The Detroit times., 1909-01-07
CAREER OF COURT
ENDED BY CHARGE
Of FRAUD
HE DISAPPEARS WHEN AMERi-
CAN WOMEN MAKE COMPLAINT
THEY SAY THEY LOST 100000
IN SPECULATION.

PARIS, Jan. IA complaint OF
fraud has been made with the Seine
tribunal against Banker Count Ha-
mon, of Paris. by Mrs. Julia p. New
ell and Miss Josephine Pomeroy, form
erly of New York city. They charge
that they received letter which was
signed by an employe of the bank OF
fering alluring inducements for In
vestment and they sent their whole
fortune, consisting of 100000 in rail
road stock. but have heard nothing
from the institution.
Count" Louis Hamon. formerly
known in America and Europe as
"Cheiro the palmist," and before that
as plain John Warner, is fugitive
from France and the entire American
and English colony Is discussing one
of the most meteoric and mysterious
careers which ever dazzled Partisan
society.
His sumptuous Offices, where he ed
tied a newspaper called the American
Register, and conducted a bank and
other enterprises, to which Americans
loaned capital, are bare and empty,
scores OF creditors having descended
The complanants declare that Ha-
mon agreed TO raise a loan OF 5000
through London banks on their stock,
but neither did this nor returned the
stock.
An examining magistrate opened an
Investigation, after which according TO
lannon's secretary, Hamon, learning
that a warrant was about TO be issued
for his arrest. left for London.
The secretary also admitted that
the women had entrusted their money
to Hamon for the purchase of stocks,
but said the deals resulted in heavy
losses, owing to q break in the mar
ket. He declared Hamon owed them
only $1,000.
Since he arrived In Paris in 1902,
when he transformed himself from
"Cheiro. the palmist." to Count Ha-
mon,' Hamon has had easy access to
society.
One OF his special friends was a
man known as "Abbe de la FreSnaye,"
whose scolarly and agreeable manner
secured for him entry into the most
exclusive circles. II was the "abbe"
who presented Hamon everywhere and
introduced him TO Mrs. Newell and
many others with whom later he had
business dealings.
There are reports that Hamon and
his friends. as the result of their high
connection, were able to arrange"
many marriages among people of high
standing in the Anglo-American col
ony.
Everybody talked OF the mysterious
Count" Hamon, his dashing manner,
his beautiful apartment, his horses.
his vast business ventures, including
a pretentious champagne enterprise
near Rheims, from which he supplied
many of the high-class restaurants in
Paris, and of his bank and his so
ciety paper advertised to the world
by big electric letters, which helped
to illuminate the gay place de rOpera.
But lannon's life before he came to
Paris was mystery. It was known
he had been "Cheiro, the Palmist,"
who, 1t was said, had acquired vast
erica, but how he had acquired the
title of count" was not known, nor
did that fact cause much anxiety.
Hamon Is now penniless, according
TO his secretary, who further stated
that he had lost 100000 in recent OPP
erations, and that he had been trying
to pay all his creditors, including Mrs.
Newell and Miss Pomeroy.
Their case, however, il is said does
not come under the jurisdiction of the
French laws, as the negotiations have
been entirely placed in England. from
which country Hamin is determined
to defend himself.