510:. It heard evidence from all those involved in the case, including Horace Avory and Sir Forrest Fulton. In its report, it concluded that Adolph Beck should not have been convicted due to the errors made by the prosecution. The committee also chastised Judge Fulton in his conduct of the case, as he should have given consideration to the 1877 case, more so because of his involvement with it, which served to prejudice the proceedings against Beck. Furthermore, it criticised the Home Office for its indifference in acting on the case despite knowing since 1898 that Beck and Smith were not the same man. Instead, it sought to preserve the credibility of the judiciary rather than admit or correct its mistakes. It also stated that the omission of the prison authorities to state the fact of Smith's circumcision in the records of 1877 and 1881 was the primary cause of the miscarriage of justice.
186:. He insisted upon providing her with an elegant wardrobe for the voyage, wrote out a list of items for her and made out a cheque for £40 to cover her purchases. Then he examined her wristwatch and rings, and asked her to let him have them so that he could match their sizes and replace them with more valuable pieces. After he left, she discovered that a second watch was missing. Suspicious, she hurried to the bank to cash the cheque, only to find that it was worthless. She had been swindled and she swore that it was Adolf Beck who had done it. He was promptly arrested.
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213:. The felony charges were based on presumed prior convictions in 1877, when a man named John Smith had been sentenced to five years for swindling unattached women by using the name Lord Willoughby, writing worthless cheques and taking their jewellery. He had disappeared after his release, and it was assumed that Beck and Smith were one and the same. Descriptions of John Smith from prison files were never compared with the current appearance of Adolph Beck.
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390:, Scott ran up to him and accused him of defrauding her of her jewellery. Beck was horrified and denied the charge. Scott repeated her accusations and told him that someone was waiting to arrest him. He ran away in panic, but was caught immediately by the waiting police inspector, who arrested him at once. Beck's panicked flight reinforced the inspector's assumption regarding his guilt.
162:(or 139, according to at least one account) when a woman blocked his way. She accused him of having tricked her out of two watches and several rings. Beck brushed her aside and crossed the road. When the woman followed him, he complained to a policeman that he was being followed by a prostitute who had accosted him. The woman in turn demanded his arrest, accusing him of having
130:. He returned to England in 1885 and engaged in various financial schemes, including an investment in a copper mine in Norway. Unfortunately the mine did not turn a profit, and he poured in more and more money until he had to put the mine up for sale. There were no takers and he was reduced to near-poverty. He was chronically short of money, in debt to the hotel in
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Lady
Everton. She said that she was not, but she was impressed by his gentlemanly manner and they struck up a conversation. According to her account, he introduced himself as "Lord Willoughby" and advised her that the flower show she was heading for was not worth visiting. He said that he knew horticulture because he had gardens on his
438:. Three of the five women who identified Beck in his second trial were brought in to confront Thomas and they quickly identified him as the swindler (the other two had gone abroad and thus were not present). Other swindled women were brought in who also admitted their error in identifying Beck. When the man who had been John Smith's
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On 22 March 1904, a servant by the name of
Paulina Scott filed a complaint that a grey-haired, distinguished looking man had accosted her on the street, paid compliments to her and then stolen her jewellery. The inspector who took the complaint was familiar with Beck's case and assumed he must be the
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Avory brought Beck's alleged victims into court and one after another they pointed to Beck as the swindler. There were, however, occasional moments of doubt. One mentioned that the swindler talked differently from Beck, peppering his speech with "Yankee" slang. Ottilie
Meissonier remembered that the
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Adolf (or Adolph) Beck was born in Norway in 1841, and educated as a chemist. However, he went to sea soon afterwards and moved to
England in 1865, working as a clerk to a shipping broker. In 1868 he moved to South America, where he made a living for a while as a singer, then became a shipbroker, and
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her three weeks earlier. The policeman took them both to the nearest police station, where the woman identified herself as
Ottilie Meissonier, unmarried, and a language teacher. She alleged that she had been walking down Victoria Street when Beck approached her, tipping his hat and asking if she was
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and had known Beck since his return to
England in 1885, wrote an article in the paper emphasising that Beck had been tried on the assumption that he and Smith were the same person, yet no evidence to support that assumption had been allowed by Judge Fulton. Public opinion was slowly swayed by Sims
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before Sir
William Grantham. Five women identified him and, based on this positive identification, he was found guilty by the jury. The judge, however, was dissatisfied about the case and expressed some doubts regarding it. Despite assurances from the Home Office and the police of Beck's guilt, he
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before moving to London. Apparently he fell upon hard times there, and turned to preying on women through fraud. When Beck was sent to prison in his place, Meyer had returned to the United States and did not come back until 1903, apparently when he thought Beck had served out his sentence. Thomas
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The inspector went to the new prisoner's cell. It held a grey-haired man, approximately of Beck's height, with certain features which made him resemble Beck. However, Beck was younger and frailer in build, and this man had a scar on the right side of his neck, as
Ottilie Meissoner remembered. The
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only about the later lists. Gurrin said that these had been written by Beck with a "disguised hand". Gill then asked
Justice Fulton's permission to question Gurrin about the lists from 1877, but he ruled, in line with procedure in the English courts, that any earlier convictions of the defendant
305:, Avory could still prosecute Beck for the misdemeanours, which did not require proof of prior conviction. He chose not to proceed with the felony charges, despite the fact that the prosecution case was based wholly on the unstated premise that Adolph Beck and John Smith were the same person.
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England did not yet have a court of criminal appeal, but between 1896 and 1901 Beck's solicitor presented ten petitions for re-examination of his case. His requests to see the prison's description of John Smith were repeatedly denied. However, in May 1898 an official at the
345:, while Beck was not. The Home Office asked Sir Forrest Fulton for his opinion of this new evidence. Fulton wrote a minute dated 13 May in which he acknowledged that Smith and Beck could not be the same person but he added that, even if Beck was not Smith, he was still the
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named Thomas Gurrin compared the lists of clothing Smith had given his victims in 1877 to those written in 1894 and 1895, as well as to samples of Beck's handwriting. Gill thought that he would have his chance to prove mistaken identity when he
430:. The detective was familiar with the Beck case, having been present at Beck's two trials and asked for details. The details fitted the usual pattern but the alleged culprit, Adolph Beck, was already in jail, awaiting sentencing.
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Avory did not want to call Elless
Spurrell to give evidence because his testimony would have opened discussion of the past conviction, thereby allowing Gill the opportunity to cast doubt on Beck's guilt. Without Spurrell's
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At Beck's committal hearing, in late 1895, one of the policemen who had arrested Smith eighteen years before was called to testify. Eless Henry Spurrell (1847-1906), who had retired in 1892, gave his account as follows:
276:. If they could prove that Beck was in South America at the time when John Smith was committing his crimes and went to prison for them, they could undermine the allegation that Adolph Beck was John Smith.
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The inspector who was assigned to the case learned that in the previous two years twenty-two women had been defrauded by a grey-haired man who called himself "Lord Wilton de Willoughby" and used the same
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was awarded £2,000, later raised to £5,000 due to public clamour (about £600,000 as of May 2023), again due to George Robert Sims, but those who were responsible were the subject of public indignation.
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Gurrin. If Gurrin testified in court, as he had said previously, that the writing from 1877 was identical to that from 1894 and 1895, Gill could bring witnesses to show that Beck had been in
237:. I produce the certificate of that conviction. The prisoner is the man. ... There is no doubt whatever – I know quite well what is at stake on my answer and I say without doubt he is the man.
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A simple Purchasing Power Calculator would say the relative value is £573,100.00. This answer is obtained by multiplying £5,000.00 by the percentage increase in the RPI from 1904 to 2021.
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culprit, so he sent Scott to the restaurant where Beck took his lunch. She did not recognise him but the inspector was undeterred by the woman's uncertainty and set a trap for him.
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also engaged in buying and selling houses. He soon amassed a considerable amount of savings, at one time earning £8,000 as commission for a sale of a Spanish concession in the
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can be, and the extreme care with which juries must regard evidence of this kind. As for Adolf Beck, his exoneration brought him little consolation. He died a broken man of
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then resumed his swindling until he was finally arrested. When brought to trial on 15 September, Wilhelm Meyer pleaded guilty to those offences and was jailed for 5 years.
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was told of the arrest of a man who had tried to swindle some rings from a pair of unemployed actresses that afternoon and had been apprehended at a
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that included Beck along with ten or fifteen men who had been selected randomly from the street. Because he was the only one with grey hair and a
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as "John Smith" had been, and he had two other aliases as well, "William Wyatt" and "William Weiss". His true identity was Wilhelm Meyer, born in
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on the right side of his neck, but was otherwise convinced that Beck was the man. Another testified that his mustache was longer and was waxed.
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353:"with great suspicion." As a result, the letter W was removed from Beck's prison number, but nothing else was done regarding the case.
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where he lived and had borrowed money from his secretary. Nevertheless, he tried to keep up appearances by dressing in a
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where the prisoner in the name of John Smith was convicted of feloniously stealing ear-rings and a ring and eleven
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Beck protested and insisted that he could bring witnesses from South America to prove that he was there in 1877.
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prisoner had given his name as William Thomas but the inspector, convinced that he was John Smith, informed
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On 5 March 1896 Adolf Beck was found guilty of fraud and was sentenced to seven years of penal servitude at
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estate which were extensive enough to require six gardeners. Meissonier mentioned that she grew
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edited by Eric R. Watson (William Hodge and company, Notable British Trials series, 1924).
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in 1877 identified Thomas as his former tenant, the prisoner confessed his crimes.
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635:"Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present"
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and was engaged in growing coffee, and in various other businesses in the
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he was quickly identified by the women as the man who had defrauded them.
585:"Metropolitan Police: Records of Police Pensioners (MEPO 21/22/78/10532)"
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UNLAWFULLY ADOLF\BECK, Deception > fraud, 24th February 1896
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whenever he went out, even though they had become threadbare.
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The defence's strategy was to argue that this was a case of
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of its time, the case led to the creation of the English
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30:"Adolf Beck" redirects here. For the physiologist, see
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At her home the next day, he invited her to go to the
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police station on 7 July, Inspector John Kane of the
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Criminal Appeal Act, 1907 (U.K.), 7 Edw. VII, c. 23.
233:of Louisa Leonard and was sentenced to five years'
105:was a notorious incident of wrongful conviction by
374:Beck was paroled in July 1901 for good behaviour.
292:in 1877. Avory, foreseeing this tactic, asked the
27:Notorious wrongful conviction by mistaken identity
371:, to the view that Beck's conviction was unjust.
249:On 3 March 1896 Beck was brought to trial at the
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337:looked at the Smith file and saw that Smith was
668:by Tim Coates (Stationery Office Books, 2001).
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349:of 1895, and that he viewed the South American
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445:"William Thomas" turned out to be as much an
225:Reserve . On 7 May 1877 I was present at the
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494:on 29 July 1904 and in compensation for his
393:He was again put on trial on 27 June at the
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554:. London: Stationery Office. p. 234.
490:Adolf Beck was given a free pardon by the
414:Police photographs of Beck (top) and Meyer
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728:Norwegian emigrants to the United Kingdom
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89:Learn how and when to remove this message
687:by Christopher Priest (Gollancz, 2022).
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52:This article includes a list of general
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718:Recipients of British royal pardons
386:On 15 April 1904, as Beck left his
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360:, a journalist who worked for the
58:it lacks sufficient corresponding
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713:Overturned convictions in England
469:. He later became surgeon to the
424:Criminal Investigation Department
666:The Strange Story of Adolph Beck
552:The strange story of Adolph Beck
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599:"Proceedings of the Old Bailey"
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519:eyewitness identification
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32:Adolf Beck (physiologist)
515:Court of Criminal Appeal
508:Sir Richard Henn Collins
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115:Court of Criminal Appeal
679:The Trial of Adolf Beck
453:and graduated from the
323:Portland Convict Prison
121:Biographical background
73:more precise citations.
639:www.measuringworth.com
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406:Truth about John Smith
367:and others, including
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227:Central Criminal Court
221:In 1877 I was in the
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317:Conviction and doubts
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587:. National Archives.
550:Coates, Tim (1999).
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467:Father Joseph Damien
455:University of Vienna
420:Tottenham Court Road
398:decided to postpone
504:Master of the Rolls
255:Horace Edmund Avory
223:Metropolitan Police
708:Arthur Conan Doyle
685:Expect Me Tomorrow
531:Middlesex Hospital
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358:George Robert Sims
341:and thus had been
281:handwriting expert
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71:introducing
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608:2 February
537:References
527:bronchitis
400:sentencing
395:Old Bailey
363:Daily Mail
267:prosecutor
251:Old Bailey
154:Adolf Beck
136:frock coat
54:references
18:Adolf Beck
486:Aftermath
303:testimony
259:barrister
231:shillings
209:and four
200:moustache
117:in 1907.
523:pleurisy
479:Adelaide
440:landlord
428:pawnshop
347:impostor
211:felonies
164:swindled
461:in the
459:leprosy
325:on the
294:witness
196:line-up
182:on his
140:top hat
67:improve
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451:Vienna
339:Jewish
146:Arrest
56:, but
447:alias
351:alibi
245:Trial
184:yacht
689:ISBN
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610:2014
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