Harry Benson
(active 1877), Confidence trickster; convicted of forgery and bribing police officersSitter in 1 portrait
Harry Benson was a trickster and a fraud who managed to fleece the wealthy out of thousands of pounds. Questions started being raised about the ease in which he operated and the difficulties the police had in tracking him down. When Harry Benson and his accomplice William Kurr were caught and imprisoned, they confessed to their close relationship with the police and how at least half the officers were 'in their pocket'. When the case came to court in 1877, it was revealed that police Inspectors were taking bribes. 'The Trial of the Detectives' as it became known caused a sensation because Benson and Kurr, still in jail, became witnesses against the police, revealing the full extent of police corruption at the time.
Harry Benson ('Men of the Day. No. 158.')
by Sir Leslie Ward
chromolithograph, published in Vanity Fair 29 September 1877
NPG D43816
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