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Show AN ENGLISH DREYFUS. Astonishing Case of Adolph Beck Imprisoned as Another Man Released and Again Imprisoned Impris-oned Miraculous Escape Offered Money Gonsolation by the Government. A most astounding case of criminal conviction through mistaken Identity, coupled, some think, with unbelievable stupidity, and complicated by a set of circumstances that would not receive credence cre-dence If woven into fiction, has been absorbing public attention in London and throughout England. Eng-land. Adolp Beck twice convicted of fraud, once sentenced to seven years penal servitude, which he served, and, at the last moment, miraculously saved from another sentence of ten or fourteen years is the central character in the remarkable series of incidents that is occupying public attention. atten-tion. Beck was entirely innocent of tho crime with which he was charged fraud yet he was adjudged guilty despite his impassioned plea for justice. And, queerly, the testimony by which he was held on the hearing in the justice's court, would, if admitted in the higher court, have cleared him. j The story begins in 1877. In London, In that year, a man who courted obscurity under the name of John Smith, was convicted of defrauding one Louise Leonard of earrings, a finger-ring, and eleven shillings. Smith had formed the acquaintance acquaint-ance of the complaining witness, had told her that he was Lord Willoughby, that he had a house in St. John's Wood, and that he wanted a housekeeper. house-keeper. Under this pretense he borrowed her jewelry, jew-elry, in order, he said, that he might have it duplicated du-plicated in better material, and also money, giving her a check on the Union Bank for the latter. Other women testified to having been defrauded t by Smith in the same manner. The case was plain against him, and he was convicted and sentenced to five years. This all happened away back in 1877. In 1896, nineteen years afterward, similar crimes were committed. Tho method used was about the same as employed by Smith in 1877, so it was agreed among the police that he was at his old tricks. A man supposed to be Smith was arrested. He swore that he was Adolph Beck. Eliss Spur-rell, Spur-rell, who had arrested Smith in 1877, swore that Beck was Smith. Fanny Nutt, a victim of the second series of frauds, swore that Beck was the man who, by pretending that he had a house in St. John's Wood, and needed a housekeeper, obtained ob-tained her jewelry and gave her a check on tho Union Bank. Other girls testified to a similar experience. To some of them he said that he was Lord de Wilton. Same crime, same methods, same man what more could the iustico want? So Beck, alleged to be Smith, ex-convict, was bound over to be tried in the Old Bailey for a felony. His trial there was a remarkable one. All the evidence in the police court trial showed that the rascal of 1877 was the rascal of 1896 that Smith, long after his release from prison, had adopted his former way of making a living The police judge was satisfied that Beck was Smith, and as Smith he was sent to the Bailey for final trial. But there, strange enough, tho Smith contention was dropped in fact, was forced out. Spurrell, the policeman who had identified iden-tified him, did not tostify. Had Spurrell appeared there it would have been conclusively proven that Beck was not Smith, for Major Lindholm, Gentleman Gentle-man of the Chamber to the King of Denmark, swere that Beck was in Lima, Peru, in 1880. Smith, at that time, was in jail. Colonel Josiah Harris, an unimpeachable witness, swore that he knew Beck in Lima from 1875 to 1882. The consul-general consul-general of Peru in Liverpool swore that he knew Beck in Lima in 1882. But, to the judge, this had nothing 'to do with the case It was ruled that whether or not Beck was the Smith of 1877 had nothing to do with the case. He wos the man who, shortly before, had swindled servant-girls. The girls had Identified him, and that was enough. Yet, had Spurred been allowed to testify in the Old Bailey and swear that Beck was Smith, the case would have fallen flat, for the evidence of the witnesses quoted would have proved that Beck and Smith could not be the same. Similarly with the handwriting expert's testimony. He tangled himself. He swore that the Union Bank checks of 1877 and 1896 were in the same hand, which was not Beck's hand. To offset that he swore that Beck, in writing the checks, had used a disguised hand. Yet, Beck was in Peru in 1877. He could not have written the checks issued that year. How, then, could he have written the checks of 1896, which, as admitted by the expert, were written writ-ten by the hand that wrote the first ones? But this testimony was not admitted. It would have Oleared Beck, taken in connection with his alibi. Beck was convicted. Then came an astounding thing. The police-court proceedings and Spur-rell's Spur-rell's testimony was resurrected, and Beck was sent to Portland jail as Smith, with a first con-fiction con-fiction against him and this after testimony to show that he was not Smith had been excluded from the trial. Beck went to prison. He "banged the tins, he bawled the hymns," with the rest of them. For two years he was there, a crushed, bewildered man, before he discovered that the Smith who was convicted in 1887 was a Jew. Beck sent a petition pe-tition to the home office asking that the prison doctor be allowed to examine him. This was done, and the doctor reported that Beck was not a Jew. The home office removed the stlgmaof previous conviction from him, thereby admitting that he was not the Smith that he had been designated desig-nated on the prison record but he remained in jail. He forwarded one petition after another, setting set-ting forth his case as I have presented it the fact that he was not Smith, and that it must have been Smith who committed both series of crimes. Beck sent a dozen or more of these petitions, but they were ignored. He was released when ho had finished fin-ished his term then came another remarkable chapter. After his release, in 1901, Beck lived with George R. Sims, the journalist, who had known him in 1888, who had always believed him Innocent, Inno-cent, and who has just furnished the Dally Mail Iwith a series of letters which are a scathing arraignment ar-raignment of the courts, the home office, and all (j who were connected with the incidents by which I Beck was proclaimed a felon. While with Sims, Beck devoted his time to attending to the business busi-ness he had been pursuing when convicted, and in trying to establish his innocence. He spent over a thousand pounds in this manner, and fought valiantly to clear his name of the smirch upon It. His plea was attracting public attention, when an astounding thing happened. Smith appeared again; defrauded servant-girls; Smith claimed to be Lord Willoughby, with a house in St. John's Wood; Smith gave his victims checks on the Unlcn Bank, and Beck was arrested as the criminal. Gasp with astonishment, If you will, but the records bear out my statements that, on July 15, 1904, Beck Iwas again arrested as being the man of 1877, and the man he had in 1896 proved himself not to be. In this last trial Pauline Scott was the principal princi-pal witness. She had been swindled out of a gold-rlng, gold-rlng, a watch, and one pound by a man who had called himself Lord Willoughby, who wanted a housekeeper for his establishment in St. John's Wood, who gave her a check on the Union Bank. The police went to work on the case. They discovered dis-covered that Beck ate in a certain restaurant. Pauline Scott was placed where she could watch him, and she said he was the man. On this testimony, tes-timony, and similar testimony by other girls, he was convicted a second time, and at the trial the same handwriting expert who had testified In 1896 swore that the checks written in 1877, in 1806, and In 1904, were by the same hand that they were in Beck's disguised handwriting. Beck's counsel tried to resurrect former testimony, to show the impossibility of Beck and Smith being the same, but he was convicted, and sent to jail to await sentence. Then tho miracle happened. While Beck was in jail, awaiting sentence, an inspector of the detective department accidentally turned Into the police department one morning and asked if there were any prisoners. He was told that there was a man there charged with defrauding de-frauding two servant girls by a trick. The inspector in-spector knew of the Beck case, and with it in mind went in to see the prisoner. He saw upon his chin the scar for which vain search had been made on Beck when he was on trial In 1896. He exclaimed, "John Smith," and reported his discovery discov-ery to his chief. An investigation was made, and, two days fater, Beck was set free. At last he was cleared of the charges against him at last it was publicly acknowledged that Adoiph Beck vnd Adolph Beck, not John Smith. The case is a remarkable instance, for 'one thing, of the unreliability of identification by Ignorant Ig-norant people. The girls who gave damaging testimony tes-timony against Beck In 1896 and in 1904, swore that Beck was the man who had defrauded them, and Spurrell swore that he was the Smith of 1887. Yet, now that the real Smith has been found, it is discovered that there is little resemblance between be-tween them. Besides this Is the fact that Beck, who is a Norwegian, speaks English with a foreign for-eign accent and think of a man with a Norwegian accent trying to impersonate an English lord! Bock has been offered two thousand pounds by the government as compensation If he will ler the case drop. He has rejected It, and demanded an investigation. The Daily Mail, which, with almost al-most the entire press behind It, is clamoring for a public ventilation of tho whole affair, has guaranteed guar-anteed him two thousand pounds in case he fails to receive it from the government. Beck calls his prosecution a conspiracy. He can not be blamed very much; and any one is justified jus-tified in pronouncing it a piece of colossal stupid-ity stupid-ity on the part of his prosecutors. Piccadilly, In The Argonaut. |