The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-24 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.-I{lay 23.

MANSION-HOUSE.—Yesterday having been
appointed for the re•examination of the two Ameri-
cans, John Weston and William Harper, who were
charged with being concerned in a system of rob-
bery at the London banking houses, the court was
crowded by officials from the principal banks, and
by persons who had been robbed, many of them to
a very large amount, for the purpose of seeing if
they could identify the prisoners ; and the proceed-
ings appeared to create very great interest.
The Lord Mayor presided ; and Mr. Mullens,
the solicitor to the Bankers' Association, appeared
in support of the prosecution ; Mr. Wontner
attended on behalf of the prisoners.
The accused are stylishly-dressed men, and both
wear a profusion of whiskers and monstachios: They
took a sharp look round the court the moment they
were placed at the bar, apparently for the purpose
of seeing if they could recognise any one among the
crowd.
It appears from information obtained by the
police, that during the last two months most exten-
sive robberies had been committed at the principal
banking houses in the City, the sum stolen in two
instances alone being £125. The mode adopted is
somewhat novel, and although simple, required a
good deal of tact and confidence on the part of the
operators. It appeared to be this. About 2or 3
o'clock in the afternoon,when a good deal of business
is going on at the banks, the prisoners went into dif-
ferent banking establishments, and when any one
was engaged in paying in or receiving money at the
counter, while he was engaged in counting it, one
of the prisoners would touch his elbow, or ask him
some question, and while his attention was thus at-
tracted the other had a portion of the money off the
the counter in an instant, and succeeded in getting
away with the booty before the loss was discovered.
Repeated complaints having been made of the loss
of large sums of money in this way, Hayden, who is
well known for his knowledge in these sort of
affairs, received special instructions in the matter,
and the result was that ho succeeded in apprehend-
ing the prisoners, by whom there appears to be no
doubt the greater portion if not the whole of these
daring robberies have been committed.
The following additional evidence was adduced
yesterday :
George Morris, a young man in the service of Mr.
Meyer, a cigar manufacturer in Prescott-street,
stated that on the 17th inst. he went to the Unity
Bank, in Cannon-street, and received cash for a
cheque for £4O 4s. 11d., £25 in gold, and the rest in
silver. He counted the gold first, and placed it in a
bag, which he screwed up and put on the counter,
and he was then about to count the silver, when
the'prisoner Weston leaned over him on the side
where he had placed the bag of gold, and then came
on the other side and asked him if he knew whether
they changed Irish notes at that bank. Witness
told him he did not know, and was then about to
go on counting the silver, but on turning his head
round he missed the bag of gold, and the prisoner
was gone. He immediately communicated his less
to one of the clerks, and shortly afterwards went to
the outside of the bank, but could not see any one.
There was only one gentleman in the bank besides
the prisoner at the time he took his money, and no
one but the latter could have taken it. He saw the
prisoner again at Bow-lane station, on Wednesday
last, and immediately identified him.
In answer to questions put by Mr. Wontner,
The witness said he was, of course, very much
alarmed when he found that his money was gone,
and the reason he did not rush out immediately after
the prisoner was, that he was afraid he might be
suspected by his master of having committed the
robbery himself, and thought it better to tell the
bank clerk what had happened.
By Mr. Mullens—He missed the bag of gold im-
mediately after the prisoner spoke to him.
Mr. Thomas Crowder, of the firm of Rose and
Crowder, shipwrights, Wapping, deposed that he
was in the Unity Bank at the time referred to, and
heard the prisoner ask whether he could get some
Irish bank notes changed at that bank. Witness
_ _

hought he addressed-. himself, and _ told him he

thought not, but the clerk would inform him, and
one of the clerks said that they did not change Irish
notes, but he could get them changed at Messrs.
Spielmann'a, the bullion dealers, in Lombard-street.
When the prisoner went out witness followed him,
and thinking that he was a stranger, offered to
show him the way, and they walked together a
short distance along Cannon-street, and he pointed
out the way to Lombard-street to the prisoner, who
thanked him in rather an abrupt manner and then
walked off in a contrary direction.
Another case was then gone into.
Mr. John James Goodchild, a dealer in horses in
Shoreditch, deposed that on last Tuesday week he
received from a friend outside the bank of Messrs.
Siiith, Payne, and Co., a sum of money in gold and
notes. The money consisted of three £3OO notes of
the Bank of England, £lOO in small notes and gold,
and it was in a bag. At the time the bag was
handed to him he saw the prisoner Harper standing
close by. Witness, after receiving the money, went
to the bank of Messrs. Masterman, in Nicholas-lane,
where he had to take up a bill for £145. He went
to the end of the counter and began to count out
the money for the bill, and laid some of the notes
by his side. While he was so engaged some one
touched him, as he thought, rather rudely on the
the shoulder, and upon his turning sharply round
he saw the prisoner Weston standing close to him,
with a piece of paper in his right hand, and the left
apparently behind him. Weston said to him, in a
sort of foreign accent, " Can you tell me vere I can
get change for one draft ?" Witness answered him
rather quickly and said at the next desk, and then,
upon looking at his money, he found that a £lOO
note was gone. The prisoner was at this moment
in the act of leaving the bank, and while witness
was scrambling up the rest of his money he suc-
ceeded in getting clear off. The witness stated that
he saw the prisoner Weston again at the Mansion-
house on Wednesday, and recognised him imme-
diately.

In answer to questions that were put by Mr.
Won tner the witness said that at first he was quite
puzzled at missing the £lOO note, and he looked
into the bag and shook it out thinking it might have
remained at the bottom. (A laugh.) He could not
at all make out how the accident had occurred, and
he felt in his waistcoat pocket, imagining that he
might have put it there by accident.
Mr. Mullens said that there was other evidence,
but he did not propose to call any more witnesses
upon this occasion, as inquiries were still going on,
and he, therefore, should ask his lordship to remand
the prisoners. _ _

They were accordingly remanded.
A respectably-dressed young man, named James
Saffery, and describing himself as a jeweller, was
brought before the Lord Mayor for re-examination,
upon a charge of uttering a forged order for a
cheque-book.

From the evidence adduced upon the former occa-
sion, it appeared that on the afternoon of the 16th
inst. the prisoner met a lad named Frederick Kim-
ber, in Coleman-street, and asked him if he would
go somewhere, and on receiving an answer in the
affirmative, the prisoner gave him a piece of paper,
and told him to take it to the Union Bank of Lou-
don, in Princes-street, and they would give him a
small book, which he was to take to the prisoner at
the White Swan, is Coleman-street. Thu lad took

the piece of paper to the Union Bank, and it turned
out to be an order for a cheque-book, purporting to
be signed by "Edward Stokes, jeweller, of Spencer-
street, Clerkenwell." There was no account kept
at the Union Bank in that name, and seeing that
the paper was not addressed to the Union Bank,
the cashier asked the lad where he came from, when
he explained how the paper came into his posses-
sion, and stated that he was to take it to the White
Swan. Mr. Rankin, the chief cashier, immediately
followed the boy to the public house, but the pri-
soner was not there and he left. It appeared,
however, from the evidence of the landlord that the
prisoner had been there earlier in the afternoon,
and after calling for a glass of beer told the land-
lord a boy would call presently and leave a small
book for him, and would he be kind enough to give
him a penny, and left a penny for that purpose.
The lad stopped after Mr. Rankin had left, and
shortly after saw the prisoner further down the
street, and upon pointing him out to Mr. Davis, of
the White Swan, ho with his brother went to the
prisoner, and took him to the Union Bank, and he
was given into custody.
From inquiries that have since been made, it
appears that the prisoner's career has been most
extraordinary, and there is no doubt whatever that
he has victimised a great number of tradesmen by
means of forged cheques. In one instance it appears
that he went to an undertaker near Highgate Ceme-
tery and gave an order for a grave. It should be
stated that the prisoner bears a very gentlemanly
appearance, and by this means seems to have thrown
tradesmen off their guard. Having given the
order for the grave he presented a cheque in pay-
ment, asked for the difference, and received £3 or
£4. Not content with this, he appears to have
gone to a mason, produced a long inscription from
his pocket, and given an order to have it en-
graved upon a gravestone, which was to be most
elaborately executed. He gave a description of the
pretended deceased, and in this instance also suc-
ceeded in obtaining the balance of a cheque. He
then appears to have gone to a well-known under-
taker's, where he gave an order for a stylish funeral,
which was to come to £35, and gave the address of the
alleged deceased in Russell-square. In this instance
he succeeded in obtaining change for a £5O cheque.
It need hardly be stated that the whole of the
cheques given by the prisoner turned out to be for-
geries, and the result of further inquiries has led to
the discovery that the cheques were all taken from
books that had been obtained by means of forged
orders of a similar character to the one sent to the
Union Bank. The additional evidence that was ad-
duced yesterday went to show that the prisoner seems
to have abandoned the funeral trade, and directed his
attention to persons in the woollen trade; and it
appeared that about the 12th April he went to Mr.
Gilpin's, a woollen-draper, No. 142, High-street,
Borough, where he selected some cloth, &c., to the
amount of £3 19s. 5d., in payment for which he gave
a cheque for £4, which he took from a book which
he had in his pocket, and wrote in the shop, as the
goods were to be sent to Trinity-square, the address
he gave. A few days afterwards he called at the
shop of Mr. Wray, a woollen •draper, in Surrey-
place, where he selected goods to the amount of £4
125., and ordered them to be sent to an address which
he gave, and upon their being taken home he took
a cheque-book from his pocket and wrote out a
cheque for £5, which be tendered in payment for
the goods and received Bs. change. He signed the
former cheque in the name of James Wilson, and
the latter in that of James Harris, and both cheques
were drawn upon the Union Bank of London.
Mr. Rankin, the chief cashier of the Union Bank,
stated there were no such accounts as those kept at
that bank, and also that the cheques had been taken
from the same book.

The prisoner appears to have acted with great
ingenuity. In each case he has given an address
somewhere in the neighbourhood, where the goods
have been sent and delivered to the prisoner, but
upon the frauds being discovered and the parties
going to the address, the prisoner was found to have
decamped, the person belonging to the house stat-
ing that he only went to look after apartments in
the morning, and engaged to take possession of them
in the evening, but had never since made his ap-
pearance.
Moss, the detective officer, who had the prisoner
in custody, said he believed there were other cases
of a similar character which could be brought against
the prisoner if he were again remanded.
Banyard, another detective' produced a cheque
also on the Union Bank, which be had received, and
which had. been passed in a similar manner by a
person whose description the prisoner answered
exactly, but the parties were not present to iden-
tify him, but they would be present if he were re-
manded. The cheque appeared to be in a similar
handwriting, and it was taken from a cheque book
which was the result of a burglary at the shop of
Mr. Williams, in the Minories, and was stolen from
an iron safe with a quantity of other things.
The Lord Mayor said there was quite enough
without remanding the prisoner, and ho was com-
mitted for trial.