BANK BANDITS

BEWARE!

BY DONALD SEAMAN

All you have to do is to drive to any quarry in the West Coun the wooden hut where explosives tre stored.

DOUBT if any bank in Great Britain has ever sworn in a recruit quite like Bert Sparks, the "Iron Man," the 54-year-old try, Wales, or Scotland, and raid detective chief superintendent who is quitting Scotland Yard to run the security department of Barclays Bank:

There is only one legal con- dition about storing explosives that they are kept at a sale That condition guards against damage or injury by accidental

It doesn't help for a hold-up or explosive for explosiony. asate-breaking.

guard the explosives. Guns are on sale in the sleazy I spoke 10

police clubs used by criminals. Lite man who found a "Jelly hide" lold: "I only 15 miles from Charing the one where I was

It is a brilliant move by the bank, an appointment certain to bring distance from any dwelling. alarm and despondency to the gun-happy thugs who for years now have seen the banks as the lushest, eusiest pickings of all.

Spark+

THIS MAN

kin-

flerbert Kized cups, a craggy-fured, thin- Tipped laut with shoulders se brund you do not at rst realise he stands art in, even without those brilliantly-lished shoes.

He is afraid of no gang; he ception the criminals he has fought so surevessfully for the past 34 years.

Most of all he despises the crook who carries a gun. In his years with the Flying Squad, Sparks has ridden them hard. So hard that they gave him the nickname Iron Man,

Shrewd

'Yet fron Man Sparks is rol

HERSENT (PATIKS

MEANS

BUSINESS

And marder has come to Just tough and fearless, He has a the bank. Bank inanagers, bank shrowches and close knowledge employees, have been shot dead. of the criminal inled that will make him a formidable recrui indeed, Farclays.

Conta

The

Even su, he now faces biggest challenge of his lifes Scarcely A week goes by which

bank.

sonte where, is not rubbed; either at gun-point in broad daylight, aar by n gana burrowing hi dur-

weekend from in

shop next dour.

Target

The white collar is a tempting target: bank men are always de- fencelesa; you can't fight à cosh or a bullet with a pen.

Some It has never been so easy

for the muster to get a gun

to

can let you have a shooter for Cross. In it were enough slieks 20. but the bullets will cost you of explosive to tear open the another ver."

Bank of England all stolen;j

Where do they come from? from quarries. Must of the "shooters" in cur- rent circulation were supplied not by professional ertramials but by ordinary, otherwise in- men-in- nocent, hard-working the-street.

Feared

It has become all too easy for the criminal to get his hands

their on Dut money the money

guns we give to the banks to look

Servicemen in thousands brought home to England after the after.

war.

ap-

So the banks are retaliating by employing en feared by the of the After a few months at home, underworld. Another with the bounty spent, these ur- Big Five-the Westminster - dinary citizens went into the recently announced the

of Detective Chief bors of Scho and Glasgow, pointment Manchester and Cardi and Superintendent William (Bob) Liverpool, and sold them for Stone to run its security branch. £5. £10, maybe even £20.

For our sake-for every- In nine cuses out of ten the

good fest link in the chain of a mur- one's sake-it is a der came home lo khaki.

thing the banks are ploying men like Stone and Sparks.

Sources

Fresh ammunition? That's no problem while there are gu smiths to be raided. The gel

nite that blows one strongroom after another is even easier to get hold of thun a gun.

em

And a good thing for Sparks that, against the gangs he hunts and de- spises, he is a man of iron,

-London Express Service).

213

The new priest marquis-and his

will be a nun

A

NOVICE, Brother Melchior, has just been ordained priest at a Benedictine Abbey near

Paris.

100

He is in fact the 68-year-

old Marquis de Vogue, the down In health and had to give head of one of France's up this order for a more con- oldest and richest families, templative one.

VOWS R nun.

As for the Marquis in his

is a wife

Of all the Viritos in circula- tion about 30 per cent are con- sidered to be fakes and Tu Utrillo 19 conaldered genuine unless Petrides pronounces it to be su.

NEW PLOTS

treason The sombre French trials arising out of last April's Algiera mutiny go on with guillotine-like regularity. Ex- cept that this time the guilio- ilne never falla.

Instead, long sentences are His wife, Genevieve, will Benedictine order, he has been handed down on the mutinous also shortly be taking her rising for the past five years at generals, ensuring live martyrs

2 am for two hours of prayers. Instead of dead ones. He has then risen again at six The couple separated five to start a long day of work and years ago to enter religious prayers. orders after the marriage of

In the process the French have

made another noteworthy con- tribution to jurisprudence hence-

the last of their five child- Who after George Wildenstein forth le crime patriotique" like

the "crime passionel" is immune)

is the richest art dealer in from the death penalty.

France?

JACOBY on BRIDGE.

LL swindlers know that there wrop up a gold brick. Sini- larly, when you want to direct a11 opponent's lead at bridge you don't have to use the same method all the time.

On one of my recent visits to New York, I ran into Walter Malowan at the Regency Club and he reminded me of a gold

sale he brick

20 made some

years ago. Strangely cncugh the purchaser was a city slick- cr who is one of the all time great bridge players,

CoEdy and Walter held the Noril the bidding went a shown in the that the box. Walter pointed out

NORTH AKJP84

❤54

⚫. Nono SAKQJ70

WEST A2

AK10832

•AT53

403

EAST 435

Q33

10

• 100804

42

SOUTH (D) SAQ1073

07. OKQJZ

105

. Both vulnerable South West

14 2❤

North Fast Paza J▼

30 Раз 76 Pass

Pass Double Redble Fans Pass PAIS

Opening lead--ệ A

ren. They were given a special dispensation by the

Meanwhile one wonders if the The title undoubtedly belongs Pope to do so and they part-

to Paul Petrides, a 55-year-old mutineers had succeeded would

have

the ed after 36

recognised of

they years Cypriot. who was a modest marriage. The family is one man's tailor in Morselles before patriolle motives of those who

mari. opposed them. The outlook in of the six richest in France. he became an art dealer.

as gloomy as the weather. New

3 on

key to most successful swindles is the victim's feeling that the windiar is being foolish and the victim being When West doubled seven spades Walter was sure that he planned to

all the way and redoubled.

I don't want to get into arguments

He first became Interested in plots to overthrow General de lead the ace of diamonds, not the The Marquis de Vogue's art through his French wife, Gaulle are now definitely underce of hearts. Hence, Walter went mother, Princesa d' Arenberg, who earned a living us a pain way. was the daughter of the frat ter's model. Painters would

as to whether or not the redubla president of the Suez Canal Co. tend

works her their

This noble man, whose honest should have wamed West away from She married the Marquis Loals promise that she would try to anti-colonial intentions are now the diamond lead. X rather think de Vogue, then president of the sell them. The Petrides then recognised even by the editor of that it might have but the fact i Bank of France,

moved to Paris shortly before The Economist, is now engaged that West practlesily bounced the ace of diamonds on to the table, the war and became Utrillo's in peace talks with the Algerian whereupon South gathered dr 15

tricks

They had eight children, the dealers. oldest being the present Brother Melchler. He did no! Jarry

into the aristocracy but into high finance. His wife is the grand- daughter of the founder of the great French banking trust, Credit Lyonnato.

first entered

Genevieve particularly rigorous order, the

Today Petrides operates from

Muslim rebels.

engaged in peace talks and even

Their response even while CARD Sense

as 0,000 terrorists are in the pro-

cens of being treed, Is to step

Q-The bidding has been: Wesl

Valuable

e

a luxuriously furnished gallery

up terrorist attacks in Paris.

1

a

of the Champs Elysees. Hin best One would have thought in work, however, he keeps at home for special ellents.

those circumstances that leading

Little Sisters of the Assumption. IL 1s estimated that They occupy themselves with pictures decorating working-class homes which ind ilat Are worth

themselves in difficulties owing £1,500,000. to. illness or bereavement.

14

his

Agures the French Left, who have great influence with the the rebel leaders, would

now be Paris seeking to

persuade them to least caution and moderation.

Not a bit of it. They are as

He has somo 200 Utrillos, silent now when de Gaulle is THE RICHEST? almost every racing Duty, which trying to make peace in Algeria leaders of the French are the most valuable of his as the

Night were silent when do work, 40 to 50 Renoirs and a

Gaulle set about crushing the as charwomen virtual corner in theo now highly and nursemalús. As a result of valuable paintings of Utrillo's military revolt.

They

serve

the work she suffered a break» mother Suzanne Valadon,

-{London Expres Service),

North Eart Bouth Double Redble 3

You, South, hold: 48542 4743 41048 4432

What do you do?

Abid one spado. If you PAIN bero your partner may have to go to the two level to get out of the redouble situation. Of course, the best thing to do is to gira your hand to someone cho.

TODAY'S QUESTION' Again the bidding has gone; one club, double, redouble, Thala Ume you hold: SAIBI VK43 9Q543 472

What do you do?

Antwer on Monday.

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