| The Australian con-man, the British peer and the great National Geographic scam |
With news that National Geographic will become part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, we revisit the venerable magazine's role in a bizarre high-seas swindle
This is an edited extract of an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald on February 21, 1953
By international consent, it is acknowledged that Australia has bred and reared some of the world's most competent swindlers and confidence men.
The reason why so many of our top-line rogues "work" other territories than our own, and, in particular, the passenger ships, is not because they are unable to sell their countrymen gold bricks or worthless shares, but because there are better pickings abroad and, on shipboard, a greater opportunity of becoming acquainted with prospective victims.
One of the most notorious of our swindlers, Jimmy Mann, a Perth boy, did not disdain fellow Australians as raw material for his elaborate confidence tricks. Perhaps it was poetic justice that he himself eventually fell victim to the wiles of oilier Australian crooks, who riddled him with bullets on a South Yarra, Melbourne, allotment in 1947.
When barely out of his teens Mann, posing as a public school boy, with "Dictionary" Harry, an old-time crook, posing as his clergyman guardian, were on the England-America shipping run, fleecing passengers at cards.
The pages were carefully inserted in copies of the authentic magazine and left lying in the smoking room of a liner in which a certain Sir Michael Watson and, of course, "Mark Foy" were travelling [from Alexandria to Marseilles].
"Mark Foy" paced up and down the deck while a confederate, sitting next to Sir Michael called his attention to the picture. "Isn't that the man who is walking up and down there?" he asked. Sir Michael agreed. "Must be a wonderful invention," remarked the confederate.
After a suitable interval Sir Michael contrived an introduction, and asked to become a shareholder in the great new project which was now being negotiated by the French and British Governments for the Suez Canal. "Mark Foy" was dubious, but eventually consented and relieved Sir
Michael of £54,000.
Postscript
By 1933 Coates had returned to Australia. He built a mansion in Toorak, lived luxuriously, and became a heavy punter, but his reputation, associates and conduct led to his exclusion from most racecourses. At Randwick, Sydney, in May 1933, he was arrested and remanded for the Paris swindle. The charge was dropped.
This is an edited extract of an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald on February 21, 1953.
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