LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA

SAN DIEGO

6233

MYSTERIES OF POLICE
AND CRIME

X
o

MYSTERIES

POLICE AND CRIME

MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS

FOBMKBLY ONE OP H.M. INSPECTORS OP PRISONS ; JOHN HOWARD GOLD
MEDALLIST ; AUTHOR OP " MEMORIALS OP MILLBANK," " CHRONICLES OP

NEWGATE," ETC.

PROFUSEL Y ILL US TEA TED
IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL. I.
SPECIAL EDITION

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED

LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK $ MELBOURNE

ALL EIGHTS BE8EEVED

CONTENTS.

part I.

A GENERAL SURVEY OF CRIME AND ITS DETECTION

PAOE

Crime Distinguished from La w- breaking IJhe General Liability to Crime Preventive
Agencies Plan of thd Work Different Types of Murders and Robberies Crime
Developed by Civilisation The Police the Shield and Buckler of Society Difficulty
of Disappearing under Modern Conditions The Press an Aid to the Police : the
Cases of Courvoisier, Muller, and Lefroy The Importance of Small Clues" Man
Measurement " and Finger-Prints Strong Scents as Clues Victims of Blind
Chance: the Cases of Troppmann and Peace Superstitions of Criminals Dogs
and other Animals as Adjuncts to the Police Australian. Blacks as Trackers:
Instances of their Almost Superhuman Skill How Criminals give themselves
Away : the Murder of M. Delahache, the Stepney Murder, and other Instances
Cases in which there is Strong but not Sufficient E vidence : the Great Coi am Street
and Burdell Murders : the Probable Identity of " Jack the Ripper " Undiscovered
Murders : the Rupprecht, Mary Rogers, Nathan, and other Cases : Similar Cases
in India : the Burton Crescent Murder : the Murder of Lieutenant Roper The
Balance in Favour of the Police 1

fart II.

JUDICIAL ERRORS.

CHAPTER I.
WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS.

Judge Cambo, of Malta The D'Anglades The Murder of Lady Mazel Execution of
William Shaw for the Murder of his Daughter The Suilmaker of Deal and the
alleged Murder of a Boatswain Brunei, the Innkeeper Du Moulin, the Victim
of a Gang of Coiners The Famous Galas Case at Toulouse Gross Perversion
of Justice at Nuremberg The Blue Dragoon ....... 51

CHAPTER II.
CASES OF DISPUTED OR MISTAKEN IDENTITY. ,

Lesurques and the Robbery of the Lyons Mail The Champignelles Mystery Judge
Garrow's Story An Imposition practised at York Assizes A Husband claimed by

vi CONTENTS.

FADE

Two Wives A Milwaukee Mystery A Scottish Case The Kingswood Kectory
Murder The Cannon Street Murder A Narrow Escape . . 95

CHAPTER III.
PROBLEMATICAL ERRORS.

Captain Doncllan and the Poisoning of Sir Theodosius Boughton : Donellan's Suspicious
Conduct : Evidence of John Hunter, the great Surgeon : Sir James Stephen's
View : Corrohorative Story from his Father The Lafarge Case : Madame Lafarge
and the Cakes: Doctors differ as to Presence of Arsenic in the Remains : Possible
Guilt of Denis Burbier : Madame Lafarge's Condemnation : Pardoned by Napoleon
III. Charge against Madame Lafarge of stealing a School Friend's Jewels : Her
Defence : Conviction Madeleine Smith charged with Poisoning her Fiance ; " Not
Proven " : the Latest Facts The \Vharton-Ketchum Case in Baltimore, U.S.A.
The Story of the Perrys 129

CHAPTER IV.
POLICE MISTAKES.

The Saffron Hill Murder : Narrow Escape of Pellizioni : Two Men in Newgate for the
same Offence The Murder of Constable Cock The Edlingham Burglary : Arrest,
Trial, and Conviction of Brannagan and Murphy : Severity of Judge Manisty :
A new Trial: Brannagan and Murphy Pardoned and Compensated : Survivors of
the Police Prosecutors put on their Trial, but Acquitted Lord Cochrane's Case:
His Tardy Rehabilitation 169

fart ill.

POLICE PAST AND PRESENT.

CHAPTER V.
EARLY POLICE : FRAKCE.

Origin of Police Definitions First Police in France Charles V. Louis XIV.
The Lieutenant-General of Police: His Functions and Powers La Reynie : His
Energetic Measures against Crime : As a Censor of the Press : His Steps to Check
Gambling and Cheating at Games of Chance La Reynie's Successors : the
D'Argensons, Heiault, D'Ombreval, Berryer The Famous de Sartines Two In-
stances of his Omniscience Lenoir and Espionage De Crosne, the last and most
feeble Lieutenant-General of Police The Story of the Bookseller Blaziot Police
under the Directory and the Empire Fouche : His Beginnings and First Chances :
A Born Police Officer : His Rise and Fall General Savary : His Character :
How he organised his Service of Spies : His humiliating Failure in the Conspiracy
of General Malet Fouche's return to Power : Some Views of his Character . . 191

CONTENTS. vii

CHAPTER VI.
EARLY POLICE (continued) : ENGLAND.

PAGE

Early Police in England Ed ward I. 's Act Elizabeth's Act for Westminster Acts of
George II. and George III. State of London towards the End of the Eighteenth
Century Gambling and Lottery Offices Robberies on the River Thames
Receivers Coiners The Fieldings as Magistrates The Horse Patrol Bow Street
and its Runners : Townsend, Vickery, and others Blood Money Tyburn Tickets
Negotiations with Thieves to recover stolen Property Sayer George Ruthven
Serjeant Ballantine on the Bow Street Runners compared with modern Detectives 219

CHAPTER VII.

MODERN POLICE : LONDON.

The "New Police" introduced by Peel The System supported by the Duke of
Wellington Opposition from the Vestries Brief Account of the Metropolitan
Police : Its Uses and Services The River Police The City Police Extra Police
Services The Provincial Police 246

CHAPTER VIII.
MODERN POLICE (continued): PARIS.

The Spy System under the Second Empire The Manufacture of Dossiers ^,1. Andrieux
receives his own on being appointed Prefect The Clerical Police of Paris The
Sergents de Ville The Six Central Brigades The Cabmen of Paris, and how they
are kept in Order Stories of Honest and of Dishonest Cabmen Detectives and
Spies Newspaper Attacks upon the Police Their General Character . . . 258

CHAPTER IX.
MODERN POLICE (continued) : NEW YORK.

Greater New York Despotic Position of the Mayor Constitution of the Police Force
Dr. Parkhurst's Indictment The Lexow Commission and its Report Police
Abuses : Blackmail, Brutality, Collusion with Criminals, Electoral Corruption, the
Sale of Appointments and Promotions Excellence of the Detective Bureau The
Bkck Museum of New York The Identification Department Effective Control
of Crime ; 268

CHAPTER X.

MODERN POLICE (continued) : EUSSIA.

Mr. Sala's Indictment of the Russian Police Their Wide-reaching Functions-
Instances of Police Stupidity Why Sala Avoided the Police Von H and his

Spoons Herr Jerrmann's Experiences Perovsky, the Reforming Minister of the
Interior The Regular Police A Rural Policeman's Visit to a Peasant's House
The State Police The Third Section Attacks upon Generals Mezentzoff and
Drenteln The " Paris Box of Pills " Sympathisers with Nihilism : An Invaluable
Ally Leroy Beaulieu on the Police of Russia Its Ignorance and Inadequate Pay
The Case of Vera Zassoulich The Passport System : How it is Evaded and
Abused : Its Oppressiveness 288

viii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XL
MODERN POLICE (continued): INDIA.

PAOI

The New System Compared with the Old Early Difficulties Gradually Overcome
The Village Police in India Discreditable Methods under the Old System Torture,
Judicial and Extra-Judicial Native Dislike of Police Proceedings Cases of Men
Confessing to Crimes of which they were Innocent A Mysterious Case of Theft
Trumped-up Charges of Murder Simulating Suicide An Infallible Test of
Death The Paternal Duties of the Police The Native Policeman B.idly Paid . 312

CHAPTER XII.
THE DETECTIVE, AND WHAT HE HAS DONE.

The Detective in Fiction and in Fact Early Detection Case of Lady Ivy Thomas
Chandler Mackoull, and how he was run down by a Scots Solicitor Vidocq :
his Early Life, Police Services, and End French Detectives generally Amicable
Relations between French and English Detectives .... . 330

CHAPTER XIII.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN DETECTIVES.

English Detectives Early Prejudices against them Lived Down The late Mr. Wil-
liamson Inspector Melville Sir C. Howard Vincent Dr. Anderson Mr.
Macnaghten Mr. Me William and the Detectives of the City Police A Country
Detective's Experiences Allan Pinkerton's first Essay in Detection The Private
Inquiry Agent and the Lengths to which he will go ...... 364

|3art IV.

CAPTAINS OF CRIME.

CHAPTER XIV.
SOME FAMOUS SWINDLERS.

Recurrence of Criminal Types Heredity and Congenital Instinct The Jukes and
other Families of Criminals John Hatfield Anthelme Collet's Amazing Career
of Fraud The Story of Pierre Cognard : Count Pontis de St. Helene : Recognised
by an old Convict Comrade : Sent to the Galleys for Life Major Semple : His
many Vicissitudes in Foreign Armies : Thief and Begging-Letter Writer: Trans-
ported to Botany Bay 387

CHAPTER XV.

SWINDLERS OF MORE MODERN TYPE.

Richard Coster Sheridan, the American Bank Thief Jack Canter The Frenchman
Allmaycr, a typical Nineteenth Century Swindler Paraf The Tainmany Frauds

CONTENTS. ix

PAGB

Burton, alias Count von Havard Dr. Vivian, a bogus Millionaire Bridegroom
Mock Clergymen : Dr. Berrington : Dr. Keatinge Harry Benson, a Prince of
Swindlers: The Scotland Yard Detectives suborned : Benson's Adventures after
his Release : Commits Suicide in the Tombs Prison Max Shiriburn and his
Feats 409

CHAPTER XVI.
SOME FEMALE CRIMINALS.

Criminal Women Worse than Criminal Men Bell Star Comtesse Sandor Mother

M , the Famous Female Receiver of Stolen Goods The " German Princess "

Jenny Diver The Baroness de Menckwitz Emily Lawrence Louisa Miles
Mrs. Gordon-Baillie : Her Dashing Career : Becomes Mrs. Percival Frost : the
Crofters' Friend : Triumphal Visit to the Antipodes : Extensive Frauds on Trades-
men : Sentenced to Penal Servitude A Viennese Impostor Big Bertha, the
" Confidence Queen " 447

A GENERAL SURVEY OF CRIME AND ITS

DETECTION.

Crime Distinguished from Law-breaking The General Liability to Crime Preventive
Agencies Plan of the Work Different Types of Murders and Robberies Crime
Developed by Civilisation The Police the Shield and Buckler of Society Difficulty
of Disappearing under Modern Conditions The Press an Aid to the Police : the
Cases of Courvoisier, Muller, and Lefroy The Importance of Small Clues " -Alan
Measurement" and Finger- Prints Strong Scents as Clues Victims of Blind Chance :
the Cases of Troppmann and Peace Superstitions of Criminals Dogs and other
Animals as Adjuncts to the Police Australian Blacks as Trackers: Instances of
their Almost Superhuman Skill How Criminals give themselves Away : the Murder
of M. Delahache, the Stepney Murder, and other Instances Cases in which there is-
Strong but not Sufficient Evidence : the Bui-dell and Various Other Murders :
the Probable Identity of ''Jack the Ripper" Undiscovered Murders: the Hupprocht,
Mary Rogers, Nathan, and other Cases: Similar Cases in India : the Burton Crescent
Murder : the Murder of Lieutenant Koper The Balance in Favour of the Police.

I. THE CAUSES OF CRIME.

CRIME is the transgression by individuals of rules made by the
community. Wrong-doing may be either intentional or acci-
dental a wilful revolt against law, or a lapse through ignorance
of it. Both are punishable by all codes alike, but the latter is not
necessarily a crime. To constitute a really criminal act the offence
J

2 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

must be wilful, perverse, malicious ; the offender then becomes
the general enemy, to be combated by all good citizens, through
their chosen defenders, the police. This warfare has existed from
the earliest times ; it is in constant progress around us to-day, and

TYPES OF MALE CRIMINALS.

(From Plwtograplis preserved at the Black Museum, New Scotland Yard.)

it will continue to be waged until the advent of that Millennium in
which there is to be no more evil passion to agitate mankind.

It may be said that society itself creates the crimes that most
beset it. If the good things of life were more evenly distributed, if
everyone had his rights, if there were no injustice, no oppression,
there would be no attempts to readjust an unequal balance by
violent or flagitious means. There is some force in this, but it is
very far from covering the whole ground, and it cannot excuse many
forms of crime. Crime, indeed, is the birthmark of humanity, a fatal
inheritance known to the theologians as original sin. Crime, then,
must be 'constantly present in the community, and every son of
Adam may, under certain 'conditions, be drawn into it. To para-
phrase a great saying, some achieve crime, some have it thrust
upon them ; but most of us (we may make the statement with-
out subscribing to all the doctrines of the criminal anthropologists)
are born to crime. The assertion is as old as the hills ; it was
echoed in the fervent cry of pious John Bradford when he pointed
to the man led out to execution, " There goes John Bradford but
for the grace of God ! "

Criminals are manufactured both by social cross-purposes
and by the domestic neglect which fosters the first fatal predis-
position. "Assuredly external factors and circumstances count for

PERENNIAL ACTIVITY OF OKI HE.

much in the causation of crime," says Maudsley. The preventive
agencies are all the more necessary where heredity emphasises the
universal natural tendency. The taint of crime is all the more
potent in those whose parentage is evil. .The germ is far more
likely to flourish into baleful vitality if planted by congenital
depravity. This is constantly seen with the offspring of criminals.
But it is equally certain that the poison may be eradicated, the
evil stamped out, if better influences supervene betimes. Even
the most ardent supporters of the theory of the " born criminal ' :
admit that this, as some think, imaginary monster, although pos-
sessing all the fatal characteristics, does not necessarily commit
crime. The bias may be checked; it may lie latent through life
unless called into activity by certain unexpected conditions of time
and chance. An ingenious refinement of the old adage, " Opportunity
makes the thief," has been invented by an Italian scientist, Baron
Garofalo, who declares that " opportunity only reveals the thief" ;
it does not create the predisposition, the latent thievish spirit.

However it may originate, there is still little doubt of the uni-
versality, the perennial activity of crime. We may accept the
unpleasant fact without theorising further as to the genesis of
crime. I propose in these pages to take criminals as I find them ; to
accept crime as an actual fact, and in its multiform manifestations ;

TYPES OF FEMALE CKIMIXAL*.

(From Photographs at the Elude Museum.)

to deal with its commission, the motives that have caused it, the
methods . by which it has been perpetrated, the steps taken some-
times extraordinarily ingenious and astute, sometimes foolishly
forgetful and ineffective to conceal the deed and throw the pursuers

4 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

off the scent; on the other hand, I shall set forth in some detail
the agencies employed for detection and exposure. The subject
is comprehensive, the amount of material available is colossal, almost
overwhelming.

Every country, civilised and uncivilised, the whole world at largo
in all ao-es, has been cursed with crime. To deal with but a frac-

O '

tional part of the evil deeds that have disgraced humanity would fill
endless volumes; where "envy, hatred, and malice, and all unchari-
tableness" have so often impelled those of weak moral sense to yield
to their criminal instincts, a full catalogue would be impossible. It
must be remembered that crime is ever active in seeking new outlets,
always keen to adopt new methods of execution ; the ingenuity of
criminals is infinite, their patient inventiveness is only equalled by
their reckless audacity. They will take life without a moment's hesi-
tation, and often for a miserably small gain ; will prepare great coups
u year or more in advance and wait still longer for the propitious
moment to strike home ; will employ address and great brain power,
show fine resource in organisation, the faculty of leadership, and
readiness to obey ; will utilise much technical skill ; will assume
strange disguises and play many different parts, all in the prosecu-
tion of their nefarious schemes or in escaping penalties after the
deed is done.

With material so abundant, so varied and complicated, it will be
necessary to use some discretion, to follow certain clearly defined lines
of choice. I propose in these pages to adopt the principle embodied
in the title and to deal more particularly with the "mysteries" of
crime and its incomplete, partial, or complete detection; with offences
not immediately brought home to their perpetrators; offences pre-
pared in secret, committed by offenders who have long remained
perhaps entirely unknown, but who have sometimes met with their
true deserts ; offences that have in consequence exercised the in-
genuity of pursuers, showing the highest development of the game of
hide-and-seek, where the hunt is man, where one side fights for life
and liberty, immunity from well-merited reprisals, the other is armed
with authority to capture the human beast of prey. The flights and
vicissitudes of criminals with the police at their heels make up a
chronicle of moving, hair-breadth adventure unsurpassed by books
of travel and sport.

Typical cases only can be taken, in number according to their

LACEXAIRE THE MURDEREU. 5

relative interest and importance, but all more or less illustrating and
embracing the hydra-headed varieties of crime. We shall see
murders most foul, committed under the strangest conditions ; brutal
and ferocious attacks, followed by the most cold-blooded callousness
in disposing of the evidences of the crime. In some cases a man will

CRIMINALS' WEAPONS : REVOLVERS, KNUCKLE DUSTERS, AND LIFE PRESERVERS
IX THE BLACK MUSEUM.

kill, as Garofalo puts it, " for money and possessions, to succeed to
property, to be rid of one wife through hatred of her or to marry
another, to remove an inconvenient witness, to avenge a wrong, to
show his skill or his hatred and revolt against authority." This
class of criminal was well exemplified by the French murderer
Lacenaire, who boasted that he would kill a man as coolly as he
would drink a glass of wine. They are the deliberate murderers,
who kill of malice aforethought and in cold blood. There will
be slow, secret poisonings, often producing confusion and difference
of opinion among the most distinguished scientists ; successful

6 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

associations of thieves and rogues, with ledgers and bank balances,
and regularly audited accounts; secret societies, some formed for
purely flagitious ends, with commerce and capitalists for their
quarry; others for alleged political purposes, but working with fire
and sword, using the forces of anarchy and disorder against all
established government.

The desire to acquire wealth and possessions easily, or at least
without regular, honest exertion, has ever been a fruitful source
of crime. The depredators, whose name is legion, the birds of prey
ever on the alert to batten upon the property of others, have
flourished always, in all ages and climes, often unchecked or with
long impunity. Their methods have varied almost indefinitely with
their surroundings and opportunities. Now they have merely used
violence and brute force, singly or in associated numbers, by open
attack on highway and byway, on road, river, railway, or deep sea ;
now they have got at their quarry by consummate patience and
ingenuity, plotting, planning, undermining or overcoming the
strongest safeguards, the most vigilant precautions. Robbery has
been practised in every conceivable form : by piracy, the bold ad-
venture of the sea-rover flying his black flag in the face of the world ;
by brigandage hi new or distracted communities, imperfectly pro-
tected by the law ; by daring outrage upon the travelling public, as
in the case of highwaymen, bushrangers, " holders-up " of trains ; by
the forcible entry of premises or the breaking down of defences
designed against attack by burglary in banks and houses,
"whining" through the iron walls of safes and strong-rooms, so
as to reach the treasure within, whether gold or securities or
precious stones ; by robberies from the person, daring garrotte
robberies, dexterous neat-handed pilfering, pocket-picking, counter-
snatching; by insinuating approaches to simple-minded folk, and
the astute, endlessly multiplied application of the time-honoured
Confidence Trick

Crime has been greatly developed by civilisation, by the numerous
processes invented to add to the comforts and conveniences in the
business of daily life. The adoption of a circulating medium was
soon followed by the production of spurious money, the hundred
and one devices for forging notes, manufacturing coin, and
clipping, sweating, and misusing that made of precious metals.
The extension of banks, of credit, of financial transactions

INGENUITY AND INDUSTRY OF CRIMINALS. 7

on paper, has encouraged the trade of the forger and fabri-
cator, whose misdeeds, aimed against monetary values of all kinds,
cover an extraordinarily wide range. The gigantic accumulation no
less than the general diffusion of wealth, with the variety of operations
that accompany its profitable manipulation, has offered temptations
irresistibly strong to evil- or weak-minded people, who seem to seo
chances of aggrandisement, or of escape from pressing embar-
rassments, with the strong hope always of replacing abstractions,
rectifying defalcations, or altogether evading detection. Less criminal,
perhaps, but not less reprehensible, than the deliberately planned
colossal frauds of a Robson, a Redpath, or a Sadleir are the victims
of adverse circumstances, the Strahans, Dean-Pauls, Fauntleroys, who
succeeded to bankrupt businesses and sought to cover up insolvency
with a fight, a losing fight, against misfortune, resorting to nefarious
practices, wholesale forgery, absolute misappropriation, and unpardon-
able breaches of trust.

Between the "high flyers," the artists in crime, and the lesser
fry, the rogues, swindlers, and fraudulent impostors, it is only a
question of degree. These last-named, too, have in many instances
swept up great gains. The class of adventurer is nearly limitless; it
embraces many types, often original in character and in their criminal
methods, clever knaves possessed of useful qualities indeed, of
natural gifts that might have led them to assured fortune had they
but chosen the straight path and followed it patiently. We shall
see with what infinite labour a scheme of imposture has been built
up and maintained, how nearly impossible it was to combat the fraud,
how readily the swindler will avail himself of the latest inventions,
the telegraph and the telephone, of chemical appliances, of photo-
graphy in counterfeiting signatures or preparing banknote plates,
ere long, perchance, of the Rontgen rays. We shall find the most
elaborate and cleverly designed attacks on great banking corporations,
whether by open force or insidious methods of forgery and falsifica-
tion, attacks upon the vast stores of valuables that luxury keeps
at hand in jewellers' safes and shop fronts, and on the dressing-tables
of great dames. Crime can always command talent, industry also,
albeit laziness is ingrained in the criminal class. The desire to win
wealth easily, to grow suddenly rich by appropriating the possessions
or the earnings of others, is no doubt a strong incitement to
crime ; yet the depredator who will not work steadily at any

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honest occupation will give infinite time and pains to compass his
criminal ends.

II. THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED.

Society, weak, gullible, and defenceless, handicapped by a thousand
conventions, would soon be devoured alive by its greedy parasites:
but happily it has devised the shield and buckler of the police ; not
an entirely effective protector, perhaps, but earnest, devoted, un-
hesitating in the performance of its duties. The finer achievements
of eminent police officers are as striking as the exploits of
the enemies they continually pursue. In the endless warfare
success inclines now to this side, now to that ; but the forces
of law and order have generally the preponderance in the end.
Infinite pains, umvearied patience, abounding wit, sharp-edged in-
tuition, promptitude in seizing the vaguest shadow of a clue, unerring
sagacity in clinging to it and following it up to the end these
qualities make constantly in favour of the police. The fugitive

THE DIFFICULTY OF DISAPPEARING. 9

is often equally alert, no less gifted, no less astute; his crime lias
often been cleverly planned so as to leave few, if any, traces easily
or immediately apparent, but he is constantly overmatched, and the
game will in consequence go against him. Now and again, no doubt
he is inexplicably stupid and shortsighted, and will run his head
straight into the noose. Yet the hunters are not always free from
the same fault ; they will show blindness, will overrun their quarry,
sometimes indeed open a door for escape.

In measuring the means and the comparative advantages of the
opponents, of hunted and hunters, it is generally believed that the
police have much the best of it. The machinery, the organisation of
modern life, favours the pursuers. The world's " shrinkage," the facilities
for travel, the narrowing of neutral ground, of secure sanctuary for the
fugitive, the universal, almost immediate, publicity that waits on start-
ling crimes all these are against the criminal. Electricity is his worst
and bitterest foe, and next to it rank the post and the Press. Flight is
checked by the wire, the first mail carries full particulars everywhere,
both to the general public and to a ubiquitous international police,
brimful of camaraderie and willing to help each other. It is not easy
to disappear nowadays, although I have heard the contrary stoutly
maintained. A well-known police officer once assured me that he
could easily and effectually efface himself, given certain conditions, such
as the possession of sufficient funds (not of a tainted origin that
might draw down suspicion), or the knowledge of some honest wage-
earning handicraft, or fluency in some foreign language, and, above
all, a face and features not easily recognisable. Given any of these
conditions, he declared he could hide himself completely in the East-
End, or the Western Hebrides, or South America, or provincial Franco,
or some Spanish mountain town. In proof of this he declared that he
had lived for many months in an obscure French village, and, being
well acquainted with French, passed quite unknown, while watching
for someone ; and he strengthened his argument by quoting the case
of the perpetrator of a recent robbery of pearls, who baffled pursuit
for months, and gave herself up voluntarily in the end.

On the other hand, it may be questioned whether this lady
was altogether hidden, or whether she was so terribly " wanted "
by the police. In any case, pursuit was not so keen as it would
have been with more notorious criminals. Nor can the many
well-established cases of men and women leading double lives be

10 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AXD CRIME.

quoted in support of this view. Such people are not necessarily in
request; there may be a secret reason for concealment, for dread-
ing discovery, but it has generally been of a social, a domestic,
not necessarily a criminal character. We have all heard of the
crossing-sweeper who did so good a trade that he kept his brougham
to bring him to business from a snug home at the other end of
the town. A case was quoted in the American papers some
years back where a merchant of large fortune traded under one
name, and was widely known under it " down town," yet lived
under another "up town," where he had a wife and large family.
This remarkable dissembler kept up the fraud for more than half
a century, and when he died his eldest son was fifty-one, the
rest of his children were middle-aged, and none of them had
the smallest idea of their father's wealth, or of his other existence.
The case is not singular, moreover. Another on all fours, and
even more romantic, was that of two youths with different names,
walking side by side in the streets of New York, who saluted the
same man as father ; a gentleman with two distinct personalities.

Such deception may bo long undetected when it is no one's
business to expose it. Where crime complicates it, where the police
are on the alert and have an object in hunting the wrong-doer down,
disappearance is seldom entirely successful. Dr. Jekyll could not
cover Mr. Hyde altogether when his homicidal mania became
ungovernable. The clergyman who lived a life of sanctity and
preached admirable sermons to an appreciative congregation for
rive full years was run down at last and exposed as a noted burglar
in private life. "Sir Granville Temple," as he called himself, when
he had committed bigamy several times, was eventually uncloaked
and shown up as an army deserter whose father was master of
a workhouse. Criminals who seek effacement do not take into
sufficient account the curiosity and inquisitiveness of mankind.
At times, just after the perpetration of a great crime, when the
criminal is missing and the pursuit at fault, every gossip, land-
lady, " slavey," local tradesman, 'bus conductor, lounger on the cab
rank, newsboy, railway guard, becomes an active amateur agent
of the police, prying, watching, wondering, looking askance at
every stranger and newcomer ; ready to call in the constable on
the slightest suspicion, or immediately report any unusual circum-
stance. The rapid dissemination of news to the four quarters of

THE PRESS A DETECTIVE AGENOT,

III. THE PRESS AX AID TO
THE POLICE.

DC8, but

off the
in had

red gen-

imble in

petrator

rer, was

ice were

making

>reakfast

:h to pay

However,

md thus

tarted in

y, how

free. It

reached

route to

make a

nquirie*.

fternoon

:h, after-

tliat ho

between

out to be

ttementi.

IB line, in
'the knife
the crime
being di-
> hat was
of under-
ooncald

its on the
i lively as-

we give a sketch portnul by a gen-
tleman who knew Lefroy and had frequent op-
portunities of noting his characteristics. It has
been attested a* an excellent likeness by aeveral
persona with whom Lefroy came into cloee con

tact.

the land by our far-reaching, indefatigable, and wide-awake Press
has undoubtedly secured many arrests. The judicious publication
of certain details, of personal descriptions, of names, aliases, and
the supposed movements of persons in request, has constantly
borne fruit. In France police
officials often deprecate the
incautious utterances of the
Press, but it is a common
practice of theirs in Paris to
give out fully prepared items
to the newspapers Avith the
express intention of deceiv-
ing their quarry ; the missing
man has been lulled into
fancied security by hearing
that the pursuers are on a
wrong scent, and, issuing from
concealment, " gives himself
iiway."

The police havo brcod tha following further

notice :

Murder. Percy Lefror Mipleton, wboe appreheciion
ought for murder on the Brighton Rajlwjr. left the

fntt Hospital at LJiacton. t: 9.SO on the momi/ig of

to his as&ai
had reckoi
active and
ensued, ar:
best of it, ]
his fellow I
he would
capitulated,
but a tt
more rcso
window wi
guard, secu
after many
scoundrel I
juncture tl
forty miles
:t cornj
the windoi
lady, who
him, the a
the next i
thought he
came

this way )
down the
to lecure a
ment from

happened,
helping hi.'.
the belief
ady passer:
:reme terror
The tram m
and when i
demind tH.
ten only 1
t the stati

THE PORTRAIT WHICH LEI) TO LEl'ROY's
AUREST (p. 12).

(By permission of the "Daily Ttlegraph")

Long ago, as far back as
the murder of Lord William
Russell by Courvoisier, proof
of the crime was greatly

assisted by the publication of the story in the Press. Madame Piolaine,
an. hotel-keeper, read in the newspaper of the arrest of a suspected
person, recognising him as a man who had been in her service as a
waiter. Only a day or two after the murder he had come to her,
begging her to take charge of a broAvn paper parcel, for which
he would call. He had never returned, and now Madame Piolaine
hunted up the parcel, which lay at the bottom of a cupboard,
where she had placed it. The fact that Courvoisier had brought
it justified her in examining it, and she now found that it con-
tained a quantity of silver plate, and other articles of value. When
the police were called in, they identified the whole as part of the
property abstracted from Lord William Russell's. Here was a link

12 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

directly connecting Courvoisier with the murder. Hitherto the
evidence had been mainly presumptive. The discovery of Lord
William's Waterloo medal, with his gold rings and a ten-pound
note, under the skirting-board in Courvoisier's pantry was strong
suspicion, but no more. The man had a gold locket, too, in his
possession, the property of Lord William Russell, but it had been
lost some time antecedent to the murder. All the evidence was
presumptive, and the case was not made perfectly clear until
Madame Piolaine was brought into it through the publicity given
by the Press.

In the murder of Mr. Briggs by the German, Franz Miiller,
detection was greatly facilitated by the publicity given to the
facts of the crime. The hat found in the railway carriage where
the deed had been done was a chief clue. It bore the maker's
name inside the cover, and very soon a cabman who had read
this in the newspaper carne forward to say he had bought that
very hat at that very maker's for a man named Miiller. Miiller
had been a lodger of his, and had given his little daughter a
jeweller's cardboard box, bearing the name of " Death, Cheapside."
Already this Mr. Death had produced the murdered man's gold
chain, saying he had given another in exchange for it to a man
supposed to be a German. There could be no doubt now that
Miiller was the murderer. His movements were easily traced. He
had gone across the Atlantic in a sailing ship, and was easily
forestalled by the detectives in a fast Atlantic liner, which also
carried the jeweller and the cabman.

Where identity is clear the publication of the siynalement, if
possible of the likeness, has reduced capture to a certainty; it is
a mere question then of time and money. Lefroy, the murderer of
Mr. Gold, was caught through the publicity given to his portrait,
which had appeared in the columns of the Daily Telegraph.
Some eminent but highly cautious police officers nevertheless
deprecate the interference of the Press, and have said that the
premature or injudicious disclosure of facts obtained in the pro-
gress of investigation has led to the escape of criminals. It is to
be feared that there is an increasing distrust of the official methods
of detection, and the Press is more and more inclined to institute
a pursuit of its own when mysterious cases continue unsolved
We may yet see this system, which has sometimes been employed by

SEARCHING FOR CLUES. IS

energetic reporters in Paris, more largely adopted here. Without enter-
ing into the pro's and con.'s of such competition, it is but right to
admit that the Press, with its powerful influence, its ramifications
endless and widespread, has already done great service to justice
in following up crime. So convinced are the London police
authorities of the value of a public organ for police purposes,
that they publish a newspaper of their own, the admirably managed
Police Gazette, which is an improved form of a journal started in
1828. This gazette, which is circulated gratis to all police forces
in the United Kingdom, gives full particulars of crimes and of
persons "wanted," with rough but often life-like woodcut portraits
und sketches that help capture. Ireland has a similar organ, the
Dublin Hue and Cry ; and some of the chief constables of counties
send out police reports that are highly useful at times. Through
these various channels news travels quickly to all parts, puts all
interested on the alert, and makes them active in running down
their prey.

IV. THE IMPORTANCE OF SMALL CLUES.

Detection depends largely, of course, upon the knowledge,
astuteness, ingenuity, and logical powers of police officers, although
they find many independent and often unexpected aids, as wo
shall see. The best method of procedure is clearly laid down in
police manuals : an immediate systematic investigation on tho
theatre of a crime, the minute examination of premises, the
careful search for tracks and traces, for any article left behind,
however insignificant, such as the merest fragment of clothing,
a scrap of paper, a harmless tool, a hat, half a button; the
slow, persistent inquiry into the antecedents of suspected persons,
of their friends and associates, their movements and ways, un-
explained change of domicile, proved possession of substantial
funds after previous indigence all these are detailed for the guid-
ance of tho detective. It will be seen in the following pages
how small a thing has often sufficed to form a clue. A name
chalked upon a door in tell-tale handwriting ; half a word scratched
upon a chisel, has led to the identification of its guilty owner, as in
the case of Orrock. A button dropped after a burglary has been
found to correspond with those on tho coat of a man in custody
for another offence, and with the very place from which it was torn.

14 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GR1MK.

The cloth used to enclose human remains has been recognised as
that used by tailors, and the same with the system of sewing,
thus narrowing inquiry to a particular class of workmen ; and the
fact is well illustrated in the detection of Voirbo, to be hereafter
told. The position of a body has shown that death could not,
have been accidental. A false tooth, fortunately incombustible, has
sufficed for proof of identity when every other vestige has beei,
annihilated by fire, as in the case of Dr. Webster of Boston.

In one clear case of murder, detection was aided by th<
simple discovery of a few half-burnt matches that the criminal
had used in lighting candles in his victim's room to keep
up the illusion that he was still alive. A dog, belonging to a
murdered man, had been seen to leave the house with him on
the morning of the crime, and was yet found fourteen days later
alive and well, Avith fresh food by him, in the locked-up apart-
ment to Avhich the occupier had never returned. The strongest
evidence against Patch, the murderer of Mr. Blight at Rotherhitbe,
was that the fatal shot could not possibly have been fired from
the road outside, and the first notion of this was suggested by the
doctor called in, afterwards eminent as Sir Astley Cooper. In the
Gervais case proof depended greatly upon the date when the roof

Photo : Cassell & Company, Limited.

BROKEN BUTTON AT THE BLACK MUSEUM : A CLUE.

(The white paper has been placed upon the cloth to show up the button.)

FINGER-PRINTS AXD FOOT-MARKS.

TAKING MEASUKEMKX7S OF CRIMINALS
(HKKTILI.OX SYSTEM).

of a cellar had been dis-
turbed, and this was shown
to have been necessarily
some time before, for in the
interval the cochineal insects
had laid their eggs, and this
only takes place at a par-
ticular season. We shall see

in the Voirbo case, quoted above, how an ingenious police officer,
when he found bloodstains on a floor, discovered where a bedy
had been buried by emptying a can of water on the uneven stones
and following the channels in which it ran.

Finger-prints and foot-marks have again and again been
cleverly worked into undeniable evidence. The impression of the
first is personal and peculiar to the individual; by the latter
the police have been able to fix beyond question the direction
in which criminals have moved, their character and class, and
the neighbourhood that owns them. The labours of the
scientist have within the last few years produced new methods of
identification, which are invaluable in the pursuit and detection
of criminals. The pattent investigations of a medical expert, M.
Bertillon, of Paris (one of the witnesses in the Dreyfus case),
developing the scientific discovery of his father, have proved
beyond all question that certain measurements of the human

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRLMK.

EAH AND HEAD MEASURERS (THE
BERTILLOX SYSTEM).

frame are not only constant and unchangeable, but peculiar to
each subject; the width of the head, the length of the face, of

the middle finger, of the lower
limbs from knee to foot, and so
forth, provide such a number of
combinations that no two persons,
speaking broadly, possess them all
exactly alike. This has established
the system of anthropometry, of
"man measurement," which has
now been adopted on the same
lines by every civilised nation in
the world. The system, however, is
on the face of it a complicated one,
and at New Scotland Yard it has
now been abandoned in favour of the finger-prints method.
Mr. Francis Gallon, to whose researches this mode of identifi-
cation is due, has proved that finger prints, exhibited in
certain unalterable combinations, suffice to fix individual iden-
tity, and his system of notation, as now practised in England,
will soon provide a general register of all known criminals in the
country.

The ineffaceable odour of musk and other strong scents has more
than once brought home robbery and murder to their perpetrators.
A most interesting case is re-
corded by General Harvey,*
where, in the plunder of a
native banker and pawnbroker
in India, an entire pod of
musk, just as it had been ex-
cised from the deer, was carried
off' with a number of valuables.
Musk is a costly commodity,
for it is rare, and obtained
generally from far-off Thibet.
The police, in following up

the dacoits, invaded their tanda, or encampment, and were at once
conscious of an unmistakable and overpowering smell of musk,

* " Records of Indian Crime," ii. 158.

Loop.

Whorl.

MR. GALTON S TYPES OK FINGEK-P1UXTS.

'AFTER A SHORT STRUGGLE .

TJIE THIEVES SEIZED THE OPIUM" (p. 18).

18 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CBJMH.

which was presently dug up with a number of rupees, coins of
an uncommon currency,

In another instance a scent merchant's agent, returning from
Calcutta, brought back with him a flask of spikenard. He
travelled up country by boat part of the way, then landed to
complete the journey, and carried with him the spikenard. He fell
among thieves, a small gang of professional poisoners, who dis-
posed of him, killing him and his companions and throwing them into
the river. Long afterwards the criminals, who had appropriated all
their goods, were detected by the tell-tale smell of the spikenard
in their house, and the flask, nearly emptied, w r as discovered
beneath a stack of fuel in a small room.

Yet again, the smell of opium led to the detection of a robbery
in the Punjaub, where a train of bullock carts laden with the
drug was plundered by dacoits. After a short struggle the bullock
drivers bolted, the thieves seized the opium and buried it. But,
returning through a village, they were intercepted as suspicious
characters, and it was found that their clothes smelt strongly of
opium. Then their footsteps were traced back to where they had
committed the robbery, and thence to a spot in the dry bed of
a river, in which the opium was found buried.

In India, again, many cases of obscure homicide have been
brought to light by such a trifling fact as the practice, common
among native women, of wearing glass, or rather shell lac, bangles
or bracelets. These choorees, as they are called, are heated, then
wound round wrist or ankle in continuous circles and joined. They
are very brittle, and will naturally be easily smashed in a violent
struggle. Fruitless search was made for a woman who had dis-
appeared from a village, until in a field adjoining the fragments of
broken choorees were picked up. On digging below, the corpse of
the missing woman, bearing marks of foul play, was discovered.

In another case a father identified certain broken choorees as
belonging to his daughter ; they had been found, with traces of
blood and wisps of female hair, near a well, and were the means of
bringing home the murder. Cheevers * tells us that a young woman
was seen to throw a boy ten years of age into a dry well twenty feet
deep. Information was given, and the child was extracted, a corpse.
Pieces of choorees were picked up near the well similar to those

* " Medical Jurisprudence of India," p. 21.

THE INFLUENCE OF "LUCK." ID

worn by the woman, who was arrested and eventually convicted of
murder. Here the ingenious defence was set up that the child's
mother, a woman of the same caste as the accused, and likely to
wear the same kind of bangle, had gone to Avail at the well-side and
might have broken her glass ornaments in the excess of her grief.
But sentence of death was passed.

V. " LUCK " FOR AND AGAINST CRIMINALS.

Among the many outside aids to detection, "luck," blind chance,
takes a very prominent place. We shall come upon innumerable
instances of this. Troppmann, the wholesale murderer, was appre-
hended quite by accident, because his papers were not in proper form.
He might still have escaped prolonged arrest had he not run for it
and tried to drown himself in the harbour at Havre. The chief of
a band of French burglars was arrested in a street quarrel, and was
found to be carrying a great part of the stolen bonds in his pocket.
When Charles Peace was taken at Blackheath in the act of burglary,
and charged with wounding a policeman, no one suspected that this
supposed half-caste mulatto, with his dyed skin, was a murderer
much wanted in another part of the country. Every good police
officer freely admits the assistance he has had from fortune. One of
these famous, not to say notorious, for he fell into bad ways
described to me how he was much thwarted and baffled in a certain
case by his inability to come upon the person he was after, or any
trace of him, and how, meeting a strange face in the street, a sudden
impulse prompted him to turn and follow it, with the satisfactory
result that he was led straight to his desired goal. The same officer
confessed that chancing to see a letter delivered by the postman at
a certain door he was tempted to become possessed of it, and did
not hesitate to steal it. When he had opened and read it, he
found the clue of which he was in search !

Criminals themselves believe strongly in luck, and in some cases
are most superstitious. An Italian, whose speciality was sacrilege,
never broke into a church without kneeling down before the altar
to pray for good fortune and large booty. The whole system of
Thuggee was based on superstition. The bands never operated with-
out taking the omens; noting the flight of birds, the braying of a
jackass to right or left, and so on, interpreting these things as warnings

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIMK.

or as encouragements to proceed. This superstitious belief in luck
is still prevalent. A notorious banknote forger in France care-
fully abstained from counterfeiting notes of two values, those for

iE COMBAT D"lIW OKnUT COL.-''.* ITU

*-t- B-T i. nrnfcr >vr. '-
Jaatj U rr.me &_> CJtaritfY. cjl

THE FIGHT HETWEEX MACAIRE AND THE I)OG OF MONTARGIS.
(From an Old Print.)

500 francs and 2,000 francs, being convinced that they Avould
bring him into trouble. Thieves, it has been noticed, generally
follow one line of business, because a first essay in it was successful.
The man who steals coats steals them continually; once a horse
thief always a horse thief; the forger sticks to .his own line, as
do the pickpocket, the burglar, and the performer of the confidence
trick. The burglar dislikes extremely the use of any tools or
instruments but his own ; he generally believes that another man's

ANIMAL INSTINCT AND CRIME.

false keys, jemmies, and so forth, would
bring him bad luck. Only in matter-
of-fact America does the cracksman rise
superior to superstition. There a good
business is done by certain people who
lend housebreaking tools on hire.

Instinct, aboriginal and animal, has
helped at times to bring criminals to
justice. The mediaeval story of the
dog of Montargis may be mere fable,
but it rests on historic tradition that
after Macaire had murdered Aubry dc
Montdidier in the forest of Bondy, the
extraordinary aversion shown by the
dog to Macaire first aroused suspicion,
and led to the ordeal, of mortal com-
bat, in which the dog triumphed.

It has been sometimes suggested
that the instinct of animals might be
further utilised in the pursuit of crim-
inals. Something more than the Avell-
known unerring chase of the bloodhound
might be got from the marvellous

intelligence of dogs. We shall see how the strange restlessness
of the dog owned by Wainwright's manager in the Whitechapel
Road nearly led to the discovery of the murdered Harriet Lane's
remains. The clever beast was perpetually scratching at the
floor beneath which the poor woman was buried, and his incon-
venient restlessness no doubt led to his own destruction, for Wain-
wright is said to have made away with the dog. In India the idea of
using the pariah dog for the purpose of smelling out buried bodies
has been often put forward. Dogs would avail little, however, if the
corpse lay at a great depth below ground, and hence the suggestion to
draw upon the keener sense, exercised over a wider range above and
below ground, of the vulture. This foul bird is commonly believed to
be untameable, but it might assist unconsciously. Vultures are much
given to perching upon the same tree near every Indian station, and
close observation might reveal the direction of their flight. Their
presence at any particular spot would constitute fair grounds for

SUMATRAX THIEVES CALENDAR
(BRITISH MUSEUM) FOR CAL-
CULATING LUCKY DAYS.

22 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

suspicion that they were after carrion. Indian police experience
records many cases of the discovery of bodies through the agency
of kites, vultures, crows, and scavenging wild beasts. The howling of
a jackal has given the clue ; in one remarkable case the body of a
murdered child was traced through the snarling and quarrelling
of jackals over the remains. A murderer who had buried his victim
under a heap of stones, on returning (the old story) to the spot
found that it had been unearthed by wild animals.

VI. THE TRACKING INSTINCT IN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES.

The strange, almost superhuman, powers of the Australian blacks
in following blind, invisible tracks have been turned to good account
in the detection of crime. Their senses of sight, smell, and touch are
abnormally acute. They can distinguish the trail of lost animals
one from the other, and follow it for hundreds of miles. Like the
Red Indians of North America, they judge by a leaf, a blade of
grass, a mere splash in the mud ; they can tell with unfailing pre-
cision whether the ground has been recently disturbed, and even
what has passed over it.

A remarkable instance occurred in the colony of Victoria in 1851,
when a stockholder, travelling up to Melbourne with a considerable
sum of money, disappeared. His horse had returned riderless to the
station, and without saddle or bridle. A search was at once insti-
tuted, but proved fruitless. The horse's hoof-marks were followed to
the very boundary of the run, near which stood a hut occupied by
two shepherds. These men, when questioned, declared that neither
man nor horse had passed that way. Then a native who worked on
the station was pressed into the service, and starting from the house,
walking with downcast eyes and occasionally putting his nose to the
ground, he easily followed the horse's track to the shepherds' hut,
where he at once offered some information. " Two white mans walk
here," he said, pointing, to indications he alone could discover on the
ground. A few yards farther he cried, " Here fight ! here large fight ! "
and it was seen that the grass had been trampled down. Again, close
at hand, he shouted in great excitement, " Here kill kill ! " A
minute examination of the spot showed that the earth had been
moved recently, and on turning it over a quantity of clotted blood
was found below

AN AUSTRALIAN* NATIVE TRACKING.
(A Sketch from Life.)

21 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

There was nothing, however, definitely to prove foul play, and
further search was necessary. The black now discovered the tracks
of men by the banks of a small stream hard by, which formed the
boundary of the run. The stream was shrunk to a tiny thread after
the long drought, and here and there was swallowed up by sand.
But it gathered occasionally into deep, stagnant pools, which marked
its course. Each of these the native examined, still finding foot-marks
on the margin. At last the party reached a pond larger than any,
wide, and seemingly very deep. The tracker, after circling round and
round the bank, said the trail had ceased, and bent all his attention
upon the surface of the water, where a quantity of dark scum was
floating. Some of this he skimmed off', tasted and smelt it, and
decided positively " White man here."

The pond was soon dragged with grappling-irons and long spears,
and presently a large sack was brought up, which was found to con-
tain the mangled remains of the missing stockholder. The sack
had been weighted with many stones to prevent it from rising to
the surface.

Suspicion fell upon the two shepherds who lived in the hut on
the boundary of the run. One was a convict on ticket-of-leave,
the other a deserter from a regiment in England. Both had taken
part in the search, and both had appeared much agitated and
upset as the black's marvellous discoveries were laid bare. Both,
too, incautiously urged that the search had gone far enough, and pro-
tested against examining the ponds. While this was being done, and
unobserved by them, a magistrate and two constables went to their
hut and searched it thoroughly. They first sent away an old
woman who acted as the shepherds' servant, and then turned over
the place. Nothing was found in the hut, but in an outhouse
they came upon a coat and waistcoat and two pairs of trousers, all
much stained with fresh blood-marks. On this the shepherds were
arrested and sent down to Melbourne.

What had become of the saddle-bags in which the murdered
man had carried his cash ? It was surmised that they had been
put by in some safe place, and again the services of the native
tracker were sought. He now made a start from the shepherds
hut, and discovered as before, by sight and smell, the tracks of
two men's feet, travelling northwaid. These took him to a
gully or dry watercourse, in the centre of which was a high pile

AUSTRALIAN NATIVES AS TRACKERS.

>rgiM>

AVSTRALIAX SHEPHERD S I1VT.

of stones. The tracks ended at
a stone on the side, where the
native said he smelt leather.
When several stones had been
taken down, the saddle-bags,
saddle, and bridle were found
hidden in an inner receptacle.
The money, the motive of the
murder, was still in the bags
no less than 2,000 and had
been left there, no doubt, for
removal at a more convenient
time.

The shepherds were put on
their trial, and the evidence thus
accumulated was deemed con-
vincing by a jury. It was also
proved that the blood-stained
clothes had been worn by. the
prisoners both on the day before
and on the very day of the murder. The stains were ascertained
by chemical analysis to be of human blood, not of sheep's, as set up
by the defence. It was also shown that the men had been absent
i'rom the hut the greater part of the morning of the murder.
They Avcre executed at Melbourne.

This extraordinary faculty of following a trail is characteristic of
all the Australian blacks. It Avas remarkably illustrated in a Queens-
land case, where a man was missing who was supposed to have
been murdered, and whose remains were discovered by the black
trackers. An aged shepherd, who had long served on a certain station,
was at last sent off with a considerable sum, arrears of pay. He
started down country, but was never' heard of again. Various sus-
picious reports started a belief that he had been the victim of foul
play. The police were called in, and proceeded to make a thorough
search, assisted by several blacks, who usually hang about the
station loafing. But they lost their native indolence when there
was tracking to be done. Now they were roused to keenest
excitement, and entered eagerly into the work, jabbering and
gesticulating, with flashing eyes. No one, to look at these eyes,

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AXD CXI Ml-:.

generally dull and bleary, could
imagine that they possessed such
visual powers, or that their owners
were so shrewdly observant.

The search commenced at the hut
lately occupied by the shepherd.
The first thing discovered, lying
among the ashes of the hearth, was
a spade, which might have been used
as a weapon of offence ; spots on it,
as the blacks declared, were of blood.
Some similar spots were pointed out
upon the hard, well-trodden ground
outside, and the track led to a creek
or water-hole, on the banks of which
the blacks picked up among the tufts
of short dried grass several locks of
reddish-white hair, invisible to every-
one else. The depths of the water
were now probed with long poles, and
the blacks presently fished up a
blucher boot with an iron heel. The
hair and the boot were both believed
to belong to the missing shepherd.
The trackers still found locks of
hair, following them to a second
water-hole, where all traces ceased,
and it was supposed by some that
the body lay there at the bottom.
Not so the blacks, who asserted that
it had now been lifted upon horse-
back for removal to a more distant
spot, and in proof pointed out hoof-
marks, which had escaped observation
until they detected them. The hoof-
marks were large and small, obviously
of a mare and her foal. Yet the

water-hole was searched thoroughly ; the blacks stripped and
dived, they smelt and tasted the water, but always shook their

AUSTRALIAN XATIVE TYPES.

DISAPPEARANCE OF A SHEPHERD. 27

heads, and, as a matter of fact, nothing was found in this second
creek. The pursuit returned to the hoof-marks, and these were
followed to the edge of a scrub, where for the time they were
lost.

Next day, however, they were again picked up, on the hard, bare
ground, where there was hardly a blade of grass. They led to the
far-off edge of a plain, towards a small spiral column which
ascended into the sky. It was the remains of an old and dilapi-
dated sheep-yard, which had been burnt by the station overseer.
This man, it should have been premised, had all along been sus-
pected of making away with the shepherd from interested motives,
having been the depositary of his savings. And it was remembered
that he had paid several visits in the last few days to the burning
sheep-yard. Now, when the search party reached the spot, where
little but charred and smouldering embers remained, the blacks
eagerly turned over the ashes. Suddenly a woman, a black "gin,"
screamed shrilly, and cried, "Bones sit down here," and closer
examination disclosed a heap of calcined human remains. Small
portions of the skull were still unconsumed, and a few teeth were
found, quite perfect, having altogether escaped the action of the fire.
Soon the buckle of a belt was discovered, and identified as having been
worn by the missing shepherd, and also the iron heel of a boot corre-
sponding to that found in the first water-hole. Thus the marvellous
sagacity of the black trackers had solved the mystery of the shep-
herd's disappearance ; but, although the shepherd's fate was thereby
established beyond doubt, the evidence was not sufficient to bring
home the crime of murder to the overseer.

VII. THE SHORTSIGHTEDNESS OF SOME CRIMINALS.

Not the least useful of the many allies found by the police are the
criminals themselves. Their shortsightedness is often extraordinary ;
even when seemingly most careful to cover up their tracks they
will neglect some small point, will drop unconsciously some slight
clue, which, sooner or later, must betray them. In an American
murder, at Michigan, a man killed his wife in the night by braining
her with a heavy club. His story was that his bedroom had been
entered through the window by some unknown murderer. This
theory was at once disproved by the fact that the window was still

28 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

nailed down on one side. The real murderer in planning the crime
had extracted one nail and left the other.

The detection of the murderers of M. Delahache, a misanthrope
who lived with a paralysed mother and one old servant in a ruined
abbey at La Gloire Dieu, near Troyes, was much facilitated by the
carelessness with which the criminals neglected to carry off a note-
book from the safe. After they had slam their three victims, they
forced the safe and carried off a large quantity of securities payable
to bearer, for M. Delahache was a saving, well-to-do person. They
took all the gold and banknotes, but they left the title-deeds of the
property and his memorandum book, in which the late owner had
recorded in shorthand, illegible by the thieves, the numbers and
description of the stock he held, mostly in Russian and English
securities. By means of these indications it was possible to trace
the stolen papers and secure the thieves, who still possessed them,
together with the pocket-book itself and a number of other valuables
that had belonged to M. Delahache.

Criminals continually " give themselves away " by their own
carelessness, their stupid, incautious behaviour. It is almost an
axiom in detection to watch the scene of a murder for the visit of
the criminal, who seems almost irresistibly drawn thither. The
same impulse attracts the French murderer to the Morgue, where
his victim lies in full public view. This is so thoroughly under-
stood in Paris that the police keep officers in plain clothes among
the crowd which "is always filing past the plate-glass windows
separating the public from the marble slopes on which the bodies
are exposed. An Indian criminal's steps generally lead him home-
ward to his own village, on which the Indian police set a close
watch when a man is much wanted. Numerous cases might be
quoted in which offenders disclose their crime by ill-advised osten-
tation : the reckless display of much cash by those who were, seem-
ingly, poverty-stricken just before; self-indulgent extravagance,
throwing money about wastefully, not seldom parading in the very
clothes of their victims. A curious instance of the neglect of
common precaution was that of Wainwright, the murderer of
Harriet Lane, who left the corpus delicti, the damning proof of his
guilt, to the prying curiosity of an outsider, while he went off in
search of a cab.

One of the most remarkable instances of the want of reticence

hi a great criminal and his detection through his own foolishness
occurred in the case of the Stepney murderer, who betrayed him-
self to the police when they were really at fault and their want of
acuteness was being made the subject of much caustic criticism.
The victim was an aged woman of eccentric character and extremely
parsimonious habits, who lived entirely alone, only admitting a
woman to help her in the housework for an hour or two every
day. She owned a good deal of house property, let out in
tenements to the working classes. As a rule she collected the rents
herself, and was believed to have considerable sums from time to
time in her house. This made her timid ; being naturally of a sus-
picious nature, she fortified herself inside with closed shutters and
locked doors, never opening to a soul until she had closely scrutinised
any visitor. It called for no particular remark that for several days
she had not issued forth. She was last seen on the evening of the
13th of August, 1860. When people came to see her on business on
the 14th, 15th, and 16th, she made no response to their loud knock-
ings, but her strange habits were well known ; moreover, the neigh-
bourhood was so densely inhabited that it was thought impossible
she could have been the victim of foul play.

At last, on the 17th of August, a shoemaker named Emm, whom
she sometimes employed to collect rents at a distance, went to Mrs.
Elmsley's lawyers and expressed his alarm at her non-appearance.
The police were consulted, and decided to break into the house.
Its owner was found lying dead on the floor in a lumber-room at the
top of the house. Life had been extinct for some days, and death
had been caused by blows on the head with a heavy plasterer's
hammer. The body lay in a pool of blood, which had also splashed
the walls, and a bloody footprint was impressed on the floor, pointing
outwards from the room. There were no appearances of forcible
entry to the house, and the conclusion was fair that whoever had
done the deed had been admitted by Mrs. Elmsley herself.
A possible clue to the criminal was afforded by the several rolls
of wall-paper lying about near the corpse. Mrs. Elmsley was in
the habit of employing workmen on her own account to carry out
repairs and decorations in her houses, and the indications pointed
to her having been visited by one of these, who had perpetrated
the crime. Yet the police made no useful deductions from
these data.

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

\Yhile they Avcre still at fault a man named Mullins, a plasterer
by trade and an ex-member of the Irish constabulary, who knew.
Mrs. Elmsley well and had often worked for her, came forward
voluntarily to throw some light on the mystery. Nearly a month

had elapsed since the
murder, and he declared
that during this period
his attention had been
drawn to the man Emm
and his suspicious con-
duct. He had watched
him, had frequently seen
him leave his cottage
and proceed stealthily
to a neighbouring brick-
field, laden on each oc-
casion with a parcel he
did not bring back.
Mullins, after giving this
information quite un-
sought, led the "police
officers to the spot, and
into a ruined outbuilding,
where a strict search was
made. Behind a stone
slab they discovered a
paper parcel containing
articles which were at
once identified as part of

the murdered woman's property. Mullins next accompanied the
police to Emm's house, and saw the supposed criminal arrested.
But to his utter amazement the police turned on Mullins and took
him also into custody. Something in his manner had aroused
suspicion, and rightly, for eventually he was convicted and hanged
for the crime.

Here Mullins had only himself to thank. Whatever the impulse
that strange restlessness that often affects the secret murderer, or
the consuming fear that the scent was hot, and his guilt must be
discovered unless he could shift suspicion it is certain that but for

" HAD . . . FREQUENTLY SEEN HIM . . . PROCEED
STEALTHILY TO A NEIGHBOURING BRICKFIELD."

THE STEPNEY MURDER. 31

his own act he would never have been arrested. It may be inter-
esting to complete this case, and show how further suspicion settled
around Mullins. The parcel found in the brickfield was tied up
with a tag end of tape and a bit of a dirty apron string. A precisely
similar piece of tape was discovered in Mullins's lodgings lying upon
the mantelshelf. There was an inner parcel fastened with waxed
cord. The idea with Mullins was, no doubt, to suggest that the
shoemaker Emm had used cobbler's wax. But a piece of wax was
also found in Mullins's possession, besides several articles belonging
to the deceased.

The most conclusive evidence was the production of a plas-
terer's hammer, which was also found in Mullins's house. It was
examined under the microscope, and proved to be stained with
blood. Mullins had thrown away an old boot, which chanced to be
picked up under the window of a room he occupied. This boot
fitted exactly into the blood-stained footprint on the floor in Mrs.
Elmsley's lumber-room ; moreover, two nails protruding from the sole
corresponded with two holes in the board, and, again, a hole in the
middle of the sole was filled up with dried blood. So far as Emm
was concerned, he was able clearly to establish an alibi, while
witnesses were produced who swore to having seen Mullins coming
across Stepney Green at dawn on the day of the crime with bulging
pockets stuffed full of something, and going home ; he appeared
much perturbed, and trembled all over.

Mullins was found guilty without hesitation, and the judge
expressed himself perfectly satisfied with the verdict. The case
was much discussed in legal circles and in the Press, and all
opinions were unanimously hostile to Mullins. The convict stead-
fastly denied his guilt to the last, but left a paper exonerating
Emm. It is difficult to reconcile this with his denunciation of
that innocent man, except on the ground of his own guilty
knowledge of the real murderer. In any case, it was he him-
self who first lifted the veil and stupidly brought justice down
upon himself.

The case of Mullins was in some points forestalled by the
discovery of an Indian murder, in which the native police in-
geniously entrapped the criminal to assist in his own detection.
A man in Kumacu, named Mungloo, disappeared, and a neighbour,
Moosa, was suspected of having made away with him. The police,

32 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

unable to bring home the murder to him, caught him by bringing
to him a corpse which they declared was Mungloo's. Moosa
knew better, and said so. Imprudently anxious to shift all
suspicion from himself, he told the police that a certain Kitroo
knew where the real corpse lay, and advised them to arrest him.
Kitroo was seized, and confessed in effect that Mungloo was buried
close to his house. The ground was opened, and at a considerable
depth down the body was found. Now Moosa came forward and
claimed the credit, as well as the proffered reward for discovery.
He was, he said, the first to indicate where the body was hidden.
But Kitroo turned Queen's evidence, and swore that he had seen
the murder committed by Moosa and three others, and that, as
he was an eye-witness, he was compelled by them to become an
accomplice. Moosa was sentenced to transportation for life. There
was in his case no necessity to accuse Kitroo, and but for his
officiousness the corpse would never, probably, have been brought
to light.

VIII. SOME UNAVENGED CRIMES.

There have, however, been occasions when detection has failed
more or less completely. The police do not admit always that
the perpetrators remain unknown; they have clues, suspicion, strong
presumption, even more, but there is a gap in the evidence forth-
coming, and to attempt prosecution would be to face inevitable
defeat. To this day it is held at Scotland Yard that the real
murderer in a mysterious murder in London in the seventies was dis-
covered, but that the case failed before an artlully planned alibi.
Sometimes an arrest is made on grounds that afford strong primd-
facie evidence, yet the case breaks down in court. The Burdell
murder in 1857, in New York, was one of these. Dr. Burdell was
a wealthy and eccentric dentist, owning a house in Bond Street,
the greater part of which he let out in tenements. One of his
tenants was a Mrs. Cunningham, to whom he became engaged, and
whom, according to one account, he married. In any case, they
quarrelled furiously, and Dr. Burdell warned her that she must leave
the house, as he had let her rooms. Whereupon she told him
significantly that he might not live to sign the agreement. Shortly
afterwards he was found murdered, stabbed with fifteen wounds, and
there were all the signs of a violent struggle. The wounds must

34 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

have been inflicted by a left-handed person, and Mrs. Cunningham
was proved to be left-handed. The facts were strong against her,
and she was arrested, but was acquitted on trial.

It came out long after the mysterious Road (Somerset) murder
that the detectives were absolutely right about it, and that Inspector
Whicher, of Scotland Yard, in fixing the crime on Constance Kent, had
worked out the case with singular acumen. He elicited the motive
her jealousy of the little brother, one of a second family ; he built up
the clever theory of the abstracted nightdress, and obtained what he
considered sufficient proof. It will be remembered that this accusa-
tion was denounced as frivolous and unjust. Mr. Whicher was so
overwhelmed with ridicule that he soon afterwards retired from
the force, and died, it was said, of a broken heart. His failure,
as it was called, threw suspicion upon Mr. Kent, the father of the
murdered child, and Gough, the boy's nurse, and both were appre-
hended and charged, but the cases were dismissed. In the end,
as all the world knows, Constance Kent, who had entered an Anglican
sisterhood, made full confession to the Rev. Mr. Wagner, of Brighton,
and she was duly convicted of murder. Although sentence of
death was passed, it was commuted, and I had her in my charge at
Millbank for years.

The outside public may think that the identity of that later
miscreant, " Jack the Ripper," was never revealed. So far as absolute
knowledge goes, this is undoubtedly true. But the police, after the
last murder, had brought their investigations to the point of strongly
suspecting several persons, all of them known to be homicidal
lunatics, and against three of these they held very plausible and
reasonable grounds of suspicion. Concerning two of them the case
was weak, although it was based on certain suggestive facts. One
was a Polish Jew, a known lunatic, who was at large in the district
of Whitechapel at the time of the murder, and who, having de-
veloped homicidal tendencies, was afterwards confined in an asylum.
This man was said to resemble the murderer by the one person who
got a glimpse of him the police-constable in Mitre Court. The
second possible criminal was a Russian doctor, also insane, who
had been a convict in both England and Siberia. This man was
in the habit of carrying about surgical knives and instruments in
his pockets ; his antecedents were of the very worst, and at the
time of the Whitechapel murders he was in hiding, or, at least, his

UNDISCOVERED CRIMES. 85

whereabouts was never exactly known. The third person was of the
same type, but the suspicion in his case was stronger, and there
was every reason to believe that his own friends entertained grave
doubts about him. He also was a doctor in the prime of life, Avas
believed to be insane or on the borderland of insanity, and he dis-
appeared immediately after the last murder, that in Miller's Court,
on the 9th of November, 1888. On the last day of that }*ear, seven
weeks later, his body was found floating in the Thames, and was
said to have been in the water a month. The theory in this case
was that after his last exploit, which was the most iiendish of all,
his brain entirely gave way, and he became furiously insane and
committed suicide. It is at least a strong presumption that "Jack
the Ripper " died or was put under restraint after the Miller's Court
affair, which ended this series of crimes. It would be interesting
to know whether in this third case the man was left-handed or
ambidextrous, both suggestions having been advanced by medical
experts after viewing the victims. It is true that other doctors dis-
agreed on this point, which may be said to add another to the
many instances in which medical evidence has been conflicting,
not to say confusing.

Yet the incontestable fact remains, unsatisfactory and disquieting,
that many murder mysteries have baffled all inquiry, and that
the long list of undiscovered crimes is continually receiving mys-
terious additions. An erroneous impression, however, prevails that
such failures are more common in Great Britain than elsewhere.
No doubt the British police are greatly handicapped by the law's
limitations, which in England always act in protecting the accused.
But with all their advantages, the power to make arrests on suspicion,
to interrogate the accused parties and force on self-incrimination,
the Continental police meet with many rebuff's. Numbers of cases
are " classed," as it is officially called in Paris that is, pigeon-holed
for ever and a day, lacking sufficient proofs for tsial, and in some
instances, indeed, there is no clue whatever. In every country,
and in all times, past and present, there have been crimes that
defied detection.

Feuerbach, in his record of criminal trials in Bavaria, tells, for
example, of the unsolved murder mystery of one llupprecht, a
notorious usurer of Munich, who was killed in 1817 in the door-
way of a public tavern not fifty yards from his own residence.

M >>/'/; i; //:.-> of I'ULKJK AND

Yet

"hell":
of evil
precht,

his murderer was
never discovered. The
tavern was called the
; it was a place
resort, for liup-
a mean, parsi-
monious old curmudgeon,
was fond of low com-
pany and spent most ot
his nights here, swallow-
ing beer and cracking
jokes with his friends.
One night the land-
lord, returning from
his cellar, heard a
voice in the
street asking
forRupprecht,
and, going up
t o the
drinking
saloon,
conveyed
the rnes-
s a g e.
R u p -
precht
w e n t
down to

" FOUXli THE OLD MAX LYING IX A 1'OOL OF BLOOD."

gQQ

visitor

and never returned. Within a minute deep groans were heard as
of a person in a fit or in extreme pain. All rushed downstairs and
found the old man lying in a pool of blood just inside the front
door. There was a gaping wound in his head, but he was not
unconscious, and kept repeating, " Wicked rogue ! wicked villain 1
the axe I the axe ! "

The wound had been inflicted by some sharp instrument, possibly
a sword or sabre, wielded by a powerful hand. The victim must

A MYSTERIOUS MURDER. 37

have been taken unawares, when his back was turned. The theory
constructed by the police was that the murderer had waited within
the porch out of sight, standing on a stone bench in a dark corner
near the street door ; that Rupprecht, finding no one to explain the
summons, had looked out into the street and then had made to
go back into the house. After he had turned the blow was struck.
Thus not a scrap of a clue was left on the theatre of the crime.
But Rupprecht was still alive and able to answer simple questions.
A judge was summoned to interrogate him, and asked, " Who
struck you ? " " Schmidt," replied Rupprecht. " Which Schmidt ? "
"Schmidt the woodcutter." Further inquiries elicited statements
that Schmidt had used a hatchet, that he lived in the Most, that
they had quarrelled some time before. Rupprecht said he had
recognised his assailant, and he went on muttering, "Schmidt,
Schmidt, woodcutter, axe." To find Schmidt was naturally the
first business of the police. The name was as common as Smith
is with us, and many Schmidts were woodcutters. Three Schmidts
were suspected. One was a known confederate of thieves ; another
had been intimate, but afterwards was on bad terms, with Rupprecht:
this was " Big Schmidt " ; the third, his brother, " Little Schmidt,"
also knew Rupprecht. All three, although none lived in the Most,
were arrested and confronted with Rupprecht, but he recognised
none of them ; and he died next day, having become speechless
and unconscious at the last. Only the first Schmidt seemed guilty ;
he was much agitated when interrogated, he contradicted himself,
and could give no good account of the employment of his time
when the offence was committed. Moreover, he had a hatchet ; it
was examined and spots were found upon it, undoubtedly of blood.
He was brought into the presence of the dead Rupprecht, and
was greatly overcome with terror and agitation.

Yet after the first accusation he offered good rebutting evidence.
He explained the stain by saying he had a chapped hand which bled,
and when it was pointed out that this was the right hand, which
would be at the other end of the axe shaft, he was able in reply
to prove that he was left-handed. Again, the wound in the head
was considerably longer than the blade of the axe, and an axe
cannot be drawn along' after the blow. The murderer's cries
had been heard by the landlord, inquiring for Rupprecht, but
it was not Schmidt's voice. There was an alibi, moreover, or

33 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

as food as one. Schmidt was at his mother-in-law's, and was known
to have gone homo a little before the murder; soon after it, his
wife found him in bed and asleep. If he had committed the crime
ho must have jumped out of bed again almost at once, run more
than a mile, wounded Rupprecht, returned, gone back to bed and
to sleep, all in less than an hour. Further, it was shoAvn by trust-
worthy evidence that this Schmidt knew nothing of the murder after
it had occurred.

The police drew blank also with " Big Schmidt " and " Little
Schmidt," neither of whom had left home on the night of the murder.
They were no more successful with other Schmidts, although every
one of the name was examined, and it was now realised that the
last delirious words of the dying man had led them astray. But
while hunting up the Schmidts it was not forgotten by the police
that Rupprecht had also cried out, " My daughter ! my daughter ! "
after he had been struck down. This might have been from the
desire to see her in his last moments. On the other hand, he was
estranged from this daughter, and he positively hated his son-
in-law. They were no doubt a cold-blooded pair, these Bieringers,
as they were called. The daughter showed little emotion when she
heard her father had been mortally wounded ; she looked at him as
he lay without emotion, and had so little lost her appetite that she
devoured a whole basin of soup in the house. It was suspicious,
too, that she tried to fix the guilt on " Big Schmidt." Bieringer
was a man of superior station, well bred and well educated ; and he
lived on very bad terms with his wife, who was coarse, vulgar, and
of violent temper like her father ; and once at his instance she was
imprisoned for forty-eight hours. Rupprecht sided with his daughter,
and openly declared that in leaving her his money he would tie it up
so tightly that Bieringer could not touch a penny. This he had said
openly, and it was twisted into a motive why Bieringer should remove
him before he could make such a will But a sufficient alibi was
proved by Bieringer ; his time was accounted for satisfactorily on the
night of the murder. The daughter was absolved from guilt, for even
if she, a woman, could have struck so shrewd a blow, it was not to her
interest to kill a father who sided with her against her husband and
was on the point of making a will in her favour.

Other arrests were made. Rupprecht's maid reported that
three troopers belonging to the regiment in garrison had called on

A MYSTERIOUS MURDER.

her master the very day of the murder ; one of them owed him
money which he could not pay, and the others, it was thought, had
joined him in trying to intimidate the usurer. But the case of
these troopers, men who could handle the very weapon that did
the deed, broke down on clear proof that they were elsewhere at
the timo of the murder. The one flaw in the otherwise acute
investigation was that the sabres of all the troopers had not been
examined before so much noise had been made about the murder.
]>ut from the first attention had been concentrated on axes,
wielded by woodcutters, and the probable use of a sabre had
been overlooked. After the troopers, two other callers had come,
and Rupprecht had given them a secret interview. One proved
to be the regimental master-tailor, who was seeking a loan
and had brought with him a witness to the transaction. Their
innocence also was clearly proved; and although many other
persons were arrested they were
in all cases discharged.

The murder of this Rup-
precht has remained a mystery.
The onl_y plausible suggestion
was that he had been murdered
by some aggrieved person, some
would-be borrower whom he
had rejected, or some debtor
who could not pay and thought
this the simplest way of
clearing his .obligation. The
authorities could not fix this on
anyone, for Rupprecht made no

'II EH liODY . . . WAS FOfXD IX THE WATZK ' ' (p. 40).

40 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRUfE.

record of his transactions; he could neither read nor write, and
kept all his accounts " in his head." Only on rare occasions did he
call in a confidential friend to look through his papers when there
was question of arranging them or finding a note of hand. No
one but Rupprecht himself could have afforded the proper clue ;
and, as it was, he had led the police in the wrong direction.

Numerous murder mysteries have been contributed by American
criminal records. Special interest attaches to the case of Mary
Rogers, " the pretty cigar seller " of New York, who was done to
death by persons unknown in 1840, because it formed the basis
of Edgar Allan Poe's famous story, " The Mystery of Marie Roget."
The scene of that story is Paris, but the murder was actually
committed near New York. Mary Rogers had many admirers,
but her character was good, her conduct seemingly irreproachable.
She was supposed to have spent her last Sunday with friends,
but was seen with a single companion late that afternoon at a
little restaurant near Hoboken. As she never returned home her
disappearance caused much excitement, but at length her body,
much maltreated, was found in the water near Sybil's Cave,
Hoboken. Many arrests were made, but the crime was never
brought home to anyone.

Poe's suggested solution, the jealous rage of an old lover returned
from sea, was no more than ingenious fiction. Among others
upon whom suspicion fell was John Anderson, the cigar merchant
in whose employ Mary Rogers was, and it w r as encouraged by
his flight after the discovery of the murder. But when arrested
and brought back, he adduced what was deemed satisfactory proof
of an alibi. Anderson lived to amass enormous wealth, and about
the time of his death in Paris in 1881 the evil reports of his
complicity in the murder were revived, but nothing new trans-
pired. It was said that in his later years Anderson became an
ardent spiritualist, and that the murdered Mary Rogers was one
among the many spirits he communed with.

The murder of Mary Rogers was not the only unsolved
mystery of its class beyond the Atlantic. It was long antedated by
that known as the Manhattan Well Mystery. This murder occurred
as far back as 1799, when New York was little more than a
village compared to its present size. The Manhattan Company,
now a bank, had then the privilege of supplying the city with

UNDETECTED MUEDERS IN NEW YOltK. 41

water. The well stood in an open field, and all passers-by had
free access to it. One day the pretty niece of a respectable
Quaker disappeared ; she had left her home, it was said, to be
privately married, and nothing more was seen of her till she was
tished out of the Manhattan well Some thought she had com-
mitted suicide, but articles of her dress were found at a distance
from the well, including her shoes, none of which she was likely
to have removed and left there before drowning herself. Her muff,
moreover, was found in the water; why should she have retained
that to the last ? Suspicion rested upon the man whom she
was to have married, and who had called for her in his sleigh
after she had already left the house. This man was tried for Ids
life, but the case broke down, and the murder has always bafiied
detection.

Later, in 1830, there was the mystery of Sarah M. Cornell,
in which suspicion fell upon a reverend gentleman of the
Methodist persuasion, who was acquitted. Again, in 1836,
there was the murder of Helen Jewitt, which was never cleared
up ; and more recently that of the Ryans, brother and sister ; while
the murder of Annie Downey, commonly called "Curly Tom," a
New York flower-girl, recalls many of the circumstances of the
murders in Whitechapel.

A great crime that altogether baffled the New York police
occurred in 1870, and is still remembered as an extraordinary
mystery. It was the murder of a wealthy Jew named Nathan,
in his own house in Twenty-third Street He had come up from
the country in July for a religious ceremony, and slept at home.
His two sons, who were in business, also lived in the Twenty-third
Street house. The only other occupant was a housekeeper. The
sons, returning late, one after the other, looked hi on their father
and found him sleeping peacefully. No noise disturbed the house
during the night, but early nezt morning Mr. Nathan was found
a shapeless mass upon the floor; he had been killed with brutal
violence, and the weapon used, a ship carpenter's "dog," was lying
close by the body besmeared with blood and grey hairs. The
dead man's pockets had been rifled, and all his money and jewellery
were gone; a safe that stood in the corner of the bedroom had
been forced and its contents abstracted.

Various theories were started, but none led to the track of the

40 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

criminal One of Mr. Nathan's sons was suspected, but his innocence
was clearly proved. Another person thought to be guilty was tho
son of the resident housekeeper, but that supposition also fell to
the ground. Some of the police were of opinion that it was the
work of an ordinary burglar ; others opposed this view, on the ground
that tho ship carpenter's "dog" was not a housebreaking tocl.
One ingenious solution was offered, and it may be commended to
the romantic novelist; it was to the effect that Mr. Nathan held
certain documents gravely compromising the character of a person
with whom he had had business dealings, and that this person had
planned and executed the murder in order to become repossessed
of them. This theory had no definite support from known fact;
but Mr. Nathan was a close, secretive man, who kept all the
threads of his iinancial affairs in his own hands; and it was said
that no one in his family, not even his wife, was aware what his
safe held or what he carried in his pockets. It is worth noticing
that this last theory resembles very closely the explanation suggested
as a solution of the undiscovered murder of Rupprecht in Bavaria,
which has been already described.

There are one or two striking cases in the records of Indian
crime of murders that have remained undiscovered. Mr. Arthur
Crawfurd* describes that of an old Marwari money-lender, which
repeats in some particulars the cases of Rupprecht and Nathan.
This usurer was reputed to be very wealthy. His business' was
extensive, all his neighbours were more or less in his debt, and,
as he was a hard, unrelenting creditor, he was generally detested
throughout the district.

He lived in a mud-built house all on the ground floor. In
front was the shop where he received his clients, and in this room,
visible from the roadway, was a vast deed-box in which he kept
papers, bills, notes of hand, but never money. When he had
agreed to make a loan and all formalities were completed, he brought
' the cash from a secret receptacle in an inner chamber. In this,
his strong room, so to speak, which occupied one corner at the
back of the house, he slept. In the opposite angle lived his
granddaughter, a young widow, who kept house for him. He
was protected by a guard of two men in his pay, who slept in an
outhouse close by

* "Reminiscences of an Indian Police Official," p. 66.

AN INDIAN MURDER CASE. 43

One night the granddaughter, disturbed by a strange noise in
the old man's sleeping place, rose, lit a lamp, and was on the
point of entering the bedroom when the usurer appeared at the
door, bleeding profusely from his mouth and nostrils ; his eyes
protruded hideously; he was clearly in the last extremity, and fell
almost at once to the ground. The granddaughter summoned the
watchmen, who only arrived in time to hear a few last inarticulate
sounds as their master expired. It was seen afterwards at the
post-mortem that he had been partially smothered, and subjected
to great violence. His assailant must have knelt on him heavily,
for the ribs were nearly all fractured and had been forced into
the lungs.

The police arrived in all haste and made a thorough search
of the premises. It was soon seen that a hole had been made
from outside through the mud wall close by the old man's bed.
The orifice was just large enough to admit a man. There were no
traces of any struggle save the blood, which had flowed freely
and inundated the mattress. Strange to say, there had been no
robbery. The money-lender's treasure chamber was still secure, the
lock intact, and all the money and valuables were found un-
touched: many bags of rupees, a tin case crammed with currency
notes, and a package containing a considerable quantity of
valuable jewellery. Nor had the deed- box in the shop been inter-
fered with.

The perpetrators of this murder were never discovered. The
police, hoping to entrap them in the not uncommon event of a
return to the theatre of the crime, established themselves secretly
inside the house, but not in the bedroom where the murder was
accomplished. They were right in their surmise, but the design
failed utterly through their culpable neglect. The bedroom, within
a fortnight, was again entered, and in precisely the same way, while
the careless watchers slept unconscious in the adjoining shop. The
fair inference was that the murderers had returned hoping to lay
hands on some of. the booty which they had previously missed.
But the old man's treasure had been removed, and they went
away disappointed and empty-handed, though unfortunately they
escaped capture.

The same authority, Mr. Arthur Crawfurd, gives another case
that belongs to the class of the New York murder of Mary Rogers

.\/V> //: /.'//>' OF POLICE AM> fill Mi'..

and our own Whitechapel murders. The body of a female was
\vasli,-d ashore upon the rocks below the foot of Scvemdroog, in
the S.mili Ivonkan district. The fact was reported to Mr. Crawfurd,
who found the body of a tine healthy young Mahomedan Avoman,
who had not been dead tor more than a couple of hours. The only
injury to be seen was a severe extended wound upon one temple,

Photo : Kapp & Co., Calcutta.

PRISONERS AT THE PRESIDENCY GAOL CALCUTTA.

which must have bled profusely, but was not, according to the
medical evidence, sufficient to cause death. It seemed probable
that she had been stunned by it and had fallen in the water, to be
drowned, or that she had been thrown from the cliffs above on
to the rocks, and, becoming unconscious, had slipped into the sea.
She had, in fact, been seen crossing the cliffs on the morning of her
death, and was easily recognised as the wife of a tisherman who
lived in a village hard by, the port of which was rilled with small

AN INDIAN MURDER CASE. 45

craft that worked coastwise with goods and passengers, the only
traffic of those days.

The only arrests made were those of two Europeans, soldiers,
one an army schoolmaster on his way up coast to Bombay, the
other a sergeant about to be pensioned ; and both had been travelling
by a coast boat which was windbound a little below the fort. They
had been landed in order to take a little exercise, and had been
forthwith stopped by a crowd of suspicious natives, who charged
them with the crime. Yet on examination no blood stains were
found upon their clothes, and nothing indicative of a struggle;
moreover, it was soon clearly proved that they had not been put
ashore till 10 a.m., whereas the dead body had been picked up
before 8 a.m. Further inquiry showed that they were men of
estimable character. But nothing else was elucidated beyond a
vague report that the woman's husband had reason, or believed
himself to have reason, to accuse her of profligacy and had taken
this revenge.

Another more recent Indian murder went near to being classed
with the undiscovered. That it was brought home to its perpe-
trators was due to the keen intelligence of a native detective officer,
the Sirdar Mir Abdul Ali, of the Bombay police. This clever
detective, of whom a biography has appeared, belonged to the
Bombay police, and his many successes show how much the Indian
police has improved of late years. The murder was known as the
Parel case. On the morning of the 24th of November, 1887, a deal
box was picked up on a piece of open marsh close to the Elphinstone
Station at Parel. Near it was an ordinary counterpane. It was
at first supposed that the box had been stolen from the railway
station, and the matter was reported to the police. An officer soon
reached the spot, and ascertained that the box, from which an
offensive smell issued, was locked and fastened. On breaking
it open the remains of a woman were found within, coiled up and
jammed in tightly, and in an advanced stage of decomposition. The
face was so much battered that its features were unrecognisable, but
the dress, that of a Mahomedan, might, it was hoped, lead to identi-
fication. According to custom, the police gathered in thousands
of people by beat of battaki, or drum, but no one who viewed
the corpse could recognise the clothes.' Moreover, there was no
woman reported missing at the time from any house in Bombay.

46 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Abdul All shrewdly surmised either that the woman was a per-
fect stranger or that she had been murdered at. a distance, and
the box containing her remains had been brought into Bombay
to be disposed of without attracting attention. This box furnished
the clue. Abdul All, following out his idea of the stranger visitor,
had caused search to be made through the "rest houses," or
musafarkhanas of Bombay, and in one of these the box was
identified as the property of a Pathan, named Syed Gool, who
had but recently married an unknown young woman and had
apparently deserted her. At least, it came out that he had
suddenly taken ship for Aden, and had been accompanied by
his daughter and a friend, but not by his wife. Moreover, witnesses
were now prepared to swear that the clothes found on the corpse at
Parel much resembled those commonly worn by Syed Gool's young
wife. The evidence was little more than presumptive, but the head
of the Bombay police persuaded the Governor to telegraph to the
Resident of Aden to look out for the three passengers and arrest
them on landing. They were accordingly taken into custody and
sent back to Bombay.

Even now the case would have been incomplete but for the con-
fession of one of the parties Syed Gool's friend, who was known
as Noor Mahomed. This man, a confederate, on arrival at Bombay,
made a clean breast of the crime and was admitted as an approver ;
but for that the offence might never have been brought home. Syed
Gool, it appeared, had come from Karachi only a little before, had put
up at the musafarkhana of one Ismail Habib in Pakmodia Street,
where he had presently married one Sherif Khatum, whom he met
in this same " rest house," and the whole party had taken up their
residence in another house in the same street. Noor Mahomed went
on to say that husband and wife soon quarrelled as to the possession
of the latter's jewels, and their differences so increased in bitterness
that Syed Gool resolved to murder the woman. He effected his
purpose, assisted by his friend, using a pair of long iron pincers, with
which he compressed her windpipe till she died of suffocation. The
rest of the crime followed a not unusual course : the packing of tho
corpse in a wooden box which had been made to Syed Gool's order by
a carpenter, and its removal in a bullock cart to the neighbourhood of
the Elphinstone Station, where the murderers hired a man to watch
it for a few pence during their temporary absence. But they had

THE PAREL MURDER.

no intention of returning ; indeed, they embarked at once on
board the Aden steamer, and the man left in charge of the box
took it home with him, where it remained till he was alarmed
by the offensive smell already mentioned. Then he prudently

"THEY WKRE ACCORDINGLY TAKEN INTO CTSTUDY "' (?. 40). '

resolved to get rid of it by removing it to the spot on which it
was found.*

The tale of undiscovered murders can never be ended, and

* Some other very creditable exploits of this Indian detective, Abdul Ali, in cluci-
dating murder mysteries will be given in a later chapter when dealing witt
police.

4<? MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

additions are made to it continually. In this country fresh cases
crop up year after yoar, and it would take volumes to cata-
logue them all I will mention but one or two more, merely
to point the moral that the police are often at fault still, even in
these latter days of enlightened research, where so much makes in
favour of the law. Thus the Burton Crescent murder, in December,
1878, must always be remembered against the police. An aged
widow, named Samuel, lived at a house in Burton Crescent, but she
kept no servant on the premises, and took in a lodger, although she
was of independent means. The lodger was a musician in a theatrical
orchestra, away most of the day, returning late to supper. One even-
ing there was no supper and no Mrs. Samuel, but on making search
he found her dead body in the kitchen, lying in a pool of blood. The
police summoned a doctor to view the corpse, and it was found that
Mrs. Samuel had been battered to death with the fragment of a hat-
rail in which many pegs still remained. The pocket of her dress had
been cut off, and a pair of boots was missing, but no other property.
Nothing could have happened till late in the afternoon, as three
workmen, against whom there was apparently no suspicion, were in
the house till then, and the maid who assisted in the household
duties had left Mrs. Samuel alive and well at 4 p.m. Only one
arrest was made, thai of a woman, one Mary Donovan, who was
frequently remanded on the application of the police, but against
whom no sufficient evidence was forthcoming to warrant her com-
mittal for trial. The Burton Crescent murder has remained a
mystery to this day.

So has that of Lieutenant Roper, RE., who was murdered at
Chatham on the llth of February, 1881. This young officer, who
was going through the course of military engineering, was found
lying dead at the bottom of the staircase leading to his quarters
in Brompton Barracks. He had been shot with a revolver, and the
weapon, six-chambered, was picked up at a short distance from the
body, one shot discharged, the remaining live barrels still loaded with
ball cartridges. The only presumption was that the murderer's
object was plunder, personal robbery. Mr. Roper had left the mess
at an earlier hour than usual, between 8 and 9 p.m., on the plea that
he had letters to write home announcing his approaching arrival
on short leave of absence. A brother officer accompanied him part
of the way to Brompton Barracks, but left him to attend some

THE CASE SUMMED UP. 43

entertainment, Roper declining to go at once, for the reason given,
but promising to join him later.

The unfortunate officer was quite unconscious when found,
and although he survived some forty minutes, he never recovered
the power of speech, so that he could give no indication as to his
assailant. A poker belonging to Mr. lloper was found by his side,
and it was inferred that he had entered his room before the attack,
and had seized the poker as the only instrument of self-defence
within reach. Not the slightest clue was ever obtained which would
help to solve this mystery ; rewards were offered, but in vain, and tho
police had at last to confess themselves entirely baffled. Mr.
Roper was an exceedingly promising young officer; he had but
just completed his course of instruction with considerable credit,
and he was said to have been in perfect health and spirits on the
fatal evening, so that there was nothing whatever to support, and
indeed everything to discredit, any theory of suicide.

IX. A GOOD WORD FOR THE POLICE.

Taking a general view of the case as between hunted and hunters,
it may be fairly considered that the ultimate advantage is with the
latter. Let it be remembered that we hear more of one instance
of failure on the part of the police than of ninety-nine successes.
The failure is proclaimed trumpet-tongued, the successes pass
almost unnoticed into the great garner of criminal reports and
judicial or police statistics.

At the very least it must be said that we are bound, in com-
mon justice, to give due credit to the ceaseless activity, the con-
tinual, painstaking effort of the guardians of the public weal. Their
methods are the outcome of long and patient experience, developed
and improved as time passes, and they have deserved, if not always
commanded, success. It may be that the ordinary detective works
a little too openly at least, in this country; that his face and, till
lately, his boots were well known in the circles generally frequented
by his prey. Again, there may be at times slackness in pursuit,
neglect or oversight of early clues. Well-meaning but obstinate
men will not keep a perfectly open mind : they may cling too long
and too closely to a first theory, wresting their opinions and forcing
acquired facts to fit this theory, and so travel farther and farther
4

MYSTKHIES OF POLICE AND CRIMK.

along the wrong road. " Shadowing " suspected persons does not
always answer, and may be carried too far ; more, it may be so
clumsily done as to put the quarry on his guard and altogether
defeat the object in view. But to lay overmuch stress on such
shortcomings as these would surely savour of hypercriticism. It
is more just to accept with gratitude the overwhelming balance
in favour of the police, and give them the credit due to them for
the results achieved.

t H.

CHAPTER I.

WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS.

Judge Cambo, of Malta The D'Anglades The Murder of Lady Mazel Execution
of William Shaw for the Murder of his Daughter The Sailmaker of Deal and the
alleged Murder of a Boatswain Brunell the Innkeeper Du Moulin, the Victim of a
Gang of Coiners The Famous Galas Case at Toulouse Cross Perversion of Justice
at Nuremberg The Blue Dragoon.

THE criminal annals of all countries record cases of innocent
persons condemned by judicial process on grounds that seemed
sufficient at the time, but that ultimately proved mistaken.
Where circumstantial evidence is alone forthcoming, terrible errors
have been committed, and when, fater, new facts are brought to
light, the mischief has been done. There is a family likeness in
these causes of judicial mistake: strong personal resemblance
between the real criminal and another; strangely suspicious facts
confirming a first strong conjecture, such as the suspected person
having been near the scene of the crime, having let drop in-
cautious words, being found with articles the possession of which
has been misinterpreted or has given a wrong impression. Often
a sudden accusation has produced confusion, and consequently a
strong presumption of guilt. Or the accused, although perfectly
innocent, has been weak enough to invent a false defence, as in
the case quoted by Sir Edward Coke of a man charged with killing
his niece. The accused put forward another niece in place of
the victim to show that the alleged murder had never taken
place. The trick was discovered, his guilt was assumed, and he
paid the penalty with his life. On the other hand, the deliberate

52 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

cunning of the real criminal has succeeded but too often in shifting
the blame with every appearance of probability upon other shoulders.

JUDGE CAMBO OF MALTA.

A curious old story of judicial murder, caused by the infatua-
tion of a judge, is to be found in the annals of Malta, when
under the Knights, early in the eighteenth century. This judge,
Cambo by name, rising early one morning, heard an affray in the
street, just under his window. Looking out, he saw one man stab
another. The wounded man, who had been flying for his life,
reeled and fell. At this moment the assassin's cap came off, and
his face was for a moment fully exposed to the judge above. Then,
quickly picking up the cap, he ran on, throwing away the sheath
of his knife, and, turning into another street, disappeared.

While still doubtful how he should act, the judge now saw a
baker, carrying his loaves for distribution, approach the scene of
the murder. Before he reached the place where the corpse lay, he
saw the sheath of the stiletto, picked it up, and put it into his
pocket. Walking on, he came next upon the corpse. Terrified at
the sight, and losing all self-control, he ran and hid himself lest
he should be charged with the crime. But at that moment a police
patrol entered the street, and saw him disappearing just as they
came upon the body of the murdered man. They naturally con-
cluded that the fugitive was the" criminal, and made close search
for him. When they presently caught him, they found him
confused and incoherent, a prey to misgiving at the suspicious
position in which he found himself. He was searched, and the
sheath of the stiletto was discovered in his pocket. When tried,
it was found that the sheath exactly fitted the knife lying by the
side of the corpse. The baker was accordingly taken into custody
and carried off' to prison.

All this went on under the eyes of the judge, yet he did not
interpose to protect an innocent man. The police came and
reported both murder and arrest ; still he said nothing. He was
at the time the presiding judge in the criminal court, and it was
before him that the wretched baker was eventually tried. Cambo
was a dull, stupid person, and he now conceived that he was
forbidden to act from his own private knowledge in the matter
brought before him that he must deal with the case according to

APPALLING STUPIDITY. 53

the evidence of the witnesses. So he sat on the Bench to hear
the circumstantial proofs against a man who he had no sort of

T-WH

"SAW HIM DISAPPEARING JUST AS THF.Y CAME UPON* THE BODY" (p. '>'2).

doubt was actually innocent. When he saw that the evidence
was insufficient, amounting to no more than xemi prova, half-proof,
according to Maltese law, he used every endeavour to make the
accused confess his crime. Failing in this, he ordered the baker
to be "put to the question," with the result that the man,
under torture, confessed to what he had not done. < 'ambo
was now perfectly satisfied ; the accused, innocent in fact, was
guilty according to law, and having thus satisfied himself that,

-TKRIES OF POLICE AXD

his procedure was right, he carried his strange
logic to the end, and sentenced the baker to death.
" Horrible to relate," says the old chronicle, " the
hapless wretch soon after underwent the sentence
of the law."

The sad truth caine out at last, when the real
murderer, having been convicted and condemned for
another crime, confessed that he was guilty of the
murder for which the baker had wrongly suffered.
He appealed to Judge Cambo himself to verify this
statement, for he knew that the judge had seen
him. The Grand Master of the Knights of Malta
now called upon Judge Cainbo to defend himself
from this grave imputation. Cambo freely admitted
his action, but still held that he had only done his
duty, that he was really right in sending an inno-
cent man to an ignominious death sooner than 01Tl , UE rIX(T
do violence to his own legal scruples. The Grand utou THE
Master was of a more liberal mind, and condemned CHATELET rmsox.*
the judge to degradation and the forfeiture of his
office, ordering him at the same time to provide handsomely for
the family of his victim.

THE D'ANGLADES.

A very flagrant judicial error was committed in Paris towards the

latter end of the same century, mainly
through the obstinate persistence of
the Lieutenant-General of Police in
believing that he had discovered the
real perpetrators of a theft. Circum-
stantial evidence was accepted as
conclusive proof in spite of the un-
blemished character and the high
social position of the accused.

The Marquis d'Anglade and his
wife lived in the same house with
the Cointe and Comtesse de Mont-
gomerie; it was in the Rue Royale,

BRANDING IUOXS, . KUOM THE CHATELET

1'IUSONV

* In the possession of Mdme. Tu'ssaud & Sens, Ltd.

THE D'ANGLADE CASE.

trie best quarter in Paris, and both kept good establishments,
The Montgomeries were the more affluent, had many servants, and
a stable full of horses and carriages. D'Anglade also kept a carriage,
but his income was said to be greatly dependent upon his winnings
at the gaming table. The two families were on terms of very
friendly intercourse, fre-
quently visited, and
accepted each other's
hospitality. When the
(Jomte and Comtesse
went to their country
house, the D'Anglades
of ten accompanied them.

It was to have been
so on one occasion, but
at the eleventh hour
the Marquis d'Anglade
begged to be excused
on the score of his wife's
indisposition. The Mont-
gomeries went alone, but
took most of their ser-
vants with them. When
they returned to Paris,
a day earlier than they
were expected, they
found the door of their
apartments open, al-
though it had been locked when they left. A little later D'Anglade
came in. Having been supping with other friends, and hearing
that the Montgomeries were in the house, he went in to pay his
respects. Madame d'Anglade joined him, and the party did not
break up till a late hour. There was no suspicion of anything
wrong then.

Next morning, however, the Comte de Montgomerie discovered
that he had been the victim of a great robbery. His strong box had
been opened by a false key, and thirteen bags of silver, amounting
to 13,000 francs, and 11,000 francs in gold, had been abstracted,
also a hundred louis d'or coined in a new pattern, and a valuable

FRENCH CONVICTS

EN CHAiXE."

(From a Drawing by Moanet.)

66 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CHIME.

pearl necklace. The police were summoned, and their chief, the
Lieutenant-General, declared that someone resident in the house
must be the thief. Suspicion seems to have attached at once to
the D'Anglades, although they readily offered to allow their premises
to be searched. The search was forthwith made, and the whole
of their boxes, the beds and cupboards, and all receptacles in the
rooms they occupied, were thoroughly ransacked. Only the garrets
remained, and D'Anglade willingly accompanied the officers thither.
His wife, being ill and weak, remained downstairs.

Here, in the garret, the searchers came upon seventy-five louis
d'or of the kind above mentioned, wrapped in a scrap of printed paper
part of a genealogical table, which Montgomerie at once identified
as his. The police now wished to fix the robbery on the D'Anglades.
nnd their suspicions were strengthened by the poor man's confusion
when desired, as a test, to count out the money before them all
He was trembling, a further symptom of guilt. However, when the
basement was next examined, the part occupied by the Montgomerie
servants, evidence much more incriminatory was obtained against
the latter. In the room where they slept, five of the missing
bags of silver were found, all full, and a sixth nearly so. None of
these servants was questioned, yet they were as likely to be guilty
as the accused, more so indeed. But the police thought only of
arresting the D'Anglades, one of whom was imprisoned in the
Chatelet, the other in the Fors 1'Eveque prison.

The prosecution was of the most rancorous and pitiless kind.
Those who sat in the seat of justice prejudiced the case in D'Anglade's
disfavour, and, as he still protested his innocence, ordered him to
suffer torture so as to extort confession. He remained obdurate to
the last, was presently found guilty, although on this incomplete
evidence, and was sentenced to the galleys for life, and his wife to
be banished from Paris, with other penalties and disabilities.
D'Anglade was condemned to join the chaine, the gang of
convicts drafted to Toulon, and, having suffered inconceivably on
the road, he died of exhaustion at Marseilles. His wife was con-
signed to an underground dungeon, where she was confined of a
girl, and both would have succumbed to the rigours of their
imprisonment, when suddenly the truth came out, and they were
released in time to escape death.

An anonymous letter reached a friend of the D'Ano-kdes,

THE CASE OF LADY MAZEL. 57

coming from a man who was about to turn monk, being torn by
remorse, which gave him no rest. This man had been one of
several confederates, and he declared that he knew the chief agent
in the theft to have been the Comte de Montgonaerie's almoner, a
priest called Gaynard, who had stolen the money, aided by accom-
plices, mainly by one Belestre, who, from being in great indigence i
had come to be suddenly and mysteriously rich. Gaynard and
Belestre were both already in custody for a street brawl, and
when interrogated they confessed. Gaynard had given impressions
of the Comte's keys to Belestre, who had had false keys manu-
factured which opened the strong box. Belestre was also proved
to be in possessi<jn of a fine pearl necklace.

The true criminals were now examined and subjected to tor-
ture, when they completely exonerated D'Anglade. The innocent
marquis could not be recalled to life, but a large sum was
subscribed, some 4,000, for his wife, as a slight compensation
for the gross injustice done her. The Comte de Montgomerie was
also ordered to make restitution of the property confiscated, or to
pay its equivalent in money.

LADY MAZEL.

One of the earliest of grave judicial blunders to be found
in French records is commonly called the case of Lady Mazel,
who was a lady of rank, living in a large mansion, of which she
occupied two floors herself: the ground floor as reception-rooms,
the first floor as her bedroom and private apartments. The
principal door of her bedroom shut from the inside with a spring,
and when the lady retired for the night there was no access from
without, except by a special key which was always left on a chair
within the chamber. Two other doors of her room opened upon
a back staircase, but these were kept constantly locked. On the
second floor was lodged the family chaplain only; above, on the
third floor, were the servants. '

One Sunday evening the mistress supped with the abb, as was
her general practice ; then went to her bedroom, where she was
attended by her waiting-maids. Her butler, by name Le Brun, came
to take her orders for the following day, and then, when the maids
withdrew, leaving the key on the chair inside as usual, he also went
away, shutting the spring door behind him.

88 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CHIME.

Next morning there was no sign of movement from the lady,
not at seven a.m. (her time for waking), nor yet at eight she was
still silent, and had not summoned her servants. Le Brim, the
butler, and the maids began to be uneasy, and at last the son of

" MY MISrilESS HAS UEEX MUKDEHED ! "

the house, who was married and lived elsewhere, was called in. Ho
expressed his fears that his mother was ill, or that worse had
happened, and a locksmith was called in, and the door presently
broken open.

Le Brim was the first to enter, and he ran at once to the
bedside. Drawing aside the curtains, he saw a sight which made
him cry aloud, " My mistress has been murdered ! " and this exclama-
tion was followed by an act that afterwards Avent against him. He

SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 59

opened the wardrobe and took out the strong box. " It is heavy," he
said ; " at any rate there has been no robbery." The murder had been
committed with horrible violence. The poor woman had fought hard
for life ; her hands were ah 1 cut and lacerated, and there were
quite fifty wounds on her body. A clasp knife, much discoloured,
was found in the ashes of the fire. Among the bedclothes they
picked up a piece of a coarse lace cravat, and a napkin bearing
the family crest, twisted into a nightcap. The key of the bedroom
door, which had been laid on the chair, had disappeared. Nothing
much had been stolen. The jewels were untouched, but the strong
box had been opened and some of the gold abstracted.

Suspicion fell at once upon the butler, Le Brim. The story he
told was against himself. He said that after leaving his mistress
he went down into the kitchen and fell asleep there. When he
awoke he found, to his surprise, the street-door wide open. He
shut it, locked it, and went to his own bed. In the morning he
did his work as usual until the alarm was given; went to market,
called to see his wife, who lived near by, and asked her to lock up
some money, gold crowns and louis d'or, for him. This was all he
had to tell, but on searching him a key was found hi his pocket:
a false or skeleton key, the wards of which had been newly filed,
and it fitted nearly all the locks in the house, including the street-
door, the antechamber, and the back door of the lady's bedroom.
The napkin nightcap was tried on his head and fitted him exactly.
He was arrested and shortly afterwards put upon his trial.

It was not alleged that he had committed the murder himself.
No blood had been found on any of his clothes, although there
were scratches on his person. A shirt much stained with blood had
been discovered in the loft, but it did not fit Le Brun, nor was it
like any he owned. Nor did the scrap of coarse lace correspond
with any of his cravats ; on the contrary, a maid-servant stated that
she thought she recognised it as belonging to one she had washed
for Berry, once a footman in the house. The supposition was that
Le Brun had let some accomplice into the house, who had escaped
after effecting his purpose. This was borne out by the state ot'
the doors, which showed no signs of having been forced, and by
the discovery of Le B.run's false key.

Le Brun was a man of exemplary character, who had served
the family faithfully for twenty-nine years, and was "esteemed a

i;.i MY*TI-:itrES OF POLICE AXD CHIME.

good husband, a good father, and a good servant;' yet the prosecu-
tion seemed satisfied he was guilty and put him to the torture.
In the absence of real proofs it was hoped, after the cruel custom
of the time, to force self-condemnatory admissions from the
accused. The " question extraordinary " was applied, and the
wretched man died on the rack, protesting his innocence to the last.

THE TOUTTRE OF THE HACK.

A month later the real culprit was discovered. The police of
Sens had arrested a horse-dealer named Berry, the man who had
been in Lady Mazel's service as a lackey, but had been discharged.
In his possession was a gold watch proved presently to have belonged
to the murdered woman. He was carried to Paris, where he was
recognised by someone who had seen him leaving Lady Mazel's house
on the night she was murdered, and a barber who shaved him next
morning deposed to having seen that his hands were much scratched.
Berry said that he had been killing a cat. Put to the torture prior
to being broken on the wheel, he made full confession. At first he
implicated the son and daughter-in-law of Lady Mazel, but when
at the point of death he retracted the charge, and said that- he

THE REAL CULPRIT. 61

had returned to the house with the full intention of committing
the murder. He had crept in unperceived on the Friday evening,
had gained the loft on the fourth floor, and had lain there con-
cealed until Sunday morning, subsisting the while on apples and
bread. When he knew the mistress had gone to mass he stole
down into her bedroom, where he tried to conceal himself under
the bed. It was too low, and he returned to the garret and slipped
off his coat and waistcoat, and found now that he could creep
under the bed. His hat was in his way, so he made a cap of the
napkin. He lay hidden till night, then came out, and having
secured the bell ropes, he roused the lady and demanded her
money. She resisted bravely, and he stabbed her repeatedly until
she was dead. Then he took the key of the strong box, opened it,
and stole all the gold he could find; after which, using the bed-
room key which lay on the chair by the door, he let himself out,
resumed his clothes in the loft, and walked downstairs. As the
street-door was only bolted he easily opened it, leaving it open
behind him. He had meant to escape by a rope ladder which he
had brought for the purpose of letting himself down from the first
lloor, but it was unnecessary.

It may be remarked that this confession was not inconsistent
with Le Brun's complicity. But it is to be presumed that Berry
would have brought in Le Brun had he been a confederate, even
although it could not have lessened his own guilt or punishment.

WILLIAM SHAW.

In Britain the list of judicial blunders includes the case of
William Shaw, convicted of the murder of his daughter in Edin-
burgh simply on the ground of her own outcry against his
ill-usage. They were on bad terms, the daughter having encouraged
the addresses of a man whom he strongly disliked as a profligate
and a debauchee. One evening there was a fresh quarrel between
father and daughter, and bitter words passed which were overheard
by a neighbour. The Shaws occupied one of the tenement houses
still to be seen in Edinburgh, and their flat, the prototype of a
modern popular form of residence in Paris and London, adjoined
that of a man named Morrison.

The words used by Catherine Shaw startled and shocked

82 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Morrison. He heard her repeat several times, "Cruel father, thou
art the cause of my death ! " These were followed by awful groans.
Shaw had been heard to go out, and the neighbours ran to his
door demanding admittance. As no one opened and all was now
silent within, a constable was called to force an entrance, and
the girl was found weltering in her blood, with a knife by her side.
She was questioned as to the words overheard, was asked if her
father had killed her, and she was just able to nod her head in
the affirmative, as it seemed.

Now William Shaw returned. All eyes were upon him ; he
turned pale at meeting the police and others in his apartment,
then trembled violently as he saw his daughter's dead body. Such
manifest signs of guilt fully corroborated the deceased's incrimin-
ating words. Last of all, it was noticed with horror that there
was blood on his hands and on his shirt. He was taken before
a magistrate at once, and committed for trial. The circumstances
were all against him. He admitted in his defence the quarrel,
and gave the reason, but declared that he had gone out that
evening leaving his daughter unharmed, and that her death could
only be attributed to suicide. He explained the bloodstains by
showing that he had been bled some days before and that the
bandage had become untied. The prosecution rested on the plain
facts, mainly on the girl's words, "Cruel father, thou art the cause
of my death!" and her implied accusation in her last moments.

Shaw was duly convicted, sentenced, and executed at Leith
Walk in November, 1721, with the full approval of public opinion.
Yet the innocence which he still maintained on the scaffold came
out clearly the following year. The tenant who came into occu-
pation of Shaw's flat found there a paper which had slipped
down an opening near the chimney. It was a letter written
by Catherine Shaw, as was positively affirmed by experts in
handwriting, and it was addressed to her father, upbraiding
him for his barbarity. She was so hopeless of marrying him
whom she loved, so determined not to accept the man her father
would have forced upon her, that she had decided to put an
end to the existence which had become a burden to her. "My
death," she went on, "I lay to your charge. When you read
this, consider yourself as the inhuman wretch that plunged the
knife into the bosom of the unhappy Catherine Shaw ! "

AN IRREPARABLE BLUNDER.

This letter, on which there was much comment, came at last
into the hands of the authorities, who, having satisfied themselves
that it was authentic, ordered the body of Shaw to be taken
down from the gibbet where it still hung in chains and to be

THE rilESS-GANG AT "WORK (p. 64).

decently interred. As a further but somewhat empty reparation
of his honour, a pair of colours was waved over his grave.

THE SAILMAKER AND THE BOATSWAIN.

A still more curious story is that of a sailmaker who many
years ago went to spend Christmas with his mother near Deal.
On his way he spent a night at an inn at Deal, and shared a bed

64 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

with tho landlady's uncle, the boatswain of an Indiaman, who had
just come ashore. In the morning the uncle was missing, the
bod was saturated with blood, and the young sailmaker had
disappeared. The bloodstains were soon traced through the house,
and beyond, as far as the pier-head. It was naturally concluded
that the boatswain had been murdered and his body thrown into
the sea. A hue-and-cry was at once set up for the young man,
who was arrested the same evening in his mother's house.

He was taken red-handed, with ample proofs of his guilt
upon him. His clothes were stained with blood; in his pockets
were a knife and a strange silver com, both of which were sworn
to most positively as the property of the missing boatswain. The
evidence was so conclusive that no credence could be given to
the prisoner's defence, which was ingenious but most improbable.
His story was that he woke in the night and asked the boatswain
the way to the garden, that he could not open the back door,
and borrowed his companion's clasp-knife to lift the latch. When
ho returned to bed the boatswain was gone ; why or where he
had no idea.

The youth was convicted and sent to the gallows, but by
strange fortune he escaped death. The hanging was done so
imperfectly that his feet touched the ground, and when taken
down he was soon resuscitated by his friends. They made him
leave as soon as he could move, and he went down to Portsmouth,
where he engaged on board a man-of-war about to start for a
foreign station. On his return from the West Indies three years
later to be paid off, he had gained the rating of a master's mate,
and gladly took service on another ship. The first person he met
on board was the boatswain he was supposed to have murdered !

The explanation given was sufficiently strange. On the day of
his supposed murder the boatswain had been bled by a barber for
a pain in the side. During the absence of his bedfellow the
bandage had come off his arm, which bled copiously, and he
got up hurriedly to go in search of the barber. The moment he
got into the street he was seized by a press-gang and carried off
to the pier. There a man-of-war's boat was in waiting, and he
was taken off to a ship in the Downs, which sailed direct for
the East Indies. He never thought of communicating with his
triends ; letter- writing was not much indulged in at that period.

SUCCESSFUL VILLAINY. 65

Doubts have been thrown upon this story, which rests mainly
upon local tradition. As no body was found, it does not seem
probable that there would be a conviction for murder. Of the
various circumstances on which it was based, that of the possession
of the knife was explained, but not the possession of the silver
coin. It has been suggested that when the sail maker took it out
of the boatswain's pocket the coin had stuck between the blades.
of the knife.

BRUNELL THE INNKEEPER.

The astute villainy of a criminal in covering up his tracks-
was never more successful than in the case of Brunell, the innkeeper
at a village near Hull A traveller was stopped upon the road
and robbed of a purse containing twenty guineas. But he pursued
his journey uninjured, while the highwayman rode off hi another
direction.

Presently the traveller reached the Bell Inn, kept by Brunell,
to whom he recounted his misadventure, adding that no doubt
the thief would be caught, for the stolen gold was marked, accord-
ing to his rule when travelling. Having ordered supper in a.
private room, the gentleman was soon joined by the landlord, who
had heard the story, and now wished to learn at what hour the
robbery took place.

" It was just as night fell," replied the traveller.

" Then I can perhaps find the thief," said the landlord. " I
strongly suspect one of my servants, John Jennings by name, and
for the following reason. The man has been very full of money
of late. This afternoon I sent him out to change a guinea. He-
brought it back saying he could not get the change, and as he was-
in liquor I was resolved to discharge him to-morrow. But then I
was struck with the curious fact that the guinea was not the same-
as that which I had given, and that it was marked. Now I hear
that those you lost were all marked, and I am wondering whether
this particular guinea was yours."

" May I see it ? " asked the traveller.

"Unfortunately I paid it away not long since to a man who
lives at a distance, and who has gone home. But my servant
Jennings, if he is the culprit, will probably have others in his
possession. Let us go and search him."
5

66 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CltlMK.

They went to Jennings's room and examined his pockets. lie
was in a deep drunken sleep, and they came without difficulty
upon a purse containing nineteen guineas. The traveller recognised
his purse, and identified by the mark his guineas. The man was
roused and arrested on this seemingly conclusive evidence. He
stoutly denied his guilt, but was sent for trial and convicted. The
case was thought to be clearly proved. Although the prosecutor
could not swear to the man himself, as the robber had been masked,
he did to his guineas. Again, the prisoner's master told the story
of his substitution of- the marked for the other coin ; while the
man to whom the landlord had paid the marked guinea produced
it in court. A comparison with the rest of the money left no
doubt that these guineas were one and the same.

The unfortunate Jennings was duly sentenced to death, and
executed at Hull. Yet, within a twelvemonth, it came out that
the highwayman was Brunell himself. The landlord had been
arrested on a charge of robbing one of his lodgers, and convicted ;
but he fell dangerously ill before execution. As he could not live,
he made full confession of his crimes, including that for which
Jennings had suffered.

It seemed that he had ridden sharply home after the theft,
and, finding a debtor had called, gave him one of the guineas, not
knowing they were marked. When his victim arrived and told
his story, Brunell became greatly alarmed. Casting about for some
way of escape, he decided to throw the blame on his servant, whom
he had actually sent out to change a guinea, but who had failed, as
we know, and had brought back the same coin. As Jennings was
drunk, Brunell sent him to bed, and then easily planted the
incriminating purse in the poor man's clothes. No sort of indem-
nity seems to have been paid to Jennings's relations or friends.

DU MOULIN S CASE.

Of the same class was the conviction of a French refugee,
Du Moulin, who had fled to England from the religious persecu-
tions in his own country. He brought a small capital with him,
which he employed in buying goods condemned at the Custom-house,
disposing of them by retail. The business was "shady" in its
way, as the goods in question were mostly smuggled, but Du

A QUESTION OF BASE COIN.

Moulin's honesty was not impeached until he was found to be
passing false gold. He made it a, frequent practice to return money
paid him by his customers, declaring it was bad. The fact could
not be denied, but the suspicion was that he had himself changed
it after the tirst payment; and this happened so often that he
presently got into disrepute, losing both his business and his credit.
The climax came when he received a sum of 78 in guineas and
Portugal gold, and " scrupled," or questioned, several of the pieces.

Photo : Cassell & Co., Limited.

COINERS* MOULD IN THE BLACK MUSEUM, ONE IN SEPARATE PARTS, THE OTHER
CLOSED .AND HELD IN POSITION BY A SPRING.

But he took them, giving his receipt. In a few days he brought
back six coins, which he insisted were of base metal. His client
Harris as positively declared that they were not the same as those
he had paid. Then there was a fierce dispute. Du Moulin Avas
quite certain ; he had put the Avhole 78 into a draAver and left
the money there till he had to use it, Avhen part of it Avas at
once refused. Harris continued to protest, threatening Du Moulin
Avith a charge of fraud, but presently he paid. He lost no oppor-
tunity, hoAvever, of exposing Du Moulin's conduct, doing so so
often, and so libellously, that the other soon brought an action
for defamation of character.

This drove Harris to set the laAv in motion also, on his OAvn

8 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AXD CRIME.

information, backed by the reports of others on whom Du Moulin
had forced false money. A warrant was issued against the French-
man, his house was searched, and in a secret drawer all the
apparatus of a counterfeiter of coin was discovered tiles, moulds,
chemicals, and many implements. This evidence was damnatory ;
his guilt seemed all the more clear from the impudence with which
he had assailed Harris and his insistence in passing the bad money.
Conviction followed, and he was sentenced to death. But for a
mere accident, which brought about confession, he would certainly
have suffered on the scaffold.

A day or two before he was to have been executed, one
Williams, a seal engraver, was thrown from his horse and killed,
whereupon his wife fell ill, and in poignant remorse confessed
that her husband was one of a gang of counterfeiters, and that
she helped him by "putting off" the coins. One of the gang
hired himself as servant to Du Moulin, and, using a whole set
of false keys, soon became free of all drawers and receptacles,
in which he planted large quantities of false money, substituting
them for an equal number of good pieces.

The members of this gang were arrested and examined separately.
They altogether repudiated the charge, but Du Moulin's servant was
dumbfounded when some bad money was found in his quarters.
On this he turned king's evidence, and his accomplices were
convicted.

GALAS.

A case in which "justice" was manifestly unjust is that of the
shameful prosecution and punishment of Calas, a judicial murder
l>egun in wicked intolerance and carried out with almost incon-
ceivable cruelty.

Bitter, implacable hatred of the Protestant or Reformed faith and
all who professed it survived in the South of France till late in the
eighteenth century. There was no more bigoted city than Toulouse,
which had had its own massacre ten years before St. Bartholomew,
and perpetuated the memory of this " deliverance," as it was called,
by public fetes on its anniversary. It was on the eve of the fete of
17C1 that a terrible catastrophe occurred in the house of one Jean
Calas, a respectable draper, who had the misfortune to be a heretic
in other words, a criminal, according to the ideas of Toulouse.

THE GALAS CASE.

Marc Antoine Galas, the eldest son of the family, was found
in a cupboard just off the shop, hanging by the neck, and quite
dead. The shocking discovery was made by the third brother,
Pierre. It was then between nine and ten p.m. ; he had gone
downstairs with a friend who had supped with them, and had come
suddenly upon the corpse.

The alarm was soon raised in the town, and the officers of the
law hastened to the spot. In
Toulouse the police was in the
hands of the capitouls, func-
tionaries akin to the sheriffs
and common councillors of a
corporation, and one of the
leading men among them just
then was a certain David de
Beaudrigue, who became the
evil genius of this unfortunate
Calas family. He was bigoted,
ambitious, self-sufficient, full of
his own importance, fiercely
energetic in temperament, and
undeviating in his pursuit of
any fixed idea.

Now, when called up by the
watch and told of the mys-
terious death of Marc Antoine
Calas, he jumped to the con-
clusion that it was a murder,
and that the perpetrator was
Jean Calas ; in other words, that Calas was a parricide. The
motives of the crime were not far to seek, he thought. One Calas
son had already abjured the Protestant for the true faith, this now
dead son was said to have been anxious to go over, and the father
was resolved to prevent it at all cost. It was a commonly accepted
superstition in those dark times that the Huguenots would decree
the death of any traitors to their own faith.

Full of this baseless prepossession, De Beaudrigue thought only
of what would confirm it. He utterly neglected the first duty of a
police officer : to seek with an unbiassed mind for any signs or

MEDALS STRUCK IX COMMEMORATION OF THE
ST. BARTHOLOMEW MASSACRE.

1. Obverse, Pope Gregory XIII. Reverse, Angel smiting

Protestants.

2. Obverse, Charles IX. Reverse, The King as Hi-rcules

slaying the hydra of heresy.

3. Obverse, Charles IX. Reverse, The King on his tliroue.

~ c

PREJUDICE EXTRAORDINARY. 7)

indications that might lead to the detection of the real criminals.
He should have at once examined the wardrobe in which the body
was found pendent; the shop close at hand, the passage that led
from it through a small courtyard into the back street. It was
perfectly possible for ill-disposed people to enter the shop from
the front street and escape by this passage, and possibly they might
leave traces behind them.

Do Beaudrigue thought only of securing those whom he already
in his own mind condemned as guilty, and hurrying upstairs found
the Galas, husband and wife, whom he at once arrested; Pierre
Galas, whom he also suspected, was given in charge of two soldiers ;
the maid-servant, too, was taken, as well as two friends of the
family who happened to be in the house at the time. When
another capitoul mildly suggested a little less precipitation, De
Beaudrigue replied that he would be answerable, and that he was
acting in a holy cause.

The whole party was carried off to gaol. When the elder
Galas asked to be allowed to put a candlestick where he might
tind it easily on his return, he was told sardonically, " You will not
return in a hurry." The request and its answer went far to
produce a revulsion in his favour when the facts became known.
The wretched man never re-entered his house, but he passed it
on his way to the scaffold and knelt down to bless the place
where he had lived happily for many years, and from which he
had been so ruthlessly torn.

On the way to gaol the prisoners were greeted with yells and
execrations. It was already taken for granted that they had
murdered Marc Antoine. Arrived at the H6tel de Ville, there was
a short halt while the accusation was prepared charging the whole
party as principals or accessories. An interrogatory followed which
was no more than a peremptory summons to confess. " Come,"
said the capitoul to Pierre, " confess you killed him." Denial only
exasperated De Beaudrigue, who began at once to threaten Galas
and the rest with the torture.

There was absolutely no evidence whatever against the accused,
and in the absence of it recourse was had to an ancient ecclesiastical
practice, the monitoire, a solemn appeal made to the religious
conscience of all who knew anything to come forward and declare
it. This notice was affixed to the pulpits of churches and in

MY.^THRIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

street corners. It assumed the guilt of the Galas family quite
illegally, because without the smallest proof, and it warned every-
one to come forward and speak, whether from hearsay or of their

own knowledge. No-
thing followed the
monitoire, so these
pious sons of the
Church went a step
farther and obtained
a fulmination ; a
threat to excommuni-
cate all who could
speak yet would not.
This was duly
launched, and caused
great alarm. Reli-
gious sentiment had
reached fever pitch.
The burial of Marc
Antoine with all the
rites of the Church
was a most imposing
ceremony. He lay in
state. The catafalque
bore a notice to the
effect that he had ab-
jured heresy. He was
honoured as a martyr;
a little more and he
would have been
canonised as a saint.

Still, nothing conclusive was forthcoming against the Galas.
One or two witnesses declared that they had heard disputes, swore
to piteous appeals made to the father by the dead son, to cries
such as "I am being strangled!" "They are murdering ine!" and
this was all. It was all for the prosecution ; not a word was heard
in defence. The Protestant friends of the family were not com-
petent to bear witness; the accused, moreover, were permitted to
call no one. It would be hard to credit the disabilities still

IKON CHAIR IN WHICH CALAS IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN
TORTURED, NOW IX THE POSSESSION OF MADAME
TUSSAUD & SONS, LIMITED.

WHAT THE FACTS POINTED TO. 73

imposed upon the French Huguenots were it not that 'the laws in
England against Roman Catholics at that time were little less
severe. In France all offices, all professions were interdicted to
Protestants. They could not be ushers or police agents, they were
forbidden to trade as printers, booksellers, watchmakers, or grocers,
they must not practise as doctors, surgeons, or apothecaries.

Although there was no case, the prosecution was obstinately
persisted in, not merely because the law officers were full of pre-
judice, but because, if they failed to secure conviction, they would
be liable to a counter action for their high-handed abuse of legal
powers. As has been said, no pains were taken at the first discovery
of the death to examine the spot or investigate the circumstances.
It was all the better for the prosecution that nothing of the kind
was done. Had the police approached the matter with an open
mind, judging calmly from the facts apparent, they would have
been met at once by an ample, nay, overwhelming explanation.
There can be no doubt that Marc Antoine Galas committed suicide.
The proofs were plain. This eldest son was a trouble to his
parents, ever dissatisfied with his lot, disliking his father's business,
eager to take up some other line, notably that of an advocate. Here,
however, he encountered the prejudice of the times, which forbade
this profession to a Protestant; and it was his known dissatisfac-
tion with this law that led to the conjecture and there was little
else that he Avished to abjure his faith. At last Marc Antoine
offered to join -his father, but was told that until he learnt the
business and showed more aptitude he could not hope for a
partnership. From this moment he fell away, took to evil courses,
frequented the worst company, Avas seen at the billiard tables and
tennis courts of Toulouse, and became much addicted to gambling.
When not given to debauchery he was known as a silent, gloomy,
discontented youth, who quarrelled with his lot and complained
always of his bad luck. On the very morning of his death he
had lost heavily a sum of money entrusted him by his father to
exchange from silver into gold.

All this pointed to the probability of suicide. The Galas them-
selves, however, would not hear of any such solution. Suicide was
deemed disgraceful and dishonourable. Sooner than suggest suicide,
the elder Galas was prepared to accept the worst. One of the
judges was strongly of opinion that it was clearly a case of

h
C 5

TORTURED TO DEATH. 75

felo de se, but he was overruled by the rest, who were equally
convinced of the guilt of the Galas. Not a single witness of the 150
examined could speak positively; not one had seen the crime
committed ; they contradicted each other, and their statements
were improbable and opposed to common sense. Moreover, the
murder was morally and physically impossible. Was it likely that
a family party collected round the supper-table would take one
of their number downstairs and hang him ? Could such wrong
be done to a young and vigorous man without some sort of
struggle that would leave its traces on himself and in the scene
around ?

But the bigoted and prejudiced judges of Toulouse gave judg-
ment against the accused; yet, although so satisfied of their guilt,
they ordered the torture to be applied to extort full confession. The
prisoners appealing, the case was heard in the local parliament, and
the first decision upheld. Thirteen judges sat-; of these, seven were
for a sentence of death, three for preliminary torture, two voted
for a new inquiry based on the supposition of suicide, one alone
was for acquittal. As this was not a legal majority, one dissident
was won over, and sentence of death was duly passed on Galas, who
was to suffer torture first, in the hope that by his admissions on
the rack the guilt of the rest might be assured. 9

The sentence was executed under circumstances so horrible and
heartrending that humanity shudders at hearing them. Galas was
taken first to the question chamber and put " upon the first button."
There, being warned that he had but a short time to live and must
suffer torments, he was sworn and exhorted to make truthful answer
to the interrogatories, to all of which, after the rack had been
applied, he replied denying his guilt. He was then put "upon
the second button " ; the torture increased, and still he protested
his innocence. Last of all, he was subjected to the question
extraordinary, and being still firm, he was handed over to the reverend
father to be prepared for death. lie surtered on the wheel, being
" broken alive " ; the process lasted two whole hours, but at the end of
that time the executioner put him out of his misery by strangling
him. When asked for the last time, on the very brink of the grave,
to make a clean breast of his crime and give up the names of his
confederates, he only answered, " Where there has been no crime
there can be no accomplices." His constancy won him the respect

MYSTEH7ES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

of all who witnessed his execution. "He died,' said a monk,
"like one of our Catholic martyrs."

This noble end caused deep chagrin to his judges; they were
consumed with secret anxiety, having hoped to the last that a lull
confession would exonerate them from their cruelty. At Toulouse

VOLTAIRK.

(Fro?)i the Picture by Largilliire.)

there had been a fresh outburst of fanaticism, in which more lives were
lost ; and now, the news of Galas' execution reaching the city, open
war was declared against all Huguenots. But a reaction was at
hand, caused by the very excess of this religious intolerance. The
terrible story began to circulate through France and beyond. The
rest of the accused had been released, not without reluctance, by the
authorities of Toulouse, but Pierre Galas had been condemned to
banishment. Another brother had escaped to Geneva, where he
met with much sympathy.

AN INJUSTICE REVERSED. 77

The feeling in other Protestant countries was intense, and loud
protests were published. But the chief champion and vindicator of
the Galas family was Voltaire, who seized eagerly at an opportunity
of attacking the religious bigotry of his countrymen. He soon raised
a storm through Europe, writing to all his disciples, denouncing
the judges of Toulouse, who had killed an innocent man. "Every-
one is up in arms. Foreign nations, who hate us and beat us, are
full of indignation. Nothing since St. Bartholomew has so greatly
disgraced human nature."

Voltaire bent all the powers of his great mind to collecting
evidence and making out a strong case. The Encyclopaedists, with
d'Alembert at their head, followed suit. All Paris, all France grew
excited. The widow Galas was brought forward to make a fresh
appeal to the king in council. The whole case was revived in a
lengthy and tedious procedure, and in the end it was decided to
reverse the conviction. "There is still justice in the world! "cried
Voltaire "still some humanity left. Mankind are not all villains
and scoundrels."

Three years after the judicial murder of Jean Galas all the
accused were formally pronounced innocent, and it was solemnly
declared that Jean Galas was illegally done to death. But the
family were utterly ruined, and, although entitled to proceed against
the judges for damages, they had no means to go to law. The
Queen said the French wits had drunk their healths, but had.
given them nothing to drink in return.

It is satisfactory to know, however, that some retribution overtook
the principal mover in this monstrous case. The fierce fanatic,
David de Beaudrigue, was dismissed from all his offices, and being
threatened with so many lawsuits, he went out of his mind. He was
perpetually haunted with horrors, always saw the scaffold and the
executioner at his grisly task, and at last, in a fit of furious madness,
he threw himself out of the window. The first time he escaped
death, but he made another attempt, and died murmuring the word
"Galas" with his last breath.

A GROSS PERVERSION OF JUSTICE AT NUREMBERG.

On the 30th of January, 1790, at five o'clock in the morning, the
Nuremberg merchant Johann Marcus Sterbenk was awakened by his

78 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CHIME.

maid with the unpleasant news that his house had been broken
into and the counting-house robbed of its strong-box, containing
the sum of 2,000 gulden. It was a heavy iron strong-box, standing
on four legs, and was painted in dark green stripes and orna-
mented on the top surface and lock with leaves and flowers. The
sum stolen meant a small fortune in those days. The counting-
house had a window which looked out on to the staircase, and
some ten days before, when the key of the door had been mislaid, it
had been necessary to remove a pane of glass from the window
in order to reach the door from within. On getting to his count-
ing-house, the merchant found that the pane of glass had again
been removed, and that the door of the room was standing open.
The main front door also was open, although the maid hail
declared that she had bolted it securely the evening before.

The robbery had clearly been the work of someone who knew
the locality well ; yet, although several people swore to having
seen suspicious-looking men in the neighbourhood about two o'clock
in the morning, they were unable to identify or describe them,
and for a time justice was at fault.

Suddenly suspicion fell on one Schonleben, Sterbenk's mes-
senger ; and ere long all agreed that he must be the culprit.
There was absolutely no evidence nothing more than his own
careless words, which were seized upon and twisted against him.
It was now remembered that his previous life had not been
blameless, and every little incident was seized upon to his dis-
credit. Thus it was said that the day after the robbery his
brother was seen in close converse with him at his house ; after
that the brother drove out of town with his cart, in which,
according to general belief, the strong-box was concealed. Again,
it was noted that Schonleben had been often late at business,
and again, that the day after the robbery he appeared extremely
lightheaded.

On the strength of these suspicions Schonleben was arrested,
and with him a poor beadmakcr, Beutner by name, who was sus-
pected of being his accomplice. The only connection between the
two was that Beutner had once helped Schonleben to carry a load
of wood into the Sterbenks' house ; and as he was passing the
window of the counting-house, it was said that he gazed spell-bound
at the sight of all the money inside. For not more than this

O.V THE WRONG TACK. 79

the two were lodged in gaol and subjected to criminal examin-
ation. It was hardly thought possible that they could be innocent
men. A new clue was, however, soon discovered. A barber
named Kirchmeier called on Sterbenk and declared that on the
day of the robbery he had seen a cash-box identical in every
respect Avith the one stolen. It was in the room of a working
gilder, Mannert, who lived in the same house as Schonleben the
messenger. On making a second call at the same room a few
days later there was no box to be seen. Kirchmeier deposed
that the box was standing under the table near the oven and
behind the door ; and as this witness was a respectable, well-to-
do citizen, bearing the character of an upright, religious man,
his testimony was deemed unimpeachable. The poor gilder,
Mannert, had also always borne the best of characters, but he,
too, was arrested, with his wife and sons. When examined, he
denied absolutely that he had ever owned such a box, and
although he admitted a slight acquaintance with Schonleben, and
that he was employed by Sterbenk, he declared that he knew
nothing of the messenger's private affairs.

Then the examination of the Mannerts was renewed; but as
they still persisted in repudiating all knowledge of the strong-
box the Court had recourse to more drastic measures. In those
days it was not absolutely required that witnesses should take the
oath, which was reserved for extreme cases ; it was a last step
when evidence was imperfect, and the punishment for perjury was
very severe. Kirchmeier signified his perfect willingness to be
sworn, and eventually reiterated his charges upon oath. "That
which I saw, I saw," he averred. "The green-painted cash-box,
with green wooden legs, I saw in the rooms of the man who is
now kneeling imploringly before me. I cannot help it. I am
quite convinced that in this case I am not mistaken. If I am, his
blood be on my head."

The Court, after such solemn testimony, could not exonerate
the Mannerts and Schonleben; and the public shared this con-
viction. Excitement over the case was not confined to Nuremberg >
but spread through all Germany. So high ran feeling against the
accused for their obstinate pleas of innocence, that the mob
smashed Schonleben's windows and killed his youngest child as it
lay in its mother's arms.

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Munnert's wife and sons corroborated his statements. Neverthe-
less, the barber, Kirchrneier, when confronted with them, stuck
to his story. The entire absence of all malicious motive
strengthened his testimony and gained him full credence from the

"TOGETHER THEY . . . LIFTED THE CASH-BOX AXD . . . CARRIED IT HOME" (p. 84).

Nuremberg authorities. So the Mannert family were also con-
signed to durance, while their residence was searched from top to
bottom. Nothing incriminating was found; only in a lumber room
one of the planks appeared to have been recently disturbed, and
this, although it led to no further discovery, was deemed highly
suspicious.

Meanwhile, Schonleben had been again questioned, and still
stoutly denied his guilt. When asked as to his accomplices

TEE PRIEST AND THE RACK. 81

and confederates, he replied that he could have had none, having
committed no crime. Beutner, the beadmaker, had no doubt asked
him once where Sterbenk's counting-house was situated, and
whether the family all slept upstairs, but, after all, that might
be mere curiosity. Beutner excused himself by saying he must
have been drunk when he asked such questions at least, he had
no recollection of putting them. Several independent witnesses
deposed to having been with Beutner on the night of the
robbery till 2 a.m., after which they Avalked home with him.

The perverse cruelty of the Nuremberg Court, which had ac-
cepted Kirchmeier's story so readily, was not yet exhausted, and,
very much as in the case of Galas, given on a previous page, 'it
persisted in seeking a confession as its own best justification.
Mannert was still obdurate, however, and force was now applied.
Floggings were tried, but quite without result, and at last, a fresh
search of the dwellings of both Mannert and Schonleben having
proved fruitless, it was resolved to appeal to the antiquated
instruments of Nuremberg justice, surviving still, within ten years
of the nineteenth century the priest and the rack.

The power of the priest to extort confession, even from the
most hardened criminals, had often proved successful heretofore,
and public expectation was raised high that justice would once
more be vindicated in this fashion. But the priests failed now.
Neither Mannert, nor his wife, nor his sons would make the
slightest acknowledgment of their guilt, and it became clear
that they had won over the priests to their side. Still the
Court was resolute to follow out its own line of action. Confession
having failed, it determined to try the effect of flogging the
woman, or, if her health did not allow such an extreme proceeding,
she was to be strictly isolated, and kept upon bread and water hi
the darkest dungeon of the prison ; lastly, if these merciless
measures proved of no avail, she was to be subjected to the rack.

Schonleben, from the recesses of the prison, now made a des-
perate effort to free himself by reviving suspicion against Beutner.
So absolutely helpless and hopeless had justice now become that
the Nuremberg Court actually accepted a dream as evidence.
Schonleben pretended that he had seen the missing cash- box under
a heap of wood at Beutner's house seen it only in his dreams,
however. This " baseless fabric " of his imagination sufficed to send
6

82 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

the officers to search Beutner's house, and although nothing was
discovered, public opinion agreed with the judges in again accus-
ing Beutner, and he was held to be implicated, despite the renewed
proof of a satisfactory alibi. Nobody believed Beutner's witnesses.

The next incident in these shameful proceedings was the death
of Frau Mannert, who succumbed to the cruel treatment she
had received. She died protesting her innocence to the last, and
the priests who shrived her in the dark underground cell where
she breathed her last expressed much indignation at the shocking
ill-usage to which she owed her death.

Four more months passed, bringing no relaxation in the
law's severity towards those whom it still gripped in its cruel
clutches. Who shall say what their fate might have been? But
now, at last, an unexpected turn was given to the inquiry, and
by pure accident justice got upon the right track. Certain
rumours reached the ears of one of the judges, who proceeded
to investigate them. These rumours started from a beer-shop,
where someone in his cups had been heard grossly to abuse a lock-
smith, Go'sser by name, and his assistant, Blosel. The vituperation
ended in a. direct charge of complicity in the Sterbenk robbery.
Blosel sat speechless under the attack, but his master, Gosser,
tried lamely to repudiate the charges. It was remembered now
against these two that, although miserably poor till a certain date,
they had become suddenly rich ; had bought good clothes and
silver watches, had launched out into many extravagances, and
were always ready to stand treat to their friends. Gosser just now
had applied for a passport to leave Nuremberg and go to Dresden ;
and passports were in those days rather expensive luxuries, and
generally beyond the means of persons in straitened circumstances.
Schonleben once more contributed his quota to the newly formu-
lated charge ; he had always suspected him, he said ; and this time
he had good reason to do so. When the police arrested Gosser
and his assistant (they were always glad to ' arrest anybody), the
two prisoners incontinently confessed their crime.

Gosser, a man of thirty-three, had settled in Nuremberg with his
wife and family about a year previously. He was a shiftless, aim-
less fellow, and it was only by serious money sacrifices that he
obtained admission into the guild of locksmiths in Nuremberg.
Having thus started in debt, he was never able to get clear

TJTE REAL CULPRITS CONFESSION.

again. He was often in want of the necessaries of life; his re-
lations would not help him ; and he began to despair of ever
gaining an honest livelihood. Having
once visited Sterbenk's house, he had
quickly realised how easily the count-
ing-house door might be forced. The
criminal idea of thus obtaining funds
once formed, it grew and gained more
mastery, till at length, on the night
of the 29th of January, he proceeded

STKKET IX NVltEMBEllG.

to perpetrate the theft. He went to Sterbenk's, opened the outer
door, which he said was unbolted, and silently, and without difficulty,
entered the counting-house. Finding the strong-box too heavy to
move by himself, he had gone home and awakened his assistant,

MYSTERIES OF POLICE ANt) CHIME.

whom he persuaded to join him. Together they had crept back, lifted
the cash-box, and, without interference, carried it home. While
Gosser's wife was out of the way, they opened it and divided
the spoil. The box they kept close hidden for a long time, but
at last broke it up and threw the pieces bit by bit into the
river. After the robbery Gosser confessed to his wife, who, over-
come with fear, implored her husband to return the money. But

he paid some pressing debts and
bought what he needed for his
business, and now hoped that
he was on the high road to suc-
cess and competence. Gosser de-
clared that no one had instigated
him to the deed, that he alone
was responsible, and had had no
accomplice beyond Bloscl ; and
the confessions of his wife and
Blosel corroborated these state-
ments.

An examination of Gosser's.
dwelling also confirmed them,
while portions of the strong-box
were by-and-bye found in the
river. But it was not till after
there remained no shadow of
doubt of the truth of Gusser's

story that the other prisoners were lightened of their chains, and
only by degrees Avere they informed of the new turn of affairs.

Kirchmeier was arrested on the 4th of November, and feeling-
ran tremendously strong against him as the original cause of so
much cruel injustice. His three confessions were read out to him,
and he was asked if he still stood by them. Strange to state,
he firmly reiterated them, continuing to do so even when the
fragments of the box and the plainly rebutting evidence were laid
before him. The only plausible solution of his extraordinary
conduct was that he suffered from hallucinations. He had only
lately recovered from a bad attack of bilious fever; and it
wos- quite probable that in his convalescent condition the excite-
ment of the robbery Avorking on a disordered mind produced an

OLD PUISO.N AND " HANGMAN'.S 1'AbSAOE,
NUKEMBEUG.

A DUTCH CASE. 85

impression which had all the weight and force of actual tangible
fact. Some such view of his conduct was evidently taken by the
Court; for, although arraigned for perjury, he was acquitted, and
absolved from having falsely sworn from any evil motive. Yet
his fellow- townspeople could not readily forgive him, or forget the
sufferings he had brought upon the innocent victims of his delu-
sions. He was scouted by his old friends and deserted by his
customers ; and, to escape universal execration and the starvation
that threatened him, he settled in another part of Germany.
Gosser and Blosel were, of course, duly punished.

"THE BLUE DRAGOON."

This case,* in which Justice got upon a false scent and narrowly
escaped the commission of a tragical blunder, is remarkable for
the tortuous course it ran before the truth was at last reached.
In a certain Dutch town there lived, towards the close of the
last century, an elderly widow lady, Madame Andrecht. She was
fairly well-to-do, and possessed some valuable silver, although
she lived in a quiet, retired street and in a not very reputable
locality. Her neighbours were all of the poorer classes; and the
town ditch, which ' was navigable, flowed at the bottom of her
back garden. Hers was a tranquil, uneventful existence; she was
served by one elderly female servant, and her only recreation was
a yearly visit paid to a married son in the country, when she
locked up the house and took the servant away with her.

On the 30th of June, 17 , she returned home, after one of these
visits, to find her house broken into and most of her possessions
gone. It was clear that the thieves were acquainted with the
interior of the house, and had set to work in a systematic fashion,
although some of the plunder had escaped them. A window
leading from the garden had been forced ; the back door was
open, and footsteps could be traced down the garden to the hedge
at the bottom over the ditch. This pointed to the removal of
the booty by boat.

The discovery of this robbery caused a great sensation, and
the house was soon surrounded by a gaping crowd, whom the
police had some trouble in controlling. One, an irrepressible

* Abridged from the full account given in the " Tales from Blackwood" Second Series.

86 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

baker, managed to make his way inside, and his acquaintances
awaited with impatience the result of his investigations. But on
his return he assumed a great air of mystery, and refused to
satisfy their curiosity. Everyone was left to evolve his own
theory, and the most voluble of the chatterers was a wool-spinner,

Leendert van N , who talked so pointedly that before evening

he was summoned to the town house and called upon for an
explanation by the burgomaster. In a hesitating, stammering way,
as if dreading to incriminate anyone, he unfolded his suspicions,
which were to the following effect:

At the end of the street stood a small alehouse, kept by

an ex-soldier, Nicholas D- -, commonly known as the "Blue

Dragoon." Some years previously he had courted and married
a servant of Madame Andrecht. The mistress had never liked the
match, and had done all she could to prevent the young people from
meeting. Nicholas had managed, however, to pay the girl secret
visits, stealing at night across Leendert's back garden and over
the hedge. Leendert objected, and begged Nicholas to discontinue
these clandestine proceedings. Later on he discovered that the
ardent lover used to row along the fosse and enter the garden
that way. All this was ancient history, but it was brought back
to his mind by the robbery. His suspicion had been empha-
sised by the fact of his finding a handkerchief on the fosse bank,
opposite the garden, only ten days before. This handkerchief
proved to be marked with the initials N. D.

Suspicion, once raised against the dragoon, was strengthened
by other circumstances. During the first search of the house a
half-burnt paper had been picked up, presumably a pipelight. On
examination, it was found to be an excise receipt, and further in-
vestigation proved it to have belonged to Nicholas D . This

evidence, such as it was, seemed to point to the same person,
and, after a short consultation among the magistrates, orders were
given for his arrest, and that of his wife, father, and brother.
His house was ransacked, but the closest search failed to reveal
the missing plate; only in one drawer a memorandum-book was
discovered which was proved beyond doubt to have belonged to
Madame Andrecht

Nothing resulted from a first examination to which the
prisoner was subjected. He answered every question in an open,

THE CASE GETS COMPLICATED. 87

straightforward manner; but while admitting the facts of his
courtship, as told by the wool-spinner, he could adduce no re-
butting evidence in his own defence. The other members of the
household corroborated what he had said; and the wife declared
strenuously that the note-book had not been in the drawer the pre-
vious week, when she had removed all the contents in order to
clean the press. Their attitude and their earnest protestations of
innocence made a favourable impression on the judge; the neigh-
bours testified to their honest character and general good name.
Still, Nicholas could not be actually exonerated ; the note-book, the
charred receipt, and the handkerchief were so many unanswered
points against him.

At this stage of the inquiry a new witness came forward and

strengthened the suspicion against Nicholas D . A respectable

citizen, a wood merchant, voluntarily appeared before the author-
ities and made a statement, which, he said, had been weighing on
his conscience ever since the robbery. It would seem that a car-
penter, Isaac van C , owed this man money ; and he had been

obliged to put pressure upon him. The carpenter had begged
him to delay proceedings, telling him of the difficulty he also had
in collecting his dues, and showing him some silver plate he had
taken in pledge from one of his debtors. After some discussion,
the wood merchant agreed to accept the plate as part payment
of the carpenter's bill. When the robbery became known, the
wood merchant began to think the articles pledged to him might
have formed part of the stolen property. He had no reason to
suspect his debtor, the carpenter, of being concerned in the theft,
but still he thought the clue ought to be followed up.

The carpenter was immediately sent for and examined. He said
that the debtor of whom he spoke to the wood merchant was

Nicholas D , who owed him sixty gulden for work done on the

premisss, and as he would not or was unable to pay, he (the
carpenter) had peremptorily tisked for his money. Nicholas then
offered him some old silver, which he said had belonged to his
father, and asked him to dispose of it through an agent in Amster-
dam or some distant town. Nicholas was brought in, and, confronted
with the carpenter, did not deny that he owed the debt and
could not see how to pay it ; but when the plate was shown
him he hesitated, turned pale, and declared he knew nothing

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AXD CRIME.

about it. His nervousness and prevarication
excited a general doubt as to his previous
statements. This was further increased by
the examination of the carpenter's private
account-book, which contained an entry of
the old silver received from the innkeeper.
The carpenter's housekeeper and apprentice
also bore witness to the agreement.

The general feeling in the town was

now very strong
against Nicholas

D . He was

committed to the
town prison, and
his relatives
placed under

DUTCH POLICE AT THE 1'KKSF.NT DAY.

SUMMER UNIFORM.

closest surveil-
lance. All,
nevertheless,
persisted in
their story. In
order to ascer-
tain the truth,
justice was pre-
pared to go to
the extreme
length of ap-
plying torture to force a confession from
the obstinate accused. But happily, just as
the "question" was about to be employed,
the following letter was received :

"Before I leave the country and betake
myself where I shall be beyond the reach
either of the Court of M - or the military

tribunal of the garrison, I would save the unfortunate persons who
are now prisoners at M . Beware of punishing the innkeeper,

WINTER UXIFOUM.

A FRESH WITNESS. 89

his wife, his father, or his brother, for a crime of which they are
not guilty. How the story of the carpenter is connected with
theirs I cannot conjecture. I have heard of it with the greatest
surprise. The latter may not himself be entirely innocent. Let
the judge pay attention to this remark. You may spare yourself
the trouble of inquiring after me. If the wind is favourable, by
the time you read this letter I shall be on my passage to England.

"JOSEPH CHRISTIAN RUHLER,
"Formerly Corporal in the Company of Le Lery."

The receipt of this letter started a new set of conjectures,
followed up by inquiries. Captain le Lery's company was quartered
in the town, and Corporal Ruhler had, as a matter of fact, be-
longed to it, but he had mysteriously and suddenly disappeared
about the time of the robbery. No trace of him had been found.
His letter seemed to throw light upon his disappearance, yet when
it was shown to his captain and some of his comrades it was
unanimously declared to be a forgery. What could have been the
writer's object in fabricating it ? Various theories were advanced,
the most popular being that some guilty party, knowing the cor-
poral had gone, thought to implicate him and save the accused
from the torture, which misrht have driven them to full confession,

' O

in which the names of all accomplices would have been divulged.
It was a clumsy explanation, but the only feasible one forth-
coming. Every effort was made to discover the author of the
letter, but without avail.

Now a fresh witness volunteered information a merchant who
lived in Madame Andrecht's neighbourhood, and Avho had left home
about the time that the robbery had been perpetrated. He had
just returned, to find that the mysterious affair was the talk of
the town indeed, he had had a full account of it from his fellow-
passengers in the coach which brought him home. He now came
to the authorities and told them what he knew. A day or two

before the robbery a carpenter, Isaac van C , had come to him

seeking to borrow his boat, which the merchant kept in the fosse
just behind his warehouse. Isaac made some pretence for wanting
the boat which was not altogether satisfactory to the merchant,
who refused to lend it, but yielded when the carpenter declared
he wished to use it for the purposes of fishing. The next morning

90 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

the boat was returned, but was not in exactly its right place ; the
inside of the boat, moreover, was too clean and dry for it to have
been recently used for fishing. The merchant, although he had
not yet heard of the robbery, strongly suspected that the carpenter
had used the boat for some improper purpose, and he was
strengthened in this view by finding two silver spoons under one
of the thwarts. This discovery angered him, for he felt he had
been deceived, and putting the spoons in his pocket, he went at
once to the carpenter for an explanation. The carpenter, with
whom were his housekeeper and apprentice, seemed greatly em-
barrassed when the spoons were produced, and after having been
pressed by the merchant, they confessed that they had been up
to no good, but would not say where or how they had obtained
these spoons. The merchant was now called away from home, and
the affair was driven from his mind by more serious trans-
actions. Now that he heard of the robbery, he remembered the
suspicious conduct of the carpenter and his servants.

Evidence of this sort, coming from a witness of the highest
character, carried so much weight that the judge ordered the
carpenter and his companions to be arrested. At the same time,
search was made in the house, which resulted in the discovery
of the whole of the stolen effects. The culprits, finding it use-
less to deny their guilt, now made full confession. The three
of them were implicated, but it was not settled who had
originated the idea. The apprentice, having worked in Madame
Andrecht's house for another master, knew his way about it,
and had guided the thieves after they had effected their entrance.
The boat had been borrowed, in the way described, to simplify
the removal of the plunder. All three of the culprits were
with the crowd assembled outside the house when the robbery
had been discovered They heard of the suspicions against
the Blue Dragoon, and the apprentice at once visited the
alehouse, and succeeded in secreting the memorandum-book in
the drawer of the press, where it was discovered.

The foregoing evidence was sufficient to convict the carpenter
and his two accomplices, but justice was not yet satisfied of

Nicholas D 's innocence. Two damaging facts still told

against him : the half-charred excise bill and the handkerchief
bearing his initials. It was possible that he had been an accom-

ANOTHER GEIME COMES TO LIGHT. 91

plice, although the carpenter and the others would not accuse
him. That other people were also concerned seemed evident from
the fact of the forged letter, whose authorship was still undis-
covered.

Further facts of a strange and interesting kind were presently
forthcoming about this letter. The schoolmaster of a neighbouring
village came with a scrap of paper on which was inscribed the
name Joseph Christian Ruhler, the name with which the forged
letter had been signed. At the schoolmaster's request the writing
of this paper was compared with that of the letter, and they were
found to be identical. Then the schoolmaster went on to say that
both had been written by a pupil of his, a deaf and dumb boy
whom he had taught to write, and who made a scanty living as
an amanuensis. Some time before this, an unknown man had
called on the boy, had taken him to an inn in the village, and
there given him a letter to copy. The boy, on reading the letter
which, as we have seen, was of a very compromising nature
demurred. But he was pacified by the present of a gulden, and
'made the copy. Still, the secrecy and peculiarity of the whole
affair weighed on his mind, and he at length confided the story
to his teacher. The alleged letter from the corporal had already
got into circulation in the neighbourhood, and Avas clearly the one
the boy had copied. The schoolmaster went to the inn, made
inquiries about the strange man, and eventually found him to be

a baker, H , the very man who had been so determined to

enter Madame Andrecht's house when the robbery was first an-
nounced. So far he had been utterly unconnected in any way
with the crime, though his excessive zeal had attracted attention
at the time. However, he was arrested; and from the disclosures
he made a warrant was also issued for the apprehension of the

wool-spinner, Leendert van N , and his wife, who had been the

first to air their suspicions of the innkeeper's complicity.

As the investigation proceeded, a curious tale was unfolded.
The last persons arrested had no share in the housebreaking,
but were concerned in another crime, which probably would
never have been discovered but for the robbery. The substance
of their confessions was as follows:

Leendert van N" , H the baker, and Corporal Ruhler

were old acquaintances, and had dealings together of not too

P2 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

reputable a kind in connection with the victualling and clothing
ot the garrison. They cordially hated and despised each other, and
only kept together from community of interests and pursuits.

The associates were playing cards one evening (June 29th) in
Leendert's house, situated in the vicinity of Madame Andrecht's,
when they quarrelled with the corporal, and the corporal retorted
in offensive terms. From words they came to blows, in which

Madame van N assisted. In a few minutes the corporal lay

pinioned on the ground, uttering loud curses and threatening them
with public exposure. The baker whispered that they had better
do the job thoroughly, and after a few blows the corpse, drenched
in blood, lay at their feet.

The terrors of conscience and the apprehensions of their crime
paralysed their thoughts during the night. The next morning they
heard the commotion caused by the news of the discovery of the
robbery at Madame Andrecht's. At once they realised their danger,
and the probability of a house-to-house search being instituted,
when their horrible crime would be discovered. Their great object^
then, was to give the authorities something to occupy their time till

the body could be disposed of. It was Madame van N who

perfected the idea. Why should not suspicion be laid at the door
of the Blue Dragoon ? His nocturnal courtship was remembered,
and corroborative evidence could be supplied by a handkerchief
that he had dropped in the house some little time before. The
baker then remembered the old excise receipt that Nicholas

D had once handed him to make a note on. Part of it

was charred a\vay, and the remaining portion was carelessly
dropped in the house when the baker accompanied the police
in their search. It may be remembered that the van N 's were
most busy in the hints they gave of the innkeeper's supposed
guilt, and their machinations were unconsciously assisted by those
of the carpenter and his confederates. So the false evidence brought
by these two independent plots formed very circumstantial proof
against the innocent victim. However, the baker and the wool-
spinner only wanted to excite suspicion against Nicholas till they
could accomplish their object of hiding the body. That effected,
they began to feel remorse that an innocent person should be
ruined. The thought of the torture which awaited him struck
them with horror, and they evolved the idea of a letter from

'THE CORPORAL LAY MXIOSED OX THE GROUND" (l , --..

94 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

Ruhler, incriminating himself. Thus they hoped to obtain delay
for Nicholas and safety for themselves. However, their plans were
too well thought out; their fear of detection led them to employ
the strange deaf and dumb boy to write their letter, which afterwards
betrayed them.

Sentence of death was pronounced against the persons who had
been concerned in the housebreaking as well as against those who
had committed the murder, and it was carried into effect on all of

them with the exception of Madame van N , who died in prison.

The wool-spinner alone exhibited any sign of penitence.

CHAPTER H.
CASES OF DISPUTED ,OR MISTAKEN IDENTITY.

Lesurques and the Robbery of the Lyons Mail The Champignelles Mystery Judge
Garrow's Story An Imposition Practised at York Assizes A Husband Claimed by
-Two Wives A Milwaukee Mystery A Scottish Case The Kingswood Rectory
Murder The Cannon Street Case A Narrow Escape.

LESURQUES.

THE most famous, and perhaps the most hackneyed, of all cases
of mistaken identity is that of Lesurques, charged with the robbery
and murder of the courier of the Lyons mail, which has been so
vividly brought home to us through the dramatic play based upon
it and the marvellous impersonation of the dual role, Lesurques-
Duboscq, by Sir Henry Irving.

Lesurques was positively identified as a man who had travelled
by the mail coach, and he was in due course convicted. Yet at the
eleventh hour a woman came into court and declared his innocence,
swearing that the witnesses had mistaken him for another, Duboscq,
whom he greatly resembled. She Avas the confidante of one of the
gang who had planned and carried out the robbery. But her
testimony, although corroborated by other confederates, was rejected,
and Lesurques received sentence of death. Yet there were grave
doubts, and the matter was brought before the Revolutionary Legis-
lature by the Directory, who called for a reprieve. But the Five
Hundred refused, on the extraordinary ground that to annul a
sentence which had been legally pronounced "would subvert all
ideas of justice and equality before the law."

Lesurques died protesting his innocence to the last. " Truth
has not been heard," he wrote a friend ; " I shall die the victim
of a mistake." He also published a letter in the papers
addressed to Duboscq: "Man in whose place I am to die," he
wrote, " be satisfied with the sacrifice of my life. If you are ever

96 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

brought to justice, think of my three children, covered with shame,
and of their mother's despair, and do not prolong the misfortunes
of so fatal a resemblance." On the scaffold he said, " I pardon my
judges and the witnesses whose mistake has murdered me. I die
protesting my innocence."

Four years elapsed before Duboscq was captured. In the interval
others of the gang had passed through the hands of the police, but
the prime mover was only now taken. Even then he twice
escaped from prison. When finally he was put on his trial, and
the judge ordered a fair wig, such as Lesurques had worn, to be
placed on his head, the strange likeness was immediately apparent.
He denied his guilt, but was convicted and guillotined. Thus
two men suffered for one offence.

French justice was very tardy in atoning for this grave error.
The rehabilitation of Lesurques' family was not decreed till after
repeated applications under several regimes the Directory, the
Consulate, the Empire, and the Kestoration. In the reign of
Louis XVIII. the sequestrated property was restored, but there
was no revision of the sentence, although the case was again and
again revived.

THE CHAMPIGXELLES MYSTERY.

One day in October, 1791, a lady dressed in mourning appeared at
the gates of the Chateau of Champignclles, and was refused admis-
sion. "I am the Marquise de Douhault, nee de Champignelles,
the daughter of your old master. Surely you know me ? " she said,
lifting her veil. "The Marquise de Douhault has been dead these
three years," replied the concierge ; " you cannot enter here. I have
strict orders from the Sieur de Champignelles."

This same lady was seen next day at the village church, praying
at the tomb of the late M. de Champignelles, and many remarked
her extraordinary resemblance to the deceased Marquise. But the
marquise was dead ; her funeral service had been performed in this
very church. Some of the bystanders asked the lady's maid-servant
who she was, and were told that they ought to know. Others went
up to the lady herself, who said, "I am truly the Marquise de
Douhault, but my brother will not acknowledge me or admit
me to the chateau."

A CLOUD OF WITNESSES.

Then followed formal recognition. People were summoned by
sound of drum to speak to her identity, and did so " to the number
of ninety-six, many of them officials, soldiers, and members of the

LESUUQUE ON THE SCAFFOLD (p. 96).

municipality." The lady gave many satisfactory proofs, too, speaking
of things that "only a daughter of the house could know." Thus
encouraged, she proceeded to serve the legal notice on her brothei
and claim her rights her share of the property of Champignelles a?
co-heir, and a sum in cash for back rents during her absence when
supposed to be dead
7

98 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Where had she been all this time ? Who had died, if not she ?
Her story, although clear, precise, and supported by evidence, AvaS
most extraordinary. To understand it AVC must go back and trace
her history and that of the Champignelles family as given in the
memoir prepared by the claimant for the courts.

Adelaide Marie had been married at tAventy-three to the Marquis
de Douhault, Avho coA r eted her doAvry, and did not prove a good

GKAXD FKOXT OF LA SALPEIUIEttE ASYLUM, J'AKIS.

husband. He was subject to epileptic fits, eventually went out of
his mind, and, after wounding his Avife with a sword, Avas shut up
in Charenton. The Avife led an exemplary life till his death, Avhich
was soon folloAved by that of her father. Her brother noAV became
the head of the family, and is said to have been a frank blackguard,
the real cause of his father's death. He proceeded to SAvindle his
mother, Avho Avas entitled by settlement to a life interest in the
Champignelles estates, subject to pensions to her children, and
he persuaded her to reverse that arrangement she to surrender
her property, he to pay her an annual alloAvance. He had gained
his sister's concurrence by obtaining her signature to a blank
document, which he filled up as he Avished.

The son, of course, did not pay the alloAvances, and very often

THE CLAIMANTS STORY.

the mother was in sad straits, reduced at times to pawn her jewels
for food. She appealed now to her daughter, who naturally sided
with her, and wrote in indignant terms to her brother. There
was an angry quarrel, with the threat of a lawsuit if he did not
mend his ways. For the purpose of conferring with her mother,
whom she meant to join in the suit, the Marquise de Douhault
proposed to start for Paris.

Having a strange presentiment that this journey would be
unlucky, she postponed it as long
as possible, but went at length on
the day after Christmas Day, 1787.
Arrived at Orleans, she accepted
the hospitality of a M. de la
Ronciere and rested there some
days. On the 15th of January,
1788, she was to continue her
journey, but in the morning she
took a carriage drive with her
friends. All she remembered
afterwards was that Madame de
la Ronciere offered her a pinch
of snuff, which she took, and that
she was seized with violent pains
in the head, followed by great
drowsiness and stupor ; the rest
was a blank.

When she came to herself, she
was a prisoner in the Salpetriere.

Her brain was now clear, her mind active. She protested strongly,
and, saying who she was, demanded to be set at large. They
laughed at her, telling her her name was Buirette, and that she
was talking nonsense.

Her detention lasted for seventeen months, and she was denied
all communication with outside. At last she managed to inform
a friend, the Duchess of Polignac, of her imprisonment, and on the
13th of July, 1789, she was released, to find herself alone in Paris
in the midst of the horrors of the Revolution.

She was friendless. Her brother, to whom she at once applied,
repudiated her as an impostor ; an uncle was equally cruel ;

THE DUCHESS OF POLIGXAC.

(From the Contempvrary Portrait by Mme. Le Bnm.)

100 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

she asked for her mother, and was told she had none. Then she
ran to Versailles, where many friends resided, found refuge with
the Duchess of Polignac, and was speedily recognised by numbers
of people, princes, dukes, and the rest, all members of that French
aristocracy which was so soon to be dispersed in exile or to suffer
by the guillotine. They urged her not to create a scandal by suing
her brother, but to trust to the king for redress. Soon the king
himself was a prisoner, and presently died on the scaffold.

Her case was taken up, however, by certain lawyers, who advanced
her funds at usurious rates, and planned an attack on her brother,
under which, however, they contemplated certain frauds of their
own. When she hesitated to entrust them with full powers one of
these lawyers denounced her to the Committee of Public Safety,
and she narrowly escaped execution. Bailly, the mayor of Paris,
was a friend of hers, but could not save her from imprisonment in
La Force, where she remained a month, then escaping into the
country. Here she learnt that her mother was not dead, and
returned to Paris to see her at her last gasp. After that she
wandered to and fro in hiding and in poverty til], in 1791, she
reappeared at Champignelles.

Such was the case the claimant presented to the courts.

A story is good till the other side is heard, and her brother,
M. de Champignelles, clever, unscrupulous, and a friend of the
Republican Government, had a very strong defence. His first
answer was to accuse his sister, or the person claiming to be his
sister, of having tried to seize his chateau by force of arms,
declaring that she had come backed by three hundred men to
claim her so-called rights, and that he had appealed to the
municipality for protection.

This plea failed, and his second was to accuse the claimant of
being someone else. He asserted that she was a certain Anne
Buirette, who had been an inmate of the Salpetriere from the 3rd
of January, 1786. This date was a crucial point in the case. The
claimant had adopted it as the date of her entry into the Salpetriere,
yet it was clearly shown that at that time the Marquise de Douhault
was alive, and that she resided on her property of Chazelet through
1786 and 1787. On other points the claimant showed remarkable
knowledge, remembered names, faces of people, circumstances in the
past ; and all this tended to prove that she was the Marquise. But

THE ALTERNATIVES.

101

this error in dates was serious, and it was strengthened by a mistake
in the Christian names of the deceased Marquis de Douhault.

The case came on for trial before the Civil Tribunal of St. Fargeau,
where the commissary of the Republic stated it fully, and with a

CHAPEL OF LA SALPET1UKUE.

strong bias against the claimant. As he put it : " One side asked for
the restitution. of a name, a fortune, of which she had been despoiled
with a cruelty that greatly added to the alleged crime; the other
charged the claimant with being an impostor seeking a position to
which, she had no right whatever." Between these two alternatives
the court must decide, and either way a crime must be laid bare.
Was it all a fraud ? The defence set up was certainly strong.

102 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

It rested first on the death of the Marquise. This was supported
by the certificates of the doctors who attended her in her last illness,
documents attested by the municipality of Orleans, which bore
witness to both illness and death. Another document testified that
extreme unction had been administered, and that the burial had
been carried out in the presence of many relatives. The family
went into mourning, and the memory of the Marquise was revered
among the honoured dead.

There was next the suspicious commencement of the claim : a
letter addressed by the claimant to the cure of Champignelles, two
years and a half after the death above recorded, asking for a
baptismal certificate and another of marriage. This letter was full
of faults of spelling and grammar, and was signed Anne Louis
Adelaide, formerly Marquise de Grainville, names that were not exact
It was asserted that the real Marquise was a lady of great intel-
ligence, cultured, highly educated as became her situation, knowing
several languages, and a good musician, and especially that she was
well able to write prettily and correctly.

Then for the identity of the claimant with Anne Buirette there
was seemingly conclusive evidence, the strongest part of it being
her own statement of the date on which she was received at the
Salpetriere. All the story of her release through the appeal to
the Duchess of Polignac was declared to be untrue. The past life
of this Anne Buirette was raked up, and it was demonstrated that
she was a swindler who had been sent to gaol for an ingenious fraud'
which may be narrated here. AVhen. in 1785, on the occasion of the
birth of a royal prince, the queen wished charitably to redeem a
number of the pledges in the Mont de Piete, the woman Buirette,
being unauthorised, drove round in a carriage, calling herself a
royal attendant, to collect pawn tickets from poor people. She
recovered the sums necessary to redeem the pledges and applied
the money to her own use. For this she was sent to the Salpe-
triere, from which she was released in October, 1789, and not, as she
stated, on the day of the barricades.

From this moment, according to the defence, the fraud began,
whether at her own instance or not could not be shown. Her move-
ments were traced from place to place as she went about seeking
recognition and assistance, now accepted, more often rejected, by
those to whom she appealed. Finally the commissary closed the

LITIGATION EXTRAORDINARY. 103

case by pointing to the physical dissimilarity between the two
women, the Marquise and the claimant. The first was known
as a lady of quality, distinguished in her manners, clever, well-
bred; the second was obviously stupid and low-born, stained with
vices, given to drink. The Marquise was of frail, delicate constitu-
tion, the claimant seemed strong and robust ; the first had blue
eyes, the second black ; the first walked lame, the second showed
no signs of lameness.

Yet the claimant persisted, and her counsel upset much that had
been urged. It was shown that the death certificate was not pro-
duced : that the ill- written letters so condemnatory were copies, not
originals ; that the official documents purporting to set forth the past
life of Anne Buirette were irregular in form and probably not
authentic. The claimant showed that she was lame, that her eyes
were blue ; more, that she carried the scar of the sword wound made
by her mad husband years before. It was all to no purpose. The
tribunal refused to enter into the question of the alleged falsity of
the documentary evidence, and taking its stand upon the date of
entry into the Salpetriere, declared that the claimant could not be
the Marquise de Douhault.

Then followed a long course of tedious litigation. The claim
was revived, carried from court to court, heard and re-heard ; one
decree condemned the claimant, and recommended that the case
should be dropped; after five years the Supreme Court of Appeal
sent it for a new trial to the Criminal Court of Bourges. The points
referred were : first, to verify the death of the Marquise de Douhault ;
second/ to establish whether or not the claimant was Anne Buirette,
and if not, third, to say whether she was the Marquise.

There were now great discrepancies as to the date and the cir-
cumstances of death. Some said it occurred on the 17th of
January, 1788, some on the 18th, some again on the 19th. Other
facts also were disputed. As to the second query, 18 witnesses
swore that the claimant was Anne Buirette ; 14 saw no resemblance
between Anne Buirette and her, and among these was Anne
Buirette's own husband. As to the third point, 153 out of 224
witnesses declared positively that this was the Marquise herself ;
but 53 said either that she was not or that they had never seen
the claimant, whilst among the number were several who had been
satisfied as to her identity in the first instance.

10* MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

These inquiries were followed by others as to handwriting, and
many new and surprising facts came out. It was asserted by experts
that the letters written before her alleged death by the Marquise
and after it by the claimant were in one and the same hand ; that
the documents the claimant Avas said to have written or signed
were forgeries, and must have been concocted with fraudulent
intention.

Now, too, the claimant explained away the famous date of entry
into prison, and laid it to her poor memory, enfeebled by so many
misfortunes.

There seemed enough in all this to reverse the decision of St.
Fargeau, but the Court of Botirges upheld it. The Procureur-General
pronounced his opinion, formed at the imperious demands of his
conscience, that the claimant was not the Marquise de Douhault;
more, that "between her and that respectable lady there was as
much difference as between crime and virtue."

The law was pitilessly hostile to the very end. On the revival
of the case the claimant was successful in proving that she was
certainly not Anne Buirette, but although she published many
memoirs prepared by some of the most eminent lawyers of the
day, and was continually before the courts during the Consulate
and First Empire, she was always unable to establish her identity.
The law denied that she was the Marquise de Douhault, but yet
would not say who she was. To the last she was nameless, and
had no official existence. When she died the authorities would
not permit any name to be inscribed on her tomb.

JUDGE GARROWS STORY.

Our own criminal records abound with cases of disputed or
mistaken identity. Among the most remarkable of them is the
one which Judge Garrow was fond of recounting on the Oxford
circuit. He described how a man was being tried before him for
highway robbery, and the prosecutor identified him positively.
The guilt of the accused seemed clear, and the jury was about
to retire to consider their verdict, when a man rode full-speed
into the courthouse yard, and forced his way into the court,
with loud cries to stop the case ; he had ridden fifty miles to
save the life of a fellow-creature, the prisoner now at the bar.

- ' ' ' ^^sefeT^-r^r-' )i I)

'A MAN . . FORCED HIS WAY INTO THE COURT" (p. 104).

106

MYSTERIES' OF POLICE AND CRT Ml-:.

This strange interruption would have been resented by the judge,
but the new arrival called upon all present, especially the prosecutor,
to look at him. It was at once apparent that he was the living
image of the prisoner ; he was dressed in precisely similar attire, a
green coat with brass buttons, drab breeches, and top boots. The
likeness in height, demeanour, and especially in countenance, was
so remarkable that the prosecutor was dumbfound ered ; he could no
longer speak positively as to the identity of the man who had robbed
,,., him. All along, the prisoner had

been protesting his innocence, and
now, of course, the gravest doubts
arose as to his guilt. The. prose-
cutor could not call upon the
second man to criminate himself,
and yet the jury had no alternative
but to acquit the first prisoner. In
this they were encouraged by the
judge, who declared that, although
i\ a robbery had certainly been com-

/ ?> mitted by one of two persons

' ' 'l\ present. L

'I present, the prosecutor could not
distinguish between them, and
there was no alternative but
acquittal.

So the first man got off; but

now a fresh jury was empanelled, and the second was put upon his
trial ; his defence was simple enough. Only the day previous the
prosecutor had sworn to one man as his robber. Could he now be
permitted, even if he wished, -to swear away the life of another
man for the same offence ? All he could say was that it was his
belief that it was the last comer that robbed him ; but surely if the
jury had acquitted one person to whom he had sworn positively,
could they now convict a second whom he only believed to be
guilty ? The jury could not but accept the force of this reasoning,
and as the second man would make no distinct .confession of guilt,
he was suffered to go free. But the truth came out afterwards.
The two men were brothers ; the first had really committed the
crime, and the whole scene had been got up between them for the
purpose of imposing on the Court.

SIR WILLIAM GAKIIOW.

(From the Engraving by J. Parden.)

AN ARTISTIC DEFENCE. 107

A CASE AT YORK.

A very similar case occurred at York. A gentleman arrived
there during the assize, and having alighted at a good hotel, Avhere
he dined and slept, asked the landlord next morning if he could
find anything of interest in the town. Hearing that the assizes
were in progress, he entered the court, just as a man was being tried
for highway robbery, The case seemed strong against the prisoner,
who was much cast down, for he had been vehemently protesting his
innocence. Suddenly, on the appearance of the stranger, he rose in
the dock and cried, "Here, thank God, is someone who can prove
my innocence." The stranger looked bewildered, but the prisoner
went on to declare that he had met this very gentleman, at a
distant place, Dover, on the day of the alleged robbery, and he now
reminded him that he had conveyed his luggage on a wheelbarrow
from the Ship Inn to the packet for Calais. The stranger was now
interrogated, but could not admit that he had been in Dover on
that day, nor had he any distinct recollection of the prisoner. The
judge then inquired whether he was in the habit of keeping a diary,
or of recording the dates of his movements. The gentleman replied
that he was a merchant and made notes regularly in his pocket-
book of his proceedings. This pocket-book was at that moment
locked up in his trunk at the inn, but he would gladly surrender
his keys and allow the book to be fetched, to be produced in Court.

So a messenger was despatched for the book, and in the meantime
the prisoner at the bar questioned the stranger, recalling facts and
circumstances to his mind, with the result that their meeting in
Dover was pretty clearly proved. The stranger had given his
name as a member of a very respectable firm of London bankers,
and altogether his credibility appeared beyond question. Then came
the book, which fixed the date of his visit to Dover. All this remark-
able testimony, arrived at so strangely, was accepted by the jury, and
the prisoner was forthwith discharged. Within a fortnight, the
gentleman and the ex-prisoner were committed together to York
Castle, charged with a most daring act of house-breaking in the

neighbourhood !

HOAG OR PARKER ?

A very remarkable case of the difficulty of identification is to be
found in American records, under date 1804. A man was indicted

108

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

for bigamy, the allegation being that he was a certain James Hoag.
The man himself said that he was Thomas Parker. At the trial,
Mrs. Hoag, the wife, and many relations, with other respectable
witnesses, swore positively that he was James Hoag; on the other
hand, Thomas Parker's wife, and an equal number of credible witnesses,

Photo: Frith & Co., Reigate.

YORK CASTLE (USED AS PRISON), AYITH ASSIZE COURT .OX LEFT

swore to the other contention. Whereupon the Court recalled the
first set of witnesses, who maintained their opinion, being satisfied
that he was James Hoag, his stature, shape, gestures, complexion,
looks, voice, and speech leaving no doubt on the subject ; they even
described a particular scar on his forehead, underneath his hair, and
when this was turned back there, sure enough, was the scar. Yet the
Parker witnesses declared that Thomas Parker had lived among
them, worked with them, and was with them on the very day he was
supposed to have contracted his alleged marriage with Mrs. Hoag.
Now Mrs. Hoag played her last card, and said that her husband had
a peculiar mark on the sole of his foot ; Mrs. Parker admitted that

AN EXTRAORDINARY RESEMBLANCE. 109

her husband had no such mark. So the court ordered the prisoner
to take off his shoes and stockings and show the soles of his feet;
there was no mark on either of them. Mrs. Parker now claimed
him with great insistency, but Mrs. Hoag would not give up her
husband, and there was a very violent discussion in court. At last
a justice of the peace from Parker's village entered the court and
gave evidence to the effect that he had known him from a child
as Thomas Parker, and had often given him employment. So Mrs.
Parker carried oft' her husband in triumph.

A MILWAUKEE MYSTERY.

An extraordinary case of mistaken identity occurred some fifty
years ago in Milwaukee, in the States, for the details of which
I am indebted to a gentleman of that city, Mr. John W. Hinton.
No fewer than ten reputable, straightforward witnesses swore posi-
tively to a dead body as that of a man with whom they were
intimately acquainted and in more or less daily intercourse. They
based their identification upon certain physical facts of the most
unmistakable kind. They were not only satisfied as to the general
features the height, shape, size, .the colour of the hair and eyes
but there were other peculiar and distinctive marks, such as scars,
loss of teeth, a missing eye, that carried absolute conviction to
the witnesses. Yet they were all absolutely and entirely wrong ;
completely deceived by the remarkable resemblance, the strange,
almost incredible similarity of personal traits in two different
people.

The case arose out of a mysterious crime. About 9 a.rn. on the
morning of the 14th of April, 1855, a party of rag-gatherers were
seeking their harvest from the river just below one of the Milwaukee
bridges. A mass of floating debris chips, scraps of timber, and
general rubbish was collected in an eddy at the water's edge, and
amidst it a boy espied what he at first thought to be a bag, and
afterwards a bundle of rags. He dragged it on shore with his boat-
hook and began to examine it. All at once he dropped the parcel
with a loud yell and took to his heels. Some of his more courageous
fellows then tore it open and exposed its ghastly contents. Inside
was the trunk of a human body, with the head all but severed,
and held only by a few ligaments. The brains had been dashed

110 MTSTEPIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

out by a blow on the back of the skull, which made a deep
indentation several inches long. A great gash had been made in
the throat; the left eye protruded; both legs had been chopped off
and were gone. The bottom of the bag, as the cover proved to
be, had been frayed out or forced open by the action of the water,
and the missing portions of the trunk had fallen through or been
washed out of the aperture.

The Milwaukee police, headed by the Deputy-Sheriff, who had
been at one time Chief of Police, were soon upon the scene. The
cause of death was plain. The weapon used was indicated by the
wounds ; it was evidently an axe which had cut into the skull, and
the protruding eye had been sliced out by the same instrument.
Close scrutiny of the bag revealed one or two clues of importance.
The bag was a wheat sack, with the name of "Vogt" stamped
upon it; it had been securely tied by peculiar knots, which an
expert eye recognised as French, knots tied by no one but Frenchmen,
and French sailors to boot. Weights had evidently been inserted
in the " slack " of the bag, which had been thus knotted, and portions
of the rope remained attached to the bag. The weights were gone,
and had no doubt been detached at the bottom of the river, with
the result that the corpse had risen to the surface.

The first step towards the detection of the murderer was to
identify the body, and trace back the victim's habits, acquaint-
ances, and surroundings. Here followed the marvellous mistake
made by persons who on the face of it could not be believed to
be in error. A mass of testimony was immediately forthcoming, all
stating in the most explicit, positive terms that the deceased was
a certain John Dwire, well known in Milwaukee. All who spoke
did so definitely, declaring their reasons, which appeared conclusive.
They knew Dwire well, they recognised his face and its features,
his body, the colour of his hair and eyes. This last was a weak
point, however. Dwire was said to have only one eye ; the corpse
had two. Although one had been nearly cut away by the axe
stroke, it was still hanging to the head. The witnesses were not to
be silenced by this discrepancy ; they pointed triumphantly to other
physical proofs : a scar or burn mark on the left cheek, the size of a
sixpence, " a five-pointed starry scar " which all deposed that Dwire
bore ; again, he had lost two front teeth one in the upper, the
other in the lower jaw, just as was seen in the corpse; the whiskers,

"I AM NOT THE CORPSE." Ill

of the leg of mutton pattern, were Dwire's ; the bald head also, for
hair was growing round the base of the skull only, curly, and of a
sandy hue, as in the case of Dwire. There was a cut, made in
shaving the chin, Dwire's ; scars on one finger of the left hand
and on the thumb of the right hand, again Dwire's ; and a nose
slightly inclined to one side, also Dwire's. Such was the evidence
of the witnesses, corroborating each other in every particular, the
testimony of people who had known him for years, the woman of
the house where he lodged, the keeper of the boarding-house where
he fed, whom he had not paid in full, the associates who worked
with him and frequented the same haunts.

Yet while the inquest before which these statements were made
was proceeding, unequivocal evidence was adduced which entirely
falsified the story as told. The John Dwire supposed to have
been murdered was alive and well at no great distance from
Milwaukee. A whisper to this effect had been put about, and
some of the officials, another deputy-sheriff, and the city marshal
travelled to a point higher up the river, some sixteen miles distant,
where Dwire had been seen at work since the discover} 7 ' of his
supposed corpse in the stream. He was living near Kernper's Pier,
and had been there uninterruptedly for months since the previous
Christmas, indeed. Had the Court hesitated to accept this start-
ling news, all possible doubt must have disappeared by the next
incident. John Dwire himself walked into the court, saying with
some humour, "Lest anyone here should still think I'm dead I
have come in person to assure him that I am not the corpse found
in the river last Saturday morning."

His reappearance, of course, dumbfoundered all present, more par-
ticularly those who had sworn so positively to his mortal remains.
It had another and more beneficial result : it saved an innocent man
from arrest and probable conviction. The first act of the police on
the mistaken identification of the body had been to commence a
search in certain low haunts where Dwire had at times been, seen,
and they had come upon an axe recently used lying on a wood-pile
in the possession of a French sailor, commonly called '-Matelot
Jack," who was the bar tender of a drinking-shop. The French-
man had disappeared, but suspicion fell upon another foreigner, a
German, who was an associate of Dwire's, and had accompanied
him when the latter left Milwaukee. This German had come into

112

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

the lodging-house asking for Dwire's clothes ; he came twice, the
second time armed with a letter from Dwire authorising him to

receive the clothes, but they were impounded for moneys owing.

THE RIVER AT MILWAUKEE.

Steps were being taken to arrest this German, and had not Dwire
shown up it might have gone hard with the suspected person. It
had been in Dwire's mind at one time to leave the neighbour-
hood, and had he done so the case against the German would
have been pretty complete.

That there had been a murder still remained self-evident, but it
was never positively known by whom it was committed, nor who
was the actual victim. Some years later a man was arrested on

AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY. 113

suspicion as a thief; he was carrying a bag heavily laden, and it
was found to contain a number of copper articles, all of them stolen.
The bag was inscribed with the same name, "Vogt," as that
picked up in the river. A farmer named Vogt now came forward
and stated that about the time of the picking up of the unknown
corpse he had sent his carter in with a load of wheat packed in
bags such as the two mentioned. The man was supposed to have
delivered his load, driven his team outside the city, the waggon
filled with the empty sacks, and then made off with the price of
the wheat. A more probable theory was that he had been murdered
and rifled, his body being then thrust into one of his own bags,
which was thrown into the river. The case was never carried
through to the end, and neither the thief who was caught with
the second bag nor the French sailor, Matelot Jack, was tried,
presumably from want of sufficiently clear evidence to warrant
prosecution.

A SCOTTISH CASE.

Our next case of mistaken identity occurred in Scotland many
years ago, when a farmer's son, a respectable youth, was charged
with night-poaching on the evidence of a keeper, who swore to him
positively. It was a moonlit night, but cloudy. Other witnesses
were less certain than the keeper, but they could speak to the
poacher's dress and appearance, and they saw him disappearing
towards the farmer's house.

An attempt to set up an alibi failed, and the prisoner, having
been found guilty by the jury, was sentenced to three months'
imprisonment. On his release, feeling that he was disgraced, he
left the country to take up a situation at the Cape of Good Hope.

Soon afterwards the keepers whose evidence had convicted the
wrong man met the real culprit in the streets of the county town.
He was in custody for theft, and was being escorted to the courts
His name was Hammond. The keepers followed, and after a longer
look were more than ever satisfied of the mistake they had made,
and they very rightly gave information in the proper quarter. Then
a witness came forward who, on the night of the trespass, had seen
and spoken with this man Hammond, when he had said he was
going into the woods for a shot. Hammond himself, knowing he
could not be tried for an offence for which another had suffered, now
8

114 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

voluntarily confessed the poaching. Great sympathy was shown
towards the innocent victim, and the gentleman whose game had been
killed offered to befriend him. But the young man had already made
for himself a position at the Cape of Good Hope, and would not
leave the colony, where indeed he eventually amassed a fortune. On
his return to Scotland, many years later, he was presented with a
licence to shoot for the rest of his days over the estates he was
supposed to have poached.

KARL FRANZ.

We now come to the famous Kingswood Rectory case. On
the llth of June, 1861, Kingswood Rectory, in Surrey, was broken
into, in the absence of the family, and the caretaker murdered.
The unfortunate woman was found in her nightdress. She was
tied with cords, and had been choked by a sock used as a gag
and stuffed halfway down her throat. There had been no robbery ;
the house had been entered by a window in the basement, but
nothing was missing from it, although the whole place had been
ransacked. Trace enough was discovered to establish the identity
of one at least of the murderers. A packet of papers was found
lying on the floor of the room, and it had evidently dropped from
the pocket of one of the men.

This packet contained six documents: a passport made out in
the name of Karl Franz, of Schandau, in Saxony ; a certificate of
birth, and another of baptism, both in the name of Franz ; a begging
letter with no address, but signed Krohn ; and a letter from Madame
Titiens, the great singer, hi reply to an appeal v for help. Besides
these, there was a sheet of paper on which were inscribed the
addresses of many prominent personages ; part of the stock-in-trade
of a begging-letter writer. All these papers plainly implied that one
of the criminal intruders into Kingswood Rectory was a German.
Moreover, within the last few days several German tramps had been
seen in the neighbour-hood of Kingswood, one of whom exactly
answered to the description on the passport.

A few weeks later, a young German, in custody in London for a
trifling offence, was recognised as Karl Franz. He himself positively
denied that he was the man, but at last acknowledged that the
documents found in Kingswood Rectory were his property. He was,
in due course, committed for trial at the Croydon assizes. The

THE KINGSWOOD RECTORY CASE. 115

prosecution seemed to hold very convincing evidence against him. A
Saxon police officer was brought over, who identified him as Karl
Franz, and swore that the various certificates produced had been
delivered to him on the 6th of April of the same year. Another
witness swore to Franz as one of the men seen in the neighbour-
hood of the rectory on the llth of June; while a third deposed to
having met two strangers in a wayside public-house, talking a foreign
language, and identified Franz as one of them. This recognition was
made in Newgate, where he picked out Franz from a crowd of
prisoners. Yet more: the servant of a brushmaker in Keigate
deposed that two men, speaking some unknown tongue, had come
into the shop on the day of the crime, and had bought a hank of cord.
One of these men she firmly believed to be the accused. This was
the same cord as that with which the murdered woman was bound.

What could the accused say to rebut such seemingly over-
whelming evidence ? He had, nevertheless, a case, and a strong
case. He explained first that he had changed his name because he
had been told of the Kings wood murder, and of the discovery of
his papers. They were undoubtedly his papers, but they had been
stolen from him. His story was that he had landed at Hull, and
was on the tramp to London, when he met two other Germans by
the way, seamen, Adolf Krohn and Muller by name, and they all
joined company. Muller had no papers, and was very anxious that
Karl Franz should give him his. On the borders of Northampton-
shire the three tramps spent the night behind a haystack. Next
morning Franz awoke to find himself alone ; his companions had
decamped, and his papers were gone. He had been robbed also of
a small bag containing a full suit of clothes.

This story was discredited. It is a very old dodge for accused
persons to say that suspicious articles found on the scene of a crime
had been stolen from them. Yet Franz's statement was suddenly
and unexpectedly corroborated from an independent source. The day
after he had told his story, two vagrants, who were wandering on
the confines of Northamptonshire, came across some papers hidden
in a heap of straw. They took them to the nearest police-station,
when it was found that they bore upon the Kings wood case. One
was a rough diary kept by the prisoner Franz from the moment of
his landing at Hull to the day on which he lost his other papers.
The inference was that' it had been stolen from him too, but that

116

MYSTER.TEX OF POLICF. AND CHIMI-:.

the thieves, on examination, found the diary useless, and got rid of
it. Another of the papers was a certificate of confirmation in tin;
name of Franz. Now, too, it was proved beyond doubt that the
letter written by Madame Titiens was not intended for the accused.
The recipient of that letter might no doubt have been an accom-

Inspectot

Captain.
SAXOX POLICE.

Foot Gendarme.

plice of the accused, but then it must have been believed that
these men kept their papers together in one lot, which was hardly
likely.

Another curious point on which the prosecution relied also
broke down. A piece of cord had been found in Franz's lodgings,
exactly corresponding with that bought at Reigate, and used in tying
the victim. But now it was shown that this cord could only have
been supplied to the Reigate shop by one rope-maker, there being
but one manufacturer of that kind of cord ; and this fact rested on
the most positive evidence of experts. Franz had declared that he
had picked up this bit of cord in a street in Whitechapel, near his
lodgings, and opposite to a tobacconist's shop. On further inquiry
it was not only found that the rope factory which alone supplied

THE MURDER OF MRS. MILSON. 117

this cord was situated within a few yards of Franz's lodgings, but
his solicitor, in verifying this, picked up a scrap of the very same
cord in front of a shop in that same street!

THE CANNON STREET CASE.

A very narrow escape from wrongful conviction occurred in the
case generally known as the Cannon Street murder, which happened
in April, 1866. Here the suspected murderer was tried for his life,
and the circumstantial evidence against him was so exceedingly
strong that but for a very able defence conducted before Mr. Baron
Bramwell, one of the strongest judges England has had, the
prisoner would surely have been convicted.

A certain Sarah Milson was housekeeper at Messrs. Bevington's,
the well-known furriers and leather dressers of Cannon Street. She
was a widow, and had been employed by the firm for several
years. It was her duty to occupy the premises at night when the
working hands had left the house. She was not alone, for a
female cook also lived on the premises. It was the rule of the
house that the porter, a man named Kit, should lock the doors
when the day's work was over, and hand over the keys, including
those of the safe, to Mrs. Milson.

On the night of the llth of April, 1866, Kit performed this duty,
and then called upstairs through the speaking-tube to Mrs. Milson,
who came down to receive the keys. His last act was to extin-
guish the light in the lobby, after which he was shown out of the
front door by Mrs. Milson.

A little, later the same evening the cook, who was upstairs
in her bedroom, heard a ring at the door-bell, and was on the
point of answering it when Mrs. Milson, who was sitting in
the dining-room, called out that the bell was for her, and she
accordingly went down. This was about ten minutes past nine.
The unfortunate housekeeper was never again seen alive. Later
that night the cook, on going downstairs with a lighted candle
in her hand, found Mrs. Milson dead at the foot of the
stairs. The police were at once called in. and found that death
was caused by the battering in of the woman's head, and a large
quantity of blood was spattered over the stairs. A crowbar
was found close to the body, and was probably the instrument

118

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIM I:'.

I'V which the murder had been effected, although it was un-
stained with blood.

An inquiry was at once set on foot by the police, who

ascertained certain facts. First, the cook declared that a man

"FOUND JIKS. MILSON DEAD AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS" (p. 117).

came constantly to call upon the housekeeper, that she herself
had never seen the man, but that on one occasion, just before
his expected arrival, Mrs. Milson had borrowed two sovereigns
from her, which had afterwards been repaid. The identity of
this man was discovered next day when a letter was found in
one of the boxes of the deceased, signed "George Terry." This
letter, a claim made upon Mrs. Milson for the repayment of certain

THE CANNON STREET MURDER. 119

moneys she owed, expressed great indignation, and threatened that
unless Mrs. Milson .could offer satisfactory terms the writer would
complain to Mr. Bevington of his housekeeper's indebtedness.
Attached to this letter was a receipt signed " William Denton,
on behalf of George Terry, 20, Old Change."

It was not difficult to follow up George Terry from the address
given, and he was presently found as an inmate of St. Olave's
Workhouse. He readily told the story of his relations with Mrs.
Milson. She had been acquainted with his wife, and as she was
in difficulties, he had helped her to get a loan from a certain
Mrs. Webber, the total amount being 35. Mrs. Webber appears
to have been very urgent about repayment, and so Terry sent
Mrs. Milson the letter which was found, but which he did
not write himself, having secured the services of a fellow-
lodger whom he knew by the name of Bill. "Bill" wrote the
letter, went with it to Cannon Street, signed the receipt for such
money as he received, and broughl back the money. This had
occurred some three months before. The man calling himself
Denton was then traced, and proved to be a certain William
Smith, who lived at Eton, at 6, Eton Square. The City
detectives who had charge of the case went at once to Eton
with the letter and the receipt, which were shown to William
Smith and acknowledged to be in his handwriting.

There was enough in this to warrant the man Smith's arrest
on suspicion, but the police soon had stronger evidence. A
woman, Mrs. Robins, who acted as housekeeper at No. 1, Cannon
Street, volunteered some very damaging information. She stated
that on the night of the murder she returned to No. 1 at ten
minutes to ten. As she was on the point of entering her house
she heard the door of No. 2 violently slammed. Looking round,
she saw a man go down the steps and pass her on the right.
He was dressed in dark clothes and wore a tall hat. The light
of the hall lamp shone on the man's face, so that she was able
to know it ; she noticed that he walked in a very hurried manner,
leaning forward as he went along. In order to see whether Mrs.
Robins could identify this man, William Smith was taken from
Bow Street to the Mansion House through Cannon Street. He
was between two police officers, but there was nothing to show
that he was in custody. Mrs. Robins had been warned by the

120 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

police to stand at her door at the time the party passed, and
she was asked to say whether she could recognise her man. She
made out Smith without hesitation ; but to strengthen her evid-
ence, she was sent for to the Mansion House, where the prisoner
was placed amongst a number of people in a room through
which Mrs. Robins was invited to pass. As she crossed the room
for the second time she pointed to Smith and said, " This is
the man I saw in Cannon Street."

Another very damaging witness was a boat-builder, Henry
Giles, of Eton, who deposed that he met the prisoner Smith in
an alehouse on the night of the llth of April. Giles asked Smith
to play a game of dominoes, but Smith replied that he had to
travel forty miles that night. " How can you do that ? " asked Giles.
" Easy enough," was the reply ; " if I go to London and back,
that would make forty miles." Giles then said, " But you are not
going to London, are you ? " and Smith replied, " Yes, I am," at
which Giles laughed and called him a liar. Another witness
declared that he had seen Smith hurrying towards Slough Station
about 7 p.m. The prisoner was said to be wearing dark clothes,
a black coat, and a tall black hat.

The evidence of railway officials proved that a train had left
Slough at 7.43 and reached Paddington at SAO. There was also
a train down at 10.45, which arrived at 11.43. It was said in
evidence that the interval of two hours was quite sufficient to
allow Smith to go into the City by the Metropolitan Railway,
commit the crime in Cannon Street, and return vid Bishop's
Road to Paddington. Further evidence against the man Smith
consisted of spots upon his coat which were believed to be blood-
stains, but which he accounted for by alleging that he had cut
himself in shaving.

Here was a man of indifferent character, an idle ne'er-do-
well, known to have had dealings with the murdered woman,
against whom very clear circumstantial evidence had been adduced.
He was shown to have said he was going to London ; he was
seen close to the station where a train was on the point of
starting for London ; he was recognised by a respectable woman
at just the time he could have reached the house in Cannon
Street had he travelled up to Paddington as alleged, and added
to all this there were the blood-stains on his coat.

A STRONG CASE BREAKS DOWN.

121

Yet the whole case broke down on the production of the
most complete and unquestionable alibi. It was proved beyond
all question that Smith did not go to London from Slough by
the 7.43 train. The prisoner admitted that he had walked in
the direction of Slough Station with the idea of meeting a friend.

THE MANSION" HOUSE JUSTICE KOOM, WHERE THE CASE WAS MUST HEARD.

But he was certainly in company with a man named Harris in
Eton Square a little before 6.30, and the two remained together
until ten minutes past ten.

A number of other witnesses corroborated this statement a
brazier, a photographer, a gardener, a bootmaker, and so on. Ten
or twelve men in all had had Smith under their eyes through the
whole of the time that he was supposed to be killing the woman
in Cannon Street. One had been drinking with him, three others
had played cards with him, an alehouse-keeper's wife had served
him with beer after 11 p.m.

It was altogether absurd to suppose that these witnesses had

122 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CEUIE.

combined to perjure themselves on behalf of Smith. But even
if such a combination had been possible, although no motive for
it had been produced, there was other evidence that spoke un-
consciously for the prisoner. If Smith had realty committed the
crime he would never have denied that he went to London, as
he did deny it; he would have made some excuse for his going,
feeling sure that the fact would be discovered. Another
curious fact was that, as he was undoubtedly at Eton at 7.30,
he must have gone at great speed to catch the 7.43 tram at
Slough, a full mile distant. There was not the least necessity
for it either, as the Windsor Station was only a few yards from
where he had been seen. A defence of this kind was perfectly
unanswerable ; the judge summed up entirely in favour of the
prisoner, and directed the jury to find him not merely "Not
guilty," but actually innocent of the crime.

I cannot leave this interesting case, in which there was nearly
a miscarriage of justice from mistaken circumstantial evidence,
without relating a curious fact within my own knowledge that
grew out of this murder. In December, 1869, when I was acting
as Controller of the Convict Prison at Gibraltar, a convict came
before the Visitors who appeared under strong emotion, and who
told me in a broken voice, with tears in his eyes, that he wished to
give himself up as one of the Cannon Street murderers. I cannot
remember the man's name, but I will call him X. After hearing
what he had to say, the Visitors asked him what had induced
him to make this confession. "Because," said he, "I didn't do
the job alone. My accomplice, Y" (as I will call him), "has just
come out in the last draft from England. I have not yet spoken
to him, but I am greatly afraid that he might forestall me in my
confession." The man spoke with such evident contrition and
good faith that the Visitors felt bound to accept his story; but
they sent for the other, meaning to confront them.

Y started violently when he came into our presence and saw
X standing there, but he positively denied his complicity in the
murder. For some time, too, he refused to acknowledge that he
knew X, and then followed a strange altercation between the two,
X earnestly imploring Y to make a clean breast of it, as he him-
self had done ; Y as stoutly repudiating all connection with the
matter. Just when we had made up our minds to dismiss both the

FALSE CONFESSIONS. 123

men and report the case home for instructions, Y's better nature
seemed to triumph, and he admitted thus tardily that he had been
concerned in the murder of Mrs. Milson. Our next step was to
order both men into separate and solitary confinement until in-
structions could be received from home. We fully expected to hear
in due course that both men were to be sent home to stand their
trial for the Cannon Street murder.

I am not ashamed to confess that we had been completely hum-
bugged. A full and searching inquiry had been instituted by the
Home Office authorities, more particularly into the antecedents and
movements of the two convicts, and it was established beyond all
doubt that neither of them could have possibly committed the
crime, seeing that both were in custody for another offence on the
day of the murder. I am free to admit that in the many years I
have since spent in the charge and control of criminals, I have
been very loath, after this experience, to accept confessions, although
I have had many made to me. Mine is not a singular experience,
as most police and prison officials will say. Indeed, the general
public themselves must have noticed that there are few mysterious
crimes committed which are not confessed to by persons who could
not possibly have been guilty. In the case of X and Y, the whole
trick had been devised for the simple purpose of escaping daily
labour and gaining a few weeks' complete idleness in the cells.

False confessions, it may be added, are a frequent source of
trouble to the police. Whenever some great criminal -mystery
has shocked the public mind, silly people, whether from constant
brooding over the fact or from sheer imbecility, are driven to
surrender themselves as the criminals. It will be remembered that
at the time of the Whitechapel murders numbers of people stood
self-confessed as the perpetrators of these crimes, eager to take upon
themselves the criminal identity of the mysterious "Jack the
Ripper." I have recorded elsewhere * a curious case in which a
lady of good position, married, having many children and a perfectly
happy home, became possessed with the idea that she had committed
murder that of a soldier in garrison in the town where she lived. At
length she wrote to Scotland Yard, and made full confession of her
crime, adding that she meant to arrive in London next day, where
she was preqared to submit herself to arrest, trial, and whatever

* See " Secrets of the Prison House," vol. i.

124

MYSTERIES OF POLH'K .-LVD

penalty might be imposed. All she asked was that she might
not be separated from her children, and that if they could not
accompany her to gaol they might at least be permitted to visit
her frequently. Next day she arrived its she had threatened, and
drove up to Scotland Yard in a cab, herself and children inside, her
portmanteaux and a huge bath on the box. There she sat, and
positively refused to move anywhere except to gaol. The police

. .

CONVICT 1'KISOX AT GIBRALTAR (MARKED liY A *)

THE

authorities, after vainly arguing with her. were on the point of taking
charge of her as a wandering lunatic, and sending her home, but the
Assistant Commissioner hit upon a happy device for getting rid
of her. This was to tell her that if she went to gaol she must be
separated absolutely from her children. If, however, she would sign
a paper promising to appear whenever called upon, she might remain
with her children in her own home. The ruse was successful ; she
signed the promise, and returned as she had come.

A NARROW ESCAPE.

An innocent man narrowly escaped death through an artful plot
which led to a mistake of identity, but which fortunately, at the

A WICKED PLOT. 125

eleventh hour, was brought home to its criminal contrivers. A
certain Mr. Henderson, a respectable merchant of Edinburgh,
was in 1726 charged with the forgery of an acceptance, signed
by the Duchess of Gordon, although, as a matter of fact, he was
ignorant of the whole affair. In the year mentioned it was
discovered that a man named Petrie, who filled the post of town
officer or constable in Leith, held a bill for 58 which purported
on the face of it to have been drawn by George Henderson
on the Duchess of Gordon, accepted by her, and paid over by
Henderson to a Mrs. Macleod. This Mrs. Macleod owed a sum of
money to Petrie, and she begged him for a further advance, which
he made, to the amount of 6, Mrs. Macleod lodging with him as
security the acceptance which she had received from Henderson.
Petrie took no action on the bill in the way of demanding payment
from the Duchess of Gordon; this was at the instance of Mrs.
Macleod, who assured him that her Grace was at that time engaged
in special devotional exercises, and that the Duchess's agent was
absent from Edinburgh. Petrie was put off with other excuses.
Mrs. Macleod continued to beg him to hold over the bill, and brought
him a letter to the same effect purporting to come from Henderson.
Petrie, although suspicious as to the genuineness of the bill, took no
steps, and the matter came out otherwise ; whereupon the Edinburgh
magistrates issued a warrant for the arrest of the three parties
Petrie, Henderson, and Mrs. Macleod. Petrie was almost imme-
diately exonerated, but Mrs. Macleod gave such evidence against
Henderson that he was held to be fully incriminated, and was put
back for trial. Mrs. Macleod asserted positively that the bill had
been given her by Henderson.

In due course Henderson was arraigned. Several witnesses swore
positively that they had seen Henderson sign documents, especially
an acknowledgment of a debt to Mrs. Macleod. One, a man named
Gibson, declared that the signature had been given in his own house
by Henderson, and in his presence and that of other witnesses. He
appears to have identified Henderson in the dock, asserting that he
had often previously seen him and been in his company. Gibson
further declared that Henderson wore a suit of dark-coloured clothes,
and a black wig such as he now appeared in.

Henderson's defence was that he knew absolutely nothing of the
whole proceeding. His counsel adduced in his favour that he was a

126 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

man of excellent character, and his demeanour at the trial, his
straightforward answers to all interrogatories, and the outward
appearance of truth in all his details, no doubt made an impression
upon the Court. The Lord Advocate, his prosecutor, pressed hard
for a conviction, on the ground that the forgery of the bill had
been fully proved. The judges, however, stayed proceedings, and
postponed decision until the following session.

Now, when the case looked blackest against Henderson, a mere
chance interposed to save him. The Lord Advocate, who seems to
have had no doubt of his guilt, was on his way northward to spend
the recess, when he paid a visit on the way to a Mr. Rose, of Kilravock.
One day Mr. Rose took his lordship to see a house he was building,
and while inspecting it Mr. Rose missed one of the carpenters. On
inquiring what had become of him, the foreman took Mr. Rose aside
and privately told him that the man, hearing the Lord Advocate was
at Kilravock, had absconded, saying it was time for him to leave the
country. The man in question, by name David Household, had gone
to the coast, proposing to take ship for London. Mr. Rose felt it his
duty to inform the Lord Advocate, and the foreman was questioned as
to whether the carpenter had been guilty of any crime. The answer
was that Household was suspected of being accessory to a forgery.
The Lord Advocate forthwith despatched a messenger to the coast,
who apprehended Household, and carried him prisoner to Edinburgh.
Household was brought before the Court at the beginning of the
winter session and questioned, when he confessed that he had been
party to a very scandalous and deliberate fraud. Early in the year
Mrs. Macleod had come to him and asked him to write out for her
the very bill or acceptance for the forgery of which George Henderson
was charged. Household admitted that, he had penned the whole
document, and had imitated the signatures of Henderson, both as
drawer and endorser of the bill, but that he had not written the name
of Gordon. Household further deposed that he had assumed, at Mrs.
Macleod's request, the identity of George Henderson; that she had
given him for the personation a coat belonging to her husband, and
a black-knotted periwig ; that she had carried him to a gardener's
house at the Water-Gate, where she had dictated to him a part
of the obligation which had been produced in court ; and had then
taken him on to a house in the Canon-Gate (Gibson's), where
he (Household) had written the rest of the document, and signed it

'MRS. MACLEOD WENT TO HER EXECUTION DRESSED IN A BLACK ROBE" (p. T-'N).

128 MY&TB&IES Ob' POLICE AND CRIME.

" George Henderson " in the presence of the various witnesses whom
Mrs. Maclcod had produced. He also confessed that he had written
the letter which Mrs. Macleod had given Petrie as coining from
George Henderson. Finally, after Mrs. Macleod's arrest, a Highlander
had come to him with a message from Mr. Macleod urging him to
leave the country for his own safety. Household, however, did not
take flight until the appearance of the Lord Advocate at Kilravock :
then he went to Leith, and hid himself on board ship, where he
was discovered by a Customs officer, and eventually arrested.

This evidence changed the whole character of the trial, and
the Lord Advocate was the first to admit that Henderson was
innocent of the forgery, which was now fixed upon Mrs. Macleod.
The records of the case do not give any definite information as to
who actually signed the Duchess's name to the bill, but when Mrs.
Macleod Avas finally arraigned this forgery was laid to her charge, and
her offence must have been satisfactorily proved to the jury, for she
was found guilty and sentenced to death. Two law officers, the
Lord Advocate and the Solicitor-General, characterised the whole
" as an artful and horrid contrivance, only discovered by the good
providence of God." It is stated in the account published that
Mrs. Macleod went to her execution dressed in a black robe with a
large hoop, and a white fan in her hand. When on the gallows
she herself took off the ornamental parts of her dress, and put the
fatal cord about her neck with her own hands. She persisted to
the last in denying her guilt.

The Duchess of Gordon in this case was Lady Henrietta Mordaunt,
daughter of the celebrated Charles Earl of Peterborough, and wife of
Alexander, second Duke, whom she married in 1706, twenty years
before the occurrences recorded.

129

CHAPTER III.
PROBLEMATICAL ERRORS.

Captain Donellan and the Poisoning of Sir Theodosius Boughton : Donellan's Suspicious
Conduct : Evidence of John Hunter, the great Surgeon : Sir James Stephen's View :
Corroborative Story from his Father The Lafarge Case : Madame Lafarge and the
Cakes : Doctors differ as to the Presence of Arsenic in the Eemains : Possible Guilt
of Denis Barbier : Madame Lafarge's Condemnation : Pardoned by Napoleon III.
Charge against Madame Lafarge of stealing a School Friend's Jewels : Her Defence :
Conviction Madeleine Smith charged with Poisoning her Fiance : " Not proven " :
the Latest Facts the Wharton-Ketcbum Case in Baltimore, ILS.A. The Story of
the Perrys.

CAPTAIN DONELLAN.

"FEW cases," says Sir James Stephen,* "have given rise to more
discussion than that of the alleged poisoning of Sir Theodosius
Boughton by his brother-in-law, Captain Donellan, in 1781." It was
long deemed a mystery, and even now the facts are not considered
conclusive against the man who actually suffered for .the crime.
Donellan was found guilty, and in due course executed, but to this
day the justice of the sentence is questioned, and the case, in the
opinion of some, should be classed with judicial errors. This is not
the view of Sir James Stephen, who has declared that the evidence
would have satisfied him of Donellan's guilt. " Why should he not
have been found guilty ? " asks the eminent judge. " He had the
motive, he had the means, he had the opportunity ; his conduct,
from first to last, was that of a guilty man."

Sir "Theodosius Boughton was a young baronet who, on his
majority, came into an estate of 2,000 a year. In 1780 he was
living at Lawford Hall, Warwickshire, with his mother and sister, the
latter having married Captain Donellan in 1777. Mrs. Donellan was
her brother's heir ; if he died childless everything would go to her.
Donellan claimed afterwards to have been quite disinterested. He

* " Criminal Law of England."

130

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME

had all his wife's fortune settled on her and her children, and would
riot even keep a life interest in her property in case she predeceased
him. This settlement extended not only to what she had but to
what she expected, and his conduct in this matter was one of the

points made by the
defence in his favour.
Boughton was suf-
fering from a slight
specific disorder, but
was otherwise well ;
Donellan wished to
make it appear other-
wise. Talking of him
to a friend, he described
his condition as such
that the friend re-
marked the young
man's life would not be
worth a couple of years'
purchase. " Not one,"
promptly corrected
Donellan. On the 29th
of August, 1780, a coun-
try practitioner who was
called in pronounced

(From a Contemporary Print.) Sir TheodosiuS in good

health and spirits, but

prescribed a draught for him : jalap, lavender water, nutmeg, and so
forth. The remainder of the day was spent in fishing, and the baronet
went to bed, having arranged that his mother should come to him and
give him his medicine at seven o'clock next morning. He had been
neglectful about taking it; it had been kept locked up in a cup-
board, but, at his brother-in-law's suggestion, it was now left on the
shelf in another room where, as the prosecution declared, anyone,
Captain Donellan in particular, might have access to it.

At six a.m. on the morning of the 30th a servant went in and saw
Sir Theodosius about some business of mending a net. The young
baronet then appeared quite well. At seven Lady Boughton came
up with the medicine, which she found on the shelf. Sir Theodosius

CAPTAIN JOHN DOXELLAN.

SIB THEODOSIUS BOUGHTON'S DEATH. 131

tasted and smelt it, complaining that it was very nauseous. His
mother then smelt it, and noticed that it was like bitter almonds,
but she persuaded her son to drink off a whole dose. " In about
two minutes or less," she afterwards deposed, " he struggled violently
and appeared convulsed, with a prodigious rattling in his throat and
stomach." When he was a little better the mother left him, but
returned in five minutes to find him with his eyes fixed, his teeth
clenched, and froth running out of his mouth.

The doctor was forthwith summoned. Now Donellan came in,
and Lady Boughton told him that she was afraid she had given her
son something wrong instead of the medicine. Donellan asked for
the bottle, took it, poured in some water, then emptied the contents
into a basin. Lady Boughton protested, declaring that he ought not
to have meddled with the bottle. Donellan's reply was that he
wished to taste the stuff. Again, when a maid-servant came in he
desired her to remove the basin and the bottles, while Lady Boughton
directed her to let them alone. But now Sir Theodosius was in his
death-throes, and while she was engaged with him the bottles disap-
peared.

Donellan, after the event, wrote to the baronet's guardian, Sir
William Wheler, notifying the death, but giving none of the peculiar
circumstances of the case. Three or four days later the guardian
replied that as the death had been so sudden, and gossip was afloat
concerning a possible mistake with the medicine, it was desirable to
have a post-mortem. " The country will never be satisfied else, and
we shall all be very much blamed," wrote Sir William Wheler.
" Although it is late now it will appear from the stomach whether
there is anything corrosive in it. ... I assure you it is reported
all over the country that he was killed either by medicine or by
poison." The step was all the more necessary in the interest of the
doctor who prescribed the draught. Donellan replied that Lady
Boughton and he agreed " cheerfully " to the suggestion. Sir William
wrote again, saying he was glad they approved, and gave the
names of the doctors who should perform the autopsy.

When they came, Donellan showed them the second letter, not
the first ; the mere desire for a post-mortem, not the grounds for it,
as set forth in the first, that poison was suspected. Decomposition
was far advanced, the doctors were not pleased with the business,
and, knowing no special reason for inquiry, made none. After this

13-2 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

JDonellan wrote to Sir William Wheler, conveying the impression
that the post-mortem had actually taken place. Later, another
surgeon offered to open the body, but Donellan refused, on the
plea that it would be disrespectful to the two first doctors. Sir
William, too, having learnt that nothing had been done, reiterated
his desire for a post-mortem, and two more doctors arrived at
Lawford Hall on the very day of the funeral Donellan took
advantage of a misconstruction of a message, and the body was
buried without being opened.

Three days afterwards it was exhumed in deference to growing
suspicions of poison, but it was too late to verify foul play. But
the doctors formed a strong opinion of the cause of death, and
later, when it came to the trial, they agreed that the draught,
after swallowing which Boughton died, was poison, and the imme-
diate cause of death. One said that the nature of the poison was
sufficiently clear from Lady Boughton's description of the smell
But the great surgeon, John Hunter, would not admit that the
appearance of the body gave the least suspicion of poison. As to
the smell, a mixture of the very same ingredients, but with laurel
water added, was made up for Lady Boughton at the trial, and she
declared it smelt of bitter almonds exactly like the draught.

The introduction of the laurel water followed the important dis-
covery that Donellan had a private still in a room which he called
his own, and that he distilled roses in it. A curious bit of evidence
not mentioned in the report of the trial is preserved,* which shows
how a single number of the " Philosophical Transactions " was found
in Donellan's library, and the only leaves in the book that had been
cut were those that gave an account of the making of laurel water by
distillation. Donellan's still figured further in the case, for it was
proved that he had taken it into the kitchen, and asked the cook
to dry it in the oven. This was two or three days after the
baronet's death, and the presumption was that he had desired to
take the smell of laurel water off the still. It also appeared that
Donellan was in the habit of keeping large quantities of arsenic in
his room, which he used, seemingly with but little caution, for
poisoning fish.

Donellan's defence did not help him greatly. It was written,
after the custom of those days, and did not attempt to explain why

* Townsend's "Life of Justice Buller."

DONELLAN'S ATTORNEY IS CONVINCED OF HIS GUILT. 133

he had washed or made away with the bottles. He submitted
that he had urged the doctors to the post-mortem by producing
Sir William Wheler's letter; but it was the second, not the first
letter. On other points he maintained a significant silence. What
went against him also were unguarded confidences made to a

"NOW DONELLAN CAME IX " (p. 131).

fellow-prisoner while he was awaiting trial. He said openly that
he believed his brother-in-law had been poisoned, and that it lay
among themselves : Lady Boughton, himself, the footman, and the
doctor. Another curious story is preserved by Sir James Stephen,
whose grandfather had long retained a strong belief in Donellan's
innocence, and had written a pamphlet against the verdict which
attracted much notice at the time. Mr. Stephen changed his
opinion when he had been introduced to Donellan's attorney, Avho
told him that he also had firmly believed in Donellan's innocence
nntil one day he proposed to his client to retain Dunning, the

134 ZfYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

eminent counsel, for his defence. Donellan agreed, and referred
the attorney to Mrs. Donellan for authority to incur the expense of
the heavy fee required. Mrs. Donellan demurred, thinking the
outlay unnecessary, and when this was reported to the prisoner,
DoneUan burst into a rage, crying, " And who got it for her ? "
Then, seeing that he had committed himself, he stopped abruptly,
and said no more.

Donellan was convicted and executed, and to those who aver
that the verdict was wrong Sir James Stephen replies that every
item of evidence pointed to Donellan's guilt, and did, in fact, satisfy
the jury. The want of complete proof is the chief basis of the argu-
ment in Donellan's favour, backed by the opinion of so eminent a
scientist as Hunter. He deposed that he did not see the slightest
indication of poisoning, and while he admitted that death following
so soon after the draught had been swallowed was a curious fact,
yet he could see no necessary connection between the two circum-
stances. The symptoms, as described to him, and the state of the
internal organs, were perfectly compatible with death from epilepsy
or apoplexy. Public opinion at the time was, no doubt, adverse
to Donellan, and the jury may have been prejudiced against him.
He was deemed an adventurer, a fortune-hunter, who had gained
a footing in a good family by somewhat discreditable means, and it
was assumed that he was prepared to go any length to feather his
nest further.

This was a rather exaggerated view. Donellan was a gentleman.
He had borne the king's commission, and was a son of a colonel in
the army. To haunt fashionable society in London and the chief
pleasure resorts in search of a rich partie was a common enough
proceeding, and implied self-seeking, but not necessarily criminal
tendencies. He got his chance at Bath by doing a civil thing, and
made the most of it. Lady Boughton was unable to find ac-
commodation in the best hotel, and Donellan, who was there,
promptly gave up his rooms. The acquaintance thus pleasantly
begun grew into intimacy, and ended in his marrying Miss
Boughton. So far the circumstances were not very strong against
him. It was his conduct after the event that told, and, though
there is an element of doubt in the case, most people, probably,
who review the facts will come to the same conclusion as did
Sir James Stephen.

A GREAT POISONING TRIAL. 135

MADAME LA FAROE.

One of the greatest poisoning trials on record in any country
is that of Madame Lafarge, and its interest is undying, for to this
day the case is surrounded by mystery. Although the guilt of the
accused was proved to the satisfaction of the jury at the time of
trial, strong doubts were then entertained, and still possess acute
legal minds, as to the justice of her conviction. Long after the
event, two eminent Prussian jurists, councillors of the criminal
court of Berlin, closely studied the proceedings, and gave it as
their unqualified opinion that, according to Prussian law, there
was absence of proof. They published a report on the case, in
which they gave their reasons for this opinion, but it will be best
to give some account of the alleged poisoning before quoting the
arguments of these independent authorities.

In the month of January, 1840, an iron-master, residing at
Glandier, in the Limousin, died suddenly of an unknown malady.
His family, friends, and immediate neighbours at once accused his
wife of having poisoned him. This wife differed greatly in dis-
position and breeding from the deceased. Marie Fortunee Capelle
was the daughter of a French artillery colonel, who had served in
Napoleon's Guard. She was well connected, her grandmother having
been a fellow-pupil of the Duchess of Orleans under Madame de
Genlis ; her aunts were well married, one to a Prussian diplomat, the
other to M. Garat, the general secretary of the Bank of France. She
had been delicately nurtured. Her lather had held good military
commands, and was intimate with the best people, many of them
nobles of the First Empire, and the child was petted by the Duchess
of Dalmatia (Madame Soult), the Princess of Echmuhl (Madame
Ney), Madame de Cambaceres, and so forth.

Colonel Capelle died early, and Marie's mother, having married
again, also died. Marie was left to the care of distant relations ; she
had a small fortune of her own, which was applied to her education,
and she was sent to one of the best schools in Paris. Here she
made bosom friends, as schoolgirls do, and with one of them became
involved in a foolish intrigue, which, in the days of her trouble,
brought upon her another serious charge, that of theft. Marie grew
up distinguished-looking if not absolutely pretty; tall, slim, with
dead-white complexion, jet-black hair worn in straight shining

136 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME,

pleats, fine dark eyes, and a sweet but somewhat sad smile. These
are the chief features of contemporary portraits.

To marry her was now the wish of her people, and she was willing
enough to become independent. Some say that a suitor was sought
through the matrimonial agents, others positively deny it. In any
case, a proposal came from a certain Charles Pouch Lafarge, a
man of decent family but inferior to the Capelles, not much to look
at, about thirty, and supposed to be prosperous in his business.
The marriage was hastily arranged, and as quickly solemnised in
no more than five days. Lafarge drew a rosy picture of his house :
a large mansion in a wide park, with beautiful views, where all were
eager to welcome the bride and make her happy. As they travelled
thither the scales quickly fell from Marie's eyes. Her new husband
changed in tone ; from beseeching he became rudely dictatorial, and
he seems to have soon wounded the delicate susceptibilities of his wife.

The climax was reached on arrival at Glandier, a dirty, squalid
place. Threading its dark, narrow streets, they reached the mansion
only a poor place, after all, surrounded with smoking chimneys:
a cold, damp, dark house, dull without, bare within. The shock
was terrible, and Madame Lafarge declared she had been cruelly
deceived. Life in such surroundings, tied to such a man, seemed
utterly impossible. She fled to her own room, and there indited a
strange letter to her husband, a letter that was the starting-point of
suspicion against her, and which she afterwards explained away as
merely a first mad outburst of disappointment and despair. Her
object was to get free at all costs from this hateful and unbear-
able marriage.

This letter, dated the 25th of August, 1839, began thus : " CHARLES,
I am about to implore pardon on my knees. I have betrayed you
culpably. I love not you, but another. . . ." And it continued
hi the same tone for several sheets. Then she implored her husband
to release her and let her go that very evening. " Get two horses
ready : I will ride to Bordeaux and then take ship to Smyrna. I
will leave you all my possessions. May God turn them to your
advantage you deserve it. As for me, I will live by my own
exertions. Let no one know that I ever existed. ... If this does
not satisfy you I will take arsenic I have some. . . . Spare me, be the
guardian angel of a poor orphan girl, or, if you choose, slay me, and
say I have killed myself. MARIE."

LAFARGE AND HIS WIFE.

137

This strange effusion was read with consternation not only by
Lafarge, but by his mother, his sister, and her husband. A stormy
scene followed between Lafarge and his wife, but at length he won
her over. She withdrew her letter, declaring that she did not mean

MADAME LAFARGE.

(From a Contemporary Print.)

what she wrote, and that she would do her best to make him happy.
" I have accepted my position," she wrote to jfl. Garat, " although it
is difficult. But with a little strength of mind, with patience, and
rny husband's love, I may grow contented. Charles adores me, and
I cannot but be touched by the caresses lavished on me." To
another she wrote that she struggled hard to be satisfied with her
life. Her husband under a rough shell possessed a noble heart ; her
mother-in-law and sister-in-law overwhelmed her with attentions.

138 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Now she gradually settled down into domesticity, and busied herself
with household affairs.

M. Lafarge made no secret of his wish to employ part of his
wife's fortune in developing his works. He had come upon an
important discovery in iron smelting, and only needed capital to
make it highly profitable. His wife was so persuaded of the value
of this invention that she lent him money, and used her influence
with her relatives to secure a loan for him in addition. Husband
and wife now made wills whereby they bequeathed their separate
estates to each other. Lafarge, however, made a second will,
almost immediately, in favour of his mother and sister, carefully
concealing the fact from his wife. Then he started for Paris, to
secure a patent for his new invention, taking with him a general
power of attorney to raise money on his wife's property. 'During
their separation many affectionate letters passed between them.

The first attempt to poison, according to the prosecution, was
made at the time of this visit to Paris. Madame Lafarge now con-
ceived the tender idea of having her portrait painted, and sending it
to console her absent spouse. At the same time she asked her
mother-in-law to make some small cakes to accompany the picture.
They were made and sent, with a letter, written by the mother, at
Marie Lafarge's request, begging Lafarge to eat one of the cakes at
a particular hour on a particular day. She would eat one also at
Glandier at the same moment, and thus a mysterious affinity might
be set up between them.

A great deal turned on this incident. The case containing the
picture and the rest was despatched on the 16th of December, by
diligence, and reached Paris on the 18th. But on opening the
box, one large cake was found, not several small ones. How and
when had the change been effected? The prosecution declared it
was Marie's doing. The box had undoubtedly been tampered with ;
it left, or was supposed to leave, Glandier fastened down with small
screws. On reaching Paris it was secured with long nails, and the
articles inside were not placed as they had been on departure.
Lafarge tore off a corner of the large cake, ate it, and the same
night was seized with violent convulsions. It was presumably a
poisoned cake, although the fact was never verified, but Marie
Lafarge was held responsible for it, and eventually charged with an
attempt to murder her husband.

MARIE LAFARGE PROCURES ARSENIC. 139

In support of this grave charge it was found that on the 12th
of December, two days before the box left, she had purchased a
quantity of arsenic from a chemist in the neighbouring town. Her
letter asking for it was produced at the trial, and it is worth repro-
ducing. " Sir," she wrote, " I am overrun with rats. I have tried
nux vomica quite without effect. Will you, and can you, trust me
with a little arsenic ? You may count upon my being most careful,
and I shall only use it in a linen closet." At the same time she
asked for other drugs, of a harmless character.

Further suspicious circumstances were adduced against her. It
was urged that after the case had been despatched to Paris she was
strangely agitated, her excitement increasing on the arrival of news
that her husband was taken ill, that she expressed the gravest fears
of a bad ending, and took it almost for granted that he must die.
Yet, as the defence presently showed, there were points also in hei
favour. Would Marie have made her mother-in-law write referring
to the small cakes, one of which the son was to eat, if she knew
that no small cakes, but one large one, would be found within ?
How could she have substituted the large for the small ? There
was as much evidence to show that she could not have effected the
exchange as that she had done so. Might not someone else have
made the change ? Here was the first importation of another possible
agency into the murder, which never seems to have been investigated
at the time, but to which I shall return presently to explain how
Marie Lafarge may have borne the- brunt of another person's crime.
Again, if she wanted thus to poison her husband, it would have been
at the risk of injuring her favourite sister also. For this sister lived
in Paris, and Lafarge had written that she often called to see him.
She might, then, have been present when the case was opened, and
might have been poisoned too.

Lafarge so far recovered that he was able to return to Glandier,

which he reached on the 5th of January, 1840. That same day Madame
Lafarge wrote to the same chemist for more arsenic. It was a
curious letter, and certainly calculated to prejudice people against
her. She told the chemist that her servants had made the first lot
into a clever paste which her doctor had seen, and for which he had
given her a prescription ; she said this " so as to quiet the chemist's
conscience, and lest he should think she meant to poison the whole
province of Limgoes." She also informed the chemist that her

140 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

husband was indisposed, but that this same doctor attributed it to
the shaking of the journey, and that with rest he would soon
be better.

But he got worse, rapidly worse. His symptoms were alarming,
and pointed undoubtedly to arsenical poisoning, judged by our
modern knowledge. Madame Lafarge, senior, now became strongly
suspicious of her daughter-in-law, and insisted on remaining always
by her son's bedside. Marie opposed this, and wished to be her
husband's sole nurse, and, according to the ; prosecution, would
have kept everyone else from him. She does not seem to have
succeeded, for the relatives and servants were constantly in the
sick-room. Some of the latter were very much on the mother's side,
and one, a lady companion, Anna Brun, afterwards deposed that
she had seen Marie go to a cupboard and take a white powder from
it, which she mixed with the medicine and food given to Lafarge.
Madame Lafarge, senior, again, and her daughter, showed the medical
attendant a cup of chicken broth on the surface of which white
powder was floating. The doctor said it was probably lime from
the whitewashed wall. The ladies tried the experiment of mixing
lime with broth, and did not obtain the same appearance. Yet
more, Anna Brun, having seen Marie Lafarge mix powder as before
in her husband's drink, heard him cry out, " What have you given
me ? It burns like fire." " I am not surprised," replied Marie
quietly. " They let you have wine, although you are suffering
from inflammation of the stomach."

Yet Marie Lafarge made no mystery of her having arsenic. Not
only did she speak of it in the early days, but during the illness
she received a quantity openly before them all It was brought
to her at Lafarge's bedside by one of his clerks, Denis Barbier (of
whom more directly), and she put it into her pocket. She told
her husband she had it. He had been complaining of the rats that
disturbed him overhead, and the arsenic was to kill them. Lafarge
took the poison from his wife, handed it over to a maid-servant,
and desired her to use it in a paste as a vermin-killer. Here the
facts were scarcely against Marie Lafarge.

As the husband did not improve, on the 13th his mother sent a
special messenger to fetch a new doctor from a more distant town.
On their way back to Glandier, this messenger, the above-mentioned
Denis Barbier, confided to the doctor that he had often bought

"ON THIS THE MOTHER DENOUNCED MARIE TO THE NOW DYING LAFARGE'

(p. 142).

142 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

arsenic for Marie Lafarge, but that she had begged him to say
nothing about it. The doctor, Lespinasse by name, saw the
patient, and immediately ordered antidotes, while some of the white
powder was sent for examination to the chemist who had originally
supplied the arsenic. The chemist does not seem to have detected
poison, but he suggested that nothing more should be given Lafarge
unless it had been prepared by a sure hand.

On this the mother denounced Marie to the now dying Lafarge
as his murderess. The wife, who stood there with white face and
streaming eyes, heard the terrible accusation, but made no protest.
From this time till his last moments he could not bear the sight
of his wife. Once, when she offered him a drink, he motioned,
horror stricken, for her to leave him, and she was not present at
his death, on the 14th of January. A painful scene followed be-
tween the mother and Marie by the side of the still warm corpse
high words, upbraidings, threats on the one side, indignant denials
on the other. Then Marie's private letters were seized, the lock of
her strong-box having been forced, and next day, the whole matter
having been reported to the officers of the law, a post-mortem was
ordered, on suspicion of poisoning. "Impossible," cried the doctor
who had regularly attended the deceased. "You must all be
wrong. It would be abominable to suspect a crime without more
to go upon." The post-mortem was, however, made, yet with such
strange carelessness that the result was valueless.

It may be stated at once that the presence of arsenic was never
satisfactorily proved. There were several early examinations of the
remains, but the experts never fully agreed. Orfila, the most
eminent French toxicologist of his day, was called in to correct the
first autopsy, and his opinion was accepted as final. He was con-
vinced that there were traces of arsenic in the body. They were,
however, infinitesimal ; Orfila put it at half a milligramme. Raspail,
another distinguished French doctor, called it the hundredth part
of a milligramme, and for that reason declared against Orfila, His
conclusion, arrived at long after her conviction, was in favour of
the accused. The jury, he maintained, ought not to have found
her guilty, because no definite proof was shown of the presence of
arsenic in the corpse.

This point was not the only one in the poor woman's favour.
Even supposing that Lafarge had been poisoned which, in truth,

WAS DENIS BARBIER THE GUILTY PERSON? 143

is highly probable the evidence against her was never conclusive,
and there were many suspicious circumstances to incriminate another
person. This was Denis Barbier, Lafarge's clerk, who lived in the
house under a false name, and whose character was decidedly bad.
Lafarge was not a man above suspicion himself, and he long used
this Barbier to assist him in shady financial transactions the
manufacture of forged bills of exchange, which were negotiated for
advances. Barbier had conceived a strong dislike to Marie Lafarge
from the first; it was he who originated the adverse reports. At
the trial he frequently contradicted himself, as when he said at
one time that he had volunteered the information that he had
been buying arsenic for Marie, and at another, a few minutes later,
that he only confessed this when pressed.

Barbier, then, was Lafarge's confederate in forgery; had these
frauds been discovered he would have shared Lafarge's fate. It
came out that he had been in Paris when Lafarge was there, but
secretly. Why ? When the illness of the iron-master proved mortal,
Barbier was heard to say, " Now I shall be master here ! " All
through that illness he had access to the sick-room, and he could
easily have added poison to the various drinks given to Lafarge.
Again, when the possibilities of murder were first discussed, he was
suspiciously ready to declare that it was not he who gave the poison.
Finally, the German jurists, already quoted, wound up their argument
against him by saying, " We do not actually accuse Barbier, but had
we been the public prosecutors we should rather have formulated
charges against him than against Madame Lafarge."

Summing up the whole question, they were of opinion that the
case was full of mystery. There were suspicions that Lafarge had
been poisoned, but so vague and uncertain that no conviction was
justified. The proofs against the person accused were altogether
insufficient. On the other hand, there were many conjectures
favourable to her. Moreover, there was the very gravest circum-
stantial evidence against another person. The verdict should
decidedly have been "Not proven." But public opinion, hastily
formed, condemned Madame Lafarge in advance, and the machinery
of the French criminal law helped to create a new judicial error,
through obstinate reliance on a preconceived opinion.

Marie Lafarge was sentenced to hard labour for life, aiter
exposure in the public pillory. The latter was remitted, but she

144

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

went into the Montpelier prison and remained there many years.
During her seclusion she received some six thousand letters from
outside, the bulk of them sympathetic and kindly. Many in prose
or verse, and in several languages, were signed b}^ persons of the

IN THE PUBLIC PILLORY.

(From i/ie Engraving by Victor Adam.)

highest respectability. A large number offered marriage, some the
opportunities for escape and the promise of happiness in another
country. She replied to almost all with her own hand. Her pen was
her chief solace during her long imprisonment, and several volumes
of her work were eventually published, including her memoirs and
prison thoughts. At last, having suffered seriously in health, she
appealed to Napoleon III., the head of the Second Empire, and
obtained a full pardon in 1852.

THE STOLEN JEWELS.

The sad story of Madame Lafarge would be incomplete with-
out some account of another mysterious charge brought against
her shortly after her arrest for murder. When her mother-in-law

A DIAMOND MYSTERY

145

accused her of poisoning her husband, one of her old schoolmates
declared that she had stolen her jewels. This second allegation
raised the public interest to fever pitch. All France, from court to
cottage, all classes, high and low, were concerned in this great
cause celebre, in which the supposed criminal, both thief and
murderess, belonged to the best society, and was a young, engaging
woman. The question of her guilt or innocence was keenly dis-
cussed. Each new fact or statement was taken as clear proof of
one or the other, and each side
found warm advocates in the
public Press.

The charge of theft, although
the lesser, took precedence of
that of murder, and Madame
Lafarge was tried by the Cor-
rectional Tribunal of Tulle
before she appeared at the
assizes to answer for her life.
She was prosecuted by the
Vicornte de Leautaud on behalf
of his wife. The accusation was
clear and precise. Madame de
Leautaud's diamonds had dis-
appeared for more than a year ;
the Vicomte believed that
Madame Lafarge, when Marie
Capelle, had stolen them when

on a visit to his house, the Chateau de Busagny, and he prayed
the court to authorise a search to be made at Glandier, Madame
Lafarge's residence until her recent arrest.

When arraigned and interrogated, Marie at once admitted that
the diamonds were in her possession. She readily indicated the
place where they would be found at Glandier, and made no difficulty
as to their restitution. But she long refused positively to explain
how she had come by them, declaring it to be a secret she was
bound in honour to keep inviolate. At last, under the urgent
entreaties of her friends, she confided the secret to her two counsel,
Maitre Bac and Maitre Lachaud (at that time on the threshold of
his great and enduring renown), and sent them to Madame Leautaud
10

MAITKE LACHAUD.

146 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

beseeching her to allow a full revelation of the facts. The letters
she then wrote her school friend have been preserved. The first
was brief, and merely introduced Maitre Bac as a noble and con-
scientious person, who had her full confidence, and on whom Madame
de Leautaud might rely in discussing an affair that concerned them
both so closely. The second was a pathetic appeal to tell the whole
truth about the diamonds, and it is not easy to say on reading
it whether it was inspired by extraordinary astuteness or by genuine
emotion. It ran :

MARIE, May God never visit upon you the evil you have done me. Alas,
I know you to be really good, but weak. You have told yourself that as I am
likely to be convicted of an atrocious crime I may as well take the blame of one
which is only infamous. I kept our secret. I left my honour in your hands,
and you have not chosen to absolve me.

The time has arrived for doing me justice. Marie, for your conscience'
sake, for the sake of your past, save me ! ... Remember the facts ; you cannot
deny them. From the moment I knew you I was deep in your confidence,
and I heard the story of that intrigue, begun at school and continued at Busagny
by letters that passed through my hands.

You soon discovered that this handsome Spaniard had neither fortune
nor family. You forbade him to love, although you had first sought his love,
and then you entered into another love affair with M. de Leautaud.

. . . The man you flouted cried for vengeance. . . The situation became
intolerable, but money alone could end it. I came to Busagny, and it was
arranged between us that you should entrust your diamonds to me, so that I
might raise money on them, with which you could pay the price he demanded.

The letter proceeds in similar terms, and need not be reproduced
at length. Marie Lafarge continues to implore her old friend to
save her, reminding her that only thus can she save herself. Other-
wise all the facts must come out.

Remember [and here we seem to get one glimpse of the cloven foot]
I have all the proofs in my hands. Your letters to him and his to you, your
letters to me. . . . Your letter, in which you tell me that he is singing in the
chorus at the opera, and is of the stamp of man to extort blackmail. . . There
is one thing for you to do now. Acknowledge in writing under your own hand,
dated June, that you consigned the diamonds to my care with authority to sell
them if I thought it advisable. This will end the affair.

As Madame de Leautaud still positively denied the truth of these
statements, Marie, in self-defence, made them to the judge. She
told the whole story of how the diamonds had been given her to
sell, that she might remit the amount to a young man in poor cir-
cumstances and of humble condition, whose revelations might prove

THE CASE AGATNST MARIE LAFARGE. 147

inconvenient. Madame de Leautaud had assisted Marie to take the
jewels out of their settings, so as to facilitate their sale. If they
had not as yet been sold, it was because she had found it very
difficult to dispose of them, both before and after her marriage.
She still had them ; and they were, in fact, found at Glandier, in
the place she indicated. There was never any question as to the
identity of the stones, which were recognised in court by the jeweller
who had supplied them, and who spoke to their value, some 300.
independently of certain pearls which were missing.

The prosecution certainly made out a strong case against Marie
Lafarge. The jewels, it was stated, were first missed after a dis-
cussion between the two ladies on the difference between paste and
real stones. At first Madame de Leautaud made little of her loss.
She was careless of her things, and thought her husband or her
mother had hidden her jewels somewhere to give her a fright. But
they both denied having played her any such trick, and as the
jewels were undoubtedly gone, the police were informed, and many
of the servants suspected. Suspicion against Madame Lafarge had
always rankled in Madame de Leautaud's mind, and it was soon
strengthened by her strange antics with regard to the jewels. On
one occasion she defended a servant who had been suspected,
promising to find him a place if he were dismissed, as she knew
he was innocent. One of her servants told the de Leautauds that
her mistress said laughingly she had stolen the jewels and swallowed
them. Again, Madame Lafarge had submitted to be mesmerised
by Madame de Montbreton, Madame de Leautaud's sister, and had
fallen into an evidently simulated magnetic trance ; when, being
questioned about the missing jewels, she said they had been removed
by a Jew, who had sold them. Other circumstances were adduced
as strongly indicating Marie's guilt. It was observed in Paris,
before her marriage, that she had a quantity of fine stones, loose,
and she explained that they had been given her at Busagny.
Once after her marriage M. Lafarge had asked her for a diamond
to cut a pane of glass, and, to his surprise, she produced a
number, saying she had owned them from childhood, but that
they had only been handed over to her lately by an old servant.

These contradictory explanations told greatly against Madame
Lafarge. She made other statements also that were at variance,
When first taxed with the theft she pretended that the diamonds

148 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

had been sent her by an uncle in Toulouse, whose name and address
she was, however, unable to give. Next she brought up the story
contained in her appealing letter to Madame de Leautaud. It was
the story of the young man, Felix Clave, son of a schoolmaster, with
whom the girls had made acquaintance. Having frequently met
him when attending mass, they rashly wrote him an anonymous
letter, giving him a rendezvous in the garden of the Tuileries.
Marie Lafarge declared that the encouragement came from Madame
de Leautaud, which the latter denied, and retorted that it was Marie
Lafarge who had been the object of the young man's devotion.

Then Clave disappeared to Algeria, so Marie declared, as he had
written to her from Algiers. Madame de Leautaud said this was
impossible, as she had seen him on the stage of the opera. A few
months later, Marie alleged, when her friend was with her at
Busagny, Madame de Leautaud brought out the diamonds and
implored Marie to sell them for her, as she must ' absolutely"
have money to buy Clave's silence. What followed, according to
Marie Lafarge, has already been told, except that Madame de
Leautaud went through a number of devices to make it appear
that the diamonds had been stolen from her, and that then M. de
Leautaud was informed of the supposed theft. The gendarmes
actually came to search the chateau and to investigate the robbery
next day, although at that time the diamonds were safe in her posses-
sion, entrusted to her by Madame de Leautaud.

According to the prosecution, these statements were quite untrue.
There had been a theit, and it was soon discovered. The chief of
the Paris detective police, M. Allard, had been summoned to Busagny
to investigate, and he was satisfied that the robbery had been
committed by someone in the chateau ; and, as the servants all
bore unimpeachable characters, M. Allard had asked about the
other inmates, and the guests. Then M. de Leautaud mentioned
Marie Capelle (Lafarge), and hinted that there were several sinister
rumours current concerning her, but would not make any distinct
charge then. M. Allard now remembered that there had been
another mysterious robbery at the house of Madame Garat, Marie
Lafarge's aunt, in Paris, a couple of years before, when a 500 franc
note had been stolen, and he had been called in to investigate, but
without any result. What if Marie Capelle (Lafarge) had had some-
thing to do with this theft ?

MARIE LAFARGE FOUND GUILTY.

149

It must be admitted that these charges, if substantiated, made
the case look black against Marie Lafarge. But one, at least, fell
entirely to the ground when she was on her defence. It was clearly
shown that she could not have stolen the banknote at her aunt's,

"HEK OWN MAID ELECTED TO oo WITH HER TO PKISO* " (p. 150)..

Madame Garat's, for she was in Paris at the time. As regards the
diamonds, her story, if she had stuck to one account only that
of the blackmail would have been plausible, nay probable, enough.
It was positively contradicted on oath by the lady most nearly con-
cerned, Madame de Leautaud, and it was not believed by the
court; and Marie Lafarge was finally convicted of having stolen
the diamonds, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. She
appealed against this finding, and appeared no less than four times

150

M7STERIES OF POLICE AND CRLMK.

to seek redress, always without success. Meanwhile the graver
charge of murder had been gone into and decided against her ; so
that the shorter sentence for theft was merged into the life sentence.

There were many who believed in Marie's entire innocence to the
very last. Her own maid elected to go with her to prison, and
remained by her side for a year. A young girl, cousin of the de-
ceased M. Lafarge, was equally
devoted, and also accompanied
her to Montpelier gaol. Her
advocate, the eminent Maitre
Lachaud, steadfastly denied her
guilt, and years later, when the
unfortunate woman died, he
regularly sent flowers for her
grave.

MADELEINE SMITH.

(From a Portrait taken in Court during her Trial.)

MADELEINE SMITH.

The eldest daughter of a
Glasgow architect, Madeleine
Smith was a girl of great
beauty, bright, attractive, and
much courted. But from all
her suitors she singled out a
certain Jersey man, Pierre

fimile 1'Angelier, an employe in the firm of Huggins, in Glasgow
a small, insignificant creature, altogether unworthy of her in looks
or position. The acquaintance ripened, and Madeleine seems to
have become devotedly attached to her lover, whom she often ad-
dressed as her " own darling husband." They kept up a clandestine
correspondence, and had many stolen interviews at a friend's house.
In the spring of 1856 Madeleine's parents discovered the intimacy,
and peremptorily insisted that it should end forthwith. But the
lovers continued to meet secretly, and Madeleine threw off all
restraint, and was ready to elope with her lover. The time was
indeed fixed, but she suddenly changed her mind.

Then a rich Glasgow merchant, Mr. Minnock, saw Madeleine,
and was greatly enamoured of her. Early in January, 1857, he
offered her marriage, and she became engaged to him. It was

MADELEINE SMITH AND HER TWO LOVERS. 151

necessary, now, to break with 1'Angelier, and, mindful of the old
adage to be off with the old love before she took on with the new,
she wrote to him, begging him to return her letters and her portrait.
L'Angelier positively refused to give them or her up. He had told
many friends of his connection with Madeleine Smith, and some of
them had now advised him to let her go. " No ; I will never sur-
render the letters, nor, so long as I live, shall she marry another
man." On the 9th of February he wrote her a letter, which must
have been full of upbraiding, and probably of threats, but it has not
been preserved. Madeleine must have been greatly terrified by it,
too, for her reply was a frantic appeal for mercy, for a chivalrous
silence as to their past relations which he was evidently incapable
of preserving. She was in despair, entirely in the hands of this
mean ruffian, who was determined not to spare her ; she saw all
hope of a good marriage fading away, and nothing but ignominious
exposure before her.

As the result of the trial, when by-and-by she was arraigned
for the murder of 1'Angelier, was a verdict of '' Not Proven," it is
hardly right to say that she now resolved to' rid herself of the man
who possessed her guilty secret. But that was the case for the
prosecution, the basis of the charge brought against her. She had
made up her mind, as it seemed, to extreme measures. She appeared
to be reconciled with 1'Angelier, and had several interviews with
him. What passed at these meetings of the llth and 12th of February
was never positively known, but on the 19th he was seized with a
mysterious and terrible illness, being found lying on the floor of his
bedroom writhing in pain, and likely to die. He did, in fact, recover,
but those who knew him said he was never the same man again.
He seems to have had some suspicion of Madeleine, for he told a
friend that a cup of chocolate had made him sick, but said he was
so much fascinated by her that he would forgive her even if she
poisoned him, and that he would never willingly give her up.

Rumours of the engagement and approaching marriage now
reached his ears, and called forth fresh protests and remonstrances.
Madeleine replied, denying the rumours, and declaring that she
loved him alone. About this time the Smith family went on a
visit to Bridge of Allan, where Mr. Minnock followed them, and,
at his urgent request, the day of marriage was fixed. Then they
all returned to Glasgow, and missed 1'Angelier, who also had

152 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

followed Madeleine to Bridge of Allan. He remained at Stirling,
but, on receiving a letter irom her, he went on to Glasgow, being in
good health at the time. This was the 22nd of February, a Sunday,
on which night, about eight p.m., he reached his lodgings, had tea,
and went out. As he lett, he asked for a latchkey, saying he
"might be late." He expressed his intention of going back to
Stirling the following day.

That same night, or rather in the small hours of the morning,
the landlady was roused by a violent ringing of the bell ; and, going
down to the front door, found 1'Angelier there, half doubled up
with pain. He described himself as exceedingly ill A doctor was
sent for, who put him to bed and prescribed remedies, but did not
anticipate immediate danger. The patient, however, persisted in
repeating that he was " worse than the doctor thought " ; but he
hoped if the curtains were drawn round his bed, and he were left in
peace for five minutes, he would be better. These were his last
words. When the doctor presently reappeared; 1'Angelier was
dead. He had passed away without giving a sign ; without
uttering one word to explain how he had spent his time during
the evening.

A search was made in his pockets, but nothing of importance
was found ; but a letter addressed to him signed " M'eine," couched
in passionate language, imploring him " to return." " Are you ill,
my beloved ? Adieu ! with tender embraces." The handwriting of
this letter was not identified, but a friend of 1'Angelier's, M. de
Mean, hearing of his sudden death, went at once to warn Madeleine
Smith's father that 1'Angelier had letters in his possession which
should not be allowed to fall into strange hands. It was too late :
the friends of the deceased had sealed up his effects and they
refused to surrender the letters.

Later M. de Mean plainly told Madeleine Smith, whom he saw in
her mother's presence, that grave suspicion began to overshadow
her. It was known that 1'Angelier had come up from Bridge of
Allan at her request, and he implored her to say whether or not he
had been in her company that night. Her answer was a decided
negative, and she stated positively that she had seen nothing of
him for three weeks. She went farther and asserted that she had
neither seen nor wanted to see him on the Sunday evening; she
.had given him an appointment for Saturday, but he had not

'THE LANDLADY WAS ROUSED BY A VIOLENT RINGING OF THE BELL" (p. 152).

154 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIMh'.

appeared, although she had waited for him some time. This ap-
pointment had been made that she might recover her letters. All
through this painful interview with de Mean, Madeleine appeared
in the greatest distress. Next morning she took to flight.

Madeleine was pursued, but by her family, not by the police,
and was overtaken on board a steamer bound for Ro walla n. Soon
after her return to Glasgow the contents of her letters to
1'Angelier were made public, and a post-mortem had been made.
The body had been exhumed, and the suspicious appearance of the
mucous membrane of the stomach, together with the history of
the case, pointed to death by poison. The various organs, care-
fully sealed, were handed over to experts for analysis, and it may
be well to state here the result of the medical examination.

Dr. Penny stated in evidence that the quantity of arsenic found
in the deceased amounted to eighty-eight grains, or about half a
teaspoonful, some of it in hard, gritty, colourless, crystalline particles.
It was probable that this was no more than half the whole amount
the deceased had swallowed, for under the peculiar action of arsenic
a quantity, quite half a teaspoonful, must have been ejected.

The chief difficulties in the case were whether anyone could
have taken so much as a whole teaspoonful of arsenic unknowingly,
and how this amount could have been administered. The question
was keenly debated, and it was generally admitted that the poison
could have been given in chocolate, cocoa, gruel, or some thick
liquid, or mixed with solid food in the shape of a cake. This was
not inconsistent with the conjectures formed that 1'Angelier had
met Madeleine Smith on the Sunday night.

The case against her became more formidable when it was ascer-
tained that she had been in the habit of buying arsenic, but with
the alleged intention of taking it herself, for her complexion. She
was now arrested and sent for trial at Edinburgh, on a charge of
poisoning 1'Angelier. Her purchases of arsenic were proved by the
chemist's books under date of the 21st of February, and again on
the 6th and 18th of March, this last date being four da}-s before
the murder.

It was also proved that she wanted to buy prussic acid a few
weeks before her arrest. There was nothing to show that she
had obtained or possessed any arsenic at the time of 1'Angelier's.
first illness, on the 19th of February. But it was proved in evidence

MADELEINE SMITH'S TRIUMPH. 155

that, on the night of his death, Sunday, the 22nd of March, 1'Angelier
had been seen in the neighbourhood of Ely ths wood Square, where
the Smiths lived ; again, that he had himself bought no arsenic
in Glasgow.

Madeleine's plucky demeanour in court gained her much sym-
pathy; she never once gave way; only when her impassioned
letters were being read aloud did she really lose her composure.
She stepped into the dock as though she were entering a ball-
room, and although she was under grave suspicion of having com-
mitted a dastardly crime, the conduct of 1'Angelier had set the
public strongly against him, so that a vague feeling of "served
him right " was present in the large crowd assembled to witness
the trial. The case for the prosecution was strong, but it failed
to prove the actual administration of poison, or, indeed, that the
accused had met the deceased on the Sunday night.

The judge, in summing up, pointed out the grave doubts
that surrounded the case, and the verdict of the jury was " Not
proven," by a majority of votes.

This result was received with much applause in court, and
generally throughout Glasgow, although a dispassionate review of
all the facts in this somewhat mysterious case must surely point
clearly to a failure of justice. However, Madeleine triumphed, and
won great favour with the crowd. The money for her defence was
subscribed in Glasgow twice over, and even before she left the
court she received several offers of marriage.

Since writing the foregoing I have had an interesting com-
munication from a lady, who has told me the impressions of one who
was present in court during the whole of Madeleine Smith's trial.
This gentleman was an advocate, trained and practised in the law,
and according to his opinion, unhesitatingly expressed, there could be
no shadow of doubt but that Madeleine was 1'Angelier's wife, by the
law of Scotland. As he has put it, in Scotland two people who
ought to be married can generally be joined together, and there
was little doubt that the sanction of matrimony was needed for this
connection. Both Madeleine and 1'Angelier were in the habit of
addressing each other as husband and wife. This explains
1'Angelier's insistence on the point that " so long as he lived
Madeleine should never marry another man."

The verdict of " Not proven " was brought in by the jury on the

156

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

grounds that it was not established that the two had actually met on
the Sunday night preceding 1'Angelier's last illness. Nevertheless, it
is certain that a pocket-book of 1'Angelier's was offered as evidence
to the judge, Lord Fullerton, who examined it, but ruled it out

"SHE STEPPED INTO THE DOCK AS THOUGH SHE AVEKE EXTEKIXG A BALL-KOOM " (p. 155).

because it was not a consecutive diary and the entries had been made
in pencil. This book was placed, after the proceedings, in the hands
of the legal gentleman above mentioned, and he saw in it an un-
mistakable entry made by 1'Angelier to the effect that he had been
in Madeleine's company on the Saturday night.

Full corroboration is given by my informant of the engaging and
attractive appearance of Madeleine Smith. She was so excessively
pretty and bewitching that, to use his own words, no one but a

AN AMERICAN CASE. 157

hard-hearted old married man could have resisted her fascinations.
He had no doubt whatever in his own mind of her guill

THE WHARTON-KETCHUM CASE.

General W. E. Ketchurn, of the United States army, was a man
somewhat past the prime of life, but still sound and strong. Mrs.
Wharton was the widow of an army man, and was upwards of fifty
years of age. The two were intimate friends, and the General, who
had amassed a modest competence, had lent various sums to
Mrs. Wharton, amounting to some $2,600 (520). She was not
well off, as it was thought, and, just before the events about to be
recorded, she was unable to pay an intended visit to Europe from
insufficient funds and inability to obtain her letter of credit.

On the 23rd of June, 1871, General Ketchum came from Washing-
ton to her house in Baltimore, to see the last of her, believing her
about to start on her long journey, and to collect his debt of $2,600.
He was in excellent health when he left home, but very soon after
arriving at Baltimore he was taken very ill. He rallied for a time,
but again relapsed, and on the 28th of June he died. Suspicions were
aroused by his sudden decease, and certainly the symptoms of his
illness, as reported, were singular and obscure. Whilst he lay there
sick unto death, another gentleman residing in the same house was
also suddenly prostrated with a strange and unaccountable sickness,
and narrowly escaped with his life.

After General Ketchum's death his waistcoat was not to be found,
nor the note for $2,600. Mrs. Wharton declared that she had repaid
him what she owed him and that he had then given her back the
note of hand, which was destroyed there and then. She furthermore
claimed from his estate a sum of $4,000 in United States Bonds,
which, as she asserted, she had entrusted to the General's safe
keeping ; yet there was not the slightest mention of any such
transaction in his papers a strange omission, seeing that he was
a man of unquestionable integrity, and most scrupulously exact in
all matters of account.

Chemical analysis of the stomach of the deceased disclosed
the presence of antimonial poison one of the constituents of tartar
emetic. The same poison had been found in a tumbler of milk
punch prepared by Mrs. Wharton for General Ketchum, and in a

158 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

tumbler of beer offered by Mrs. Wharton to the other invalid in
her house, Mr. van Ness. Mrs. Wharton had been known to buy
tartar emetic during the very week when these singular illnesses
occurred among the guests under her roof.

In these suspicious facts people easily found materials for believ-
ing in a crime, and a story was soon spread to the effect that Mrs.
Wharton. had succeeded in poisoning General Ketchum, and had
tried to poison Mr. van Ness. Meanwhile she resumed her prepara-
tions for her voyage to Europe ; but on the very day of departure,
the 10th of July, 1871, a warrant for her arrest was issued, and she
was taken into custody. In the trial which followed, a great many
of the known facts were ruled out as inadmissible. It was argued,
and accepted in law, that an accusation of murdering one man
could not be supported by evidence of an attempt to kill another,
although almost at the same time and by the same means. The
charge of poisoning General Ketchum was tried as if there had
been no van Ness, as if no other person had been taken ill in Mrs.
Wharton's house. But by reason of the predisposition of the public
mind, the case was transferred from Baltimore to Annapolis, and
there tried.

The first witness was a Mrs. Chubb, who had accompanied General
Ketchum to Baltimore, and who testified that he had fallen ill
directly he arrived. He was seized with vomiting, giddiness, and
general nausea, which lasted for three days. A doctor was then
called in, who prescribed medicine, but Mrs. Wharton broke the
bottle, whether by accident or intentionally it was impossible to say.
Distinct evidence was first afforded of the possession of tartar
emetic by Mrs. Wharton. Mrs. Chubb, who went out to get a fresh
bottle of medicine for the General, was asked to buy the antimony
also, which Mrs. Wharton said she wanted for herself.

The invalid's condition improved a little the next day, and
arrangements were made to remove him to his own home. However,
he relapsed and became worse than ever. The doctor prescribed
medicine, which was to be given him at intervals, but before the
time for taking the second dose, Mrs. Wharton appeared with it, or
something like it, yet different, and more of it than was prescribed.
This she strenuously urged the General to swallow, and succeeded
in inducing him to do so. Within fifteen minutes he was racked
with terrible pain. He tore with his fingers at his throat, chest,

"NOT GUILTY." 151)

and stomach until lie broke the skin, then followed fierce convulsions,
at the end of which he died.

Fresh evidence was forthcoming, but not accepted, against Mrs.
"VVharton. At her suggestion Mrs. van Ness, who had been nursing
her brother, had concocted some milk punch. This was made in
two portions. One was given to Mr. van Ness, and produced
symptoms very similar to those exhibited by the unfortunate General
Ketchum ; the other had been left in a refrigerator by the General's
bedside, and when what was left had been examined by Mrs. van
Ness, she declared it had been tampered with ; there was a strange
muddy deposit at the bottom of the tumbler, and when tasted it
was metallic, leaving a curious grating sensation in the mouth.
The original constituents had been no more than whisky, milk,
and sugar. This testimony was ruled out of order, as belonging to
an entirely different case.

The doctor who had attended the General gave evidence as to
the symptoms he observed and the remedies applied. At first sight
he thought him to be suffering from Asiatic cholera ; but later
developments were more those of apoplexy, and then again he feared
paralysis. He at length had his suspicions aroused, and hinted at
poison. The remains of the suspected tumbler were shown him, and
his doubts became convictions. With regard to the poisonous action
of tartar emetic, .the doctor testified that he had noticed all its
symptoms in the deceased, although there was a strong similarity
between them and those of cholera. Other medical opinion was
to the effect that death might have been due to cerebro-spinal
meningitis, and some stress was laid upon the absence of antimonial
poison in many of the internal organs, although it was contended
it had been found in small quantities in the stomach. The same
lethal drug had been also detected by analysis in the sediment
at the bottom of the tumbler of milk punch.

The verdict of the jury was " Not guilty," but it did not satisfy
public opinion, and it was generally felt that Wharton's counsel had
by no means established her innocence ; none of the incriminat-
ing facts had been entirely disproved, nor had the exact truth in
regard to the money transactions been elicited. No doubt the
accused escaped chiefly owing to the fact that chemical experts,
called by her counsel, were not satisfied, beyond the possibility of all
reasonable doubt, that antimony had been found in the vital organs

160

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME-

of General Ketchum. At the time of this trial another indictment
was also pending against Mrs. Wharton, charging her with an attempt
to kill Mr. van Ness by administering poison. Biit some months
later the counsel for the State entered a nolle prosequi, for what
reasons was never generally or distinctly known.

THE STORY OF THE PERRYS.

Truth is stranger than fiction, as we have heard often enougn,
but in this extraordinary case we shall never know how much is

... - ^,v-- f,^ <i,t^.4t

11VINS OF OLD CAMPDEX HOUSE, WITH THE BAKQl'ETINU HALL ON THE LEFT.

fiction, how much truth. If justice failed, it was misled by a series of
the strangest circumstances, some of which have remained a mystery
to the present hour. The following details are taken from an account
written by a magistrate resident near the scene of the occurrence,
and by name Sir Thomas Overbury, the direct descendant of the
unfortunate Overbury poisoned in the Tower.

The village of Campden, in Gloucestershire, some five-and-twenty
minutes from the cathedral town and county seat, gave its name to

THE STORY OF THE PERRYS. 161

the Viscountess Campden, the lady of the manor. Her steward and
agent, a certain William Harrison, a man of seventy years, started
from Campden on the 16th of August, 1660, to walk over to the
neighbouring village of Charringworth, where he wished to
collect rents due to his mistress. As he had not returned according
to his wont between 8 and 9 p.m., Mrs. Harrison, his wife, despatched
a servant named John Perry along the road to meet him .and
bring him safely home. Neither Perry nor his master returned
that night. Next morning Edward Harrison, the son, proceeded to
Charringworth to inquire for his father, and on his way met
Perry, the servant, coming from that village. Perry told Edward
Harrison that Mr. Harrison had not been heard of, and the two
together visited another village, Ebrington, and there got some
news. A villager stated that the elder Harrison had paid him a
passing call the night before, but had made no stay.

They next went to Paxford, a mile thence, where further news met
them. They heard that a poor woman had picked up, in the high road
between Ebrington and Campden, a hat, a hat-band, and a comb, and
seeking her out, they found her " leasing " or gleaning in a field, where-
upon she delivered up the articles, and they were at once identified
as Mr. Harrison's. The woman was forthwith desired to point out the
spot where she had picked them up, and she showed it them on the
road " near unto a great furze brake." As the hat-band was blood}'-
and the comb all hacked and cut, it was reasonably concluded that
their owner had been murdered.

Mr. Harrison's disappearance so greatly alarmed his wife that she
conceived he had met with foul play at the hand of John Perry, the
servant whom she had sent to convoy him home. At her instance,
therefore, Perry was seized and carried before a justice, who straightway
bade him explain why he had stayed absent the whole of the night he
had been sent to look for his master. Perry's story was that he had
not gone " a land's length " towards Charringworth when it came on so
dark he was afraid to go forward, and he returned to the Harrisons'
house, meaning to take out his young master's horse. But he did no
more than make another false start, and then, without informing his
mistress that he was still on the premises, he lay down to rest in the
hen-roost, where he continued for an hour or more, " but slept not."
About midnight he turned out again, and the moon having now risen
he really started for Charringworth. Once more he was stopped ; th's
11

162 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND C

time by a great mist, in which he lost his way, and finally he took
refuge under a hedge, where he slept till daybreak. At last he
reached Charringworth, and learning that his master had been
there the previous day, followed his movements as he went from
house to house receiving monies for rent. There were, however, no
signs of the missing man in the village now.

Most of Perry's statements were verified by other witnesses ; but
the case was black against him, and he was detained by the law until
something definite came out concerning Mr. Harrison. A week passed,
during which Perry was lodged " sometimes in an inn in Campden,
sometimes in the common prison," and all the time he was devising
different stories to account for his master's disappearance. One was
that a tinker had killed him ; another that the servant of a neigh-
bouring squire had robbed and murdered him ; and thirdly, that he
had been killed in Campden, where his body was hidden in a bean-
rick, which was searched, but no body found. On further examina-
tion, being pressed to confess, he again insisted that Mr. Harrison
had been murdered, " but not by him." Then the justice said if he
knew of the murder he must know also the perpetrators, and this
John Perry presently allowed by putting the whole blame on his
own mother and brother.

He charged these near relatives with having constantly " lain at
him " ever since he was in Mr. Harrison's service, urging him to help
them with money, reminding him how poor they were, and how easy
it was for him to relieve them ; he need do no more than give them
notice when his master went to receive his rents, and they could then
waylay him and rob him. Perry went OQ to say that he met his
brother Richard on the very morning that Mr. Harrison went to
Charringworth, and that the brother, hearing of the rent collection,
was resolved to have the money ; that when he (John Perry) started by
his mistress's order to bring Mr. Harrison safely home, he again met
his brother Richard, who was lying in wait at a gateway leading from
Campden Churchyard into the "Conygree/' certain private grounds
and gardens of Lady Campden's place. By-and-bye, having entered
this " Conygree," which was possible only to those who had the
key, he found that his master w r as being attacked ; he was " on
the ground, his brother upon him, and his mother standing by."
He begged hard that they would not hurt his master, who was
crying, " Ah, rogues, you will kill me ! " but his brother Richard

JOHN PERRY'S STORT.

163

replied: "Peace,
peace ! you are a fool,"
and so strangled him,
" which having done,
he took a bag of
money out of his
(Mr. Harrison's) pock-
et, and threw it into
his mother's lap," and
then he and his moth-
er consulted what to
do with the body.

VIEWS OF CAMPDEN AS IT
IS NOW.

1. Buildings just inside the

" Conygree," where Har-
rison was said to have^
been strangled.

2. The " Great Sink" or Mill

Pond into which Har-
rison's body was said to
have been thrown.

3. Entrance to the "Cony-

gree " (right of the steps).

""g?' r -'- ' -- -'

It was decided that
they should drop it into
the Great Sink, behind
certain mills near the
garden, and this they
did. John Perry told
all this most circum-
stantially, making it
agree with his own
movements and the
various facts that had
come to light, describ-
ing how he had gone into the hen-roost but could not sleep ; how he
had taken with him the hat, band, and comb (and cut the latter with
his knife), how he had cast them down upon the highway where they

164 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GBIMK.

were found, giving as his reason that he hoped it might be believed
that his master had been robbed and murdered.

The justices, on this confession, sent to search the Sink at the mill,
but without success ; " the fish pools likewise in Campden were
drawn and searched, but nothing could be there found," so that
" some were of opinion the body might be hid in the rums of Campden
House, burnt in the late wars, and not unfit for such concealment,
where was likewise search made, but all in vain." No time was lost,
however, in securing the other Perrys Joan, the mother, and Richard,
both of whom were informed of the accusation brought against them,
wilich "they denied with many imprecations." John, nevertheless,
persisted that he had spoken nothing but truth. Suspicion was
strengthened against Richard Perry by his being seen to drop a ball of
" inkle," which he declared was his wife's " hair lace," but which John,
when it was shown to him, said he knew to his sorrow, for it was the
string his brother had strangled Mr. Harrison with. Other significant
evidence was quoted, as that Richard's nose " fell a-bleeding " when he
met his children, being on his way to be admonished by the minister
in church. Again, it was remembered that a year before there had
been a robbery at Mr. Harrison's, when 140 was stolen from the
house at noonday ; and John Perry was now asked if he knew aught
of the matter. His answer was that his brother Richard was the
thief, that he, John Perry, had given him notice that the money
was in a room that could be reached by a ladder to the window,
and that Richard had stolen it while the master was in church
with his whole family " at lecture."

The three Perrys, Joan, John, and Richard, were arraigned at the
next assizes on two separate counts : house-breaking and robbery (of
140), and again robbery and the murder of William Harrison.
The judge would not allow the second charge to be proceeded with, as
no body had been found, but they acknowledged, indeed, pleaded
guilty to it, begging for the king's pardon under the recent Act of
Oblivion. The charge of murder was again advanced at the next
assize before another judge, and allowed ; it ended in a verdict of
guilty, mainly on the strength of John's confession, although by this
time John had gone out of his mind. This was enough to satisfy
those who administered the law; and the three, Joan, John, and
Richard Perry, were all sentenced to be hanged. The execution was
carried out without delay on Broadway Hill, in sight of Campden,
where John was also hung in chains.

A VERT STRAXGE TALE. 165

The strangest part of this affair has yet to be told. William
Harrison was not dead; he had been much misused, but had not
been murdered, and three years later he reappeared in the flesh.
His \vas a marvellous tale, and its veracity was questioned at the
time, but we cannot discredit it entirely.

The account he gave of himself is found in a letter he addressed to
Sir Thomas Overbury, whose narrative has been followed throughout.

On the day in question, Thursday, the 16th of August, 1660, he
went to Charringworth to collect Lady Campden's rents, but as harvest
was in progress the tenants did not come home from the fields till
late, and he was kept at Charringworth till nightfall. He received no
more than 23, although he had expected a very considerable sum.
With this in his pocket he took his road home, and reached at length
the Ebrington Furzes, where the tract passed through a narrow
passage. Here he was suddenly faced by a man mounted on horse-
back, and fearing to be ridden down he struck the horse over the
nose, whereupon the horseman drew his sword and attacked him,
Harrison making what defence he could with his cane. Then came
another behind him, who caught him by the collar and dragged him
towards the hedge, and after him a third. They did not rob him of
his money, but two of them lifted him into the saddle behind the
third, and forcing his arms around the rider's middle, fastened the
wrists together ' with something that had a spring lock to it as I con-
ceived by hearing it give a snap as they put it on." After this they
threw a cloak over him, and carried him away, riding some distance
till they halted at a stone pit, into which they tumbled him, having
now taken all his money. An hour later they bade him come out of
the pit, and when he asked what they would do with him they struck
him, then mounted him again in the same manner ; but before riding
away they filled his pockets with a great quantity of money, which
incommoded him much in riding, so that by next afternoon, when
they again drew rein, he was sorely bruised.

They had come now to a lone house upon a heath, where he was
carried upstairs, and they stayed the night. The woman of the house
was told that he was much hurt, and was being carried to a surgeon ;
they laid him on cushions on the floor, and gave him some broth,
and strong waters. Next day, Saturday, they rode on as before
and they lay that night at a place where there were two or three
houses, where again he slept on cushions. The next day, Sunday,.

166 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIMi-I.

they reached Deal, and halted by the seaside. One of them kept
guard over the prisoner while the two others entered into conference
with a man who was awaiting them. This man, whose name he after-
wards heard was Renshaw, was afraid that Harrison would die before
he could be got on board, but he was put into a boat and carried to a
ship, where his wounds were dressed, and in a week's time " he was
indifferently recovered." Now the master of the ship came one day
to say that they were chased by Turkish pirates, and when all offered
to fight in defence of the ship he would not suffer it, but handed them
over prisoners to the Turks. They were lodged in a dark hole, and
remained there in wretched plight, not knowing how long it was before
they landed, nor where they were put on shore, except that it was
a great house or prison. Presently they were called up and viewed
by persons who came to buy them, and Harrison, having said that
he had some skill in physic, was taken by an aged physician who
lived near Smyrna, and who had at one time resided in England,
at Crowland, in Lincolnshire. Harrison was set to keep the still-
room, and was fairly well treated, except on one occasion, when his
master, being displeased, felled him to the ground, and would
have stabbed him with his stiletto.

After nearly two years' captivity Harrison's master fell sick and
died, but before the end he liberated his captive, and bade him shift
for himself. Harrison made his way to a seaport about a day's
journey distant, where he met two men belonging to a Hamburg ship,
and now about to sail for Portugal. He implored them to give him
passage, but they replied that they did not dare, nor would they yield
for all his importunity. At last a third man from the same ship con-
sented to take him on board provided he would lie down above the
keel, and remain hidden till they got to sea. They carried him safely
to Lisbon, where they put him on shore, penniless and friendless, as
he thought, but he happened fortunately on three Englishmen, one of
whom took compassion on him, provided him with lodging and diet,
and at last procured him a passage home.

Harrison's story was published in 1676, together with the original
narrative of Sir Thomas Overbury, and certain critical remarks were
appended. It was said that many people doubted whether Harrison
had ever been, out of England. Nevertheless, it was certain that
ie had absented himself from his home and friends for a couple of
years, and unless he was carried forcibly away there is no plausible

'FELLED HIM TO THE GROUND AND WOULD HAVE STABBED HIM "(p. 106).

168 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

explanation of his disappearance. It seemed on the face of it highly
improbable that a man who bore a good character, who was in
comfortable circumstances, the esteemed servant of an honourable
family for nearly fifty years, would have run away without the least
warning, and apparently for no sort of reason. He . was already
seventy years of age, and he left behind him a very considerable sum
of Lady Campden's money. That he was seized and sequestrated can
hardly be doubted, but how or by whom, except so far as he himself
describes, was never satisfactorily known. It was thought that his
eldest son, hoping to succeed him in the stewardship to Lady Camp-
den, might have compassed his father's removal. This view w r as
supported by the fact that when he did become steward he betrayed
his trust. Yet again, to suppose that the elder Harrison would
allow the Perrys to suffer death for a crime of which he knew they
must be innocent was to accuse him of the deepest turpitude.

The conclusion generally arrived at was that the facts actually did
happen very much as they were related, yet the whole story is
involved in mystery. The only solution, so far as Perry is con-
cerned, is that he was mad, as the second judge indeed declared.
But we cannot account for Harrison's conduct on any similar
supposition. If his own story is rejected as too wild and improbable
for credence, some other explanation must be found of his disap-
pearance. ' Unless he was out of the country, or at least beyond all
knowledge of events at Campden, it is difficult to understand what
motive would have weighed with him when he heard that three
persons were to be hanged as his murderers. The only possible
conclusion, therefore, is that he was carried away, and kept away
by force.

169

CHAPTER IV.

POLICE MISTAKES.

The Saffron Hill Murder : Narrow Escape of Pellizioni : Two Men in Newgate for the
Same Offence The Murder of Constable Cock The Edlingham Burglary : Arrest,
Trial, and Conviction of Brannagan and Murphy : Severity of Judge Manisty : A
new Trial : Brannagan and Murphy Pardoned and Compensated : Survivors of the
Police Prosecutors put on their Trial, hut Acquitted Lord Cochrane's Case : His
Tardy Eehahilitation.

No human institution is perfect, and the police are fallible like
the rest. They have in truth made mistakes, all of them regret-
table, many glaring, many tending to bring discredit upon a
generally useful and deserving body. If they would freely confess
their error they might, in most cases, be forgiven when they go
Avrong; but there have been occasions when only the pressure of
facts which there was no disputing has elicited from them a re-
luctant admission that they have been on the wrong track. One
or two instances of their persistence in error will now be adduced.

PELLIZIONI.

In the Pellizioni case, 1863-4, there might have been a terrible
failure of justice, as terrible as any hitherto recorded in criminal
annals. This was a murder in a public-house at Saffron Hill,
Clerkenwell. The district then, as now, was much frequented by
immigrant Italians, mostly of a low class, and they were often at
variance with their English neighbours. A fierce quarrel arose in
this tavern, and was followed by a deadly fight, in which a man
named Harrington was killed, and another, Rebbeck, was mortally
wounded. The police were speedily summoned, and, on arrival,
they found an Italian, Pellizioni by name, lying across Harrington's
body, in which life was not yet extinct. Pellizioni was at once
seized as the almost obvious perpetrator of the foul deed. He

170

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

stoutly proclaimed his innocence, declaring that he had only come
in to quell the disturbance, that the murdered man and Rebbeck
were already on the ground, and that in the scuffle he had been

"FOUND AN ITALIAN . . . LYING ACROSS HARRINGTON'S BODY" (p. 169).

thrown on the top of them. But the facts were seemingly against
him, and he was duly committed for trial.

The case was tried before Mr. Baron Martin, and although the
evidence was extremely conflicting, the learned judge said that he
thought it quite conclusive against the prisoner. He summed up
strongly for a conviction, and the jury brought in a verdict of guilty,
whereon Pellizioni was sentenced to be hanged. This result was

THE PELLIZIONI CASE. 171

not accepted as satisfactory by many thoughtful people, and the
matter was taken up by the Press, notably by the Daily Telegraph-
Some of the condemned convict's compatriots became deeply in-
terested in him. It was known that in the locality of Saffron Hill
he bore the repute of a singularly quiet and inoffensive man.
Ultimately, a priest, who laboured among these poor Italians,
saved Justice from official murder by bringing one of his flock to confess
that he and not Pellizioni had struck the fatal blows. This was one
Gregorio Mogni, but he protested that he had acted only in self-defence.

Mogni was forthwith arrested, tried, and convicted of the crime,
with the strange result that now two men lay in Newgate, both con-
demned, independently not jointly, of one and the same crime. If
Mogni had struck the blows, clearly Pellizioni could not have done so.
Moreover, a new fact was elicited at Mogni's trial, and this was
the production for the first time of the weapon used. It was a
knife, and this knife had been found some distance from the scene
of the crime, where it could not have been thrown by Pellizioni.
And again, it was known and sworn to as Mogni's knife, which,
after stabbing the men, he had handed to a friend to take away.

The gravamen of the charge against the police was that they
had found the knife before Pellizioni was tried. It was at once
recognised all through Saffron Hill that it was Mogni's knife, and
with so much current gossip it was hardly credible that the police
were not also informed of this fact. Yet, fearing to damage their
case (a surely permissible inference), they kept back the knife at
the first trial. It was afterwards said to have .been in court, but
it certainly was not produced, while it is equally certain that its
identification would have quite altered the issue, and that Pelli-
zioni would not have been condemned. The defence, in his case,
went the length of declaring that to this questionable proceeding
the police added false swearing. No doubt they stuck manfully to
their chief and to each other, but they hardly displayed the open
and impartial mind that should characterise all officers of justice.
In any case, it was not their fault that an innocent man was not
hanged.

WILLIAM HABRON.

The strange circumstances which led to the righting of this
judicial wrong must give the Habron case a pre-eminence among

172

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

others of the kind. The mistake arose from the ungovernable
temper of the accused, who threatened to shoot a certain police
officer, under the impression that he had been injured by him.

In July, 1875, two brothers, William and John Habron, were
taken before the magistrates of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near Man-
chester, charged with drunkenness. Grave doubts, were, however,

expressed in court as
to the identity of
William Habron. The
chief witness, constable
Cock, was very posi-
tive ; he knew the man,
he said, because he
had so often threatened
reprisals if interfered
with. But the magis-
trates gave William the
benefit of the doubt,
and discharged him.
As he left the court
he passed Cock and
said, " I'll do for you
yet. I shall shoot you
before the night is
out."

Others heard the

threat, but thought little of it, among them Superintendent Bent,
of the Manchester police. That same night Bent was roused out
with the news that Cock had been shot. He ran round to West
Point, where the unfortunate officer lay dying, and although
unable to obtain from him any distinct indication of the murderer,
he concluded at once that John Habron must be the man. He
knew where the brothers lodged, and taking with him a force
of police, he surrounded the house. "If it is anyone," said
the master of the house and employer of the accused, " it is William
he has such an abominable temper." All three brothers William,
John, and Frank Habron were arrested in their beds and taken
to the police-station. In the morning a strict examination of the
ground where Cock had been shot revealed a number of footmarks.

COCK, THE MUUDEREU CONSTABLE.

(From a Photogrui>li.)

PUNISHED FOR ANOTHER'S CRIME. 173

The Habrons' boots were brought to the spot and found to fit these
marks exactly.

The evidence told chiefly against William Habron, who was
identified as the man who had bought some cartridges in a shop
in Manchester. Both William and John brought witnesses to prove
an alibi, but this failed under cross-examination. Again, they
sought to prove that they had gone home to bed at nine o'clock
on the night of the murder, while other witnesses swore to seeing
them drinking at eleven p.m. in a public-house which Cock must
have passed soon after that hour on his way to West Point, the spot
where he was found murdered. The fact of William Habron's
animus against the constable was elicited from several witnesses,
but what told most against the prisoners was the contradictory
character of the defence. William Habron alone was convicted,
and sentenced to penal servitude.

Years afterwards the notorious Charles Peace, when lying under
sentence of death in Leeds prison, made full confession to the writer
of these pages that it was he who had killed constable Cock on
the night in question. The case was taken up at once, and after
thorough investigation of the facts, as stated by Peace, Habron
received a full pardon and an indemnity of 800.

THE EDLINGHAM BURGLARY.

Almost at the very time that William Habron was receiving
tardy justice a new and still more grievous error was being perpe-
trated in the North of England. The Edlingham burglary case will
always be remembered as a grave failure of justice, and not alone
because the circumstantial evidence did not appear sufficient, but
because the police, in their anxiety to secure conviction, went
too far. As the survivors of the Northumberland police force
concerned in this case were afterwards put upon their trial for
conspiracy and acquitted, they cannot be actually charged with
manufacturing false evidence, but it is pretty clear that facts
were distorted, and even suppressed, to support the police view.

The vicarage at Edlingham, a small village near Alnwick, was
broken into on the 7th of February, 1879. The only occupants of the
house were Mr. Buckle, the vicar, his wife, an invalid, his daughter

174 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

and four female servants. The daughter gave the alarm about
one a.m., and roused her father, a still sturdy old gentleman
although seventy-seven years of age, who slipped on a dressing-
gown, and seizing a sword he had by him, rushed downstairs, candle
in hand, to do battle for his possessions. He found two men rifling
the drawing-room, and thrust at them ; one rushed past him and
made his escape, the other fired at the vicar and wounded him. The
same shot (it was a scatter gun) also wounded Miss Buckle. This
second burglar then jumped out of the drawing-room window on
to the soft mould of a garden bed.

The alarm was given, the police and a doctor were summoned.
The latter attended to the wounds, which were serious, and the
police, under the orders of Superintendent Harkes, an energetic
officer, immediately took the necessary steps to discover the
culprits. Officers were despatched to visit the domiciles of all
the poachers and other bad characters in Alnwick, while a watch
was set upon the roads into the town so that any suspicious persons
arriving might be stopped and searched. Then Mr. Harkes drove
over to Edlingham to view the premises. He found the window
in the drawing-room through which the burglars had entered still
open, and the room, all in confusion, ransacked and rifled. One
of the servants gave him a chisel w T hich she had found in an
adjoining room, another handed over a piece of newspaper picked
up just outside the dining-room door. The police-officer soon saw
from the marks made that the chisel had been used to prise open
the doors, and so soon as daylight came he found outside in the
garden the print of feet and the impress of hands and knees upon
the mould.

Meanwhile, the officers in Alnwick had ascertained that two
men, both of them known poachers, had been absent from home
during the night. Their names were Michael Brannagan and
Peter Murphy ; both were stopped on the outskirts of the town
about seven o'clock on the morning of the 8th. There was nothing
more against them at the moment than their absence during the
night, and after having searched them the police let them go
home. Brannagan was quickly followed, and arrested as he was
taking off his dirty clogs. Murphy, who lodged with his sister,
had time to change his wet clothes and boots before the officers
appeared to take him. A girl to whom he was engaged, fearing

MK. BUCKLE SURPRISING THE BURGLARS.

176 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIM I-:.

something was wrong, quickly examined the pockets of his coat,
and, finding some blood and fur, tore these pockets out, and hid
the coat. When the police returned and asked for the clothes he
had been wearing, she gave them a jacket belonging to Peter's
brother-in-law, an old man named Redpath.

At the police-station, the prisoners were stripped and examined.
There was no sign of a sword wound on either of them, nor any
hole or rent that might have been made by a sword-thrust through
their clothes. That same day the prisoners were taken to Edlingham,
and everything was arranged as during the burglary. But Mr. Buckle
could not identify either of them, nor could Miss Buckle. The case
against the prisoners was certainly not strong at this stage. More-
over, there was this strong presumption in their favour that people
engaged in such an outrage as burglary and wounding with intent
would not have returned openly to their homes within a few hours
of the commission of the crime. When brought before the magis-
trates for preliminary inquiry, the prisoners found fresh evidence
adduced against them. The police, in the person of Mr. Harkes,
had traced foot-marks going through the grounds of the vicarage,
and out on to the Alnwick road. Plaster casts were produced of
these footmarks, also the boots and clogs of the prisoners, and all
Avere found to correspond. The chisel found in the vicarage had
been traced to Murphy. His brother-in-law, old Redpath, had
been induced to identify it as his property. This admission had
been obtained from Redpath by a clever ruse, as the police called
it, although they had really set a trap for him, and he had owned
to the chisel although it was not his at all. Another damning fact
had been elicited in the discovery of a scrap of newspaper in the
lining of Murphy's coat (which, as we know, was not Murphy's, but
Redpath's), which fragment fitted exactly into the newspaper picked
up in the vicarage. This scrap of paper was unearthed from the
coat on the 16th of February, by an altogether independent and
unimpeachable witness, Dr. Wilson, the medical gentleman who
attended the Buckles. It may be observed that the coat itself
had been in the possession of the police for just nine days ; so
had the original newspaper.

The evidence was deemed sufficient, and both prisoners were
fully committed for trial at the Newcastle spring assizes of 1879. It
is now known that certain facts, damaging to the prosecution, had

THE EDLJNGHAM BURGLARY. 177

been brought to the notice of the police. They had positive inform-
ation that other persons had been abroad from Alnwick that night ;
they had received a statement, made with much force by one who
had good reason to know, that the wrong men had been arrested ;
while there were witnesses who had met the prisoners soon after
the burglary on the other side of Alnwick. On the other hand,
fresh evidence against them was forthcoming at the trial. This
was the discovery of a piece of fustian cloth with a button
attached, which had been picked up by a zealous police-officer
under the drawing-room window, a month after the burglary.
Here again was damaging evidence, for this, scrap of cloth was
found to fit exactly into a gap in Brannagan's trousers. It was
said afterwards, at the trial of the police, that they had purposely
cut out the piece; and it was proved in evidence that a tailor of
Alnwick, to whom the trousers and piece were submitted, expressed
his doubts that the accident could have happened in jumping out
of the window. The tear would have been more irregular, the
fitting-in less exact. Moreover, the piece of cloth was perfectly fresh
and clean when found, whereas, if it had lain out for nearly a
month in the mud and snow, it must have become dark and dirty,
and hard at the edges, as corduroy goes when exposed to the
weather. As, however, the judge would not allow the cloth and
button to be put in evidence, they played no important part in
the case until the subsequent prosecution of the police, except
possibly in prejudicing the minds of the jury against Brannagan
and Murphy.

The prisoners were ably defended by Mr. Milvain, afterwards a
Q.C. His case was that Mr. Buckle (who had corrected his first
denial, and, later, had identified the men) was mistaken in the
confusion and excitement of the burglarious attack; and that the
police had actually conspired to prove the case with manufactured
evidence, so as to avoid the reproach of another undetected crime.
In support of this grave charge he argued that even if the foot-
prints had not been made deliberately with the boots and clogs in
their possession, there had been a great crowd of curious lolk all
around the house after the crime, any of whom might have made
the marks. But a still stronger disproof was that there were no
distinct footmarks under the drawing-room window, only vague and
blurred impressions ; a statement borne out long afterwards, when it
12

178

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRUIE.

was found that the real burglars had taken the precaution to cover
their feet with sacking. Again, the evidence of the newspaper was
altogether repudiated on the grounds that it had not been sooner
detected, and had been put with malicious intention where it was
found. Lastly, several witnesses swore that they had never seen
in the possession of old Redpath any chisel such as that produced ;
while as to the gun. it was denied that either prisoner had ever

Photo : Cassell & Co., Limited.

EULIXGHAM RECTORY.

possessed any firearms. Their poaching was for rabbits, and they
always used a clever terrier.

The judge (Manisty) summed up strongly against the prisoners,
but the jury did not so easily agree upon their verdict. They
deliberated for three hours, and at last delivered a verdict of guilty,
whereupon the judge commended them, and proceeded to pass the
heaviest sentence in his power, short of death. He sought in vain,
he said, " for any redeeming circumstance " that would justify him
in reducing the sentence. Had Mr. or Miss Buckle succumbed to
their wounds, he must have condemned the prisoners to death.
It is clear, then, that Judge Manisty was only saved by mere

THE EDLINGHAM BURGLARY. 179

accident from making as grievous a mistake as any into which a
judge ever fell.

Brannagan and Murphy were removed from court protesting
their innocence. They went into penal servitude with the same
disclaimer.

Seven years dragged themselves along, and there seemed no near
prospect of release, " life " convicts being detained as a rule for at
least twenty years. But now, by some unseen working of Providence,
a light was about to be lei in on the case. It came to the know-
ledge of a young solicitor in Alnwick that a certain George Edgell
had been " out " on the night of the Edlingham burglary, and
that when he came in, a little before the general alarm, his wife
had begged their fellow-lodgers to say nothing about his absence.
Mr. Percy, Vicar of St. Paul's, Alnwick, through whose unstinting
exertions justice at last was done, knew Edgell and questioned him,
openly taxing him with complicity in the now nearly forgotten
crime. Edgell at first stoutly denied the imputation, but seemed
greatly agitated and upset. Added to this, it was stated authorita-
tively that Harkes, the police superintendent, who wns now dead,
admitted that he had been wrong, but that it was too late to rectify
the mistake.

There was some strong counter influence at work, and Mr. Percy
found presently that another man, named Charles Richardson, was
constantly hanging about Edgell. The reason came out when at
last Edgell made full confession of the burglary, and it was seen
that this Richardson was his accomplice. They had been out on
a poaching expedition, but had had little success. Then Richard-
son proposed to try the vicarage, and they forced their way in.
Richardson used a chisel which he had picked up in an outhouse
to prise open the windows and doors. All through he had been the
leader and moving spirit. He it was who had first thought of the
burglary, who had carried off the only bit of spoil worth having,
Miss Buckle's gold watch, and this, by a curious Nemesis, afforded
one of the strongest proofs of his guilt. A seal or trinket had
been attached to the chain, and years afterwards, the jeweller to
whom he had sold it came forward as a witness against him.
The watch itself he had been unable to dispose of, he said, and he
threw it into the Tyne. Richardson was a burly ruffian of great
stature, and possessed of enormous strength ; a quarrelsome desperado,

180 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

who had already been tried for the murder of a policeman but
acquitted for want of sufficient legal proof.

The matter was now taken up by Mr. Milvain, Q.C., who, it will
be remembered, defended Brannagan and Murphy, and who had
become Recorder of Durham. At his earnest request, backed by
strong local representations, the Home Secretary at length ordered
a Commission of Inquiry, admitting that the circumstances of the
case were " most singular and unprecedented." A solicitor of
Newcastle was appointed to investigate the whole matter, and the
fresh facts, with Edgell's confession, were set before him. On
his report the conviction was quashed It was now seen that
the evidence which had condemned those innocent men to a
life sentence was flimsy, and much of it open to doubt. All the
weak pouits have been already set forth, and it is enough to
state that Brannagan and Murphy were forthwith released, and
returned in triumph to Northumberland. The Treasury adjudged
them the sum of 800 each, as some slight compensation for their
seven years spent in durance vile, and the money was safely invested
for them by trustees. Brannagan at once obtained employment
as a wheelwright, the handicraft he had acquired in prison, and
Murphy, who was a prison-taught baker, adopted that trade, and
married the girl Agnes Simm, who had befriended him in regard
to the coat on the morning after the burglary.

The real offenders were in due course put upon their trial at
Newcastle, before Mr. Baron Pollock, were found guilty, and sentenced
each to five years' penal servitude. A petition, with upwards of
three thousand signatures, was presented to the Home Secretary,
praying for a mitigation of sentence on the ground that Edgell's
voluntary confession had righted a grievous wrong. The reply was
in the negative, and this decision can no doubt be justified. But
it is impossible to leave this question of sentence without com-
menting upon the extraordinary difference in the views of two
of her Majesty's judges in dealing with precisely the same offence.
There is no more glaring instance on record of the inequality
in the sentences that may be passed than that of Mr. Justice
Manisty inflicting "life" where Mr. Baron Pollock thought five
years sufficient.

Another trial was inevitable before this unfortunate affair
came to an end. The conduct of the police had been so strongly

Photos: W. H. Grove, Brompton Road, S.W.

CONVICTS AT WORK.

1. Mat-making. 2. Boot-making. 3. Serving Dinner.

5. Carpentry in Cell.

4. Basket-weaving.

182

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

impugned that nothing less than a judicial investigation would
satisfy the public mind. A Scotland Yard detective, the well-
known and highly intelligent Inspector Butcher, had been sent
down to Northumberland to verify, if possible, strong suspicions,
and hunt up all the facts. He worked upon the problem for a

couple of months, and a criminal prose-
cution was ordered on his report. Harkes
was now dead, but four of his constables,
Harrison, Sprott, Gair, and Chambers,
were charged with deliberately plotting
the conviction of two innocent men.
They were accused of making falser
plaster casts of footprints ; of entrap-
ping Redpath into a mistaken recogni-
tion of the chisel ; of tearing a piece
of the newspaper found in the vicarage
and feloniously placing it in the lining
of what they believed to be Murphy's
coat; and lastly, of tearing or cutting
out from Brannagan's trousers a piece

EX-SUPERIXTEXDEXT BUTCHEH, THE i i_ i 1 1

OFFICER WHO INVESTIGATED <>f doth, which they placed 111 tll6

THE EDLIXGHAM CASE. vicarage garden, to show that Bran-

nagan had been there and had jumped

through the window. The real burglars, Edgell and Richardson, were
brought in their convict garb to give evidence against the policemen
by detailing their proceedings on the night of the crime. Edgell's
story was received with respect, coming as it did from a man who
was suffering imprisonment on his own confession. It was credibly
believed that Richardson had picked up the chisel, and all the
probabilities corroborated their statement that they had covered
up their feet Avith sacking. The defence was that the confession
was all a lie, and that the men who made it were worthless
characters. In summing up, Mr. Justice Denrnan showed that the
evidence of deliberate conspiracy was wanting, and that the police
might be believed to have been honestly endeavouring to do their
duty in securing a conviction.

The verdict was " Not guilty," and was generally approved, more
perhaps on negative grounds of want of proof than from any
positive evidence of innocence. But the result was no doubt

A VICTIM OF POLITICAL PREJUDICE. 183

influenced by the fact that the principal person in the plot, if
plot there was, had passed beyond the reach of human justice.
The chief mover in the prosecution was Superintendent Harkes,
and the rest only acted at his instigation.

LORD COCHRAXE.

The prosecution and conviction of Lord Cochrane in 1814 may
well be classed under this head, for it was distinctly an error of la
haute police, of the Government, which as the head of all police,
authorises the detection of all wrong-doing, and sets the criminal
law in motion against all supposed offenders. It has now, been
generally accepted that the trial and prosecution of Lord Cochrane
(afterwards Earl of Dundonald) was a gross case of judicial error.
He was charged with having conspired to cause a rise in the
public funds by disseminating false news. There were, no doubt,
suspicious circumstances connecting him with the frauds of which
he was wrongfully convicted, but he had a good answer to all.
His conviction and severe sentence, after a trial that showed the
bitter animosity of the judge (Ellenborough) against a political foe,
caused a strong revulsion of feeling in the public mind, and it was
generally believed that he had not had fair play. The law, indeed,
fell upon him heavily. He was found guilt} r , and sentenced to
pay a fine of 500, to stand in the pillory, and to be imprisoned
for twelve months. These penalties involved the forfeiture of his
naval rank, and he had risen by many deeds of conspicuous
gallantry to be one of the foremost officers in the British Navy.
His name was erased from the list of Knights of the Bath, and he
was socially disgraced. How he lived to be rehabilitated and
restored to his rank and dignities is the best proof of his wrongful
conviction.

The story told by Lord Cochrane himself in his affidavits
will best describe Avhat happened. Having just put a new ship
in commission, H.M.S. Tonnant, he was preparing her for sea with
a convoy. He was an inventive genius, and had recently patented
certain lamps for the use of the ships sailing with him. He
had gone into the city one morning, the 21st of February, 1814,
to supervise their manufacture, when a servant followed him with
a note. It had been brought to his house by a military officer in

184 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

uniform, whose name was not known, nor could it be deciphered, so
illegible was the scrawl. Lord Cochrane was expecting news from
the Peninsula, where a brother of his lay desperately wounded,
and he sent back word to his house that he would come to see
the officer ^at the earliest possible moment. When he returned
he found a person he barely knew, who gave the name of Raudon
de Berenger, and told a strange tale.

He was a prisoner for debt, he said, within the rules of the
King's Bench, and he had come to Lord Cochrane to implore
him to release him from his difficulties and carry him to America
in his ship. His request was refused it could not be granted,
indeed, according to naval rules ; and de Berenger was dismissed.
But before he left he urged piteously that to return to the King's
Bench prison in full uniform would attract suspicion. It was not
stated .how he had left it, but he no doubt implied that he had
escaped and changed into uniform somewhere. Why he did not
go back to the same place to resume his plain clothes did not
appear. Lord Cochrane only knew that in answer to his urgent
entreaty he lent him some clothes. The room was at that moment
littered with clothes, which were to be sent on board the Tonnant,
and he unsuspiciously gave de Berenger a " civilian's hat and
coat." This was a capital part of the charge against Lord Cochrane.

De Berenger had altogether lied about himself. He had not
come from within the rules of the King's Bench but from Dover,
where he had been seen the previous night at the Ship hotel
He was then in uniform, and pretended to be an aide-de-camp
to Lord Cathcart, the bearer of important despatches. He made
no secret of the transcendent news he brought. Bonaparte had
been killed by the Cossacks, Louis XVIII. proclaimed, and the
allied armies were on the point of occupying Paris. To give
greater publicity to the intelligence, he sent it by letter to the
port-admiral at Deal, to be forwarded to the Government in London
by means of the semaphore telegraph. The effect of this startling
news was to send up stocks ten per cent., and many speculators
who sold on the rise realised enormous sums.

De Berenger, still in uniform, followed in a post-chaise, but on
reaching London he dismissed it, took a hackney coach, and drove
straight to Lord Cochrane's. He had some slight acquaintance
with his lordship, and had already petitioned him for a passage

O
O

UJ
O

J
o
cu

H
UJ

H
W

A STOCK EXCHANGE PLOT. 185

to America, an application which had been refused. There was
nothing extraordinary, then, in de Berenger's visit. His lordship,
again, claimed that de Berenger's call on him, instead of going
straight to the Stock Exchange to commence operations, indicated
that he had weakened in his plot, and did not see how to carry

LORD COCHKANK.

(From the Painting by Stroehling.)

it through. "Had I been his confederate," says Lord Cochrane
in his affidavit, "it is not within the bounds of credibility that he
would have come in the first instance to my house, and waited
two hours for my return home, in place of carrying out the plot
he had undertaken, or that I should have been occupied in per-
fecting my lamp invention for the use of the convoy, of which I

186

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIMK.

was in a few days to take charge, instead of being on the only
spot where any advantage to be derived from the Stock Exchange
hoax could be realised, had I been a participator in it. Such
advantage must have been immediate, before the truth came out;
and to have reaped it, had I been guilty, it was necessary that I
should not lose a moment. It is still more improbable that being

(From Cruiksha.nl;' s Etching.)

aware of the hoax, I should not have speculated largely for the
special risk of that day."

We may take Lord Cochrane's word, as an officer and a
gentleman, that he had no guilty knowledge of de Berenger's
scheme; but here again the luck was against him, for it came
out in evidence that his brokers had sold stock for him on the
day of the fraud. Yet the operation was not an isolated one made
on that occasion only. Lord Cochrane declared that he had for
some time past anticipated a favourable conclusion to the war.
" I had held shares for the rise," he said, " and had made money
by sales. The stock I held on the day of the fraud was less than

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AXD CRIME.

I usually had, and it was sold under an old order given to rnv
brokers to sell at a certain price. It had necessarily to be sold/'
It was clear to Lord Cochrane's friends who, indeed, and rightly,
held him to be incapable of stooping to fraud that had he con-
templated it he would have
been a larger holder of stock
on the day in question, when
he actually held less than
usual. On these grounds
alone they were of opinion
that he should have been
absolved from the charge.

Great lawyers like Lords
Campbell, Brougham, and
Erskine have commented on
this case, all of them ex-
pressing their belief in Lord
Cochrane's innocence. Lord
Campbell was of opinion that
the verdict was " palpably
contrary to the first prin-
ciples of justice, and ought
to have been reversed." The
late Chief Baron, Sir Fitzroy
Kelly, in criticising the trial,
ends by expressing his regret
that " we cannot blot out this
dark page from our legal and
judicial history." These are
the opinions of legal lumin-
aries who were in the fullest mental vigour and acumen at the
time of the trial. They were intimately acquainted with all the
facts, and we may accept their judgment that a great and grievous
wrong had been done to a nobleman of high character, who had
not spared himself in the service of the State. Their view was
tardily supported by the Government in restoring Lord Cochrane
to his rightful position in the Navy.

The part taken by the late Lord Playfair in the rehabilitation
of Lord Dundonald has been told by Sir Wemyss Reid in his

LORD COCHKANE AS HE APPEARED IN COURT.

(From Cndkshank's Etching.)

NEWEST AND LATEST FACTS. 189

admirable " Memoirs" of Playfair. Lord Dundonald died in October,
1860, and by his last will bequeathed to his grandson, the present
gallant earl, whose brilliant achievements as a cavalry leader in
the great Boer War have shown him to be a worthy scion of a
warrior stock, " all the sums due to me by the British Govern-
ment for my important services, as well as the sums of pay
stopped under perjured evidence for the commission of a fraud
upon the Stock Exchange. Given under my trembling hand this
21st day of February, the anniversary of my ruin."

Lord Playfair was an intimate friend of the much- worried
admiral, and while he was a member of the House of Commons
he made a strenuous effort to carry out the terms of the above
will by recovering the sums mentioned in it. He moved for a
Select Committee of the House, which could not be refused, "as,"
to quote Playfair, "the whole world had come to the conviction
that Dundonald was entirely innocent." The Committee was
appointed, and was composed of many excellent men, including
Spencer Walpole, Russell Gurney, and Whitbread.

What followed shall be told in Playfair's own words. "I
declined to go upon the Committee," he writes in his Autobio-
graphy, as edited by Sir Wemyss Reid, " as my feelings of
friendship were too keen to make me a fair judge. The Com-
mittee felt perfectly satisfied of Lord Dundonald's innocence, but
they hesitated as to their report from lack of evidence; at the
critical point an interesting event occurred.

"In 1814 Lord Dundonald and Lady X were in love, and
though they did not marry, always held each other in great
esteem for the rest of their lives. Old Lady X was still alive in
1877, and she sent me a letter through young Cochrane, the
grandson, authorising me to use it as I thought best. The letter
was yellow with age, but had been carefully preserved. It was
written by Lord Dundonald, and was dated from the prison on
the night of the committal. It tried to console the lady by the
fact that the guilt of a near relative of hers was not suspected,
while the innocence of the writer was his support and consolation.

" The old lady must have had a terrible trial. It was hard to
sacrifice the reputation of her relative ; it was harder still to see
injustice still resting upon her former lover. Lord Dundonald
had loved her and had received much kindness from her relative,

190

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND C It I Ml-;.

so he suffered calumny and the injustice of nearly two generations
rather than tell the true story of his wrong.

" I had long suspected the truth, but I never heard it from
Lord Dundonald. The brave old lady tendered this letter as
evidence to the Committee, but I declined to give it in, knowing
that had my friend been alive he would not have allowed me to
do so. At the same time I showed the letter to the members of
the Committee individually, and it had a great effect upon their
minds, and no doubt helpsd to secure the report recommending
that the Treasury should pay the grandson the back salary of the
admiral.

" The interesting letter itself I recommended should be put
in the archives of the Dundonald family, and this I believe has
been done."

LORD COCHRANE IN CUSTODY.
(From Cruikshank's Etching.)

191

POLICE-PAST AKD PRESENT.

CHAPTER V.
EARLY POLICE : FRANCE.

Origin of Police Definitions First Police in France Charles V. Louis XIV.
The Lieutenant- General of Police His Functions and Powers La Reynie His
Energetic Measures against Crime As a Censor of the Press His Steps to
check Gambling and Cheating at Games of Chance La Reynie's Successors : the
d'Argensons, Herault, d'Ombreval, Berryer The Famous de Sartines Two In-
stances of his Omniscience Lenoir and Espionage De Crosne, the last and most
feeble Lieutenant-General of Police The Story of the Bookseller Blaizot Police
under the Directory and the Empire Fouche His Beginnings and First Chances
A Born Police Officer His Rise and Fall General Savary His Character
How he organised his Service of Spies His humiliating Failure in the Conspiracy
of General Malet Fouche's return to Power Some Views of his Character.

WHEN men began to congregate in communities, laws for the
good government and protection of the whole number became
a necessity, and this led to the creation of police. The word itself
is derived from 73-0X19 (" city "), a collection of people within a certain
area : a community working regularly together for mutual advantage
and defence. The work of defence was internal as well as external,
for since the world began there have been dissidents and outlaws,
those who declined to accept the standard of conduct deemed
generally binding, and so set law at defiance. Hence the organisation
of some force taking its mandate from the many to compel good
conduct in the few; some special institution whose functions are
to watch over the common weal, and act for the public both in
preventing evil and preparing or securing good. From this the
police deduces its claim to such interference with every citizen as

192

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

is necessary to main-
tain order and ensure
obedience to the Jaw.
It is easy to see that
by excessive develop-
ment the police sys-
tem may become too
paternal, and that
under the great des-
potisms it may be
and often is a potent
engine for the en-
slavement of a people.
These ideas, per-
fect enough in the
abstract, are contained
in the definitions of
police as found in dic-
tionaries and the best
authorities. The Im-
perial Dictionary calls
it "a judicial and
executive system in
a national jurisprud-
ence which is specially
concerned with the
quiet and good order

of society; the means instituted by a government or community
to maintain public order, liberty, property, and individual
security." Littre defines police as " the ordered system estab-
lished in any city or state, which controls all that affects the
comfort and safety of the inhabitants." "Police," says a modern
writer, " is that section of public authority charged to protect
persons and things against every attack, every evil which can be
prevented or lessened by human prudence." Again : " To maintain
public order, protect property and personal liberty, to watch over
public manners and the public health: such are the principal
functions of the police." Although we English people were slow
to adopt any police system on a large or uniform scale, the principle

CLOCK AT THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE, PARIS, PRESENTED
BY CHARLES V. IX 1370.

DEFINITIONS OF POLICE.

193

has ever been accepted by our legists. Jeremy Bentham considered
police necessary as a measure of precaution, to prevent crimes and
calamities as well as to correct and cure them. Blackstone in his
Commentaries says : " By public police and economy I mean the
due regulation and domestic order of the kingdom, whereby the
individuals of the State, like members of a well-governed family,
are bound to conform their general behaviour to the rules of pro-
priety, good neighbourhood, and good manners ; to be decent, in-
dustrious, and inoffensive in their respective stations."

THE BASTILLE.

(From an olil Print.)

The French kings were probably the first, in modern times,
to establish a police system. As early as the 'fourteenth century
Charles V., who was ready to administer justice anywhere, in the
open field or under the first tree, invented a police " to increase tho
happiness and security of his people." It was a fatal gift, soon to
13

194 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

be developed into an engine of horrible oppression. It came to be
the symbol of despotism, the plain outward evidence of the king's
supreme will, the bars and fetters that checked and restrained all
liberty, depriving the people of the commonest rights and privileges,
forbidding them to work, eat, dress, live, or move from place to
place without leave. Louis XIV., on his accession, systematised
and enormously increased the functions and powers of the police,
and with an excellent object, that of giving security to a city
in which crime, disorder, and dirt flourished unchecked. But in
obtaining good government all freedom and independence was
crushed out of the people.

The lieutenant of police first appointed in 1667, and presently
advanced to the higher rank of lieutenant-general, was an all-
powerful functionary, who ruled Paris despotically henceforward
to the great break-up at the Revolution. He had summary juris-
diction over beggars, .vagabonds, and evil-doers of all kinds and
classes; he was in return responsible for the security and general
good order of the city. Crimes, great and small, were very prevalent,
such as repeated acts of fraud and embezzlement ; for Fouquet had
but just been convicted of the malversation of public moneys on a
gigantic scale. There were traitors in even the highest ranks, and
the Chevalier de Rohan about this period was detected in a plot
to sell several strong places on the Xormandy coast to the enemy.
Very soon the civilised world was to be shocked beyond measure
by the wholesale poisonings of the Marchioness of Brinvilliers.
Yoisin, and other miscreants. In the very heart of Paris there was
a deep gangrene, a sort of criminal Alsatia the Cour des Miracles
where depredators and desperadoes gathered unchecked, and defied
authority. The streets were made hideous by incessant bloodthirsty
brawls ; quarrels were fought out then and there, for everyone, with
or without leave, carried a sword even servants and retainers of
the great noblemen and was prompt to use it. The lieutenant-
general was nearly absolute in regard to offences, both political
and general. In his office were kept long lists of suspected persons
and known evil-doers, with full details of their marks and appear-
ance, nationality and character. He could deal at once with all
persons taken in. the act; if penalties beyond his power were
required, he passed them on to the superior courts. The prisoners
of State in the royal castles the Bastille, Vincenncs, and the rest

' '* ' "'" W].-' . '.\ --I .X^rrgr

3 :-'ir"":m"^^^f^W
ik /i_ _. . - - * ^- -- ^

RELICS OF THE BASTILLE AND OTHER FRENCH PRISONS.

(In the possession, of Madame Tussaud i'o/i*, Limited.)

I. Hand Crusher. 2. Thumb-screw. 3. Key of the Bastille. 4. Dungeon Door from

the Abbey Prison, Paris. 5. Handcuffs. i. Wrist aud Neck-irons.

196 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME

were in his charge ; he interrogated them at will, and might add
to their number by arresting dangerous or suspected persons, in
pursuit of whom he could enter and search private houses or take
any steps, however arbitrary. For all these purposes he had a large
armed force at his disposal, cavalry and infantry, nearly a
thousand men in all, and besides there was the city watch, the
chevaliers de guet, or " archers," who were seventy-one in number.

LA REYNIE. '

The first lieutenant-general of police in Paris was Gabriel Nicolas
(who assumed the name of la Reynie, from his estate), a young lawyer
who had been the protege of the Governor of Burgundy, and after-
wards was taken up by Colbert, Louis XIV.'s Minister. La Reynie is
described by his contemporaries as a man of great force of character,
grave and silent and self-reliant, who wielded his new authority with
great judgment and determination, and soon won the entire confidence
of the autocratic king. He lost no time in putting matters right.
To clear out the Cour des Miracles and expel all rogues was one of
his first measures ; his second was to enforce the regulation forbidding
servants to go armed. Exemplary punishment overtook two foot-
men of a great house who had beaten and wounded a student
upon the Pont Neuf. They were apprehended, convicted, and hanged,
in spite of the strong protests of their masters. La Reynie went
farther, and revived the ancient regulation by which servants could
not come and go as they pleased, and none could be engaged who
did not possess papers en rtgle. The servants did not submit
kindly, and for some time evaded the new rule by carrying huge
.sticks or canes, of which also they were eventually deprived.

The lieutenant-general of police was the censor of the Press,
which was more free-spoken than was pleasing to a despotic govern-
ment, and often published matter that was deemed libellous. The
French were not yet entirely cowed, and sometimes they dared to
cry out against unjust judges and thieving financiers; there were
fierce factions in the Church ; Jesuit and Jansenist carried on a
bitter polemical war ; the Protestants, unceasingly persecuted, made
open complaint which brought down on some of their exemplary
clergy the penalty of the galleys. The police had complete authority
over printers and publishers, and could deal sharply with all books,

LA EEYNIE.

197

pamphlets, or papers containing libellous statements or improper
opinions. The most stringent steps were taken to prevent the
distribution of prohibited books. Philosophical works were most
disliked. Books when seized were dealt with as criminals and
were at once consigned to the Bastille. Twenty copies were set
aside by the governor, other twelve
or fifteen were at the disposal of
the higher officials, the rest were
handed over to the paper-makers
to be torn up and sold as waste
paper or destroyed by fire in the
presence of the keeper of archives.
Many of the books preserved in
the Bastille and found at the Re-
volution were proved to be insig-
nificant and inoffensive, and to
have been condemned on the
general charge of being libels
either on the queen and royal
family or on the Ministers of
State. Prohibited books were not
imprisoned until they had been
tried and condemned ; their sen-
tence was written on a ticket

affixed to the sack containing them. Condemned engravings were
scratched and defaced in the presence of the keeper of archives
and the staff of the Bastille ; and so wholesale was the destruction
of books that one paper-maker alone carried off 3,015 pounds
weight of fragments. Seizures were often accompanied by the arrest
of pointers and publishers, and an order to destroy the press and
distribute the bookseller's whole stock.

Although la Reynie used every effort to check improper publi-
cations, he was known as the patron and supporter of legitimate
printing. Under his auspices several notable editions issued from
the press, and their printers received handsome pensions from the
State. He was a collector, a bibliophile who gathered together
many original texts; and he will always deserve credit for having
caused the chief manuscripts of the great dramatist Moliere to be
carefully preserved.

LOT 1 18 XIV.

(From an old Print.)

198 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Society was very corrupt in those days, honeycombed with
vices, especially gambling, which claimed the constant attention of
a paternal police. La Reynie was most active in his pursuit of
gamblers. The rapid fortunes made by dishonest means led to
much reckless living, and especially to an extraordinary develop-
ment of play. Everyone gambled, everywhere, in and out of
doors, even in their carriages while travelling to and fro. Louis
XIV., as he got on in life, and more youthful pleasures palled,
played tremendously. His courtiers naturally followed the example.
It was not all fair play either; the temptation of winning largely
attracted numbers of "Greeks" to the gaming tables, and cheating
of all kinds was very common. The king gave frequent and
positive orders to check it. A special functionary who had juris-
diction in the Court, the grand provost, was instructed to find
some means of preventing this constant cheating at play. At
the same time la Reynie sent Colbert a statement of the various
kinds of fraud practised with cards, dice, or hoca, a game
played with thirty points and thirty balls. The police lieutenant
made various suggestions for checking these malpractices : the
card-makers were to be subjected to stringent surveillance ; it was
useless to control the makers of dice, but they were instructed to
denounce all who ordered loaded dice. As to hoca, it was, he said,
far the most difficult and the most dangerous. The Italians, who
had originated the game, so despaired of checking cheating in it that
they had forbidden it in their own country. La Reynie's anxiety
was such that he begged the Minister to prohibit its introduction
at the Court, as the fashion would soon be followed in the city.
However, this application failed ; the Court would not sacrifice its
amusements, and was soon devoted to hoca, with lansquenet,
postique, trou-madame, and other games of hazard.

The extent to which gambling was carried will be seen in the
amounts lost and won ; it was easy, in lansquenet or hoca, to win
fifty or sixty times in a quarter of an hour. Madame de Montespan,
the king's favourite, frequently lost a hundred thousand crowns at a
sitting. One Christmas Day she lost seven hundred thousand crowns.
On another occasion she laid a hundred and fifty thousand pistoles
{ 300,000) upon three cards, and won. Another night, it is said, she
won back five millions which she had lost. Monsieur, the king's
brother, also gambled wildly. When campaigning he lost a hundred

HERAULT AND THE AEEE. 199

thousand francs to other officers ; once he was obliged to pledge
the whole of his jewels to liquidate his debts of honour.

Nevertheless the games of chance, if permitted at Court, were
prohibited elsewhere. The police continually harried the keepers of
gambling hells ; those who offended were forced to shut up their
establishments and expelled from Paris. The king was disgusted at
times, and reproved his courtiers. He took one M. de Yentadour
sharply to task for starting hoca in his house, and warned him that
" this kind of thing must be entirely ended." The exact opposite
was the result : that and other games gained steadily in popularity,
and the number of players increased and multiplied. The king
promised la Reynie to put gambling down with a strong hand, and
called for a list of all hells and of those who kept them. But the
simple measure of beginning with the Court was not tried. Had
play been suppressed among the highest it would soon have gone
out of fashion ; as it was, it flourished unchecked till the collapse
of the ancien regime.

HERAULT.

It would be tedious to trace the succession of lieutenants-general
between la Reynie and de Crosne, the last, who was in office at the
outbreak of the French Revolution. One or two were remarkable
in their way : the elder D'Argenson, who was universally detested
and feared ; who cleared out the low haunts with such ruthless
severity that he was known to the thieves and criminals as Rhada-
manthus, or the judge of the infernal regions ; his son, D'Argenson
the younger, who is held responsible for the law of passports which
made it death to go abroad without one ; Herault, who persecuted
the Freemasons, and was so noted for his bigotry and intolerance.
Of him the following story is told. In one of his walks abroad
he took offence at the sign at a shop door which represented a
priest bargaining about goods at a counter, with this title, " L'Abbe
Coquet." Returning home, he despatched an emissary to fetch
the Abbe Coquet, but gave no explanation. The agent went out
and picked up a priest of the name and brought him to Herault's
house. They told him the Abbe Coquet was below. "Mettez-le
dans le grenier" was Herault's brief order. Next day the abbe",
half-starved, grew furious at his detention, and Herault's servants
reported that they could do nothing with him. " Eh ! Brulez-le

200 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

et laissez-moi tranquille ! " replied the chief of police, whereupon an
explanation followed, and the Abbe Coquet was released.

D'OMBREVAL.

D'Ombreval, again, was a man of intolerant views. He
especially distinguished himself by his persistent persecution ot
the mad fanatics called the convulsionnaires,* whom he ran down
everywhere, pursuing them into the most private places, respecting
neither age nor sex, and casting them wholesale into prison. Two
of these victims were found in the Conciergerie in 1775 who had
been imprisoned for thirty-eight years. The convulsionnaires suc-
cessfully defied the police in the matter of a periodical print which
they published secretly and distributed in the very teeth of authority.
This rare instance of baffled detection is worth recording. The police
were powerless to suppress the Nouvelles Ecclesiastiques, as the paper
was called. A whole army of active and unscrupulous spies could
not discover who wrote it or where it was printed. Sometimes it
appeared in the town, sometimes in the country. It was printed,
now in the suburbs, now among the piles of wood in the Gros
Caillou, now upon barges in the River Seine, now in private houses.
A thousand ingenious devices were practised to put it into circu-
lation and get it through the barriers. One of the cleverest was by
utilising a poodle dog which carried a false skin over its shaved
body ; between the two the sheets were carefully concealed, and
travelled safely into the city. So bold were the authors of this
print that on one occasion when the police lieutenant was searching
a house for a printing press several copies of the paper still wet
from the press were thrown into his carriage.

BERRYER.

Berryer, a later lieutenant-general, owed his appointment to
Madame de Pompadour, whose creature he was, and his whole

* These convulsiotmaires were a sect of the Jansenists who met at the tomb of " Francis
of Paris," where they preached, prophesying the downfall of the Church and the
French monarchy. Their ceremonies were wild and extravagant ; they contorted their
bodies violently, rolled on the ground, imitating birds, beasts, and fishes, until these
convulsions (hence their name) ended in a swoon and collapse. The law was rery
severe against these fanatics, who, however, survived the most vigorous measures.

THE POLICE AND PRIVATE LETTERS. 201

aim was to learn all that was said of her and against her, and
then avenge attack by summary arrests. At her instance he
sent in a daily statement of all the scandalous gossip current in
the city, and he lent his willing aid to the creation of the
infamous Cabinet Noir, in which the sanctity of all correspondence

DE 8AHTINF.

(From the Engraving by J.ittnt.)

was violated and every letter read as it passed through the post.
A staff of clerks was always busy ; they took inipressions of the
seals with quicksilver, melted the wax over steam, extracted the
sheets, read them, and copied all parts that were thought likely
to interest the king and Madame de Pompadour. The treacherous
practice was well known > in Paris, and so warmly condemned that
it is recorded in contemporary memoirs : " Dr. Quesriay furiously
declared he would sooner dine with the hangman than with the
Intendant of Posts " who countenanced such a base proceeding.

202 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

M. DE SARTINES.

Perhaps the most famous and most successful police Minister
of his time was M. de Sartines, whose detective triumphs were
mainly due to his extensive system and to the activity of his
nearly ubiquitous agents. Two good stories are preserved of de
Sartines' omniscience.

One of them runs that a great officer of State wrote him from
Vienna begging that a noted Austrian robber who had taken
refuge in Paris might be arrested and handed over. De Sartines
immediately replied that it was quite a mistake, the man wanted
was not in Paris, but actually in Vienna; he gave his exact
address, the hours at which he went in and out of his house, and
the disguises he usually assumed. The information was absolutely
correct, and led to the robber's arrest.

Again, one of de Sartines' friends, the president of the High Court
at Lyons, ventured to deride his processes, declaring that they
were of no avail, and that anyone, if so disposed, could elude the
police. He offered a wager, which de Sartines accepted, that he
could come into Paris and conceal himself there for several days
without the knowledge of the police. A month later this judge
left Lyons secretly, travelled to Paris day and night, and on
arrival took up his quarters in a remote part of the city. By
noon that day he received a letter, delivered at his address, from
de Sartines, who invited him to dinner and claimed payment of
the wager.

A great coup was made by this adroit officer, but the interest
of the affair attaches rather to the thieves than to the police.
It was on the occasion of the marriage of Louis XVI. and Marie
Antoinette in 1770. During the great fetes in honour of the event
an extraordinary tumult arose in the Rue Royale, where it joins
the modern Champs filysees. A gang of desperadoes had cunningly
stretched cords across the street under cover of the darkness, and
the crowds moving out to the fetes fell over them in hundreds.
The confusion soon grew general, and a frightful catastrophe ensued.
Men, women, and children, horses and carriages, were mixed up
in an inextricable tangle, and hundreds were trampled to death.
Some desperate men tried to hack out a passage with their swords,
children were passed from hand to hand over the heads of the

TUMULT CAUSED BY THIEVES AT THE MARRIAGE FESTIVITIES OF MARIE

ANTOINETTE.

204 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

crowd, too often to fall and be swallowed up in the struggling gulf
below. No fewer than 2,470 people are said to have perished in
this horrible melee. It was, of course, a time of harvest for the
thieves. Apparently only one of the confraternity suffered from
the crush, and on him fifty watches were found and as many chains,
gold and silver. Next day de Sartines and his agents made whole-
sale arrests. Some three or four hundred noted thieves were taken
up and sent to the Conciergerie, where they were strictly searched.
Large quantities of valuables were secured watches, bracelets, rings,
coll'ars, purses, all kinds of jewels. One robber alone had two
thousand francs tied up in his handkerchief.

De Sartines kept a few criminals on hand for the strange pur-
pose of amusing fashionable society. It became the custom to have
thieves to perform in drawing-rooms. De Sartines, when asked,
would obligingly send to any great mansion a party of adroit
pickpockets, who went through all their tricks before a dis-
tinguished audience, cutting watch-chains, stealing purses, snuff-
boxes, and jewellery.

This famous chief of police was the first to use espionage on a.
large scale, and to employ detectives who were old criminals.
When reproached with this questionable practice, de Sartines de-
fended it by asking, " Where should I find honest folk who would
agree to do such work ? " It was necessary for him to protect
these unworthy agents by official safe-conducts, which were worded
as follows :

"!N THE KING'S XAME.

" His Majesty, having private reasons for allowing to conduct his affairs without

interruption, accords him safe conduct for six months, and takes him under especial
protection for that period. His Majesty orders that he shall be exempt from arrests
and executions during that time ; all officers and sergeants are forbidden to .take action,
against him, gaolers shall not receive him for debt, under pain of dismissal. If not-
withstanding this he should be arrested he must be at once set free, provided always'
that the safe-conduct does not save him from condemnations pronounced on the King's
behalf."

LENOIR.

Lenoir, who succeeded de Sartines, carried espionage still farther,
and employed a vast army of spies, paid and unpaid. Servants
only got their places on the condition that they kept the police
informed of all that went on in the houses where they served.

ARISTOCRATIC SPIES.

205

The hawkers who paraded the streets were in his pay. He had
suborned members of the many existing associations of thieves, and
they enjoyed tolerance so long as they denounced their accomplices.
The gambling-houses were taken under police protection; with the
proviso that they paid over a percentage of profits and reported all
that occurred. People of good society
who had got into trouble were for-
given on condition that they watched
their friends and gave information of
anything worth knowing. One fash-
ionable agent was a lady who enter-
tained large parties and came secretly
by a private staircase to the police
office with her budget of news. This
woman was only paid at the rate of
80 a year.

DE CROSNE.

Thiroux de Crosne was the last
lieutenant-general of police, and the
revolutionary upheaval was no doubt
assisted by his ineptitude, his marked
want of tact and intelligence. While
the city was mined under his feet

with the coming volcanic disturbances he gave all his energies to
theatrical censorship, and kept his agents busy reporting how often
this or that phrase was applauded. He was ready to imprison any-
one who dared offend a great nobleman, and was very severe upon
critics and pamphleteers The absurd misuse of the censorship was
no doubt one of the contributing causes of the Revolution. The
police were so anxious to save the king, Louis XVI., from the pollution
of reading the many libels published that they allowed no printed
matter to come near him. In this way he was prevented from
gauging the tendency of the times, or the trend of public opinion.
At last, wishing to learn the exact truth of the vague rumours that
reached him, he ordered a bookseller, Blaizot, to send him eveiything
that appeared. He soon surprised his Ministers by the knowledge he
displayed, and they set to work to find how it reached him. Blaizot
was discovered and sent to the Bastille. When the king, wondering

LENOIli.

{From a Contemporary Print.)

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRDIE.

why he got no more pamphlets, inquired, he learnt that Blaizot
had been imprisoned by his order!

The monarchical police was quickly swept away by the French
Revolution. It was condemned as an instrument of tyranny ;
having only existed, according to the high-sounding phrases of
the period, to " sow distrust, encourage perfidy, and substitute
intrigue for public spirit." The open official police thus dis-
appeared, but it was replaced by another
far more noxious ; a vast political engine,
recklessly handled by every bloodthirsty
wretch who wielded power in those dis-
astrous times. The French Republicans,
from the Committee of Public Safety
to the last revolutionary club, were all
policemen spying, denouncing, feeding
the guillotine. Robespierre had his own
private police, and after his fall numerous
reports were found among his papers
showing how close and active was the
surveillance he maintained through his
spies, not only in Paris alone, but all
over France.

Under the Directory the office of a
Minister of Police was revived, not

without stormy protest, and the newly organised police soon
became a power in the Republic as tyrannical and inquisitorial
as that of Venice. It had its work cut out for it. Paris, the
whole country, was in a state of anarchy, morals were at their
lowest point, corruption and crime everywhere rampant. The streets
of the city, all the high roads, were infested with bands of robbers
with such wide ramifications that a general guerilla warfare terror-
ised the provinces. We shall see more of this on a later page,
when describing the terrible bandits named Chauffeurs, from their
practice of torturing people by toasting their feet before the fire
until they gave up their hidden treasure.

FOUCHE.

Xine police Ministers quickly followed each other between 1796
and 1799, men of no particular note; but at last Barras fixed

(From the Engraving by Allais.)

A TYPICAL POLICEMAN.

207

ATTACK UPON' THE BASTILLE, DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

upon Fouche as a person he imagined to be well qualified for
the important post. He thus ga\ 7 e a first opening to one whose
name is almost synonymous with policeman the strong, adroit,
unscrupulous manipulator of the tremendous underground forces
he created and controlled, the man who for many years practically

208 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

divided with Napoleon the empire of France. The emperor had
the ostensible supremacy, but his many absences on foreign Avars
left much of the real power in his Minister's hands. Fouche's
aptitudes for police work must have been instinctive, for he had
no special training or experience when summoned to the post of
Police Minister. He had begun life as a professor, and was known
as le Pere Fouche, a member of the Oratory, although he did
not actually take religious orders. Born in the seaport town of
Nantes, he was at first designed for his father's calling the sea ;
but at school his favourite study was theology and polemics, so
that his masters strongly advised that he should be made a priest
Something of the suppleness, the quiet, passionless self-restraint,
the patient, observant craftiness of the ecclesiastic remained with
him through life.

The Revolution found him in his native town, prefect of his
college of Nantes, married, leading an obscure and blameless life.
He soon threw himself into the seething current, and was sent to
the National Convention as representative for La Nievre. It is
needless to follow his political career, in which, with that readi-
ness to change his coat which was second nature to him, he
espoused many parties in turn, and long failed to please any, least
of all Robespierre, who called him "a vile, despicable impostor."
But the Directory was friendly to him, and appointed him its
minister, first at Milan, then in Holland, whence he was recalled
by Barras, whom he had obliged in various matters, to take the
Ministry of Police. He had always been in touch with popular
movements, knew men and things intimately, and, it was hoped,
would check the more turbulent spirits.

Fouche saw his chance when Bonaparte rose above the horizon.
He was no real Republican ; all his instincts were towards despotism
and arbitrary personal government. It may well be believed that
he contributed much to the success of the 18th Brumaire ; this born
conspirator could best ' handle all the secret threads that were
needed to establish the new power. He has said in his Memoirs
that the revolution of Saint-Cloud must have failed but for him,
and he was willing enough to support it. " I should have been an
idiot not to prefer a future to nothing. My ideas were fixed. I
deemed Bonaparte alone fitted to carry out the changes rendered
imperatively necessary by our manners, our vices, our errors and

AN ALL-POWERFUL HEAD OF THE POLICE.

209

excesses, our misfortunes and unhappy differences." When the

Consulate was established, Fouche was one of the most important

personages in France. He had ample means at his disposal, and he

did not hesitate to use them freely to strengthen his position ; he

bought assistance right and left, had his paid creatures everywhere,

even at Bonaparte's elbow, it

was said, and had bribed

Josephine and Bourrienne to

betray the inmost secrets of

the palace. The strength

and extent of his system

created by necessity, perfected

by sheer love of intrigue

was soon realised by his

master, who saw that Fouche

united the police and all its

functions in his own person,

and might easily prove a

menace to his newly acquired

power.

So Fouche was suppressed,
but only for a couple of years,
during which nearer dangers,
conspiracies threatening the
very life of Napoleon, led the
emperor to recall the astute,
all - powerful Minister, who

meanwhile had maintained a private police of his own. Fouche
had his faithful agents abroad, and showed himself better served,
better informed, than the emperor himself. He proved this by
giving Napoleon an early copy of a circular by the exiled Bour-
bon king about to be issued in Paris, the existence of which
was unknown to the official police. When Fouche returned to the
Prefecture, it was to stay. For some eight years he was indispens-
able. The emperor seemed to rely upon him entirely, passing every-
thing on to him. " Send it to Fouche ; it is his business," was the
endorsement on innumerable papers of that time. The provincial
prefets looked only to Fouche ; the Police Minister was the sole
repository of power, the one person to please ; his orders were
14

FOUCHE.
(From the Engraving by Couche.)

210 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

sought and accepted with blind submission by all. He might have
remained in office to the end of the imperial regime but that he
became too active and meddled with matters quite beyond his
province ; and his downfall was hastened by a daring intrigue to
bring about a secret compact with England and secure peace.

SAVARY.

Fouche's successor was General Savary, one of Napoleon's most
devoted and uncompromising adherents, an indifferent soldier and
a conceited, self-sufficient man. He will always be stigmatised as
the executioner of the Due d'Enghien, one ready to go any lengths
in blind obedience to his master's behests. His appointment as
chief of the police caused universal consternation ; it was dreaded
as the inauguration of an epoch of brutal military discipline, the
advent of the soldier-policeman, whose iron hand would be heavy
upon all. Wholesale arrests, imprisonments, and exiles were
anticipated. Savary himself, although submissively accepting his.
new and strange duties, shrank from executing them. He would
gladly have declined the honour of becoming Police Minister,
but the emperor would not excuse him, and, taking him by the
hand, tried to stiffen his courage by much counsel. The advice he
freely gave is worth recording in part, as expressing the views of
a monarch who was himself the best police officer of his time.

" Ill-use no one," he told Savary as they strolled together
through the park of Saint-Cloud. " You are supposed to be a severe-
man, and it would give a handle to my enemies if you were found
harsh and reactionary. Dismiss none of your present employees ; if
any displease you, keep them at least six months, and then find
them other situations. If you have to adopt stern measures, be
sure they are justified, and it will at least be admitted that you
are doing your duty. . . . Do not imitate your predecessor, who
allowed me to be blamed for sharp measures and took to himself
the credit of any acts of leniency. A good police officer is quite
without passion. Allow yourself to hate no one ; listen to all,
and never commit yourself to an opinion until you have thought
it well over. ... I removed Monsieur Fouche because I could
no longer rely upon him. When I no longer gave him orders, he
acted on his own account and left me to bear the responsibility.

8AVABT TAKES OFFICE UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

He was always trying to find out what I meant to do, so as to
forestall me, and, as I became more and more reserved, he accepted
as true what others told him, and so got farther and farther
astray."

Savary, on assuming the reins ot office, found himself in. a
serious dilemma. He could hardly
have anticipated that Fouche
would make his task easy for him,
but the result was even worse
than he had expected. He had
been weak enough to allow Fouche
three weeks to clear out of the
Ministry, and his wily predecessor
had made the best use of his time
to burn and destroy every paper
of consequence that he possessed.
When he finally handed over his
charge, he produced one meagre
document alone an abusive
memorandum, two years old, in-
veighing against the exiled House
of Bourbon. Every other paper
had disappeared. He was no less
malicious with regard to the
secret staff of the office. The only
persons he presented to the new

chief were a few low-class spies whom he had never largely trusted ;
and although Savary raised some of them to higher functions he was
still deprived of the assistance of the superior agents upon whom
Fouche had so greatly relied. Savary solved this difficulty cleverly.
He found in his office a registry of addresses for the use of the
messengers who delivered letters. This registry was kept by his
clerks, and, not wishing to let them into his design, he took the
registry one night into his private study and copied out the whole
list himself. He found many names he little expected ; names which,
as he has said, he would have expected sooner to find in China than
in this catalogue. Many addresses had, however, no indication but
a single initial, and he guessed no doubt rightly that these
probably related to the most important agents of all.

(From the Engraving by Sixdeniers.)

212 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Having thus gained the addresses, Savary proceeded to siwimon
each person to his presence by a letter written in the third person,
and transmitted by his office messengers. He never mentioned the
hour of the interview, but was careful never to send for two people-
on the same day. His secret agents came as requested, generally
towards evening, and before they were ushered in Savary took the
precaution to inquire from his groom of the chambers whether
they came often to see Monsieur Fouche. The servant had almost
invariably seen them before, and could give many interesting
particulars about them. Thus Savary knew how to receive them ;
to be warm or cold in his welcome as he heard how they had
been treated by his predecessor. He dealt in much the same way
with the persons known only under an initial. He wrote also to
them at their addresses, and sent the letters by confidential clerks
who were known personally to the concierges of the houses where
the agents resided. The Parisian concierge was as much an in-
quisitive busybody in those days as now ; curious about his lodgers'
correspondence, and knowing exactly to whom he should deliver a
letter with the initial address. It required only a little adroitness
to put a name to these hitherto unknown people when they called
in person at his office. It sometimes happened that more than
one person having the same initial resided in the same house.
If the concierge made the mistake of handing two letters to
one individual, Savary, when he called, explained that his clerks
had inadvertently written to him twice. In every case the letter
of summons contained a request that the letter might be
brought to the office as a passport to introduction. Savary
adopted another method of making the acquaintance of the secret
personnel. He ordered his cashier to inform him whenever a
secret agent called for his salary. At tirst, being suspicious of the
new regime, very few persons came, but the second and third
month self-interest prevailed ; people turned up, merely to inquire,
as they said, and were invariably passed on to see the chief. Savary
took the visit as a matter of course, discussing business, and often
increasing voluntarily their rates of payment. By this means he
not only re-established his connection, but greatly extended it.

Savary 's system of espionage was even more searching and
comprehensive than Fouche's, and before long earned him the
sobriquet of the " Sheik of Spies." He had a whole army at his

GENERAL MALET'S CONSPIRACY. 213

disposal the gossips and gobe-mouches of the clubs, the cabmen
and street porters, the workmen in the suburbs. When fashionable
Paris migrated to their country houses for the summer and early
autumn, Savary followed them with his spies, whom he found
among their servants, letter-carriers, even their guests. He also
reversed the process, and actually employed masters to spy on their
servants, obliging every householder to transmit a report to the
police of every change in their establishments, and of the conduct
of the persons employed. He essayed also to make valets spy on
those whom they served, so that a man became less than ever a
hero to his valet,

It followed, naturally, that Savary was the most hated of all the
tyrants who wielded the power of the police prefecture. He spared
no one ; he bullied the priests ; he increased the rigours of the
wretched prisoners of war at Bitche and Verdun; and exercised
such an irritating, vexatious, ill-natured surveillance over the whole
town, over every class political, social, and criminal that he was
soon universally hated. He was a stupid man, eaten up with vanity
and self-importance; extremely jealous of his authority, and ever
on the look out to vindicate it if he thought it assailed. Never
perhaps did more inflated, unjustifiable pride precede a more
humiliating fall. Savary's pretensions as a police officer were
utterly shipwrecked by the conspiracy of General Malet, a semi-
madman, who succeeded in shaking Napoleon's throne to its very
foundations and making his military Police Minister supremely
ridiculous.

This General Malet was a born conspirator. He had done little
as a soldier, but had been concerned in several plots against
Napoleon, for the last of which he had been cast into the prison
of La Force. During his seclusion he worked out the details of
a new conspiracy, based upon the most daring and yet simplest
design. He meant to take advantage of the emperor's absence
from Paris, and, announcing his death, declare a Provisional
Government, backed by the troops, of whom he would boldly take
command. It all fell out as he had planned, and, but for one
trifling accident, the plot would have been entirely successful.
Paris at the moment he rose was weakly governed. Cambaceres
represented the emperor ; Savary held the police, but, in spite of
his espionage, knew nothing of Malet, and little of the real state

214

HY8TEBIES OF POLICE AND CR1MK.

of Paris below the suri'ace ; Pasquier, prefect of police, was an
admirable administrator, but not" a man of action. The garrison
of Paris was composed mainly of raw levies, for all the best troops
were away with Napoleon in Russia, and the commandant of the

MALET IX PRISON.

(From the Drawing by A. Lacauchie.

place, General Hullin, was a sturdy soldier no more : a mere
child outside the profession of arms.

Malet had influence with Fouche, through which, before that

THE HE AD 3 OF THE POLICE ARRESTED. 215

Minister's disgrace, he had obtained his transfer from La Force to
a " Maison de Sante " in the Faubourg St. Antoine. In this half
asylum, half place of detention, the inmates were suffered to come
and go on parole, to associate freely with one another, and to receive
any visitors they pleased from outside. In this convenient retreat,
which sheltered other irreconcilable spirits, Malet soon matured
his plot. His chief confederate the only one, indeed, he fully
trusted was a certain Abbe Lafone, a man of great audacity and
determination, who had already been mixed up in Royalist plots
against the empire. The two kept their own counsel, alive to the
danger of treachery and betrayal in taking others into their full
confidence ; but Malet could command the services of two generals,
Guidal and Laborie, with whom he had been intimate at La Force,
but who never knew the whole aim and extent of the conspiracy.

About 8 p.m. on the 23rd of October, 1812, Malet and the
Abbe left the Faubourg St. Antoine, and Malet, now in full
uniform, appeared at the gates of the neighbouring barracks,
where he announced the news, received by special courier, of
the emperor's death, produced a resolution from the Senate
proclaiming a Provisional Government, and investing him with
the supreme command of the troops. Under his orders, officers
were despatched with strong detachments to occupy the principal
parts of the city, the barriers, the quays, the Prefecture, the Place
Royal, and other open squares. Another party was sent to the
prison of La Force to extract Generals Laborie and Guidal, the
first of whom, when he joined Malet, was despatched to the pre-
fecture and thence to the Ministry of Police, to seize both the
prefet and Savary and carry them off to gaol. Guidal was to
support Laborie. Malet himself, with another body of troops,
proceeded to the Place Vendome, the military headquarters of
Paris, and proposed to make the Commandant Hullin his prisoner.

The arrest of the heads of the police was accomplished with-
out the slightest difficulty about 8 a,m. on the 24th of October, and
they were transported under escort to La Force. (Savary ever
afterwards was nicknamed the Due de la Force.) Malet meanwhile
had roused General Hullin, to whom he presented his false
credentials. As the general passed into an adjoining room to
examine them, Malet fired a pistol at him and " dropped " him. Then
the Adjutant-General Dorcet interposed, and, seizing his papers,

216 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

instantly detected the forgery. Malet was on the point of shooting
him also, when a staff-officer rushed up from behind, and, backed
by a handful of his guard, easily overpowered Malet. From that
moment the attempt collapsed. The Police Minister and the prefet
were released from prison ; the conspirators were arrested. Yet for
a few hours Malet had been master of Paris.

Napoleon was furiously angry with everyone, and loaded the
police in particular with abuse. He did not, however, remove
Savary from his office, for he knew he could still trust him, and
this was no time to lose the services of a devoted friend. The
insecurity of his whole position had been clearly manifested. One
man, a prisoner, had, by his own inventive audacity, succeeded in
suborning or imposing upon superior officers and securing the
assistance of large bodies of troops, in forcing prison doors, arresting
Ministers and high officials, -and seizing the reins of power. No
one had stood against him ; the powers wielded by authority Avere
null and void ; chance alone, a mere accident, had spoilt the
enterprise.

FOUCHE AGAIN.

At the restoration of the Bourbons the police organisation was
revised, but still left in much the same hands ex-Napoleonists,
such as Beugnot and Bourrienne, who were director-general and
prefect respectively. The latter distinguished himself by a fruitless
attempt to arrest his old enemy Fouche, who was living quietly in
Paris, holding aloof from affairs as he had done through the closing
days of the Empire. Fouche escaped from the police officers by
climbing over his garden wall, and then went into hiding. He
was thus thrown back into the ranks of the Imperialists, and,
on the return from Elba, was at once nominated to his old office
of chief of police, where he made himself extremely useful to
Napoleon. But he played a double part, as usual ; had friends in
both camps, and, after giving the emperor much valuable informa-
tion as to the movements of the Allies before Waterloo, went over
to the victors after the battle. Fouche was extraordinarily busy in
shaping events at the final downfall of Napoleon, and he was one
of the first to approach Wellington with suggestions as to the
emperor's disposal. He seems to have gained the Duke's good-
will, and Wellington urged Louis XVIII. to appoint him afresh,

THE KING'S DISLIKE OF FOUCHE.

217

as the person who could be .best trusted to maintain public order,
to the directorship of the police. Fouche had many friends in
high places ; he had also the knack of seeming 1 to be indis-
pensable. It was a severe blow to the king that Fouche should
be forced upon him. When the order of appointment was placed

"MALET WAS ox THE POINT OF SHOOTING HIM ALSO" (p. 216).

before him for signature, he glanced at it, and let it lie upon the
table, and the pen slipped from his hand; he long sat buried in
sad thought before he could rouse himself to open relations
with the man who had been hitherto the implacable foe of his
family.

Fouche gained his point ; but where all knew, all watched,
and none trusted him, he needed all his sang froid, all his tact,
to hold his position. But in his long career of conspiracy and

Jl*

HYSTERIER of' POLICE AND CRIME.

THIBAVDEAU.

(From a Contemporary Print.)

change he had learnt the lesson of dis-
simulation and self-restraint. Yet he
was still the locus and centre of in-
trigue, to whom everyone flocked his
old associates, once his friends and now
his hardly concealed enemies ; the men
who had been his enemies and were now
on the surface his friends. His ante-
chamber showed the most mixed as-
semblage. " He went among them, from
one to the other, speaking with the same
ease as though he had the same thing to
say to all. How often have I seen him
creeping away from the window where
he had been talking apart with some old
comrade Thibaudeau, for example, the
ancient revolutionist on the most
friendly, confidential terms, to join us, a
party of royalists, about an affair concerning the king. A little later
Fouche inserted Thibaudeau 's name in the list of the proscribed." *
Fouche has been very differently judged by his contemporaries.
Some thought him an acute and penetrating observer, with a pro-
found insight into character; knowing his epoch, the men and
matters appertaining to it, intimately and by heart. Others, like
Bourrienne, despised and condemned him. " I know no man," says
the latter, " who has passed through such an eventful period, who
has taken part in so many convulsions, who so barely escaped
disgrace and was yet loaded with honours." The keynote of his
character, thought Bourrienne, was great levity and inconstancy of
mind. Yet he carried out his schemes, planned with mathematical
exactitude, with the utmost precision. He had an insinuating
manner; could seem to speak freely when he was only drawing
others on. A retentive memory and a great grasp of facts enabled
him to hold his own with many masters, and turn most things to
his own advantage. He did not long survive the Restoration, and
died at Trieste in 1820, leaving behind him a very considerable
fortune.

* Pasquier, Memoires, iii., p. 311.

219

A " CHARLIE'S " HATTLE, iv THE BLACK MUSEUM.

CHAPTER VI.
EARLY POLICE (continued) : ENGLAND.

Early Police in England Edward I/s Act Elizabeth's Act for Westminster Acts of
George II. and George III. State of London towards the end of the Eighteenth
Century Gambling and Lottery Offices Robberies on the River Thames Receivers
Coiners The Fieldings as Magistrates The Horse Patrol Bow Street and its
Runners : Townsend, Vickery, and others Blood Money Tyburn Tickets Nego-
tiations with Thieves to recover stolen Property Sayer George Ruthven
Serjeant Ballantine on the Bow Street Runners compared with modern Detectives.

IF a century or more ago France and other Continental countries
were generally over-policed, England, as a free country, long refused
to surrender its liberties. UiitiL quite recent years "there was no
organised provision for public safety, for the maintenance of good
order, the prevention of crime, or the pursuit of law-breakers. Good
citizens co-operated in self-defence ; the office of constable was in-
cumbent upon all, but evaded by many on payment of substitutes.
One of the earliest efforts to establish a systematic police was the
statute 13th Edward I. (1285), made for the maintenance of peace in
the city of London. This ancient statute was known as that of
Watch and Ward, and it recognised the above principle that the
inhabitants of every district must combine for their own protection.
It recites how " many evils, as murders, robberies, and manslaughters,

^2<i MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME

have been committed by night and by day, and people have been
beaten and evilly entreated " ; it is enjoined that " none be so hardy
as to be found going or wandering about the streets of the city
with sword or buckler after curfew tolled at St. Martin's Le Grand.'"
It goes on to say that any such should be taken by the keepers of

" ONE O'CLOCK AND A SHINY NIGHT ! "

the peace and be put in the place of confinement appointed for
such offenders, to be dealt with as the custom is, and punished
if the offence is proved. This Act further prescribed that as such
persons sought shelter " in taverns more than elsewhere, lying in
wait and watching their time to do mischief," no tavern might be
allowed to remain open "for sale of ale or wine" after the tolling
of curfew. Many smaller matters were dealt with so as to ensure
the peace of the city. It was enacted that, " forasmuch as fools
who delight in mischief do learn to fence with buckler," no school

OLD POLICE STATUTES IN ENGLAND- 221

to teach the art of fencing should be allowed within the city. Again,
many pains and penalties were imposed on foreigners who sought
shelter and refuge in England " by reason of banishment out of
their own country, or who, for great offence, have fled therefrom."
Such persons were forbidden to become innkeepers, " unless they
have good report from the parts whence they cometh, or find safe
pledges." That these persons were a source of trouble is pretty
plain from the language of the Act, which tells how " some nothing
do but run up and down through the streets more by night than
by day, and are well attired in clothing and array, and have their
food of delicate meats and costly ; neither do they use any craft or
merchandise, nor have they lands and tenements whereof to live,
nor any friend to find them ; and through such persons many
perils do often happen in the city, and many evils, and some of
them are found openly offending, as in robberies, breaking of houses
by night, murders, and other evil deeds."

Another police Act, as it may be called, was that of 27th Elizabeth
(1585) for the good government of the city and borough of West-
minster, which had been recently enlarged "The people thereof
being greatly increased, and being for the most part without trade
or industry, and .many of them wholly given to vice and idleness,"
and a power to correct them not being sufficient in law, the Dean
of Westminster and the High Steward were given greater authority.
They were entitled to examine and punish " all matters of incon-
tinences, common scolds, and common annoyances, and to commit
to prison all who offended against the peace." Certain ordinances
were made by this Act for regulating the domestic life of the city
of Westminster; the bakers and the brewers, the colliers, wood-
mongers, and bargemen were put under strict rule ; no person was
suffered to forestall or " regrate " the markets so as to increase the
price of victuals by buying them up beforehand ; the cooks and the
tavern-keepers were kept separate : no man might sell ale and keep
a cookshop at the same time ; the lighting of the city was imposed
upon the victuallers and tavern-keepers, who were ordered to keep
one convenient lanthorn at their street doors from six p.m. until
nine a.m. next morning, " except when the moon shall shine and
give light." Rogues and sturdy beggars were forbidden to wander
in the streets under pain of immediate arrest. Many other strict
regulations were made for the health and sanitation of the burgesses,

22-2 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

such as the scavenging and cleansing of the streets, the punishment
of butchers, poulterers, and fishmongers who might sell unwholesome
food, the strict segregation of persons inlected with the plague. It
is interesting to note that Sir William Cecil, the great Lord Bur-

O o

leigh, was the first High Steward of Westminster, and that the
regulations above quoted were introduced by him.

These Acts remained in force for many centuries, although the
powers entrusted to the High Steward fell into great disuse. But
in the 10th George II. (1737) the Elizabethan Act was re-enacted
and its powers enlarged. This was an Act for well-ordering
and regulating a night watch in the city "a matter of very great
importance for the preservation of the persons and properties of
the inhabitants, and very necessary to prevent fires, murders,
burglaries, robberies, and other outrages and disorders." It had
been found that all such precautions were utterly neglected, and
now the Common Council of the city was authorised to create a
night watch and levy rates to pay it. The instructions for this
night watch were issued through cne constables of wards and
precincts, the old constitutional authority, who were expected to
see them observed. But the night-watchmen could act in the
absence of the constable when keeping watch and ward, arid were
enjoined to apprehend all night-walkers, malefactors, rogues, vaga-
bonds, and disorderly persons whom they found disturbing the public
peace, or whom they suspected of evil designs.

Forty years later another Act was passed, 14th George III. (1777),
which again enlarged and, in a measure, superseded the last-
mentioned Act. It is much more detailed, prescribing the actual
number of watchmen, their wages, and how they are t be " armed and
accommodated," which means that they were to carry rattles and
staves and lanterns ; it details minutely the watchman's duty : how
he is to proclaim the time of the night or morning " loudly and
as audibly as he can " ; he is to see that all doors are safe and well
secured ; he is to -prevent " to the utmost of his power all murders,
burglaries, robberies, and affraies ; he is to apprehend all loose,
idle, and disorderly persons, and deliver them to the constable or
headborough of the night at the watch-houses." It may be
stated at once that this Act, however excellent in intention and
carefully designed, greatly failed in execution. The Avatchmen often
proved unworthy of their trust, and it is recorded by that eminent

224

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

police magistrate, Mr. Colquhoun, " that no small portion of those
very men who are paid for protecting the public are not only
instruments of oppression in many instances, by extorting money
most unwarrantably, but are frequently accessories in aiding and
abetting or concealing the commission of crimes which it is their
duty to detect and suppress." It is but fair to add that Sir John

A HIGHWAY ROBBERY.

Fielding, who was examined in 1772 as to the numerous burglaries
committed in the metropolis, stated that the watch was insufficient,
" that their duty was too hard and their pay too small."

Beyond question the state of the metropolis, and, indeed, of the
country at large, at the end of the eighteenth century was deplorable.
Robbery and theft from houses and on the highway had been reduced
to a regular system. Opportunities were sought, intelligence obtained,
plans prepared with the utmost skill and patience. Houses to be
forced were previously reconnoitred, and watched for days and
weeks in advance. The modern burglar could have taught the old
depredator little that he did not know. Again, the gentleman of
the road the bold highwayman used infinite pains in seeking out

CRIME RAMPANT. 225

his prey. He had his spies in every quarter, among all classes, and
the earliest certain intelligence of travellers worth stopping when
carrying money and other valuables ; he could count upon the
cordial support ot publicans and ostlers, who helped him in his
attack and covered his retreat. The footpads who infested the
streets were quite as daring ; it was unsafe to cross open spaces/
even in the heart of the town, after dark. These lesser thieves,
so adroit in picking pockets by day, used actual violence by night.
The country was continually ravaged by other depredators : horse
and cattle stealers, thieves who laid hands upon every kind of
agricultural produce. The farmers' fields were constantly plundered
of their crops, fruit and vegetables were carried off, even the ears
of wheat were cut from their stalks in the open day. It was
estimated that one and a half million bushels were annually
stolen in this way. The thieves boldly took their plunder to the
millers to be ground, and the millers, although aware that fields
and barns had been recently robbed, did not dare object, lest
their mills should be burnt over their heads.

GAMBLING.

No doubt the general level of morality was low. Gambling of
all kinds had increased enormously. There were gaming-houses and
lottery offices everywhere. Faro banks and E. 0. tables, and places
where hazard, roulette, and rouge-et-noir could be played, had multi-
plied exceedingly. Six gaming-houses were kept in one street near
the Haymarket, mostly by prize-fighters, and persons stood at the
doors inviting passers-by to enter and play. Besides these, there
were subscription clubs of presumably a higher class, and even ladies'
gaming-houses. The public lotteries were also a fruitful source of
crime, not only in the stimulus they gave to speculation, but in
their direct encouragement of fraud. A special class of swindlers
was created the lottery insurers, the sharpers who pretended to
help the lottery players against loss by insuring the amount of
their stakes. Offices for fraudulent lottery insurance existed all
over the town. It was estimated that there were 400 of them,
supporting 2,000 agents and clerks, and 7,500 "morocco men,"
as they were called the canvassers who went from door to
door soliciting insurances, which they entered in a book covered
15

226 MYSTE11IES OF POLICE AND CHIME.

with red morocco leather. It was said that these unlicensed offices
obtained premiums of nearly two millions of money when the
English and Irish lotteries were being drawn, on which they made
a profit of from 15 to 25 per cent. It was proved by calculating
the chances that they were some 33 per cent, in favour of the
insurers. Even in those days the principle of profiting by the
gambling spirit of the public was strongly condemned, but lotteries
survived until 1826, since when the law has dealt severely with any
specious attempts to reintroduce them under other names.

RIVER THIEVES.

At this time the plunder of merchandise and naval stores in the
River Thames had reached gigantic proportions. Previous to the
establishment of the Thames river police in 1798 the commerce
of the country, all the operations of merchants and shipowners,
were grievously injured by these wholesale depredations, which
amounted at a moderate computation to quite half a million per
annum. There were, first of all, the river pirates, who boarded
unprotected ships in the stream. One gang of them actually
weighed a ship's anchor, hoisted it into their boat with a complete
new cable, and rowed away with their spoil. These villains hung
about vessels newly arrived and cut away anything within reach
cordage, spars, bags of cargo. They generally went armed, and were
prepared to fight for what they seized. There were the "heavy
horsemen and the light horsemen," the "game watermen," the "game
lightermen," the " mudlarks and the scuffle-hunters," each of them
following a particular line of their own. Some of these, with the
connivance of watchmen or without, would cut lighters adrift and
lead them to remote places where they could be pillaged and their
contents carried away. Cargoes of coal, Russian tallow, hemp, and
ashes were often secured in this way. The "light horsemen" did a
large business in the spillings, drainings, and sweepings of sugar,
coffee, and rum ; these gleanings were greatly increased by fraudulent
devices, and were carried oft' with the connivance of the mates,
who shared in the profit. The " heavy horsemen " were smuggled on
board to steal whatever they could find coffee, cocoa, pimento,
ginger, and so forth, which they carried on shore concealed about
their persons in pouches and pockets under their clothes. The

228 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

" game watermen " worked by quickly receiving what was handed
to them when cargoes were being discharged, and this they conveyed
at once to some secret place ; the " game lightermen " were of the
same class, who used their lighters to conceal stolen parcels of
goods which they could afterwards dispose of.

A clever trick is told of one of these thieves, who long did a big
business in purloining oil. A merchant who imported great quantities
was astonished at the constant deficiency in the amounts landed, far
more than could be explained by ordinary leakage. He determined to
attend at the wharf when the lighters arrived, and he saw that in one
of them all the casks had been stowed with their bungs downwards.
He waited until the lighter was unloaded, and then, visiting her,
found the hold full of oil. This the lightermen impudently claimed
as their perquisite; but the merchant refused to entertain the idea,
and, having sent for casks, filled nine of them with the leakage.
Still dissatisfied, he ordered the deck to be taken up, and found
between the timbers of the lighter enough to fill five casks more.
No doubt this robbery had been long practised.

" Mudlarks " were only small fry who hung about the stern
quarters of ships at low water to receive and carry on shore any
pickings they might secure. The " scuffle-hunters " resorted in large
numbers to the wharves where goods were discharged, and laid
hands upon any plunder they could find, chiefly the contents ot
broken packets, for which they fought and "scuffled."

Before leaving this branch of depredation mention must be
made of the plunder levied on his Majesty's Dockyards, the Naval
Victualling and Ordnance Stores, which were perpetually pillaged, as
were the warships, transports, and lighters in the Thames, Medway,
Solent, and Dart. Over and above the peculations of employees, the
frauds and embezzlements in surveys, certificates, and accounts, there
was nearly wholesale pillage in such articles as cordage, canvas, hinges,
bolts, nails, timber, paint, pitch, casks, beef, pork, biscuit, and indeed
all kinds of stores. No definite figures are at hand giving the
value of these robberies, but they must have reached an enormous
total

" FENCES."

The extensive robberies described above were, no doubt, greatly
facilitated by the many means that existed for the disposal of the

THE RECEIVER AND THE THIEF. 229

stolen goods. Never did the nefarious trade of the "receiver"
flourish so Avidely as then. This, the most mischievous class of
criminal, without whom the thief would find his calling hazardous
and unproductive, was extraordinarily numerous at this period.
There were several thousands in the Metropolis alone, a few of
them no more than careless, asking no questions about the
property brought to them for purchase, but the bulk of them
distinctly criminal, who bought goods well knowing them to be
stolen. Many had been thieves themselves, but had found
" receiving " a less hazardous and more profitable trade ; they
followed ostensibly some reputable calling kept coalsheds, potato
warehouses, and chandler's shops some were publicans, others
dealt in secondhand furniture, old clothes, old iron, and rags,
or were workers and refiners of gold and silver. These were the
rank and file, the retailers, so to speak, who passed on what was
brought to them to the wholesale " receivers," of whom at that time
there were some fifty or sixty, opulent people many of them,
commanding plenty of capital. These high-class operators had their
crucibles and their furnaces always ready for melting down plate;
they had extensive connections beyond sea for the disposal of
valuables, especially of jewels, which were taken from their settings
to prevent recognition.

These great "fences" the cant name for "receivers" worked
as large and lucrative a business as do any of their successors to-
day. A wide connection was the first essential. Often enough the
thieves arranged with the " receivers " before they entered upon any
new job, and thus the latter kept touch with the operators, who
gladly parted with their plunder at easy prices, being unable to
dispose of it alone. It was a first principle with the "receiver"
that the goods he purchased should not be recognisable, and until
all marks and means of identification were removed he would not
admit them into his house. He would not even discuss terms until
the thieves had taken this precaution. Various methods were em-
ployed. In linen and cloth goods the head and fag-ends were
cut off, and occasionally the list and selvedge, if they were peculiar.
The marks on the soles of boots and shoes were obliterated by hot
irons, and the linings, if necessary, removed. Gold watches were
sent off to agents in large towns or on the Continent, their out-
ward appearance having first been changed; the works of one

230 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

were placed in the case of another. Where the proceeds of the
robbery were banknotes, or property whose identity could not be
destroyed, they were sent oft' to a distance to foreign marts, and
all traces of them lost. It was essential that the "receiver" on a,
large scale should have an army of agents and co-partners persons
following the same nefarious traffic, who could be trusted, for their
own sakes, to be cautious in their proceedings.

COINERS.

The general crime of this period was enormously increased
by the extensive fabrication of false money. Coining was extra-
ordinarily prevalent, and a wide, far-reaching system had been
created for distributing and uttering the counterfeits, not only at
home but on the Continent. All England, all Europe, was literally
deluged with false money, the largest proportion of which was manu-
factured in this country. Not only was the current coinage of the
realm admirably counterfeited guineas, half-guineas, crowns, half-
crowns, shillings, sixpences, and coppers, but the coiners could
turn out all kinds of foreign money louis d'ors, Spanish dollars,
sequins, pagodas, and the rest, so cleverly imitated as almost to
defy detection. So prosperous was the business that as many
as forty or fifty private mints were constantly at work in London
and various country towns fabricating false money; as many as 120
workpeople were engaged, and the names of some 650 known
coiners were registered at the Royal Mint. There was a steady
demand for the base coin ; it went off so fast that the manufacturers
seldom had any stock on hand. As soon as it was finished it was
sent off, here, there, and everywhere, by every kind of conveyance.
Not a coach nor a carrier left London without a parcel of bad
money consigned to country agents. It was known that one agent
alone had placed five hundred pounds' worth with country buyers
in a single week. Some idea of the profits may be gathered from
the fact that Indian pagodas, worth 8s., could be manufactured for
l^d. apiece ; and that the middleman who bought them at 5s. a
dozen retailed them at from 2s. 3d. to 5s. each. The counterfeiting
of gold coins was the least common, owing to the expense of the
process and the necessary admixture of at least a portion of the
precious metal. It was different with silver. It was stated that

FRAUDS ON THE CURRENCY.

231

two persons alone could manufacture between two and three hun-
dred pounds' worth (nominal value) of spurious silver in six days.
There were five kinds of base silver, known in the trade as flats,
plated goods, plain goods, castings, and "pig things." The first
were cut out of flattened plates of a material part silver, part copper ;
the second were of copper only, silvered over; the third were of
copper, turned out of a lathe and polished ; the fourth were of
white metal, cast in a mould; the "pig things" were the refuse of the
rest converted into sixpences. Copper coins were also manufactured
largely out of base metal.

Frauds on the currency were not limited to counterfeiting the
coinage. Banknotes were systematically forged, although the penalty
was death. This crime had been greatly stimulated by the sus-
pension of specie payments and the issue of paper money. The
Bank of England had been thus saved at a great financial crisis,
when its reserve in cash and bullion had shrunk to little more
than a million, and it had issued notes for values of less than five
pounds. Note forgery at once increased to a serious extent, and as
the Bank was implacable, insisting on rigorous prosecution, great

e^4t-/e#n<itti/C-f, fine/ ttntitf //&/:/ t/?/r

IMITATION BANKNOTE ETCHED BY GEORGE CRCIKSHANK IN 1818, SATIRISING THE INFLICTION
OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR FORGERY.

232

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

numbers of capital convictions followed. The most minute and
elaborate provisions existed, prescribing the heaviest penalties not
only for the actual manufacture and uttering, but for the mere
possession of banknote paper, plates, or engraving tools. The
infliction of the extreme sentence did not check the crime. Detec-
tion, too, was most difficult. The public could not distinguish

between true and false
notes. Bank officials were
sometimes deceived, and
clerks at the counter were
known to accept bad
paper, yet refuse payment
of what was genuine.
Some account Avill be
given on a later page of
Charles Price, commonly
called " Old Patch," from
his favourite disguise of
a patch on one eye. He
was a most extraordinarily
successful forger of bank-
notes, who did all but the
negotiation of them him-
self: he made his paper

HENRY FIELWXG, XOVELIST AND MAGISTRATE. Wlttl tll6 COrrCCt Water-

mark, engraved his plates,

and prepared his own ink. He had several homes, many aliases,
used many disguises, and employed an army of agents and assistants,
some of them his wives (for he was a noted bigamist), to put off
the notes.

THE FIELDIXGS.

An early and commendable attempt had been made in the
middle of the eighteenth century to grapple with this all-prevailing,
all-consuming crime. When Henry Fielding, the immortal novel-
ist, was appointed a Middlesex magistrate towards the close of his
somewhat tempestuous career, he strove hard to check disorders,
waging unceasing warfare against evil-doers and introducing a
svell-planned system of prevention and pursuit. Although in failing

HENRY FIELDING'S ASSIDUITY. 233

health, he laboured incessantly. He often sat on the bench
for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, returning to Bow Street
after a long day's work to resume it from seven p.m. till midnight.

SIR JOHN FIELDING, THE BLIND BOW STKEET MAGISTRATE.

(From the Portrait by M. W. Peters, R.A.)

He did a great public service in devising and executing a plan for
the extirpation of robbers, although the benefit was but temporary.
This was in 1753, when the whole town seemed at the mercy of
the depredators. The Duke of Newcastle, at that time Secretary
of State, sent for Fielding, who unfolded a scheme whereby, if 600
were placed at his disposal, he engaged to effect a cure. After his

234 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

first advance from the Treasury he was able to report that " the whole
gang of cut-throats was entirely dispersed, seven of them were in
actual custody, and the rest driven, some out of the town, the rest
out of the kingdom/ 5 He had nearly killed himself in the effort.
" Though my health was reduced to the last extremity ... I
had the satisfaction of finding . . . that the hellish society was
almost entirely extirpated " ; that, instead of " reading about murders
and street robberies in the newspapers every morning," they had
altogether ceased. His plan had not cost the Government more
than 300, and " had actually suppressed the evil for a time."

It was only for a brief space, however ; and his brother, blind
Sir John Fielding, who succeeded him at Bow Street, frankly con-
iessed that new gangs had sprung up in place of those recently
dispersed. But he bravely set himself to combat the evil, and
adopted his brother's methods. He first grajp'ed with the street
robbers, and in less than thre3 months had brought nine of them
to the gallows. Next he dealt with the highwaymen infesting the
road near London, "so that scarce one escaped." The housebreakers,
lead-stealers, shoplifters, and all the small fry of pickpockets and
petty larcenists were increasingly harried and in a large measure
suppressed. He organised a scheme for protecting the suburbs,
by which the residents subscribed to meet the expense of transmit-
ting immediate news to Bow Street bv mounted messengers, with

o /

full particulars of articles stolen, and the description of the robber;
the same messenger was to giv"e information at the turnpikes and
public-houses en route, and thus a hue and cry could be raised and
the offender would probably soon be captured. At the same time a,
notice would be inserted in the Public Advertiser warning tavern-
keepers, stable-keepers, and pawnbrokers, the first against harbouring
rogues, the second against hiring out horses to the persons described,
the third against purchasing goods which were the proceeds of a,
robbery.

Sir John Fielding (he was knighted in 1760) was a most active
and energetic magistrate, and he was such a constant terror to evil-
doers that his life was often threatened. There were few crimes
reported in which he did not take a personal interest, promptly
visiting the spot, taking information, and setting his officers on
the track. When Lord Harrington's house was robbed of some
three thousand pounds' worth of jewellery, Sir John repaired thither

SIR JOHN FIELDING.

235

at once, remaining in the house all day and the greater part of
the night. It was the same in cases of highway robbery, murder,

SIR JOHN FIELDING OFFICIATING AT BOW STREET.

(From a Drawing by Dodd.)

or riot. Everyone caught red-handed was taken before him, and
his court was much frequented by great people to hear the
examination of persons charged with serious crimes such as Dr.

236 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Dodd, Hackman, 'who murdered Miss Reay, the brother-forgers the
Perreaus, and Sarah Meteyard, who killed her parish apprentice by
abominable cruelty. One well-known nobleman, " a great patron
of the arts," given also to visiting Newgate in disguise in order to
stare at the convicts under sentence of death, would constantly
take his seat on the bench.

Sir John Fielding's appearance in court and manner of con-
ducting business have been graphically described by the Rev. Dr.
Somerville of Jedburgh. He speaks in his diary of Sir John's
"singular adroitness. He had a bandage over his eyes, and held a
little switch or rod in his hand, waving it before him as he
descended from the bench. The sagacity he discovered in the
questions he put to the witnesses, and the marked and successful
attention, as I conceived, not only to the words but to the accents
and tones of the speaker, supplied the advantage which is usually
rendered by the eye ; and his arrangement of the questions, leading
to the detection of concealed facts, impressed me with the highest
respect for his singular ability as a police magistrate."

Sir John Fielding was undoubtedly the originator of the horse
patrol, which was found a most useful check on highway robbery.
But it was not permanently established by him, and we find him
beseeching the Secretary of State to continue it for a short time
longer " as a temporary but necessary step in order to complete
that which was being so happily begun." He was satisfied from
"the amazing good effects produced by this patrol that outrages
would in future be put down by a little further assistance of the
kind." This patrol was reintroduced by the chief magistrate of
Bow Street about 1805, either Sir Richard Ford or Sir Nathaniel
Conant. It was a very efficient force, recruited entirely from
old cavalry soldiers, who were dressed in uniform, well armed,
and well mounted. They , wore a blue coat with brass buttons,
a scarlet waistcoat, blue trousers and boots, and they carried
sword and pistols. Their duties were to patrol the neighbourhood
of London in a circuit of from five to ten miles out, beginning at
five or seven p.m. and ending at midnight. It was their custom to
call aloud to all horsemen and carriages they met, "Bow Street
patrol!" They arrested all known offenders whom they might
find, and promptly followed up the perpetrators of any robbery
that came under their notice. Very marked and satisfactory

238 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

results were obtained by this excellent institution; it almost com-
pletely ended highway robbery, and if any rare case occurred,
the guilty parties were soon apprehended.

THE BOW STREET RUNNERS.

Bow Street may be called the centre of our police establishment
at that time ; it was served by various forces, and especially by
eight officers, the famous Bow Street runners of that period, the
prototype of the modern detective. They were familiarly known
as the " robin redbreasts," from the scarlet waistcoat which was
practically their badge of office, although they also carried as a
mark of authority a small baton surmounted by a gilt crown.
The other police-offices of London were also assisted by officers,
but these were simply constables, and do not appear to have been
employed beyond their own districts. The Bow Street runners,
however, were at the disposal of the public if they could be spared
to undertake the pursuit of private crime. Three of them were
especially appropriated to the service of the Court. The attempt
made by Margaret Nicholson upon George III., and other out-
rages by mad people, called for special police protection, and two
or more of these officers attended royalties wherever they went.
They were generally MacManus, Townsend, and Sayer, Townsend
being the most celebrated of the three. He has left a self-painted
picture in contemporary records, and his evidence, given before
various police committees, shows him to have been a garrulous,
self-sufficient functionary. It was his custom to foist his opinions
freely on everyone, even on the king himself. He boasted that
George IV. imitated the cut of his hat, that the Dukes of Clarence
and of York presented him with wine from their cellars ; he mixed
himself up with politics, and did not hesitate to advise the statesmen
of the day on such points as Catholic Emancipation and the Reformed
Parliament. It generally fell to his office to interrupt duels, and,
according to his own account, he stopped that between the Duke of
York and Colonel Lennox. His importance, according to his own
idea, was shown in his indignant refusal to apprehend a baker
who had challenged a clerk; he protested that "it would lessen
him a good deal " after forty-six years' service, during which period
he had had the honour of taking earls, marquises, and dukes.

AX INGENIOUS ROBBERY OF JEWELLERY.

239

No doubt these runners were often usefully employed in the
pursuit of criminals. Townsend himself when at a levee arrested
the man who had boldly cut off the Star of the Garter from a
nobleman's breast. The theft having been quickly discovered,
word was passed to look out for the thief. It reached Townsend,
who shortly afterwards noticed a person in Court dress who yet did
not seem entitled to be there. Fearing to make a mistake, he
followed him a few yards, and then remembered his face as that
of an old thief. When taken into custody, the stolen star was
found in the man's pocket.

Vickery was another well-known runner, who did much good
work in his time. One of his best performances was that of
saving the post-office from a serious robbery. The officials
would not believe in the existence of the plot, but Vickery
knew better, and produced the very keys that were to pass the
thieves through every door. He had learnt as a fact that they
had twice visited the premises, but still postponed the coup, waiting
until an especially large amount of plunder was collected. Another
case in which Yickery exhibited much acumen was the clever
robbery effected from Rundell and Bridges, the gold jewellers on
Ludgate Hill. Two Jews, having selected valuables to the amount

COLDMATH FIELDS PRISON IN 1814.

(From a Drawing in the Grace Collection.)

240 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AXD CRIME.

of 35,000, asked to be permitted to seal them up and leave
them until they returned with the money. In the act of packing
they managed to substitute other exactly similar parcels, and
carried off the jewels in their pockets. As they did not return, the
cases Avere opened and the fraud discovered. Vickery was called in,
and soon traced the thieves to the Continent, whither he followed
them, accompanied by one of the firm, and tracked them through
France and Holland to Frankfort, where quite half of the stolen
property was recovered.

Yickery subsequently became jailer at Coldbath Fields Prison.
One of the prisoners committed to his custody was Fauntleroy the
banker; and a story has been handed down that this great forger
all but escaped from custody. A clever plot had been set on foot,
but timely information reached the authorities. On making a full
search, a ladder of ropes and other aids to breaking out of prison
weie laid bare. No blame seems to have attached to Vickery in
this, although some of his colleagues and contemporaries were not
always above suspicion. They were no doubt subject to great
temptations under the system of the time. It was the custom to
reward all who contributed to the conviction of offenders. This
blood-mone} 7 , as it was called, was a sum of 40, distributed amongst
those who had secured the conviction. No doubt the practice
stimulated the police, but it was capable of great perversion ; it
gave the prosecutor a keen interest in securing conviction, and was
proved, at times, to have led persons to seduce others into com-
mitting crime. It is established be}~ond question that at the
commencement of the nineteenth century persons were brought up
charged with offences to which they had been tempted by the very
officials who arrested them.

It must be admitted that the emoluments of the police officers
were not extraordinarily high; a guinea a week appears to have
been the regular pay, to which may be added the share of blood-
money referred to above, which, according to witnesses, seldom
amounted to more than 20 or 30 a year. Besides this, the
officers had the privilege of selling Tyburn tickets, as they were
called, which were exemptions from serving as constables or in
other parish offices an onerous duty from which people were
glad to buy exemption at the price 'of 12, 20, or even 25.
Again, a runner employed by other public departments or by private

A SYSTEM OF COMPOUNDING FELONIES. 241

persons might be, but was not always, handsomely rewarded if
successful. He had, of course, his out-of-pocket expenses and a
guinea a day while actually at work; but this might not last for
more than a week or a fortnight, and, according to old Townsend,
people were apt to be mean in recognising the services of the
runners. These officers were also the intermediaries at times
between the thieves and their victims, and constantly helped in
the negotiations for restoring stolen property ; it could not be
surprising that sometimes the money stuck to their fingers. The
loss incurred by bankers, not only through the interception of
their parcels, but by actual breakings into their banks, led to a
practice which was no less than compounding felony : the
promise not to prosecute on the restitution of a portion of the
stolen property. It was shown that the " Committee of Bankers,"
a society formed for mutual protection, employed a solicitor, who
kept up communication with the principal " fences " and " family
men." This useful functionary was well acquainted with the thieves
and their haunts, and when a banker's parcel known in cant
language as a " child " was stolen, the solicitor entered into treaty
with the thieves to buy back the money.

In this fashion a regular channel of communication came to
be established, offers were made on both sides, and terms were
negotiated which ended generally in substantial restitution. Many
bankers objected to the practice, and refused to sanction it. Still
it prevailed, and largely; and several specific cases were reported
by the Select Committee on the Police in 1828. Thus, two banks
that had each been robbed of notes to the amount of 4,000,
recovered them on payment of 1,000. In another case Spanish
bonds, nominally worth 2,000, were given back on payment of
1,000; in another, nearly 20,000 was restored for 1,000; and
where bills had been stolen that were not easily negotiable, 6,000
out of 17,000 was offered for 300. Sometimes after apprehen-
sion proceedings were stopped because a large amount of the
plunder had been given up. The system must have been pretty
general, since the committee stated that they knew of no less than
sixteen banks which had thus tried to indemnify themselves.

A strong suspicion was entertained that Sayer, a Bow Street
runner already mentioned, had leathered his nest finely with a portion
ot the proceeds ol the Paisley Bank robbery at Glasgow. He was an
16

242 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

acquaintance of the Mackoulls,* and it was he who proposed to the
bank that 20,000 should be restored on condition that all pro-
ceedings ceased. When Sayer reached the bank with Mrs. Mackoull
the notes produced amounted to no more than 11,941. Whether
Sayer had impounded any or not was never positively known ; but
when he died, at an advanced age, he was worth 30,000. And it
has been said that shortly before his death he pointed to the fire-
place and a closet above it, using some incoherent words. This
was probably the receptacle of a number of notes, which were
afterwards found in the possession of one of his relatives, notes that
were recognised as part of the Paisley Bank plunder. He must either
have got them as hush-money or have wrongfully detained them, and
then found it too dangerous to pass them into circulation. Probably
he desired to have them destroyed, so that the story might not come
out after his death. The runners must have found it difficult to
resist temptation. The guilt of one of them Yaughan was clearly
established in open court, and he was convicted as an accessory
in a burglary into which he had led others ; he was also proved to
have given an unsuspicious sailor several counterfeit coins to buy
articles with at a chandler's shop. When the sailor came out,
Vaughan arrested him and charged him with passing bad money.
Vaughan absconded, but was afterwards discovered and brought
to trial.

Townsend tells of a case in his own glorification and there is no
reason to deny him the credit in which he arrested a notorious old
pickpocket, one Mrs. Usher, who had done a very profitable business
for many years. She was said to be worth at least 3,000 at the time
of her arrest, and when Townsend appeared against her he was asked
in so many words whether he would not withdraw from the prose-
cution. The Surrey jailer, Ives by name, asked him, " Cannot this
be 'stashed'?" Townsend virtuously refused, and still would not
yield, although Mrs. Usher's relations offered him a bribe of 200.
He also tells how he might have got a considerable sum from
Broughton, who had robbed the York mail, but he steadfastly refused
to abandon the prosecution. As much as a thousand pounds had
been offered to keep back a single witness.

These runners were often charged with being on much too
intimate terms with criminals. It was said that they frequented

* See post, p. 337.

(Drawn by Richard Doyle.)

244 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

low taverns and Hash houses, and that thus thieves' haunts were
encouraged as a sort of preserve in which the police could, at any
time, lay hands on their game. The officers on their side declared
that they could do little or nothing without these houses that,
being so few in number, it would be impossible for them to keep in
touch with the great mass of metropolitan criminality. Vickory
spoke out boldly, and said that the detection of offenders was greatly
facilitated, for they knew exactl} 7 where to look for the men they
wanted. Townsend repudiated the idea that the officer was con-
taminated by mixing with thieves. The flash houses " can do the
officer no harm if he does not make harm of it." Unless he went
there and acted foolishly or improperly, or got on too familiar terms
with the thieves, he was safe enough. But the houses were un-
doubtedly an evil, and the excuse that they assisted in the appre-
hension of offenders was no sufficient justification for them. To this
day, however, the free access to thieves' haunts is one of the most
valuable aids to detection, and the police-officer who does not follow
his prey into its own jungle will seldom make a large bag.

On the whole, it may be said that the old Bow Street runner
was useful in his generation, although he rarely effected very
phenomenal arrests. He was bold, fairly well informed, and
reasonably faithful. Serjeant Bal Ian tine, who knew some of the
latest survivors personally, had a high opinion of them, and thought
their methods generally superior to those of the modern detective.
We may not go quite that length which, after all, is mere assertion
but it seems certain, as I shall presently show, that they were missed
on the establishment of the " New Police," as the existing magnificent
force was long called. They mostly disappeared, taking to other
callings, or living out their declining years on comparatively small
pensions. George Ruthven, one of the last, died in 1844, and a con-
temporary record speaks of him as follows : " He was the oldest and
most celebrated of the few remaining Bow Street runners, among
whom death has lately made such ravages, and was considered as the
most efficient police officer that existed during his long career of
usefulness. He was for thirty years attached to the police force,
having entered it at the age of seventeen ; but in 1839 he retired
with a pension of 220 from the British Government, and pensions
likewise from the Russian and Prussian Governments, for his services
hi discovering forgeries to an immense extent connected with those

SERJEANT BALLANTINE ON THE BOW STREET RUNNERS. 245

countries. Since 1839 he has been landlord of the ' One Tun
Tavern/ Chandos Street, Covent Garden, and has visited most fre-
quently the spot of his former associations. . . . He was a most
eccentric character, and had written a history of his life, but would
on no account allow it to meet the public eye. During the last
three months no less than three of the old Bow Street officers
namely, Goodson, Salmon, and Ruthven have paid the debt of
nature."

Among the captures to be credited to Ruthven is that of the
Cato Street conspirators, in 1820. These desperadoes, headed by
Arthur Thistlewood, had formed a plot to murder Lord Castlereagh
and the rest of the Ministers at a dinner at Lord Harrowby's town
house in Grosvenor Square. They were arming themselves for the
purpose in a stable in Cato Street, near the Edgware Road, when
Ruthven and other runners burst in. A fight ensued, in which
Smithers, one of the officers, was killed. Several of the con-
spirators were taken, but Thistlewood contrived to escape, only,
however, to be arrested next morning. He and four others were
hanged, while five more were transported for life.

Serjeant Ballantine, as I have said, paid the Bow Street runners
the high compliment of preferring their methods to those of our
modern detectives. They kept their own counsel strictly, he
thought, withholding all information, and being especially careful
to give the criminal who was " wanted" no notion of the line of
pursuit, of how and where a trap was to be laid for him, or with
what it would be baited. They never let the public know all they
knew, and worked out their detection silently and secretly. The
old Serjeant was never friendly to the " New Police," and his
criticisms were probably coloured by this dislike. That it may be
often unwise to blazon forth each and every step taken in the
course of an inquiry is obvious enough, and there are times
when the utmost reticence is indispensable. The modern detective
is surely alive to this ; the complaint is more often that he is too
chary of news than that he is too garrulous and outspoken.

CHAPTER VII.
MODERN POLICE: LONDON.

The "New Police" introduced by Peel The System supported by the Duke of
Wellington Opposition from the Vestries Brief Account of the Metropolitan
Police, its Uses and Services The River Police The City Police Extra-police
Services The Provincial Police.

THE necessity for a better police organisation in London much
exercised the public rnind during the early decades of the nineteenth
century. At length, in 1830, Sir Robert Peel introduced a new
scheme, the germ of the present admirable forces. In doing so he
briefly recapitulated the shortcomings and defects of the system,
or want of system, that then prevailed; he pointed out how many
glaring evils had survived the repeated inquiries and consequent
proposals for reform. Parliamentary Committees had reported year
after year from 1770 to 1828, all of them unanimously of opinion
that in the public interest, to combat the steady increase of
crime a better method of prevention and protection was peremp-
torily demanded. Yet nothing had been done. The agitation had
always subsided as soon as the immediate alarm was forgotten.
So this opulent city, with its teeming population and abounding
wealth, was still mainly dependent upon the parochial watch: the
safe-keeping of both was entrusted to a handful of feeble old men,
an obsolete body without system or authority. That crime had
increased by "leaps and bounds" was shown by the figures. It
was out of all proportion to the growth of the people. In 1828 as
compared with 1821 there had been an increase of 41 per cent, in
committals, as against 15 \ per cent, hi population, and the ratio
was one criminal to every 822 of the population. This was in
London alone. In the provinces the increase was as 26 per cent,
of crime against 11 \ per cent, of population.

Unquestionably the cause of all this was the inefficiency of the

UNPROTECTED LONDON IN 1828.

'247

police. The necessary conditions, unity of action of the whole and
direct responsibility of the parts, could never be assured under such
arrangements. Each London parish worked independently, and
while some made a fairly good fight, others by their apathy were
subjected to continual depredation. The wealthy and populous
district of Kensington, for
instance, some fifteen
'square miles in extent,
depended for its protection
upon three constables and
three headboroughs none
of the latter very remark-
able for steadiness and
sobriety. It was fairly
urged that three drunken
beadles could effect nothing
against widespread burglary
and thieving. In the parish
of Tottenham, equally un-
protected, there had been
nineteen attempts at burg-
lary in six weeks, and six-
teen had been entirely
successful. In Spitalfields,
at a time not long ante-
cedent to 1829, gangs of
thieves stood at the street

corners and openly rifled all who dared to pass them. In some
parishes, suburban and of recent growth, there was no police what-
ever, no protection but the voluntary exertions of individuals and the
" honesty of the thieves." Such were Fulham with 15,000 inhabit-
ants Chiswick, Baling, Acton, Edgware, Barnet, Putney, and Wands-
worth. In Deptford, with 20,000, constantly reinforced by evil-doers
driven out of Westminster through stricter supervision., there was no
watch at all. Then the number of outrages perpetrated so increased
that a subscription was raised to keep two watchmen, who were yet
paid barely enough to support existence, much less ensure vigilance.
Watchmen, indeed, were often chosen because they were on the parish
rates. The pay of many of them was no more than twopence per hour.

SIR ROBERT PEEL.

(After the Painting by J. Wood.)

248 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND

The Duke of Wellington, who was the head of the Administra-
tion when Peel brought forward his measure in 1829, supported
it to the full, and showed from his own experience how largely
crime might be prevented by better police regulations. He
mentioned the well-known horse-patrol,* which had done so much
to clear the neighbourhood of London of highwaymen and foot-
pads. His recollection reached back into the early years of the
century, and he could speak from his own experience of a time
when scarcely a carriage could pass without being robbed, when
travellers had to do battle for their property with the robbers who
attacked them. Yet all this had been stopped summarily by the
mounted patrols which guarded all the approaches to London, and
highway robbery had ceased to exist. The same good results might
be expected from the general introduction of a better preventive system.

It is a curious iact that the Duke incurred much odium by the
establishment of this new police, which came into force about the
time that the struggle for Parliamentary reform had for the
moment eclipsed his popularity. The scheme of an improved
police was denounced as a determination to enslave, an insidious
attempt to dragoon and tyrannise over the people. Police spies
armed with extraordinary authority were to harass and dog the
steps of peaceable citizens, to enter their houses, making domi-
ciliary visitations, exercising the right of search on any small
pretence or trumped-Up story. There were idiots who actually
accused the Duke of a dark design to seize supreme power and
usurp the throne ; it was with this base desire that he had raised
this new " standing army " of drilled and uniformed policemen, under
Government, and independent of local ratepayers' control. The
appointment of a military officer, Colonel Rowan, of the Irish
Constabulary, betrayed the intention of creating a " veritable
gendarmerie." The popular aversion to the whole scheme, fanned
into flame by these silly protests, burst out in abusive epithets
applied to the new tyrants. Such names as "raw lobsters" from
their blue coats, "bobbies" from Sir Robert Peel, and "peelers" with
the same derivation, " crushers " from their heavy-footed inter-
ference with the liberty of the subject, " coppers " because they
" copped " or captured his Majesty's lieges, survive to show how
they were regarded in those days.

* See ante, p. 236.

WILLFAM ANTHONY, "THE LAST OP THE CHARLIES."

250

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Yet the admirable regulations framed by Sir Richard Mayne,
who was soon associated with Colonel Rowan, did much to reassure
the public. They first enunciated the judicious principle that
has ever governed police action in this country : the principle that
prevention of crime was the first object of the constable, not the
punishment of offenders after the fact. The protection of person
and property and the maintenance of peace and good order were the
great aims of a police force. A firm but pleasant
and conciliatory demeanour was earnestly enjoined
upon all officers, and this has been in truth, with
but few exceptions, the watchword of the police
from first to last. " Perfect command of temper,"
as laid down by Sir Richard Mayne, was an in-
dispensable qualification ; the police officer should
" never suffer himself to be moved in the slightest
degree by language or threats." He is to do his
duty in a " quiet and determined manner,"
counting on the support of bystanders if he
requires it, but being careful always to take no
serious step without sufficient force at his back.
He was entrusted with certain powers, though not
of the arbitrary character alleged : he was entitled
to arrest persons charged with or suspected of
offences : he might enter a house in pursuit of
an offender, to interfere in an affray, to search for stolen goods.

They went their way quietly and efficiently, these new police-
men, and, in spite of a few mistakes from over-zeal, soon conquered
public esteem. The opposition died hard; dislike was fostered by
satirical verse and the exaggerated exposure of small errors, and in
1833 the police came into collision with a mob at Coldbath Fields,
when there was a serious and lamentable affray. But already the
London vestries were won over. They had been most hostile to the
new system, "as opposed to the free institutions of this country,
which gave parish authorities the sole control in keeping and securing
the peace." They had denounced the new police as importing
espionage totally repugnant to the habits and feelings of the British
people, and subjecting them to " a disguised military force." These
protests formed part of a resolution arrived at by a conference of
parishes, which also insisted that those who paid the cost should have

POLICEMAN, OLD STYLE.

(from a Drawing by Leech.)

LONDON VESTRIES APPLAUD THE "NEW POLICE." 251

the control. Yet a couple of years later these same vestries agreed
that " the unfavourable impression and jealousy formerly existing
against the new police is rapidly diminishing . . . and that it has
fully answered the purpose for which it was formed. . . ." This

FIGHT BETWEEN POLICE AND MOB AT COLDBATH FIELDS IN 1833 (p. 250).

conclusion was supported by some striking statistics. Crime
appreciably diminished. The annual losses inflicted on the public
by larcenies, burglaries, and highway robberies, which had been
estimated at about a million of money, fell to 20,000, and at
the same time a larger number of convictions was secured.

It is beyond the limits of this work to give a detailed account
of the growth and gradual perfecting of the Metropolitan Police

252

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AXD CRIME.

into the splendid force that watches over the great city to-day.
The total strength now, according to the last official returns, is
nearly 16,000 of all ranks, and it has about quintupled since
its first creation in 1829. The population of London at that date
was just one million and a half; the area controlled by the new
police not half the present size. Now not far short of 6,000,000

THE VOLICE FORCE ON BONXER's FIELDS DURING THE CHA11TIST DISTURBANCES IN 1848.

(From an Engraving in "The Illustrated London News.")

souls are included within tne area supervised by our present
Metropolitan force, measuring 688 square miles of territory, or
some thirty miles across from any point of the circumference of
a circle whose centre is at Charing Cross. Throughout the whole
of this vast region, which constitutes the greatest human ant-heap
the world has ever known, ever growing, too-, the blue-coated
guardian of the peace is incessantly on patrol, the total length
of his beats reaching to about 850 miles. He is unceasingly
engaged in duties both various and comprehensive in behalf of his
feUow-citizens. By his active and intelligent watchfulness he
checks and prevents the commission of crime, and if his vigilance

DUTIES OF THE POLICE.

253

METllOPOLITAX RIVEK POLICE
TO THE KESCUE.

is unhappily sometimes
eluded it is not because
he is not eager to pur-
sue , and capture of-
fenders. He is exposed
to peculiar dangers in
protecting the public,
but accepts them un-
hesitatingly, risking his
life gladly, and facing
brutal and often murder-
ous violence as bravely as any soldier in the breach. In the White-
chapel division, where roughs abound, a fifth of the police contingent
in that quarter are injured annually on duty ; 9 per cent, of the
whole force goes on the sick list during the year from the result of
savage assaults. A recent return of officers injured shows a total of
3,112 cases, and these include 2,717 assaults when making arrests,
89 injuries in stopping runaway, horses, 158 bites from dogs, and
many injuries sustained in disorderly crowds or when assisting
to extinguish fires. The regulation of street traffic is, everybody
knows, admirably performed by the police, and they ably control

A NIGKT CHA1UJE.

254

MYSTEUIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

all public carriages. The Lost Property Office is a police institution
that renders much efficient service, and in a recent year over 38,000
articles which had been dropped, forgotten, or mislaid were received,
and in most cases returned to their owners. They made up a very
heterogeneous collection, and included all kinds of birds and live

A POLICE LAVNCH AT THE FLOATING HIVF.R STATION, WATERLOO BRIDGE.

stock parrots, canaries, larks, rabbits, dogs, and cats-; there were
books, bicycles, weapons, perambulators, mail carts, golf clubs,
sewing machines, and musical instruments. In minor matters
the police constable is a universal champion and knight errant.
He escorts the softer sex across the crowded thoroughfare as
gallantly as any squire of dames; it is a touching sight to watch
the lost child walking trustfully hand in hand with the six-foot
giant to some haven of safety. If in the West End the man in
blue is sometimes on friendly terms with the cook, he is always
alert in, the silent watches of the night, trying locks and giving
necessary warning ; in poorer neighbourhoods he is the friend of
the family, the referee in disputes, the kindly alarum clock that
rouses out the early labourer. It may truly be said that London
owes a deep debt of gratitude to its police.

]So account, however brief and meagre, of the Metropolitan
force would be complete which did not include some reference

256 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

to the river and dockyard police. I have already described on
earlier pages * the systematic depredations that went on amid
the Thames shipping in earlier days. This called imperatively for
reform, and a marine police was established to watch over our ships
and cargoes and guard the wharves and quaj's. Regular boat
patrols were always on the move about the river, and the police,
who carried arms, had considerable powers. This Thames branch
was not immediately taken over by Peel's new police, but it is
now part and parcel of the Metropolitan force, and a very perfect
system obtains. The river police has its headquarters in the well-
known floating station at Waterloo Bridge, formerly a steamboat pier,
with a cutter at Erith, and it also has the services of several small
steam launches for rapid transit up and down the river. There
is very little crime upon the great waterway, thanks to the vigilance
of the Thames police, who also do good work in preventing suicides,
while they have many opportunities of calling attention to possible
foul play by their recovery of bodies floating on the stream.

What is true of the Metropolitan force applies equally to the City
Police. The City forms an imperium in imperio, one square mile of
absolutely independent territory interpolated in the very heart and
centre of London. The City Police was formed at the same time as
the Metropolitan, but the great municipality claimed the right to
manage its own police affairs, declining Government subsidies as
resolutely as it resisted Government control The House of Commons
in 1839 frankly acknowledged that the City was justified in its
pretensions, and that it was certain to maintain a good and efficient
police ' force. That anticipation has been fully borne out, and the
City Police is admitted on all hands to be a first-class force, well
organised and most effective, filled with fine men who reach a high
standard both of intelligence and of physique. It has lighter duties by
night, when the City empties like a church after service, but during
the day it has vast cares and responsibilities, the duty of regulating
the congested street traffic in the narrow City thoroughfares being
perhaps the most onerous. Like their comrades beyond the boun-
dary, the City police are largely employed by private individuals;
banks, exchanges, public offices, and so forth, gladly put themselves
under official protection. It should have been mentioned, when
dealing with the Metropolitan Police, that some 1,800 officers of all

* See ante, pp. 226-228.

TEE PROVINCIAL POLICE. 257

ranks, from superintendents to private constables, are regularly
engaged in a variety of posts outside ordinary police duty. Every
great department of State is guarded by them ; the Sovereign's
sacred person, the princes of the blood, the royal palaces, all public
buildings, museums and collections, many of the parks and public
gardens, the powder factories, are among the institutions confided
to their care. Going farther afield, it is interesting to note that
great tradesmen, great jewellers, great pickle-makers, great drapers,
great card-makers, the co-operative stores, great fruit-growing
estates, the public markets all these share police services with
Coutts' and Drurnmond's Banks, Holland House, Koehampton
House, and so on. The whole of our dockyards are under police
surveillance; so are the Albert Hall, Brornpton Cemetery, and
many other institutions.

It is impossible to leave this subject without adverting to the
excellent provincial police now invariably established in the great
cities and wide country districts, who, especially as regards the
former, have an organisation and duties almost identical with those
already detailed. The police forces of Liverpool, Manchester, Bir-
mingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the rest yield nothing in de-
meanour, devotion, and daring to their colleagues of the Metropolis.
In the counties, where large areas often have to be covered, great
responsibility must be devolved upon officers of inferior rank, and
it is not abused. These sergeants or inspectors, with their half-
dozen men, are so many links in a long-drawn chain. Much depends
upon them, their energy and endurance. They, too, have to prevent
crime by their constant vigilance on the high roads, and by keeping
close watch on all suspicious persons. For the same reason special
qualities are needed in the county chief constable and his deputy ;
the task of superintending their posts at wide distances apart, and
controlling the movements of tramps and bad characters through
their district, calls for the exercise of peculiar qualities, the power
of command, of rapid transfer from place to place, of keen insight
into character, of promptitude and decision qualities that are most'
often found in military officers, who are, in fact, generally pre-
ferred for these appointments.

258

CHAPTER VIII.

MODERN POLICE (continued) : PARIS.

The Spy System under the Second Empire The Manufacture of Dossiers US.. Andrieux
receives his own on being appointed Prefect The Clerical Police of Paris The
Sergents de Villc The Six Central Brigades The Cabmen of Paris, and how they
are kept in Order Stories of Honest and of Dishonest Cabmen Detectives and
Spies Newspaper Attacks upon the Police Their General Character.

SOME account of the police arrangements in two or three other
capitals, and also in India, may now be given by way of contrast and
comparison. The police of Paris has already been dealt with in its
early beginnings, and under the First Empire. After the Bourbon
Restoration, and during the days of the revived monarchy, the least
valuable feature of the French police had the chief prominence.
Every effort was made, by means of the police, to check opposition
to the reigning power, and suppress political independence. But it
was at this period that the detection of crime was undertaken for
the first time as a distinct branch of police business, and it will
be seen in a later chapter how Vidocq did great things, although
often by dishonest agents and unworthy means. In the Second
Empire the secret police over-rode everything; Napoleon III. had
been a conspirator in his time, and he had an army of private
spies in addition to the police of the Chateau, and these spies watched
the regular police at a cost of some fourteen millions of francs.
At the fall of the Second Empire there w r ere half a dozen different
secret police services in Paris. There was the Emperor's, already
mentioned ; the Empress had hers ; M. Rouher, the Prime Minister,
and M. Pietri, the Prefect, each had a private force, so had
other great officials. Most of these agents were unknown to each
other as such, and so extensive was the system of espionage that one-
half of Paris was at that time said to be employed in watching the
other half. This system produced the dossiers, the small portfolios
or covers, one of which appertained to each individual, high or lo~w,

A "GARDIEN DB LA PAIX.

260 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

innocent or criminal, and was carefully preserved in the archives of
the Prefecture. There were thousands and thousands of these, care-
fully catalogued and filed for easy reference, made up of confidential
and calumniating reports sent in by agents, sometimes serious
charges, often the merest and most mendacious tittle-tattle. The
most harmless individuals were often denounced as conspirators, and
an agent, if he knew nothing positive, drew liberally on his imagina-
tion for his facts. Great numbers of these dossiers were destroyed
in the incendiary fires of the Commune ; some of its leaders were
no doubt anxious that no such records should remain. The
criminal classes also rejoiced, but not for long. One of the first
acts of the authorities when order was re-established was to
reconstitute the criminal dossiers, a work of immense toil,
necessitating reference to all the archives of prisons and tribunals.
Within a couple of years some five million slips were got together,
and the documents filled eight thousand boxes. It is to be feared
that the secret police is still active in Paris, even under a free
Republic ; secret funds are still produced to pay agents ; among
all classes of society spies may be found even to-day ; in drawing-
rooms and in the servants' hall, at one's elbow in the theatre, among
journalists, in the army, and in the best professions. That this is no
exaggeration may be gathered from the fact that the dossiers are still
in process of manufacture. M. Andrieux, a former prefect, who has
published his Reminiscences, describes how on taking office the first
visitor he received was his, chief clerk, who, according to the regular
custom, put his dossier into his hands. " It bore the number 14,207,'"'
M. Andrieux tells us, "and I have it now in my library, bound, with
all the gross calumnies and truculent denunciations that form the
basis of such documents."

The regular police organisation, that Avhich preserves order, checks
evil-doing, and "runs in" malefactors, falls naturally and broadly
into two grand divisions, the administrative and the active, the
police " in the office " and the police " out of doors." The first
attends to the clerical business, voluminous and incessant, for
Frenchmen are the slaves of a routine which goes round and round
like clockwork There is an army of clerks in the numerous
bureaus, hundreds of those patient Government employees, the
ronds de cuir, as they are contemptuously called, because they sit
for choice on round leather cushions, writing and filling in forms

HOW THE PARIS POLICE IS RECRUITED.

261

for hours and hours, day after day. The active army of police out
of doors, which constitutes the second half of the whole machine,
is divided into two classes : that in uniform and that in plain
clothes. Every visitor to Paris is familiar with the rather
theatrical?- looking policeman, in his short frock coat or cape, smart
kepi cocked on one
side of his head,
and with a sword
by his side. This
agent, sergent de
ville, gardien de la
paix he is known
by all three titles
has many excel-
lent qualities, and
is, no doubt, a very
useful public serv-
ant. He is almost
invariably an old
soldier, a sergeant
who has left the
army with a first-
class character,
honesty and so-
briety being indis-
pensable qualifica-
tions. Our own
Metropolitan Police
is not thus re-
cruited : the Scotland Yard authorities rather dislike men with
military antecedents, believing that army training, with its stiff
and unyielding discipline, does not develop that spirit of good-
humoured conciliation so noticeable in our police when dealing
with the public. Something of the same kind is seen in Paris ;
for it is said that it takes two or three years to turn the well-
disciplined old soldier into the courteous and considerate sergent
de ville. His instructions are, however, precise; he is strictly
cautioned to use every form of persuasion before proceeding to
extremities, he is told to warn but not to threaten, very necessary

A " GAKUE DE PARIS."

262 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

regulations when dealing with such a highly strung, excitable
population as that of Paris. The same sergents de ville are
stationed in the same quarter of the town, so that they become
more or less intimately acquainted with their neighbours and
charges. They are thus often enabled to deal with them in a
friendly way ; a little scolding is found more effective than intimi-
dation, and strong measures may be avoided by tact and
forbearance.

The uniformed police are not all employed in the streets and
arrondisseinents. There is a large reserve composed of the six
central brigades, as they are called, a very smart body of old soldiers,
well drilled, w^ell dressed, and fully equipped : armed, moreover, with
rifles, with which they mount guard when employed as sentries at
the doors or entrance of the Prefecture. In Paris argot the men
of these six central brigades are nicknamed " vaisseaux " (vessels),
because they carry on their collars the badge of the city of Paris
an ancient ship while the sergeants in the town districts wear
only numbers : their own individual number, and that of the quarter
in which they serve. These vaisseaux claim to be the elite of the
force; they come in daily contact with the Gardes de Paris, horse
and foot, a fine corps of city gendarmerie, and, as competing with
them, take a particular pride in themselves. Their comrades in the
quarters resent this pretension, and declare that when in contact
with the pe'ople the vaisseaux make bad blood by their arrogance
and want of tact. The principal business of four at least of
these central brigades is to be on call when required to reinforce
the out-of-doors police at special times. They are ready to turn
out and preserve order at tires, and will, no doubt, be the first in
the fray if Paris is ever again convulsed with revolutionary troubles.

Of the two remaining central brigades, one controls public
carriages, the other the Halles, that great central market by which
Paris is provided with a large part of its food. The cabmen of
Paris are not easily controlled, but they are probably a much
rougher lot than the London drivers, and they, no doubt, need a
much tighter hand. Every cab-stand is under the charge of its
own policeman, who knows the men, notes their arrival and
departure, and marks their general behaviour. Other police
officers of the central brigades superintend the street traffic, but not
so successfully as do our police ; indeed, parties of the French police

264

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CR1UK.

have from time to time been sent 10 London for instruction in this
difficult branch of police business, but have hardly benefited by their
teaching. Parisian cabmen are forbidden to rove in search of fares,
or hang about in front of cafes and at street corners, the penalty

being imprison-
ment without the
option of a fine.
Indeed, a special
quarter in one of
the Paris prisons is
known as the " cab-
men's," and is often
full of them. Yet
the drivers are
honest enough, and
many curious
stories are told of
the self-denial
shown by these
hard-worked,
poorly paid serv-
ants of the public.
A rich Russian who
had won ten thou-
sand francs one
night at his club
left the whole sum
behind him in a
cab in which he
had driven home.
He was so certain

"EVERY CAB-STAND is UNDER THE CHAUGE OF ITS OWN
POLICEMAN " (p. 262).

that he had lost
it irreparably that
he returned to St.

Petersburg without even inquiring whether or not it had been
given up. Some time later he was again in Paris, and a friend
strongly urged him at least to satisfy himself whether or not
the missing money had been taken to the lost property office.
He went and asked, although the limit of time allowed to

STORIES ABOUT PARIS CABMEN. 265

claim the lost property was almost expired. " Ten thousand
francs lost ? Yes, there it is," and after the proper identification
the money was restored to him. "What a fool that cabman must
have been ! " was the Russian's only remark. Again, a certain
jeweller in the Palais Royal left a diamond parure worth 80,000
francs (3,200) in a cab, and the police, when he reported the loss,
gave him scant hope of recovery. He did not know the number of
the cabman he had picked him up in the street, not taken him from
the rank ; and, worse than all, he had quarrelled with the driver, the
reason why he had abruptly left the cab. The case seemed quite
hopeless, yet the cabman brought back the diamonds of his own
accord. The quaintest part of the story is to come. When told at
the Prefecture to ask the jeweller for the substantial reward to
which he was clearly entitled, he replied with intense indignation :
" No, not I ; he was too rude. I hope I may never see him or
speak to him again."

All cabmen are not so honest, however ; and now and again
the fraudulent cabman gets caught. It was so in the case of a
tortoiseshell fan, which was deposited under a wrong description
and eventually, after the legal interval, handed over to the cabman
who had found it Soon afterwards ?, lady turned up to claim
it, and as she described it exactly he was ordered to restore
it to the lady, whose name was communicated to him. " But
she has no right to it," protested the cabman. " She is a thief.
I know the real owner. I have known her from the first. It is
Mdlle. - ," and he named a popular actress, thus confessing his
own misconduct. The actress was then summoned, and did in
fact identify the fan as the one she had lost. But it was proved
satisfactorily that the other lady also had lost a fan that was
curiously similar.

The vicissitudes of treasure-trove might be greatly multiplied.
The most curious chances happen, the strangest articles are
brought to the police authorities. Everything found in the streets
and highways, in omnibuses, theatres, cabs, railway stations, is
forwarded to the Prefecture. In one case an immigrant who had
made his fortune in Canada and carried it in his pocket, in the
shape of fifty notes of ten thousand francs each (20,000),
dropped his purse as he climbed on to the outside of an omni-
bus. The conductor picked it up and restored it ; he was rewarded

266

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

with 500, and richly he deserved it for resisting so great a tempt-
ation. Beds, brooches, boots, sheets even, are brought into the
Prefecture. A mummy was once among the trouvailles ; there
are umbrellas without end. Hogier Orisons, a French writer, from
whom many of these incidents are taken, says that a friend of
his declares that whenever he finds himself without an umbrella
he goes straight to the Prefecture, describes some particular one,
according to his fancy, with such and such a handle, a certain
colour, and so on, when he always has the exact article handed
over to him.

So much for the police in uniform. That in plain clothes, en

PARIS POLICE VANS.

bourgeois, as the French call it, is not so numerous, but it fulfils
a higher, or at least a more confidential, mission. Its members
are styled inspectors, not agents, and their functions fall under
four principal heads. There is, first of all, the service of the
Surete in other words, of public safety the detective department,
employed entirely in the pursuit and capture of criminals, of which
more anon; next comes the police, now amalgamated with the
Surete, that watches over the morals of the capital in a fashion
that would not be tolerated in this country, and possesses arbitrary
powers under the existing laws of France ; then there is the brigade
de garnis, the police charged with the supervision of all lodging-
houses, from the commonest " sleep-sellers' shop," as it is called, to
the grandest hotels. Last of all there is the brigade for inquiries,
whose business it is to act as the eyes and ears of the Prefecture
in plain English, as its spies.

There are many complaints in Paris that the police are short-
handed, especially in the streets. The average is sixteen to a quarter

PARIS UNDER-POLICED.

267

inhabited by 30,000 to 40,000 people, so that the beats are long and
the patrol work severe, especially at night, though the numbers of
the sergents de ville are then doubled. Some say that the streets
of Paris are more unsafe in the more remote districts than those
of any capital of Europe. The police are much abused, too, by the
Radical and Irreconcilable Press. It is not uncommon to read in
the daily papers such headlines as the following : " Crimes of the
Police," " Police Thieves," " Murder by a Sergent de Ville " gener-
ally gross exaggerations, of course. The truth, no doubt, is that
the police of Paris, taken as a whole, are a hard-working, devoted,
and generally estimable body of public servants.

A VISIT FROM THE DETECTIVES.

268

CHAPTER IX.
MODERN POLICE (continued) : NEW YORK.

Greater New York Despotic Position of the Mayor Constitution of the Police Jb'orce
Dr. Parkhurst's Indictment The Lexow Commission and its Report Police Abuses :
Blackmail, Brutality, Collusion with Criminals, Electoral Corruption, the Sale of
Appointments and Promotions Excellence of the Detective Bureau The Black
Museum of New York The Identification Department Effective Control of Crime.

NEW YORK, by its latest charter of government, takes in the whole of
the outtying suburban districts, and has become the second city in
the world. It is known now as Greater New York, and its present
municipal constitution is curiously at variance with the democratic
traditions of a nominally free people. Supreme power, the absolute
autocratic authority, is vested in a single individual, elected, it is true,
by the popular voice, but, while he holds office, as despotic as any
Czar. The only check on the Mayor of Greater New York is that of
public opinion, expressed through a vigilant, often outrageously plain-
speaking, Press, but a Press at times influenced, even to the point of
silence, by party spirit. Holding his mandate on these terms, the
head of the municipal executive in New York can, as a matter of
fact, do as he pleases. The whole business of municipal administra-
tion is absolutely in his hands. He is assisted by eighteen boards,
each controlling a separate department, but all of them except one,
that of finance, composed of members whom he personally appoints.
The first Mayor elected on these lines was Mr. Van Wyck, who,
when he took up his office, was said to be as much master of New
York as Napoleon III. was of Paris and France when he became
President by virtue of the plebiscite.

All this would be beyond the scope of my subject were it not that
the government of New York, past and present, is intimately bound
up with its police. The Mayor, as the chief of executive power, is
the head of the force by which it ought to be protected, and peace

POWERS OF THE NEW YORK POLICE. 269

and good order maintained. Not long since, that police was attacked
by many reputable citizens and declared to be a disgrace to modern
civilisation. The situation had grown up under the shadow of
Tammany Hall, that strange product of modern democracy, an
organisation, originally political, which grew with steadily increasing,
irresponsible power till it overshadowed and overawed the city of
New York, ruling it with barefaced chicanery and imposing an
outrageous despotism. In 1894 the power of Tammany was tem-
porarily overborne by an outburst of popular indignation. But it
was scotched, not killed. The almost irresponsible power wielded
by the Chief Magistrate under the latest charter is working again
for ill. There is no guarantee for its wise and temperate exercise ;
and a new Commission, known as the Mazet Commission, presided
over by Mr. Moss, has conducted an inquiry which revealed that
some of the old evils were again in the ascendant.

Until 1896 the outside public was apt to regard the police of
New York as " the best and finest in the world." The eulogistic
words are those of its own champions, who claimed for it that " its
services have been great, the bravery of some of its members con-
spicuous in life-saving and yet more in quelling riot and disturbance."
It has always been a tradition in America that the police may be
trusted with considerable powers : a free people, feeling that law in a
new country must sternly check license, has not unwillingly permitted
its constituted guardians to use the strong arm on occasion, and in a
way that would not be tolerated in slow-going, sober old England.
To " loose off his revolver " at the fugitive he cannot catch, or who
has slipped through his fingers, is no uncommon practice with the
American policeman, what though he may hit the innocent pigeon
and miss the offending crow. I can call to mind the summary finish
of a prolonged strike of " street-car " employees which I witnessed in
one of my various visits to New York. A force of policemen in plain
clothes and armed to the teeth were sent " down town " on a street-
car with orders to fight their way through, which they did "hand-
somely." In other words, they shot down all opposition. The number
of casualties was never publicly reported.

Let us consider first the constitution of the force. The whole body
of police is small compared with that of other large cities, and in
proportion to the mixed, turbulent public it controls only one to 500
souls ; it is governed by a Board of four Commissioners appointed by

"THEY SHOT DUWX ALL OPPOSITION" (p. 209).

ORGANISATION OF THE NEW YORK POLICE. 271

the Mayor for a term of six years. Particular duties are allocated to
the several members of the Board. Thus, the senior Commissioner
and president ex officio is entrusted with the higher discipline of the
force ; he deals with all charges of misconduct, and decides whether
offending constables shall or shall not be sent before the public
tribunals. Another Commissioner controls repairs and supplies,
examining and passing all bills for work done, after satisfying
himself that it has been completed. A third supervises the Pension
Fund, and disposes of applications for retirement, and also of appli-
cations from widows and children of police officers for relief. The
fourth Commissioner is the Treasurer of police funds.

Immediately next to the Board stands a Superintendent of Police,
who is chief of the executive, the responsible head of the personnel, of
the rank and file of the. force. He is the intermediary between the
four Inspectors, who come next in the hierarchy, and the supreme
Board, the channel communicating the Board's will and the agent to
enforce its execution. The Superintendent holds all the threads of
general control, and is responsible for and charged with the enforce-
ment of the law throughout the city. Three Inspectors supervise
each a separate district, being responsible for the preservation of the
peace within its limits and security to life and limb ; the fourth is the
head of the detective branch. After the Inspectors rank the Captains
of " precincts," of which there were thirty-four previous to the en-
largement of the city, each " precinct " being analogous to a French
arrondissement or a police " division " in London. The Captain is an
officer of great influence and importance in his precinct, which he
rules more or less despotically, but nominally in the best interests of
the public. He has a large force of men at his disposal, and is
expected to use it for the comfort and protection of good citizens,
as well as the pursuit and capture of criminals. The rank and
file of the force serving under the Captains are classed as follows:
first the Sergeants, from whom the Captains are commonly selected ;
next the Roundsmen ; then the Patrolmen, synonymous with our
ordinary blue-coated constables ; last of all the Doormen, who are out
of uniform and employed at stations, lock-ups, and in offices, perform-
ing many and various functions of administration.

In theory, to all outward seeming this organisation, so perfect, so
symmetrical, so accurately planned, might be supposed to justify the
encomiums passed upon it as the best and finest police force in the

272

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

world. Yet some of those for whose service it existed denounced it as
an intolerable tyranny, supported by corruption and wielding arbitrary
authority. Revolt was threatened, and it broke out ere long, only

to be crushed in its first efforts, but,
unabashed by failure, to renew its
strenuous efforts. The moving
spirit, the apostle of reform, was Dr.
Parkhurst, the incumbent of the
Madison Square church, who, after
ten years of active ministration,
began in 1890 to preach against
Tammany from his pulpit with a
persistent courage that survived
every attempt to put him down.
He took office next year as president
of the Society for the Prevention of
Crime, and at once adopted as his
watchword the cry of " Down with
the police." He denounced the
whole administration of law and
justice as criminally corrupt; all

officers, lawyers, judges depending on Tammany worked hand in
hand with crime. " It is simply one solid gang of rascals, half of
the gang in office, the other half out, and the two halves steadily
catering to each other across the official line."

For this bold language Dr. Parkhurst was summoned before the
Grand Jury of New York and solemnly reproved. He was not to be
silenced; but, anxious to formulate no fresh attack until he could
speak to facts from his own knowledge, he made a sad and wear} 7 "
pilgrimage through the worst purlieus of the city, and obtained
abundant proof that the law was continually and flagrantly violated
under the eyes of the police, and in collusion and complicity with
them. He returned to the charge, inveighing with redoubled vigour
against the police, telling how he had "gone down into the disgust-
ing depths of this Tammany-debauched town." He was again
summoned before the Grand Jury, but now he had his answer, and
so far from rebuking him afresh, the Grand Jury agreed with him
as to the corruption of the New York police.

Now the forlorn hope Dr. Parkhurst had led was followed by a

Photo: Sarony, New York.

THE REV. DR. PARKHURST.

THE LEXOW COMMISSION.

273

strong column of assault, and although Tammany fought hard to
shield its creatures, and Dr. Parkhurst was vilified, accused, even
arrested and prosecuted upon trumped-up charges, the city rose to
back him. A memorial was presented to the State Senate praying
for a full public inquiry into the state of the police department.
Tammany still fought ; its nominee, Governor Flower, Governor of the
State of New York, refused to approve the inquiry, on the ground
that it was needless. " No city in the State has a lower tax rate than
New York," he said ; " no city has a better police regulation ; no city
has a lower ratio of crime ; . . . a better health department, better
parks, better schools, better credit. . . . No city is so comfortable
a place to live in. That bad men sometimes get into office there is
true; that ideal municipal government has not yet been attained
there is true ; but these things are equally true of every city
in the world, they are truer of other cities of our State than
they are of New York."

Despite all opposition, a
Committee was appointed
and soon commenced a
searching investigation. It
was presided over by Sena-
tor Lexow, and is still known
as the Lexow Commission.
How exhaustively it dealt
with the business may be
seen from the fact that 678
witnesses were examined on
oath, that the evidence filled
10,576 pages of printed
matter, and that nine months
elapsed before it could pre-
sent its first provisional
report.

Immense difficulties were
experienced in obtaining
evidence. The influence of

the police was paramount ; and it was, no doubt, in consequence of
the reluctance of witnesses to speak against the police that the Lexow
Committee reported so strongly. It is necessary to bear this in
18

Photo copyrighted (1894) by G. Prince, Kew York.

SENATOR LEXOW.

274 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

mind, since it may be that the police prejudiced their own case at
this point or at that by efforts to keep back the facts. The Commit-
tee found that the witnesses they called before them were subjected
to outrage if they dared to state what they knew. "They were abused,
clubbed, and imprisoned, even convicted of crimes on false testimony
by policemen and their accomplices. Men of business were harassed
and annoyed in their affairs . . . people of all degrees seemed to feel
that to antagonise the police was to call down upon themselves
the swift judgment and persecution of an invulnerable force. . . .
The uniform belief was that if they spoke against the .police, had
helped the Committee, or had given information, their business
would be ruined, they would be hounded from the city, and their
lives even jeopardised." The Committee therefore came to the
conclusion that the police formed a separate and highly privileged
class, armed with the authority and the machinery for oppression
and punishment, but practically free themselves from the operation
of the criminal law.

This indictment was based upon clear proof of the irregularities
practised by certain members of the New York police. They may
be summarised under four principal heads, with each of which I will
deal in turn.

(1) Blackmail. A tariff was fixed under which a tax was imposed
upon disorderly houses, drinking shops, gambling places, and so
forth, and was paid, no doubt cheerfully, for immunity from police
interference. This tax varied from twenty dollars (4) to five
hundred dollars (100) per month. The moneys were collected
by detectives and other constables, who received a commission
upon the sums raised. These extortions were not limited to
the caterers for vice, mostly native American citizens. The
poor, ignorant, and friendless foreigner, who was seeking a new
home in the New World, was constantly and wantonly plun-
dered. If he dared to protest he was beaten and maltreated.
A wretched Italian shoeblack, who had cleaned an officer's boots
lor a month on credit, was half-killed when he dared to ask for
his money. A Russian Jewess who had opened a small tobacco shop
got into the black books of certain detectives by refusing to supply
them for nothing, was arrested on a false charge, and heavily fined

(2) Brutality. These charges cover a wide range. The Lexow
Committee stigmatised the police- stations as " slaughter-houses,"

POLICE BRUTALITY IN NEW YORK.

275

where "prisoners, in custody of officers of the law and under the
law's protection, were brutally kicked and maltreated almost within
view of the judge presiding in the court." Numbers of witnesses
testified to the severe assaults made upon them at the station-houses.
It was a word and a blow with the policeman, often no previous
word. A significant story was told to the Committee by Mr. Costello,

SQUAD OF AMERICAN POUCH DUILLING.

an. Irishman attached to the staff of the New York Herald. His
work took him much to the police headquarters, and he was
apparently on good terms with most of the officers. The experience
he thus gained led him to produce a book called " Our Police
Protectors/' which had a good sale, under the patronage of th e
police, until one of the officers brought out a book, which
drove Costello's out of sale. Costello, accepting his disappoint-
ment, produced another book about the Fire Department. Again
he met with competition from a man protected by the fire and
police authorities. He endeavoured to fight for his own hand,
but soon got to loggerheads with the police. He was arrested

276 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

on a trumped-up charge, and when taken to the station-house was
knocked down by an officer " brass-knuckled," for the ruffian's fist
was armed with brass knuckles. Then he was brutally kicked as he
lay half-stunned in the muddy gutter. Another still more brutal case
was that of a gentleman who interposed in a tight and was attacked
by a policeman who rushed into the melee. The officer, striking out
wildly with his club, caught the well-meaning gentleman on the face
and knocked his eye out. Another officer attacked a man who was
dissatisfied with the shell-fish he bought at an oyster stand, the
keeper of which had paid for police protection. The custodian of
order forthwith exerted his authority on the side of his friend and
smashed in the teeth of the discontented customer. Another witness
appeared before the Committee bleeding and disfigured, just as he had
come out of police hands. This man had been robbed of four dollars
while asleep on a doorstep, and his whole offence was in having
appealed to the police for assistance in recovering his money.

In all these and similar cases the victims could not hope for
redress. The police were above the law, and were not held responsible
for offences, not even for such felonious assaults as those described,
which would have entailed upon ordinary citizens a sentence of four
or five years' imprisonment. The policeman, even if charged and
convicted, was certain to be let off with a small fine. But, as a general
rule, the sufferers knew too well that it was useless to take proceedings.
Mr. Costello, already mentioned, was asked why he had not done so.
In answer he used the well-known saying, " It is no use going to law
with the devil when the court is in hell." The gentleman who lost his
eye because he was so weak as to interfere in a street fight preferred to
pay a lawyer to bribe his assailant not to appear against him, although
the boot was entirely on the other leg and the offender was the police-
man. In the case of the Italian shoeblack his mates raised money
enough to pay a lawyer, but could never get the case brought into
court. In considering these charges of brutality, however, it is but
fair to bear in mind the dangerous character of certain classes of
the population with which the New York police have to deal, and
the readiness with which resort is had to lethal weapons. To expect
from them the patience and forbearance that we look for from the
English police would be obviously unreasonable.

(3) Collusion with Grime and Criminals. This was another
grave allegation proved against certain of the New York police. It

THE "GREEN GOODS TRADE.'

277

was shown that they were hand-in-glove in one nefarious practice

at least that known as the " green goods trade," a species of

confidence trick played upon the umvary fool, and a very profitable

game to the side which invariably

won. " Green goods " are forged or

counterfeit banknotes, passed off as

genuine and sold for a song on one

of two pretences to those who would

buy them. The first, that there had

been over-issue of paper currency

by the Treasury, and the notes were.

therefore at a discount ; the second,

that the plates from which the

notes were struck had been stolen

from the Government, hence they

could be offered cheap.

The business, which seems to
have been invented by one McNally,
commonly called " King McNally,"
was so ingenious* that some account
of it may be given here. Seven
principal actors were needed, and
they were :

(i.) The " Backer," or capitalist,

who was wanted to supply genuine notes to a large amount, which
had to be produced when the swindle was started and the fish was
on the hook.

(ii.) The " Writer," who sent out the circulars which constituted
the bait.

(iii.) The " Bunco Steerer," who was despatched, often to a con-
siderable distance, to get the nibbling victim in tow.

(iv.) The " Old Man,." a personage of benign and most respectable
aspect, who had to sit in the room when the fraud was being
carried out.

(v.) The " Turner," who did the bargaining and sold the bogus
notes.

(vi.) The " Ringer," a sleight-of-hand artist who effected the ex-
change, at a given moment, between the genuine notes displayed
and the shams palmed off on the fool.

JAMES MCNALLY, INVENTOR OF THE
" GREEN GOODS TRADE."

278 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

(vii.) The " Taiier," a species of bully employed to get rid of any
dupe who, having discovered the swindle, returned to expose it.

A first step was to procure directories and lists of addresses,
by which means vast numbers of circulars were distributed through
the country. It was the business of No. 2, the " writer," a mere
clerk, to send these out, enclosing in each envelope forged cuttings
from newspapers (printed, of course) which set forth the extra-
ordinary advantages offered by those who had " green goods " for
sale. At the same time a slip was inserted giving an address to
which anyone might telegraph so as to secure the offer before it
was too late. The address was always bogus, some number in a
street of a house that did not exist, or an entirely vacant lot of
ground. The telegrams were, however, delivered by the telegraph
companies to the swindlers in person, a service for which a sub-
stantial fee was paid.

It was supposed that as many as 10,000 circulars a day were
despatched. One or two at most would meet with a response.
Then the " bunco steerer " went off forthwith to bring the victim
in; to hand him over to the rogues waiting to despoil him in
some low tavern or opium shop where they consorted together,
with the direct permission of the police. The " guy," or the
" come-on,"" as the victim was styled in the swindlers' argot, when
he appeared was handled in various ways. The first step was
to make a price, and that was generally at the rate of 10,000
dollar bills for 650 dollars paid down. Smaller sums were also
negotiated, and the process was not always quite the same. Either
the good bills were counted over and deposited in a box, which
by some sleight-of-hand was exchanged for another filled with
waste paper, or the bills were arranged in packages with a good
note on top and bottom, the intervening notes being bogus. This
latter dodge was used with any suspicious customer, a " hard "
victim, as he was called. There was another plan carried out with
a private carriage ; it was called the " carriage racket," and the
transfer was made by means of a couple of bags or satchels. In
one the genuine notes were deposited by a confederate, who
entered the carriage with the victim, and sat by his side. The
worker of the fraud, after filling the satchel, would kindly offer to
accompany the victim back to the station, and en route the ex-
change was made with another bogus bag.

THE "GREEN GOODS TRADE."

279

In all cases the railway station played a principal part in the
fraud ; it was essential that the victim should be a stranger who came
from a distance, and was returning home after the deal. He was cun-
ningly debarred from examining the box or the satchel, whichever
was employed. In the case of the box he was given a key which

THE OLD XOMJiS PRISON, NEW YOKK, NOW KEBUILT.

would not fit the lock ; and in the case of the satchel he was told
to cut the leather through when he got to his journey's end. The
idea in both cases was that he should not detect the fraud before
leaving New York ; that would, of course, have been inevitable
directly he opened the receptacle. As he was doing a shady,
fraudulent thing in buying the notes, he would generally fall into
the trap, realising the necessity for great caution and secrecy.

Now and again a victim discovered the trick, and refused to
leave the city till he had exposed it. This case was met by the
" tailer," who was in waiting at the railway station disguised as

280 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

a policeman. When he crane on the scene he met the complaint
made with an immediate threat of arrest, and the victim, knowing
his intention had been dishonest, was only too glad to get off.
But sometimes the "guy" was swindled in a different way. He
paid his money, but got no notes. They were to be sent to his
address; when they failed to arrive he would come back to inquire,
and probably buy more, which were also to follow, but never did.
This trick was often carried out three or four times. At last
the parcel would be handed into the " express " or parcel office
before his eyes, but to a confederate, who, when the notes were
missing, was accused of having stolen them, and was not, of course,
to be found.

Not only did certain members of the police connive at this
nefarious traffic, which flourished exceedingly, but they actually
co-operated in it. A police captain provided the "joint" or place
of meeting where the thieves beat the victim or swindled him.
The proprietor was in the swim, and received his commission, and
it' superior officials interfered, as sometimes happened, the "joint"
was transferred, then and there to a new place. The "green goods"
man always had timely notice when any police raid was in con-
templation ; the police were also most useful in taking charge of
the " come-backs," the " guys " or victims who would not submit to
extortion, and it was often possible to take them in hand when they
applied at the detective bureau so as to nullify their proceedings,
or at worst give the hint to the swindlers to make themselves
scarce. The police were also kind enough to assist " King McNally "
in the discipline of his subjects. Whenever a " writer," who was
the medium by which the profits were shared after the first half
had been monopolised by the capitalist, was behindhand with his
payments, the police were informed, and the defaulter arrested.
The profits of this nefarious business were very high. It was said
that McNally often took as much as 1,600 in a single day.
Some of the capitalists or " backers " made large fortunes, 20,000,
30,000, even 40,000 apiece.

Another species of illegitimate revenue was that drawn from
the gaming houses, the policy shops and pool rooms which are
apparently very numerous in New York. This particular traffic
appears to have originated the slang epithet " pantata," which
was the familiar title for the police official who gave his counten-

POLICE TOLLS IN NEW YORK.

281

ance to vice and crime. Its derivation is said to be Bohemian,
and the word was originally used in Austro-Hungary, where the
Emperor-King Francis Joseph was called the " Pantata of his
people." The exact meaning of the word is father-in-law, and the
New York pantata was thus esteemed the head of the criminal
family. It was proved before the Lexow Commission that there
were at that time no less
than six hundred policy
shops in active operation in
the city working openly
under police protection, and
that they paid a fixed tariff
of fifteen dollars per shop
per month. The number of
pool rooms was still larger,
and they remained un-
molested in consideration of
pa} 7 ments amounting to a
total of some three hundred
dollars a month. The gam-
ing that went on in the pool
rooms appears to have been
much akin to the Continental
lottery system, and any sum
could be staked, from one
cent upwards. Another form
of revenue raised by dis-
honest members of the police
force was in levying com-
mission upon the owners of
property who had been
robbed of valuables and were
willing to pay to have them

restored. The practice which obtained in this country during
the earlier part of the present century is still in force in New
York; it is possible to come upon the track of stolen property.
and pawnbrokers or " fences " are prepared to hand it over
on repayment of the advances made on it. But in carrying out
the arrangements the police, of course, took toll, and were

EQUIPMENTS OF THE NEW YORK POLICE.

1. Winter Helmet. 2. Summer Hat. 3. Revolver.
4. Shield. 5. Day Stick. 6. Rosewood Baton for
Parade. 7. Belt arid Frog. 8. Night Stick. 9.
Handcuffs (new style). 10. Nippers.

282

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

paid either commission or substantial gratuities by the owners
they obliged.

4. Yet another indictment brought against the Xew York police
was that of active interference with the purity of election. It was
alleged to be the agent of a political party, its duty being to secure
the return of the proper candidates, those of Tammany Hall. In
carrying this out members of the force sometimes arrested and ill-
treated the opposition voters; they canvassed for their own side,
and, neglecting their proper functions as guardians of the peace,
they became the agents of Tammany Hall. The ballot boxes were
tampered with, and such frauds as personation and the repeated
appearance of the same voter were w r inked at.

It was little likely that a force recruited and administered as
regards promotion on corrupt lines would act otherwise than as
has been set forth. In early days first appointments were not to be
purchased for money, but the practice soon became general, and no
one could be appointed a constable unless he paid for it, or had
political friends. One Commissioner admitted that from 85 to 90

per cent, of all the appoint-
ments he made were at the
instance of Tammany HalL
Yet there was at this time
a Civil Service rule that all
officers were to be appointed
by open competition. It came
to be a custom at last that
every candidate should pro-
duce 300 dollars to a go-
between, who passed it on to
the police authorities ; after
this payment the examinations
were made eas} T . The same
rule as to payment was en-
forced for promotion. It cost
1,600 dollars to become a ser-
geant, and for a captaincy
15,000 dollars were paid. One

witness, who was a police sergeant, told a remarkable story of his
examination for one of these latter appointments. He had passed

SUPERINTENDENT "WILLIAM S. DEVERY,
OF THE NEW YORK POLICE.

GOOD DETECTIVE WORK IN NEW YORK.

283

INSPECTOR HYKXES

the prescribed examination three times in succession, and yet was no
nearer nomination. His friends told him that this was simply
waste of time, but he persisted for four
years, trusting that his merits would be
recognised, still steadfastly declining to
bribe his superiors. Finally he consented,
and was told that his promotion could
be had for 12,000 dols. This money was
subscribed by his friends, but then the
price was raised to 15,000 dollars. Again
it was subscribed, but became a bone of con-
tention amongst the officials. At one time
it looked as though even bribery would fail
to secure the promotion, but they appeared
at last to have divided the plunder to
their mutual satisfaction, and the witness
now became a captain.

It is only fair to the police of Now

York to credit them with considerable success in dealing with
crime. Whatever suspicion may have rested on their good faith
where offenders have been able to purchase their connivance,
there is no doubt that a large number of crimes have always
been detected and avenged in New York. They have to deal
with cosmopolitan rogues drawn to the happy hunting ground
of the New World, and with a large mass of indigenous crime
of the most serious kind. The unlawful taking of lite is very
prevalent in the United States, where the percentage of murders
is larger than anywhere in the world, but these crimes do not
go largely unpunished. Again, the American " crook," the bank
robber, the burglar, the counterfeit-money maker, and the wholesale
forger are to be met with in large numbers across the Atlantic, and
the warfare against them is unceasing. It is true that the detective
forces of the country are very much in private hands : agencies like
Pinkerton's have a fine record ; the triumphs achieved by the breaking
up of some of the Secret Societies in the south, such as the Molly
McGuire and the Kluklux clans, are feats deserving the warmest
recognition. At the same time, the detective bureau, composed of
officers of Mulberry Street, has done excellent service, and Inspector
Byrnes, its chief, has earned a high reputation in thief-taking.

281 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

The Detective Bureau of Now York " has attained national
importance," says a writer who knows it and its services well. He
instances especially the protection given to the great business centre
of Wall Street at the time when the "down town" district was
specially favoured of thieves and depredators. Robbery from the
person, burglarious entrance to banking and other premises, the ab-
straction of money, bonds, and valuable papers used to be of constant
occurrence. More recently the presence of a "crook" below a line
drawn, say, through Fulton Street was primd facie evidence against
him, and he was then and there arrested, and called upon to give
account of himself. Unless he could show good cause for venturing
within the peculiar precincts of finance and commerce he was rele-
gated to gaol. The detectives are always " on the spot," ever keen
and active in coping with the evil-doer. A dozen are always on
duty at the Stock Exchange, where it is boasted that not a ten cent
stamp has been stolen by a professional thief for years.

The ways of the New York detective are like those of the famous
Ah Sing, "childlike and bland," but no less astute and successful.
They aim at prevention, and trust to it even more than to the pur-
suit subsequent to the commission of crime. It is an axiom with
them to know their game by heart; they study the thoughts and
idiosyncrasies, the plans and proceedings, of the criminal classes
so closely that they can predicate what will be done under any
particular circumstances, how the thief will act when planning, when
executing, and, above all, when covering up his tracks after he has
made his coup. One method followed with marked success is to
keep their spies and assistants in the heart of the enemy's camp.
It is well known that criminals have little or no fidelity to each
other, that " honour among thieves " is a mendacious adage pro-
vided any of them can see substantial profit in betraying his
associates. The best officers make a point of keeping in touch with
the "crooks," visiting them frequently in their favourite resorts,
and hearing all the movements and the news. Matters in progress,
the activity or otherwise of well-known practitioners, are thus ascer-
tained, for the high-flyer in crime generally knows what others of
his class are about, and is willing to pass it on for a consideration,
or to stand well with the police.

New York possesses its Black Museum, its treasure-house of
criminal relics akin to that which may be viewed at the headquarters

1. PHOTOGRAPHING A CRIMINAL FQK THE " ROGUES' GALLERY " (NEW TORK). 2. CABINET IK WHICH
AMERICAN CRIMINALS ARK REGISTERED. 3. TWO LEAVES OF THE " ROGUES* GALLERY."

286

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

of our Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard. A brief summary
of the exhibits in this strange depository is, in its way, an epitome
of contemporary crime. Every item, even the most insignificant,
tells of some flagitious act. The sledge hammers, drills, jemmies,
masks, and powder flasks tell their own story, so do the marvellously
ingenious burglar's implements manufactured by high-class me-
chanical skill, and hired out to executive agents on a percentage

COMPLETE SET OF AX AMERICAN BURGLAR'S TOOLS.

of results. Here are the bogus gold bricks of some famous confidence
trick, the well-named vol a I'Americain, lithographic stones from
which thousands and thousands of counterfeit notes have been struck
off, the curious devices used for opening combination locks, the
rope ladders, lanterns, revolvers that have figured in various notable
operations.

Another branch well worked by the New York police is its
identification department, which is now fully served by the Bertillon

THE ROGUES' GALLERY OF NEW YORK. 287

method of measurement, and it has always been rich in photographic
portraiture. The famous " Rogues' Gallery," which forms the basis
of Mr. Inspector Byrnes' book on American criminals, is a marvel-
lous record of rascality. Each picture is backed with a brief history
of ancestry and antecedents, so that the influences at work, whether
congenital or accidental, evil traits transmitted from parents, or the
growth of bad example acting on weak moral fibre, may be seen at
once. As has been said, the United States offers many attractions
to wrong-doers, and in this police gallery will be found the portraits
of such great criminal practitioners as " Hungry Joe," the ex-
Governor of South Carolina ; Franklin J. Moses, " Big Bertha,"
Annie Riley, an accomplished linguist ; Max Shinburn, and the rest.
It is a part of the case against the New York police that it fails
to control crime effectively, but it can nevertheless show results at
least as good under this head as those achieved in European
countries. In some respects indeed its operations are marked by
a cleverness and smartness which it would be hard to match in
the best of the police forces of the Old World.

288

CHAPTER X.

MODERN" POLICE (continued) : RUSSIA.

Mr. Sala's Indictment of the Russian Police Their Wide-reaching Functions Instances

of Police Stupidity Why Sala Avoided the Police Von H and his Spoons Herr

Jerrmann's Experiences Perovsky, the Reforming Minister of the Interior The
Regular Police A Rural Policeman's Visit to a Peasant's House The State Police
The Third Section Attacks upon Generals Mezentzoff andDrenteln The " Paris Box
of Bills " Sympathisers with Nihilism : an Invaluable Ally Leroy Beaulieu on the
Police of Russia Its Ignorance and Inadequate Pay The Case of Vera Zassoulich
The .Passport System How it is Evaded and Abused Its Oppressiveness.

FORTY years ago a well-known writer summed up the Russian
police in the following scathing words : " As grand-masters of the
art and mystery of villainy, as proficients in lying, stealing, cruelty,
rapacity, and impudence, I will back the Russian police against
the whole world of knavery."

This tremendous indictment seems to be fully justified by past
experience, and it is to be feared that many of the worst charges
can be still maintained. Recent writers tell new stories that fall little
short of the old. Russia is still absolutely given over to the police.
It is the most police-ridden country in the world ; not even in
France in the worst days of the Monarchy were the people so
much in the hands of the police. From first to last the Russian
citizen is deemed incapable of looking after himself. Not only is
he forbidden to take an active part in the management of public
affairs, but in the most private matters he must submit to the
interference of the police. " The Russian police has a finger in
every pie," wrote the acute observer quoted above.* " They meddle
not only with criminals, not only with passports, but with hotels,
boarding and lodging houses, theatres, balls, soirees, shops, boats,
births, deaths, and marriages. The police take a Russian from
his cradle and never lose sight of him till he is snugly deposited

* George Augustus Sala, "A Journey Due North."

THE RUSSIAN POLICE.

289

in a parti- coloured coffin in the great ceme-
tery of Wassily Ostrovv. Surely to be an
orphan must be a less terrible bereavement in
Russia than in any other country ; for the
police are father and mother to everybody
uncles, aunts, and cousins too."

Nothing can be done in Russia without
police permission. A person cannot build a
bathroom in his house without leave. A

physician
cannot
practise
without it;
he must

have leave
even to
refuse to
attend to
night calls;
he cannot
prescribe
anaesthe-
tics, nar-
cotics, or

poisons without special permission ; and no
chemist would make up a prescription con-
taining any of these drugs unless the doctor's
name were on his special list. No new
journal can be established without permission,
no printing office, no bookshop, no photo-
graph gallery ; special police leave is needed
to sell newspapers in the streets ; a reader

at one of the public libraries who Avishes to consult standard works
on social subjects must be armed with a permit ; no concert for
19

290 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AXD CRIME.

charitable purposes can be organised without leave from the police,
and the proceeds must be handed over to them to be passed on
to the recipients or embezzled on the way. All freedom of move-
ment within the empire is checked by the police. A native Russian
must have leave if he wishes to go fifteen miles from home. A
foreign traveller is forbidden to enter the country without leave,
he must have leave if he wishes to remain more than six months,
and must ask for leave to go away again ; every change of residence
must be notified to the police. The passport system, although at
times unevenly and unequally administered, is a potent weapon in
the hands of the police, by means of which they can control
the movements of everyone within the empire.

To give some idea of the wide-reaching functions of the police,
the power assumed in matters momentous and quite insignificant, we
may quote from the list of circulars issued by the Minister of the
Interior to the Governors of the various provinces during four recent
years. The Governors were directed to regulate religious instruction
in secular schools, to prevent horse-stealing, to control subscriptions
collected for the Holy Places in Palestine, to regulate the advertise-
ments of medicines and the printing on cigarette papers, to examine
the quality of quinine sold, and overlook the cosmetics and other
toilet articles such as soap, starch, brilliantine, tooth-brushes, and
insect powder provided by chemists. They were to issue regula-
tions for the proper construction of houses and villages, to exercise
an active censorship over published price-lists and printed notes of
invitation and visiting-cards, as well as seals and rubber stamps.
All private meetings and public gatherings, with the expressions of
opinion and the class of subjects discussed, were to be controlled
by the police. In a word, quoting one high authority,* the Russian
police collect statistics, enforce sanitary regulations, make searches
and seizures in private houses, keep thousands of " suspects " con-
stantly under surveillance, reading all their correspondence, and, of
course, violating the sanctity of the post office. They take charge
of the bodies of persons found dead ; they admonish those who
neglect their religious duties and fail to partake of the Holy Com-
munion ; they enforce obedience to thousands of diverse orders and
regulations supposed to promote the welfare of the people and
guarantee the safety of the State. There are 5,000 sections relating

* Mr. George Kennan, in the Century Magazine.

liUSSIAN POLICE IN THE PAST.

291

to police in a Russian code of laws, and it is hardly an exaggeration
to say, as Mr. Kennan puts it, that in the peasant villages, away
from the centres of education and enlightenment, the police are the
omnipresent and omnipotent regulators of all human conduct a
sort of incompetent bureaucratic substitute for Divine Providence.

Before, however, dealing further with the Russian police of to-day,
it will be interesting, for purposes of comparison, to look back for a

Plioto:

PREFECTURE OF POLICE, PETERSBURG.

moment into some of the less recent stories of police proceedings.
Travellers who visited the country fifty years ago or more give it
as their deliberate opinion that the Russian police was " more stupid,
more dishonest and corrupt than can well be conceived." Even in
those days they had enormous powers ; everything was submitted to
their superintendence, and they carried out their orders just as seemed
good to them. Their too literal interpretation of the letter of the
law was often productive of the most serious consequences. Thus
ir was a strict rule that no one might pass the Neva when the
breaking up of the ice had set in, and police were stationed on the
banks to insist upon its observance. But the rule was also made

292 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GUI UK.

to apply to an}- unfortunate persons who were already on the ice
when the thaw began ; no one was allowed to cross, and therefore no
one could be allowed to land. The humane intention of saving life
was thus set at naught by the intense stupidity of subordinates,
and many accidents happened.

A worse case occurred at the burning of the Lehmann Theatre,
about 1840, during the Carnival, a period of great festivity known as
Maslinizza, At the time in question the most popular of the many
entertainments was that of a German pantomime company, which
performed in a temporary theatre erected upon the Admiralty Square,
St. Petersburg. This pantomime was the rage, and the theatre
w r as constantly crammed. At one morning performance the alarm
of lire was raised, almost instantly names burst out from behind
the scenes, and the whole edifice, of wood, was in a blaze. The
audience, wild with terror, rushed to the doors, and found exit
altogether forbidden. These doors opened inwards, and the pressure
of the frantic crowd closed them as effectually as if they had been
barred. A workman, who was on the far side, and who had assisted
in the erection of the theatre, called for an axe, saying that he knew
what was wrong, and that a way must be cut open for the crowd.
But there was a policeman on duty, and he refused to allow any steps
to be taken without superior authority. When, at last, his fatal
obstinacy was overcome, and admission was gained, it was found
to be too late. The whole of the densely packed audience, men,
women, and children, were dead ; they had been stifled by the
smoke that filled the building, and not a single soul was saved.

The extortions of the Russian police have been at all times
unblushing. Their rapacity knows no bounds, and it appears to be
exhibited by every rank, from the highest to the lowest. George
Augustus Sala, in his " Journey Due North," admirably summed up
the situation in his day. He had been struck by the appearance of a
man in uniform, seated in an admirably appointed droschky behind a
priceless stepper, driven by a resplendent coachman, and he thought
that he was gazing upon the Czar himselt The master was not,
perhaps, of prepossessing appearance ; he was stout and flabby,
with pale, trembling cheeks, and close-cropped, shiny black hair, but
he was in a smart uniform, with a double-eagled helmet, buckskin
gloves, and patent-leather boots. " Who is it ? " Sala asked of a
Russian friend. " Field- Marshal ? Prince Gortschakoff" ? General

THE RUSSIAN POLICE: BLACKMAIL.

293

Todleben ? " " No, he is a Major of Police." " Has he enormous
pay or a private fortune?" "That dog's son," replied the Russian,
" has not a penny of his own, and his full pay all told is a sum of 40
a year." " But the private carriage, the horse, the silver-mounted
harness, the luxury of the whole turn-out ? " " II prend ; he takes."
And later on Sala proceeds to tell us how the " taking " is done.

"THE MAJOR . . . SITS AT THE RECEIPT or CUSTOM."

The Major in his handsome office sits at the receipt of custom ;
everybody must bribe him all those who seek for licenses, for privi-
leges. As we have seen, police permission is needed for everything
under the sun, and all who come seeking it must pay. They bribe
the Major, his employees, even the private policeman at the doors.
" It is a continual and refreshing rain," says Sala, " of grey fifty-rouble
notes to the Major, of blue and green fives and threes to the em-
ployees, of fifty-copeck pieces to the grey-coats." And then the
writer goes on to give specific instances of robber}' on a large scale,
telling us how this police body, " organised to protect the interests

21)4 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

of citizens and watch over public order and morals, to pursue and
detect and take charge of criminals . . . simply harasses, frightens,
cheats, and plunders honest folk."

During the course of a one month's residence in St. Petersburg
Sala was robbed four times; first of a cigar-case, then of a purse,
fortunately not very well lined, next of an overcoat, and lastly of a
drawerful of nondescript articles, including shirts, cigars, and a pair
of opera-glasses. This last robbery had been effected by breaking
through a seemingly secure lock, and the victim suspected a certain
chambermaid who attended to his room. He was on the point of
laying the whole case before the police when a friend, a French-
man who knew Kussia by heart, interposed and strongly advised
Sala to accept his loss; he would certainly recover nothing, and
would as certainly be obliged to spend more than double the value
of the property stolen, with the additional inconvenience of being
nearly worried to death. The gist of this shrewd advice was that
he should grin and bear it, buy new articles, but never complain.
" Complaints will lead to your being replundered fourfold, hardly
to the recovery of your possessions."

This was no new experience. An earlier traveller, Herr Jerrmann,
gives a curious instance of the extraordinary faculty the Russian
police exhibited of retaining what came into their hands. It was
always considered, he said, that the person robbed had never less
chance of recovering his property than when the police had actually
got the thief. The general feeling, in fact, was strong that thefts
would be seldom if ever reported were it not that the law imperatively
requires it to be done.

A certain nobleman, Yon H , lost some plate, silver spoons,

knives and forks, which were abstracted from his plate-chest. A
few weeks later one of his servants came and told him that he
had seen the stolen property exhibited for sale in a pawnbroker's

shop. Von H went and identified his plate, then, calling the police

in, required the silversmith to produce the goods. There could be

no doubt as to ownership, for Von H 's arms and initials had

not been erased. The silversmith willingly admitted Von H 's

claim, and would have surrendered the property to him at once.
But the police interposed, and declined to allow him to take away
his property until he had formally proved his ownership. For this
it was necessary to draw up a formal statement of the case, and

VAGARIES OF ItUSSIAN POLICE.

295

submit it to the lieutenant of police, accompanied by a specimen
article from his plate-chest in corroboration of his claim. While
this was being done the police took charge of the pieces that had
been stolen, and soon acquired more. Von H - was apparently a
novice then, for, in order to recover the few articles he had lost,
he submitted the whole contents of his plate-chest for police

UNDER EXAMINATION* IN A KV88IAN POLICE OFFICE.

inspection at the police bureau. From that time he never saw a
single article again!

Jcrrmann tells another story within his own experience. A
silver table-spoon was stolen from his kitchen; his suspicions fell
upon the baker who brought him bread, and the same day the thief
was captured, and the spoon traced to a receiver's shop. Justice
was prompt in its action ; the thief was duly punished, the receiver's
shop was closed. But the police took possession of the spoon !
Herr Jerrmann valued the spoon, which was a christening gift, and
he was determined to spare no pains to recover it. He Avas,
however, referred from one person to another, hunted from place

296 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

to place in the most vexatious way, and all without result. At
last a commissary who was the custodian of the spoon asked him
frankly why he was so persevering ; the value of the spoon was
trilling, and he must have spent more money in droschkies than
the thing was worth, while he might confidently expect to be much
more out of pocket still before he got back his property. Jerrinann,
seeing how the land lay, suddenly decided upon a daring ruse.
He told the commissary that he meant to have the spoon the
very next day, and when he was asked mockingly what he pro-
posed to do, he answered simply that he was going to dine that
evening with Perovsky, the Minister of the Interior. " And I mean,"
added Jerrmann, " to ask him a riddle, namely, how to recover
one's property when it is temporarily held by the police. If you
will come to breakfast with me to-morrow morning I promise you
that you shall make use of that ver}' spoon. But whether you
wear uniform or not will entirely depend upon how Perovsky
deals with my riddle." The commissary again laughed, but a
little uneasily. He accepted the invitation to breakfast, and when
he came the spoon was on the table ; he had sent it in antici-
pation. The best part of this story is that the dinner with
Perovsky was purely imaginary. But that famous Minister's name
was ever a terror to faithless officials.

This Perovsky, a man of singular ability and of the most
straightforward character, had been appointed head of the police by
the Czar Nicholas I. when that sovereign was roused to the conscious-
ness that his police was a shame and a scandal to the empire.
Perovsky did something, no doubt, towards reforming the most crying
abuses, but he met with the most determined opposition from the
great army of police officials, who bitterly resented his interference.
Many stories are told of his methods of calling his subordinates to
account. There was one occasion when he drew the attention of the
chief of police to a certain mansion where gambling at prohibited
games of chance was constant!} 7 carried on. He desired the 'police to
surround the house and to depute two of their number to enter it.
The officers were to make their way to a room indicated, and if they
there found a party of gamesters at a laro table arrests should be
made. All fell out as planned ; the gamblers were caught in flagrante
with piles of gold upon the table, sufficient proof of what was going
on. But just as the players were about to be removed to the police

LAYING A TRAP FOR THE POLICE.

297

station one of them took the police officers aside and assured them
that it was all a mistake, that they were not playing for the gold
upon the table, which merely served as markers. Still, if the police
officers cared to try their skill at ecarU for a thousand roubles a game,
some of those present would be glad to give them a chance of

C' NVIlT.-. IN A Ul -M.Y\ I'UISUN.

(From a Photograph.)

winning the money. This was only another excuse for making it a
present to the officers of the law, Avho presently withdrew with their
pockets well lined to inform their chief that there was nothing wrong
in the house they had visited. This report was carried in due course
to Perovsky, who summoned the two police agents before him, and,
assuring them that he was not their dupe, opened another door

298 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

and disclosed to view the very same gamblers of the night before
sitting at a green table in the same order, playing the same pro-
hibited game. The whole affair was an artfully executed plot to
entrap the police.

The police, it has been contended, is an indispensable wheel in
the organisation of absolute monarchy. That power pretends to lie
paternal as well as repressive, and as long as it forbids the people
to share in government, or express opinions on current events, it
must be aided by some organ that replaces the public voice,
speaking either in elective assemblies or in the Press. The police,
acting for the central power, is supposed to control everything, to
criticise conduct, to protect as well as correct, and it thus becomes
possessed of very considerable power. In Russia, under Nicholas I.,
the police was well styled the mainspring of the State machinery ;
and although under Alexander II. more liberal principles obtained,
the growth of Nihilism led to reaction, and the police recovered all
its old authority. Great pains have been taken to perfect its
processes, to give it increased strength and enlarge its action.
With this in view an organisation was planned which lasted for
some years, and which consisted mainly in the separation of all
police into two principal and distinct branches

1. The ordinary, everyday, regular police.

2. The political, or State, and for the most part secret police.
Let us consider these in turn.

1. The regular police is on the whole organised as in many
other European countries, with the difference that the police officer
often predominates in Russia over other local functionaries. For
purposes of illustration it may be noted that where in France a
sous-prtfet would act under the prefect of a department, the official
in Russia next to the Governor is the ispravnik, with whom lesser
members of the police hierarchy are in direct relations.

A great army of unofficial and unpaid attaches assists the regular
police of the towns. This force was obtained through the clever
device of enlisting the services of every house porter, the Russian
dvorniJc, who answers to the French concierge and the German
Hausknecht, and discharges much the same functions in an em-
phasised and more arbitrary fashion. The dvornik is bound to see
and examine the papers and passports of all inmates of the house he
serves, and especially of all visitors and new arrivals. The police

PROVINCIAL POLICE IN RUSSIA. 299

regulation requires every dvornik to carry the passport to the police
station within three days of the arrival of a new person, and to
lodge it there in exchange for a ticket of residence. The same
process is followed on departure. Thus the dvornik becomes a sort
of permanent detective; he has not only to watch over all in the
house, but he is held responsible that no revolutionary proclamations
are posted on the external walls, no dangerous articles thrown out of
the windows, and he is expected to lend a hand to the police if they
make an arrest or give chase to a fugitive. Although he gets no pay
from Government, he is expected to give much service under irksome
conditions. He is forbidden to leave his post at any time during the
long night watch, sixteen hours, from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. next day, and
he is liable to severe punishment if he fail in these duties. For all
this the house proprietor really pays, and he may be still further
mulcted, for he is held responsible for all illicit acts committed in his
house, which may be sequestrated on proof of secret meetings held
within it, or on any discovery of weapons, ammunition, explosives,
or forbidden literature.

The police in the provinces is represented by a force of 5,000
or more, who were first appointed in 1878, were armed, mounted;
given good pay and many rights. Each officer had his own beat,
in which he ruled supreme, and he was thought quite a delightful
institution. But within a year or two the police had developed
into abominable petty tyrants, who held the country folk at their
mercy, a prey to their exactions and brutality. They became, in
fact, a perfect scourge in their districts, and even governors and
high officials denounced them as brigands. It became clear that a
bad police was worse than no police at all. Thus, an institution
intended to help and protect the people soon degenerated into a new
and terrible instrument of vexation and oppression. No name was
too bad for the rural policeman, the uriadniki, who were nicknamed
the kuriatniki, or " chicken stealers," by the peasants, and likened by
the better informed to the dread bodyguard of Ivan the Terrible.

A graphic picture has been painted by the famous Vera
Zassoulich, in her Memoirs, of the visit of a rural policeman to a
peasant's house in company with the tax collector of the district.
Vera, a young lady of high birth and much beauty, spent, in
pursuit of the Nihilistic propaganda she was preaching, long
periods under the roofs of villagers, and she was working as an

300 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

ordinary seamstress in one house when a descent was made upon
it. " I was sitting," she writes, " at the door of the one room of
the hut when the policeman appeared, accompanied by an old
soldier in a dirty grey greatcoat, and followed by two peasants.
... I was called upon to give my name, produce my passport,
and state how long I meant to reside in that place. . . .
Then, in reply to my questions, I was told that the police had
come to back up the tax gatherer, and I sa\v what happened if

WHIP AXD MAXACLES TSEB IX RUSSIAN CONVICT PKISOXS.
(In Possession of H. de Windt, Esq.)

the payments were in default. The stove of the hut was
smashed, then smeared with tar, so were the walls, the furniture
and wearing apparel ; after that every piece of crockery in the
place was broken and the pieces thrown out of the window.
The horse and cow were taken out of the stalls and carried off
to be sold."

2. The political or State police was the invention of Nicholas I.
Alexander I. had created a Ministry of the Interior, but it was
Nicholas who devised the second branch, which he designed for his
own protection and the security of the State. After the insurrection
of 1865 he created a special bulwark for his defence, and invented that

THE THIRD SECTION'. 301

secret police which grew into the notorious " Third Section " of the
Emperor's own chancery. It has been said, with reason, that no
Russian, in the days of its most dreaded activity, could mention its
name without a shudder. It has been likened to that other secret
tribunal, that so long oppressed Venice, the Council of Ten. It was
the most powerful instrument an absolute Government ever called
to its aid. The terrors it inspired were heightened by the mysterious
silence that overshadowed its proceedings. It worked secretly, but
struck with unerring severity ; its methods were dark and devious ; it
was unjust, unfair, illegal, respecting neither caste nor sex. Women,
ladies of rank and beauty and fashion, were said to have been seized
ruthlessly by its unscrupulous agents, tried in secret conclave, and
punished then and there with the whip. Many people were hurried
aAvay to Siberia without any form of trial at all the first application
of the system known as " administrative process," which became very
common in after years, when the publicity of the Courts would have
been inconvenient, or convictions uncertain in due course of law.
The Third Section, while it lasted, was the most dreaded power in
the empire. It was practically supreme in the State, a Ministry
independent of all other Ministries, placed quite above them, and
responsible only to the Czar himself.

The Third Section had its prototype in the privileged body-
guard of Ivan the Terrible, which laid the whole country under
contribution. Another Czar, Alexis, had his secret police, and
his son, Peter the Great, invented a police system of a most
formidable kind. It was known as the Preobrajenski, from the
place where it had its headquarters, and was in fact a modern civil
Inquisition, more terrible, more powerful even than the religious
Inquisition of Spain. Peter the Great very likely felt that, with the
many changes he introduced into national life, which so often roused
the most obstinate resistance, he ought to have ready to his hand an
instrument of coercion supported by espionage. It was in effect the
Third Section, as we have seen it since, and although it was solemnly
suppressed by Peter III. in 1762, it survived in that Third Section,
just as the latter survives in the existing organisation of the Russian
police.

For many years, under Alexander II., the Third Section was much
more than a State police ; it was a power apart in the Government,
exercising independent authority, having many privileges, placed

THE NIHILISTS' AT WORK.

303

outside and above the laws. Its chief, who was also called the Head
of the Gendarmerie, was by right a member of the Council, and he
was the most confidential servant of the Emperor, with whom he
was ever in the most intimate relations. He exercised something
like absolute power ; his veto could in effect control all appointments,
because he could adduce police reasons based on police knowledge
against any person. He had, in fact, complete
control over everyone and everything in the
empire ; he could arrest, lock up, exile, cause
anyone he liked to disappear.

Under the enlightened regime of Alexander
II., it seemed for a while as though the Third
Section had lost much of its author-
ity. But the first attempt upon the
Czar's life in 1866 at Kara Kossoff
restored it to full activity, and one of
the most prominent men in the em-
pire, Schouvaloff, was placed at its
head, thus restoring it to its ancient
prestige, for the chief of the Third
Section had invariably been a person
of great consequence, as indeed the
important functions he exercised de-
'manded. But the revival of the
Third Section was not justified by
any subsequent success; in the years'
immediately following it proved
itself singularly inefficient, unable
either to prevent or to put down
the outrages committed in broad day.

It showed itself useless at St. Petersburg, at Kieff, at Odessa, at Kar-
koff, in all the great cities ; it neither was able to defend itself against
the conspiracies, nor could it detect or capture the conspirators. The
first acts of the new revolution had been directed against the Third
Section, and these attacks preceded those upon the Czar and his
throne. The two last chiefs, General Mezentzoff and General Drenteln,
fell victims to the Nihilists. The first was stabbed by some unknown
person in the streets of St. Petersburg, the second was fired at in
broad daylight by a young man on horseback, who was not arrested

Photo : Bergamasco, Petersburg.

COUNT SCHOUVALOFF, CHIEF OF THE
" THIRD SECTION."

304 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

for a number of years. These attempts are to be placed to the
credit of Nihilism, for they practically ended the Third Section.

Nominally this redoubtable office was abolished, but that did
not mean that the arbitrary surveillance of the police was ended.
Alexander II. hoped, perhaps, that he was wiping out a symbol of
despotism, but he retained the substance while discarding the shadow.
The change meant no more than the fusion of his private palace
police with the ordinary public police. There was no longer a head
of the Third Section, but there was a Minister of the Interior ; it was
the consolidation and concentration of power in one hand, and there
it has remained.

There was good reason for the change ; the various classes of
police, instead of helping, hampered and interfered with each other.
There were three police forces in the capital and all large cities ; that
of the Minister of the Interior, the city police, and the Third Section,
already described. They were perpetually getting in each other's-
way, and it was said that the State confided to their care was in
as bad a way as the baby with five nurses. Often enough, like the
famous detectives of the French farce, Tricoche et Cacolet, policemen
hunted policemen ; they were all suspicious of people who seemed
too much on the alert, and the consequence was that much time
and trouble was wasted in mutual surveillance. Sometimes it hap-
pened that the agents of the Third Section, fancying they had
made an important arrest, found to their chagrin that they had
only caught their comrades ; meanwhile, the Nihilists had a practic-
ally free hand and terrorised the whole country.

The absolute incompetence of his protectors appears to have
been brought home to Alexander II. by the incident known as the
" Paris box of pills." A parcel arrived one morning labelled " Pills for
asthma and rheumatism : Dr. Jus, Paris." It was addressed direct to
the Czar, who was reported to be suffering from these complaints.
Alexander handed the box over to his private physician for examina-
tion, and the moment it was opened one of the pills exploded.
More care was shown in verifying the remaining pills, and it was
found that they were filled with dynamite.

There have been times when the police of Russia were stirred
to the utmost activity. After the murder of General Mezentzoff
in broad daylight and in one of the principal squares of St. Peters-
burg, such profound dismay prevailed that the police were unceasingly

UNDERGROUND RUSSIA. 305

on the qui vive. The perpetrators of the deed, nevertheless, had
disappeared, leaving no trace, and the police in their frenzied
eagerness turned the city upside down. Searches innumerable of
all suspected houses were made, and the most arbitrary arrests
took place on the slightest whisper of anything wrong. Reports
at the time put the numbers taken into custody at quite a
thousand.

Yet "illegal" or "irregular" people, as they were styled by the
officers of the law, came and went, moving about with impunity
under the very noses of the police, and, as a rule, escaping scot-
free. They found shelter in houses of friends and sympathisers
persons of all classes, some of them least likely on the face of it
to assist the Nihilists. Stepniak tells us in his " Underground
Russia" that these likrivateli, as they are called in Russian, or
"concealers," were to be found among the highest aristocracy as
well as in the ranks of Government officials, including even members
of the police, all of them people who, for some reason or other,
hesitated to give active support to the conspiracy, but who were
nevertheless well disposed towards it, and proved this by hiding
individuals for whom there was a hue-and-cry. Stepniak describes
various types of this very numerous and varied class.

One of these sympathisers with Nihilism was known among the
conspirators as the dvornik, because hi his anxious care for the
safety of his companions he ruled them as tyrannically as the
doorkeeper, whose functions as an unpaid assistant of the police
have been already described. This man made it his business to
impress caution on his comrades, and so strictly, that when anyone
was known to be under surveillance he would arrange for his
concealment, and insist constantly on changing the hiding-place.
The dvornik was quite a specialist in the business of circum-
venting the police. He knew them by heart and all their ways.
On one occasion he hired an apartment exactly opposite the
house in which the chief of the secret police lived, and watched
it so closely day after day that he became acquainted with
numbers of persons employed by the Police. He knew half the
spies in St. Petersburg by sight, and had made a study of their
peculiar methods, their manner of watching, the way they started
on a hunt, how they pursued their quarry. After a time he
could "spot" any new spy, could penetrate the cleverest disguises
20

306

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

of the old hands and detect small signs that betrayed them to
him. but were quite unseen by others. In the same way he had
thoroughly mastered St. Petersburg: he knew his way all over the
city, was acquainted w r ith all sorts of places of refuge and with
every house that had two outlets, so that he was invaluable in
helping anyone to escape. A fugitive placed under his guidance
could be conveyed with absolute safety from one part of the city
to another, so clever was he in covering up his tracks.

Speaking on the general ques-
tion, Leroy Beaulieu in his monu-
mental work on Russia says:
" The police has been at all time*
a sink of abuses and extortions,
because, of all departments, it.
enjoys the greatest facilities for
indulging in them. In spite of
the particular attention of which
it has always been the object, this
department, on which all the rest
lean for support, has always been
so far one of the most defective.
In the cities, especially in the
capitals, where they are under the
eyes of the highest authorities,
the force leave externally little
to be desired. They are attentive,
courteous, helpful, if not always

honest. A foreigner who, in St. Petersburg, judged them from the
outside only, would think the service perfect. Yet the long unpun-
ished daring of the Nihilists has revealed only too clearly its incom-
petence and carelessness. The astounding powerlessness which the
police displayed on these occasions is traceable chiefly to the habitual
vices of Russian administration : ignorance, indolence, venality."

General Baranof in 1881, when head of the police, found that
a great number of his men could not sign their names correctly.
Many more, even those of high grades, were supremely ignorant
of the laws and regulations they were called upon to administer.
The general tone Avas low, and the force was recruited from a
very inferior class, for the police and their work are much despised

Photo : Bergamasw, St. Petersburg

GEXEKAL BARAXOF

YERA ZASSOULTCH. 307

by respectable citizens. The pay has always been ridiculously
small, thereby directly encouraging the dishonest practices, the
more or less enforced contributions levied on the public in
every direction, by which it has been eked out. The members
of a force, driven by extreme penury into illicit earnings, could
hardly be loyal, and it has been always easy for the revolutionists to
buy relaxed watchfulness, and even complicity. So ineffective was
the official police that in 1881 the city of St. Petersburg was invited
to reinforce it by electing a council to co-operate in watching over
the personal safety of the Czar. It was not the first time that well-
meaning loyal subjects had desired to assist the Government in the
pursuit of its foes. The idea of the droujina, an ancient secret
society, was revived. It was a sort of Vigilance Society composed
of special police volunteers, acting with the official police, but unpaid,
and with no recognised status. The promoters thought that the
best method of combating conspiracy was to meet conspirators on
their own ground and with their own arms. Its organisation and
action were secret. Among other measures it offered rewards to
peasants and workmen who would inform the authorities of any
plots in progress ; another idea was to meet outrage by anticipa-
tion, to face the Nihilists with their own weapons, and blow them
up with dynamite before they could use it to subvert existing
authority. The droujina rejoiced in the epithets of "holy" and
" life-saving," but it achieved nothing tangible. It had the command
of considerable funds, freely subscribed, and was carried on by a
number of zealous persons, but it is not on record that they arrested
a single conspirator, though, like the police, they sometimes took up
the wrong people.

The Avell-known case of Vera Zassoulich showed conclusively how
little the police were able to protect themselves. It was she who
resolved, like a second Charlotte Corday, to call General Trepoff, the
Prefect of civil police in St. Petersburg, to account for his cruel
ill-usage of a prisoner, one Bogoli Ouboff. This man at one of
TrepofFs inspections did not remove his hat when the General passed.
Tre'poff not only struck him with his stick, but ordered him to be
flogged. Corporal punishment had been abolished, and the order
was therefore illegal; it caused great indignation in St. Petersburg,
and nearly produced a serious outbreak in the prison. The story
travelled far and wide, finally reaching the ears of Vera Zassoulich

308 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

in a far-off province, that of Penza, seven months later. She started
at once for St. Petersburg, and obtained admission to Trepoffs presence
on pretence of presenting a petition. But directly she saw him she
drew a pistol from her pocket and fired at him point-blank. Trepoff
was badly wounded in the side, but eventually recovered. Vera was
seized and removed, but her demeanour was calm and self-possessed,
and she only asked to be allowed to put on her shawl, which she had
left in the waiting-room. It was thought that Vera's attack was a
part of a general conspiracy, but there seems to be little doubt that
she acted altogether alone and on her own motion.

The sequel was curious, and showed how generally Trepoffs
arbitrariness was condemned. Vera was brought before an ordinary
tribunal, tried, and. acquitted. Her friends then very judiciously
got her out of the country, fearing, and with good reason, that this
decision would not be allowed to stand. They were perfectly right,
for the Government overruled the verdict, although given by a
legally constituted tribunal, and ordered Vera to be re-arrested.
Happily for her, she was already safe in Switzerland. After this
the Government decreed by ukase that all political offences should
be tried, not by a jury, but by a .specially constituted tribunal
They were, in fact, to be brought before a court-martial having the
same powers as in war-time, and inflicting penalties under the
military code, which included deportation and the loss of civil rights.

The passport, by which every individual is, or ought to be, held and
ticketed so as to be recognised and easily followed wherever he goes,
is a terrible burden on a people half of whom are compelled by the
climate and the poorness of the soil to spend six months of every
year away from home. To be obliged to take out a passport before
leaving home is at once a hindrance to movement and a tax upon
the pocket. To 'abolish the passport would be a first great step to-
wards according freedom to the whole population. As it is, no one
can choose his own residence, nor follow his profession as he pleases ;
still less can people collect and group themselves in places where
the productiveness of the soil would naturally encourage them to do
so. Yet the obligation is by no means effective ; it is constantly
evaded. The fabrication of false passports is a very flourishing
trade, which has been of immense service to the revolutionists
in covering up their movements and concealing from the eyes of
justice those " wanted."

VERA ZASSOULICH SHOOflXG GENERAL TUEI'OFF

310 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AhD CHIME.

A story is told of a Russian gentleman who was in a hurry
to leave Odessa and travel to the shores of the Mediterranean.
Not choosing to waste time in presenting himself at the Passport
Bureau, he accepted the services of a commissionaire, who pro-
mised to get him the passport for a comparatively small sum,
a little under 4. The would-be traveller accepted the offer, and
next day started from home with the passport all in proper form.

Nor have the passport regulations reduced the number of
vagrants for ever on the tramp, who can show no papers, and
yet are seldom interfered with. When the authorities awoke
suddenly to the need for enforcing the rules in some of the more
remote towns, such as Tiflis and Odessa, there was a general exodus
of the working population, and the well-to-do people were left
without the servants, small tradespeople, and others who had
ministered to their wants.

The passport regulations oppress all classes. The well-to-do
Russian who would go abroad must pay for the privilege ; the tax
is at present ten roubles (about thirty shillings), but in the days
of Nicholas I. it was five hundred roubles, and some are in favour
of reviving this costly tariff. When the police are stirred up by
some Nihilist outrage, a high price must be paid to obtain a
travelling passport, but it can be got, as can almost anything in
Russia, for money. The burden, however, weighs heaviest on
the poorer classes, who are constantly liable to be bullied by the
police to produce passports, and imposed upon by the communal
authorities when renewal is sought. Passports are often lost by
their holders, more often stolen from them. When this happens,
the loser, if he is a stranger from a rural district residing in a city
on sufferance, may find himself in sore straits. It is an expensive
and tedious business to obtain another passport, and to be with-
out one is to run perpetual risk of trouble with the police. The
man without a passport is thus often thrown into the arms of the
revolutionary party, who, if he will accept their tenets, readily
obtain him a false passport, and find him the work he could not
get without its production. Again, it is known that many peasants
residing in towns suffer from the dilatoriness or unconcern of the
authorities whose duty it is to renew their passports. Cases are on
record where the fear of police persecution while passportless has
driven men to suicide. A village girl killed herself in 1879 because

PASSPORTS IN RUSSIA.

311

she could not get her papers renewed and the family in which
she was working would not re-engage her.

The passport arrangements appear to be more stringent in con-
nection with natives than with visitors, but the latter are denied
the comparative freedom they once enjoyed. At one time a visitor
might remain a month in the country without inquiry or inter-
ference ; now it is necessary to register the passport for a stay of
anything over three days; the document is lodged at the police
office, and the hotel-keeper, landlord, or host becomes responsible
for the traveller. It is the same with any driver of a post-chaise
in the country districts, who has to produce his passenger at every
station. Letters are only delivered alter registration of the passport,
and then on a certificate filled in by the chief of police of the
district. Passports are taxed, and bring in a considerable revenue to
the Government; at one time a visitor paid 12 for registration,
but the fee has been considerably reduced. During the reign of
Nicholas I. it rose as high as 40.

LEG IKONS WORN BY RUSSIAN CONVICTS.
(In Possession of If. de Windt, Esq.)

312

CHAPTER XL

MODERN" POLICE (continued): INDIA.

The New System Compared with the Old Early Difficulties Gradually Overcome Tht>
Village Police in India Discreditable Methods under the Old System Torture,
Judicial and Extra-judicial Native Dislike of Police Proceedings Cases of Men
Confessing to Crimes of which they were Innocent A Mysterious Case of Theft
Trumped-up Charges of Murder Simulating Suicide An Infallible Test of Death
The Paternal Duties of the Police The Native Policeman Badly Paid.

THE regular police of India, as it is now constituted, dates from
the disappearance of the East India Company. Under the old
system, taking Bengal for our example, the district magistrate, a
member of the Civil Service, was the head of the district police.
He had under his orders a certain number of constables, fifty or
more, who were called burkundazes ; they were distributed among
the various stations or thannahs, each of which was under a
thannadar, who was more commonly called a darogah, and was
practically a police superintendent. This officer was responsible
to the magistrate only, just as the magistrate was directly responsible
to the supreme Government. But after 1859 the police throughout
the province of Bengal, and eventually throughout India, was
constituted into a special department ; the regular force became a
species of Government constabulary, under the central authority of
an Inspector-General seated at Calcutta, with Deputy-Inspectors and
Superintendents in charge of divisions and districts respectively.
The senior police official in every district, generally a military officer,
was associated with and subject to the orders of the magistrate in
all executive duties, such as the repression of crime and the
maintenance of peace and good order ; but as regards administration,
in all questions of pay, clothing, promotion, and so forth, the
chief police officer looked to his police superior, the Inspector-
General

Nevertheless, the character of the new police was as little military as

314 MYSTEJIIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

it could be made consistently with the control and discipline of a large
body of men. Constables learnt the rudiments of drill, and wore
uniform, but were seldom armed except when employed in gaols
or to guard treasuries. As a general rule supervision was entirely
entrusted to Europeans, but there was a superior grade of native
officer fairly well paid. Yet the service was not generally popular,
owing to persistent local prejudices, and good material was not
always available either for sub-officers or for constables. Natives
preferred to enter the fiscal and administrative departments.

At first the new force did not work very smoothly. The military
superintendents were not always acceptable to the civilian magis-
trates, and no doubt many thought more of drill than of their more
important functions in preventing and detecting crime. Numbers
of the old order of police hated the " new-fangled notions " and
resigned, with the result that the force was recruited hastily with
inexperienced, often unsuitable men, many of them old soldiers, and
few, if any, fitted to deal with intricate and complicated police
investigations. Colonel Lewin, one of the first-appointed district
superintendents, has frankly recorded his want of experience and his
mis-directed zeal when first called to police work ; but he also hints
at the difficulties and obstacles thrown in his way by magistrates
who hated the change. Gradually, however, the steady, settled
action of the well-organised, well-governed body of earnest workers
has made itself felt, and the regular Indian police of to-day is not
inferior to any in the whole world.

Another form of police has existed from time immemorial in India,
the rural or village police, and it has still a certain limited power.
These functionaries hold office by a quasi-hereditary tenure ; they are
not appointed by the State nor paid from the public treasury, but
they have a recognised position ; their clearly defined duties, as well
as their emoluments, drawn from the villages, are fixed and controlled
by authority. These village watchmen, and they are little more,
although distinct and separate from the regular police by constitution,
are yet aUied to them, being expected to report to them, without
fail, all criminal and extraordinary occurrences, and at the same
time to take their orders and execute them punctually. This local,
unofficial police is not in the highest state of efficiency, perhaps,
but much has been done of late to bring its members into good
order, and to exact from them a punctual performance of their

OLD POLICE METHODS IX IXDTA. 315

duties. The worst that could be alleged against them was that
they might at times work with evil-doers who were their friends
and neighbours, or that they might yield to the threats or tempta-
tions of the larger landowners around when these were criminally
disposed.

It has been said by all who know India well that the deceit
inherent in the character of its people must tend to interfere with
the course of justice. Witnesses will not speak freely, or will say
too much ; they conceal facts or over-colour them just as their
interests suggest ; some can be bought, others intimidated, while
the most independent chafe at police inquiries which are apt to
be wearisome and irritating, and though not always personally hostile,
will say anything or nothing merely to get rid of the police. " They
would condone even grievous wrongs," says Sir Richard Temple,*
" disavow the losses of property which they had suffered, and with-
hold all assistance from their neighbours in similar plights, rather
than undergo the trouble of attending at police offices and the
criminal courts."

Police methods under the old system were often most dis-
creditable. The native officers charged with detection had but
one thought to make the case complete. For this they would
invent facts, manufacturing evidence from witnesses inspired by them-
selves. " The police," an eminent Indian judge once said from the
Bench, " will never leave a case alone, but must always prepare it and
patch it up by teaching the witnesses to learn their evidence off
by heart beforehand, and to say more than they know." In another
case a judge gave it as his opinion that certain prisoners confessed
to a burglary merely to screen others whom the police befriended,
and that in the prosecution there was not a single fact on which
he could with confidence rely. Again, a darogah, or village official,
was so impressed with the necessity for succeeding where his
colleagues had failed, in a murder case, that he used the most
unjustifiable means to create evidence : witnesses were forced
under threats and ill-treatment to depose to facts which had never
occurred. Another reprehensible practice was that of drugging
prisoners before their appearance in court so that they could
make no defence. One was given a hookah to smoke, and remem-
bered nothing of what he said or had to say. Still worse remains,

* "India in 1880," p. 203.

316 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

for it is a well-authenticated fact, attested by all who have per-
sonal experience, that where evidence of the right sort was not
forthcoming it was obtained by intimidation or actual torture.

Of the survival of torture in India as a judicial process, secret
and unavowed, but undoubtedly practised, there can be no doubt
It was the subject of constant regret to conscientious English
officials, who were yet unable entirely to check it. Cases of cruel
maltreatment were continually brought to light, and met with
exemplary punishment. Thus in 1855 a darogah and his men
were convicted in the Court of the "Twenty-four Pergunnahs" of
having tortured a man into confession by tying his hands behind
him and then hoisting him by his wrists to a beam in the roo
Another case consisted in tying a prisoner's hands and feet together
and introducing a stick below the knees, after which the police,
holding each end of the stick, dashed him violently against the
door.

As late as 1866, after the introduction of the new system, an
inspector and sub-inspector trussed up four recalcitrant prisoners
upon the roof of a house and left them there to starve. In the
same year another sub-inspector was transported for life for having
caused the death of a suspected thief by ill-usage. In this case
the victim was stripped on a cold February night, whipped, then
water was poured upon his naked body, and a fan was used to keep
down the temperature. Again, in the same year, a high official,
Colonel Pughe, reports twelve cases in which the police were
accused of torturing prisoners, and out of the twelve cases seven
convictions were secured. He relates in the same document that
soon after the establishment of the new police, a sub-inspector of
the old school ordered a man to be tied up and flogged to extort
confession from him, and this in open day in the middle of a
large bazaar in the Hooghly district ! " So little was the occurrence
thought of," writes Colonel Pughe, " that no complaint was made
by the sufferer, and it was by the merest accident that the circum-
stance came to notice." The custom till then was apparently too
common to attract attention. The people of Bengal had become
accustomed to be flogged, just as the fakir grew so fond of his
bed studded with pointed nails that he could not sleep comfortably
on any other. As late as 1870 the editor of a respectable period-
ical in Bengal expressed his belief that the flogging of supposed

EXTPA-JUDICIAL TORTURE IN INDIA.

317

delinquents had been so long practised with impunity that the
natives took it as a matter of course.

It may be interesting to make a short digression here and
recount some of the modes of extra-judicial torture that have
prevailed throughout India. There is abundant evidence that

INDIAN POLICE AND THEIH METHODS (p. 316).

this atrocious custom was, and probably still is, common among
all sects and classes of natives in India. Dr. Cheevers gives it as
his opinion that " the poor practise torture upon each other ; robbers
on their victims, and vice versa; masters upon their servants;
zemindars upon their ryots ; schoolmasters upon their pupils ;
husbands upon their wives ; and even parents upon their children."
" The very plays of the populace," says another authority, " excite
the laughter of many a rural audience by the exhibition of revenue

318 UYSTEltlES OF POLICE AND GR1MK.

squeezed out of a defaulter coin by coin through the appliance
of familiar provocatives." Colonel Lewin, already quoted, details
some of the devices whicli he discovered had been in use among
the old police. They would fill the nose and ears of a prisoner
with cayenne pepper; stop the circulation of the blood with tight
ligaments ; suspend their victim head downwards in a well ; and
in cases of great obstinacy immerse the body repeatedly in the
water until insensibility, but not death, was produced.

Dr. Cheevers has been at great pains to collect details of the
various processes. They are torture by heat by a lighted torch
or red hot charcoal or burning tongs, or by boiling oil, which
sometimes was poured into the ears and nose ; torture by cold ;
suspension by the wrists, by the feet, by the hair, by the moustache ;
confinement in a cell containing quicklime; blinding by the bhela
nut ; placing on a bed of thorns ; rubbing the face on the ground ;
employing the stocks ; tying the limbs in constrained postures ;
placing stinging or annoying insects upon the skin ; flogging with
stinging nettles ; sticking pins or thorns or slithers of bamboo under
the nails ; beating the ankles and other joints with a soft mallet
a devilish invention from Madras. The list is long and horrible,
but before leaving the subject we may mention milder methods,
as they seem, because the ill-treatment leaves no mark, but in
which the agony is nevertheless extreme. Exposure to the sun
is one of these, starvation another, pinching a third, and "running
up and down" a fourth, as practised in Madras till quite recently,
according to a report under date 1870, where the police, unable to
obtain evidence, made it their business to " Avalk the prisoner about."
This was not done, as was pretended, out of mere wantonness, but
with the ostensible purpose of obliging him to show where certain
stolen property was hidden. The police relieved each other every
two hours or so, but the prisoners were kept perpetually in motion.
After a night's unceasing promenade the craving for rest and sleep
becomes imperative, especially in a native who is always ready to
sleep, and is often awake for no more than eight hours out of the
twenty-four. Other refinements of torture are the infliction of degra-
dation and mental suffering by breaking caste, and by exposing
the victims to various indignities.

Police action in India is often complicated, impeded, and even
neutralised by the peculiar conditions of the country, where long

CUSTOM AND CRIME IN INDIA.

319

prevailing, more or less ineradicable custom is supreme. The average
native does not pause to balance right or wrong ; he likes to do just
as his forefathers did through the centuries, and fails to see why an
act honoured by long prescription should be called wrong-doing.
Offences that the present rulers of India have put down with a
strong hand, such as suttee (widow burning), leper burying, and
suicide, the natives are still reluctant to call
crimes. Thuggee, the cowardly murder and
robbery of inoffensive and unsuspicious
travellers, was part of its perpetrators' religion ;
theft is to thousands a sport or a profession,
a habit or family tradition inherited from an-
cestors who were all gang-robbers. While thus
tradition and custom continue to make even
serious crime appear venial to the ordinary
intelligence, the investigation is continually
hampered, and the actual fact often concealed.
Many natives, as I have said, detest police pro-
ceedings, afraid of their being unduly pro-
longed, of their wasting time, of their imposing
the inconvenient presence of officers charged
with the inquiry. Others forbear to speak,
either fearing the enmity of the friends or
neighbours they may implicate or with a mis-
taken tenderness for their honour. Yet again,
timidity, venality, or stupidity has led to con-
cealment. Witnesses whose testimony was
damaging have often been bought off, having
been found ready to perjure themselves for quite small sums.
The police themselves have been known to hush up crimes, having
been bribed to silence, and it has been discovered later that some
mysterious murder had been no secret to them from the first.
They have been known on sufficient payment to transport a victim's
corpse to another jurisdiction, so that they might evade all re-
sponsibility for its presence. Suspicion of foul play was once
aroused (it was in the old days) by the fact that certain persons
who had but just dug a well for the irrigation of their fields had,
for no plausible reason, filled it up again. Police officers were
ordered to reopen the well, and they reported that they had

MADHAS POLICEMAN.

320 MYSTERIES Of POLICE AND GRIME.

done so, finding nothing wrong. But the magistrate of the district
heard presently that a woman had been seen in the neighbour-
hood of the well just about the time it had been filled up, and
that she had disappeared. Rumour said she had been murdered
for the sake of some golden ornaments which she wore. The well
was now dug out under the official's own eye, and it was clear that
a female corpse had been buried within; a quantity of long hair
was found, but the body had been removed, probably by the
police.

The dishonest vagaries of the Indian police are nearly endless.
The police when baffled in detection will try to create a criminal
and manufacture a crime. Higher officials must always be on
their guard against such frauds. It is essential, for example,
to watch identification closely A case is on record where the
headless body of a woman was found in a well, and suspicion
fell upon certain Rajpoots whose sister was known to be missing.
They were arrested, and confessed most circumstantially that they
had in truth murdered her. Conviction followed, and they would
have been executed but for the unexpected reappearance of the
missing woman herself. She had eloped with a man who, having
heard of the charge brought against her brothers, produced her
in court The accused men, thus saved at the eleventh hour,
explained their false confession by their fears that they could not
prove their innocence, so strong was the presumption of their
guilt. It should be added that the headless corpse was never
identified.

One more case of the same kind. A corpse bearing marks of
violence was found floating on the Teesta river, and a murder
was surmised. The head-constable proceeded to investigate, and
found a woman ready to declare that her adopted father, Oootum
. by name, was missing. She could not identify the body at first,
but was eventually persuaded to do so. Corroboration was now
needed, and after that the discovery of the perpetrators of the crime.
Aided by the woman, the constable fixed upon four men, who were
forced (probably in the usual manner) to confess that they had
murdered Oootum. Fortunately, at the first inquiry into the case
the missing Oootum turned up before the district magistrate. For
this the head-constable and three associates were very righdy
sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

THE AYAH AND THE DIAMONDS. 321

A curious case of theft which was never explained, although
the supposed thief was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to
imprisonment, is told by a Bengal civilian. It appears that a
Mr. and Mrs. Phillips were on a visit to the Lieutenant-Governor
of Bengal, and that one evening the lady missed a diamond ring.
Information was at once lodged with the police, and a native
detective was employed, who entered the Governor's service disguised
as a kitmutgar (butler). Suspicion from the first had rested upon
an ayah, or female servant, and it was to be the detective's duty
to worm himself into her confidence. The police officer was suc-
cessful, as it seemed, for the woman presently admitted that she
had stolen the ring. She was anxious to dispose of it, but did
not dare. However, she picked out one diamond and handed it over
to him to sell, promising him others if he succeeded. The police
officer- produced the diamond, which was identified by Mrs. Phillips
as one belonging to her ring. On this evidence the ayah was
tried and convicted. She appealed, but the conviction was upheld.

Not long afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Phillips moved up country,
and on unpacking their goods the missing ring was found jammed
into an inkstand, with all the diamonds intact. The case was
immediately reopened, and it was recommended that the ayah
should be forthwith released. One of the judges protested,
howevsr, that the conviction was legal, on the ground that the
prisoner's friends had inserted a diamond in the place of the one
removed, and had put the ring where it was certain to be found.
Nevertheless the ayah was pardoned. The theory held was that
the detective, eager to get the credit of having discovered the
thief, had fabricated the whole story and gone to the expense of
purchasing a diamond in support of it. He still stuck to it that
the woman had given him the diamond, which, as has been seen,
was one more than the ring contained. Now another strange
fact cropped up. Mrs. Phillips discovered that a diamond was
missing from a locket she possessed, and when this locket was
produced the surplus diamond appeared to fit into the vacant
space. From this a new theory was started that the ayah had
really stolen the ring, but, distrusting the disguised kitinutgar,
had also picked out the diamond from the locket to test his
willingness to serve her. When, later, the case had gone against
her, her friends had intervened in the manner described, replacing
21

322

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME .

the ring in the hope of obtaining her pardon. Jewellers who
were consulted gave it as their opinion that the surplus diamond
was very similar to those in the locket, but no one could swear
that it was one of the same. There the matter rested, and the
mystery has never been solved.

Attempts to defeat the ends of justice are very often made in India

by the natives themselves on their
own motion, to satisfy some personal
animosity. Many cases might be
cited of conspiracy to advance false
and malicious charges against an
enemy. In one case wounds were
fabricated on a body already dead
to support an accusation of murder.
An old man was found with his
head nearly separated from his body
and other deep wounds in both
shoulders, besides cuts on the back.
Yet there had been no considerable
effusion of blood, no retraction of
the muscles, and medical opinion
was emphatic that all these injuries
had been inflicted after death, which
had undoubtedly occurred from
long-standing tubercular disease. It
was presently shown that the whole
case had been trumped up to sup-
port a charge of murder against an unpopular neighbour.

A monstrous case is recorded by Mr. Arthur Crawford, whose
" Reminiscences " have been several times quoted in these pages, in
which a son was on such bad terms with his father that he elaborated
a great plot to involve him in disgrace and suffering, if not to convict
him of his own (the son's) murder. The father was an aged and
most respectable Brahmin in the South Konkan, Madhowrao by
name, described as a kindly, courtly native gentleman, with intel-
lectual, well-cut features, and spare and active in body. He had this
one son, Yinayek, a constant trouble to him, chiefly on account of
his wandering habits. He often absented himself for months together,
and roamed the country as a gosai, or religious mendicant. After an

A RELIGIOUS MENDICANT.

A SON'S PLOT AGAINST HIS FATHER'S LIFE. 323

unusually protracted absence, the father offered the police a reward
if they would trace and find his son. The matter was taken up by a
local constable, and he had no sooner commenced his investigations
than he received an anonymous letter through the post charging the
father with having made away with his son. The story was told
most circumstantially : how Madhowrao, assisted by his widowed
sister, who acted as his housekeeper, had strangled Vinayek in the
dead of night, and had then employed two servants to throw the
body to the alligators, at the foot of a torrent hard by the village.
These servants came forward and described how they had seen the
corpse with protruding eyes and tongue, the cord still round its neck,
then how they had stripped it, and, tying it to a heavy stone, had
thrown it into the water. The constable searched the house, and
found hidden away a bundle of clothes with a pair of sandals.
Moreover, he fished up a great heap of bones from the alligators' pool
The whole party were arrested, and the servants, the chief witnesses,
were examined. They stuck to their story, declared that they had
acted solely to oblige their master, who, they saw, was in great
distress, and said that was all they knew.

But Madhowrao himself stoutly denied his guilt, repeating always-
that his son was alive, but was only keeping out of the way until his
father was hanged. Closer inquiry was in the father's favour, for it
was clearly proved that the bones found in the water were those of a
bullock, and also that there was no sort of attempt to conceal
Vinayek's clothes. Nevertheless, the High Court, to which the
matter had been referred, pressed for the committal of the prisoners.

Meanwhile, the head constable, a very keen-witted and inde-
fatigable officer, had gone away on a journey. Pleading ill-health, he-
had sought, and obtained, three months' sick leave, which he had
spent to very good purpose in searching for the missing Vinayek.
He ran him down at length at a great distance, somewhere in th&
territory of the Nizam, and brought him back in person, to be con-
fronted with his father, who was still lying under the charge of
compassing his death. A very dramatic scene followed; Vinayek
was brought into court almost noiselessly behind Madhowrao, wha
was desired to turn round; at sight of his son he fell down flat
on his face insensible, while his sister went off into hysterics. Now
Vinayek made full confession of the plot, in which he had been
assisted by a young cousin. He was to disappear, as he did, and

324

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

after an interval the other was to denounce the murderers ; the two
servants were suborned by the promise of a good reward when
Yinayek came into his estate, and they very properly shared the
punishment which was inflicted on the chief conspirators.

In these cases it was vindictiveness and animosity that led to
the plot, which was only unmasked by the astuteness and perseverance

FATHER AND SON CONFRONTED.

of the police. But greed also is a potent incentive to false accusa-
tion of crime, and thus it was with Khan Beg. Coveting the in-
heritance of a rich relative, Ibrahim Beg, whose heir he was, he laid
a deep scheme to secure it without waiting for Ibrahim's death.
Khan Beg was a dissolute wastrel who had been reduced to poverty
by his own extravagance, and who knew that he might expect no
further help from his kinsman. Ibrahim was married to a young
and handsome wife, Chumbelee, with whom he did not live on
the very best of terms, due mainly to the lying stories of a confi-
dential servant, an accomplice of Khan Beg's. One day in a fit
of fury he forgot himself so far as to raise his hand against

MURDERED OR MISSING? 325

Chumbelee. The woman, goaded by pain and disgrace, screamed
aloud in the full hearing of neighbours and servants. Next morn-
ing she was gone, and information was kid at the nearest police
station by the manservant above mentioned that Chumbelee
had been murdered. Officers proceeded at once to Ibrahim Beg's
house, and searched the premises. It was soon seen that some
earth in the courtyard had been recently moved ; on digging, the
headless body of a woman was found a little way down. The body
was identified by the manservant, who swore to a bangle found
upon one arm, remembering that he had once taken it for his
mistress to be mended. A slave-girl who did the household work
also declared that the body was Chumbelee's.

Ibrahim Beg was, of course, apprehended, and locked up, vainly
protesting his innocence. His own story was that he had been
stupefied, he knew not how, by some narcotic, and after his violent
quarrel with his wife, which he did not deny, he had fallen asleep
until a late hour the following morning. His jealousy and ill-
treatment of his wife were notorious, and told greatly against him ;
the seclusion in which he had always kept her also militated
against him now. So few people had seen her that there was no
more evidence ot identity than that already adduced. All that
could be said in his favour was that without the head, absolute
recognition was impossible. Ibrahim Beg himself stoutly denied
that the corpse was Chumbelee's. The trial proceeded, and ended
in his conviction ; the case was referred to a superior court, which
deemed the evidence conclusive; the sentence of death passed was
about to be executed, and Khan Beg was on the point of obtaining
his ends and acquiring considerable wealth.

But now came the slip. An anonymous letter was received by
a young English civilian who had charge of the district, in-
forming him that Chumbelee was still alive, actually residing
within twenty miles of the scene of her supposed murder. The
magistrate, knowing it to be a case of life and death, straightway rode
to the place indicated, a certain tomb occupied by a gang of fakirs,
men of evil repute, whom it was necessary to approach with
caution. The magistrate, summoning the village police to his aid,
cautiously surrounded the tomb, then broke in, and searched the
whole place. He came upon Chumbelee at last in an underground
apartment.

326

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

She was, of course, forthwith taken out and brought back to
her husband's house. The whole plot was now laid bare by the
manservant, anxious to save his own skin. He had long been in
the power of Khan Beg, and agreed to assist him the moment a
body could be found to be palmed off as Chumbelee's. A widower

at last consented to sell the corpse of
his recently deceased wife, which they
took and decapitated. It was the man-
servant who had administered the drug
to Ibrahim; he made the slave-girl
prisoner, and then carried off Chum-
belee in a blanket to the fakirs' tomb.
Ibrahim Beg, when he recovered next
morning from the effects of the drug,
gave the police no information of his
wife's disappearance, for he believed
that she had eloped and left him of
her own accord. The whole of this
pernicious plot was admirably planned,
but it failed, as 'such plots often do,
through the avarice of the principal
personage. Khan Beg had refused to
pay a sum promised to one of his
subordinate helpers, and the latter had
written the anonymous letter.

In no country is it so essential that

the body, in the case of a supposed crime, should be not only produced,
but identified, as in India. An Englishman who was ascending the
Hodghly nearly suffered the extreme penalty of the law through
ignorance of this axiom. He had left his ship at Diamond harbour
and hired a native boat to take him on to Calcutta. The boatmen
greatly exasperated him by their laziness, and he applied his stick to
them so vigorously that three jumped overboard. Their comrades
declared that they were drowned, and burst into loud lamentations.
On reaching shore they charged him with murder. He Avas arrested
forthwith, and committed to gaol. Ere long he was duly arraigned,
and on the oath of the boatmen who had been eye-witnesses of
his offence he was convicted without the slightest hesitation. While
he lay in gaol, however, under sentence of death, he was visited

THE "CORPSE" RUNS AWAY. 327

by a native, who promised him that on the payment of a substantial
sum the drowned boatmen should be brought to life. The money
was gladly paid, and next day the charge of murder entirely broke
down by the reappearance of the missing men. It seemed that
they were expert divers, and having gone at once to the bottom
they rose again at a considerable distance from the boat, and
swam ashore. Their comrades were fully aware of the fact, and
the conspiracy was formed so that the English stranger, when in
peril of his life, might be induced to pay a large ransom to escape.
It is clear from such cases as these that the police of India have to
be always on their guard against being led into traps.

Another trick which the police have to guard against is the simu-
lation of death by suicide. This is a very ancient imposture. Captain
Bacon, in his " First Impressions in Hindustan," describes how he saw
a corpse bearing three wounds on the chest and many marks of
violence brought to a magistrate's house, with the idea of fixing
an accusation of murder on a certain man. The magistrate, having
his doubts, was about to examine the body, when he was implored by
those who carried it not to pollute it by touch before the rites of
sepulture had been performed. He did no more, therefore, than
thrust the sharp end of his billiard cue once or twice into the side
with such force that the point of the cue penetrated between the
ribs. Upon this the muscles of the supposed corpse quivered, and
there was a barely perceptible movement of the head. The natives
around were now told that life could not be yet extinct, but they
persisted in declaring that the man had been dead since cock-crow.
Whereupon, a kettle of Jiot water was produced and a small stream
poured upon the foot of the corpse, which there and then jumped up
from the litter and ran away at full speed ! The same test was
applied by a young officer when the body of a native, who was
supposed to have been murdered by sepoys, was brought to his
tent. There was no more evidence than the existence of the
corpse, but the officer was at breakfast, and had the kettle handy-
At the first touch of the scalding fluid "the murdered remains"
started up and scampered away. Boiling water, by the way, is no
doubt a generally satisfactory test of whether life is actually
extinct. But there is a better, as practised by a French doctor in
a Lyons hospital. He applied the flame of a candle for some
seconds to one digit of the hand or foot. A vesicle formed, as it

328 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

will invariably ; if this vesicle contains serous fluid, there is life ; if
vapour only, death has certainly supervened.

On the whole, the modern Indian police system may be said to
operate well. The police have numerous duties over and above
those of the prevention and detection of crime. A Government so
paternal as that of India finds the machinery of the police exceed-
ingly useful in keeping in touch with the great masses of the
population. The constable is the agent through whom the Govern-
ment issues its orders or conveys its wishes. If the people are
wanted in any large numbers, such as for the identification of
bodies found, and if foul play is suspected, it is the police who
beat the drum and call them in. When supplies are needed, such
as carts, camels, bullocks, or forage, for any military expedition, it is
the police who work upon the men of the villages and gather in what
is required. When a high functionary had discovered a cure for
snake bites, it was the police who were entrusted with its distribution
through the districts most troubled with poisonous reptiles. The
particular panacea was liquid ammonia, which had to be applied
at once and in a particular way. It was not only necessary,
therefore, to issue supplies of the useful drug, but all the headmen
of villages had to be taught how to use it; this was the duty
of the police. Again, when the Government once seriously
attempted to exterminate snakes, and offered a reward for every
dead reptile brought in, the machinery of the police was at once
set in motion to encourage natives to hunt up and kill the snakes,
and afterwards to distribute the rewards. When the plague of
locusts overran the length and breadth of the land, the police
were sent out to organise beaters and instruct the villagers how to
destroy the terrible pest. Another plague, that of rats, the jerboa
rat, which travels like a kangaroo by leaps and bounds and eats up
everything it meets, was to be grappled with by the police, and
though they do not seem to have been very effective in destroying
the. pest, it became their business to pay out the rewards
for all the vermin killed. An interesting detail in Government
methods may be mentioned in this connection. The rats, when
destroyed, were buried or burnt, but the tails were first cut off and
tied up into neat little bundles like radishes, which were produced as
vouchers for the numbers destroyed. A police official records that
the travelling police superintendents were called upon to make

MULTIFARIOUS FUNCTIONS OF THE INDIAN POLICE. 329

entries in their diaries such as : " Visited Bangalpore, counted 10,000
rats' tails, paid the reward, burnt the tails."

The police have also rendered very valuable services during
famines, when their labours increase ten- and twenty-fold. Not
only does crime multiply in these dread seasons, but the force is
actively employed in helping to establish relief camps, in hunting
up and bringing in the starving population, in passing on supplies
of grain from the railway stations to the out-districts, and so forth.

Yet with all this the Indian native policeman is but indifferently
paid, much less than a soldier or other subordinate members of
the public departments. Ordinary labour even is better paid. The
horsekeeper, the gardener, the cowman is better off, even the
coolie despises the pittance of the policeman, who has no advantages
but those of a remote pension and the respect he inspires as a
man clothed with a little authority.

330

CHAPTER XII.
THE DETECTIVE, AND WHAT HE HAS DONE.

The Detective in Fiction and in Fact Early Detection Case of Lady Ivy Thomas
Chandler Mackoull, and how he was run down hy a Scots Solicitor Vidocq :
his Early Life, Police Services, and End French Detectives generally Amicable
Relations hetween French and English Detectives.

THE detective, both professional and amateur, since Edgar Allan
Poe invented Dupin, has been a prominent personage in fiction
and on the stage. He has been made the central figure of in-
numerable novels and plays, the hero, the pivot on which the plot
turns. Readers ever find him a favourite, whether he is called
Hawkshaw or Captain Redwood, Grice or Stanhope, Van Vernet or
Pere Tabaret, Sherlock Holmes or Monsieur Lecocq. But imagina-
tion, however fertile, cannot outdo the reality, and it is with the
detective in the flesh that I propose to deal. I propose to take
him in the different stages of his evolution from the thief
reformed and become a thief-taker, down to the present honour-
able officer, the guardian of our lives and property, the law's
chief weapon and principal vindicator.

In times past the detection of crime was left very much to
chance; but now and again shrewd agents, both public officials
and private persons, contributed to the discovery of frauds and
other misdeeds. Long ago, in France, as I have shown, there was
an organised police force which often had resort, both for good and
evil, to detective methods. Here in England the office of constable
was purely local, and his duties were rather to make arrests in
clear cases of flagrant wrong-doing than to follow up obscure and
mysterious crime. The ingenious piecing together of clues and
the following up of light and baffling scents was generally left to
the lawyers and those engaged on behalf of the parties injured or
aggrieved.

AMATEUR DETECTIVES. 331

THE CASE OF LADY IVY.

One of the first cases on record of a fraud on a very large scale
cleverly planned and not less cleverly detected was the claim raised
by a Lady Ivy, in 1084, to a large estate in Shad well. It was based
on deeds purporting to be drawn more than a hundred years
previously, in the " 2nd and 3rd Philip and Mary of 1555-6, under
which deeds the lands had been granted to Lady Ivy's ancestors."
The case was tried before the famous, or, more correctly, the
infamous Judge Jeffreys, and the lawyers opposed to Lady Ivy
proved that the deed put forward had been forged. It was dis-
covered that the style and titles of the king and queen as they
appeared in the deed were not those used by the sovereigns at
that particular date. Always in the preambles of Acts of Parlia-
ment of 1555-6 Philip and Mary were styled " King and Queen
of Naples, Princes of Spain and Sicily," not, as in the deed, " King
and Queen of Spain and both the Sicilies." Again, in the deed
Burgundy was put before Milan as a dukedom; in the Acts of
Parliament it was just the reverse. That style did come in later,
but the person drawing the deeds could not foretell it, and as a
fair inference it was urged that the deeds were a forgery. Evi-
dence was also adduced to show that Lady Ivy had forged other
deeds, and it was so held by Judge Jeffreys : " If you produce
deeds made in such a time when, say you, such titles were used,
and they were not so used, that sheweth your deeds are counterfeit
and forged and not true deeds. And there is digitus Dei, the
finger of God in it, so that though the design be deep laid and
the contrivance skulk, yet truth and justice will appear at one
time or other."

Accordingly, my Lady Ivy lost her verdict, and an information
for forgery was laid against her, but with what result does not
appear.

A LAWYER TURNED DETECTIVE.

Fifty years later a painstaking lawyer in Berkshire was able to
unravel another case of fraud, which had eluded the imperfect
police of the day. It was an artful attempt to claim restitution
from a certain locality for a highway robbery said to have been
committed within its boundaries: a robbery which had never
occurred.

332 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

On the 24th March, 1747, according to his own story, one
Thomas Chandler, an attorney's clerk, was travelling on foot along
the high road between London and Heading. Having passed through
Maidenhead Thicket, and while in the neighbourhood of Hare
Hatch, some thirty miles out, he was set upon by three men,
bargees, who robbed him of all he possessed, his watch and cash,
the latter amounting to 960, all in bank-notes. After the robbery
they bound him and threw him into a pit by the side of the road.
He lay there some three hours, till long after dark, he said, being
unable to obtain release from " his miserable situation," although the
road was much frequented and he heard many carriages and people
passing along. At length he got out of the pit unaided, and, still
bound hand and foot, jumped rather than walked for half a mile
uphill, calling out lustily for anyone to let him loose. The first
passer-by was a gentleman, who gave him a wide berth, then a
shepherd came and cut his bonds, and at his entreaty guided him
to the constable or tything-man of the hundred of Sunning, in
the county of Berks.

Here he set forth in writing the evil that had happened to him,
with a full and minute description of the thieves, and at the same
time gave notice that he would in due course sue the Hundred
for the amount under the statutes. All the formalities being
observed, process was duly served on the high constable of
Sunning, and the people of the Hundred, alarmed at the demand,
which if insisted upon would be the " utter ruin of many poor
families," engaged a certain attorney, Edward Wise, of Wokingham,
to defend them.

Mr. Wise had all the qualities of a good detective : he was ingenious,
yet patient and painstaking, and he soon pieced together the facts
he had cleverly picked up about Chandler. Some of these seemed
at the very outset much against the claimant. That a man should
tramp along the high road with nearly 1,000 in his pockets was
quite extraordinary ; not less so that he should not escape from the pit
till after dark, or that his bonds should have been no stronger than
tape, a length of which was found at the spot where he was untied.
He seemed, moreover, to be little concerned by his great loss. After
he had given the written notices to the constable, concerning which
he was strangely well informed, having all the statutes at his fingers'
ends, as though studied beforehand, he ordered a hot supper and

CHANGING BANK-NOTE NUMBERS. 333

a bowl at the Hare and Hounds in Hare Hatch, where he kept
up his carousals till late in the night. Nor was he in any hurry to
return to town and stop payment of the lost notes at the banks,
but started late and rode leisurely to London.

It was easy enough to trace him there. He had given his
address in the notices, and he was soon identified as the clerk of
Mr. Hill, an attorney in Clifford's Inn. It now appeared that
Chandler, for a client of his master, had negotiated a mortgage
upon certain lands in the neighbourhood of Devizes for 509, far
more, as was proved, than their value. An old mortgage was to
be paid off in favour of the new, and Chandler had set off on the
day stated to complete the transaction, carrying with him the 500
and the balance of 460 supposed to be his own property, but how
obtained was never known. His movements on the previous day
also were verified. He had dined with the mortgagee, when the
deed was executed and the money handed over in notes. These
notes were mostly for small sifms, making up too bulky a parcel
to be comfortably carried under his gaiters (the safest place for
them, as he thought), and he had twice changed a portion,
440 at the Bank of England for two notes, and again at "Sir
Eichard Hoare's shop " for three notes, two of 100 and one of
200. With the whole of his money he then started to walk
ninety miles in twenty-four hours, for he was expected next day at
Devizes to release the mortgage.

Mr. Hill had kept a list of his notes in Chandler's handwriting,
which Chandler was anxious to recover when he got back, in order,
as he said, to stop payment of them at the banks. His real
object was to alter the numbers of three notes of Hoare's, all of
which he wished to cash and use, and he effected this by having
a fresh list made out in which these notes were given new and
false numbers. Thus the notes with the real numbers would not
be stopped on presentation. He did it cleverly, changing 102 to
112, 195 to 159, 196 to 190, variations so slight as to pass unnoticed
by Mr. Hill when the list as copied was returned to him. These
three notes were cashed and eventually traced back to Chandler.
Further, it was clearly proved that he had got those notes at
Hoare's in exchange for the 200 note, for that note presently
came back to Hoare's through a gentleman who had received it
in part payment for a captain's commission of dragoons, and it

334 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

was then seen that it had been originally received from
Chandler.

While Mr. Wise was engaged in these inquiries the trial of
Chandler's case against the Hundred came on at Abingdon assizes
in June, and a verdict was given in his favour for 975, chiefly
because Mr. Hill was associated with the mortgage, and he was
held a person of good repute. But a point of law was reserved,
for Chandler had omitted to give a full description of the notes,
as required by statute, when advertising his loss.

But now Chandler disappeared. He thought the point of law
would go against him; that the mortgagee would press for the
return of the 500 which he had recovered from the Hundred ;
that his master, Mr. Hill, had now strong doubts of his good
faith. The first of these fears was verified ; on argument of the point
of law the Abingdon verdict was set aside. There was good cause
for Chandler's other fears also. News now came of the great bulk
of the other notes ; they reached the bank from Amsterdam through
brokers named Solomons, who had bought them from one "John
Smith," a person answering to the description of Chandler, who in
signing the receipt " wrote his name as if it had been wrote with a
skewer." The indefatigable Mr. Wise presently found that Chandler
had been in Holland with a trader named Casson, and then unearthed
Casson himself.

All this time Mr. Hill was in indirect communication with
Chandler, writing letters to him by name " at Easton in Suffolk,
to be left for him at the Crown at Ardley, near Colchester, in
Essex." Thither Mr. Wise followed him, accompanied by the
mortgagee, Mr. Winter, and the " Holland trader," Mr. Casson,
who was ready to identify Chandler. They reached the Crown
at Ardley, and actually saw a letter "stuck behind the plates of
the dresser," awaiting Chandler, who rode in once a fortnight, from
a distance, for "his mare seemed always to be very hard rid."
There was nothing known of a place called Easton ; but Aston
and Assington were both suggested to the eastward, and in search
of them Mr. Wise with his friends rode through Ipswich as far as
Southwold, and there found Easton, "a place washed by the sea,"
where he halted, " being v thus pretty sure of going no farther east-
ward." But the scent was false, and although they ran down a young
man whom they proposed to arrest with the assistance of " three

336 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

fellows from the Keys, who appeared to be smugglers, for they
were pretty much maimed and scarred," the person was clearly
not Chandler. So, finding they had been "running the wrong
hare," they " trailed very coolly all the way back to Ipswich."

Travelling homeward, they halted a night at Colchester, and
called at an inn, the Three Crowns, or the Three Cups, where
Chandler had been seen a few months before. Here, as a fact,
after overrunning their game near fourscore miles, " they got back
to the very form," yet even now they lost their hare. This inn
was kept by Chandler himself, in partnership with his brother-in-
law, who naturally would not betray him, and carefully concealed
the fact that Chandler was at that very time in the house.

After this Chandler thought Colchester " a very improper place
for him to continue long in." There were writs out against him in
Essex, Suffolk, and Xorfolk, so he sold off his goods and moved to
another inn at Coventry, where he set up at the sign of the Golden
Dragon under the name of John Smith. Now, still fearing arrest,
he thought to buy off' Winter, the mortgagee, by repaying him
something, and sent him 130. But Winter was bitter against
him, and writs were taken out for Warwickshire. Chandler had
in some way secured the protection of Lord Willoughby de Broke ;
he had also made friends with the constables of Coventry, and it was
not easy to compass his arrest. But at last he was taken and
lodged in the town gaol. Two years had been occupied in this
pertinacious pursuit, prolonged by trials, arguments, journeyings
to and fro, and Mr. Wise was greatly complimented upop his zeal
and presented with a handsome testimonial

Chandler, who was supposed to have planned the whole affair
with the idea of becoming possessed of a considerable sum in ready
money, was found guilty of perjury, and was sentenced to be put hi
the pillory next market day at Reading from twelve to one, and
afterwards to be transported for seven years.

A curious feature of the trial was the identification of Chandler
as John Smith by Casson, who told how at Amsterdam he (Chandler)
had received payment for his bills partly in silver 150 worth of
ducats and Spanish pistoles which broke down both his pockets,
so that the witness had to get a rice-sack and hire a wheelbarrow
to convey the coin to the Delft "scout," where it was deposited in
a chest and so conveyed to -England.

FEAT OF A SCOTTISH DETECTIVE.

337

HOW DENOVAN RAN DOWN MACKOULL.

Detailed reference has been made in previous pages to the
Bow Street runners, to Vickery, Lavender, Sayer, Donaldson, and
Townsend, whose exploits in capturing criminals were often
remarkable. None of them did better, however, than a certain
Mr. Denovan, a Scots officer of great intelligence and unwearied
patience, who was employed by
the Paisley Union Bank of
Glasgow to defend it against
the extraordinary pretensions
of a man who had robbed it
and yet sued it for the restora-
tion of property which was
clearly the bank's and not his.
For the first and probably the
only time known in this country,
an acknowledged thief was seen
contending with people in open
court for property he had stolen
from them.

The hero of this strange
episode was one James Mac-
koull, a hardened and, as we
should say nowadays, an
"habitual" criminal. He was
one of the most extraordinary
characters that have ever ap-
peared in the annals of crime.

His was a clear case of heredity in vice, for his mother had
been a shoplifter and low-class thief, who had married, however,
a respectable tradesman; all her children three sons and two
daughters had turned out badly, becoming in due course notorious
offenders. One of them, John Mackoull, was well educated, and
the author of a work entitled "The Abuses of Justice," which he
brought out after his acquittal on a charge of forgery; another
brother, Ben Mackoull, was hanged for robbery in 1786.

James Mackoull began early, and at school stole from his com-
panions. He studied little, but soon became an expert in the
22

JAMES MACKOULL.
(From a Contemporary Drawing.)

338 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND

science of self-defence, and, being active and athletic, took rank
in due course as an accomplished pugilist. His first public theft
was from a cat's-meat man, whom he robbed by throwing snuff in
his eyes ; while the man was blinded, he cut the bag of coppers
fastened to the barrow and bolted. Henceforth he became a pro-
fessional thief, and with two noted associates, Bill Drake and Sam
Williams, did much business on a large scale.

One of his most remarkable feats was his robbery from the person
of a rich undertaker, known as " The Old Raven," who was fond
of parading himself in St. James's Park, London, dressed out in smart
clothes and wearing conspicuously exposed a fine gold watch set
with diamonds. Mackoull knew that on most days " The Old
Raven" entered the park from Spring Gardens at 4 p.m., so he
tuned himself to arrive a little earlier. He waited till the under-
taker had passed him, then pushed on hi front, when he turned
round suddenly, and, clutching the watch with one hand, knocked
his victim's hat over his eyes with the other. Fearing detection
for this theft, which caused considerable noise, Mackoull thought
it prudent to go to sea. He entered the Royal Navy, and served
for two years on board H.M.S. Apollo as an officer's servant. His
conduct was exemplar}*, and he was presently transferred to H.M.S.
Centurion, on which ship he rose to be purser's steward. He
was discharged with a good character after nine years' service
afloat, and returned to London about 1785 with a considerable sum
of money, the accumulations of prize-money and pay.

The moment he landed he resumed his evil courses. Having
rapidly wasted his substance in the ring, in the cockpit, and at the
gaming-table, he devoted himself with great success to picking
pockets. He gave himself out as the captain of a West Indiaman,
and being much improved in appearance, having a genteel address
and fluent speech, he was well received in a certain class of society.
At the end of a debauch he generally managed to clear out the
company. He was an adept in what is known as "hocussing,"
and this served him well in despoiling his companions of their
purses and valuables.

It was at this time that he gained the sobriquet of the " Heathen
Philosopher" among his associates. He owed it to a trick pla} r ed
upon a master baker, whom he encountered at an election at Brent-
ford. This worthy soul affected to be learned in astronomy, and

340 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

Mackoull approached him, courteously advising him to. have a look
at the strange " alternating star " to be seen that night in the sky.
As soon as the baker was placed to view the phenomenon, Mackoull
deftly relieved him of his pocket-book, which he knew to be well
lined. Then, as the baker could not see the star properly and went
home to use his telescope, Mackoull promptly decamped, returning
to town in a postchaise.

Now Mackoull married a lodging-house keeper, and went into
the business of "receiving." At first he stored his stolen goods in
his mother's house, but as this became insecure he devised a
receptacle in his own. He chose for the purpose a recess where had
formerly been a window, but which had been blocked up to save the
window-tax. It was on that account called " Pitt's picture." But
the hiding-place was discovered, and as Mackoull was " wanted," he
escaped to the Continent, where he frequented the German gambling-
tables and learnt the language. He visited Hamburg, Leipsic,
Rotterdam, and is said to have often played billiards with the
Grand Duke of Mecklenburg -Schwerin, whom he relieved of all his
superfluous cash.

Again he had to fly, but being afraid to return to London he
travelled north, and landed at Leith in 1805. Thence he went to
Edinburgh, and lodged in the Canongate, devoting himself to his old
pursuits at taverns, "calling himself a Hamburg merchant and
making many friends." A theft at the theatre was nearly fatal to
him. He was caught by a police officer in the act of picking a
gentleman's pocket, and, after running for his life, was at last over-
taken. Having no assistance at hand, the " town officer " struck
him on the head with his " batoon." Mackoull fell with a deep
groan, and the officer, fearing he had killed him, made off. As the
result of this encounter Mackoull was long laid up, and he carried
the scar on his forehead to his dying day.

As time passed he grew more daring and more truculent, and it
is believed he was the author of the well-known murder of Begbie,
the porter of the British Linen Company Bank a crime never
brought home to him, however, the murder remaining a mystery
to the last. This victim, returning from Leith carrying a large
parcel of bank-notes, was stabbed in the back at the entrance of
Tweeddale's Court. Several persons were suspected, apprehended,
and discharged for want of evidence. Yet the most active measures

A FAILURE OF JUSTICE. 341

were taken to detect the crime. " Hue-and-cry " bills were thrown
off during the night, and despatched next morning by the mail-
coaches to all parts of the country. It was stated in this notice
that " the murder was committed with a force and dexterity more
resembling that of a foreign assassin than an inhabitant of this
country. The blow was directly to the heart, and the unfortunate
man bled to death in a few minutes." Through Mr. Denovan's
investigations many facts were obtained to implicate Mackoull, but
the proof of his guilt was still insufficient.

One of the most suspicious facts against him was that later on
he was often seen in the Belle Vue grounds, and here, in an old
wall, many of the notes stolen from the murdered porter were
presently discovered. They were those of large value, which the
perpetrator of the crime would find it difficult to pass. Reports that
they had been thus found, and in this particular wall, were in cir-
culation some three weeks before they were actually unearthed,
and it is believed the story was purposely put about to lead
to their recovery. It is a curious fact that the stonemason
who came upon the notes hi pulling down the wall resided close
to the spot where the murder had been committed. But for
the good luck th.-.t he was able to prove clearly that he was
not in Edinburgh at the time of the murder, he might have
been added to the sufficiently long list of victims of circumstantial
evidence.

Mackoull at this time passed to and fro between Edinburgh and
Dublin, and was popular in both capitals, a pleasant companion,
ever ready to drink and gamble and join in any debauchery. He
became very corpulent, and it was said of him that he did not care
how he was jostled in a crowd. This was necessary as a matter of
business sometimes, but one night at the Edinburgh theatre he got
into trouble. Incledon, the famous vocalist, was singing to full
houses, and Mackoull in the crowded lobby picked a gentleman's
pocket. He was caught in the act, but escaped for a time ; then was
seized after a hot pursuit and searched, but with no result, for he had
dropped his booty in the race. They cast him into the Tolbooth,
but he was released for want of proof after nine months' detention.
As the story is told, the gentleman robbed was much displeased at
Mack cull's release and complained of this failure of justice. The judge
before whom the thief had been arraigned admitted that he ought to

342

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND

have been hanged. " He went to the play-house to steal and not to
hear music; and he gave a strong proof of this, Mr. P., when he
preferred your notes to Mr. Incledon's."

Mackoull, retiring south after his liberation, lay low for a time,
but he made one expedition to Scotland for the purpose of passing
forged notes, when he was again arrested, but again evaded the law.
Another enterprise in Chester failed; the luck was against him
for the moment. But now, having sought out efficient confederates,

THE TOLBOOTH, EDINBURGH.

lie laid all his plans for the robbery of some one or other of the
great Scottish banks. He was well equipped for the job, had secured
the best men and the finest implements.

He was assisted by two confederates, French and Huffey White,
the latter a convict at the hulks, whose escape Mackoull had com-
passed on purpose. They broke into the Paisley Bank at Glasgow on
Sunday night, July 14, 1811, with keys carefully fitted long in
advance, and soon ransacked the safe and drawers, securing in
gold and notes something like 20,000. Of course, they left Glasgow

A THIEF SUES TO RECOVER THE STOLEN PROPERTY. 343

at once, travelling full speed in a postchaise and four, first to
Edinburgh and then via Haddington and Newcastle southward
to London. In the division of the spoil which now took place
Mackoull contrived to keep the lion's share. White was appre-
hended, and to save his life a certain sum was surrendered
to the bank; but some of the money, as I have said elsewhere,*
seems to have stuck to the fingers of Sayer, the Bow Street officer
who had negotiated between Mackoull and the bank. Mackoull
himself had retained about 8,000.

In 1812, after a supposed visit to the West Indies, he reappeared
in London, where he was arrested for breach of faith with the
bank and sent to Glasgow for trial. He got off by a promise of
further restitution, and because the bank was unable at that time
to prove his complicity in the burglary. An agent who had handed
over 1,000 on his account, was then sued by Mackoull for acting
without proper authority, and was obliged to refund a great part
of the money. Nothing could exceed his effrontery. He traded
openly as a bill broker in Scotland under the name of James
Martin ; buying the bills with the stolen notes and having sometimes
as much as 2,000 on deposit in another bank. At last he was
arrested, and a number of notes and drafts were seized with him.
He was presently discharged, but the notes were impounded, and
by-and-by he began a suit to recover " his property " the proceeds
really of his theft from the bank His demeanour in court was
most impudent. Crowds filled the court when he gave his evidence,
which he did with the utmost effrontery, posing always as an
innocent and much-injured man.

It was incumbent upon the bank to end this disgraceful parody
of legal proceedings. Either they must prove Mackoull's guilt or
lose their action an action brought, it must be remembered, by
n, public depredator against a respectable banking company for
daring to retain a part of the property of which he had robbed
them. In this difficulty they appealed to Mr. Denovan, well known
as an officer and agent of the Scottish courts, and sent him to collect
evidence showing that Mackoull was implicated in the original
robbery in 1811.

Denovan left Edinburgh on January 8, 1820, meaning to follow
the exact route of the fugitives to the south. All along his road

* See ante, pp. 241, 242.

SM MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

he came upon traces of them in the " post books " or in the
memory of innkeepers, waiters, and ostlers. He passed through
Dunbar, Berwick, and Belford, pausing at Belford to hunt up a
certain George Johnson who was said to be able to identify
Mackoull. Johnson had been a waiter at the Talbot Inn, Darlington,
in 1811, but was now gone to what place his parents, who lived
in Belford, could not say. " Observing, however, that there was
a church behind the inn," writes Mr. Denovan, " a thought struck
me I might hear something in the churchyard on Sunday morning ; "
and he was rewarded with the address of Thomas Johnson, a brother
of George's, " a pedlar or travelling merchant." " I immediately set
forth hi a postchaise and found Thomas Johnson, who gave me
news of George. He was still alive, and was a waiter either at the
Bay Horse in Leeds or somewhere in Tadcaster, or at a small inn
at Spittal-on-the-Moor, in Westmorland, but his father-in-law,
Thomas Cockburn, of York, would certainly know."

Pushing on, Denovan heard of his men at Alnwick. A barber
there had shaved them. "I was anxious to see the barber, but
found he had put an end to his existence some years ago." At
Morpeth the inn at which they had stopped was shut up. At
Newcastle the posting book was lost, and when found in the bar
of the Crown and Thistle was " so mutilated as to be useless." But
at the Queen's Head, Durham, there was an entry, "Chaise and
four to Darlington, Will and Will." The second "Will" was still
alive, and remembered Mackoull as the oldest of the party,
a " stiff red-faced man," the usual description given of him. The
landlady here, Mrs. Jane Escott, remembered three men arriving
in a chaise who said they were pushing on to London with a
quantity of Scottish bank-notes. At the Talbot Inn, Darlington,
where George Johnson had lived, the scent failed till Denovan
found him at another inn, the King's Head.

His evidence was most valuable, and he willingly agreed to
give it in court at Edinburgh. He had seen the three men at
Durham, the oldest, "a stiff", stout man with a red face, seemed
to take the management, and paid the postboys their hire." He
had offered a 20 Scottish note in payment for two pints of
sherry and some biscuits, but there was not change enough in
the house, and White was asked for smaller money, when he took
out his pocket-book stuffed full of bank notes, all too large, so the

JEALOUSY OF THE BOW STREET RUNNERS. 345

first note was changed by Johnson at the Darlington bank. Johnson
was sure he would know the " stiff man " again amongst a hundred
others in any dress.

There was no further trace now till Denovan got to the White
Hart, Welwyn, where the fugitives had taken the light post-
coach. At Welwyn, too, they had sent off a portmanteau to a
certain address, and this portmanteau was afterwards recovered with
the address in MackoulTs hand. At Welwyn also Mr. Denovan heard
of one Cunnington who had been a waiter at the inn in 1811, but
had left in 1813 for London, and who was said to know something
of the matter. The search for this Cunnington was the next
business, and Mr. Denovan pushed on to London hoping to find him
there. "In company with a private friend I went up and down
Holborn inquiring for him at every baker's, grocer's, or public house,"
but heard nothing. The same at the coaching offices, until at last a
guard who knew Cunnington said he was in Brighton. But the
man had left Brighton, first for Horsham, then for Margate, and had
then gone back to London, where Mr. Denovan ran him down at
last as a patient in the Middlesex Hospital.

Cunnington was quite as important a witness as Johnson. He
declared he should know Mackoull among a thousand. He had
seen the three men counting over notes at the White Hart ; Mackoull
did not seem to be a proper companion for the two ; he took the
lead, and was the only one who used pen, ink, and paper. Cunnington
expressed his willingness to go to Edinburgh if his health permitted.

Since Denovan's arrival in London he had received but little as-
sistance at Bow Street. The runners were irritated at the unorthodox
way in which the case had been managed. Sayer, who had been
concerned in the restitution, flatly refused to have anything to do with
the business, or to go to Edinburgh to give evidence. This was pre-
sently explained by another runner, the famous Townsend, who hinted
that Sayer's hands were not clean, and that he was on very friendly
terms with MackoulTs wife, a lady of questionable character, who was
living in comfort on some of her husband's ill-gotten gains. Indeed,
Sayer's conduct had caused a serious quarrel between him and his
colleagues, Lavender, Vickery, and Harry Adkins, because he had
deceived and forestalled them. Denovan was, however, on intimate
terms with Lavender, and succeeded in persuading him to as-
sist, and through him he came upon the portmanteau sent from

346 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Welwyn, which had been seized at the time of Huffey White's arrest.
Huffey had been taken in the house of one Scoltop, a blacksmith in
the Tottenham Court Road, the portmanteau and a box of skeleton
keys being also seized. Both were now found in a back closet in the
office at Bow Street, " under a singular collection of rubbish, and
were actually covered by Williarns's bloody jacket, and the maul and
ripping iron with which the man Williamson had been murdered
in Ratcliff Highway." The portmanteau contained many papers and
notes damaging to Mackoull, and in the box were housebreaking
implements, punches, files, and various "dubs" and " skrews," as
well as two handkerchiefs of fawn colour, with a broad border, such
as the three thieves often wore when in their lodgings in Glasgow
immediately before the robbery.

How Mr. Denovan found and won over Scoltop is a chief feather
in his cap. His success astonished even the oldest officers in Bow
Street. Scoltop was the friend and associate of burglars, and con-
stantly engaged in manufacturing implements for them. He had
long been a friend of Mackoull's and had made tools for him,
among them those used for the robbing of the Paisley Union Bank, a
cowp prepared long beforehand, as we have seen. The first set of keys
supplied had been tried on the bank locks and found useless, so that
Scoltop had furnished others and sent them down by mail These
also were ineffective, as the bank had " simple old-fashioned locks,"
and Mackoull came back from Glasgow, bringing with him "a
wooden model of the key hole and pike of the locks," which enabled
Scoltop to complete his job easily. " I wonder," said Scoltop to
Mr. Denovan, " that the bank could have trusted so much money
under such very simple things." Scoltop would not allow any of
this evidence to be set down in writing, but he agreed to go
down to Edinburgh and give it in court, and to swear also to re-
ceiving the portmanteau addressed in the handwriting of MackoulL

But Denovan's greatest triumph was with Mrs. MackoulL She
kept a house furnished in an elegant manner, but was not a very re-
putable person. " She was extremely shy at first, and as if by chance,
but to show that she was prepared for anything, she lifted up one of
the cushions on her settee, displaying a pair of horse pistols that
lay below," on which he produced a double-barrelled pistol and a
card bearing the address "Public Office, Bow Street." Then
she gave him her hand and said, " We understand each other."

A COMPLETE CASE.

347

But still she was very reticent, acting, as Mr. Denovan was firmly
convinced, under the advice of the not incorruptible Sayer.
She was afraid she would be called upon to make a restitution of
that part of the booty that had gone her way. Denovan strongly
suspected that she had received a large sum from her husband

" ON WHICH HE PRODUCED A DOUBLE-BARRELLED PISTOL AND A CAUD " (p. 346).

and had refused to give it back to him " the real cause of their
misunderstanding," which was, indeed, so serious that he had no
great difficulty in persuading her also to give evidence at Edinburgh.
Such was the result of an inquiry that scarcely occupied a
month. It was so complete that the celebrated Lord Cockburn, who
was at that time counsel for the Bank, declared "nothing could

348 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

exceed Deno van's skill, and that the investigation had the great
merit of being amply sustained by evidence in all its important
parts." When the trial of the cause came on in February, and
Denovan appeared in court with all the principal witnesses, Johnson,
Cunnington, Scoltop, and Mrs. Mackoull, the defendant it was only
a civil suit was unable to conceal his emotion, and fainted away.
This was, practically, the throwing up of the sponge. Soon after-
wards he was indicted for the robbery of the bank, and on convic-
tion sentenced to death. He was greatly cast down at first, but soon
recovered his spirits, and while awaiting execution received a number
of visitors in the condemned cell. Among them was his wife, who
provided him with the means of purchasing every luxury. She
also applied for and obtained a reprieve for him. But though
he might escape the gallows, he could not evade death. Within a
couple of months of his sentence he fell into imbecility, his hitherto
jet-black hair grew white, and his physical faculties failed him.
Before the year was ended he had gone to his account.

VIDOCQ.

The first regular organisation of detective police may be said to
have been created by Vidocq, the famous French thief, who, having
turned his own coat, found his best assistants in other converted
criminals. Vidocq's personal reminiscences have been read all the
world over, and need hardly be recounted here. It was at the end
of a long career of crime, of warfare with justice, in which he had
been perpetually worsted, that he elected to go over to the other
side. He would cease to be the hare, and would, if permitted, in
future hunt with the hounds. So he offered his services to the
authorities, who at first bluntly refused them. M. Henri, the
functionary at the head of the criminal department of the Prefec-
ture, sent him about his business without even asking his name.

This was in 1809, during the ministry of Fouche. Vidocq,
rebuffed, joined a band of coiners, who betrayed him to the police,
and he was arrested, nearly naked, on the roof as he was trying
to escape. He was taken before M. Henri, whom he reminded of his
application and renewed his offers, which were now accepted, but
coldly and distrustfully. The only condition he had made was
that he should not be relegated to the galleys, but held in any

THIEF TURNED SPY. 349

Parisian prison the authorities might choose. So he was committed
to La Force, and the entry appears on the registry of that prison
that he was nominally sentenced to eight years in chains ; it was

VIDOCQ, THE CELEBRATED FRENCH DETECTIVE.

(From tlie Engraving by Mile. Coignet.)

part of his compact that he should associate freely with other
prisoners and secretly inform the police of all that was going oa
He betrayed a number of his unsuspecting companions, and seems
to have been very proud of his treacherous achievements. No
prisoner had the slightest suspicion that he was a police spy, nor had

350 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

any of the officials, except the gate-keeper. In this way he earned
the gratitude of the authorities, who thought he might be more
useful at large. In order to give a plausible explanation of his
release, it was arranged that he should be sent from the prison
of La Force to Bicetre and permitted to escape by the way. Vidocq
has given his own account of his escape : " I was fetched from
La Force and taken off with the most rigorous precaution, hand-
cuffed, and lodged in the prison van ; but I was let out on tho
road." The report of this daring escape, as it was supposed, was
the talk of all Paris, and the cause of great rejoicing in criminal
circles, where Vidocq's health was drunk with many wishes for
his continued good fortune.

Yidocq made excellent use of his freedom. He entered freely
into all the low haunts of the city, and was received with absolute
confidence by every miscreant abroad. Through him, although he
kept carefully in the background, innumerable arrests were made ;
one of the most important was that of the head of a gang of
robbers named Guenvive, whose acquaintance he made at a cabaret,
where they exchanged some curious confidences. Guenvive was very
anxious to put him on his guard against "that villain Vidocq,"
who had turned traitor to his old friends. But Guenvive assured
Yidocq that he knew him intimately and there was nothing to be
feared while he was by. Together they went to attack Vidocq, each
carrying handkerchiel's loaded with two-sous pieces, and watched
for him at his front door. For obvious reasons Vidocq did not
come out, but his ready concurrence in the scheme made him
Guenvive's most intimate friend. The robber was willing to enrol
Vidocq in his band, and proposed that he should join in a grand
affair in the Rue Cassette. Vidocq agreed, but took no part in
the actual robbery on the pretence that he could not safely be
out in the streets, as he had no papers. When the party, having
successfully accomplished their coup, carried their plunder home
to Guenvive's quarters, they were surprised by a visit of the police,
during which Vidocq, who was present, concealed himself under
the bed. The end of this business was the conviction of the robbers
and their condemnation to travaux forces, but they appear to have
succeeded in discovering how and by whom they had been betrayed.

Vidocq brought about another important arrest in the person of
Fossard, a notorious criminal, who was to become yet more famous by

A DARING CAPTURE.

351

his celebrated theft of medals from the Bibliotheque Royale. Fossard
was a man of athletic proportions and desperately brave; he had
escaped from the Bagne of Brest and was supposed to be prepared
to go any lengths rather than return there ; he was always armed to
the teeth, and swore he would blow out the brains of anyone who
attempted to take him. He lived somewhere near the Rue Pois-

. - - . _ ..

Sil .'i t\{ | tniijiTiTirnuiiiJiif .iiTji 1 1 t u,' 1* >
1 1 - 1 1 ? i *. _i! * z 1 iuimiiiu ,.J\Mif ii 1 1 _u ii!_?~j AL1 "

THE BICETRE IN 1710.

(J/ter Guerowit.)

sonniere ; the neighbourhood was known, but not the house or the
floor; the windows were said to have yellow silk blinds, but many
other windows had the same ; another indication was that Fossard's
servant was a little humpbacked woman, who also worked as a
milliner. Vidocq found the hunchback, but not her master, who
had moved into another residence over a wineshop at the corner
of the Rue Duphot and the Rue St. Honore. He at once assumed
the disguise of a charcoal-seller, and verified the lodging, but
waited for an opportunity to take the criminal. Although he was
armed and no coward, he realised that the only safe way to secure
Fossard would be in his bed.

Yidocq now took the tavern-keeper into his confidence, warned

352 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

him that he had under his roof a very dangerous robber, and
that this lodger was only waiting a favourable chance to rob his
till The first night that the receipts had been good the ruffian
would certainly lay hands upon the money. The tavern-keeper
was only too glad to accept the assistance of the police, and promised
to admit them whenever required. One night, when Fossard had
returned home early and gone to bed, Vidocq and his comrades
were let in during the small hours, and the following trick was
arranged. The tavern-keeper had with him a little nephew, a child
of ten, precocious and ready to earn an honest penny. Vidocq easily
taught him a little tale. The child was to go upstairs to Fossard's
door in the early morning, and ask Fossard's wife for some eau-de-
cologne, saying his aunt was unwell. The child played his part
well ; he went up, closely followed by the police in stockinged feet ;
he knocked, gave his message, the door was opened to him,
and in rushed the officers, who secured Fossard before he was
well awake.

In these later days of the First Empire the police, as we have
seen, were more actively engaged in political espionage than in the
detection of crime, and Paris was very much at the mercy of criminals.
There were whole quarters given up to malefactors places, particu-
larly beyond the Barrier, which offered a safe retreat to convicts,
thieves, the whole fraternity of crime, into which no police-officer
was bold enough to enter. Vidocq volunteered to clear out at least
one of them, a tavern kept by a certain Desnoyez, always a very
favourite and crowded resort. Accompanied by a couple of police
officers and eight gendarmes, he started off to execute a job for which
his superiors declared that he needed a battalion at least. But
on reaching the tavern he walked straight into the salon, where a
Barrier 'ball was in progress, stopped the music, and coolly looked
around. Loud cries were raised of " Turn him out ! " but Vidocq
remained imperturbable, and exhibiting his warrant, ordered the
place to be cleared. His firm aspect imposed upon even the most
threatening, and the whole company filed out one by one past Vidocq,
who stationed himself at the door. Whenever he recognised any
man as a person wanted or a dangerous criminal, he marked his
back adroitly with a piece of white chalk as a sign that he should
be made prisoner outside. This was effected by the gendarmes,
who handcuffed each in turn, and added him to a long chain of

VIDOCQ STOPS TUB MUSIC (p. 352).

354 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

prisoners, who were eventually conducted in triumph to the
Prefecture.

Vidocq's successes gained him a very distinct reputation in
Paris; he had undoubtedly diminished crime at least he had
reduced the number of notorious criminals who openly defied
justice; it was decided, therefore, to give him larger powers, and
in 1817 he was authorised to establish a regular body of detectives,
the first "Brigade de Surete," which was composed of a certain
number of agents devoted entirely to the detection of crime. They
were no more than four in number at first, but the brigade was
successively increased to six, twelve, twenty, and at last to twenty-
eight. In the very first year, between January and December, 1817,
Vidocq had only twelve assistants ; yet among them they effected
772 arrests, many of them of the most important character. Fifteen
of their captives w T ere murderers, a hundred and eight were burglars,
five were addicted to robbery with violence, and there were some two
hundred and fifty thieves of other descriptions. Such good work soon
gained Vidocq detractors, and the old, official, clean-handed police,
not unnaturally jealous, charged him with actually preparing crime in
order that he might detect it. The police authorities were privately
informed by these other employees that Vidocq abused his position
disgracefully, and carried on widespread depredation on his own
account. In reply they were told that they could not be very
skilful, or they would have caught him in the act. Having failed
to implicate Vidocq himself, they fell upon his assistants, most
of them ex-thieves, who they declared now carried on their old
trade with impunity. Vidocq soon heard of these accusations, and,
to give a practical denial of the charge, ordered all his people
invariably to wear gloves. To appear without them, he declared,
would be visited with instant dismissal The significance of this
regulation lay in the fact that a pocket can only be picked by a
bare hand. ,

Certainly Vidocq and his men were neither idle nor expensive to
maintain ; their hours of duty were often eighteen out of the twenty-
four ; sometimes they were employed for days together without a
break. The chief himself was incessantly active ; no one could
say how he lived or when he slept. Whenever he was wanted he
was found dressed and ready, with a clean-shaven face like an
actor, so that he might assume any disguise wigs, whiskers, or

HOW VIDOCQ WAS ONCE FOOLED. 355

moustaches of any length or colour; sometimes, it is said that
he changed his costume ten times a day. He was a man of
extraordinarily vigorous physique, strong and squarely built, with
very broad shoulders ; he had fair hair, which early turned grey,
a large thick nose, blue eyes, and a constant smile on his lips. He
always appeared well-dressed, except when in disguise, and was
followed everywhere he went, but at a slight distance, by a
cabriolet, driven by a servant on whom he could rely. He always
went armed with pistols and a long knife or dagger. His worst
points were his boastfulness and his insupportable conceit.

M. Canler, afterwards chief of the detective police, tells an amusing
story in his Memoirs of how Yidocq was fooled by one of his precious
assistants. In choosing between candidates, the old thief sought
the boldest and most impudent. One day a man he did not know,
Jacquin, offered himself, and Vidocq, to try him, sent him to buy
a couple of fowls in the market. Jacquin presently brought back
the fowls and also the ten francs Vidocq had given him to pay
for them. He was asked how he had managed. It was simple
enough. He had gone into the market carrying a heavy hod o
his shoulder, and, when he had bargained for the fowls, he asked
the market woman to place them for him on the top of the
stones on the hod. While she obliged him, he picked her pocket
of the ten francs he had paid her. Jacquin acted the whole
affair before Vidocq, whom he treated just as he had treated the
owner of the fowls. When the seance was over, he had robbed
Vidocq of his gold watch and chain.

After ten years of active work Vidocq resigned his post. He
was at cross purposes, it was said, with his superiors ; M. Delavau,
the new prefect, had no sympathy with him, and was so much
under priestly influence as to abhor Vidocq, who perhaps foresaw
that he had better withdraw before he was dismissed. But the
real reason was that he had feathered his nest well, and was in
possession of sufficient capital to start an industrial enterprise
the manufacture of paper boxes. To this he presently added a
bureau de renseignements, the forerunner of our modern private
inquiry office, for which, from his abundant and . varied experience,
he was peculiarly well fitted. He soon possessed a wide clientele,
and had as many as 8,000 cases registered in his office. At tho
same time his brain was busy with practical inventions, such as *v

356 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

burglar-proof door and a safety paper one that could not be
imitated and used for false documents.

His private inquiry business prospered greatly, but got him
into serious trouble. There seems to have been no reason to
charge him with dishonesty, yet he was arrested for fraud and
" abuse of confidence " in some two hundred instances ; he was
mixed up in some shady transactions, among them money-lending
and bill-discounting. He was also accused of tampering with
certain employees in the War Office, and his papers were seized by
the police. Some idea of the extent of his business may be gathered
from the description of his offices, which were extensive, sump-
tuously furnished, and organised into first, second, and third divisions,
like a great department of State, each served by a large staff of
clerks. A little groom in livery, with buttons bearing Vidocq's
monogram, ushered the visitor into his private cabinet, where the
great " Intermediary," as he called himself, sat at his desk,
surrounded by fine pictures (for one of which, it was said, he had
refused 2,800) and many other signs of luxury and good taste.

Nothing came of this arrest, which Vidocq took quite as a joke,
although he was detained in the Conciergerie for three months and
his business suffered. Yet, afterwards, the police would not leave
him alone. Old animosities had never disappeared, and they were
revived when Vidocq occasionally turned his hand to his old work
and caught' someone whom the regular police could not find. He
had started a sort of " trade protection society," by which, on pay-
ment of a small annual fee, any shopkeeper or business man could
obtain particulars concerning the solvency of new clients. The
number of subscribers soon exceeded 8,000, and Vidocq, in one of
his published reports, fixed the amount he had saved his customers
at several thousands of pounds. A fresh storm burst over him
when he unmasked and procured the arrest of a long-firm swindler,
before the police knew anything of the case.

Once more he was arrested, in 1842 ; his papers were impounded,
there were rumours of tremendous disclosures, family scandals, crimes
suppressed all manner of villainies. No doubt he had made him-
self the "intermediary" in matters not quite savoury, but the worst
things against him were an unauthorised arrest and a traffic in
decorations very much on the Grevy-Wilson lines of later days.
The prejudice against him must have been strong, and the case

VIDOCQ IN LONDON. 357

ended in a sentence ot eight years' imprisonment, which was,
however, reversed on appeal. He was much impoverished by his
lawsuits, and one of his last proceedings was to appear before a

THE CONCIEKGE1UE, PALACE OF JUSTICE, PARIS.

London audience dressed, first as a French convict in chains, then
in the various disguises he had used in following up malefactors.
Although his lecture Avas in French, he seems to have attracted
large audiences at the Cosmorama. Sir Francis Burdett was a great
patron and supporter of Vidocq, and was in the habit, whenever

358 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

he visited Paris, of inviting the old thief-taker to dine with him at
the Trois Freres Restaurant in the Palais Royal. Yidocq died in
penury in 1857 at a very advanced age.

Vidocq's mantle, after his resignation of his official post, fell
upon one of his own young men, for the fallacious idea still held
that to discover thieves it was necessary to have been a thief.
The choice fell upon one Coco-Latour, who had been a robber of
the housebreaking class, and was much esteemed for his enterprise
in that particular branch of crime. He now took over Vidocq's
offices and staff, with much the same results. Arrests were con-
stantly made, numbers of depredators were brought to justice, but
again and again in court there were some discreditable scenes;
fierce recriminations between the dock and the witness-box, little
to choose between the accused criminal and the man who had
captured him. Public feeling was revolted by these exhibitions, and
at last the authorities resolved to abolish the system. M. Gisquet,
who was prefect of police, broke up Coco-Latour's band of ex-
brigands and ordered that in future the work should be done
by persons of unblemished character. Any who had been once
convicted were declared ineligible. New and respectable offices were
installed under the wing of the Prefecture, replacing the old dens
in low streets which had been no better than thieves' haunts infested
by the worst characters.

From 1832, when this salutary change took effect, until the
present day the French detective has won well-deserved credit as an
honourable, faithful public servant, generally with natural aptitude,
trained and developed by advice and example. "A man does not
become a detective by chance ; he must be born to it " ; he must
have the instinct, the flair, the natural taste for the business
qualities which carry him on to success through many disheartening
disappointments and seeming defeats. The best traditions of the
Paris Prefecture have been worthily maintained by such men as
Canler Claude, Mace, Goron, and Cochefert. Their services have
been conspicuous, their methods good, and they are backed by
useful, if arbitrary, powers, such as the right to detain and
interrogate suspected persons, which our police, under the jealous
eye of the law, have never possessed. This might seem to give
the French police the advantage as regards results, yet it is the
fact that, with all their limitations, the English police can compare

PERSEVERANCE OF FRENCH DETECTIVES.

359

favourably with that of our French neighbours, and, as has been
said, if we have at times to reproach our servants with failure,
there are also many undetected crimes, cases "classed," or put by
as hopeless, in France.

A few stories may be inserted here illustrating the more pro-
minent traits of the French detectives, their patience, courage
promptitude, and ingenuity.
No pains are too great to take ;

PALACE' OP JUSTICE AXD PREFECTURE OF POLICE, PARI*.

a clue is followed up at all costs and all hazards. The French
detective is equal to any labours, any hardships, any emergency, any
dangers. The words " two pounds of butter," written on a scrap of
paper found on the theatre of a great crime, led Canler and his
officers to visit every butterman's shop in Paris, till at last the
man who had sold and the criminal who had bought the butter
were found. In the same way a knife picked up was shown to
every cutler until it was identified and the purchaser traced. A
murdered man had been seen in company with another the
day before the crime; the latter was described to the police,
who got on his track within twenty-four hours, checked the

360

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

employment of his time, and
found the tailor who had
sold him his clothes ; within
another day his lodging was
known, on the fourth he
was arrested and the crime
brought home to him. Two
men on the watch for a
criminal held on three days
and nights out of doors, in
December, almost without
food, and, to justify their
presence in the high road,
pretended to be navvies
working at repairs. Four
detectives, in pursuit of five
murderers, divided the busi-
ness among them : one played
the flute at a hall often visited
by their men, another sold
pencils in the street, a third
worked in brickfields fre-
quented by their quarry, a
fourth kept the men wanted constantly in view.

Another detective disguised himself as a floor polisher, simply
to get on friendly terms with a man of the same calling, who
was an assassin. The disguises assumed are various and surprising,
and this may be taken as fact in spite of statements to the contrary.
A detective has been seen in a blue blouse distributing leaflets in
the street, and has been recognised (by a friend) in correct evening
dress at a diplomatic reception. There was once attached to the
Prefecture a regular wardrobe of ah 1 sorts of costumes, and a
dressing-room as in a theatre, with wigs and all facilities for
" making up." This is now left to the individual himself, but not
the less does he disguise. So sedulous are these detectives in
playing assumed parts, that it is told of two who were employed
in a high-class case, one as master, the other as valet, that after the job
was done, the master had so identified himself with his part as to
check his comrade afterwards for his familiarity in addressing him !

FKEXCH DETECTIVES PLAYING THE PART OF
NAVVIES.

362 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

French detectives often show great tact and promptitude.
One of them one day recognised a face without being able to put
a name to it, and followed his man into a 'bus. "Don't arrest
me here," said the other. "I'll come with you quietly when we
leave the omnibus." It proved to be a prisoner who had escaped
that very morning from the depot of the Prefecture, and whom the
police officer had only seen for a moment in the passage. Perpetual
suspicion becomes second nature with the detective ; he has to be
constantly on the alert, his imagination active; he must readily
invent tricks and dodges when the occasion demands. There is a
positive order that an arrest must be made quietly, if possible
unobserved, and not in any cafe, theatre, or public place. This
obliges him to have recourse to artifice to entrap his prey. For-
tunately, most criminals are simplicity itself, and readily give
themselves away. It is enough to send a message for the man
wanted, and he will appear at the wineshop round the corner,
bringing, say, his tools to do some imaginary job. But courage
is also a quality constantly shown. It was a French detective who
shared the cell with the infamous Troppmann, and got him to
confess the crime when off his guard. The murderer would cer-
tainly have tried to destroy his companion on the slightest
suspicion of his real character.

It is satisfactory to know that very amicable relations exist
between London and Paris detectives, and that they are at all
times willing to assist each other. I have heard that the
French greatly admire the completeness of our Metropolitan Police
machinery, its extensive ramifications, the " informations " or budget
of facts and police circumstances issued four times daily from
Scotland Yard, and the facility with which news is circulated and
action started in all even in the most remote parts. Our people
have made many famous captures for the French : Fra^ois, to wit,
and other anarchists ; Arton, the Panama scapegoat, and many
more. Not long ago the French police were deeply anxious to
know the exact whereabouts of a certain individual, and sent
over his photograph and description by a trusted agent for distri-
bution among our police divisions. It so happened a little aided
by good fortune, perhaps that the French agent was enabled to
put his hand on the man he wanted the very first afternoon of
the search. Maxime du Camp tells a story of a visit paid to the

A GLEVER ARREST. 3tJ3

head oi the French police by three Englishmen, two of them
jewellers, the third a London detective, who were in hot pur-
suit of an employee who had " looted " the jewellers' shop.
Directly they had told their story the French official quietly said,
"I know all about it; wait one moment." A message was sent
downstairs to the prison cells below, and the thief in person was
brought up. Then the jewel boxes with their contents were pro-
duced, and one of the jewellers, overcome with joy, fainted away
on the spot. The affair seemed miraculous, and yet it was per-
fectly simple. Information had reached the French police that a
young Englishman, but just arrived in Paris, and staying at one
of the best hotels, had pawned five pieces of valuable jewellery at
the Mont de Piete, the great public pawnshop, and out of
curiosity they paid him a domiciliary visit. He was found in his
room surrounded with portmanteaux crammed full of gems, and
was detained pending inquiry.

JEWELLERY DEVOT, MONT DB Vl&TK.

3V*

CHAPTER XIII.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN DETECTIVES.

English Detectives Early Prejudices against them Lived Down The late Mr. Wil-
liamson Inspector Melville Sir C. Howard Yincent Dr. Anderson Mr.
Macnaughten Mr. McWilliam and the Detectives of the City Police A Country
Detective's Experiences Allan Pinkerton's first Essay in Detection The Private
Inquiry Agent and the Lengths to which he will go.

ALTHOUGH the old Bow Street runner either retired from busi-
ness or set up what we should now call private inquiry offices,
the new organisation did not include any members specially
devoted to the detection of crime. The want of them caused
much inconvenience, and after an existence of fifteen years the
Metropolitan Police was strengthened by the employment of a
few constables in plain .clothes, charged with the particular duty
of, so to speak, secretly safeguarding the public. The plan was
first adopted by Sir James Graham, when Home Secretary, and
only tentatively, for the old distrust and suspicion of secret spies
and underhand police processes lingered. There was something
unpleasant, people said, in the idea of a disguised police : per-
sonal freedom was in danger ; and the system was therefore tried
on a very small scale.* No more than a round dozen were
appointed at first three inspectors and nine sergeants, but very
shortly six constables were added as "auxiliaries," and gradually
the total became 108, though this was only a small proportion of
the total 6,000 which then made up the whole force.

* The opinion expressed by a Parliamentary Committee, in 1833, on this wearing
of plain clothes is worth recording. " With respect to the occasional employment of
police in plain clothes," says the Report, " the system affords no just matter of complaint

while strictly confined to detecting breaches of the law At the same time,

the Committee would strongly urge the most cautious maintenance of these limits, and
solemnly deprecate any approach to the employment of spies, in the usual acceptance of
the term, as a practice most abhorrent to the feelings of the people and most alien to
the spirit of the Constitution."

CHARLES DICKENS AND THE DETECTIVES. 365

The real intention and use of the " plain clothes " police
was that they should be ever on the alert, ever at the heels of
wrong-doers, and ready to follow up clues or track down criminals
unperceived. They quickly overcame the early prejudice against
them, and began by their substantial services to win popular
esteem. Charles Dickens may be said to have discovered the
modern detective. His papers in Household Words Avere a revelation
to the public, and the life portraits he drew of some of the most

SIR JAMES GKAHAM, FOUNDER OF THE DETECTIVE SYSTEM.

notable men employed in this comparatively new branch of criminal
pursuit did much to turn suspicion into admiration.

A few words may fitly find place here concerning some of our
later developments of this most useful arid not always sufficiently
appreciated class. I should be glad to do justice- to the memory
of one who spent a lifetime at Scotland Yard, and was long the
very centre and heart of the detective department the late Mr.
Williamson. Starting as a private constable and ending as chief
constable, he was, from first to last, one of the most loyal, intelli-
gent, and indefatigable of the many valuable public servants who
have deserved well of their fellow-citizens. Yet to the outside
world he was probably little more than a name through all his long

366 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND OEIME.

years of arduous and uncompromising service. Few but the initiated
recognised the redoubtable detective in this quiet, unpretending,
middle-aged man, who walked leisurely along Whitehall, balancing
a hat that was a little large for him loosely on his head, and
often with a sprig of a leaf or flower between his lips. He was
by nature very reticent; no outsider could win from him any
details of the many big things he had "put through." His talk,
for choice, was about gardening, for which he had a perfect pas-
sion ; and his blooms were famous in the neighbourhood where he
spent his unofficial hours. Another favourite diversion with him,
until increasing pressure of work denied him any leisure, was
boating. He was very much at home on the Thames, a powerful
sculler, and very fond of the exercise. He never missed till the
very last a single Oxford and Cambridge boat-race, seeing it for
choice from the police steam-launch the very best way indeed of
going to the race, but a pleasure reserved for the Home Secretary,
the police officials, and a few of their most intimate friends. The
police boat is the last to go down the course, and the first to follow
the competing eights.

One or two especially trying circumstances helped to break
Williamson down rather prematurely. He took very much to
heart, as was natural, the misconduct of his comrade detectives in
the notorious de Goncourt turf frauds. He was at that time
practically the head of his branch, and some of the blame but, of
course, none of the disgrace was visited upon him, as it was argued
that his men had been allowed too free a hand. This may have
been the case ; but he had to deal with men of uncommon astute-
ness, who were the more unscrupulous because he trusted them so
implicitly, with the trust of a loyal nature, true to those above
him, and counting upon fidelity from his subordinates.

Mr. Williamson's active career was also chequered by the
diabolical nature of the crimes which kept him most busily employed.
Fenianism might have been found written on his heart, like Calais
on Queen Mary's, and, closely interwoven with it, anarchism and
nihilism in all their phases. He knew no peace when foreign
potentates were the guests of our royalties: Scotland Yard was,
in fact, held responsible for the safety of Czar and Emperor, and
the police authorities depended chiefly on Williamson, with his
consummate knowledge and long experience of exotic crime. It

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

INSPECTOR MELVILLE.

was Williamson who was first on the scene when infernal machines
had exploded, or might be expected to explode at any moment.
To him the officer who is nowadays our chief mainstay and

defence against these outrages, In-
spector Melville, owes much of his
insight into the peculiar business of
the "special section," as this im-
portant branch of criminal investiga-
tion is called. The latter not long
ago disposed very ingeniously of a
case which might have led to serious
mischief. Fertility of resource with
great promptitude in action are
among Mr. Melville's strongest and
most valuable traits. Well, on one
occasion, during the visit to Eng-
land of a foreign Sovereign, informa-
tion was received that one of his
subjects residing in this country, and

by no means loyal to him, intended to do him an injury the first
time he could get near him in public. It happened that at that
moment the imperial visitor was on the point of joining in a great
procession, which had either actually started, or would start in the
course of an hour or so. The malcontent was employed as cellar-
man to a wine and spirit merchant or publican with large wine
vaults. There was no time to lose, and Melville made the best of
his way to the place, saw the proprietor, and inquired for a certain
brand of champagne he wished to purchase. The master called
his man and sent them down together into the cellars. The
cellarman went first with a light ; at the bottom of the staircase
he unlocked the wine cellar and went in still first.

"What wine is* that over yonder?" asked Melville carelessly,
and the man crossed over to the far end of the vault to look before
he answered. This was all the astute officer wanted. Instantly
seizing the opportunity, he stepped back out of the cellar, closed
the door promptly and locked it. The irreconcilable cellarman
was a prisoner, and was left there perfectly safe from any tempta-
tion to carry out the fell purpose of which he was suspected.
After the procession was over he was set free.

THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT.

369

Most of the prominent detectives of to-day learnt their work
under Williamson Butcher, the chief inspector, who is as fond
of flowers as was his master, and may be known by the fine rose
in his buttonhole ; Littlechild, who earned his first reputation in
unravelling and exposing long-firm and assurance office frauds ;
Neald, the curator of the Black Museum, a sturdy, self-reliant,
solid detective officer, who, among other great cases, worked to a
successful issue the " Orrock " murder, in which the syllable " rock "
scratched upon a chisel led ultimately to detection.

The exposure of the detectives' misdeeds in 1876 brought a
superior official to Scotland Yard, and the first head of the newly
named Criminal Investigation Department was Colonel Howard
Vincent. His appointment was a surprise to many, and his fitness
for the post was not immediately apparent. He was young, com-
paratively speaking, unknown, inexperienced in police matters, with
no previous record but a brief military service, followed by a call
to the Bar. But he was energetic, painstaking, a man of order, with
some power t)f organisation ; above all, a gentleman of high
character and integrity. His reign at Scotland Yard may not have
been marked by any phenomenal feats in detection ; in the pursuit
of criminals he was dependent upon his able subordinates, and it was
his rule to summon the most experienced
of them to advise him in all serious cases.
In the more subtle processes of analysis and
deduction, of working from effect to cause,
from vague, almost impalpable indications
to strong presumption of guilt, Howard
Vincent did not shine ; nor did he always,
perhaps, fully realise the value of reticence
in detective operations; but he did good
work at Scotland Yard by raising the
general tone and systematising the service-

Dr. Anderson, who was chief of the
Investigation Department until 1901,
when he resigned, was an ideal de-
tective officer, with a natural bias for

the work, and endowed with gifts peculiarly useful in it.
He is a man of the quickest apprehension, with the power of
close, rapid reasoning from facts, suggestions, or even impressions.
24

Photo: H. S. Mendelssohn, 1'embridje
Crescent, II'.

SIR HOWARD VINCENT, M.P.

370

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND QRIME.

He could seize on the essential point almost by intuition, and was mar-
vellously ready in finding the real clue or indicating the right trail.

With all this he was
the most discreet, the
most silent and re-
served of public func-
tionaries. Someone
said he was a mystery
even to himself. This,
to him, inestimable
quality of reticence is
not unaided by a
slight, but perhaps
convenient, deafness.
If he is asked an
embarrassing ques-
tion, he quickly puts
up his hand and says
the inquiry has been
addressed to his deaf
ear. But I shrewdly
suspect that he hears
all that he wishes to
hear; little goes on
around him that is

not noted and understood ; without seeming to pay much attention,
he is always listening and drawing his own conclusions.

The chief of the Investigation Department has, of course, to
be in close touch with all his subordinates; from his desk he
can communicate with every branch of his department. The
speaking tubes hang just behind his chair. A little farther off is the
office telephone, which brings him into converse with Sir Edward
Bradford, the Chief Commissioner, or with colleagues and subordinates
in more distant parts of the " house." He is, and must be, an inde-
fatigable worker, since the labours of his department are unceasing,
and often of the most anxious, even disappointing, character.

Dr. Anderson's successor is Colonel Henry, for many years
Inspector-General of Police in Bengal, and more recently employed
on special police duty at Johannesburg. He has been chosen for

Photo: H. S. Mendelssohn, I'tmbrulge Crescent, W.

DK. ANDEltSON.

THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT.

371

the post not alone because of his long police experience, but also
because he is an expert in matter's of identification, especially in
regard to the " finger-prints " system and the Bertillon system of
anthropometry. Mr. Macnaughten, the Chief Constable, or second
in command of the Investigation Department, is essentially a
man of action. A man of presence is Mr. Macnaughten tall,
well-built, with a military air, although his antecedents are rather
those of the public school, of Indian planter life, than of the army.
His room, like his chiefs, is hung with speaking tubes, his table
is deep with reports and papers, but the walls are bright with
photographs of offici-
als, personal friends,
and of notorious
criminals which Mr.
Macnaughten keeps by
him as a matter of
business. Some other
and more gruesome pic-
tures are always under
lock and key; photo-
graphs, for instance, of
the victims of Jack the
Ripper, and of other
brutal murders, taken
immediately after dis-
covery, and reproduc-
ing with dreadful
fidelity the remains of
bodies that have been
mutilated almost out
of human semblance.
It is Mr. Macnaugh ten's
duty, no less than his
earnest desire, to be
first on the scene of
any such sinister catas-
trophe. He is therefore more intimately acquainted, perhaps, with
the details of the most recent celebrated crimes than anyone else
at New Scotland Yard.

Photo : Byrne Co., Richmond.

SIR EDWARD BRADFORD.

372

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

Photu : Maull d) Fox, Piccadilly, 11'.

MR. MELVILLE T. MACXAUGHTEX.

Nor can the detective officers of the City Police be passed by
without an acknowledgment of their skill and their devotion to the
public service, especially Mr. Me William, Avho has long been chief

of the department. He has re-
peatedly shown himself a keen, clear-
headed, highly intelligent official, and
he has gained especial fame in the
unravelling of forgeries and com-
mercial frauds. The sixth of the
so-called Whitechapel murders, that
of Mitre Square, was perpetrated
within the City limits, and brought
the additional energies and acumen
of the City detectives to the solution
of a perplexing mystery.

Under such chiefs as these the
rank and file of our detectives labour,
assiduously utilising the qualities
which really serve them best -

patience and persistence, following the hints and suggestions given
them by their leaders. The best detective is he who has that
infinite capacity for taking pains which has been denned as the
true test of genius. It is not by guesses
or sensational snapshots that crimes are
unearthed, but by the slow process of
routine, almost commonplace inquiry,
after the most minute and painstaking
investigation of the traces often of the
most minute character left upon the
theatre of the deed.

People whom business or chance has
brought much into contact with detec-
tives must have been struck with their
ubiquity. All who have a good memory
for faces or the vision to penetrate dis-
guises will have had many opportunities

of recognising them in strange places and at unexpected times.
The police officer is to be met with in railwa}* trains, on board
steamboats, in hotels, at all places of public resort. He may

MR. MCWILLIAM.

NEW SCOTLAND YAKD.

1. Commissioner's Room. 2. View from the River (Photo: York Son, dotting Hill, W.).
3. Principal Entrance. 4. The Western Fagade.

374 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

be seen in " the rooms " at Monte Carlo, retained by " the ad-
ministration " of the casino to keep his eye on the company, or
engaged on business of his own, " shadowing " some criminal
or suspect. I have given my coat and hat to a detective at a
great London reception in an historic house, where many of
the guests were titled or celebrated people, but into which others,
unbidden and extremely undesirable, had been known to insinuate
themselves in the prosecution of their nefarious trade. I have
met detectives at a wedding breakfast, at a big dinner, at balls
during the season, and I can safely assert that these " professionals,"
in manners or in costume, were certainly not the least gentlemanlike
of the guests assembled.

There is no better company than a good detective, if he can
only be persuaded to talk no easy matter, for reticence is a first
rule of conduct in the profession, and he is seldom communicative
except on perfectly safe ground. It was my good fortune once to
be thrown with a well-known member of one of those pro-
vincial forces which include many first-rate detective practitioners.
It was some years back, and I am committing no breach of
confidence in recounting some of his experiences.

" Never let go, sir : that's the only rule. I like to keep touch of
'em when once I've got 'em," he began, and he spoke pensively, as
though his mind were busy with the past, and he rubbed his hand
thoughtfully over his chin.

A man dressed quietly but well ; his brown greatcoat not cut in
the very last fashion, perhaps, but of glossy cloth and in good style ;
a pearl pin in his black silk scarf; and his boots, although thick-
soled and substantial, neatly made. His face was hard, shrewd,
but not unkindly, and there was a merry twinkle in his penetrating
grey eyes, which seemed to see through you in a single glance.
Although very quiet and unobtrusive in manner, he was evidently
a man of much determination of character; it was to be seen in
his slow, distinct way of speaking, and in the firm lines of a
mouth which the clean-shaven upper lip fully showed.

"But I've had luck, I won't deny that. There was that case of
them sharpers down in the eastern counties. It wasn't till all others
had failed that they put me on to the job. I didn't know the chap
wanted, not even by sight ; and yet I was certain that he knew me.
He'd been doing the confidence trick Avith a young man of this town,

A PROVINCIAL DETECTIVE'S YARN. 375

and had robbed him of over a hundred pounds. He made tracks out
of the place no one knew where. He Avas a betting man, and I
hunted lor him high and low, at all the racecourses of the country,
but couldn't come upon him. We were in London, last of all, and
it was rather a joke against me at Scotland Yard, where I had been,
as usual, for help. They'd ask me if I knew my man, and I was
obliged to say ' No.' And if I thought I knew where to find him,
and I had to say ' No ' to that too ; and they always laughed at me
whenever I turned up. I was just about to travel homewards, when
I thought I'd try one more chance. There happened to be a sporting
paper on the coffee-roorn table, and I took it up. I saw two race
meetings were on for that day Shrewsbury and Wye. I'd go for
one, but which ? I shied up a shilling, and it came down Wye.
So to the Wye Races I went, with the young man Avho had
been duped.

" The course was very crowded as we drove on. A couple
with a great lottery machine caught my eye ; one was taking
the money, the other turning the handle, which ground out
mostly blanks. 'Sergeant,' whispers the young fellow to me all at
once, ' that's him ! ' pointing to the man who was taking the money.
But how was I to take him ? I got down, and sent the trap
to the other side of the tents, then stepped up to my man and
asked him plump for change for a five-pound note. He knew me
directly, and showed fight. I collared him, and moved him on
towards the trap, when the roughs raised a cry of ' Rouse, rouse ! '
rescue, that is, you know and mobbed me. I held on never let
go, sir, as I said before, that's the motto ; but they broke two fingers
of my right hand in the shindy, and it was all I could do to force
the fellow into the trap, but I did it with my left, while I kept off the
crowd with the other arm. But I nearly lost him again on the way,
all through being a soft-hearted fool. His wife came after us, and
at the station begged hard to be allowed to go down with
us. I agreed; what's more, I took the cuffs off him, and let
them talk together in the corner of the carriage. They nearly
sold me. It was in the - - tunnel, dark as pitch, and the
train making a fine rattle, when the wife put down the
window all of a sudden, and he bolted through. I caught him
by the leg, in spite of my game fingers, but only just in time;
and after that I handcuffed him to myself his wrist to mine.

'THE ROUGHS RAISED A CRY OF 'ROUSE! ROUSE!'" (p. 375).

TOWN COUNCILLOR AND BURGLAR. 377

'Now/ says I, ' where you go, I go.' And that's the rule I've
always followed since.

" The London police have no very high opinion of country talent,
but we beat them sometimes, all the same not that I want to say
a word against the Metropolitans. They've such opportunities, and
so much knowledge. Now there was Jim Highflyer ; he'd never have
been ' copped ' but for a couple of London detectives. He was a
first-class workman was Highflyer, and he once spent a long time
in this town not in his own name. While he was here there were
no end of big burglaries, and we never could get at the rights of
them. One of the worst of the lot was a plate robbery from a
jeweller's in Queen Street. A man with a sack had been tracked
by one of the constables a long way that night into the yard of a
house, and there he was lost. The house belonged to one of the

town councillors, Mr. T by name, a most respectable man, very

free with his money, and popular. We searched the yard next

morning, and found a lot of the plate in a dust-heap. Mr. T

gave us every assistance. It was quite plain how it had come

there. There was no suspicion against Mr. T , of course;

and do what we could, we couldn't pick up the man we wanted.
By-and-by the town councillor went away for a long spell ; the
house was shut up not let, as he was coming back, he said,
and did once or twice. After he left the burglaries stopped, and
I'd have thought very little more about it all if it hadn't been that
I heard a man, who had been arrested for an assault, and was in

shire Gaol, had been recognised by two London detectives as a

notorious burglar, Jim Highflyer. He'd got a knife upon him, and
the name of the maker was a cutler in this town ; also a silver
pencil-case, with the name of the jeweller in Queen Street. I went
over to the gaol, and identified the man at once. It was the

town councillor himself, Mr. T . We searched his house here

after that, and found it crammed full of stolen goods. You see,
there it was the Metropolitans did the job. Highflyer would have
got off with a few weeks for the assault, but they knew him and all
about him. He was ' wanted ' just then for several other affairs.
He got ten years, did Master Jim.

" But the neatest and about the longest job I ever was concerned
in was young Mr. Burbidge's case, and that I did in London with-
out any help from the London police. He was in the theatrical

378 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

profession ; a smart young chap, greatly trusted by his manager, who
employed him as a confidential secretary, and allowed him to keep
the accounts and ah 1 the cash. No one checked one or counted
t'other. One fine morning he went off with a big sum. He'd
been to the bank and drawn a cheque to pay the weekly wages ;
but he bolted instead, leaving the treasury empty and the whole
company whistling for their ' screws.' The manager was half mad,
and he came at once to the police. The chief sent for me. ' It's
a bad business, thoroughly bad, and we must get him,' he said.
'Spare no pains spend what money you like, only catch him, if
3*ou can.' In jobs of this sort, sir, time goes a long way. Burbidge
had got a good start, several hours or more ; it was no use my
rushing oif after him in a hurry, particularly as I did not know
which way to rush. So I set myself to think a little before I
commenced work. The 'swag' stolen was large. The thief would
probably try to make tracks out of the country as soim as he
could ; but which way ? To Liverpool, perhaps, and by one of the
ocean steamers to the States ; or to Hull, and so to Sweden and
Norway ; or London, and so to France and Spain. I sent one of
my men to the railway station to make inquiries, and another to
wire to the police at the ports and to Scotland Yard to watch the
Continental trains.

" The job I kept for myself was to find out what I could about
young Burbidge's ways. It's the only way to get a line on a
man who's made off in a hurry and left no clue. So I called at
his rooms. He lived in comfortable apartments over a tobacconist's,
and was a good customer to his landlord, to judge by the number
of pipes I saw over the mantelpiece, all of which were as well
coloured as a black-and-tan. The rooms were just as he left
them he might really have been coming back in half-an-hour,
only he didn't quite intend to, not if he knew it. The chest
of drawers was full of clothes ; there were boots already polished ;
brush and comb on the dressing-table. In the sitting-room the
slippers were on the hearth, books, acting-plays lying on the sofa
and about the floor, a writing-desk, but not a single scrap of
paper not a letter, or an envelope, or even an unreceipted bill
He'd made up his mind to bolt, and he'd removed everything
which might give us the smallest notion of which way he'd gone.

" It was just the same at the theatre. He'd had a sort of

A CLUE FOUND AT LAST. 379

dressing-room there, which he'd used as an office, with a desk in
it, and pigeon-holes and a nest of drawers. It was all leit ship-
shape enough. Files of play-bills, of accounts receipted and not,
ledgers, and all that ; but not a paper of the kind I looked for.
I made a pretty close search, too. I took every piece of furniture
bit by bit, and turned over every scrap of stuff with writing on
it or without. I forced every lock, and ransacked every hiding-
place, but I got nothing anywhere for my pains. The manager
was with me all the time, and he didn't half like it, I can tell
you. No more did I, although I wouldn't for worlds show that I
was vexed. I tried to keep him up, saying it'd come all right
that patience in these things never failed in the long run ; and I
got him to talk about the young chap, to see if I could come
upon his habits that way. 'Who were his friends, now?' Tasked.
' He'd none in particular not in the company, at least, or out of
it.' ' Ah ! who might this be ? ' I said quietly, as I drew out of tho
blotting-paper a photograph of a young lady : a fair-haired little
bit of a thing, with a pretty, rather modest, face, which I felt I
should know again.

" The carte de visile had the photographer's name on it, and
his address, that of a good street. This was my line, of course. I
made up my mind to follow on to London at once. Then one
of my. men came in to say that Burbidge had been seen taking a
ticket to London? No; only to Shrivelsby a long way short of
it. It was some game, 1 felt certain. He might have gone to
London, and paid excess fare; but I wired to Shrivelsby, and also
to town. No one like him had been seen at Shrivelsby; he hadn't
got out there, that was clear. Only one person did, and it wasn't
Burbidge ; at least, the person did not answer to his description. It
was only a man in a working-suit a mechanic on the look-out for
work. Nor had he been seen at Euston ; but that was a big place,
and he might easily have been missed. So I started for London
at once, taking the photograph and another of Burbidge, whom
I had never seen in my life. It is not difficult to hunt out who
owns to a carte de visile, particularly when the portrait's that of a
theatrical. I got upon the track of the lady fast enough, directly
I went into the photographer's place. There was a likeness of
her in his album, in the very same dress, and her name to it,
Miss Jessie Junniper. I soon found out more too. Before night

380 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

I knew that she was playing at the Royal Roscius, and that she
lived in a street of little villas down Hammersmith way. I took
lodgings myself in the house just opposite, and set up a close
watch. In the morning, early, Miss Jessie came out, and I followed
her to the Underground Railway. She took a ticket for the Temple
Station. So did I, and I tracked her down to the theatre. Re-
hearsal, of course. Three hours passed before she came out again.
Then a man met her at the stage door, a very old gentleman,
who leant on a stick, and seemed very humpty-backed and bent.
They went down the Strand together to Allen's, the great trunk-
maker, and through the windows I saw them buy a couple of
those big trunks, baskets covered with black leather, such as ladies
take on their travels. ' 'Urn,' thought I, ' she's on the flit.'

" I was only just in time. Then they went down to Charing
Cross Station, and so back to Hammersmith. The old gentleman
went into the house with Miss Junniper, and stayed an hour or
two, and then took his leave. Next day Miss Junniper did not
go out. The boxes arrived, and towards midday an oldish lady
a middle-aged, poorly-dressed, shabby-genteel lady called and
stayed several hours. But no Burbidge, and nobody at all like
him. I began to feel disappointed. The third day Miss Junniper
went out again to rehearsal; the old gentleman met her as before,
and the two drove in a cab to the City. I followed them
to Leadenhall-street, where they went into the offices of the
White Star Line. I did not go upstairs with them, and somehow
I lost them when they came out. I ought to have guessed then
what I did not think of till late that night. Of course, the old
gentleman was Burbidge himself. He was an actor, and a nipper,
therefore, at disguises. He'd been play-acting all along. He was
the mechanic at Shrivelsby, the shabby-genteel old lady, and the
old man most of all. I won't tell you how I cursed myself for not
thinking of this sooner. It was almost too late when I did. My
gent, had left the villa (to which they had returned), and he did
not come back next day, nor yet the day after ; and I was nearly
wild with the chance I'd lost. He'd got ' the office,' that's what I
thought, and I was up a tree. But the third day came a
telegram for the young lady. I saw the boy deliver it and go off,
as though there was no answer. Then she came out, and I followed
her to the telegraph-office. I saw her write her message and send

BETRAYED BY A PENCIL.

381

it off. I'd have given pounds to read it, but I couldn't manage it ;
the clerk it's their duty wouldn't let me. I was countered again,
and I was almost beat, and thinking of writing home to say so,
when I saw Miss Junniper's message in the compartment where
she had been writing. She'd done it with a hard pencil, which

" A MAX MF.T HER. AT THE STAGE DOOH, A VEKY OLD GENTLEMAN " (p. 380).

showed through. There was the address as plain as ninepence no
mystery or circumlocution ' Burbidge, King's Head Hotel, Kingston.'
I was there the same evening, just before his dinner. I asked if
Mr. Burbidge was there. Sure enough. He wasn't a bit afraid of
being took, I suppose, so far off the line of pursuit, so he'd stuck
to his own name, and was not even disguised. He gave in without
a word. The tickets were on him, and in his bag upstairs a lot

382 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

of the cash he'd stolen ; likewise a wardrobe of clothes the old
gentleman's suit, and all the rest."

Our American cousins are, as I have said, well served by their
official detectives, but private agents do much of the business of
pursuit and detection, and of these semi-official aids to justice one
firm has gained a world-wide celebrity. Some account of the chief
and first of the Pinkertons may be introduced here.

Allan Pinkerton began life as a cooper, and was doing a thriving
business a,t Dundee, some thirty-eight miles north-west of Chicago,
about 1847. The times were primitive ; barter took the place of cash
payments in the absence of a currency. To remedy this incon-
venience, a bank was started in Milwaukee, which throve and had
many branches, doing such a good business that its notes passed
everywhere, and were extensively counterfeited. A gang of the
forgers had been discovered by Allan Pinkerton on a small island
in the Fox River near Dundee. Wanting poles and staves for his
trade, he had gone to cut them in the woods, when he came upon
the embers of camp-fires, and signs that the island was secretly
frequented by tramps and others. Pinkerton informed the sheriff,
and active steps were taken by which a large confederacy of horse
thieves, " cover-men," and counterfeiters was broken up.

The trade still flourished, however, and some of the reputable
citizens of Dundee begged Allan Pinkerton to do further service to
his town in trying to check it. A suspicious stranger had just
come to Dundee, asking for "old man Crane"; this Crane was
known as a " hard character," the associate of thieves and evil-
doers, and an agent, it was thought, for the distribution of bogus
notes. The villagers generally gave him a wide berth, and when
the counterfeit money reappeared in the shape of many forged ten-
dollar bills, this " old man Crane " was credited with being the centre
of the traffic. Any friend or acquaintance of his came equally under
suspicion, and Allan Pinkerton was set to discover what he could
about this new arrival. He proved to be a hale, strong man,
advanced in years, who rode a splendid horse. Pinkerton found him
waiting at the saddler's, where some repairs were being made to
his saddle, and easily got into conversation with him. The stranger
wanted to know where " old man Crane " lived, and when informed,
casually mentioned that he often had some business with him.
Pinkerton seemed to understand, and the other suddenly asked, "Do

ALLAN PINKERTON'S TEMPTATION. 38.'}

you ever deal, any ? " " Yes, when I can get a first-rate article,"
promptly replied Pinkerton. Whereupon the stranger said he had
some that were " bang up," and pulled out a bundle of notes, which
he handed over for Pinkerton's inspection, believing him to be a
" square man."

The stranger proved to be one John Craig, who had long been
engaged with a nephew, Smith, at Elgin, in the fabrication of false
notes. Pinkerton said afterwards that he had never seen anything
more perfect than these spurious notes ; they were exact imitations,
almost without a flaw. They were indeed so good that they even
passed muster at the bank on which they were counterfeited, and
were received over the counter, and had been paid in and out more
than once without discovery. Craig, who appears to have been a
singularly confiding person, went on to tell Pinkerton, of whom he
knew nothing, that "old man Crane" had once acted extensively
for him, but was now slackening off, and that a new and more enter-
prising agent was much required. Then he offered Pinkerton the
job to work the entire " western field," and said he could supply him
with from 500 to 1,000 forged bills, for which he need only Day
25 per cent, of their face value.

Pinkerton agreed to these terms; he was to raise the necessary
cash and meet Craig by appointment in Elgin, the place of rendezvous
being the basement of the Baptist chapel Craig said that he never
carried any large quantity of the notes about with him; it was
too dangerous. His regular place of residence, too, was near the
Canadian frontier at Fairfield, Vermont, whence he could quickly
make tracks if threatened with capture. He kept two engravers of
his own constantly employed in counterfeiting and printing; he
showed Pinkerton other samples, and seemingly gave himself quite
away. After this, they parted in Dundee, but the " trade " w;is
soon afterwards completed in Elgin town. Pinkerton proceeded
on foot, taking with him the necessary cast provided by his
friends in Dundee. He met his new confederates at the Baptist
chapel and received the forged bills in exchange for the good money.

Allan Pinkerton, in telling this story, frankly admits that he was
sorely tempted to take up the nefarious traffic. He had in his
hand a thousand ten-dollar notes, representing a couple of thousand
pounds spurious money, no doubt, but so admirably counterfeited
that they were almost as good as gold. He would have no

384

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CHIME.

difficulty in passing them, and with this capital he might lay the
foundation of his fortune. Pinkerton put aside the evil thought,
but he never forgot how nearly he had yielded, and always
sympathised with those who had been seduced into crime.

Pinkerton now lent all his energies to securing the arrest of Craig.

CRAIG UNDERGOING SEARCH (p. 385).

Appointing to meet him again, he offered to buy him out and take
over his whole business. If Craig would only give him time to
raise the necessary funds, he would carry on the concern on large
lines. Craig had no objection, and promised to furnish Pinkerton
with a full stock-in-trade. Another appointment was made for a
few days later in a Chicago hotel, and now Pinkerton arranged for
Craig's capture. A warrant and the services of a couple of officers
were obtained. Craig came, and the pair entered into business at
once. Craig was ready with four thousand bills and would deliver

A DETECTIVE'S ROMANCE. 385

them within an hour ; but Pinkerton objected, and would not hand
over the cash without seeing the bills. Craig resented this, and,
becoming distrustful, broke up the conference, but on going out he
told Pinkerton he would think the matter over and see him by-and-by.

Craig did in fact return, but when Pinkerton asked him if he
meant to complete the bargain, he denied all knowledge of it, and,
indeed, of Pinkerton. Nothing was to be gained by delay, and the
officers at once arrested Craig, who was taken to a room hi the
hotel and searched. But not a dollar in counterfeit money was
found upon him, and when taken before the magistrate he was
released on bail. He appears to have used his money freely iru
obtaining bail, and soon bolted, gladly forfeiting his recognisances,
rather than " face the music." His disappearance cleared the-
neighbourhood of counterfeiters for some years.

It can hardly be said that Allan Pinkerton showed any marvellous.-
acumen in this detection. But it was a first attempt, and it was
soon followed by more startling adventures.

A special product of modern times is the private inquiry agent,
so much employed nowadays, whose ingenuity, patient pertinacity,
and determination to succeed have been usefully engaged in unravel-
ling intricate problems, verging upon, if not actually included within,
the realm of crime. I knew one who was employed by a famous
firm of solicitors in a very delicate operation, which he terminated
successfully, but in a way to show that he did not stick at
trifles in securing his end. It was the sequel to a divorce case.
The decree nisi had been granted, and against the wife, who had
been refused the custody of the one child born of the marriage.
The husband was anxious to secure possession of the child, but the
wife, like so many more of her sex, was much too sharp to be
forestalled. She had a friend waiting at the court who, directly the
decree was pronounced, started off in a hansom to the lady's-
residence, where the child was, laid hands on it, and brought it
down to Victoria Station just in time for the night mail to the-
Continent, by which lady and child travelled together to the south
of France. A detective was at once despatched in pursuit by the
husband's lawyer, and his orders were at all costs to recover
possession of the child. He soon got upon the lady's track. She
had not gone further than Monte Carlo. The detective found it
impossible to kidnap the child, so he managed to make friends
25

386 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRT ME.

with the mother, gradually grew very intimate, paid her devoted
attention, and eventually married her. When he was her husband
he had no difficulty in completing his commission, and possibly
with the lady's full consent he soon sent the child home. I never
heard how his marriage all in the way of business ! turned out.

Another story is, perhaps, more dramatic. A married man of
considerable property, strictly entailed, died childless in India. The
estates went to the next-of-kin, but he, just as he was entering
into their enjoyment, was startled by a telegram from his relative's
widow, preparing him for the birth of a posthumous child. He at
once consulted his lawyer, who, after warning him that much time
and money would probably be spent in the process, promised to
expose the fraud, if fraud there was, or, at any rate, prove that it
was a bond-fide affair.

A year passed, and yet the next-of-kin had heard nothing of
the case. At last he went to his lawyers and insisted upon
knowing how it stood. He was told that the matter was now ripe ;
the lady had arrived with her infant son. She was actually at
that moment at a private hotel in the West End.

" Go and call on her, and insist upon seeing the child. If
there's any difficulty about it, go out on the landing and call out
4 Bartlett ! ' A man will come down and explain everything."

The lady did not produce the child when asked ; she said it
was out in the park with the nurse, and tried all sorts of excuses,
so Bartlett was summoned.

" I want to see the child," said the next-of-kin.

" This lady's ? She has no child. I have been with her now for
six months, and she has asked me repeatedly to get her one
anywhere, in Cairo, at the Foundling in Malta, here in London."

" Who are you, then ? " both inquired, astonished beyond
t measure.

And " Bartlett," having completed his mission, quietly informed
the lady, whom he had been watching, and the next-of-kin, who
\vas really his employer, that he was the detective engaged to
unravel the case.

With such men as this on the side of law and justice, long-
continued fraud, however astutely prepared, becomes almost im-
possible. The private inquiry agent is generally equal to any
emergency.

3S7

CAPTAINS OF CRIME.

CHAPTER XIY.
SOME FAMOUS SWINDLERS.

Recurrence of Criminal Types Heredity and Congenital Instinct The Jukes and
Other Families of Criminals John Hatfield Anthelme Collet's Amazing Career
of Fraud The Story of Pierre Cognard : Count Pontis de St. Helene : Recognised
by an Old Convict Comrade : Sent to the Galleys for Life Major Semple : His
many Vicissitudes in Foreign Armies : Thief and Begging-Letter Writer : Trans-
ported to Botany Bay.

THE regular recurrence of certain crimes and the reappearance
of particular types of criminals have been often remarked
by those who deal with judicial records ; the fact is established
by general experience, and is capable of abundant proof. It is to
be explained in part by heredity. The child follows the father,
and on a stronger influence than that of mere imitativeness ; and
these transmitted tendencies to crime can be illustrated by many
well-authenticated cases, where whole families have been criminals
generation after generation. There is the famous, or infamous, family
of the Jukes, a prolific race of criminals, starting from a vagabond
father and five of his disreputable daughters. The Jukes descendants
in less than a hundred years numbered twelve hundred individuals,
all of them more or less evincing the criminal taint. These facts
have been brought out by the patient investigation of Mr. Dugdale,
an American scientist. An old case is recorded of a Yorkshire
family, the Dunhills, the head of which, Snowdon Dunhill, spread
terror through the East Riding as the chief of a band of burglars.
This Snowdon Dunhill was convicted in 1813 of robbing a granary,

388 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

nd sentenced to seven years' transportation. He returned from the
Ajitipodes to earn a second sentence of exile, and his son was at
the same time sentenced to transportation. One of his sisters,
Rose Dunhill, was twice imprisoned for larceny; another, Sarah,
had been repeatedly convicted of picking pockets, and was finally
sent across the water for soven years. It may be incidentally
stated, as showing the contamination of evil, that nearly all who
came into association with the Dunhills felt the baneful influence
of the family. Dunhill's wife was transported ; so were Rose Dunhill's
two husbands and Sarah's three.

In 1821 a wide district of Northern France known as that of
Santerre, between Peronne and Montdidier, was the scene of numerous
and repeated crimes. There was no mystery about their perpetrators ;
the thieves and their victims lived side by side, yet the latter only
spoke of them with bated breath, and shrank from denouncing
them to the police. At last the authorities interposed and arrested
the malefactors, who were tried and disposed of in due course of law.
It was found that they were all of one family, which had started
originally in one village and ramified gradually into neighbouring
districts. Eleven years later, in 1832, a second generation had come
to manhood, and these true sons of their' fathers perpetrated
exactly the same offences. Yet again, in 1852, a fresh wave of
depredation passed over the district, and again the same families
were responsible for the crimes. The last manifestation was perhaps
the worst of all. Thefts, arson, and murder had been of repeated
occurrence, but no arrests were made until a knife found in the
possession of a villager was identified as one of a lot stolen from a
travelling cheap- Jack. The man who had it was a Hugot. Through
him others were implicated, a Villet and a Lemaire. These three
names, Hugot, Villet, and Lemaire, were full of sinister significance
in the neighbourhood, and recalled a long series of dark deeds,
perpetrated by the ancestors' of these very criminals.

Lombroso has collected a number of cases showing how the
criminal tendency has reappeared in successive generations.
Dumollard, the wholesale murderer of women, was the son of a
murderer; Patetot, another murderer, was the grandson and great-
grandson of a criminal. There was a family named Nathan, of
which, on one particular day, there were fourteen members in the
same gaol These Nathans were a band of thieves entirely made up

CRIMINAL FAMILIES.

389

of relations parents and children, brothers and cousins. It has been
observed that the most notorious Italian brigands regularly inherited
the business from their parents ; we shall see presently how the
Coles and Youngers of the Western States of America were all

A. MEMHF.K OF THE THIEF CASTE AT T1UCHIXOPOLY.

(Drawn from Life ly G. Gold.)

closely related ; many of the most desperate members of the Neapoli-
tan Camorra were brothers. There is a village in the south of
Italy which has been a nest and focus of criminals for centuries.
The natives are mostly related to each other by intermarriage, and
all seem bound by tradition to prey upon their fellows. Again, in
the Madras Presidency, at Trichinopoly, a whole caste of thieves
existed, one and all vowed to various kinds of crime; and the

390 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

practice of crime by certain Indian tribes generation 'after genera-
tion is well known to Indian police officers.

That the criminal virus is widely disseminated is proved by its
unfailing reappearance in all times and places. Crimes of the
same sort have been and are being continually committed, with no
greater difference than is due to surroundings, opportunities, indi-
vidual idiosyncrasies, the changing circumstances that accompany
the varying conditions of life. I propose to show now from a
number of selected cases how thieves, swindlers, depredators, mur-
derers, and all kinds and classes of criminals who make mankind
their prey, have been reproduced again #nd again. Both men and
women have been found acting under the same baleful impulse, show-
ing greater or less ingenuity, but working on the same lines. The
sharper follows out his long career of successful fraud and impos-
ture century after century. Such men as Hatfield, Collet, Coster,
Sheridan, Benson, Shinburn, Allmeyer, are the seemingly inevitable
recurrence of one and the same type. Jenny Diver and the German
Princess have had their later manifestations hi Mrs. Gordon Baillie,
La " Comtesse," Sandor, and Bertha Heyman. Cain has innumerable
descendants ; nothing stops the murderer when the savage instinct
is in the ascendant ; he feels no remorse when the deed is done.
I shall presently give a short account of one or two of those mis-
creants who might otherwise escape classification, and whose very
names are synonymous with great crimes Troppmann, Bichel,
Dumollard, De Tourville, and Peace. But this section may very
well begin with some account of a few famous swindlers.

HATFIELD.

One of the earliest swindlers in modern records was John Hatfield,
a youth of low origin, who was yet so gifted by nature, had such
mother wit and such a persuasive tongue, that he succeeded in
passing himself off as a man of rank and fortune without detec-
tion or punishment for a long series of years. He was born of
poor parents in Cheshire, in 1769, and on reaching manhood
became the commercial traveller of a linen-draper, working the
north of England. On one of his rounds he met with a young
lady, a distant connection of the ducal house of Rutland, who
had a small fortune of her own, and, using his honeyed tongue,

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391

he succeeded in inducing her to marry him. The happy pair
proceeded to London, where they lived on their capital, the
wife's dowry, some 1,500, which was quickly squandered in
extravagance and riotous living. It was impossible to keep this
up, and Hatfield again retired to the country, where he presently

y HATFIELD.

(From a Contemporaiij Engraving).

deserted his wife, leaving her with her children in complete
destitution. He made his way once more to London, and, boasting
much of his relationship with the Manners family, got credit
from confiding tradesmen, until the bubble burst, when he was
sent to a debtors' prison. About this time his wife died in great
penury. Hatfield soon afterwards, by a series of artful mis-
representations, obtained money from the Duke of Kutland, who
secured his release.

392 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

In 1735 the Duke was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,
and Hatfield, hoping to find fresh openings for exercising his
ingenuity, determined to follow him to Dublin. Here he gave
the landlord of a good hotel a plausible excuse for his arriving
without servants, carriages, or horses, and for some time lived
very pleasantly, being treated with much deference as a relative
of the Viceroy. At the end of the month the landlord presented
his bill, and was referred to Hatfield's agent, who, strangely enough,
was " out of town." When the bill was again presented, Hatfield
gave the address of a gentleman living in the castle ; this gentleman,
however, declined to be answerable, whereupon Hatfield was served
with a writ, and conveyed at once to the Marshalsea, in Dublin. He
was there able to win the commiseration of the gaoler and his wife
by the old story of his high connections, and by his deep anxiety that
his Excellency should hear of his temporary embarrassments. By
means of these lies he was lodged in most comfortable quarters,
and was treated with every respect ; and upon his making further
application to the Duke of Rutland, his Grace again weakly agreed
to pay his debts, on the condition that he left Ireland immediately

Hatfield, on his return to England, visited Scarborough and
renewed his fraudulent operations, but he was discovered and thrown
into prison, where he remained for eight and a half years. At
the end of that time he was released through the intervention
of a Miss Nation, a Devonshire lady, who paid his debts for him,
and afterwards gave him her hand in marriage. He now posed as
a reformed character, and lived an honest life for just three years,
during which period he became partner in a firm at Tiverton.
Then he offered himself as parliamentary candidate for Queen-
borough, but his past misdeeds had been too notorious, and the
constituency would not elect him. Balked hi his attempt, he
straightway left his home and family, and once more disappeared.

In 1802 he came to the surface under the assumed name of
Colonel the Hon. Alexander Augustus Hope, brother to Lord
Hopetoun, and member for Linlithgow. Hatfield was staying in the
Lake district, at the Queen's Hotel, Keswick, and near here, at
Buttermere, he met a village beauty, Mary Robinson, whose parents
owned an hotel on the shores of the lake. He was not long in
whining her affections. But the double-faced scoundrel at this
moment was paying attention to another young lady, the rich ward

THE ABSCONDING BRIDEGROOM. 393

of an Irish gentleman, Mr. Murphy, who, with his family, was
resident in the same hotel. This suit prospered. Hatfield's
proposal was accepted, and communications were opened with
Lord Hopetoun. The villain allowed none of the letters to reach

" MAUY OF BUTTEHMEHE."

(Drawn from Life by J. Gillray.)

their destination. The day was even fixed for the marriage. At
the last moment the bridegroom did not appear, but Mr. Murphy
received a letter from him at Buttermere, under his name of
Colonel Hope, asking him to cash a cheque or draft which he
enclosed, drawn on a Liverpool banker. The money was obtained,
and sent to Buttermere, but Colonel Hope continued to be missing,
until the news arrived that he had run off with Mary Robinson.

394 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

It never transpired why he preferred this sweet girl, whose charms
were afterwards sung by Wordsworth, to his other well-dowered
partie. Some do him the credit of saying that he really loved
Mary Robinson ; others that, already fearing detection and exposure,
he thought it wise to disappear.

Exposure was, indeed, close at hand. Mr. Murphy wrote
direct to Lord Hopetoun, and soon heard that the supposed
Colonel Hope was an impostor. The draft on the Liverpool bankers
also proved to be a forgery, and many letters fraudulently franked
by Hatfield as an M.P. were brought up against him. After his
marriage with Mary Robinson he had gone to Scotland, but had
cut short his wedding trip to return to Buttermere, where he was
arrested on several charges. Hatfield dexterously made his escape
from the constable who took him, and was long lost sight of. At
last, after many wanderings, he was captured in the neighbourhood
of Swansea, and sent to the gaol of Brecon. He tried to pass
off as one Tudor Henry, but was easily identified, and on his removal
to Carlisle was tried for his life. Sentence of death was passed
upon him, and he suffered on the 3rd of September, 1803. " Not-
withstanding his various and complicated enormities," says a contem-
porary chronicle, " his untimely end excited considerable commisera-
tion. His manners were extremely polished and insinuating, and
he was possessed of qualities which might have rendered him an
ornament to society."

COLLET.

Anthelme Collet stands out in the long list of swindlers as one of
the most insinuating and accomplished scoundrels that ever took
to criminal ways. A number of curious stories have survived
of his ingenuity, his daring, and his long, almost unbroken, success.
He is a product of the French revolutionary epoch, and found his
account in the general dislocation of society that prevailed in
France and her subject countries hi the commencement of the
last century.

Collet's parents lived in the department of the Aisne, where
he was born in 1785. From his childhood up he was noted as a
consummate liar and cunning thief, and to cure him of his evil
propensities he was sent to an uncle in Italy, a priest, who kept him
by his side for three years, but made nothing of him. Young Collet

A PROTEAN SCOUNDREL.

395

then returned to France, and entered the military school at
Fontainebleau, from which he graduated as sous-lieutenant, and
passed on to a regiment in garrison at Brescia. Here he soon made
friends with the monks of a neighbouring Capuchin monastery,
and, preferring their society to tnat of his comrades, became the
subject of constant gibes. Exasperated by this, and chafing at
the restraints of military discipline, he resolved to desert. A
wound received in a duel
strengthened him in this de-
termination. He was sent for
cure to a hospital, that of San
Giacomo, in Naples, and there
met a Dominican monk, chap-
lain of the order, who persuaded
him to take the cowl. Collet
also earned the gratitude of a
sick mate, a major in the
French army, whom he seems
to have nursed, but who was so
seriously wounded that he did
not recover. At his death the
Major left Collet all his posses-
sions 3,000 francs in money, a
gold watch, and two very valu-
able rings.

Collet, in due course, entered

as a novice with the brothers of St. Pierre, and was soon so high
in the good graces of his companions that the Prior appointed
him queteur, the brother selected to seek alms and subscriptions for
his convent. The young man's greed could not resist the handling
of money ; he quickly succumbed to temptation, misappropriated the
funds he collected, and returned to the convent from his first mission
several thousand francs short in his accounts. Fearing detection, he
made up his mind to disappear. One day, talking with his friend the
syndic of the town, he succeeded in securing a number of passports
signed in blank. Then he went to the Prior, and informed him
that he had come into a large fortune, but had hesitated to claim it
as he was a deserter from his regiment. If the Prior would protect
him he would now do so, and on this he was permitted to go to

(From a Contemporary Engraving.)

396 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

Naples, armed with introductions to a bank, and other credentials
from the convent.

At Naples, Collet's first act was to obtain 22,000 francs from
the bankers by false pretences, and, being in funds, he threw off
his monkish garb, assumed that of a high-born gentleman, and,
filling up one of his passports in the name of the Marquis de
Dada, started via Capua for Rome. En route he again changed
his identity, having become possessed of the papers of one Tolosan,
a sea captain, and native of Lyons, who had been wrecked on the
Italian coast. Some say that Collet had picked up Tolosan's pocket-
book, others that he had stolen it. In any case, he called himself
by that name on arrival at Rome, and as a Lyonnais sought the
protection of a venerable French priest also from Lyons, who was
acquainted with the Tolosan family, and through whom he was
presented to Cardinal Archbihop Fesch, the uncle of the Emperor
Napoleon.

He now became an inmate of the Cardinal's palace, and was
introduced by his patron everywhere, even to the Pope. Under
such good auspices he soon began to prey upon his new friends,
before whom he put the many schemes that filled his inventive
mind, and from most of whom he extracted considerable sums.
He persuaded a rich merchant clothier to endorse a bill for 60,000
francs ; he borrowed another sum of 30,000 francs from the Cardinal
Archbishop's bankers; he bought jewellery on credit to the value
of 60,000 francs from one tradesman and defrauded many others;
even the Cardinal's personal servants were laid under contribution.
A more daring theft was a number of blank appointments to the
priesthood which he abstracted from the Cardinal's bureau, and
with them a bull to create a bishop in partibus. Then he
decamped from Rome.

His thefts and frauds were soon discovered, and the papal police
put upon his track. He had left Rome on an ecclesiastical
mission, and in company with other priests, one of whom was
informed of his real character and requested to secure him. But
Collet, having some suspicion, forestalled him by making off before
he could be arrested. The place to which he fled was Mondovi,
where he set up as a young man of fashion, and was soon a
centre of the pleasure-loving, with whom he spent his rnone}' freely.
His next idea was to organise amateur theatricals, and he forthwith

PLATING THE ROLE OF BISHOP. 397

constituted himself the wardrobe-keeper of the company. A number
of fine costumes were ordered, among them the robes of a bishop
and other ecclesiastical garments, the uniforms of a French general
officer and of French diplomatists, with all the accessories, ribbons,
medals, decorations, feathers, and gold lace. On the night preceding
the first dress rehearsal he again decamped, carrying off' most of
the " properties " and clothes.

Now he assumed the garb of a Neapolitan priest who was flying
into Switzerland from French oppression. He fabricated the neces-
sary papers and was fully accepted by the Bishop of Sion, who
appointed him to a cure of souls in a parish close by. Here he
discharged all the clerical functions, confessing, marrying, baptizing,
burying the dead, teaching youth, visiting the sick, consoling
the poor and needy. He also started a scheme for restoring
the parish church, and collected 30,000 francs for the good work,
promising to make up from his own purse any balance required.
The building was set on foot, an architect was engaged, and many
purchases were made by the false cure, who was, of course, treasurer
of the fund. Collet finished up by paying a visit to a neighbouring
town, where he bought religious pictures, candelabra, and church
plate, all on credit, and despatched them to his parish. But he pro-
ceeded himself with the building money to Strasburg, driving post.

Using many different disguises, and playing many parts, he
travelled from Strasburg into Germany, and then by a circuitous
route through the Tyrol into Italy, making for Turin, where he
forged a bill of exchange for 10,000 francs, and got the money.
But the fraud was detected, and he had to fly, this time towards
Nice. Now he filled in the bull appointing to a bishopric, and
created himself Bishop of Monardan, by name Dominic Pasqualini.
This gained him a cordial welcome from the Bishop of Nice,
who invited him to his summer palace, where all the clergy were
assembled to be presented to him. His Eminence wished the sham
bishop to examine his deacons, but Collet avoided the danger by
saying there could be no need ; he was sure that his brother of
Nice had not ordained "ignorant asses." Yet the other was not
to be entirely put off, and at his earnest request Collet put on his
episcopal robes, stolen from the amateurs of Mondovi, and ordained
thirty deacons, after which he preached a sermon one of Bour-
daloue's, which he had by heart.

308 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

The r6le of bishop was a little too dangerous, so Collet abandoned
the violet apron and went on to Paris as a private person. On
arrival he came across the friend who had helped him to his first
appointment in the army, and being well provided with funds, he
renewed his acquaintance by giving him a sumptuous dinner.
Through this friend's good offices he was reappointed to the army,
this time to the 47th of the line, in garrison at Brest, and Collet
started for the west to join his regiment. But he does not seem
to have got further than L'Orient. He, however, perpetrated a
number of robberies by the way, and now resolved to break ground
in an entirely new and distant quarter. Bringing his inventiveness
to bear, he fabricated papers appointing himself inspector-general
and general administrator of the army of Catalonia; his new
name and title being Charles Alexander, Count of Borromeo.

He took the road to Frejus, on the Riviera, not the most
direct to Catalonia, and was everywhere received with great honour
on presenting his credentials. Thence, with an imposing escort, he
passed on to Draguignan, and appeared in full uniform, covered
with decorations, before the astonished war commissaries, explaining
that he had the Emperor's express commands to undertake an inquiry
into their accounts. At the same time he appointed a staff, aides-
de-camp, secretaries, and attendants, arid soon had a suite of some
twenty people. Amongst the papers he had forged was one which
empowered him to draw upon the military chest for the equipment
of his army of Catalonia. At Marseilles he had made use of this
to secure 130,000 francs, and at Nismes he laid hands on 300,000
more. Whenever he arrived in a garrison he reviewed the troops,
and conducted himself as a grand personage.

At Montpelier his luck turned. He had begun well ; a crowd
of suppliants fell at his feet, including the prefect, to whom Collet
promised his influence and a strong recommendation for the Grand
Cross of the Legion of Honour. But at this moment the bubble
burst. The prefecture was suddenly surrounded by the gendarmes,
a police officer entered the salle-a- manger and arrested Collet as he
sat at table with the prefect and his staff. No fault could well be
found with those whom Collet had duped, but the swindler him-
self was in fear of being instantly shot. He was, however, kept in
confinement awaiting superior orders.

One day the prefect, still chafing at the trick played upon him,

ARREST OF COLLET (p. 3US).

400 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

told his guests at dinner that he would allow them to see this bold
and unscrupulous person, whose name was on every tongue. He
accordingly sent for Collet, who was brought from the prison to
the prefecture escorted by the gendarmes. While waiting to be
exhibited he was lodged in the serving-room, next the dining-room.
Here he found, to his surprise and delight, a. full suit of white,
the costume of a marmiton, a cook's assistant. He quickly assumed
the disguise, and taking up the nearest dish, walked out between
the sentries on guard, passed into the dining-room, through it, and
out of the prefecture. He was soon missed, and a great hue and
cry was raised through the country, but Collet all the time had
found a hiding-place close by the house.

When the alarm had ceased, he slipped away, and leaving Mont-
pelier, made his way to Toulouse, where he cashed another forged
bill of exchange, now for 5,000 francs. With the funds obtained
he travelled northward, but was followed from Toulouse, for the
forgery was quickly discovered. When arrested they carried him to
Grenoble, and there he was tried for the forgery. His sentence was
to five years' travaux forces, and exposure in the pillory (carcan).
Before long he was recognised at Grenoble by one of those whom
he had nominated to his staff at Frejus, and being tried again he
was now sent to the Bagne of Brest. Collet passed five years in
this prison, and somehow contrived to live more or less comfortably
as a galley slave. He was always in funds, but how he obtained
them, or where he kept them, was a profound mystery to the very
last. With the money thus at his disposal he purchased extra
food, he bought the assistance of his fellows to- relieve him of the
severer toils, and no doubt bribed his keepers. He became so fat
and round-faced, and generally so benignant and smiling, that he
was nicknamed by his comrades of the chain " Monsieur 1'eveque."
Numberless attempts were made to discover the sources of his
wealth; he was supposed to have secreted a store of precious
stones, but, although he was watched and frequently searched, they
were never found. He was free-handed, too, with his money, gave
freely to other convicts, and was much esteemed by them. It is
told of one who committed a murder in the prison that, when
permitted to address his comrades before execution, after acknow-
ledging their general kindness to himself, he added, " I wish especially
to thank Monsieur Collet." He did not live to return to liberty, and

COUNT, COLONEL, ANQ CRIMINAL. 401

died, only a few days before the end of his term, consumed -with
despair at ending his days at the Bagne, but carrying with him the
secret of his wealth. Nine louis d'or only were found, in the collar
of his waistcoat; what had become of the rest no one could tell
He never had money in the hands of the prison paymaster, he was
never found in the possession of more money than he was entitled
to receive as prison earnings, and yet, when he wanted it to gratify
any expensive taste, to buy white shirts, snuff, books, wine, or
toothsome food, the gold flowed from his hand as if by legerdemain.

COGNARD.

Hardly less remarkable than Collet's adventures are those of
Cognard, an ex-convict, who, in the topsy-turvy times of the First
Empire, came to be colonel of a regiment, wearing many decorations
and having a good record of service in the field.

Pierre Cognard, when serving a sentence of fourteen years hi the
Bagne of Brest, made his escape, and passed into Spain, where he
joined an irregular corps under the guerilla leader Nina, and gained
the cross of Alcantara. While in garrison in one of the towns of
Catalonia, he made the acquaintance of a person who had been a
servant to Count Pontis de Ste. Helene, recently deceased. This
servant had, by some means or other, laid hands upon the Count's
titles of nobility, and he now handed them over to Cognard, who
adopted the name and title without question. Despite his ante-
cedents, he appears to have displayed great strictness in dealing with
public money, and on one occasion denounced two French officers
whom he caught in malpractices. They turned on him, and accused
him of complicity. General Wimpfen ordered all to be arrested,
but Cognard resisted, and was only taken by force. He was relegated
to a military prison in the island of Majorca, from which he escaped
with a party of prisoners, who, having seized a Spanish brig
in the harbour, sailed in it to Algiers. There they sold their
prize, and Cognard crossed into Spain, which the French were
occupying. The pretended Cornte was appointed to Soult's staff,
took part hi the later operations in the Pyrenees, and was
in command of a flying column at the battle of Toulouse. After
the abdication of Napoleon, he disappeared from sight, but he was
with the Emperor at Waterloo, where he acquitted himself well
26

40-2

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

At the Restoration Cognard passed himself off as a grandee of
Spain, who had served Napoleon under pressure. Having demanded
an audience of the king, Louis XVIII., he seems to have had no
difficulty in persuading Louis that he was what he pretended ; he
was well received at Court, and treated with distinction. During
the Hundred Days Cognard accompanied the king to Ghent, and

THE PLACE YEXDOME.

made himself conspicuous everywhere as a member of the Court.
On the second Restoration he was nominated lieutenant-colonel of
the 72nd regiment, and formed part of the garrison of Paris. He
Avas now seemingly at the height of prosperity, but his downfall
was near at hand.

There was a review one day in the Place Yenddme, and Cognard
was present at the head of his regiment. In the crowd of bystanders
was a recently liberated convict, named Darius, who had been at

Brest with

Cognard.

The ex-convict was struck by Cognard's

CONFRONTED AND CAUGHT. 403

likeness to an old comrade, and asked the colonel's name. He was
told it was the Count Pontis de Ste. Helene, a distinguished officer,
much appreciated at the Court. Darius was not satisfied, still
holding to the idea that he had seen this face at Brest. So when
the parade broke up he followed the pretended count to his
house, and then asked if he might speak to him. After some
parleying, he was admitted to the presence of Cognard, whom he
at once addressed with the familiarity of an old friend. " Of course
you know me," said Darius. " I am glad to find you so well off.
Do not think I wish to harm you, but you are rich and I am
needy. Pay me properly, and I will leave you alone." Cognard
indignantly repudiated the acquaintance, and sent his visitor to
the right-about. Darius was furious, and would not let the matter
rest there. He went straight to the Ministry of the Interior, who
sent him on to the War Office, where he was received by General
Despinois. " What proof can you give me," asked the War Minister,
" of this extraordinary statement ? " " Only confront us," replied
Darius, " and see what happens." Cognard was forthwith summoned
by an aide-de-camp, and promptly appeared at headquarters.
General Despinois treated him with scant ceremony, charging him
at once as an impostor. " But this can go on no longer," said
the general. " You cannot humbug me or the Government ; we know
that you are Cognard, the escaped convict." Cognard kept his
countenance, and merely asked to be allowed to fetch his credentials
and other papers from home. The general made no difficulty, but
would not suffer Cognard to go alone, and before he started he called
in Darius.

Cognard was unable to control a slight movement of surprise,
which did not escape the quick eye of General Despinois. But
now a fierce war of words ensued between the pretended count
and the other convict, to end which Despinois sent Cognard, accom-
panied by an officer of gendarmes, to fetch his papers. On the way
Cognard inveighed against the lies that were being told against him,
and had no difficulty in gaining the sympathy of his escort. Arrived
at home, Cognard called for wine, and begged the officer to help
himself, while he passed into an adjoining room to change his
clothes. The other agreed readily enough, and Cognard, finding
his brother, who acted as his servant, close by, changed into
Livery, and in a striped waistcoat, with an apron round his waist,

404 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

and a feather brush in his hand, quietly walked down the back
staircase and straight out of the house. The gendarmes who were on
sentry below did not attempt to interfere with this man-servant,
and the escape was not discovered until the officer above grew tired
of waiting. Now he knocked at the door of the next room, and
peremptorily ordered the count to come out. There was, of course,
no Cognard to come out, and the officer returned to the War Office
without his prisoner.

Cognard now reverted to his old ways. He found a
hiding-place with a comrade, and remained there a couple of
days, when he left for Toulouse. The records do not say what
he did in the provinces, but within a fortnight he was back
in Paris, and having joined himself to other thieves, he made a
nearly successful attempt to rob the bank at Poissy. Laying a
sum of two thousand francs in gold upon the counter, he asked
for a bill on Toulouse, and adroitly seized the key of the safe.
Cognard's demeanour did not please the cashier, and the bill was
refused. Then Cognard brusquely repocketed his money, and, still
keeping the key, made off. He was followed by cries of "Stop,
thief!" but he got away with all his comrades but one. This
was the man with whom he lodged, and the police, having obliged
him to lead them to his domicile, forced an entrance into Cognard's
room, where they found a whole armoury of weapons, a number
of disguises, wigs, false whiskers and moustachios. It was generally
believed that these were to be worn in a grand attack about to be
made upon the diligence from Toulouse. Cognard remained at
large for some little time, but a close watch was set upon his
movements, and he was eventually arrested by Vidocq, although
he stoutly defended himself, and wounded one of the police-officers
with his pistol. When brought to trial he was in due course
condemned, and sentenced to travaux forces for life.

MAJOR SEMPLE.

Among our own compatriots Major Semple, alias Lisle, has been
handed down as a champion swindler in his time, and he was
certainly convicted of frauds and thefts often enough to entitle
him to a foremost place in criminal records. But he could not
have been wholly bad, for his offences may be largely traced to ill

A CHAMPION SWINDLER.

405

luck. The man was wanting in perseverance, steadiness, moral
sense ; he succeeded in nothing, stuck to nothing long, and in the
end became a frank vaurien, a low-class adventurer, put to all sorts
of shifts to live. In his early days he had served with the colours,

"HE WAS FOLLOWED BY CRIES OF ' STOP, THIEF!'" (p. 404).

not without distinction; had borne a commission and taken part
in the American War of Independence, in which he was wounded
and made prisoner. When, after his release, he was retired on
a pension, he married a lady of good family with some means.
What afterwards befell him we do not know, but he was a widower,
or separated, when he became associated with Miss Chudleigh,
afterwards famous as the Duchess of Kingston, in her expedition

406 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRLMK.

to St. Petersburg, where she set up a brandy distillery. It was
probably through her good offices that he was introduced to Prince
Potemkin, through whom he w r as appointed captain in a Russian
regiment, with which he made several campaigns. He was on the
high road to rank and honour ; but in 1784 his roving disposition,
and a certain discontent at his prolonged exile, led him to resign
his place and return to England, where he was soon without
resources, and lapsed into crime.

The first offence with which he was charged was the theft of
a postchaise which he hired and appropriated. His defence was
that he had only committed a breach of contract, but, as he had
sold the article, it was called felony, and he was convicted of a
crime. His sentence was seven years' transportation; but at this
time he still had friends, and some influential personages obtained
a commutation of his punishment. After a short stay in the
hulks at Woolwich, awaiting transfer to Botany Bay, he was
pardoned on condition that he left the country forthwith. This
took him again to France, just then in the throes of the Revolu-
tion, and he became actively concerned with Petion, Roland, and
others in the events of that epoch. He was present at the king's
trial, but was soon afterwards denounced to the Committee of
Public Safety as a spy, and with difficulty escaped the guillotine.
Once more this soldier of fortune returned to his old profession,
and joined the allied armies now operating on the frontier against
the French republic. He was engaged in several important actions,
and always distinguished himself in the field.

Yet within a year or two the waters had again closed over him.
He left the Austrian army in a hurry, having been placed under
arrest at Augsburg ; why, exactly, we do not know, presumably for
some shady conduct, the consequences of which he must have
evaded, for he got back to London, and was soon in serious trouble.
He must have fallen into great destitution, or he would not have
been taken into custody for so sorry an offence as obtaining a
shirt and a few yards of calico on false pretences. In the " Reminis-
cences" of Henry Angelo about this date (1795) a side-light
is thrown upon him and the petty devices he practised to get
a meal. He had become a confirmed cadger, and had introduced
himself to Angelo on the pretence of learning to fence. "Seinple
always stuck close to us," writes Angelo, "took care to follow us

TWICE TRANSPORTED. 407

home to our door, and, walking in, stopped till dinner was placed
on the table, when I said, ' Captain ' (no assumed major then),
' will you take your dinner with us ? ' Though he always pretended
to have an engagement, he obligingly put it off, and did us the
honour to stop. In the evening, if we were going to Vauxhall, or
elsewhere, he was sure to make one, and would have made our
house his lodging if I had not told him that all our beds were
engaged except my father's, and that room was always kept locked
in his absence. Our sponging companion continued these intrusions
for about three months, when suddenly he disappeared without paying
for his instruction or anything else. To write of his various swind-
ling cheats, so well known, would be needless."

The calico fraud ended in another sentence of transportation for
seven years, and again interest was made to spare him the penalty,
but this time without avail. He was shipped off, but on the voyage
out escaped convict life for a time. He was concerned with some of
his felon comrades in a mutiny on board the convict ship, and the
authorities, to be well rid of them, sent them, twenty-eight in
number, adrift in the Pacific in an open boat. They reached
South America in safety, and, passing themselves off as a ship-
wrecked crew, were well received by the Spaniards. Semple was
put forward as the leader, and described as a Dutch officer of rank,
thus gaining courteous treatment. He must have been assisted to
return to Europe, for he is nex,t met with at Lisbon, where his
real character and condition came out, and he was arrested at the
request of the British Minister, who had him conveyed to Gibraltar.
He was still seemingly a free agent on the Rock, and misused his
liberty to enter into some mutinous conspiracy afoot in the garrison,
for which he was arrested and sent off to Tangier. Next year
an order was issued to capture and send him home to England,
whence he was passed on a second time to the Antipodes.

Semple survived to return again to England and to his old
ways. For some time he made a precarious living as a begging-
letter writer, and the same diarist, Angelo, preserves two specimens
of Semple's correspondence. One letter, however, is an impudent
attempt to take Angelo to task for daring first to cut him, then
to expose him to the ridicule of others. " This is not the sort of
conduct I expect," said Semple, " from a man bred in the first
societies, and to which, however innocent you think it, I cannot,

408

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AKD CRIME

must not submit. . . . Do not, I request you, again expose
yourself. . . ." The outrage and the protest were both forgotten
when, nine years later, he wrote to Angelo, pleading that the
" sad urgency " of his situation " cannot be described. I am at
this hour without a fire (in February) and without a shirt. . . .
Let me pray you to accord me a little assistance, a few shillings."
Angelo records that he "sent the poor devil a crown in answer to
his letter, which was most probably a tissue of falsehoods designed
to create sympathy."

'THE PRIXCE OF SWINDLERS" (MAJOR SEMPLE).

(From n Cnntfm)V)tv rii Knyrnrinti .

409

CHAPTER XV.

SWINDLERS OF MORE MODERN TYPE.

Richard Coster Sheridan, the American Bank Thief Jack Canter The Frenchman
Allmayer, a typical Nineteenth Century Swindler Paraf The Tammany Frauds
Burton alias Count von Havard Dr. Vivian, a bogus Millionaire Bridegroom Mock
Clergymen : Dr. Berrington ; Dr. Keatinge Harry Benson, a Prince of Swindlers :
The Scotland Yard Detectives suborned : Benson's Adventures after his Release :
Commits Suicide in the Tombs Prison Max Shinburn and his Feats.

IT might be inferred from the previous chapter that mankind has
been easily duped in the past, and that a great superstructure of
fraud has often been raised upon a rather narrow basis. The swindler
to-day certainly works on larger, bolder lines ; he is aided by the
greater complexity of modern life, he has more openings, and his
operations are of a wider, more varied, more interesting description,
as will now be seen.

RICHARD COSTER.

In the long list of remarkable swindlers this man, who was
perhaps the most accomplished, and long the most successful of all.
seldom finds place. He first attracted notice in Bristol as a general
agent and bill discounter on a large scale, but nothing very positive i>>
known as to his antecedents except that at one time he drove a
carrier's cart between Oxford and London. He appears to have
been industrious and saving, so that he secured sufficient funds to
start as a costermonger with a horse and cart of his own. He
presently established himself in London, where he acquired a very
large acquaintance among people who were afterwards of immense
use to him horse copers, thieves, coiners, and swindlers of all sorts.
He was next heard of at Bristol, where, however, his business did
not prosper and his reputation was bad. Within the year he was
committed to prison on a charge of ob taming goods by false

410 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

. pretences. Immediately after his release he again started, under
the name of Coster and Co., but moved back shortly to London.

Here his movements were erratic, and no doubt unavowable-
He changed his quarters continually, as well as his way of life.
At one time he kept an eating-house, at another he was an outside
broker, again he was clerk to a provision merchant. Soon afterwards
he was the principal partner in the firm of Coates and Smith, and
also of Smith and Martin, general merchants, acting apparently as
financial agents. After two or three years he blossomed out on a
still larger scale in two places, as Young and Co., in Little Winchester
Street, and as Casey and Coster, near Upper Thames Street. During
these many changes and chances he did not entirely escape the
attentions of the law. In 1825 he was indicted, with a confederate,
Frederick Wilson, for a conspiracy to defraud. At the following
sessions he was charged with obtaining bills of exchange under
false pretences. Coster escaped conviction by paying on the bills
which he was supposed to have illegally obtained.

During these operations he attracted the notice of the Society
for the Suppression of Swindling, which had its eye constantly upon
him, and published his names and aliases and innumerable addresses.
It would be tedious to catalogue them all : Hatton Garden, Queen's
Arms Yard, Parliament Street, under the name of Davies and Co.,
feather-bed manufacturers ; as Wright and Co., of Little Winchester
Street, engaged hi the glove trade, and so on. The secretary to the
Society for the Protection of Trade reported in a circular that
"Young, Richards and Co., of Upper Thames Street; Young and Co.,
of Little Winchester Street ; Brown and Co., of the same address, are
firms belonging to Richard Coster, so often noticed."

At last, having tried all kinds of business broker, bullion dealer,
coral dealer he came out finally as a moneylender on a large scale
in New Street, Bishopsgate, whence he issued circulars headed
' Accommodation " in large type, and supported by the emblems of
Freemasonry, into which honourable craft he had entered under
a feigned name. The circular was addressed to " merchants, manu-
facturers, farmers, graziers, tradesmen, and persons of respectability,"
at home or abroad, and offered to accept and endorse any bills at
any dates, and for any amounts, or they might draw bills on any
responsible houses in London which should be regularly accepted
from them when presented, provided they enclosed a commission

FIRST LONG FIRM FRAUDS. 411

of eightpence in the pound when sending advice of having drawn
them. If they could not take up the bills when due, they need
only apply afresh (enclosing a fresh commission),, when the biUs
would be renewed, or fresh bills sent which they could discount,
and so pay the first set, and continue the same until their own
property or produce turned to advantage, and such temporary
accommodation was no longer required. "By this mode money to
any amount may be raised, according to the circumstances and
situation of the borrower, at about seven per cent. He must be a
bad merchant," went on this circular, " who cannot always make
from 15 to 20 per cent, of money. Some persons for want of
knowing this system of raising money are obliged to sacrifice their
property by locking it up in mortgages for one half its value,
and spend the other half in paying solicitors' enormous bills and
expenses of mortgage deeds." All expenses were to be borne by
the borrower postage, bill stamps, and the commission of eightpence
in the pound and must be transmitted before the bills could be
accepted. References were also required, but the " strictest secrecy
and delicacy" would be observed in using them. The borrower
might send money or goods at any time to redeem bills, and the
advertiser was ready always to prove his own respectability.

Coster was long able to carry on his trade with great plausibility.
He succeeded mainly by reason of the number and variety of the
firms of which he was the sole proprietor. His was, indeed, one
of the earliest instances of " Long Firm frauds." When a transac-
tion was to be carried through by Young and Co. of Little Winchester
Street, Brown and Co. of Cushion Court answered all inquiries,
declaring Young and Co. to be persons of the highest credit. And
this system he multiplied almost indefinitely. The bills of exchange
were freely accepted, the goods were delivered when ordered without
hesitation. Thus Coster secured a consignment of the entire stock
of a German wine-grower who was selling off; on another occasion
he got a large quantity of Dublin stout into his hands ; on a third
a cargo of valuable timber. In none of these cases did he pay out
one single shilling as purchase money. The innumerable aliases
under which he carried on his transactions, and the care he took
never to appear in person, saved him from all danger of arrest
He was represented by his agents, all of them creatures of his
own, whom he had bound to himself by some strong tie. They

412

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

dared not call their souls their own, and carried out his instructions im-
plicitly, acting now as principal, now as agent, just as he required.
They were mostly decayed tradesmen and persons in straitened circum-
stances, whom he ' sweated " and paid starvation wages salaries of
from ten to twenty shillings per week. One man only he trusted as

HOTAXY KAY IX 182-5.

(From an Aquatint by L. Lyeett.)

his right hand, Smith, whose name so frequently figured in the
firms he invented, and who was eventually involved in his downfall.

Coster's frauds became known to Alderman Sir Peter Laurie,
who set himself to unmask and- convict him. It might have been
more difficult had not the villain added forgery to his lesser
swindles. He began to circulate bogus banknotes, and in February,
1833, sent to Honiton an order for lace, enclosing three ten-pound
notes in payment, all of which were forged. Clark, the lacemaker,
discovered the fraud, and forwarded the notes to the solicitors
of the Bank of England. A plan was laid for the transmission
of fictitious parcels to the address given by Coster, " W. Jackson,

A TYPICAL MODERN CRIMINAL.

at the Four Swans, Bishopsgate Street," and when Smith, the
assistant, applied for them he was arrested. Coster's complicity
was next ascertained, and he was secured. The letter ordering the
lace proved to be in his handwriting, but the strongest evidence
against the prisoner was that of two of his former instruments,
who gladly turned upon him. Coster was transported for life, Smith
for a shorter term.

WALTER SHERIDAN.

One of the most successful of modern criminal adventurers
was the American, Walter Sheridan,
who was said to be the originator of
the great Bank of England forgeries
for which the Bidwells were afterwards
punished. Some say that he was the
moving spirit in the whole business,
but whether he did more than plan
the affair may be doubted, and his
name was never mixed up with it.
An eminent police officer of New York,
Mr. George W. Walling, states in his
Reminiscences that Sheridan became
disgusted with the way in which the
job was worked, and declined to be
further associated with such unsatis-
factory partners. It is possible that,

had he been allowed to carry out " the job " in his own way, it
might have been accomplished without detection, to the more
serious discomfiture of the Bank.

Sheridan is a typical modern criminal, having great natural gifts,
unerring instinct in divining profitable operations, uncommon quick-
ness and astuteness in planning details and executing them. No one
has better utilised to his own advantage the numberless chances
offered by the intricate machinery of modern trade and finance.
He began in the lower lines of fraud. Full of an adventurous
spirit, he ran away from his home, a small farm in Ohio, when
only a boy, resolved to seek fortune by any means in the busy
centres of life. St. Louis was his first point: here he at once
fell into bad company, and became associated with desperadoes,
especially those engaged in the confidence trick. In 1858,

WALTER SHEKIDAX.

414 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

when just twenty, he was caught and tried for horse-stealing, but
just before sentence escaped to Chicago, where he became the
pupil of a certain Joe Moran, a noted hotel thief, with whom he
worked the hotels around very profitably for two or three years.
At last, however, he was arrested and " did time."

On his release, Moran being dead, Sheridan took up a higher
line of business and became a "bank sneak," the clever thief who
robs banks by bounce or stratagem. In this business he was
greatly aided by a fine presence and an insinuating address. He
was the life and soul of the gang he joined, the brains and leader
of his associates, and his successes in this direction were many.
With two confederates he robbed the First National Bank of
Springfield, Illinois, obtaining some 35,000 dollars from the vaults.
Next he secured 50,000 dollars from a fire insurance company ;
again, 37,000 dollars from the Mechanics' Bank of Scranton. A
very few years of this made him a rich man, and by 1867 he
was supposed to be worth some 15,000 or 20,000. He had gone
latterly into partnership with the notorious George Williams, com-
monly called "English George," a well-known depredator and bank
thief. About this time he participated in the plunder of the
Maryland Fire Insurance Company of Baltimore, and fingered a
large part of the 75,000 dollars taken, in money and negotiable
bonds, not one cent of which was ever recovered. One of his
neatest thefts was relieving Judge Blatchford, of New York, of a
wallet containing 75,000 dollars' worth of bonds.

Misfortune overtook him at last, and he failed in his attempt
to rob the First National Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1870. One
of his confederates had laid hands on 32,000 dollars, but was caught
in the act of carrying off the packages of notes, and Sheridan was
arrested as an accomplice. He was very virtuously indignant at
this shameful imputation, and his bail was accordingly accepted
for 7,000 dollars, which he at once sacrificed and fled. But now
the famous Pinkerton detectives were put upon his track. Allan
Pinkerton, who was assisted by his son William, soon ascertained
that Sheridan owned a prosperous hotel at Hudson, Michigan,
in which State he also possessed much landed property. The
Pinkertons took up their quarters at this hotel, which was under
the management of Sheridan's brother-in-law. Chiefly anxious,
while cautiously prosecuting inquiries, to secure a photograph of

GIGANTIC ROBBERIES. 415

the man so much wanted tor nothing of the kind was as yet
in the hands of the police authorities young Pinkerton stuck at
nothing to obtain this valuable clue, and having ascertained where
the family rooms were located in the hotel, he broke in and
captured an excellent likeness of Sheridan, which was speedily
copied and distributed among the various Pinkerton agencies in
the United States and beyond the Atlantic.

Sheridan about this time came in person to his hotel to visit
his relatives. The Pinkertons did not lay hands on him here
among his friends, but they shadowed him closely when he moved
on, and by-and-by captured him at Sandusky, Ohio. He was taken
to Chicago, but made a desperate attempt to escape, which was
foiled, and he was eventually put upon his trial. He retained
the very best legal advice, paid large sums no less than 4,000
hi fees, and was eventually acquitted through the clever use of
legal technicalities.

Sheridan, after this narrow escape from well-merited retribu-
tion, "went East," and organised fresh depredations in new
localities. They were often on the most gigantic scale, thanks
to his wonderful genius for evil. The robbery of the Falls City
Tobacco Bank realised plunder to the value of 60,000 to his
gang, and Sheridan, now at the very pinnacle of his criminal
career, must have himself been worth quite 50,000. In these
days he made a great external show of respectability, and culti-
vated good business and social relations. This aided him in the
still larger schemes of forgery on which he now entered, the
largest ever known in the United States, which comprised the
most gigantic creation of false securities and bonds. It was an
extraordinary undertaking, slowly and elaborately prepared. Taking
the name of Ralston, he passed himself off as a rich Californian.
He began to speculate largely in grain, becoming a member of
the Produce Exchange, and obtaining large advances on cargoes
of grain. At the same time he kept a desk in a broker's office
in Broadway as a basis of operations. His next move was to
gain the confidence of the President of the New York Indemnity
Company, to whom he represented that his mother held a great
number of railway bonds, on which he sought a large loan to
cover the purchase of real estate. Sheridan offered 25,000 worth
of these securities, and readily obtained an advance to a third of

416 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND GRIME.

their value. These bonds were all forgeries, but so faultless in
execution that they deceived the keenest eyes. It was not the
only fraud of the kind, although details of the rest are wanting.
But it is generally believed that the total losses incurred by the
companies and institutions on whom Sheridan forged amounted

THE ARREST OP SHERIDAN.

to nearly a million ot money. Many Wall Street brokers and a
number of private investors were utterly ruined by these wholesale
frauds.

A little before the exposure Sheridan quietly gathered all his
assets together, divided the spoil, and crossed to Europe, carrying
with him 40,000 worth of the forged bonds, some of which he
put upon the European markets. Others of them were stolen

AN ACCOMPLISHED FELON. 417

from him in Switzerland by a girl who said she had burned
them, believing the police were about to search the house for them.
She had, however, given them secretly to her father, who also
realised on them. Sheridan at last took up his residence in
Brussels, where he lived like a prince, having forsworn his own
country, to which he never meant to return.

But he could not keep away from America, and he presently
went back to his fate, which was the entire loss of his ill-gotten
gains. Under the name of Walter A. Stewart, he turned up at
Denver as a florist and market gardener doing a large business.
He presently established a bank of his own and was caught by
the speculative mania; he took to the wildest gambling in mining
stock, and by degrees lost every penny he possessed. After this
it was believed that he intended to organise a fresh series of forgeries
and he was closely watched by the Pinkertons. They arrested him
as he landed from the Pennsylvania ferry-boat, and, brought to
trial on no less than eighty-two indictments, including the New
York forgeries, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in Sing
Sing. After his release he was arrested for stealing a box of
diamonds, and yet again, as John Holcom, for being in possession
of counterfeit United States bills. He received two fresh sentences,
to follow one on the other, and as his health was already failing
when he was last apprehended, it is probable that he did not long
survive. Now, at any rate, the curtain has fallen upon him and
his extraordinary career.

JACK CANTER.

Another born American, who, between 1870 and 1880, achieved
much evil fame and high fortune, varied by long periods of eclipse,
was Canter, a criminal who, like Sheridan, possessed many natural
gifts. Although at forty-five he had spent more than half his life
in gaol, he was still, when at large, a man of distinguished appearance,
with good looks and pleasant manners, an accomplished linguist
and expert penman. More, he held a diploma as a physician, and
had taken high honours in the medical schools, while he sometimes
contributed articles to the press written with judgment and vigour.
While in Sing Sing he was treated more like an honoured guest
than a felon "doing time," and had the pick of the many snug
billets provided in that easy-going prison for its most favoured
27

418

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

inmates. At one time he kept the gaol records, and thus had
access to the particulars of all other inmates, their antecedents,
crimes, sentences, and so forth. He turned this knowledge to good
account, and invented a system of tampering with the discharge
book so as to reduce the term of imprisonment of anyone for a
stipulated sum. By the agency of certain chemicals he erased

SING SIXG PKISON.

entries and substituted others, all iu favour of the prisoner. He
was not subjected to any prison rule save detention for the allotted
term, and this detention must have oppressed him little, for he went
in and out through the prison gates much as he liked, drove a smart
team of horses, and paid frequent visits to New York to see his
friends. It was greatly suspected that some of the prison officials
who winked at his escapades were also implicated in his frauds.

After one of his releases from Sing Sing, in the beginning ot
1873, he created a Central Fire Insurance Company in Philadelphia,
with a capital of 40,000. The stock was long in good repute,
and was held by many respectable business men. Suspicion was,
however, aroused, and the Pinkertons being called in to investigate,

THE STORY OF ALLMATER.

419

they soon ascertained that the assets of the company consisted of
forged railway securities. The fraud had been cunningly devised.
A small quantity of genuine stock had been purchased, and
the figures had been altered to others much larger. A ten-dollar
share was converted into one for three or five hundred dollars,
and the whole assets of the company were practically nil.

SNAP-SHOT OF SING SING PRISONERS GOING TO WORK.

ALLMAYER.

Among swindlers of the 'eighties the Frenchman Allmayer takes
a prominent place, and may be regarded as a type of the nineteenth
century criminal ; one who, although fairly well born, undeniably
well educated, and happy at home, where he was a favourite child,
fell into evil courses early in his teens. He had been placed on
a stool in his father's offices, and one day came across the
cheque-book, which he forthwith appropriated. There was a hue
and cry for it, and it was soon recovered. But one cheque was
missing, which in due course was presented at the bank with the
forged signature of Allmayer's father, and duly paid. By-and-by
the fraud was discovered, and the author of it exposed and

420 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

sharply reprimanded, but that was all Soon afterwards he again
swindled his father. He stole a registered letter containing notes,
and laid the blame on a perfect stranger. Now M. Allmayer pere
ordered his incorrigible son to enlist, and the young man joined
a regiment of dragoons, where he soon made many friends by
squandering money belonging to other people. To pay his debts
he robbed his captain. Although he managed to defer his trial by
a clever escape from the military cells, he was eventually sentenced
to five years' imprisonment in the Cherche Midi Military Prison
of Paris, and passed thence to a discipline battalion in Algeria.

On the expiration of his term he returned to Paris, and gained
his father's forgiveness. Taken into the bosom of the family, for
some time he lived a steady, respectable life, and might have done
well, for he had undoubted talents, and his friends were on the
point of securing him a good situation. The Allmayers lived at
Chatou, and going up and down the line to and from St. Lazare,
he renewed his acquaintance with an old school-friend, Edmond K,
who gave him the run of his offices in Paris. Monsieur K. about
this time missed several letters, which always disappeared from
his table after AUmayer's visits. But he had no solid reason to
suspect his young friend, till one day something serious occurred.
Another Parisian banker, C., was asked through the telephone by
Monsieur K. at what price he would discount a bill for 1,600,
drawn on a London house and endorsed by K. The banker C.
thought he recognised K.'s voice ; at any rate, he was pleased to
do the business, for he had often asked K. to open relations with
him. C. accordingly quoted his price, and was told by K. that the
bill should be sent by a messenger, to whom he could pay over its
value in cash. Twenty minutes later the bill was brought, and the
money handed over. Next day, however, C.'s London correspondent,
to whom the bill had been transmitted for collection, returned it
so that some small irregularity in the endorsement might be
corrected. It was passed on to K., who declared at once that he
knew nothing of the endorsement, but that the bill itself was one
he had lost two months before. As for the cash paid by C., it
had not come into K's hands. Clearly there had been a crime,
but who were the guilty parties ? Two clerks in K.'s office were
suspected, and as these young gentlemen had been imprudent
enough occasionally to imitate their employer's signature, merely

A PLAUSIBLE SCOUNDREL. 421

as a matter of amusement, they were arrested, and the case looked
black against them. Allmayer, however, obtained their release in
the folloAving manner.

From the first discovery of the fraud, Allmayer had taken a
great interest in the affair. Being K.'s intimate friend, he accom-
panied him to the prefecture of police, and was called as a witness
by the juge d' instruction. Taking the judge aside, he privately
told him a story with that air of perfect frankness and plausibility
which he found so useful in his later career. He would confide
to the judge the exact truth, he said. The fact was that Monsieur K.,
being in pressing need of money for his personal use, had himself
abstracted the bill belonging to his firm. Monsieur K. was then called
in, and taxed by the judge with the deed. K., utterly taken
aback, protested, but in vain. Allmayer, who was present, implored
him to confess. The unfortunate man, still quite bewildered, stam-
mered and stuttered, and gave so many indications of guilt that
the judge committed him to Mazas. But as he was not quite
satisfied with Allmayer, who, moreover, had a " history," he sent him
also to prison. Now the Allmayer family intervened, and, strongly
suspecting that their son was really guilty, were glad to compromise
the affair. Both the prisoners were then released, and Allmayer
thought it prudent to cross the frontier. It was well he did so,
for now the true inwardness of the story was revealed. Allmayer
had secured the assistance of an old comrade in the Algerian
discipline corps, whom he had taken with him first to a public
telephone office, where the communication was made with the
banker C. as though coming from K.'s offices. Then Allmayer
sent this old soldier to receive the money on the bill, which he
had appropriated some time previously. He pocketed the pro-
ceeds, and kept the lion's share, for his comrade only got 200
and a suit of new clothes. Next morning he warned him to make
himself scarce, declaring that all was discovered, and that he had
better fly to Algeria. When Allmayer's guilt was fully established,
and he had been arrested and brought back to Paris, a search
was made for the soldier, who was found in Algeria. In his pocket
was a telegram from Allmayer warning him that " Joseph " was
after him, and advising him to go to New York. Joseph, it must
be understood, meant the detective-officer in pursuit.

It seemed unlikely that Allmayer would leave the Mazas prison

422 AfYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

as easily now as on his first visit. But he made one of the most
daring and successful escapes on record, passing through the gates
of that gloomy stronghold quite openly. As he had to be inter-
rogated day after day by the judge in his cabinet, he was taken to
the prefecture, and managed, while seated at the table facing the
judge, to abstract, almost from under that functionary's nose, a
sheet of official paper and an official envelope. This he accomplished
by scattering his own papers, which were very numerous, upon the
table, and mixing the official sheets with his own. He had already
observed that the judge, in transmitting an order of release for
some prisoner in Mazas, had not used a printed form, but had
simply written a letter on a sheet of official paper. This was enough
for Allmayer, who, when once again in the privacy of his cell,
concocted the necessary order to the governor of Mazas, signed
by the judge. This was the first step gained, but such a letter
must be stamped Avith the judge's seal to carry the proper weight.
One morning, as he sat before the judge, he entered into an
animated conversation with him, and suddenly, with a violent
gesture, upset the ink-bottle over the uniform of the Garde de
Paris who stood by his side. Allmayer, full of apology, pointed to
the water-bottle on the mantelpiece, the Guard rushed towards it,
the judge and the clerk following him with their eyes, and at that
moment Allmayer, who had already the seal in his hand, stamped
his letter. This was the second step. The third was to get his
letter conveyed by some official hand to Mazas. For this he devised
a fresh stratagem. On leaving the cabinet with his escort, he paused
outside the door and said he had forgotten something. He re-entered
the cabinet, and came out with his letter in his hand, saying indig-
nantly, " The judge thinks I am one of his servants. Here, you,
Monsieur le Garde, you had better carry this, or see it sent to
Mazas." Allmayer had barely returned to his cell in Mazas before
a warder arrived with the welcome news that the judge had ordered
him to be set free. That same evening he reached Brussels. As
soon as his escape was discovered, the French authorities demanded
his extradition ; but the legal forms had not been strictly observed,
and Allmayer was not surrendered. Belgium, however, refused to
give him hospitality, and he was conducted to the German frontier,
whence he gained the nearest port and embarked for Morocco.

At this time Allmayer was a gentlemanly, good-looking youth,

ALLMATER ESCAPES.

423

with fair complexion and rosy cheeks and a heavy light moustache,
and rather bald ; his manners were so good, he was always so
irreproachably dressed, that he easily passed himself off for a man

ALLMAYEU UPSETTING THE IXK-BOTTLE (p. 422).

of the highest fashion. He assumed many aliases, mostly with
titles the Vicomte de Bonneville, the Comte de Motteville, the
Comte de Maupas, and so on. Sometimes he was satisfied with
plain "Monsieur." and was then generally Meyer or Mayer,
which were his business names. His swindling was on a large
scale. He bought and sold sheep and wool, and it was admitted
by those whom he victimised that he had a natural talent for

424

business. One wool merchant whom he defrauded declared his
surprise at finding this smart young gentleman so fully at home
in the quality and character of the wools of the world. All this
time he moved freely to and fro, returning frequently to France
from Morocco, passing boldly through the capitals of Europe, staying
even in Paris. The police knew he was there, but could not lay
hands upon him. It was at Paris, under the name of Eugene
Meyer, that he carried out one of his largest and most successful
frauds. He was arranging for a supply of arms to the Sultan of
Morocco, when he mentioned casually that a sum of 30,000 was
owing to him by one of the largest bankers in Paris, who held his
acceptance for the sum. The people present were willing enough
to discount this acceptance, but the amount was too large to deal
with as a whole. Meyer solved the difficulty by saying he would
have it broken up into bills for smaller amounts, which, in effect,
he produced, and which were willingly discounted. By-and-by it
came out that the bills were forged, and those who held them
were arrested ; but AUmayer was gone. All he did was to write
to the papers exonerating his unconscious accomplices, and offering
to appear at their trial if the police would guarantee him a safe-
conduct. But the police refused, and his unfortunate confederates
were condemned.

Much astonishment and some indignation were expressed in
Paris at the carelessness of the police in allowing Allmayer to remain
at large. Yet all the time the detectives were at his heels, and
followed him all over Europe to Belgrade, to Genoa, back to
Paris. At Marseilles he robbed a merchant, Monsieur R, of 20,000
francs by pretending to secure for him a contract for the French
Government for sheep. It would be necessary, however, as he
plausibly put it, to remit the above-mentioned sum anonymously
to a certain high functionary. Allmayer attended at Monsieur R.'s
office to give the address, which he himself wrote upon an envelope
at Monsieur R's table. This done, Monsieur R inserted the notes,
and the letter was left there upon the blotting-pad at least, so
Monsieur R believed, but Allmayer by a dexterous sleight of hand had
substituted another exactly similar, while that with the notes was
safely concealed in his pocket. It is said that the high functionary
received a letter containing nothing but a number of pieces of
old newspaper carefully cut to the size of bank notes, and did

CAUGHT BY ACCIDENT. 425

not understand it until, later on, Monsieur R wrote him a letter of
sorrowful reproach at not having kept his word by giving the contract
hi exchange for the notes.

Still Allmayer pursued his adventurous career without inter-
ference, and the police were always a little too late to catch him.
They heard of him at Lyons, where he passed as a cavalry officer
and gave a grand banquet to his old comrades in the garrison;
again, at Aix they were told of a sham Vicomte de Malville, who
had played high at the casino, and unfairly, but he was gone
before they could catch him. At Biarritz he signalised his stay
by cheating, borrowing, and swindling on every side. The com-
missary of police at Bordeaux was warned to keep his eye upon
this person, who passed as Monsieur Mario Magnan, but the
commissary imprudently summoned the suspected person to his
presence, and blurting out the story, gave Allmayer the chance
of escape before the Parisian police arrived to arrest him. He
had gone ostensibly to Paris, but his baggage was registered to
Coutrai. The detective followed to Coutrai, and found that his
quarry had gone on to Havre with several hours' start. The man
wanted was hunted for through Havre, but the covert was drawn
blank till all at once, by that strange interposition of mere chance
that so often tells against the criminal, the detectives came on him
on the Boulevard Strasbourg, a perfect gentleman, fashionably dressed,
with a lady on his arm in an elegant toilette. They laid hands on
him a little doubtfully at first, but it proved to be Allmayer, although
he vigorously denied his identity. This was practically the end
of his criminal career, for he was speedily transferred to Paris
and committed for trial, being located this time in the Con-
ciergerie, under the constant surveillance of two police officers.
Even there his mind was actively employed in planning escape ;
the scheme he tried was that of confiding to the head of police the
whereabouts of a hidden receptacle of certain thieves, who had collected
a quantity of plunder. If the officers would take him there, he
would show them the place ; it was in the Rue St. Maur, at
Menilmontant. But the authorities were not to be imposed
upon, and, by inquiring elsewhere, learnt that the whole story
was a fabrication. Allmayer had arranged that on arrival at the
ground he should be rescued by a number of friends assembled for
the purpose.

426 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

The secret of his many successes was that he was a consum-
mate actor, and could play any part. Now an officer, he was
cordially welcomed by his brothers in arms; at the watering-places
and health resorts he posed and was accepted as a gentleman
of rank and fashion ; in commercial circles he appeared a quick
and intelligent man of business. He practised the same art, but
in quite a different direction, at his trial. A great interest was
excited in Paris by the arrest of this notorious swindler, so clever
at disguises, so bold in his schemes, who had so long set the
police at defiance. Yet when he appeared in court he disappointed
everyone, and showed up as a poor, timid, broken-backed creature,
half imbecile, surely incapable of the daring crimes attributed to
him. He told a rambling disconnected story of how he was
wrongfully accused, that the chief agent in all these affairs was
an old prison-bird whose acquaintance he had unhappily made,
and who had bolted, leaving him to bear all the blame. His
abject appearance and his poor, weak defence gained him the pity
of his judges, and, instead of the heaviest, the lightest sentence
was imposed upon him. All this was a clever piece of acting; he
had assumed the part for the purpose which he had achieved.

Allmayer was sentenced to twelve years' transportation, and he
was last heard of in the Safety Islands, where he was employed
as a hospital nurse, and had made himself very popular with his
keepers. Someone who met him not long since describes him as
still prepossessing, bright, intelligent eyes, fluent as ever in speech,
but with a singularly false face. By-and-by he may reappear to
despoil his more confiding fellows once more, and be the despair of
the police.

PARAF.

This man was an extraordinary swindler who amassed considerable
sums by his frauds. He came of a really good stock, and might
have earned fame and fortune had he not been afflicted with
incurably low tastes. Paraf was born about 1840 of a respectable
family in Alsace ; he was highly educated, and became a brilliant
and expert chemist. The elder Paraf, his father, was a calico
manufacturer, and he gladly placed his son at the head of his
print works, where the young man's knowledge and intelligence
were most valuable. But once, while making a tour through

A CRIMINAL CHEMIST. 427

Scotland, his funds ran short, and his father would not supply
him with more money. So he carried an alleged newly discovered
dye to a Glasgow manufacturer, and sold it for several thousand
pounds, which sum, passing over to Paris, he quickly squandered
in dissipation. The dye was worthless, but Paraf was not wholly
an impostor, for, when once more penniless, he joined forces
with his old professor in Paris, and together they discovered the
famous aniline dyes. Paraf brought this invention to England,
patented it, and sold it for a considerable sum. No doubt he
would have made a great deal of money had he run straight,
but he was an absolute spendthrift, and parted speedily with all
he had. When utterly destitute, he stole the patent for another
dye from a friend, and sold it to his uncle in Paris for a couple
of thousand pounds. With what was left of this sum he started
for America, and landed in New York, where he was weU received.
Of engaging person and frank manners, he gained the friendship
and confidence of several capitalists, to one of whom he sold an
aniline black dye for 12,000. He now launched out into a career
of wild extravagance ; he occupied magnificent rooms at a first-
class hotel, bathed in sweet-scented waters, and gave sumptuous
dinners at Delmonico's. His money did not last long, and he
had recourse to fresh swindles. His next transaction was the sale
of an alleged cloverine dye to a damask manufacturer, and he
persuaded Governor Sprague, of Rhode Island, to invest 100,000
in a madder dye, which proved a failure. Then he became
acquainted with a Frenchman, Monsieur Mourier, who invented oleo-
margarine, the process of which Paraf stole from him and fraudulently
sold to a New York firm. Mourier established his prior claim to
the invention, and the firm had to buy their rights afresh.

After this Paraf found New York too hot for him. He went
south to Chili, and promoted a company to extract gold from
copper, but found it easier to extract it from other people's
pockets. This la t st escapade finished him, for he was pursued
and cast into prison, where he died.

TAMMANY FRAUDS.

The fact has often been noticed that crime takes larger develop-
ments to-day than heretofore. Schemes are larger, the plunder is

42H MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

greater, the depredator travels over wider areas. He is often
cosmopolitan ; his transactions include the capitals of Europe,
the great cities beyond the Atlantic, in India, and at the An-
tipodes. The immensity of the hauls made by daring swindlers
misusing their powers as the guardians of public funds, was
well shown in the Tammany frauds in the 'seventies, when
" Boss " Tweed and his accomplices stole millions from the
taxpayers of New York. The frauds which they successfully
accomplished amounted, it was said, to twenty million dollars.
They had an annual income of about that sum to play with,
and they ran up as well a city debt of about a hundred million
dollars. At that time the municipal administration of New
York was abominably bad ; the city was wretchedly lighted, badly
paved, and the police protection not only imperfect but un-
trustworthy. The Tammany frauds were exposed, as we know,
by an Englishman, Mr. Louis Jennings, the representative of
the Times in New York, who, coming by chance upon the
fringe of the frauds, pursued his clue, despite many dishearten-
ing failures, until he obtained full success. He "found that a
most elaborate system of fraudulent entry in the city books
covered the misappropriation of enormous sums. It was the
custom to pay over hundreds of thousands of dollars, for work
that was never accomplished, to persons who were either men
of straw or had no corporeal existence. Thus 120,000 was
charged for carpets in the Court House, and on inspection it
was found that this Court House floor was covered with a common
matting barely worth 20. In another building the plastering
figured at 366,000, and the furniture, which consisted of a few
stools and desks, ran up to a million and a half sterling. No
wonder that in these glorious times " Boss " Tweed and his
merry men became millionaires, having been penniless adventurers
before. They kept steam yachts, drove fast trotters, their wives
wore priceless diamonds, and they gave princely entertainments in
brownstone mansions in Fifth Avenue and Madison Square. When
fate at last overtook them, and landed most of them in the State
prison, the ample funds at their disposal enabled them still to
make life tolerable, and I myself have seen one or two of these
most notorious swindlers smoking large cigars and lounging over
novels in their snug cells at Sing Sing,

CAN THE LAW REACH HIM? ("BOSS" TWEED DEFYING THE LAW.>
(From a Cartoon tn " Harper's Weekly" [1872].)

430 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CHIME.

BURTON, ALIAS THE COUNT VON HAVARD.

Compared with these top-sawyers and high-flyers in crime we have
little to show on this side of the Atlantic ; but I may mention one or
two notorious swindlers of these latter days, remarkable in their way
for the dexterity and the pertinacity with which they pursue their
nefarious trade. Every now and again the police lay their hands on
some line gentleman who is well received in society, like Benson,
bearing some borrowed aristocratic name, but who is really an ex-
convict repeating the game that originally got him into trouble.
There was the man Burton, as he was generally called, who rejoiced
in many aliases, such as Temple, Bouverie, Wilmot, St. Maur,
Erskine, and many more, and whose career was summarily ended
in 1876, when, as Count von Havard, he was sentenced to five years'
penal servitude for obtaining money by fraud. This man's character
may be gathered from the police description of him when he was
once more at large. He was described as a native of Virginia, in
the United States ; was supposed to be a gentleman by birth and
education, and spoke English with a slightly foreign accent. The
police notice went on to say that he was " an accomplished swindler,
an adept in every description of subterfuge and artifice ; he tells
lies with such a specious resemblance to truth that numerous
persons have been deceived by him to their cost. He is highly
educated, an excellent linguist, and also skilled in the dead languages,
and his good address has obtained him an entrance into the very
highest society abroad. By the adroit use of secret information of
which he has become possessed he has extorted large sums as black-
mail. One of his devices is to enter into a correspondence with
relatives of deceased persons, leading them to suppose they are
beneficiaires under wills, and thus obtain money to carry on pre-
liminary inquiries. He frequently makes his claim through a
respectable solicitor, whom he first dupes with an account of his
brilliant connections and prospects. He represents himself as the
son of a foreign nobleman, De Somerset St. Maur Wilmot, and
claims relationship with several distinguished persons."

He was in reality a very old offender, who had done more than
one sentence in this country, and had probably known the interior
of many foreign prisons. His operations extended throughout
Europe, and he had visited the principal health resorts and holiday

places of the Continent, such as
Biarritz, Homburg, Ostend; and
this constant movement to and
fro no doubt helped him to elude
the police.

DR. VIVIAN.

Another man of the same
stamp, calling himself Dr. Vivian,
of New York, burst upon the

A CELL IX SING SING PRISON.

COKKIDOK IN 8I.NO SING PKISON.

world of Birmingham, about 1884
as a man of vast wealth, which
he spent with a most lavish hand,
He stopped at the best hotel in
the town, the Queen's, and got;
into society. One day, at a
flower-show, he was introduced
to a Miss W., to whom he at
once paid his addresses, and made

43ii MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

such rapid progress in her good graces that they were married
by special licence a week or two later. The wedding was of the
most splendid description; the happy bridegroom had presented
his wife with quantities of valuable jewellery, and he was so well
satisfied with the arrangements at the church that he gave the
officiating clergyman a fee of 500. After a magnificent wedding
breakfast at the Queen's Hotel, the newly married couple pro-
ceeded to London, and were next heard of at the Langham,
living in the most expensive style. The bridegroom spent large
sums among the London tradesmen, and, strange to say, invariably
paid cash. All this time a man who had much the appearance
of Dr. Vivian was greatly wanted by the police ; the person in
question had been down in Warwickshire a few months previous
to the arrival of Dr. Vivian at Birmingham. This person was
strongly suspected of a theft at an hotel at Whitchurch. A
visitor at the hotel had been robbed one night of a certain,
sum in cash and a number of very valuable old coins. Now
the police became satisfied that Dr. Vivian and the man wanted
for this theft were one and the same person, and the authorities
of Scotland Yard took the decided step of arresting him. They
went farther, and had the audacity to declare that the so-called
Dr. Vivian was one James Barnet, otherwise George Percy, other-
wise George Guelph, a notorious convict, only recently released after
a term of ten years' penal servitude.

When arrested, Vivian, as we will still call him, was found to
be in possession of a large amount of money, much more than
could have come from the hotel robbery at Whitchurch; he had
a roll of notes to the value of some two thousand pounds, and a
great deal of gold. The impression was that a part of this was the
proceeds of another hotel robbery from a bookmaker at Manchester.
The notes, however, when examined, were found to be all of one
date, some ten or twelve years back, antecedent to his last convic-
tion, and it seemed most improbable that he could have come upon
these in the ordinary way of robbery. It was far more likely that
they were forged notes (although this was never proved) which had
been " planted " safely somewhere while he was at large, and that
on his release he had drawn upon the deposit. At the same time
there had been some serious thefts at the Langham Hotel during
the prisoner's honeymoon residence, and there is very little doubt

SHAM PARSONS. 433

that Vivian, alias Barnet, was an accomplished hotel thiei. Many
curious facts came out while he was in custody. He was identified
as a man who had wandered from hotel to hotel in the Midlands,
changing his appearance continually, but not enough to defy de-
tection. He carried with him a large wardrobe as his stock-in-trade,
and was seldom seen in the same suit of clothes two days together.
He had had several narrow escapes, and before his final escapade
had been arrested in Derby by a detective, who was pretty certain
that he had " passed through his hands." The accumulated evidence
against him was strong, and when put upon his trial for the
particular theft at the Whitchurch hotel, he was found guilty and
sentenced to another ten years' seclusion.

MOCK CLERGYMEN.

The convict swindler when at large has many lines of operation,
and a favourite one is the assumption of the clerical character. This
is generally done by criminals who at one time or another have been
hi holy orders, and have been unfrocked for their misdeeds. Dr. Ber-
rington was a notable instance of this. Although he was repeatedly
convicted of performing clerical functions, for which he was altogether
disqualified, he kept up the game to the last. In one of his short
periods of freedom he had the effrontery to take the duties of a
country rector, and, as such, accepted an invitation to dine at a
neighbouring squire's. Strange to say, the carriage which he hired
iroin the livery stables of the nearest town was driven by a man
who, like himself, was a licence-holder, and who had last seen his
clerical fare when they were both inmates of Dartmoor prison.
Berrington had no doubt been in the Church at one time, and was a
ripe scholar. The story goes that during one of his imprisonments
he was amusing himself in the school hour with a Hebrew grammar.
" What ! Do you know Hebrew ? " said a visitor to the gaol who was
passing through the ward. " Yes," replied Berrington, " and I
daresay a great deal better than you do."

There was another reverend gentleman, who was an ordained
priest in the Church of England, and had once held an Irish living
worth 400 a year, but had lost every shilling he was worth on
the turf. One day, when seized with the old gambling mania,
he made an improper use of a friend's cheque-book He was
28

434 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

staying at this friend's house, and forged his name, having found the
cheque-book accessible. He was soon afterwards arrested on Manchester
racecourse, and, after trial, sentenced to transportation for life.

In December, 1886, another clerical impostor caused some noise,
and there is some reason to suppose from his own story that he
had actually been ordained a priest in the Church of Rome. This
rests on his own statement, no doubt, made when on his trial
in Dublin for obtaining money under false pretences, the latest of
a long series of similar offences. At that time he rejoiced in several
aliases, Keatinge being the commonest, but he was also known as
Moreton, with many variations of Christian names. His offence
was that he had received frequent help from the Priests' Protection
Society, on the pretence that he had left the Church of Rome
and that his abjuration of the old faith had left him in great
distress. The society on these grounds had made him an allowance,
and he had often preached and performed clerical duty in Dublin
churches. He was charged with having falsely represented himself
to be a clergyman in holy orders, but his own story was very
precise and circumstantial Keatinge made out that he had studied
at Stonyhurst and then at St. Michael's College, Brussels; thence
he went to Rome, was admitted to orders, and for some time held
the post of Latin translator and general secretary to Cardinal
Pecci of Perugia, afterwards Pope Leo XIII. After that, he said,
he became chaplain and secretary to Cardinal d'Andrea, and was
soon afterwards given the degree of Doctor of Divinity and made a
Monsignore. He declared that he had become involved in the
political struggle between Cardinal d'Andrea and Cardinal Antonelli.
and was imprisoned with the former in the latter Cardinal's palace.
From that time forth Dr. Keatinge was the victim of constant per-
secution, but at last escaped from Rome, by the assistance of a
lady, who afterwards became his wife, when he had seceded from
the Roman Church. After that he appears to have lapsed into a
life of vagabondage and questionable adventure. He suffered many
convictions, mostly for false pretences, and the Dublin affair relegated
him once more to gaol.

HARRY BENSON.

One of the most daring and successful of modern swindlers
was Harry Benson, who came into especial prominence in connection

SENS ON MAKES A START. 435

with the Goncourt frauds and the disloyalty of certain London detec-
tives. His was a brief and strangely romantic career of crime ; he
was not much more than forty when it terminated with his death,
yet he had netted vast sums by his ingenious frauds, and had long
lived a life of cultured ease, respected and outwardly most respectable.
He came of very decent folk ; his father was a prosperous merchant,
established in Paris, with offices in the Faubourg St. Honore, and a
person of undeniably good repute. Young Benson was well and care-
fully educated : he spoke several languages with ease and correct-
ness ; he was a good musician, was well read, had charming manners,
a suave and polished address. But from the earliest days his moral
sense was perverted ; he could not and would not run straight.
Benson belonged by nature to the criminal class, and if we are
to believe Lombroso and the Italian school, he was a born
criminal. All his tastes and predilections were towards fraud and
foul play.

Young Benson seems to have first made his appearance in
Brussels in 1870-71, when he was prominent among the French
refugees who left France at the time of the Franco-German war.
He had assumed the name and title of the Comte de Montague,
pretending to be the son of a General de Montague, an old Bonapart-
ist. He lived in fine style, had carriages and horses, a sumptuous
appartement, gave many entertainments, and was generally a very
popular personage, much esteemed for his great courtliness and
his pleasant, insinuating address. Nothing is known of the
sources of his wealth at this period, but his first trouble with the
law came of a nefarious attempt to add to them. One day the
Comte de Montague called at the Mansion House, in London, and
besought the Lord Mayor's charitable aid for the town of Chateau-
dun, which had suffered much from the ravages of the war. Money
was being very freely subscribed to relieve French distress at the
time, and the Comte had no difficulty in obtaining a grant of a
thousand pounds for Chateaudun. This he at once proceeded to
apply to his own needs, for the Comte was no other than Bsnson.
His imposture was presently discovered, and he' paid a second
visit to the Mansion House, but this time as a prisoner. The
escapade ended in a sentence of a year's imprisonment, during
which he appears to have set his cell on fire and burned himself
badly. He was ever afterwards lame, and obliged to use crutches ;

436 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

an unmistakable addition to his siynalement which would have
seriously handicapped any less audacious offender.

The more extensive of the operations in which Benson was engaged
followed upon his release from gaol. He was estranged from his
family in Paris, and, being obliged to earn his own living, he
advertised himself as seeking the place of secretary, giving his
knowledge of several languages as one of his qualifications. This
brought him into connection with a man who was to be his con-
federate and partner in many nefarious schemes. A certain William
Kurr engaged him, and they soon came to an understanding, becom-
ing associated on equal terms. Kurr was a very shady character, who
had tried several lines of life. From clerk in a railway office he
passed into the service of a West End money-lender, and then became
interested in turf speculations. The business of illegitimate betting
attracted him as offering great opportunities for acquiring fortune,
and he was the originator of several sham firms and bogus offices,
none of which prospered greatly until he fell in with Benson. From
that time forth their operations were on a much bolder and more
successful scale. Benson's ready wit and inventive genius struck
out new lines of procedure, and there is little doubt that quite early
in the partnership he conceived the happy idea of suborning the
police. Kurr, under the name of Gardner and Co., of Edinburgh,
had come under suspicion, and was being hotly pursued by a
detective officer, Meiklejohn, who had been chosen from among the
Scotland Yard officers to act for the Midland Railway in the north.
When the scent was hottest, Kurr, by Benson's advice, approached
Meiklejohn and bought him over. This was the first step in a
great conspiracy which presently involved other officers, who weakly
sacrificed honour and position to the specious temptations of these
scoundrels.

Benson, being half a Frenchman, and intimately acquainted with
French ways, saw a great opening for carrying on turf frauds in
France. The firm accordingly moved over to French soil, and
elaborated with great skill and patience a vast scheme for en-
trapping the unwary. They first worked carefully through the
directories, Bottin's and others, in order to obtain the names and
addresses of likely victims ; when eventually they were brought to
justice some of these books were found in Benson's quarters, much
marked and annotated. At the same time they prepared an

THE TURF FRAUDS.

437

attractive circular, setting forth in specious terms the extraordinary
advantages of their system of betting. This circular was distributed
broadcast through the country, accompanied by a copy of a sport-
ing paper specially prepared for this particular purpose. It was

KURK, BENSON, FROGGATT, AND THE DETECTIVES

the only copy of the paper that ever appeared, although it was
numbered 1,713. It had been printed on purpose in Edinburgh,
and was in every respect a complete journal, containing news up to
date, advertisements, leading articles, columns of paragraphs and
notices, several of which referred in the most complimentary
language to a Mr. Hugh Montgomery Benson's alias in this fraud

438 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

and the excellence of his system of betting investment. It
stated that this Mr. Hugh Montgomery, who had invented the
system, had already netted nearly half a million of money by
following its principles, and it was open to any to reap the same
handsome profit. They had only to remit funds to the firm at
any of their numerous offices in London, at Cleveland Road, Duke
Street St. James's, and elsewhere.

This brilliant scheme soon brought in a rich harvest. Many
simple-minded French people swallowed the bait, and none more
readily than a certain Comtesse de Goncourt, a lady of good estate,
but with an unfortunate taste for speculation. The comtesse threw
herself eagerly into the arrangement, and forwarded several sub-
stantial sums to London, which were duly invested for her with
good results; for the old trick was followed of at first allowing
her to win. Presently her transactions grew larger, till at last
they reached the sum of 10,000. Several bogus cheques were
sent her, purporting to be her winnings, but she was desired to hold
them over until a certain date, in accordance with the English law.
Yet these rapacious scoundrels were not satisfied with such large
profits. They wrote to the poor comtesse that another 1,200 was
necessary to complete certain formalities. As she was now nearly
cleaned out, she tried to raise the money in Paris through her
notary, and this led to the discovery of the whole fraud.

Meanwhile the conspirators had been living in comfort, pulling the
wires from London. Benson had made himself safe, as he thought, by
extending his system of suborning the police. Through Meiklejohn,
a second officer, Druscovitch by name, who was especially charged
with the Continental business of Scotland Yard, was approached
and tempted. He was a well-meaning man, with a good record, but
in very straitened circumstances, and he fell before the tempting
offers of the insidious Benson. All this time Benson was living in
good style at Shanklin, in the Isle of Wight. He had a charming
house, named Rose Bank, a good cook and numbers of other servants,
he drove a good carriage, and constantly entertained his friends.
One of his accomplishments was music; he composed and sang
charming French chansonettes with so much feeling that they were
always loudly encored. Benson soon tried to inveigle another fly
from Scotland Yard into his web. Scenting danger from the news
that Inspector Clarke was hunting up certain sham betting offices,

A WARM SCENT. 439

he invited him down to his little place at Shanklin. Benson did
not succeed with Clarke, who, when placed on his trial with the
other inspectors, was acquitted. He must have been sorely tried,
for Benson showed consummate tact, and . cleverly acted upon
Clarke's fears by seeming to incriminate him. Then he offered a
substantial bribe, which, however, Clarke was honest enough to
refuse.

When the storm broke Benson had early notice of the danger
from his allies in the police. Druscovitch warned them that a
big swindle had come in from Paris; it was theirs. Already the
French police had begun to act against the firm. They had re-
quested the Scotland Yard authorities, by telegraph, to intercept
letters from Paris which, it was believed, contained large remit-
tances. But Benson contrived to secure this telegram before it was
delivered. Knowing that he had good friends, he held his ground ;
Druscovitch, on the other hand, became more and more uneasy,
thinking that he could not shield his paymasters much longer.
He had many secret interviews with them, and pleaded desperately
that he must ere long arrest somebody, and he warned Benson to
look out for himself. It was time for the conspirators to think
about their means of retreat. So far they seem to have held the
bulk of their booty in Bank of England notes, a very tell-tale com-
modity which could always be traced through the numbers. Benson
solved this difficulty by deciding to change the Bank of England
notes into Scottish notes, the numbers of which were not invariably
taken on issue. Through Meiklejohn Benson got rid of 13,000
worth, travelling down to Alloa on purpose and getting Clydes-
dale Bank notes in exchange. To cover this operation, Benson
had deposited 3,000 in the Alloa Bank. He was on very
friendly terms with its manager, and was actually at dinner with
him when a telegram was put into his hands warning him to
decamp, for Druscovitch was on his way down with the warrant to
arrest him. Benson bolted, but was, of course, obliged to forfeit
his deposit of 3,000.

When Druscovitch arrived his game, of course, was gone. He
still attempted to linger over the job, but the authorities were more
hi earnest than he was, and England became too hot for him. The
exchange of Bank of England into Clydesdale notes was known, and
so were some of the numbers of the latter. A watch was therefore

WO MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

set upon the holders of these notes, and Benson thought it wiser
to escape to Holland. Soon after his arrival at Rotterdam he and
his friends were arrested. But here, at the closing scene, while
extradition was being demanded, another confederate, Froggatt, a
low-class attorney, nearly succeeded in obtaining their release. He
sent a forged telegram to the Dutch police, purporting to come
from Scotland Yard, to the effect that the men they had got
were the wrong people. The imposition was discovered just in time,
and the prisoners were handed over to a party of London police,
headed, strange to say, by Druscovitch in person. His complicity
with the swindlers was not yet suspected, and he was compelled to
carry out his orders. What passed between him and his friends is
not exactly known, but Kurr and Benson, after the manner of their
class, had no idea of suffering alone. That they should turn on
their police assistants was a matter of course, and one of their first
acts in Millbank Prison, where they were beginning their long
terms of penal servitude, was to make a clean breast of it and
implicate the detectives.

When Clarke, Druscovitch, Meiklejohn, and Palmer, with Froggatt,
were put upon their trial, the facts, as already stated, were elicited,
and it was found that the swindlers had long secured the conniv-
ance and support of all these officers, except Clarke. A letter,
which was impounded, written by Meiklejohn to Kurr as far back
as 1874, shows how eager Meiklejohn was to earn his money. It
was an early notification of the issue of a warrant, and warned his
friends to keep a sharp look out :

" DEAR BILL, Rather important news from the North. Tell H. S. and the
Young One to keep themselves quiet. In the event of a smell stronger
than now they must be ready to scamper out of the way."

For this important service Meiklejohn is believed to have received
a douceur of 500. All these misguided men were sentenced to
terms of imprisonment, and, as I have said before, the discovery of
their faithlessness led to important changes in police constitution,
and the creation of the Criminal Investigation Department.

I can remember Benson while he was a convict at Portsmouth,
where he was employed at light labour, and might be seen hobbling
on his crutches at the tail end of the gangs as they marched in
and out of prisoa He boro an exemplary prison character and was

442 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CHIME.

released on ticket-of-leave in 1887, having fully earned his remission.
He was not long in seeking new pastures, and soon used his versatile
talents and many accomplishments in fresh schemes of fraud. It
was his duty to report himself as a licence holder to the Metro-
politan Police, but this .did not suit so erratic a genius, and
within a few months he was advertised for in the Police Gazette,
a woodcut engraving of his features being accompanied with the
following description of the man " wanted " :

"Age 39, height 5 ft. 4 in., complexion sallow, hair, whiskers, beard, and
moustache black (may have shaved), turning slightly grey, eyes brown, small
scar under right eye, frequently pretends lameness, has a slouching gait, stoops
slightly, head thrown forward, invariably smoking cigarettes."

It will be seen from this that the use of crutches was not
indispensable to him, but was probably assumed as a means of
confusing his signalement. His many aliases were published with
the description ; some of the more remarkable were George Marlowe,
George Washington Morton, Andrew Montgomery, Henry Younger
(the name he went under at Rose Bank Cottage, Shanklin), Mon-
tague Posno, and the Comte de Montague.

Benson's first act after release appears to have been to ascertain
whether he had inherited anything from his father, whose death
had occurred while he was in prison. Nothing had come to him, but
his family did not quite disown him, for a brother offered to find
him a situation. This Benson contemptuously refused, and took
the first opportunity of reopening his relations with Kurr, who had
been released a little earlier. Soon after this the police missed
them, and they appear to have crossed the Atlantic and started
in a new line as company promoters, mainly in connection with
mines of a sham character. Benson seems to have done well in this
nefarious business before he returned to Europe, when he made Brussels
his headquarters and carried on the same business, the exploitation
of mines. He appears to have gained the attention of the police,
and the Belgian authorities communicated with those of Scotland
Yard. Benson was now identified and arrested. At his lodgings
were found a great quantity of letters containing Post Office orders
and cheques, which seem to have been sent to him for investment
in his bogus companies. Benson next did a couple of years' imprison-
ment in a Belgian prison, and on his release transferred himself to
Switzerland, setting up at Geneva as an American banker with large

BENSON AS A LOVER.

443

means. He stopped at the best hotels and betrayed all his old
fondness for ostentation. Here he received many telegrams from
his confederates, who were still " working " the United States, all of
them connected with stocks and shares and the fluctuations of the
market. He was in the habit of leaving these telegrams which

A PKISOX GAXG.

invariably dealt with high figures about the hotel, throwing them
down carelessly in the billiard-room, smoking-room, and other apart-
ments, where they were read by others, and greatly enhanced his
reputation.

At this hotel he became acquainted with a retired surgeon-
general of the Indian army, with an only daughter, to whom he
made desperate love. He lavished presents of jewellery upon her,
and so won upon the father that he consented to the marriage.

444 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

The old man was no less willing to entrust his savings to this
specious scoundrel, and on Benson's advice sold out all his property,
some 7,000 invested in India stock The money was transmitted
to Geneva and handed over to Benson in exchange for certain worth-
less scrip which was to double the doctor's income. Now, however, a
telegram summoned Benson to New York, and he left hurriedly.
His fiancee followed to the port at which he had said he would
embark, but missed him. Mr. Churchward Benson's alias had
gone to another place, Bremen, to take passage by the North German
Lloyd. The surgeon-general, trembling for his earnings, applied for
a warrant, and Benson was arrested as he was on the point of
embarkation. He was taken back to Geneva, but on refunding
5,000 out of the 7,000 he was liberated. It was now dis-
covered that his presents to his fiancee were all in sham jewellery,
and that the scrip he had given in exchange for the 7,000
was really worth only a few pounds. After this most brilliant
coup Benson abandoned Europe, re-crossed the Atlantic, and re-
sumed operations in America. He became the hero of many
fraudulent adventures, the last of which led to his arrest. In the
city of Mexico he impudently passed himself off as Mr. Abbey,
Madame Patti's agent, and sold tickets on her behalf to the
amount of 25,000 dollars. This fraud was discovered; he was
arrested and taken to New York, where he was lodged in the
Tombs. While awaiting trial he committed suicide in gaol by
throwing himself over the railings from the top storey, thus
fracturing his spine.

MAX SHINBURN.

The career of Max Shinburn can hardly be cited in proof of the old
saying that honesty is the best policy. This notorious criminal won
a fine fortune, as well as much evil fame, by his dishonest proceed-
ings between 1860 and 1880, and after sundry vicissitudes, ended in
Belgium as a millionaire, enjoying every luxury amidst the pleasantest
surroundings.

According to one account, Shinburn was a German Jew, who
emigrated to the United States rather hurriedly to evade police
pursuit. He found his way, it is said, to St. Louis, and soon got into
trouble there as a burglar ; his intimate knowledge of the locksmith
trade was useful to the new friends he made, but did not save him

A SKILLED LOCKSMITH.

445

MAX SHIXBUUX.

from capture and imprisonment. Another story is that he was born
in Pennsylvania of decent parents, was well educated, and in due
course became a bank clerk. His criminal tendencies were soon
displayed by his defalcations ; he stole a number of greenbacks,
and covered the theft by fraudulent
entries in the books. This ended his
career of humdrum respectability, and he
was next heard of at Boston, where he
robbed a bank by burglariously entering
the vaults, by means of his skill as a lock-
smith. We have here some corrobora-
tion of the first account of his origin ;
if he had begun life as a clerk he could
not well have acquired skill as a lock-
smith. It is strengthened by the fact
that his largest and most remunerative
" affairs " were accomplished by forcing
doors and opening safes. It was said of
him that he could walk into any bank,
for he could counterfeit any key ; and

that no safe, combination or other, could resist his attack. The
number of banks he plundered was extraordinary ; the New Windsor
Bank of Maryland, a bank in Connecticut, and many more, yielded
before him ; and in New England alone he amassed great sums.

Shinburn spent in wasteful excess all that he thus guiltily earned.
He lived most extravagantly, at the best hotels, consorting with the
showiest people ; he was to be seen on all racecourses, " plunging "
wildly, and at the faro tables, where he played high. This continued
for years. He escaped all retribution until a confederate betrayed
him in connection with the wrecking of the Concord Bank, when
at least 200,000 dollars was secured and divided among the gang.
He was taken at Saratoga, the fashionable watering-place, and his
arrest caused much sensation in the fast society of which he wus
so prominent a member.

Max Shinburn's consignment to gaol checked his baleful activity,
but not for long. His fame as a high-class gentleman criminal
secured him considerate treatment, which, on the loose system
of many American gaols, meant that his warders and he were
on very familiar terms. One evening Shinburn called an officer

446 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

to his cell, and after a short gossip at the door, invited him inside.
Next moment he had seized the warder by the throat, over-
powered him, and captured his keys. Then, making his victim
fast, he walked straight out of the prison.

Once more taken and incarcerated, he once more escaped.
This time, by suborning his warders, he obtained the necessary tools
for sawing through the prison bars, and thus regained freedom.
He soon resumed his old practices, and on a much larger and more
brilliant scale. One of his chief feats was the forcing of the vaults
of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, at Whitehaven, Penn-
sylvania, from which he abstracted 56,000 dollars. He somehow
contrived to obtain impressions of the locks, and manufactured
the keys.

The famous detective, Pinkerton, was called in, and soon
guessed that Shinburn had been at work. Some of the confederates
were arrested, and presently Shinburn was taken, but only after a
desperate encounter. Now, to ensure safe custody, the prisoner
was handcuffed to one of Pinkerton's assistants, and both were locked
up in a room at the hotel. Yet Shinburn, during the night, con-
trived to pick the lock of the handcuff by means of the shank of
his scarf-pin, and, shaking himself free, slipped quietly away. He
fled to Europe, and paid a first visit to Belgium, but went back to
the States to make one last grand coup. This was the robbery
of the Ocean Bank in New York, from which he took 50,000 hi
securities, notes, and gold. With this fine booty he returned to
Belgium, bought himself a title, and at least outwardly lived
the life of an honest and respectable citizen. We have seen that
Sheridan, another American " crook," spent some years in Brussels,
and it is strongly suspected that he and Shinburn were concerned
in the famous mail train robbery and other great crimes in Belgium.

447

CHAPTER XVI.

SOME FEMALE CRIMINALS.

Criminal Women worse than Criminal Men Bell Star Comtesse Sandor Mothoi

M , the famous female Receiver of Stolen Goods The "German Princess"

Jenny Diver The Baroness de Menckwitz Emily Lawrence Louisa Miles Mrs.
Gordon-Baillie : Her dashing Career : Becomes Mrs. Percival Frost : The Crofter's
Friend : Triumphal Visit to the Antipodes : Extensive Frauds on Tradesmen :
Sentenced to Penal Servitude A Viennese Impostor Big Bertha, the " Confidence
Queen."

IT has been universally agreed that criminal women are the worst
of all criminals. " A woman is rarely wicked," runs the Italian
adage, "but when she is so, she is worse than a man." We
must leave psychologists to explain a fact which is well known
to all who have dealings with the criminal classes. No doubt,
as a rule, women have a weaker moral sense ; they come more
under the influence of feeling, and when once they stray from the
right path they wander far, and recovery is extremely difficult.
Many succumb altogether, and are merged in the general ruck of
commonplace, habitual criminals. Now and again a woman rises
into the first rank of offenders, and some female criminals may be
counted amongst the most remarkable of all depredators. One
of these appeared in Texas not many years ago, and, as a female
outlaw, the head and chief controlling spirit of a great gang, she
long spread terror through that State.

BELL STAR

was the daughter of a guerilla soldier, who had fought on the side
of the South, and she was nursed among scenes of bloodshed. When
little more than a child she learnt to handle the lasso, revolver,
carbine, and bowie knife with extraordinary skill. As she grew up

448

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AXD CRIME.

she developed gretit strength, and became d, fearless horsewoman,
riding wild, untamed brutes that no one else would mount. It is
told of her that she rode twice and won races at a country meeting,
dressed once as a man and once as a woman, having changed her
attire so rapidly that the trick was never discovered. She was barely

''SHE . . . SLASHED HIJI ACRO.SS THE FACE" (\). 449).

eighteen when she was chosen to lead the band, which she ruled
with great firmness and courage, dominating her associates by her
superior intelligence, her audacity, and her personal charm. Her
exploits were of the most daring description; she led organised
attacks on populous cities, entering them fearlessly, both before
and after the event, disguised in male attire. On one occasion
she sat at the table d'hote beside the judge of the district, and heard

FAMOUS FEMALE CRIMINALS. 449

him boast that he knew Bell Star by sight, and would arrest her
wherever he met her. Next day, having mounted her horse at
the door of the hotel still in man's clothes she summoned the judge
to come out, told him who she was, slashed him across the face with
her riding- whip, and galloped away. Bell Star's band was constantly
pursued by Government troops ; many pitched battles were fought
between them, in one of which this masculine heroine Avas slain.

Another woman of the same class was of French extraction,
and known in the Western States under the sobriquet of " Zelie."
She also commanded a band of outlaws, and was ever foremost
hi acts of daring brigandage, fighting, revolver in hand, always in
the first rank. She was a woman of great intellectual gifts and
many accomplishments, spoke three languages fluently, and was of
very attractive appearance. She is said to have died of hysteria
in a French lunatic asylum.

Many other instances of this latter-day development of the
criminal woman may be quoted. There was at Lyons an American
adventuress and wholesale thief who, having enriched herself by
robbery in the United States, crossed to Europe and continued her
depredations until arrested in Paris. La Comtesse Sandor, as she
was called, was another of this type, who went about Europe dis-
guised as a man, and as such gained the affections of the daughter
of a wealthy Austrian, whom she actually married. Theodosia W.,
again, made a large fortune in St. Petersburg as a receiver of
stolen goods, and managed her felonious business with remarkable
astuteness.

" MOTHER M ."

Another notorious female receiver was " Mother M ," of New

York, who, with her husband, kept a haberdashery shop in that
city towards the end of the 'seventies. They were Jews, and keen
traders. Their shop was a perfectly respectable establishment on
the surface. The proper assortment of goods was on hand to supply

the needs of regular customers. " Mother M " served in the shop

herself, assisted by her two daughters, and did so good a busi-
ness that they might have honestly acquired a competence. But
she was hi a hurry to grow rich and had no conscientious scruples.
She soon opened relations with thieves of all descriptions, and was
prepared to buy all kinds of stolen goods. Her dealings were said
29

450 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CHIME.

to be enormouy; they extended throughout the United States and
beyond to Canada, Mexico, even to Europe.

As time went on she developed into the champion and banker
of her criminal customers. Under cover of her shop she ran a
" bureau for the prevention of detection," and was always ready to
bribe polree officers who were corruptible, or throw them off the
scent, and for due consideration she would arrange for the defence
of accused persons. It was said that she had secured in advance
the services of celebrated criminal lawyers of New York by
paying them a retaining fee of 5,000 dollars a year. When any of
her clients were laid by the heels, she acted as their banker, pro-
viding funds if required, and helping to support then* wives and
families while they were in custody. She was extremely cautious
in her methods. No one was admitted to the office behind the
shop, where the real business was done, without introduction and

voucher. " Mother M " allowed none of the " swag " to come

to the shop. The bulk of the proceeds of any robbery was
rirst stored, and the receiver invited to send an agent to examine
and report upon it. Having estimated its value, she then proceeded
to haggle over the price, which eventually she paid in cash, taking
over the whole of the property and accepting all the risks of its
disposal. As a general rule, she secreted it or shipped it off, and
generally succeeded in escaping detection. Once or twice, however,
she came to grief. The proceeds of a great silk robbery were found
in her possession, but on arrest and trial she was acquitted. At
last, in 1884, New York became too hot to hold her, and she crossed
the frontier into Canada, and she is said to be still there,
living a quiet, respectable life. If report is to be trusted,
she regrets New York and the large circle of friends and
acquaintances she had gathered round her. In the days of her
great activity she kept open house for thieves of both sexes, gave
handsome entertainments, employed a good cook, and had a full
cellar of choice wines. She enjoyed an excellent reputation also
as a liberal supporter of the Synagogue and Jewish charities, and
was generally esteemed.

THE "GERMAX PRINCESS."

Female sharpers have abounded in every age and country. The
feminine mind is so full of resource, a woman can be so inventive.

FROM NEWGATE TO THE STAGE.

451

so clever in disguising frauds and keeping up specious appearances,
that we come upon the female adventuress continually. As far
back as the seventeenth century there was the celebrated "German
Princess," who took in everyone right and left. Although she was
nothing more than a common thief, the daughter of a chorister in
Canterbury Cathedral, and the wife of a shoemaker, she passed herself
oft' at Continental watering-places as the ill-used child of a sovereign

THE MAHSHALSEA PRISON IX THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

prince of the German Empire. At Spa she became engaged to a
foolish old gentleman of large estate, and absconded with all her
presents before the wedding-day. Then she established herself at a
London tavern and, as an act of great condescension, married the
landlord's brother, who suddenly found that she was a bigamist
and a cheat. Her committal to Newgate followed, but on her
release she resumed her role as the "German Princess" and went
on the stage to play in a piece named after her, and the plot of
which was founded on the strange ill-usage of this high-born lady.

45- MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

After this she resumed her robberies and led a life of vagabondage,
in which she swindled tradesmen, especially jewellers, out of much
valuable property. Fate presently overtook her and landed her at
the plantations as a convict; but even in Jamaica her effrontery
gained her the friendship of the governor, and she soon returned
to England to resume her career as a rich heiress, whereby she
duped many foolish people and committed numbers of fresh
robberies. One day, however, the keeper of the Marshalsea prison,
who was on the look-out for some stolen goods, called at the
lodging which she occupied, recognised her, and carried her off to
gaol. She was soon identified as a convict who had returned from
transportation, and her adventurous career presently ended on the
gallows.

JENNY DIVER.

Mary Young, alias Jenny Diver, was of the same stamp as the
"German Princess," but in a somewhat lower grade and of a later
date. Her business was chiefly pocket-picking, her adroitness in
which gamed her her sobriquet, as one who " dived " deep into
other people's pockets. She was an Irish girl in service, who
formed an acquaintance with a thief, and accompanied him to
London. The man was arrested on the way, and Mary Young,
arriving alone and helpless, soon joined a countrywoman, Ann
Murphy, and tried to earn her livelihood by her needle. Murphy
told her of a more lucrative way of life, and introduced her to
a club near St. Giles's, where thieves of both sexes assembled to
practise their business, and she 'was taught how to pick pockets,
steal watches, and cut off reticules. She soon displayed great
dexterity. An early feat, which gained her great renown, was that
of stealing a diamond ring from the finger of a young gentleman
who helped her to alight from a coach. Another clever trick of
hers was to wear false arms and hands, while her own were concealed
beneath her cloak, to be used as occasion offered. It was her
custom to attend churches, and, when seated in a crowded pew,
make play on either side. Another clever device was to join
the crowd assembled to see a State procession. She would be
attended by a footman and by several accomplices. Seizing a
favourable opportunity, between the Park and Spring Gardens,
she pretended to be taken seriously ill, and while the crowd pressed

AN ADROIT PICKPOCKET. 453

round her with kindly help, her confederates took advantage of
the confusion to lay hands on all they could " lift " ; jewels, watches,
snuffboxes of great value were thus secured. Yet again, accom-
panied by her footman, she would pretend to be taken ill at the
door of a fine house and send her servant in to know if she might
be admitted until she recovered. While the occupants, who willingly
acceded to her request, were seeking medicines she snapped up
all the cash and valuables she could find. But she was at last
arrested in the very act of picking a gentleman's pocket and was
transported to Virginia, whence she returned before the comple-
tion of her sentence and resumed her malpractices. Having
made a successful tour through the provinces, she returned to
London, frequented the Royal Exchange, the theatres, the Park,
and other places of the sort, where she preyed continually on the
public and with continued immunity from arrest, till she was caught
picking a pocket on London Bridge and was again sentenced to
transportation. Again she returned, within a year, and was finally
arrested, tried a third time, and sentenced to death.

THE BARONESS DE MENCKWITZ.

The type of Jenny Diver was not uncommon then or since, and
many names might be quoted in proof of this. A very notorious
female swindler came over to England towards the end of the eigh-
teenth century, and managed to defraud numbers of London trades-
people of considerable sums. Her plan of procedure was always
the same : to pass herself off as a lady of distinction, take a house
in a good part of the town, furnish it on credit, make away with
the goods, and then abscond. She was arrested again and again, and
spent much time in Newgate or the Fleet Prison. One device was
to open a picture gallery where busts and portraits were on sale,
which she had obtained, the first from an Italian image boy, the
second from credulous dealers. Sometimes she got a bill discounted
on the strength of having a consignment of wax figures detained
hi the Custom House. She set up an establishment as a "fancy
dress-maker " in Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, but the house was only
a cloak to debauchery and malpractices.

In carrying out these various frauds and crimes she assumed
many aliases, and was now Miss Price, next Mrs. Douglas or Lady

NEWGATE GAOL AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CEXTURV.
(From Contemporary Engravings.)

THE TONGUE OF A SIREN. 455

Douglas, Mrs. Wray, Mrs. Hughes, and finally, having joined forces
with a German swindler whose acquaintance she had made in the
Fleet Prison, she took rank as the Baroness de Menckwitz. This
Menckwitz was a dismissed lieutenant from the Imperial service,
who had committed many depredations in Vienna, and was much
" wanted " by the Imperial police. A handbill circulated at the
time described him as twenty-eight years of age, about the middle
height, hair inclined to be reddish and worn after the English
fashion " tied and" in a bag " ; in the face he was blotched, had grey
eyes, was rather thin but well made, and he usually wore the cross
of the Holy Order of St. Stanislas on his breast.

His associate, who had passed also as a Baroness de Kenentz,
was described in the same handbill as five feet in height, rather
thin, but of strong build, having quite black hair and eyebrows,
somewhat brown complexion, black eyes, and wearing her hair " quite
negligent or loose without powder." To this physical siynalement
a contemporary account adds : " She has the tongue of a siren, the
bite of an asp, and the fangs of a harpy. . . . She is devoid
of every particle of gratitude, and would sacrifice the best friend
the moment her turn is served. . . . Her art is so excessive that
though you were warned against her, she would find out new ways
to deceive you," and more to the same effect.

Together this precious pair made a fine harvest for a time. They
took a house in Somerset Street, Portman Square, for six months,
and hired a set of servants ; also a chariot, " the better to carry
on their depredations." They now pawned the plate they had
obtained by fraud in Vienna. A most elaborate scheme of fraud was
practised on a London merchant, to whom they presented them-
selves armed with a bill of exchange drawn in Hamburg, and on
the strength of which they obtained a loan of 100. This they
repaid, but obtained a fresh loan of 1,100, covered by the pledge
of a diamond ring. This sum was needed, they pretended, to complete
the purchase of a large stud of horses for the Grand Duke Ferdinand,
which was on the point of being shipped at Yarmouth. They further-
more represented that the Baron was about to be appointed Austrian
Ambassador in the room of Count Stareriberg, on the eve of being
recalled. On these pretences the loan was advanced, and only partly
repaid. Other frauds were perpetrated upon jewellers, who parted
with valuables, which the two Menckwitzes pledged. For this

450 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

they were arrested ; but the London merchant backed their bail,
entirely to his own loss.

After this the woman deserted her companion and took the
name of Douglas, to pursue her depredations her own way, and to
meet with the requital at last that she deserved.

EMILY LAWRENCE.

Before passing on to more recent female swindlers, it may be
interesting to mention briefly one or two who were well known
between 1850 and 1870. Emily Lawrence, a dashing adventuress
and adroit, daring thief, had few equals. She is described as a
most ladylike and fascinating person, who was received with
effusion when she descended from her brougham at a shop door
and entered to give her orders. Her line was jewel robbery, which
she effected on a large scale. At one time she was " wanted " for
stealing "loose" diamonds in Paris to the value of 10,000. Soon
afterwards she was arrested for other jewel robberies at Emanuel's,
and at Hunt and Roskell's, hi London. Imprisonment for seven
years followed, after which she resumed her operations, now
choosing for the scene of her depredations Brighton, where she stole
jewels worth 1,000 while she engaged the shopman with her
fascinating conversation. Apprehended as she was leaving Brighton,
she asserted that she was a lady of rank, but a London detective
who came down soon proved the contrary, and she again got seven
years. It was always said that this extraordinary woman carried
a number of valuable diamonds with her to Millbank penitentiary,
and succeeded in hiding them there. A tradition obtains that the
jewels were never unearthed, and that the secret of the hiding-
place long survived among the fraternity of thieves. Women, it
was said, came as prisoners almost voluntarily, in order to carry
out their search for the treasure, and a thousand devices were
tried to secure a lodging in the cell where the valuables were said
to be concealed. Whether they were found and taken safely out
of Millbank we shall never know. Probably the whole story is a
fable, and it is at least certain that no jewels were discovered
when Millbank was destroyed, root and branch, a few years
ago (1895), to make way for the National Gallery of British
Art.

MODERN FEMALE SCARPERS. 457

LOUISA MILES.

Louisa Miles was another of the Emily Lawrence class, who
kept her own carriage for purposes of fraud, and called herself by
several fine names. One day she drove up to Hunt and Roskell's
as Miss Constance Browne, to select jewels for her sick friend,
Lady Campbell. Giving a good West End address, and a banker's
reference, she asked that the valuables might be sent home on
approbation. When an assistant brought them, he was told Lady
Campbell was too ill to leave her room, and they must be taken
in to her. He demurred at first, then yielded, and never saw the
jewels again. After waiting nervously for half an hour the assistant
found he was locked in. When the police arrived to release him
the ladies had disappeared, and with them the jewels. The house
had been hired furnished, the carriage also was hired, as well as
the footman in livery. Pursuit was quickly organised, and Miss
Constance Browne was captured in a second-class carriage on the
Great Western Railway, with a quantity of the stolen jewels hi
her possession, and was sentenced to penal servitude.

MRS. GORDON-BAILLIE.

The modern female sharper is generally more inventive than
were her predecessors, and works on more ambitious lines, although
there is little to choose between the old and the new in
criminality. If the " German Princess " had had the same scope,
the same large theatre of operations, she would probably have
outdone even the famous Mrs. Gordon-Baillie, whose extensive
frauds gamed her a sentence of five years' penal servitude. This
ingenious person long turned the credulity of the British public
to her own advantage, and, posing as a lady of rank and fashion,
became noted for her heartfelt philanthropy, her eager desire to
help the distressed. It was in 1886 that a certain Mrs. Gordon-
Baillie appeared before the world as the champion and friend of
the crofters of Skye ; a dashing and attractive lady, in the possession
of ample funds, which she freely lavished in the interests of her
proteges. No one knew who she was or where she came from,
but she was accepted at her own valuation, and much appreciated,
not only in the island of Skye, when she was "on the stump."

458 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

but also in the West End of London, and by the best society. She
made a sensation wherever she went. She was a tall, light-haired,
fresh -complexioned woman, much given to gorgeous apparel, and
her fine presence and engaging ways gained her admission to many
good houses. Her movements were chronicled in society papers ;
she was often interviewed by the reporters, and she had a bank

MKS. GOKUON-BAILLIE.

balance and' a cheque-book as a client of one of the oldest banks
in London.

All this time the popular Mrs. Gordon-Baillie was a swindler
and a thief, whose chequered career had commenced by a term of
imprisonment in the general prison of Perth, who indulged in
several aliases, had been twice married, and was so deeply engaged
in shady transactions that she had been very much "wanted," and
had only evaded pursuit by changing her identity. She was born
of humble parents at Peterhead her mother having been a servant,

MRS. GORDON-BAILLIE'S CAREER. 459

her father a small farmer and first became known to criminal
fame about 1872 as a pretty, engaging young person who had
swindled the tradesmen of Dundee. She was there convicted of
obtaining goods under false pretences, having hired and furnished a
smart villa, where she lived in luxurious comfort until arrested for
not paying the bills. She was at this time Miss Mary Ann Suther-
land Bruce, her own name, and she retained it after her release,
when she returned to her swindling courses, this time in Edinburgh,
whence she was obliged to bolt. Her movements were now erratic ;
she passed rapidly from London to Paris, from Paris to Rome,
Florence, Vienna, visiting all the principal cities of Europe, and
leaving behind her unpaid tradesmen and disappointed landlords,
but turning up smiling hi new places, and soon securing new
friends. As a proof of her audacity, about this time she made
overtures to buy a London newspaper, and to start in the manage-
ment of a London theatre. She was now resident in a pretty
house near Regent's Park, with a lady companion, a brougham,
and a well-mounted establishment. Once again fate checked her
career, in the shape of warrants for fraudulent pretences, and she
found it advisable to disappear. When next she rose above the
surface it was in a new aspect, with a new name. She was now
Miss Ogilvie White, sometimes Mrs. White. During this period
she was summoned at the Mansion House by a cabman, and was
described as of York Terrace, Regent's Park.

Her first appearance as Mrs. Gordon-Baillie was in 1885, when
she became intimately acquainted with an old baronet, a gentle-
man on the other side of eighty, now inclining to dotage. Under
his auspices she launched out again, had a charming house
in the West End, and money was plentiful for a time. It was a
costly acquaintance for him; when the supplies ran short (and
she seems to have extracted quite 18,000 from him) she easily
persuaded him to accept bills for large amounts, which were
readily discounted in the City until it was found there were "no
effects " to meet them. The aged baronet was sued on all sides,
and although his friends interposed declaring he was unable to
manage his own affairs, having signed these acceptances under
undue influence, a petition in bankruptcy was filed against him,
so that the claims, which ran to thousands of pounds, might be
thoroughly investigated. Mrs. Gordon-Baillie was much " wanted "

460

MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

in connection with these transactions. But she was not to be found,
and it was reported that she had gone to Australia, although her
visit to the Antipodes w r as really made at a later date.

MRS. GOKUON-BAILLIE AMONG THE CKOFTEKS (p. 461).

It was about this time that she married privately for she
retained her more aristocratic surname a certain Richard Percival
Bodeley Frost. Her husband was fairly well born and had good
connections, but he was put to hard shifts for a living, and found

MRS. GORDON-BAILLIE AS A LAND REFORMER. 461

his account in floating the bills which his future wife was obtaining
from the baronet above mentioned. The manipulation of these con-
siderable sums gave him status as a man of substance, and he
became largely engaged in company promoting, entering into con-
tracts and other speculations. It was proved that he was at this
tune entirely without means, yet he contrived to get good backing
from bankers in Lombard Street, and one City solicitor lent him
1,000 for a week or two on his note of hand. The money was
never repaid, and when Mr. Frost was finally exposed he appeared
in the bankruptcy court with liabilities to the tune of 130,000.

Meanwhile his wife had espoused the cause of the crofters of
Skye. She appeared there in the depths ot a severe winter, but,
nothing daunted, went on stump through the island, received every-
\vhere with enthusiasm by the crofters, whom she harangued on
every possible occasion. Her charity was profuse, it was said,
although the source of the funds she distributed was somewhat
tainted. At the end of her tour she collected 70 towards the
defence of the crofters about to be tried at Inverness, and for this
notable service she was presented with an address signed by the
member for Skye and others. Now she went out to Australia,
partly on private business, partly to seek assistance for her crofters
and acquire lands on which they might settle in the New World.
Her visit was one long triumph. She was warmly greeted where-
ever she appeared. Colonial statesmen gladly fell in with her views,
and when she returned to England, it was with a grant of 70,000
acres from the Government of Victoria.

Frost, to whom she was no doubt married, joined her in Australia,
and the couple returned to England as Mr. and Mrs. Roberts. She,
however, resumed the name of Gordon-Baillie, and as such embarked
upon a new career of swindling, which was neither profitable nor
very successful. Her system argued that she was no longer backed
by capital, and that she was reduced to rather commonplace
frauds to gain a livelihood. Her usual practice, about which there
is little novelty, was to order goods from confiding tradesmen, pay
for them with a cheque above the value, and get the change hi
cash. The cheques were presently dishonoured, but Mrs. Gordon-
Baillie had scored twice, having both ready money and the goods
themselves, whith she promptly re-sold. Frost was concerned in
these transactions; for the counterfoils of the cheque-book were in

462 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

his handwriting. The Frosts constantly changed their address,
moving from furnished house to furnished house, adding to their
precarious means by plundering and pawning all articles on which
they could safely lay their hands.

In all this she was no doubt greatly aided by her fashionable
appearance and whining ways. Not only did shopmen bow down
before her, but she imposed upon the shrewd pressmen who inter-
viewed her, and towards the end of her career, when funds were
low, she persuaded a firm of West End bankers, hard-headed,
experienced men of business, to give her a cheque-book and allow
her to open an account. She soon had drawn no less than thirty-
nine cheques on their bank, not one of which was honoured. When
at last fate overtook her, and the police were set on her track by
the duped and defrauded tradesmen, she brazened it out in court,
declaring that her engagements were no more than debts, and that
she was no worse than dozens of fashionable ladies who did not
pay their bills. The prompt disposal of the goods she had obtained
was, however, held to be felonious. Nor would the judge allow her
plea that she always meant to replace the furniture she had pawned.
Severe punishment was her righteous portion, and all who were
associated with her suffered. As Annie Frost she was sentenced
to five years' penal servitude ; her husband, Frost, to eighteen
months. Since her release, she has been reconvicted for the same
class of fraud, but she is, I believe, now again at large.

A VIENNESE IMPOSTOR.

An ingenious fraud was not long since devised and carried out
with a certain impunity by a young woman of Vienna. She pre-
tended to have been struck with a sudden admiration for some one
of the gilded youth of the Austrian capital, and so far forgot
maidenly reserve as to write and confess her weakness. She chose
a well-to-do but easily gullible person and not one, but dozens,
telling them one and all the same story. As she signed herself in
full with the aristocratic name of Kinsky, just then borne by a
beautiful and wealthy member of that high family, the individuals
selected felt themselves on the high road to fortune. The corre-
spondence which followed was of the romantic kind, and it ended
in a consent to elope at an early date.

THE "CONFIDENCE QUEEN"

463

HEKTHA HEYMAX.

That was, however, impossible until sufficient funds were forth-
coming to bribe the servants of the Kinsky mansion the concierge,
the lady's rnaid, the footmen, coachman, and so forth. Ample
supplies were forthwith despatched to the young lady, who thus
realised a very considerable sum. About
this time the fraud became known to the
police, and the false countess was arrested
under the more plebeian name of Marie
Lichtner.. She seems to have enjoyed the
whole joke, which was both profitable and
amusing, despite the penalty of imprison-
ment that overtook her. On one occasion
she gave a rendezvous to all her admirers
at the opera, and on the same night. They
were to appear in correct evening dress,
and each was to wear a white camellia in
his buttonhole. Marie Lichtner was there,
but so also was the true countess, in a box
upon the Grand Tier, resplendent in her

beauty, and no doubt the false lady had the mingled pleasure and pain
of seeing many lovelorn looks addressed to the Kinsky box and its
handsome occupant.

BIG BERTHA.

America has produced a rival to Mrs. Gordon-Baillie in Bertha
Heyman, sometimes known as " Big Bertha," sometimes as the "Confi-
dence Queen," a lady of like smart appearance and engaging manners,
who reaped a fine harvest from the simpletons who were only too
willing to believe in her. One of her first exploits was to wheedle a
thousand dollars out of a palace car conductor when travelling
between New York and Chicago. Soon after that, with a confederate
calling himself Dr. Cooms, she was arrested for despoiling a
commercial traveller from Montreal of several hundred thousand
dollars by the confidence game. Her schemes were extraordinarily
bold and ingenious, and they were covered by much ostentatious
display. It was her plan to lodge at the best hotels, such as the
Windsor, the Brunswick, and Hoffman House, New York, the Palmer
House in Chicago, or Parker's in Boston, to have both a lady's-maid
and a man-servant in her train, and to talk at large about her

464 MYSTERIES OF POLICE AND CRIME.

influential friends. Yet she was constantly in trouble, and saw the
inside of many gaols and penitentiaries, but she came out ready to
begin again with new projects, often on a bolder scale. One of
her last feats was in Wall Street operations in stocks and shares
With her specious tongue she persuaded one broker that she was
enormously rich, worth at least eight million dollars, and by this
means won a great deal of money. The fraud was only discovered
when the securities she had deposited were examined and found
to be quite worthless. "Big Bertha" was gifted with insight into
human nature, and is said to have succeeded in deceiving the
shrewdest business people. Of late nothing has been heard of her.

OF VOL.I.

PRINTED BV CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON, B.C.

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