Two Whirlwind Financiers and a Shower of Costly Gifts

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 666, 18 May 1929, Page 18

Two Whirlwind Financiers and a Shower of Costly Gifts

Spectacular Exploits among: the Beauties of Broadway are attributed to John and Herbert Locke, ex-gaolbirds. They held high revel in a £50,000 Mansion and notable people scrambled for invitations to their parties.

Two enterprising young men who burst upon New York as millionaire brokers, cutting a wide and hectic swathe through Broadway in company with several stage and society beauties upon whom they lavished costly presents, ended by being the central figures iu one of the most sensational trials ou record. They are two brothers. John and Herbert Locke, who were known as Camero-Micbel and Co., and they stand charged with conspiracy to use the mails to defraud in connection with the unloading of £2.000.000 worth of copper stock. It is not their gamble with the money of others which has attracted such great interest, however, but their spectacular exploits among the beauties of Broadway, including such wellknown Follies as Genevieve Tobin, Mary Eaton, Naomi Johnson, Betty Compton, Yvonne Gray, Louise Brooks, iu addition to that much-married and still greatly sought after lady as a bride —Peggy Hopkins Joyce. The two brothers, who were received in New York business circles as men of repute and acumen, have been revealed as ex-gaolbirds, who have already experienced a taste of prison life for similar frauds in Boston. Already the most amazing evidence has been given regarding the life of these two men, who within a very short time of their advent as “the millionaire mystery boys” were possessed of a wonderful £50,000 palace in Greenwich village, where they used to hold high revel. It was from Frank Bush. John Locke’s own coloured chauffeur, that the most intriguing details of his master’s association with the fair Peggy Hopkins Joyce came.

“When the Lockes hired me they said they wanted speed. ‘Speed’ was their one cry, and they sure got it. One of their chauffeurs, Robert Allen, was killed, and the two girls he was driving were badly hurt. The car was flattened out when it struck a wall at 75 miles an hour one morning. “John and Herbert never drank or smoked, but they would give their friends all the liquor the3 r wanted. They sure knew' how to give parties, and there were few people w r ho d ; .d not scramble to get an invitation. They couldn’t resist the girls, and they dragged me into their romances. “The first car John gave Peggy Joyce was only a £3,000 car, but he gave her another which cost him £4,500. I think Peggy liked having a coloured chauffeur to drive her around as it threw her blonde beauty into relief.

I used to call for her in the afternoon, and take her to a hat shop, and then on to a jewellery store. This was a regular job. She liked to go regularly because then she knew the crowd would be waiting to see her get out of the car. “Whenever anyone rushed up to open the door of the car—before I could get down myself—she never failed to give them a £1 tip. Then we would drive down to the Safe Deposit, Peggy wearing all her jewellery, and there she would leave her more expensive jewellery. There were two rules I had always had to obey when taking her to the theatre. I must always get her there after everbody was. seated, and I must always be first in the line when she came out. John first met Peggy at the Demjsey-Tun-ney fight. The ‘play-boys’ were there. Peggy had only just missed marrying Stanley Comstock—-he was not quite divorced at the time —and she was at the fight a gorgeous looking being surrounded by a number of admirers. “Money was simply rolling into the Cameron-Michel concern just then.

and John promptly bought the car which had been specially made for Rudolph Valentino, and gave it to Peggy." So much for John, but in the meantime Herbert Locke had not been slow in making the running with four or five Broadway beauties, and the authorities are anxious to know what other presents besides the elaborate grand piano which he gave to Mary Eaton, he bought for other ladies cf his acquaintance. All of them were the recipients of expensive presents, and many of these are being called to testify to the generosity of the “playbox millionaires” as they were called, because of their wild and merry ways. Others v/ho are to give evidence are the wives of wealthy men.