Talk:Delaney

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Robert Delaney, if that was his name, was, among many other things, an accomplished - and at times a very plausible liar. He was a bigamist, a deserter, a thief, a 'con' man (although the term may not have been in use in the early part of the twentieth century) and with many other less than gentlemanly characteristics.

Although there were doubtless many men who had entered houses by climbing up drainpipes and across roofs of outbuildings Robert Delaney seems to have been the first to be given the name of 'cat-burgalr'. Despite extensive and painstaking research Mrs Southworth has had sometimes to rely on 'evidence' which may have been less than 100% certain. Was he born in 1895 - or perhaps 1891? Was that in South Africa or in Ireland?

A monocle, a top hat, a dinner jacket and a polished manner enabled him, at times, to pass himself off as the gentleman he certainly was not!

His connection with Swineshead seems to have begun when he married a wealthy widow, whose wealth however soon disappeared. He also acquired another ‘wife’ and other ‘wealth’ which however, despite at times being quite considerable in amount, just as rapidly disappeared.

Taken from 'Delaney, the Cat Burglar' by Pamela Southworth ISBN 1 902882 56 3 Gobbledigook (talk) 16:30, 2 June 2008 (UTC)