The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-11-28
POLICE WARMED
To Be ON THE
LOOKOUT
Man Alleged to be one of the
Most Wonderful Beats in Mod
ern Times, Finally Came to
Grief in Queensland.

High Sheriff Brown has received
from the Commissioner of Police at
Brisbane a type written letter asking
him to be on the lookout for a man
who is alleged to be one of the most
wonderful swindlers of modern times.
His name is given as Donald McLean
with a number of aliases. His system
of swindling makes victims of the gov
ernment owned railroads of Australia,
and includes medical phenomena which
have set the medical profession of the
Australian colonies by the ears.
1t was his last attempt to work his
scheme to the detriment of Queens
land, that brought him to grief. In this
case he sued the railway commission
ers for Queensland for 10000 pounds
damages for personal injuries alleged
to have been received on one of the
government owned railroads of Queens
land, by reason of the negligence of
one of the railway employees.
The allegati tions upon which his suit
was based were that he was travelling
on the railroad, and he and another
man, a stranger to himself, were the
only occupants of the compartment. He
got up from the seat to get something
out of his travelling bag which was
hanging on a hook in the compartment,
when a sudden lurch of the car threw
him against the door, which had been
negligently left unfastened by the
guard, and the door sprung open and
he was thrown to the ground When
found he was conscious but paralyzed
from head to foot. He was taken to a
hospital where he remained six months
up to the time the case came to trial,
and he was brought into court on a lit
ter, and during the whole course of his
trial was never seen to-JmOve a muscle
of his body. The nurses and physicians
of the hospital testified that during the
whole six months he was there he had
not been known, sleeping or waking to
move a muscle, and expert medical tes-
timony was given to show the nature
of his paralysis and the probability Of
its permanent On the other side the
Attorney General for the Colony pre-
sented expert testimony from equally
prominent physicians to show that he
was not paralysed at all, but was SIM
ply shamming, and that there was
nothing but his own will to prevent
him from where he lay in the court
room and walking out.
But in addition to this the Attorney
General presented evidence to show
that this same man had in 1900 recov-
cred damages from the railway COM
missioners of New South Wales, for
exactly the same kind of injuries oc-
"urring in exactly the same kind of
that he had worked the same kind of
a game on the government railway
commissioners of the Colony of Vic
toria and on those of the Colony of
: West Australia.
The jury in the Queensland case
brou8ht in a verdict against the i'm
posteIs and no sooner was he out of
the c2Nrt-room than he proved the err
ror, or his own experts and the truth of
the governments experts by getting up
from his bed and fleeing from Queens
land. The Queensland Government,
however, began proceedings against
him for fraudulently attempting TO OBJ
tain money from the government. and
the authorities are now searching for
him, The last trace of him was in Mel
bourne. IL 80
The physical capacities ofNthe hl9n,
besides his daring mental ones, which
enable him to carry out for months his