SENSATION IN NORTH

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 256, 27 September 1929, Page 2

SENSATION IN NORTH

HUGE.FORGERY ALLEGED. POLICE HUNT LASTS 13 YEARS. AUCKLAND, Sept. 25. For over 13 years the police of Texas, U.5.A.., have sought a man on a charge of forgery involving a sum of 250,000 dollars.- Yesterday afternoon Auckland detectives arrested a well-known resident of Heiepsville, who is alleged to be the wanted man. The arrested man is John Grey, who has lived in Helensville for the past 11 vears, carrying on tho business of a land agent. He is alleged to bo A. B. Crouch, who disappeared from the town of Temple, Texas, U.S.A., in 1916, after committing forgeries which involved a sum of 250,000 dollars. On Tuesday morning Mr John Bigham, sheriff of Bell County, Texas, arrived in Auckland to identify Crouch. He had travelled from San Francisco to Wellington on the- Maunganui. Ho went to school with Crouch and they spent some years together as boys. He now alleges that Grey, the Helensville land agent, is Crouch.

Crouch’s disappearance and the police search for him has involved manv police officers and Government officials. When he disappeared it was known that he camo to New Zealand under the name of John Cameron. He was traced to Christchurch, where he lived for some time under that name.

On February 6, 1917, a warrant for tho arrest of Crouch was issued in Auckland by Mr F. V. Frazer, now His Honour Mr Justice Frazer. The authority for the warrant was signed by Mr Alfred Augustus Winslow, then Consul-General for the United States in Auckland.— Before the warrant was issued a cable message was received from Mr Robert Lansing, then Secretary of State for tho United States of America.

When Crouch disappeared the American police issued posters on March 27, 1916, bearing his photograph and those of another person who was alleged to have been associated with him. A reward of 250 dollars was offered to anyone who arrested and delivered either of the wanted persons to the sheriff of Bell County.

For the past 11 years Grey has lived at Helensville, where he is considered to be a man of high repute and of considerable means. He is the Helensvillo agent of the Public Trustee and is also a fire insurance agent. BEFORE THE COURT.

On Wednesday the man appeared in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland, before Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., charged with being a fugitive criminal from tho United States, where he was wanted on a charge of forgery in tho

State of Texas. He was charged as A. B. Crouch, alias John M. Cameron, and described as a land agent, aged 48, of Helensville, and he was remanded for a week.

Mr G. P. Finlay, who appeared for accused, said that he was admitting nothing by appearing under the name of Crouch. He had been arrested Helensville only yesterday. He was a respected resident arid had been in the town for 11 years, making good during that time and accumulating a goodly share of worldly goods. Counsel asked for bail. BAIL IS OPPOSED. Chief-Detective Hammond opposed tho application of bail. “We have been looking for this man for nearly 13 years,” he said. “He is wanted on a forgery charge involving over 200,000 dollars. A witness from Texas has identified accused as the offender and we expect a warrant about October 7. This man is now going under the name of Grey. “He has been nearly caught several times, but managed narrowly to evade arrest, and now we hold him on a provisional warrant.” “I think I had better not grant bail,” said the Magistrate. “You can go to the Supreme Court for it.”

A TEXAS SHERIFF. EIGHTEEN MONTHS ON TRAIL. SPECIAL POLICE METHODS. Mr John R. Bigham, sheriff of Bell County, Texas, in an interesting chat at Auckland with a Star reporter, stated that for the last eighteen months he had been concentrating on the arrest of A. B. Crouch, of the A. B. Crouch Grain Company, Temple, Texas, who had "put over" the greatest fraud that had over been perpetrated in Bell County. "In grain business in our country," he said, "it is custmoary when grain is shipped and the bills of lading are signed, that cash can be drawn against these at the banks, the waybills being the security documents. It is quite apparent that Crouch had been preparing for a big coup for some time, as he was able, by forged waybills, to fleece two banks in Temple for 160,000 'dollars. One of these banks was only a small concern, and it lost 40,000 dollars, and the company in consequence had to be reconstructed. The second bank was a big concern, and the 120,000 dollars it lost was -made good

by the stockholders. “The firm of A. B. Crouch and Co. did an enormous business in Bell County, and also operated m Oklahoma, Arkansas and other places. In fact, it operated all over Texas. \\ ithin ten days of the forged documents going into the banks, the fraud was discovered and a hue and cry was raised for Crouch, who had disappeared, but his wife and family remained in the township. No tmc6 w<is found of liiin for some time, but subsequently, information drifted in to the effect that he had sailed for Australia or New Zealand under an assumed name of Campbell or Cameron, and in 1918 an officer of the United States Police Department was sent to Australia and New Zealand, but failed' to locate him It is evident that after he got to both Australia and New Zealand he returned to America to bring out his family, who had, in the meantime taken up residence with relatives at Arkansas. “The methods that I adopted to find out where Crouch was located was to send out letters every thirty days to merchants, thd police and others in Australia and New Zealand, with a description of Crouch, and his photograph, and it is this method that has eventually brought me out to New Zealand. The banks were very anxious at all costs to have this fraud investigated, and up to the present time something like 20,000 dollars has been spent in the effort. The crippled bank and the State Bankers’ Association have contributed to the cost. The penalty for forgery in Texas is a penitentiary sentence to from two to ten years.” Mr Bigham stated that the sheriffs are elected in the United States, and he has held the position for the last five years. He had known Crouch all his life. Referring to police methods in New Zealand, he said they were very mild compared to his country, where a man never went after a criminal without one or two pistols in his possession. The Texas Sheriff intimated that it was likely that the application for extradition would be contested by the accused man, Grey.