Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-27

that Beck was In prison for a second
o1enss was removed from his identi1-
cation number
with only this change in the verdict
Oh justice TO console him, Beck spent
the rest OF his term in prison, ever
clamoring that he was innocent.
But from the moment of his arrest
TO the time ne came out of prison there
were no more frauds perpetrated Of the
kind Tor which he and John Smith
Rad been convicted.
Immediately after Adolf Beck was
released on license from Peatonville
Prison he and his friends began an
agitation in the press and elsewhere TO
establish his innocence of the crimes
Tor which he had suffered. The agita-
ton attracted some notice but had no
definite result. and after year or two
the ripple it caused died out.
THEN, two years after Beck left
prison, Rose Reece, housekeeper
out of work, was accosted in Bond
street by the we'll dressed stranger We
have met in our account, and the stere-
otyped story was re-enacted. The villa
in ST. Johns Wood. the offer of the post
Of housekeeper, the generous ura1J of.
a bank to pay the cost of stylish FEM
inine outfit, the business of the rip--
all these were repeated. And. like her
sitter victims of former years, Rose
Reece believed and was deceived.
The following March the same old
fraud was repeated, with Pauline Scott,
a servant, as the victim.
Miss Scott went to the police with
her story They took her TO Store
street, Tottenham Court road. near
Adolf Beck's new lodgings in South
Crescent After several hours waiting
Adolf Beck. respondent in high silk
hat, correct In dress to the very tips OF
his shoes, came out of his house.
At once Miss Scott identified him as
the man who had stolen her jevelry
and money.
And cnce more Adolf Beck was ar
rested for the old familiar fraud. Once
again the newspapers recorded the ar
rest, and still other victims came to
look at Beck
Rose Reece identified him, and so
testified at the trial. Lily King.
another victim, identified him. So did
Caroline Singer and Grace Campbell.
With verdict compelled by these
identifications, Beck was once more
found guilty.
But now the clamor of innocence
raised by Beck and his friends became
so formidable that Judge Grantham.
before whom Beck was tried and found
guilty, felt there still must be some
thing behind the whole business that
needed looking into. He suspended
sentence in the case of Beck. 1t was
the utmost he could do. For i'm
mediately on Beck's arrest these Pc
culiar frauds ceased.
A ND there the matter would have
perhaps rested to the end Of time
had not bit of human carelesSneSs
come to rectify the series of enormous
blunders which justice had olindly
committed.
About the time that the / est of
the swlndles was being perpetrated,
Nellie ONeil and Evelyn Edwards we're
added to the now long list of women
defrauded BY a we'll dressed stranger
who promised them opulence ard stole
their rings. They did not ear of
Beck's arrest and trial.
Then on July Violet an< Beulah
Turner. actresses cut of work, were also
swindled of their rings in the same
way.
Later that day a pavnbroker by the
name OF Lawley quietly sent clerk out
for policeman.
There's a man pawning some rings
in my masters shop" the man said,
and Mr.. Lawley would like to have
you come and look him over There's
been lot in the newspapers about
ladies' rings of late, you know"
The policeman went with the clerk
and questioned the elderly we'll dressed
man who was trying to pawn several
rings such as only women wear The
man gave his name as William Thomas.
His explanation did not satisfy the
policeman, who arrested him.
The Turner sisters came and identi-
fled the rings as theirs and the man
as the thief. Nellie O'Neill and
Evelyn Edwards also identified him as
the man who had defrauded them.
On the basis of their charges and
evidence William Thomas was tried and
convicted.
He was sentenced to five years penal
servitude. Then he confessed that he
was the John Smith who had per-
petrated the bygone frauds and crimes
OF which Adolf Beck had twice been
found guilty
And among the spectators at the trial
and sentence was Adolf Beck himself!
Then 1t was that the Beck case
demonstrated to the eyes of all present
what heavy blow had bsen dealt to
the Importance which courts of law
nave placed upon identification by eye
witnesses. Although almost a score of
men and women have identified Beck
as Wyatt, alias Smith alias Thomas.
there was nothing in common between
the guilty man and the innocent except
bit OF stoutness in their appearance.
The government granted free pardons
to Beck for his two convictions. But
the august crown on the head of
British justice, as I have said. sits a
bit less easily than before his rnishap.
(Tl,a ExSN