Title: The Evening Star, 2,041 4c
Date: 22 September 1862
Place: London

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
SEPT. 20.

MANSION HOUSE.

A respectable-looking young man who gave the fictitious name of John Fenne, was placed at the bar on remand before the Lord Mayor to undergo a final examination upon the charge of feloniously having in his possession in the shop of Mr. Hass, bullion-dealer, Fenchurch-street, a 10l. Bank of England note which had been stolen, he being at the time well aware that it was stolen.

Mr. Poland, barrister, instructed by Mr. Pluckrose, from the office of Mr. Hall, attended for the prosecution, and Mr. Sleigh, barrister, instructed by Mr. Wontner, appeared on behalf of the prisoner.

The facts of the case have already appeared in detail, and it seemed from the former evidence that a widow lady named Blackbourne (sic), residing in Bethnal-green-road, took some money from a stockbroker in the City on the 15th of August last, and on the same day she went to Messrs. Smith and Payne’s, for the purpose of paying in some money, and having done so, placed three 10l. notes, which was part of the money she had just before received, into her purse, and placed the purse in her pocket, taking particular care to cover it with her handkerchief. Upon leaving the banking-house, she immediately got into an omnibus, which put her down at her door, when, upon putting her hand into her pocket, to her great astonishment, her purse containing the three 10l. notes was gone. She immediately gave information of the robbery, and the notes were stopped; but nothing more was heard of them until the 4th of Sept., when the prisoner went to the shop of Mr. Hass, a money-changer, in Fenchurch-street, and asked for some foreign money in exchange for 75l. in English notes. Mr. Hass, jun., who waited upon the prisoner, requested to write his name and address on the notes, and he wrote, “Monsieur Fenne, 14, Peacock-terrace, Victoria-park.” Having some suspicion, however, from the prisoner’s manner, as soon as he left, he told the lad to go and watch where he went to, and went himself with the notes to the Bank of England, where one of the notes for 10l. he was told was stopped. Mr. Hass then took two detectives, Packman and Russell, who happened to be at the Bank, back with him, and they were informed by the lad that the prisoner had gone to a dining-house close by. The officers proceeded there with Mr. Hass, who pointed out the prisoner. Russell told him that one of the notes that he had changed at Mr. Hass’s that morning was a stolen one, and that he had better accompany him to the Bank, which he did, and the 10l. note was then shown to him, and he was asked if that was one of those which he had changed at Mr. Hass’s, and he said he believed it was - he did not know. He was then asked how he accounted for the possession of it and he said he was a professional gambler, and he took the note amongst others at the gaming tables at Baden-Baden. He gave his name as John Fenne, and said he lived at 1, Russell-place, Old Kent-road. When his attention was called to the address he had written on the notes, he said he thought it did not matter, he had not been long in England and he lived at that address when he came to London on a previous occasion. Mrs. Blackburne (sic) was communicated with, and she identified the note as one of the three which were in her purse when it was stolen. She likewise said that she had a recollection of having seen the prisoner somewhere before; she thought it was at the banker’s, on the day she had the money, but she could not swear. Upon the last examination it was proved that the prisoner had changed a quantity of notes for foreign money at the shop of Mr. Vaughan, a pawn-broker and money-changer, in the Strand, and that one of the 10l. notes was stopped upon being presented at the Bank. This note was identified as another of the three missing notes.

Some other witnesses were called on Saturday for the prosecution, and the evidence adduced went to show that the prisoner on the 16th August, before the notes were stolen, went to Messrs. Twining’s and presented a bill on that bank for 100l., thus showing that it was not likely that he took the note at Baden Baden as he stated, and it was also proved that previous to his living at Russell-place, Old Kent-road, he lived at 15, King’s-row, Camberwell, in the name of Murray, and that he had a plate on the door with “Mons. Murray, Professor of Gymnastiques Medicales,” engraved on it. That plate was found by one of the officers at his residence in Russell-place.

His Lordship said it had been clearly proved that the prisoner was in possession of the stolen notes, and he thought any person taking a 10l. note would make a memorandum of whom he received it; but the prisoner could not give that necessary information. As for his statement of having taken them at the gaming tables, any one who had been to Baden-Baden must know that notes are not taken at the tables, but that all payments are made in coin. The prisoner ought to show how he became possessed of them, and he had failed in doing do, and he thought that whether a jury would convict or not, he would not be fulfilling his duty if he did not commit the prisoner for trial.

The prisoner was then committed for trial.

 

This is a follow-up to the previous record.