The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-20 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCF.,—Feb. 19.

THAMES.—EXTRAORDINARY IMPOSTURE AND
ASSUMED MADNESS.—A tall and rather well-
dressed man, 39 years of age, who gave the name
of James Christie, and who in carrying on his im-
positions has assumed the names of Ring, Thomp-
son, Christmas, and Johnson, was charged before
Mr. Woolrych on remand, charged with obtaining
various sums of money, wearing apparel, and re-
freshments, from the friends and relatives of pri-
soners in the Coldbath-fields House of Correction,
by falsely representing he was a warder of that
prison.
The first case was stated by George Pavitt, an
ex-police-constable, who was superannuated on a
pension of 24 years' service, and who now keeps an
oyster, wine, and refreshment-house, at No. 20,
Grace's-alley, Wellclose•square. His wife was
committed to prison a few weeks since for two
months for an aggravated assault on her servant
girl. Five days afterwards the prisoner waited
upon Mr. Pavitt, and said he was a warder of the
Houseof Correction, and his wife was also a warder
in charge of female prisoners, and placed over
Mrs. PaVitt. The prisoner represented that Mrs.
Pavitt was very ill, and wanted more food and a
few comforts, and that she had sent him for £2.
Pavitt, believing the prisoner's story, gave him the
money he asked for. Three days afterwards the
prisoner again waited on Mrs. Pavitt, and said a
petition was being prepared by Messrs. Lewis, the
attorneys, in Ely-place, to obtain a remission of the
sentence, and that £2 was required to pay Messrs.
Lewis for their trouble. Mr. Pavitt gave the pri-
soner £2 more, and received a written acknowledg-
ment for the same, signed "T. H. Johnson." On
Monday the prisoner called a third time at Pavitt's
house, and saw his son, a boy about 13 years of age,
to whom he said, " I can see you are Mrs. Pavitt's
son. She will soon be out of prison. The petition
has gone to the Home Office. The boy, who had
previously received instructions from his father, re-
quested the prisoner to call again, and upon his
leaving the house, followed him until he met with
a police-constable, No. 151 H, and gave him into
custody. The prisoner ran away, and after a long
chase was secured. He then said, "If my arm was
well J would not be taken alive. I would give you
something if it was well."
Mr. George Lockyer, one of the principal warders
of the House of Correction, said the prisoner was
not a warder there, nor was his wife ever employed
there in any capacity. He knew them both well.
The prisoner, who assumed an idiotic air, here
walked out of the dock towards the gaoler's roam,
and upon Roche, the gaoler, seizing him he stood
still, and was forced back to the dock ; Roche ex-
claiming "Attend to the charge against you; that
is all gammon ; it won't do for me."
The prisoner staring at the ceiling, said—" I was
21 years a warder ; I am the son of the Duke of
Cambridge; I am Commander,in-Chief ; I took his
place when the Duke resigned. I was governor
and head warder."
Mr. Lockyer—That is all put on, your worship;
he is quite sane.
Mr. H. West, a brewer in the Commercial-road
East, and overseer of Rateliff, said—The prisoner
came to me two weeks ago, and said he was a war-
der in the House of Correction, and that a tenant
of mine who had been committed from this court
for a month for a common assault was in want of
food and could not get sufficient to eat, and wished
me to advance £2. Believing the prisoner was what
he represented, I gave him two sovereigns for my
unfortunate tenant, and he gave me a receipt, and
signed it in my presence. (The receipt, signed "T.
H. Johnson," was handed to the magistrate).
Mr. West's tens nt,who has been recently liberated,
said he did. not know the prisoner, and never autho•
rised him to call upon Mr. West.
The Prisoner—l do not know that gentleman.
I have bought a large estate—the largest in the
world.
Mr. Woolrych—This will not do. You have
become mad since Monday evening. You were
rational enough then.
A poor woman said her husband was in the House
of Correction, and the prisoner called upon her and
said he was a warder, and that her husband had
not enough to eat nor sufficient clothing. She
could not send her husband any food, but she gave
the prisoner a flannel shirt and a pair of drawers,
which he said he would give to her husband.
Another woman—My son is in prison. The pri-
soner came to me and said he had been a warder of
the House of Correction seven years and wanted £2
for my son, which I gave him.
Mr. Lockyer was recalled and said—l have been
in the employ of the County of Middlesex 22 years.
I know the prisoner well. A more artful and de-
signing impostor never lived. I was present when
he was convicted on the Ist of July last, at the
Middlesex session, for obtaining money from people
to whom he represented himself to be a warder of
the House of Correction. He then gave the name
of John Williams. He obtained ls. from the wife
of Joseph Brown, a prisoner ; £4 from Mr. Harman
King's landlord, while that gentleman was in pri•
son; £2 from Mrs. King; £lO from a builder, the
relative of a prisoner. I was directed by the As-
sistant Judge to make inquiries about the prisoner.
His wife, a most respectable woman, daughter of
a solicitor, was living in the neighbourhood of Bar-
bican. She had been long separated from him. On
the 16th of July last he was again brought up at
the Sessions House, and sentenced to 18 months'
imprisonment and hard labour. Directly the pri-
soner was removed to the gaol he assumed madness,
for the purpose of shirking the work assigned to him,
and he was sent to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum,
from which he was discharged a few weeks since.
Mr. Woolrych—And he has escaped two-thirds
of the sentence.

Mr. Leckyer—He has, Sir. He is not mad, but
the greatest rogue in the metropolis.
The Prisoner—l was head warder, and governor,
and commander-in-chief—that fellow was under me.
Mr. Woolrych—l shall treat you as a person
perfectly sane, which I am sure you are, and com-
mit you for trial for obtaining £4 from Mr. Pavitt,
and £2 from Mr. West, the brewer. There is no
occasion to take the evidence in the other cases.
Two charges are enough.

WESTMINSTER.—HEARTLESS ROBBERY.—A
man in the uniform of the Indian Artillery, wear-
ing ribands for medals upon his breast, about 40
years of age, and giving the names of Charles
Williams and Samuel Hambrook, was charged be-
fore Mr. Paynter with robbery.
Jane Gettings, of 4, Ebury-place, Castle-lane,
Westminster, wife of a private in the Grenadier
Guards, said----On Tuesday week, this man came to
my place and represented himself as a messenger
from the War-office, He had some papers in his
hand, and asked the names of the person who kept
the house. My landlady told him, and he then
asked if she had a son in India. She said " No ; but
I have a perscm lodging in my house who has,"
meaning me. He then came into my room and
asked me my name. I said " Gettings," and he
replied, "Yes, that is the name; I have come from

the War-office." lie asked me the name of my sell
in India. I replied, "John." He asked roe what
regiment he belonged to. I said, "The .56th." Ha
looked at the pallets he held in his hand, and said
that was right. He then asked me when he left for
India, and I told him the 25th of July twelvemonth,
and he said that was al3o right. He then said, "I
have come to tell you some news, to come and
receive some money from the War-office ; that is
why I have asked you these questions." I replied,
"I dare say you have come to tell me my poor boy
is dead," and 1 began crying. He said, "I am not
supposed to tell you, but if you will promise me not
to mention it, I will." I said, " I shall be so much
obliged if you know he is dead to tell me ;" and he
then told me that he had been dead four or five
months. Prisoner said he had just come from India,
and knew my son well ; that he was bad six weeks
with a fever, and was talking with him two days
before he died. Prisoner then complained of being
very tired, and said he had been two hours finding
my pram out. I asked him if he would take some re-
freshment, and on his replying he would, I sent my
little boy out for a pint of ale and a half-quartera
of cheese. To pay for this I had to pull a box from
under the bed, unlock it, and take some money from
30s. 3d. which I had saved up, and had it there in
a half-pint pot. I did that in the prisoner's pre-
sence, and pushing the box back under the bed,
left the key in it. Directly the little boy was
gone out ho asked me whether the landlady was
my sister, observed that she seemed much interested
in his coming, and said, " Why don't you go Cow!'
and tell her what has happened ?" I immediately
went down stairs, leaving him alone with my little
girl, six years old, and the infant. As soon as I
had gone he said to the little girl " Go and look
after your mother," and she put the baby down and
came. to me. I returned directly to the room for
fear the infant should get into harm. My little
boy came in, and prisoner had the bread and cheese
and ale, and then shaking hands with me, he
said very kindly, " Don't fret," and told me he
would be back at three• o'clock with a cornelian
stone and letters he had received from my son. Its
tcn minutes after he had gone I found the bex had
been moved, and all the money gone but 10s. 2d.
I suppose he had taken as much as he could get out
of the half-pint pot at once by putting his hand
into it in the box, as he could not have had much
time, I was back in the room so quick. He was
seen running down Castle-lane as fast as he could
when he left my place. He never came back.
Edward Fright, 314 B, said the prisoner NOS
given into his custody on the previous night. On
the charge being read over to him at the station-
house, of stealing 19s. 6d., he replied that, " That
was double the amount."
Prisoner, who said that he was not in the arm,'
now, did not offer a word in reply to the charge,
and was remanded until Saturday.

COUNTRY .MARKE2S.

... ,V

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE —FEB. 18.
At our Exchange to-day there was a fair attendance °I
farmers. The trade was quiet, but firm, and prices for
wheat were uzchanged. Flour steady. Malting barley
was dull, at late rates.