A DANGEROUS CRIMINAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9579, 27 August 1909, Page 3

A DANGEROUS CRIMINAL.

! ON BOARD THE WAUATAH,

I Amongst the passengers on the ' missing ocean liner Waratah is a 1 dangerous criminal, named John Mc- : Loughlln, who is well-known to the ' police in various parts of the world, ' including New Zealand. His voyage in the overdue voyage vessel is .• < one of pleasure; he is being conduud from Queensland to Africa tinner ihe guardianship of two constaLl s i f ; the Transvaal police. For i:fn:!y fourteen years the police of Suutu ; Africa had searched, lor him, and ; finally he was? arrested last March, on a steamer on the Brisbane liiver, 1 on a charge of having murdered two I men in Johannesburg in 1895. Tne crime, at the time, it was perpetrated, created a sensation throughout all civilised South Africa. The New Zealand police had some dealings with M'Loughlin, or McLachlan. He came i::to this country with a reputation of being a notorious cracksman and safe robber at Johannesburg, and as he was a miner there, it was well kr.ovvn that he had a good knowledge of explosives. Special enquiries were immediately made. He arrived in Auckland from India by the s.s. ML Siricn, and Oil the 25th November, 1895, was sentenced, under i.ame of Thomas Kenny, to twelve month's' imprisonment for having housebreaking implements in his possession. For a similar offence he was sentenced in 1897, under the name of Thomas Kenny, alias John Dell, to three years in gaol. Again he was sentenced in Lyttelton to 14, days' imprisonment for' being a stowaway. He left Christchurch on the 10th November last, by train, going south. He kit of tools with him, and intended travelling round the country doing tinsmith work. He had also been doing the backblocks as a cook. Some time afterwards he was heard of as being an inmate of a prison in Queensland. although minus one hand, was apparently never hampered on that score in his cracksmanship efforts. It is sta:ed that sometimes he used in the course' of his "profession" a false hand, screwed on to his wrist.