The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-19
HOBBIES OF
GREAT CRIMINALS
Some Build Mission Halls,
Write Plays and Collect
Butterflies.

It is quite a mistake, said an ex-
official of New Scotland Yard, London,
to the writer, to imagine that great
criminals are really men of debased
tastes and without culture or refine
ment. AS matter of fact, they are
frequently as intellectual and cultured
as the counsel who prosecuted them;
and many Of them are men of noted
philanthropy.\
Take R, for instance. the railway
clerk who defrauded his employers out
of 6 10000. He had positive mania
for charitable work of every kind.
When his days work at the office was
over he would spend hours in expIor-
ing the slums and relieving the dis
tress he found there with a lavish
hand. In these poverty stricken dis
tricts he was simply worshiped and re-
garded in the light of benevolent an
gel; and it was characteristic of the
man that he was arrested in the very
act of disposing Of the balance of his
ill-gotten gains in charity.
Then there was B, another noto-
riouS embezZler, who for years had
been robbing his employers in the city
at the rate Of many thousands a year.
He lived in the simplest style in a
small house at Highbury, and practi-
cally gave away every penny he had.
He gave large sums to charitable soci-
cites, built and supported two mission
halls, and seemed never so happy as
when he was relieving poverty and dis
tress.
A very remarkable criminal was
W, a clerk in a London insurance
office, who by clever system Of ma
nipulating passbooks put as much as
$4,000 in his pocket in a single year.
Although his salary was only 22O0 a
year. he lived in one of the most ex-
pensive houses in the West end gave
lavish entertainments, and was re-
garded as millionaire patron of the
arts.
He had passion for all things the
atrical, and was lessee of more than
one London theater, where he produce
ed plays with a prodigal disregard Of
expense, engaging none but the best
companies. In this way he squander-
ed his money at the rate of tens of
thousands a year until the crash came,
and he found himself in the dock at
the Old Bailey. Even when he was
sentenced to ten years penal servitude
he showed no sign of contrition
"At any rate" he said, philosoph-
ically, Il have made. good use of the
money, and it will be some time before
my productions are forgotten"
1t is a curious and interesting fact
that men who rob their fellows in this
colossal way rarely spend the money
in purely selfish forms, but usually in
Of I0I
others. Take the case of H, the
fraudulent solicitor, whose name is
still eXecrated by scores of victims. His
hobby was art, and every penny that
he could raise by his dishonest prac-
tees went in the purchase of pictures.
He was perfect Providence to I'M
known and struggling artists, many OF
whom. know, he started on prosper
Gus careers. In a single year he spent
6 $4,000 on pictures-at least twenty
times as much as his honest" income;
and he always had his house full of
men of the brush, whom he entertained
like so many princes.
R, again, whom 1 dare say you
will remember, got through nearly
6 5000 in an incredibly short time, al
though he was only transfer clerk on
a pound or so a week His ambition
was to be recognized as a great play
wright, a nineteenth-century Shake
speare; and in order to raise the funds
to produce his masterpiece he traffick-
ed in the share certificates that passed
through his hands.
Several of his dramas were produced
in this way in London, with the most
expensive of casts and furnishings and
they were well spoken of by the press.
Possibly, if he had pursued more hon.
est methods, he might today have been
a successful dramatist. But, of course,
his bubble burst, and he was arrested
while banqueting with some Of the
men who fawned on him and pocketed
his stolen gold.
Charles Peace was never happier
than when playing his violin, on which
he was an expert. Hamond, one of the
most callous and cold-hearted MUIR
derers in the annals of crime, was a
learned antiquary, who spent his days
in the harmless, If dry, environment Of
musty books and relics.
Hooker, another famous murderer
was an entomologist as guileless- look
ing a man of science as you could
meet, and he was actually arrested
with butterfly net in his hand; and
when Roper, the great forger and
coiner, was run to earth at last he was
found with a half-composed hymn on
the table before him, and on his shelves
were volumes of manuscript verse, all
of highly moral and elevating tone.