SPOOKS AND SPOOF

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 301, 17 June 1912, Page 3

SPOOKS AND SPOOF

A REMARKABLE CASE. London, May 1. Claud Hamilton Tzard and his wife Rhoda, who are said to be well known throughout Australasia in connection with spiritualism, were arraigned at the Central Criminal Court this week on a charge of obtaining by false pretences from Thomas Syms various sums ranging from £5 to £3O, and further for stealing the money. It was a most remarkable case, with an entirely unexpected and dramatic ending. According to prosecuting counsel, Mrs Izard claimed that she had been in communication with the spirits of alleged departed persons, and it was alleged that through lier power to transmit such material things as letters and banknotes, a very considerable sum of money passed into her hands and the hands of her husband from Syms. It was further alleged that either by the spirits or by Mrs Izard, under their control, telegrams were sent to Mr Syms from such materialistic places as the Post Office, London, and again that, over £3OOO, all in bankndtes, was sent through Mrs Izard for the use and benefit of various persons in the spirit world, and who were said to be operating in speculative securities for the ultimate benefit of Mr Syms. But the whole of the banknotes sent by Mr Syms were used for such prosaic purposes as the payment of rent, the payment of the pawnbroker, and the grocery and butcher's bills. Mr. Syms was a solicitor with a large practice in London and Manchester, but in July, 1911, he became bankrupt, when it was found that he had misappropriated £!)89 received on behalf of a client. He pleaded guilty, and, in view of statements made by him, sentence was postponed, while criminal proceedings were opened against the Izards. Some years ago Syms seemed to have formed a deep attachment for a lady who died in 1906. Eventually he became' acquainted with Mrs Izard, who posed as a medium from Australia, and she promised to put Syms into touch with his friend, who was known throughout the business as "M.L.0." (My Loved On,e). Mrs. Izard represented that she communicated with the other world' ■through a:'"Dr"R." and "Dr W." the latter was: a doctor of divinity who died many years.ago, and "Dr R." died in Mel-: bjohrne seventy years ago. In each of the years 19067-1907, 1908 over 100 seances were held at a, fee, of 5s per time. In the course of time messages, for "M.L.0." : delighted the heart of Syms. His 1-e.tters to the spirit were addre'sseid t6 ! "Dr of Mrs Izard. Between this earth and the unseen world a regular 1 , postman was employed—a Frenchman who lost his head during the French Revolution.. This postman took the-let. j ters to the spirit world, dematerialised theim to make them, visible, and reinaterialised them again when they got to the other world, so that the spirits could read the actual communications of the living. ■ . Counsel described how Syms was induced to send money from time to time to a "Rescue Society," which he was told the spirits were conducting. The melancholy side of the case was that the business of Syms began to fail, and on ond occasion he wrote: "I have to find my bankers £IOO on Tuesday. I have not £2O at my command." Yet, apparently, such was the influence of spiritualism upon him that the Izards could get) him to accept, as genuine a letter purporting to come from "M.L.0." in the following terms: —"My dearest H. Dr. Reeves was .going to write to you when he ,baw I panted an excuse, and very kindly gave way. He wants you to send, him £lO in two £5 notes. He wants it even if you have to pawn to get it. Send it by letter, so that the medium will not know."

Syms sent two notes, which found their way to the grocer. In the course of other letters Syms said that "the dock and cell" were his future, if he could not repay the money he was taking to 'satisfy the, demands of the spirits.. said counsel, the Izards had no me jcy, aiid they continued to send him these forged letters until they had tfb-' tained;from him hundreds of pounds. But while they were obtaining money by the "spirits" the Izards were also not abqve borrowing a little for themselves; and when it was!known that Claud Izard was >a "punter," ihe reason was obvious. The question was, had not the defendants used spiritualism for the sole, purpose-'of' a vulgar swindle, easily car-' ried out upon' a man who was ready to' believe anything connected with -the subject,.,for the purpose of arriving at a communication with the woman he loved? ''■'■■■• The examination and the cross-exam-ination of the parties to the case took a long time, but it js quite unnecessary to go into details, for when the trial was resumed on Tuesday Syms made an 'admission that disclosed the faet that he was, not.the "softy", he had pretended to be. • So far- from being taken in ■by; the spiritualistic humbug of the. Izards, he had been using it as a cloak to ,cover'ihis illicit intercourse with Mrs Izard, and for misconduct with another medium. He admitted misconduct with Mrs Izard and owned to the naternity of child Bertha, but, of course, denied that forwarding money-to the "spirits" was a cloak' for sending it to the female defendant so as to conceal matters from the husband. Izard, he said, knew nothing of his relations "with Mrs Izard, whose lapses' from the path of virtue Syins suggested occurred whilst she was in trances. ■ In result the jury stopped the case, and the defendants were discharged,, with a caution from the judge to drop dabbling in" spititualism, lest they found themselves being dealt with as rogues ;ind vagabonds.