Aerocar Inventor Can't Dodge Prison.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 7, 1913:
Expected Release in Brooklyn Under Suspended Sentence Until Whitman Acted.
NOW CERTAIN OF REARREST
And May Be Again Sentenced for Life Before He Can Try Out His $20,000 Airship.
    Harry Bretton, civil engineer, habitual criminal, and inventor, is not to have his freedom so he can superintend the first flight of the aerocar which he invented and which cost $20,000 to build. For several months the airship has been assembled and kept in readiness at a hangar in the aviation field near Garden City for its initial flight.
    This morning Bretton is to be taken before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in Brooklyn to be sentenced on a plea of grand larceny, which carries with it imprisonment for five years. Because of the fact that he has already spent three years in prison awaiting decisions on his different appeals, and in view of the ingenuity in airship construction which he developed during his stay in the Queens County Jail, he may be released under suspended sentence. But, even so, an officer from another jurisdiction will be waiting in court to arrest him for an old crime.
    Herbert S. Harvey, who was Sheriff of Queens County when Bretton made the first model of his aerocar, with Dr. William Dennis and several other of their friends, raised funds to build the car from Bretton's plans and the American Safety Aero Corporation was formed. Bretton obtained his release on bail and the corporation rented a factory building in Oak Street, Richmond Hill, where the aerocar was built.
    Meantime a decision was handed down by the Appellate Division setting forth that the sentence of Judge Humphrey, imposing life imprisonment on Bretton as a habitual criminal was improper, as the indictment to which Bretton pleaded guilty did not say that he was a third offender. It is in accordance with this decision that Bretton will have the distinction of being the first prisoner in the history of the New York bar to be arraigned before the Appellate Division for sentence to-day.
    Bretton had high hopes of regaining his freedom and the men interested with him in the airship enterprise felt confident of his release until yesterday afternoon, when Detective Thomas of District Attorney Whitman's office appeared at the Queens County Jail and filed an indictment returned by a Grand Jury in New York County, charging Bretton with grand larceny here. This indictment recites several previous offences against Bretton, which will mean life imprisonment for him in event of his conviction. So, in the event of his release in Brooklyn to-day, Bretton will only change one prison for another, with the prospect of spending the remainder of his days behind the bars.
    Bretton is about 62 years old and of scholarly appearance. In the latter part of 1909 frequent complaints were made to the police about an elderly, refined man who made a business of swindling governesses by engaging them to go either to California or Florida, to take care of an invalid sister and two children. Bretton finally fell into their hands, charged with having lured Mathilde Rouax, a French governess, to Long Island City, where he robbed her of $50, all the money she had, on the pretence that it was needed to buy her ticket.
    When Bretton found that he had been indicted simply for grand larceny, without any reference to his previous terms in different prisons, he pleaded guilty. Judge Humphrey took cognizance of the previous convictions in sentencing Bretton to a life term.
    Bretton's aerocar is intended to carry several passengers. It has a specially constructed motor of 140 horse power. The machine is built of aluminium and the motor is hung below the car, which, its inventor asserts, makes it impossible for the car to capsize. The wings and planes of the car automatically adjust themselves. A trial flight, however, is needed to prove the correctness of the theories of the inventor.