

CLEVER SLEIGHT OF HAND.

SUBSTITUTION OF GLASS BEADS,

Tli e Berlin police recently arrested a man whom the police of Paris have been searching for since 1925, in order that: he may shed some light upon a conjuring trick which they say he performed in an office of an Indian dealer in pearls in Paris. The . man.- who said he was Leon Lyn, of Montevideo,, was arrested in Berlin for frauds, anfl the police in the ordinary course of business informed their Vienna colleagues, who passed hack the .information that Leon Lyn, of Montevideo, was to them Jacob Klinger, of Java,- wanted in Paris for the theft of pearls worth £28,000.

As Mr. Benjamin Silver, of New York this man had made the acquaintance of a Russian business man in a Paris" hotel and asked him where he could get some really good pearls. The Russian arranged to take him to the office of Sid Hardschan Savartschand, the agent of an important Bombay firm, to see some pearls, and even arranged fo r the presence of &n expert. The supposed American chose necklaces containing 1200 beautiful pearls and undertook to pay for them.

Under the eyes of the Russian, the expert, and the jeweller, the elegant customer put the necklaces one by one in an envelope, which he closed with a seal. The packet was then 'handed to the dealer, who placed it in his safe, and the customer' was to call next day with the money. Fortyeight hours passed, and inquiries for Mr Silver at-the hotel where he had said he was staying showed that nobody had ever heard of-him. The dealer opened the packet and found instead of the pearl necklaces, worthless strings of glass "pearls." Experts amongr the Paris police were unable to determine how - the fake necklaces were changed >for the real. They 1 will' be ; 1 glad 'to 1 know ; how the conjurer did : the trick.