Hired 'Wife' To Weep For Him

1914

But Court Learns of Trick and Sentences Pickpocket

New York, Jan. 22. — When, nearly a year ago, Samuel Berman was arraigned before Judge Nott in the court of general sessions on a charge of picking pockets, a wistful woman, with four children clinging to her skirts, wept pitifully.

The prisoner said she was his wife. The court, touched, suspended sentence and a collection of $100 was taken up for the family.

Berman was in court again on a similar charge. The court eyed him wrathfully. He had learned that the prisoner's "wife and children" of a year ago had been hired for the occasion.

The prisoner pleaded guilty to duping the judge and to picking pockets. He was sentenced to five years in Sing Sing.