Traces of a notorious Criminal.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1466, 28 September 1885, Page 4

Traces of a notorious Criminal.

The Queensland correspondent ffhet Anpis say* : -i don't know wheth r I meutioned m my last the arrest hevti of a man, who gay.i his name as John T'.irnbn!l, mi a charge of sN» I'inij ,£B2 . m gold from a portmanteau belonging to Mr George 0 S.nith, manager of the Boroond ira Station, who had left the same m his l<e lroom at the Criterion Hotel, imt if J did nni — and the case id not- n ikely toLfulioti veritable cause eelebre in 'ho annals of Australian c ime — I think I ought not allow thi-* opportunity to pas* without ■ putting you m possession of the facts. Turnbull, who is now under commit lal for the larceny men tioned above, was a fellow hoarder with Mr Smith at the hotel, and about noon on tha 3rd ultimo they were toother m Bm ith's bedroom, when the latter took out the £82 from his pocket, placed it m a pocket book, and locke 1 it up m his portmanteau. Smith was sib, -out fiom the bot«4 about 6 o'clock, when, on examining his portmanteau, he found the pocket book and contents had been abstracted. Suspicion immpdiitely pointed to Turn bull a3 the thief ; he was a» ivste-', and on his person was found the miui of .£62 14s, among which was a dented half sovereign, \yhich Smith swore .was his, as he had noticed it when drawing the money from the Bank of New South Wales. There was also found upon him a bunch of keys, one of which exactly fitted the lock of Mr Smith's pmtmantenu, wherein the money had been placed m the prisoner's presence A search among papers found m TurnbulPs u unk. revealed a document lelatiug to one Rigg. of the squatting firm of Rigg and Turnbull, and upon this document it is believed that a cine has been obtained as to the actual whereabouts of a notorious criminal. If it can be shown that the prisoner is identical wii h the Tnrnbull who was m partnership with Mr Rijjif m the sheep station at Narre warren, near .Berwick, Victoria, then there is little doubt llv.it he is a man who has le.d a long life of systematic and hearties* swindling both m New Zealand, New South Wales, and Victoria, under the name of A mos James Tudball ; that he was married m July, 1871, to a young lady named Eliza Jane Govett ; that m 1876, having forged his uncle's name he absconded from England to India and suhsepuentlv joined bis' wife m Melbourne; that later on he went to New Zealand, whire he defrauded his creditors, and was senteneeJ to a term of imprisonment; and later still, that he joined and swindled Mr Rig'g, and then committed bigamy by marrying a respectable young lady at St. Kiida, whom he appears to have induced to enlei into the holy bond with him, promising to settle £500 a year upon her. This lady he deserted shortly aftet, and absconded from the Colony.