New Britain herald., 1917-12-15
MUCH MARRIED MAN
 FINALLY SUCCUMbS
Worthington Made Good Living by Marrying Women With Honey

Crawford, better known as Rev. Ar
 thur Worthington," one of tho clev- crest characters in modern criminal history, died under dramatic circum- stances in jail here
 Crawford, who was 72 years old, collapsed when confronted by Mrs. Jennie. A. Showalter of Wilmington. Del, who identified him as a man she had married in July, 1sl6. under the name of Charles GrahAm Boone. Two months later, she says, he de- camped with 32.sso. all her savings. When the woman appeared before him yesterday he stared at her for moment, and then sank to the floor with a great Eroah. He was dead be- fore physician could reach him.
 Crawford had been In jail since January, when he was arrested for swindling the Rev. pr. Stanley of New Hamburg out of several hundred dollars while a member of the Pres bytery. After being deposed be hed, but was found in tho National sol- diers'. Home at Newport News.
 Crawford's career reads like an im- aginative story of criminal fiction. His years of crime reached nearly forty, and in that time, he is believed to have obtained fraudulently and spent more than $1,00O,OO0 and to have married ten women bIgamousiy.
 Up to the time he obtained the pas torate of the New Hamburg church he had posed as lawyer, banker, DO, litical orator, literateur, real estate operator. spiritualist organizer, free love exponent, Christian Science heal- er insurance agent. judge, captain. major. colonel and general in the reg nlar army, UnitaFian minister, Nor mon preacher. actor, prohibition lec- turer and member of long list of va rious cults
 Crawford never could blame his early start in life or his bringing up For his criminal propensities. He vas born in Saugertiesl and as a boy en- listed in the Civil war. After the war he studied law at Columbia and Graduated in the class of 1887.
 In 1868 he married the first of the women who have called him hus- oand. Two years later he deserted asr ana departed with all the money 10 could get. from her and her rIends. Then he took to horse trad 1 ng but conducted it in such a man Ter that he soon found himself in he Albany penitentiAry.
 Aftor his release he confined most l f his efforts to swindling women of l heir savings by marriage and deser- ] ion. On the side, however, he ] orged, begged and borrowed. An lctress wife, deserted after three ,ears, returned to the stage, saved her money and paid all his debts of which l the knew. l
 He continually led a stroller's life, and travelled to many foreign coun- tries. He esta blished 2 religious cult in New Zealand, but it was too much 1 for the New Zealanders and he was sent out of the country. He was next heard of in Tasmania, and then in where he was jailed for forgery and served seven years.
 Europe he travelled over without cost to himself, but greatly to the of others. and then re- turned to this country. One of his most remarkable achievements here was the obtaining of $s,Oo0 from the Mormons in Utah on some swindlinE pretense.
 Only once in his career did Craw- ford work in partnership with anoth- CT. That was in 1881 and 1882, when he joined forces with notorious Eng fish swindler known as Lord Ash ton." In those years Crawford was known as Arlington Buckingham 'Wrothington. The pair got into society in Chicago and Bos. ton. parting with each other in tho city, where Crawford started his operations among the spir- itualists.
 In 1886 he appeared in Griffin, Ga, where he met an heiress to $60,0OO and married her. He was then pos