Conman in Derry

Members of the Derry Police force had an unusual duty to perform this evening. They called upon the Mayor, the Town Clerk and on several leading citizens to inform them that they had been made the victims of a daring and ingenious hoax.

The circumstances which led to the duping of a number of Derry residents with a success never known before were as follows: ten days ago a man of a persuasive nature and of an athletic build arrived in Derry and took rooms in a number of leading hotels, where he was attended to in first-class style. Subsequently he waited upon the Mayor and the Town Clerk and pretended to be the son of an American millionaire engaged in a walk around the world for a wager of £20,000. He described how he had already travelled through Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and England. He claimed he had covered 36,000 miles and had 22,000 miles to walk before finishing up in Bombay in 1916. He also stated that one of the conditions of the wager was that he had to find himself a wife before the walk ended.

Won over by his story, the Mayor, at his request, furnished him with a letter of introduction to the Chairman of the Enniskillen Borough Council. The letter was then sealed with the Borough Council seal and signed by the Town Clerk and Mayor.

After throwing a party in the hotel he left for Dublin, having claimed he was educated there. It has since transpired that despite his self-claimed millionaire connections, he left the Derry hotel without settling his accounts. A much more awkward revelation that was officially communicated to the police authorities in Derry was that the man has been convicted of larceny and several other offences in England.