Newspaper cutting
Category
Ephemera
Date
12 Jul 1933
Materials
Newspaper
Measurements
187 x 60 mm
Order this imageCollection
Mr Straw's House, Nottinghamshire
NT 749869.23
Summary
One of a series of newspaper cuttings - miscellaneous items of interest to the family. A newspaper cutting from EXPRESS 12.7.33 Article caption: BEGGING LETTERS TO THE DEAD NEW DODGE TO TRAP WIDOWS A new and ingenious variation of the begging letter fraud has come to the notice of Scotland-yard. All the begging letters written by the latest practitioner of this age-old profession are addressed to men who are dead! He writes as an old friend who has fallen on hard times, and, when the trick works, the widows respond to his appeals for assistance. The begging letter writer evidently keeps a close watch on the obituary notices in the newspapers, and soon after publication of the will sends the person who is dead a heartrending request for help. A "Daily Express" reader discovered the fraud, and brought it to the attention of the police, when three women relatives, who had lost their husbands over a short period, all received letters, addressed to their husbands, making appeals for assistance. SENT A POUND ...........................................
Provenance
Straw collection bequeathed to the National Trust on the death in 1990 of William Straw.
Marks and inscriptions
Top of cutting: EXPRESS 12.7.33 handwritten in pencil at the top of the cutting