Two Free Pardons.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 210, 9 September 1904, Page 4

Two Free Pardons.

|E TRAGEDY OF THE ADOLPH ,A,,',.' BEGK CASE. WOCENT MAN'S MARTYBDOM. Adolph Beck /was at the Saoto of the Central Criminal lUrt, commencing on the 24th day February, 1896, convicted of cer- * , charges of obtaining rings and tef-Art*le? hy falsfe pretences and tn Intent to defraud, and was sehJ? ed . to . «FW yew*' Penal servdt-

ft>. in consideration of some cirnstances humbly represented unto are graciously pleased to extend fg-ace and mercy unto him, and giant hum a tree pardon for the »cea on which he stands convictinr will and pleasure, therefore, is tt you do take flue notice hereof yar t «> doing this shall be your Mjen at the Court of St. James's iAwenty-sfacfch day of July, 1904 W» -fourth year of our reign (Signed) A. Akers-Dougias. » our trusted and well-beloved \m, tf, the Central Criminal' it, She clerk of the said court, Kj.aU others whom it may cowp—By tafs Majesty's Command. i the above formal language Mr »lph Beck -was on June 29th (the >y MaHitfeoonds) apprised by the &<?fflW that a terrible Judicial Sr™o"Bea» rectified, so far 'as ttn justice cafi. rectify and atone : the tragedy of his wrongful conjfos and his in penal-' St rejoanation could &ot ygt 0 p ». Mr ARers-Douglas hao/ also fcfona .Mr Beck that the King him simultaneously a »nd free, pardon for yet another ngful conviction— June 20th *4.

!» second formal document is flar to the one above, save as re- ** the particulars of the r.i offence of which this unhappy i was wrongfully convicted—•rtjY "certain charges of obtain,"®>ney and goods by false precee and fraudulently converting Ms own use and benefit property rusted to him for safe custody." ehfad these two legal documents, 1 in the person of this short, wiry le Norwegian gentleman figures JJtory of a mas-carriage; of justice lyjJSMt as terrible aB the case of Ppßalas, nearly one hundred and r years ago. —A Fearful Wrong.—

he terrible story is also terribly pie. In 1877 a man named John Ith was sentenced at the Old Baito five years' penal servitude for wr a peculiar type of confidence fc upon young women. John tfth's modus operandi was to get ► conversation with youngi women jublic places ; prime them with nuses of taking them to live with \; tell them to buy dresses and iljery to fit them for their new man; give them bogus cheques ?ttat purpose, and then borrow ley from them or obtain the loan

Hogs, ete., on the pretence of buyfother jewels for them.

netean years later-in 1896—the ion police had to deal with an i»t identical case of victimising ulous young women ; and they etedV Mr Adolph Beck, a Norwegijenilemam long resident in EngI. What appeared to be a clear was made out against him at Central Criminal Court. The tg women wiho had been defraudtwore that Mr Beck was the man.

flas convicted It was then stato the court by police that Beck and the John

rth convicted in 1877, similar ■ in r crimes, were actually one and same man

itnesses who hod seen both spoke Identical scars on the chin and i Handwriting experts: declared rt'ttotefctero written by John |a*BnLß77 were in the handwritJgjPw t criminal of 1896—which jvery likely; only Mr Beck did happen to tie the perpetrator of ij.896 offence, any more than of ; £|(J»,£.1877. —Useless Protests.— I protested Ws innocence from the &'. It was useless. The jury that he had committed ibffence with which he was charg•the judge was further satisfied > he was "John Smith," thccri- & pf 1877—and he was sent inenal servitude for seven years, ring those weary, those terrible iiOf imprisonment this unhappy Aad hut' one thought—to be free o, to prove his innocence, t 0 restate his name. That faith upi Mm ; and when he once again I himself at liberty he devoted Us energies, all his little capital, fiat supreme object.

•cannot be said that his efforts 6 much progress. The Home Ofrecedveti petition after petition, invents proving that Beck could possibly have been on the scenes ie crime at the time when the Julent confidence tricks were beperpetrated. All to no purpose, authorites contented themselves usual official '-'saw no reaand it looked as though the H man, having lost the best i of his life in prison, would dei 'into his grave with an irwably tarnished name.

that Saved.— Bwt% ways of Providence are rtaWe. Early this year the polwera apprised that the " John hj" confidence tricks upon young « ware once more ibeing played is streets of London. The facts ied to the same bawl as had gdneerned in 1877 and in 1896, fflce again the man who had suftor the crime 0 t 1896 was seizfr Adolph Beck was arrested, agt month was once again put atrial at the Central Criminal n ensued a similar miscarriage istice. The victimised girls tnat he was the man who had d them. The scars remembertpa John Smith dn 1877 were f second time professed" to be Beck , once again he was fat then, when a chance tossing the Judge before senthat the horrors of his posipnt.hia voice an. eloquence that [My saved ham. It had long ed upon him that he must have able in the London streets for Jsins he was suffering. Somein'bfs words and manner imS .the judge—Mr Justice Gran--iaMyAflined «s that ddstin(Tjajwer must be by now ' to rations of from those

who are really guilty—if one can delinitely believe in any man's guilt after pondering upon this terrible case.

Anyhow, Adolph Beck was put back for sentence until the present sessions. It happened, however, that there was present in court at the time a member of the police force who had witnessed the conviction of the samo ma n in 1896. This officer, Inspector Kane, had an uneasy feeling i n has mind that Beck was innocent. —A Newspaper Agitation.— So Adolph Beck was put back to await sentence. He was not without other Mends to fight his cause even at the last ditch, and it came about that the London Evening News, impressed by the genuineness of Jus repeated stories, opened its

columns to agitate for an exhaustive inquiry. On the very evening that this agitation was begun a man, giving the name of William Thomas, was charged at Tottenham Court Road with the by now famous confidence tricks upon credulous young I women. When Inspector Kane heard the par- ■ ticulars of the charge he felt at once J that it resembled almost n every ' detail the crimes for whtichrJAfßeck has suffered, fie saw tlie' man, and there seemed to be aySifange resemblance to Adolph I^ebK. Whether orytjgtWilliam Thomas is guilty of present offence remains matter 0 f judicial inquiry. He v/jps brought up on remand at Bos.-stieet yesterday, and again reon charges of obtaining jewellery by fraud from young women. But in the course of the, hearing Mr Sims, for, the Treasury, stated that in)(furies made by Detective-Inspector Kane after the arrest of Thomas, while Mr Beck was lying awaiting sentence, left no doubt that Beck was wrongfully convicted both in 1896 and again recently in 1904. Mr Sims added that William Thomas, the prisoner, had confessed to being the-John Smith who was convicted in 1877,

LONDON, September 6. The Daily Telegraph says the continued silence of the Home Office in face of a persistent unanimous demand for inquiry into the Beck case is hardly less than a public scandal.