MEMBERS at Sully U3A's May meeting enjoyed a talk by Don Llewellyn entitled "The Brains behind the Mob".

Don worked in television for 30 years and is a published author.

The subject of his talk was Maurice Llewellyn Humpheys, who later changed his name to Murray Llewellyn Humphreys - the Welsh mobster who corrupted America.

He told how he had researched the life of Humphreys for a television programme, making visits to Chicago and Oklahoma. Humphreys was handsome, intelligent and charasmatic.

His mother and father were born in Montgomeryshire and emigrated to Chicago in the 1890s where Humpheys was born, the fourth of their children to be born there. He left school at 7 but was highly intelligent and could converse on a wide range of subjects.

He married and had a happy family life.

Although he was a friend of Al Capone, the brains behind the St Valentine's Day Massacre and arranged the alibis for Capone and his men, he lived a life of obscurity and not many policemen knew him by sight. He also had many disguises, once turning up at court with an eye patch and dressed as an old man! He associated with people at the highest level, including film stars. He came to Wales only once, two years before he died in 1965 at the age of 66. He had heard about Wales from his parents and wanted to see it for himself. He found it even more beautiful than he had expected.

Don met Humphreys' daughter and was able to have access to photographs and cine film. She saw the finished programme and was pleased with it. He said Humphreys was an enigma who could stay out of the limelight for so long and then emerge as a top gangster. He was brilliant and if he had channelled his intelligence and talents differently, what could he have been?

Don was thanked for his interesting and humorous talk by chairman, Jean Bispham.

The next meeting on June 11will be the AGM followed by a WW1 Commemoration.