January 16, 2026
BOGUS NOBLEMAN
ARRESTED HERE.
POLICE MAY HAVE MAN WHO
SCANDALIZED PITTSBURG.
SOLD ENTREES TO SOCIETY.
POSED AS A TITLED ENGLISHMAN
AND REAPED A HARVEST.
Many Smoky City Millionaires Paid
Him Large Sums in Hope of
Gaining Admission to the
Court of St. James.
The police believe they had a foreign nobleman for a guest last night. If they are not mistaken their prisoner is none other than the person who recently set Pittsburg ablaze by collecting money from those funny Pittsburg millionaires on promises to introduce them into real British society.
For two weeks, the police say, this supposed nobleman has been in Kansas City part of the time visiting an East Twelfth street hotel. Ostensibly he was here to seek a profitable business investment, and was negociating for the purchase of property on Troost avenue. For some reason the suspicions of the police were aroused, and he was watched by detectives. Among others, Detective Ghent was working upon the case and he came to the conclusion that the man was none other than the Pittsburg celebrity. Tuesday night the detective traced the suspect to the Coates house, where, with a woman, he registered as from St. Joseph.
NO CHARGE AGAINST HIM.
Yesterday Detectives Boyle and Oldham were put upon the case. They traced the man and woman from the Coates house yesterday evening about dinnertime to the Morton Restaurant on Main street, and from there to McClintock's restaurant in Walnut street. As the two were entering McClintock's, the detectives placed the man under arrest. He was taken at once to police headquarters, booked for "investigation" and locked up in the holdover. Before he was locked up, he is said to have admitted that he was J. R. Spaulding, and that he was the man concerned in the Pittsburg scandals of last December. "Investigation" prisoners cannot be interviewed by reporters.
It is said no charges will be placed against the man. He will be presented at "show up" this morning and if he is the Pittsburg nobleman, will be ordered to leave town at once. The woman was not held.
MILLIONAIRES HIS MARK.
Reginald Spaulding, alias George Frederick Spate, alias Oscar F. Spate, by all of which names he was known, created a sensational scandal in Pittsburg last fall, when it was discovered he was an imposter, masquerading under pretenses of noble English birth. One of the most picturesque adventures of modern times, he readily won his way into the confidence of Pittsburg's millionaires by pretensions that were, to say the least, romantic. He offered, for a monetary consideration, to use his "social position" to obtain the introduction into the court of St. James of Pittsburgers who were able to pay the price. When it was discovered he was an ex-convict, a high-class confidence man and a bogus nobleman, Pittsburg was scandalized as much as it is possible for Pittsburg to be scandalized.
Investigation of his record disclosed some remarkable enterprises. Once as a representative of a fake South African trading company, he appointed a number of "agents" who were required to deposit $100 with him to secure their commissions in a promising get-rich-quick scheme. For this he was convicted and served two years in an English prison. That was 1903.
In 1902, he was married to Muriel, daughter of Lord and Lady Suffield, who had left her home because of a difference with her parents, and gone to South Africa as a Red Cross hospital nurse. Her name was removed from the records of the British nobility.
Spate, who is said to be of a younger son of a noble English family, had served as a subaltern in the British South African army. It was then he met and married the Lady Muriel. Later he is said to have interested his wife in a "salted" diamond mine, by which he realized a neat profit. Then he is said to decoyed the lady into the heart of Zululand, where he "lost" her. In order to find her, he made himself chief of a new Zulu kingdom and was starting out to avenge the disappearance of his wife, when she herself appeared in Johannesburg. It was after this he was sent to the British prison.
When the story of these adventures reached Pittsburg, the man was arrested, sat for his picture in the rogues' gallery and was ordered out of that city. Since then he has been lost. If the man arrested last night is really he, the police will be interested to know whether he was contemplating some other business coup in Kansas City.
Labels: Coates house, con artist, detectives, hotels, Inspector Boyle, nurses, police headquarters, restaurants, Twelfth street, visitors
