→ This article from the archives is part of a series celebrating the Voice’s Platinum Anniversary — 70 years! — on October 26, 2025. ←
Editor’s note, December 3, 2025: We found this short, unattributed front-page article from 1958 interesting for several reasons, not least because it concerned an early version of identity theft — in this case, of the Village Voice’s then-burgeoning reputation as a publication with serious journalistic standards. Also, despite some online sleuthing, we can’t find much on the alleged perp with the fascinating name: searching for “Claudius Harris” brings up a few tidbits (a failed marriage on Staten Island), but nothing more about a criminal record.
We did discover, however, from a biography of P.T. Barnum, that a certain “Captain Claudius Harris, of Her Majesty’s Indian Service,” was engaged to the Swedish opera star, Jenny Lind (1820 – 1877), but ultimately proved “a dull young man!”
Also on the front page were photos of a good old-fashioned New York City snowstorm, with some fanciful results captured by one of the paper’s early staff photographers, Gin Briggs.
Alleged Imposter Caught
January 22, 1958
A well-spoken young man who supposedly was passing himself off as a Voice photographer was taken out of circulation last Thursday. He is alleged to be responsible for robbing a brace of East Side art galleries, after gaining the confidence of the owners by telling them he was working on a picture-spread for the Voice.
Claudius Harris, 25, of Staten Island, was apprehended by Detective John Dolan, who remembered that the young man had been involved in a similar sort of case two years ago.
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