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| Morin in 1944, aged 40 |
If a stranger came to your door handing you a box and asking for Cash On Delivery...or told you he was a watch repairman there to collect your husband's watch... or told you he was a plumber or electrician and needed to look around your home... it might well have been con man Wilfrid Rene Morin, who spent a life defrauding and robbing hundreds of Montrealers.
Morin, born in 1904, first made news in December 1939 when charged with 61 frauds after being accused of stealing $2,000 in jewelry, mostly watches and clocks.
He'd often visit rooming houses and say he had been asked to pick up jewelry from a resident. The janitor would open the door and Morin would grab a treasure and disappear.
Morin robbed housewives, even blind people, posing in a variety of roles, leading to another 98 convictions in 1954.
Prison criminal rehabilitation efforts proved futile.
Morin was freed on 21 December 1960 but fast returned to his cheating ways, leading fraud cop Buster Creighton to spend 14 frustrating months trying to track him down.
The crafty Morin always stayed one step ahead.
Morin would deliver mechanical parts or other items that needed to be paid in cash, usually scamming victims for anything from $1 to $100, although mostly in the $40 or $60 range.
Police rounded Morin up in January 1962 after he fleeced around 100 people of about $5,600.
Morin already had 204 prior convictions when he appeared in court, leading Judge Redmond Roche to declare him the "undisputed champion" of fraud.
Morin told the court that he had turned to crime after being unable to find work in spite of his many tries.
Roche sentenced Morin to 600 years in prison but all enveloped in concurrent 10-year terms, which meant that the slick-talking fraud artist wouldn't spend more than a decade behind bars.
After Roche read his sentence, Morin stood up and said loudly and clearly, "thank you."
What became of the then-58-year-old remains unknown but he has finally achieved immortality thanks to the sophisticated pages of Coolopolis.
What a con man….smart too….probably could have done something useful and meaningful in his life if he took the effort…maybe take up acting…lol
ReplyDeleteYou should do a piece on "Christmas" Parmalee who had a similar biography. He had a modest beginning in Waterloo, Quebec and became known to bankers in Montreal as the embezzler who always showed up during the Christmas rush.
ReplyDeleteI read his self-published autobiography that was at the Westmount library. He outsmarted banks for years using the same technique of passing fake drafts, often taking advantage of distracted clerks during the hectic Christmas rush. In his heyday he'd pull a stunt in one bank, and it being the days when rival institutions had branches on each corner, he'd cross the street and haul out some more money, always modest amounts that wouldn't draw much attention. One time he dressed up as a mild-mannered priest. But he got caught eventually and was given longer prison sentences each time. As his "success" grew the banks started to have it in for him and he ended up doing time in Kingston Penitentiary. He managed to get into the US and his habits got him a spell in Leavenworth eventually.
He was bitter about conditions in jail and much of his book was about the need for prison reform. He said he'd never caused any injuries and only took money from large banks.