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Show "UIIOKC THC UANK." The llan Who 111,1 II. I h.tl.a Hills VV.IW, .lull Out lit I'rLoa. Charles Hills Wells, "the man who broke tho bank at Monto Carlo," one of the most accomplished swindlers In the world, was released from Portland convict prison, In Kngland, recently. He waa sentenced In 1891 to seven ears' penal servitude for obtaining 1150,000 on false pretenses. Eight years ago the whole1 world was talking and singing songs about the luck of "Tho Man Who llroke the llank at Monte Carlo." Wells' phenomenal winning begnn In 1891. In July of tbat year be Is said to have won 1100,000, and In the following November $H0,-000 $H0,-000 more On one night In November he broke the bank Ave times and won 150,000, Casino frequenters gave him the name of "llonne-Chance" Wells. ("Oood-I.uck" Wells, that means) Wells claimed to have an Infallible system, To operate with It a capital of 130,000 was required Ita chief point was to catch "runs" or "series" and then bet the minimum stakea of 5,000 francs or tho maximum stakea of 15,-000 15,-000 francs. With luck against him ho bet the minimum stakes. In following this s)stem on ono occasion he took all the one hundred and all the ono thousand franc bank notes supplied to the trente et quarante table, and tbo crouplera had to pay one deal In small notes and gold pieces until the cashier had brought another 12.000 to the table. ta-ble. He Insured himself against tho bank's odd chance or "refalt" by setting set-ting aside n special fund of 1 per cent on his stakes. This cost him 13,000 a day. Wells lived In tondon, and every day he sent bis winnings to bis London Lon-don bankers. Whenever he encountered encoun-tered a period of III luck he went homo to Kngland for a season. At play he waa quick and cool. Winning or losing, los-ing, he never lost his brad. At the height of his success' be bought a yacht of 2 000 tons the ratals rat-als lloal-aml fitted It out most luxurious!). lux-urious!). IK appointments were superb, su-perb, o - h id stewards attended to th coi ' r of the gambler' guests. All the I'mo 'hat Wells was winning at play he was engaged In gigantic swindling operations. Finally l.abou-chere l.abou-chere of Ixindon Truth exposed him. When he was examined In tho How Street Court his total stealings were estimated ut 1150,000 This Included 190,000 from Miss Mary I'lillllmore of l.ondon and 115,000 from tho Hon. William Wil-liam French of Ireland Ills method was simple. He represented that he had taken out valuable patents and Invited Investors to assist him In developing de-veloping them On bis trial It was shown that for years be had been taking tak-ing nut provisional protections on all kinds of absurd Inventions, Floating anchors, sunshades, foghorns and hot-air hot-air motors for obtaining power from tho heat contained In wnsto steam were some of his nlleged patents. Ho was so plausible In his methods and promisee- that his victims were many. When tils swindling was discovered he fled on his yalrb. Intending to land nt Portugal. On bis way he stopped at Havre to sell MO tons of surplus coal Ha was arrested there, returned to Kngland, convicted and sentenced to the term of Imprisonment which he has Just concluded |
