PRINCE OF SWINDLERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 310, 9 February 1910, Page 3

PRINCE OF SWINDLERS.

A Ross Raymond, the convict, soldier oi fortune, naval officer, and newspaper correspondent, who served ten years in Portland Prison for impersonating a nobleman, has died in Nevada. Raymond, who is remembered for the teat of pretending in Paris that he was a courier of the Khedive, and in this character making off with a collection of the rarest gems, as' well as for lfts escapade in India, where he travelled as a rajah with a retinue of over a hundred servants and many elephants, was attended on his death-bed by his wife. Some months ago the wife, in an interview, said: -Why have I clung to Ross all these thirty .years? Because I love him. Some day, in another world, when all this' insanity of sin has passed away, I shall see him as he is, a grand, &ighearted man of genius, now temporarily lost in darkness and shame." Raymond always claimed that he was an Englishman and the son of an Army officer living in Sussex, but his real birthplace appears to have been Beaver, Pennsylvania. SOME OF HIS EXPLOITS. The Paris correspondent of the London Daily Mail has received from an unimpeachable source the following extraordinary account of the exploits of •Raymond, who had a remarkable career as war correspondent for New York and London papers. My informant, who knew him for over thirty years, says Raymond was employed in IS7G as a reporter on a Chicago paper. He w r as a handsome young man, very intelligent, and did his work in a Satisfactory way for a few months. Then, he resigned and disappeared. At the moment his salary account was somewhat overdrawn. "After meeting with some ups and downs," said the newspaper manager •who employed him, "I received a cable message one day from Cairo advising me that a battle had been fought, that he (Raymond) had been an eye-witness', and asking if I desired a report. I replied at once that I did, and he sent me an excellent description of the battle of Tel-el-Kebir - very truthful and very graphic. For this service he refused any compensation, pleading that he was my debtor and was glad to do me a service. Pie returned to America and encountered in Chicago Mr. Calhoun, toho within the past few days has been appointed American Minister to China. Mr. Calhoun identified Raymond as a former acquaintance whos'e name was not Raymond. It seems that he was the son of a president of a university in Western Pennsylvania. CALL ON MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

"On one occasion he appeared in Birmingham, called on Mr. Josepn Chamberlain, and announced himself as an orchid-farmer of New Jersey. Then he went to Stratford-on-Avon, to which city Mr. George W. Childs, the American philanthropist, had given a public fountain. There he announced himself as' a nephew of Mr. Childs, and after inspecting the fountain with great care, passed a number of bogus cheques and obtained several hundred pounds. Subsequently he appeared in 'Paris, called at the Hotel Bristol, and described himself as' the courier of the Khedive of Egypt, who was to arrive that evening. He took an expensive suite, told the manager that it was the Khedive's birthday, and that he desired to arrange a dinner in hjs Highness's honor. Elaborate preparations for a dinner of twenty-four covers were made. Finally Raymond announced that on the J " 1 " 1 - dive's birthday it was customary f<<. each member of his sliite to make him a small gift of jewellery, and asked the manager to send for an assortment of articles appropriate to the occasion. Jewels of considerable value were brought to his room. He selected a number and asked that they might be deposited in the hotel safe. When he 'iad established confidence he requested halt the jewels be sent to his room. "Ids having been done, he gathered •em together, walked out of the hotel, a::d took train for England. The jewels were valued at £3OOO. In IS9O he again ventured into Birmingham and palmed ofT a forged bill, ostensibly feigned by George Augustus Sala. He was traced to Lincolnshire and captured. On leaving s;aol he returned to the United States, and because of his extraordinary capacity was' appointed editor of a Philadelphia paper. In a few months, however, he was at his old tricks again. **<,?---Ji'-'-;-ji > J-'•-POSING AS A PROFESSOR.' "

I "He appeared in Milwaukee and Wis-' consin, described himself as a colonel in the British Army, and acted the part to perfection. He was taken int« a leading club and feted for a week. Then it was discovered lie had secured funds from almost all his new-made acquaintances in forged cheques. He was 'arrested and incarcerated for a month. A year or two later he turned up in 'New York and called upon the president of Columbia University, pretending to be the '.professor of English liter Hut:' from Oxford University.' After obtaining money he called upon the president of one of the leading banks, impersonated a partner in a London banking liouse, talked most intelligently upon economics, and secured more cash. As a result of this adventure lie w»; taken into custody. I was appealed to by his ifrtendfs to see him in gaol. I did so, and suggested that the only possible plea for him was one of insanity. Il believed then, and believe now, that it •would have been the proper one. To my amazement he rose and was about to strike me. 'Never,' he said, 'will i leave a stigma of that kind upon my family.' He was convicted and imprisoned for another term, during which he served in most extraordinary fashion as the editor of the prison newspaper, writing editorial articles of astonishing •worth. After he was liberated his ihealth broke down, and he was finally sent to (Nevada, where he died." admiral kennedvs experiences. About the year 18S7, when I was senior officer on the south-eastern coast of South America, I was in my cabin on board H.M.S. Ruby, when I was in(fornicd that a gentleman wished to sce'l me, sending in his card—"Mr. Walter j Ross Raleigh," special correspondent of The. Times, as he described himself. Tie I explained thaf lie had been sent out to* write, some articles' on Uruguay and the I Argentine Republic, and asked me to ] 3iolp him. T was rather surprised at , .ftis American accent, but was thrown } off my guard when he produced his j ."credentials, signed by Lord Salisbury I

(forged, of course), on Foreign Office (paper. 1 therefore offered to give liim cvory assistance, and gave him some note* 1 had written on the subjects lie wished. After a pleasant chat, for he wa« a most plausible fellow, ]«> departed, thanking me most cordially, and next day he returned the papers, saying that ho had been up all night reading 'them. He asked me to dine with him 'and his wife, which II did, and I saw no more of him, but his subsequent proceedings interested me considerably. He went up the river to Rosario, where he donned an American naval officer's uniform, presented himself to the American Consul as having come out to take command of an American gunboat, and borrowed £2OO on the strength of it. He then went on to Ascension, in Paraguay, gave a grand banquet there, which he never paid for, and left for Rio, and from thence to England. Arriving in 'England, he forged a cheque in my name and visited a school at Cheltenham or Bristol (I forget which), and told the headmaster" that he was firs't lieutenant of the Ruby, and had come Home with my wife and two sons (who never existed), that my wife died on the passage, and that in accordance with her last •wishes he had come to place the boys wt the school, but, having no ready cash, he gave a cheque before bringing in the boys. On the strength of this' 'he borrowed money from the headmaster, and was seen no more. He next went to Southampton and represented himself as the master of Lord Porckes•ter's yacht, and ordered a new set of sails, paying, as usual, by a bogus cheque over and above the order, and receiving the balance in cash. In like manner he gave an order for things for Lord 'Brassey's yacht, of which he said he was master. On my return to England I was interviewed by a detective from Scotland Xardj who produced my bogus 'cheque and showed me a photograph of 'Raleigh, whom I recognised. I afterwards heard that he was captured and ■got his deserts.