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MYSTERIES  OF  POLICE  AND  CRIME 


MYSTERIES  OF  POLICE 
AND  CRIME 

A  GENERAL  SURVEY  OF  WRONGDOING 
AND  ITS  PURSUIT 


BY 
MAJOR   ARTHUR  QRIFFITHS 

AUTHOR   OF   "memorials   OF   MILLBANK,"    *' CHRONICLES  OF  NEWGATE," 

"secrets  of  the  prison  house,"  etc. 
*john  howard"  gold  medallist,  and  one  of  h.  m.  inspectors  of  prisons 


VOLUME  I. 


New  York  :  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

London  :  CASSELL  and  COMPANY,  Limited 


1899 

4 


■Ms' i  V  1:  k  f.  n  Y 


A'  ii-xi^i^ 


J  J  3  V\  ii  0  ;i 

Yi]  AMHIJ 


CONTENTS 


VOLUME    I. 


Introduction 


PAGE 

1 


fart   i.— POLICE— PAST  AND   PRESENT. 

CHAPTER 

I.  Early  Police  ... 

II.  Police  in  England 

m.  Modern  Police  :   London,  Paris,  and  New  York 

IV.  The  Detectite,  Old  and  New     

V.  English  Detectives 


39 
62 


100 
129 


fart   li.— JUDICIAL   ERROES. 


VI.  Wrongful  Convictions       

VII.  Disputed  or  Mistaken  Identity  ... 

Vin.  Problematical  Errors        

,  IX.  Police  Mistakes       


149 
172 
188 
212 


riii  MYSTERIES  OF  POLICE  AND  GRIME. 

fart    aaa.— CAFTAINS   OF   CRIME. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

X.    Some  Famous  Swindlers 227 

XI.     Sttindleks  of  Moke  Modern-  Type         247 

XII.     Some  Female  Criminals      ...         ...         ...         ..          ...         ...  282 

XIII.     Wholesale  Homicides         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  297 


fart   Uir— CRIMES   OF    THE    HIGHWAY. 

XIV.    Highwaymen  and  Mail  Coach  Robbers  ..  32S 

XV.     Crimes  of  the  Highways 363 

y  XVI.     Robberies  by  the  Way  and  Railway  Grimes ...  386 

XVII.     Brigands,  Bushrangers,  Outlaws,  and  Road  Agents  ...  408 


fart    ».— MURDER    MYSTERIES. 

XVm.     Concealment ...     441 

XIX.    Disposal  of  the  "Corpus  Delicti"       459 


INTEODUCTION. 


CRIME  is  the  transgression  by  individuals  ol  rules  made 
by  the  community.  Wrong-doing  may  be  either  inten- 
tional or  accidental — 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  consti- 
tute a  really  criminal  act  the  offence  must  be  wilful, 
perverse,  and  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  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 
chiefly  beset  it.  If  the  good  things  of  life  were  more  evenly 
distributed,  if  everyone  had  his  rights,  if  there  were  no 
fraud,  no  oppression,  there  would  be  no  attempts  to  readjust 
an  unequal  balance  by  violent  or  flagitious  means.  This  may 
explain  much,  but  it  does  not  cover  the  whole  ground,  and  it 
cannot  excuse  many  forms  of  crime.  Crime  is  the  ineradic- 
able birthmark  of  fallen  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 
paraphrase  a  great  saying,  some  achieve  crime,  some  have 
it  thrust  upon  them ;  but  most  of  us  (we  may  make  the 
statement  without  subscribing  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
criminal  anthropologists)  are  born  to  crime.     The  assertion 

B 


2  INTROBUGTIOK. 

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 ! " 

That  we  are  all  potential  criminals  is  proved  by  the 
natural  proclivities  of  the  young.  Criminal  instincts,  more 
or  less  strongly  developed,  are  to  be  seen  in  all  children. 
Anger,  resentment,  mendacity,  destructiveness,  acquisitiveness 
are  evil  traits  exhibited  by  most  of  them,  although  in  many 
happily  eradicated  by  careful  education.  "  It  is  the  mother's 
part,"  says  Dr.  Nicholson,  one  of  our  best  writers  on  criminal 
psychology,  "to  encourage  the  gradual  growth  of  inhibitory 
processes,  such  as  prudence,  reflection,  and  a  sense  of  moral 
duty.  ...  In  proportion  as  this  development  is  prevented  or 
stifled,  either  owing  to  original  brain  defect  or  by  lack  of 
proper  education  and  training,  so  there  is  the  risk  of  the 
individual  lapsing  into  criminal-mindedness  or  into  actual 
crime." 

Criminals  are  manufactured  no  less  by  social  cross- 
purposes  than  by  the  domestic  neglect  which  fosters  the  first 
fatal  predisposition.  "  Assuredly  external  factors  and  circum- 
stances count  for  much  in  the  causation  of  crime,"  says 
Maudsley.  The  preventive  agencies  are  all  the  more  neces- 
sary 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  degeneracy. 
This  is  constantly  seen  with  the  offspring  of  criminals.  But 
it  is  equally  certain  that  the  poison  may  be  eradicated,  the 
evE  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,  apocryphal 
monster,  although  possessing  all  the  fatal  characteristics, 
need  not  necessarily  commit  crime.  The  bias  may  be 
checked     it  may  lie  latent  through  life  unless  called  into 


GBIME   PERENNIAL.  3 

activity  by  certain  unexpected  conditions  of  time  and  chance. 
An  ingenious  refinement  of  tJbe  old  adage,  "Opportunity 
makes  the  thief,"  has  been  invented  by  an  Italian  scientist, 
Baron  Garofalo,  who  has  written  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 
universality,  of  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 
varied  multiform  manifestations;  to  deal  with  its  commis- 
sion, the  motives  that  have  causfed  it,  the  methods  by  which 
it  has  been  perpetrated,  the  steps  taken — sometimes  extraor- 
dinarily ingenious  and  astute,  sometimes  foolishly  forgetful 
and  ineffective — to  conceal  the  deed  and  throw  the  pursuers 
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  avail- 
able is  colossal,  almost  overwhelming. 

Every  country,  civilised  and  uncivilised,  the  whole  world 
at  large  in  aU  ages,  has  been  continually  cursed  with  crime. 
From  Cain  the  first  murderer  to  the  last  case  reported  in 
the  morning  paper  is  a  long  record;  between  Jacob 
cheating  Esau  of  his  birthright  to  the  modern  swindler 
who  robs  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  there  is  an  inter- 
minable and  infinitely  varied  roll  of  frauds.  To  deal  with 
but  a  fractional  part  of  the  evil  deeds  that  have  dis- 
graced humanity  would  fiU  endless  volumes ;  where  "  envy, 
hatred,  and  all  uncharitableness"  have  so  often  im- 
pelled those  weak  in  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 


4  INTRODUGTION. 

equalled  by  their  reckless  audacity.  They  will  take  life 
without  a  moment's  hesitation,  and  often  for  a  miserable 
gain ;  will  prepare  great  coups  a  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  readi- 
ness to  obey ;  will  utilise  much  technical  skill ;  will  assume 
strange  disguises  and  play  many  different  parts,  all  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  nefarious  schemes  or  in  escaping  penal- 
ties 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  prepared  in 
secret,  committed  by  offenders  who  have  remained  long  per- 
haps entirely  unknown,  but  who  have  sometimes  met 
with  their  true  deserts ;  offences  that  have  in  conse- 
quence exercised  the  ingenuity  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  voyages 
and  vicissitudes  of  criminals  with  the  poHce  at  their  heels 
make  up  a  chronicle  of  moving  hair-breadth  adventure 
unsurpassed  by  any  ordinary  books  of  travel  and  sport. 

Typical  cases  can  only  be  taken,  one  or  more  according  to 
their  relative  interest  and  importance,  but  aU  more  or  less  illus- 
trating and  embracing  the  many  and  hydra-headed  varieties 
of  crime.  We  shall  see  murders  most  foul,  surrounded  with 
the  strangest  conditions  ;  brutal  and  ferocious  attacks,  followed 
by  the  most  cold-blooded  callousness  in  disposing  of  the 
evidences  of  the  crime.     Some  will  kill,  as  Garofalo  puts  it, 


GBIME8    OF   GBEED.  5 

"  tor  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  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  wiU  be  slow,  secret  poisonings,  often 
producing  confusion  and  difference  of  opinion  among  the 
most  distinguished  scientists ;  successful  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  prolonged  honest  exercise,  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  chmes,  often  unchecked  or  with  long  impunity.  Their 
methods  have  varied  almost  indefinitely  with  their  sur- 
roundings and  opportunities.  Now,  they  have  used  merely 
violence  and  brute  force,  singly  or  in  associated  numbers,  by 
open  attack  by  highway  and  byway,  by  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  pre- 
cautions. Robbery  has  been  practised  in  every  conceivable 
form :  by  piracy,  the  bold  adventure  of  the  sea-rover  flying 
his  black  flag  in  the  face  of  the  world  ;  by  brigandage  in  new 
or  distracted  communities,  imperfectly  protected  by  the  law ; 
by  daring  outrage  upon  the  travelling  public,  as  highwaymen, 


6  INTBOBUCTION. 

bushrangers,  road  agents,  "  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, 
by  "winning"  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,  and  violent  assaults; 
dexterous  neat-handed  pilfering,  pocket-picking,  counter- 
snatching;  by  insinuating  approaches  to  simple  folk,  and 
the  astute,  endlessly  multiplied  apphcatioh  of  the  Con- 
fidence 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  substi- 
tuting false  for  good,  by  forging  notes,  manufacturing  coin,  or 
by  clipping,  sweating,  and  misusing  that  cast  in  precious 
metals.  The  extension  of  banks,  of  credit,  of  financial  trans- 
actions on  paper  has  encouraged  the  trade  of  the  forger  and 
fabricator,  whose  misdeeds,  aimed  against  monetary  values  ot 
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  seemed  to  see  chances  ot 
aggrandisement,  or  of  ease  from  pressing  embarrassments,  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  to  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,  adopting  nefarious  practices,  wholesale 


THE    POLICE  A    BUCKLER.  7 

forgery,  absolute  misappropriation,  and  unpardonable  breaches 
of  trust. 

Between  these  and  the  "  high  flyers,"  the  artists  in  crime, 
and  the  lesser  fry,  the  rogues,  swindlers,  and  fraudulent  im- 
postors, 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  talents 
and  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  tele- 
graph and  the  telephone,  ere  long,  perchance,  the  Kontgen 
rays,  of  chemical  appliances,  of  photography  in  counterfeiting 
signatures  or  preparing  bank-note  plates ;  we  shall  find  the 
most  elaborate  and  cleverly  designed  attacks  on  great  bank- 
ing corporations,  whether  by  open  force  or  insidious  methods 
of  forgery  and  falsification,  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  motive  to  crime ; 
yet  the  depredator  who  will  not  work  steadily  and  honestly 
will  give  infinite  time  and  pains  to  compass  his  criminal  ends. 

Society,  weak,  guUible,  and  defenceless,  handicapped  by 
a  thousand  conventions,  would  soon  be  devoured  alive  by 
its  venomous  parasites;  but  happily  it  has  devised  the 
^ield  and  buckler  of  the  police;  not  an  entirely  efiective 
protector,  perhaps,  but  earnest,  devoted,  unhesitating  in 
the  performance  of  its  duties.     The  personaUties,  the  finer 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

achievements  of  eminent  police  officers  are  as  striking  as  the 
exploits  of  the  enemies  they  continually  pursue.  In  the  end- 
less warfare,  success  inclines  now  to  this  side,  now  to  that; 
but  the  forces  of  law  and  order  have  generally  the  pre- 
ponderance in  the  end.  Infinite  pains,  unwearied  patience, 
abounding  wit,  sharp-edged  intuition,  promptitude  in  seizing 
the  vaguest  shadow  of  a  clue,  unerring  sagacity  in  clinging 
to  it  and  following  it  up  to  the  substantial  capture,  these 
quahties  make  constantly  in  favour  of  the  police.  The 
fugitive  is  often  equally  alert,  no  less  gifted,  no  less  astute ; 
his  crime  has  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,  some- 
times 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  the  best  of  it.  The  machinery 
and  organisation  of  modern  life  favours  pursuit.  The  world  s 
"  shrinkage,"  the  faciUties  of  travel,  the  narrowing  of  neutral 
ground,  of  secure  sanctuary  for  the  fugitive,  the  universal, 
almost  immediate,  publicity  that  waits  on  starthng  crimes, 
all  these  are  against  the  criminal  Electricity  is  his  worst 
and  bitterest  foe,  and  next  rank  the  post  and  the  Press. 
Flight  is  checked  by  the  wire,  the  first  mail  carries  fuU  par- 
ticulars everywhere,  and  to  an  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  (and  not  of  tainted  origin  that  might  draw 


DI8APPEABAN0EB.  9 

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. 
Backed  by  any  of  these,  he  declared  he  could  hide  himself 
completely  in  the  East-End  or  the  Western  Hebrides  or 
South  America  or  provincial  France  or  some  Spanish  moun- 
tain 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  heroine  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  quoted  in  support  of  this  view.  Such 
people  are  not  necessarily  in  request;  there  may  be  a  secret 
reason  for  concealment,  for  dreading  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  identity.  The  case  is  not 
singular,  moreover.     Another  on  all  fours,  and  even  more 


10  INTBOBVCTION. 

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  be  long  undetected  when  it  is  no 
person's  business  to  expose  it.  Where  crime  complicates  it, 
where  the  police  are  on  the  alert  and  have  an  object  in  hunt- 
ing down,  disappearance  is  seldom  entirely  successful.  Dr. 
Jekyll  could  not  cover  Mr.  Hyde  altogether  when  his  homicidal 
mania  became  ungovernable.  The  clergyman  who  hved  a  life 
of  sanctity  and  preached  admirable  sermons  to  an  appreciative 
congregation  for  five  full  years  was  run  in  at  last  and  exposed 
as  a  noted  burglar  in  private  Ufe.  "  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,  jiist  after  the  per- 
petration of  a  great  crime,  when  the  criminal  is  missing, 
and  the  pursuit  at  fault,  every  gossip,  landlady,  "  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  circumstance.  The  rapid  dissemination  of  news 
to  the  four  quarters  of  the  land  by  our  far-reaching,  inde- 
fatigable, and  wide-awake  Press  has  undoubtedly  secured 
many  aiTcsts.  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  news- 
papers with  the  express  intention  of  deceiving  their  quarry; 
the  missing  man  has  been  luUed  into  fancied  security  by 


VALUE    OF  PUBLICITY.  11 

hearing  that  the  pursuers  are  on  a  wrong  scent,  and,  issuing 
from  concealment,  "  gives  himself  away." 

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,  a  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 
brown  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  contained  a  quantity 
of  silver  plate,  and  other  articles  of  value.  When  the  poUce 
were  called  in,  they  identified  the  whole  as  part  of  the 
property  abstracted  from  Lord  William  Russell's.  Here  was 
a  Unk  directly  connecting  Courvoisier  with  the  murder. 
Hitherto  the  evidence  had  been  mainly  circumstantial.  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  ante- 
cedent 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  came  forward  to 
say  he  had  bought  that  very  hat  at  that  very  maker's  for  a 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

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  Mtlller  was  the 
murderer.  His  movements  were  easily  traced.  He  had  gone 
across  the  Atlantic  in  a  sailing  ship,  and  was  easily  forestalled 
in  a  fast  Atlantic  liner,  which  carried  the  detective  officers, 
the  jeweller,  and  the  cabman. 

Where  identity  is  clear  the  publication  of  the  signalement, 
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  was  published  in  the  columns  of  a 
London  daily  paper.  Some  eminent  but  highly  cautious 
police  officers  nevertheless  deprecate  the  interference  of  the 
Press,  and  have  said  that  the  premature  or  injudicious  dis- 
closure of  facts  obtained  in  the  progress  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,  which  has  sometimes  been  adopted  by  ener- 
getic reporters  in  Paris,  more  largely  adopted.  Without 
entering  into  the  pro's  and  con.'s  of  such  competition,  it  is 
but  right  to  admit  that  the  Press,  with  its  powerful  influence, 
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  pohce  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 


AIDS    TO   BETEOTION.  13 

"wanted,"  with  rough  but  often  life-like  woodcut  portraits 
and  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,  and  puts  all  interested  on  the  alert  and  active  in 
running  down  their  prey. 

Detection  depends  largely,  of  course,  upon  the  know- 
ledge, astuteness,  ingenuity,  and  logical  powers  of  police 
officers,  although  they  find  many  independent  and  often 
unexpected  aids,  as  we  shall  see.  The  best  method  of  pro- 
cedure is  clearly  laid  down  in  police  manuals ;  instructions 
for  immediate  systematic  investigation  on  the  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,  unexplained  change  of  domicile, 
proved  possession  of  substantial  funds  after  previous  indi- 
gence, all  these  are  detailed  for  the  guidance  of  the  detec- 
tive-. It  will  be  seen  how  small  a  thing  has  sufficed  to 
establish  a  clue.  A  name  chalked  upon  a  door  in  tell-tale 
handwriting;  four  letters,  half  a  word,  scratched  upon  a 
chisel,  has  led  to  the  identification  of  its  guilty  owner;  a 
button  dropped  after  a  burglary  has  been  found  to  corre- 
spond with  those  on  the  coat  of  a  man  in  custody  for  another 
offence,  and  the  very  place  from  which  it  was  torn ;  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;  the  position  of  a  body  has  shown  that  death 
could  not  have  been  accidental;  the  imperishable  nature  of 
a  false  tooth  has  sufficed  for  proof  of  identity  when  every 


14  INTBOBUGTION. 

other  vestige  lias  been  anniliilated.  by  fire.  In  one  clear 
case  of  murder,  detection  was  aided  by  the  discovery  of  a  few 
half-burnt  matches  that  the  criminal  had  burnt  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,  with  fresh 
food  by  him,  in  the  locked-up  apartment  to  which  the  ocbupier 
had  never  returned.  The  strongest  evidence  against  Patch, 
the  murderer  of  Mr.  Blight  at  Kotherhithe,  was  that  the 
shot  which  did  the  deed  could  not  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  of  a  cellar  had  been  disturbed,  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  particular  season.  We  shall 
see  in  the  Voirbo  case  how  an  ingenious  police  officer, 
when  he  found  bloodstains  on  a  floor,  discovered  where  a 
body  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  been  worked  cleverly  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  patient  investigations  of  a 
medical  expert,  M.  Bertillon,  of  Paris,  have  discovered  and 
proved  beyond  all  question  that  certain  measurements  of  the 
human  frame  are  not  only  constant  and  unchangeable,  but 
pecuhar  to  each  subject;  the  width  of  the  head,  the  length  of 


"  BEBTILLONAGE."  15 

the  face,  of  the  middle  finger,  of  the  lower  limbs  from  knee 
to  foot,  and  others  provide  so  many  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  by  every 
civilised  nation  in  the  world  on  the  same  lines,  so  that  ere 
long  criminals  who  are  catalogued  properly  can  be  recognised 
and  identified  in  any  country  where  "  Bertillonage "  is  in 
force.  No  less  remarkable  are  the  results  obtained  by  Mr. 
Francis  Galton  with  the  human  finger  prints.  He  has  also 
proved  that  these,  exhibited  in  certain  unalterable  combina- 
tions, sufiice  to  fix  individual  identity,  and  his  system  ot 
notation,  as  now  practised  in  England,  in  conjunction  with 
the  measurements  above  mentioned,  will  some  day  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  recorded  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  excised  from  the  deer,  was  carried  off  with  a 
number  of  valuables.  Musk  is  a  costly  commodity,  for  it  is 
rare,  obtained  generally  from  far-off  Thibet.  The  police,  in 
following  up  the  dacoits,  invaded  their  tanda,  or  encamp- 
ment, and  were  at  once  conscious  of  an  unmistakable  and 
overpowering  smell  of  musk,  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  otto  of  "  keora," 
or  spikenard,  much  used  in  idol  worship.  He  travelled 
up  country  by  boat  part  of  the  way,  then  landed  to  com- 
plete the  journey,  and  carried  with  him  the  spikenard.  He 
feU  among  thieves,  a  small  gang  of  professional  poisoners, 
who  disposed  of  him:  killed  him  and  his  companions  and 

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


16  INTIiODUGTION. 

threw  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  of  keora,  nearly  emptied,  was  discovered  beneath  a 
stack  of  fuel  in  a  small  room.  Yet  again,  the  strong  smell 
of  opium  led  to  the  detection  of  a  robbery  in  the  Punjaub, 
where  a  train  of  bullock  carts  laden  with  that  valuable 
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  foot- 
steps 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. 

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  taken  up  quite  by  accident,  because  his  papers 
were  not  in  proper  form.  He  might  still  have  escaped  pro- 
longed 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 


SUPERSTITION  AND   LUCK.  17 

he  was  led  straight  to  his  desired  goal.  The  same  officer 
confessed  that  the  chance  of  seeing  a  letter  delivered  by  the 
postman  at  a  certain  door  tempted  him  to  become  possessed 
of  the  letter,  and  he  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  without  taking  the  omens ;  noting  the 
flight  of  birds,  the  braying  of  a  jackass  to  right  or  left  and 
so  on,  interpreting  them  as  warnings  or  encouragements  to 
proceed.  This  superstitious  belief  in  good  and  bad  luck 
is  still  prevalent.  A  notorious  bank-note  forger  in  France 
carefully  abstained  from  counterfeiting  notes  of  two  values, 
those  for  500  francs  and  2,000  francs,  being  convinced  that 
they  would  bring  him  into  trouble.  Thieves,  it  has  been 
noticed,  generally  foUow  one  line  of  business,  because  a 
first  essay  in  it  was  successful.  The  man  who  steals  coats 
continually  steals  them ;  once  a  horse  thief  always  a  horse 
thief;  the  forger  sticks  to  his  line,  as  does  the  pickpocket, 
the  burglar,  and  the  performer  of  the  confidence  trick,  who 
repeats  the  operation  in  the  same  hackneyed  fashion  time 
after  time.  The  burglar  dislikes  extremely  the  use  of  any 
tools  or  instruments  but  his  own ;  he  generally  believes  that 
another  man's  false  keys,  jemmies,  and  so  forth,  would 
bring  him  bad  luck.  Only  in  matter-of-fact  America  the 
cracksman  rises  superior  to  superstition,  and  a  good  business 
is  done  by  certain  people  who  lend  house-breaking  tools 
on  hire. 

Instinct,  aboriginal  and  animal,  has  helped  at  times.  The 
mediaeval  story  of  the  dog  of  Montargis  may  be  mere  fable, 
yet  it  rests   on  historic    tradition   that  after   Macaire  had 


18  INTBODUGTION. 

murdered  Aubry  de  Montdidier  in  the  forest  of  Bondy,  the  ex- 
traordinary aversion  shown  by  the  dog  to  Macaire  first  aroused 
suspicion,  and  led  to  the  ordeal  of  mortal  combat,  in  which 
the  dog  triumphed.  The  strange,  almost  superhuman,  powers 
of  the  Australian  blacks  in  foUowing  blind,  invisible  tracks 
have  been  turned  to  good  account  in  the  pursuit  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 
precision  whether  the  ground  has  been  recently  disturbed,  as 
well  as  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  instituted,  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  further 
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. 

There  was  nobody,  however,  definitely  to  prove  foul  play, 


AUSTRALIAN  BLACKS.  19 

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  footmarks  on  the 
margin.  At  last  thoy  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  contain  the  mangled  remains  of  the  missing  stock- 
holder. 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  protested  against  examin- 
ing the  ponds.  While  this  was  in  progress,  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,  aU  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 


20  INTBOBUOTION. 

murdered  man  had  carried  his  cash  ?  It  was  surmised  that 
they  had  been  put  by  in  some  safe  place,  and  again  the  ser- 
vices 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  north- 
ward. These  took  him  to  a  gully  or  dry  watercourse,  in  the 
centre  of  which  was  a  high  pile  of  stones.  The  tracks  ended 
at  a  stone  on  the  side,  when  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  convincing  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,  as  set  up  by  the  defence. 
It  was  also  shown  that  the  men  had  been  absent  from  the 
hut  the  greater  part  of  the  morning  of  the  murder.  They 
were  executed  at  Melbourne. 

This  extraordinary  faculty  of  following  a  trail  is  character- 
istic of  all  the  Australian  blacks.  These  aborigines  have 
repeatedly  shown  equal  cleverness  in  this  respect.  It  was 
especially  remarkable  in  a  Queensland  case,  where  a  man  was 
missing  who  was  supposed  to  have  been  murdered,  and  whose 
remains  were  discovered  by  the  black  trackers.  An  aged  shep- 
herd, 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  suspicious 
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  idly.    But  they  lost  their  native  indolence  when 


ABORIGINAL   INSTINCT.  21 

there  was  tracking  to  be  done.  Now  they  were  roused  to 
keenest  excitement,  and  entered  eagerly  into  the  work,  jabber- 
ing and  gesticulating,  with  flashing  eyes.  No  one,  to  look 
at  these  eyes,  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  missing  shepherd.  The  first  discovery, 
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.  Other  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  everyone  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  horseback  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  heads,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  nothing  was  found 
in  this  second  creek.  The  pursuit  returned  to  the  hoof- 
marks,  and  they  were  followed  to  the  edge  of  a  scrub,  where 
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  where,  in  the  distance, 
a  small  spiral  column  ascended  into  the  sky.     It  was  the 


22  INTBOBUGTION. 

remains  of  an  old  and  dilapidated  sheep-yard,  which  had  been 
burnt  by  the  station  overseer.  This  individual,  it  should  have 
been  premised,  had  all  along  been  suspected  of  making  away 
with  the  shepherd  from  interested  motives,  having  been  the 
depository  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  un- 
consumed,  and  a  few  teeth  were  found,  quite  perfect,  having 
altogether  escaped  the  action  of  the  fire.  Soon  the  buckle  of 
a  belt  was  found,  and  identified  as  having  been  worn  by  the 
missing  shepherd,  and  the  iron  heel  of  a  boot  corresponding 
to  that  found  in  the  first  water-hole.  Thus  the  marvellous 
sagacity  of  the  black  trackers  had  ended  the  mystery  of  the 
shepherd's  disappearance,  but,  although  the  shepherd's  fate 
was  thereby  established  beyond  doubt,  the  evidence  was  not 
suflScient  to  bring  home  the  crime  of  murder  to  the  overseer. 

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  no  one  could 
have  reached  from  the  window  to  the  bed,  but  still  more  by 
the  fact  that  this  window  was  still  nailed  down  on  one  side. 
The  real  murderer  in  planning  the  crime  had  extracted  one  nail 
and  left  the  other.    The  detection  of  the  thieves  and  murderers 


STUPIDITY   OF   CRIMINALS.  23 

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  slain  their  three  victims,  they 
forced  the  safe  and  carried  off  a  large  quantity  of  securities 
payable  to  bearer,  for  M.  Delahache  was  a  saving,  weU-to-do 
person.  They  took  all  the  gold  and  bank-notes,  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,  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  Ues  in  full  public 
view.  This  is  so  thoroughly  understood  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  ex- 
posed. 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  instances 
might  be  quoted  in  which  offenders  disclose  their  crime  by 
ill-advised  ostentation ;  the  reckless  display  of  much  cash  by 
those  who  were,  seemingly,  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 


24  INTRODUCTION. 

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  in  a  great  criminal  and  his  detection  through  his 
own  foolishness  occurred  in  the  case  of  Mullins,  the  Stepney 
murderer,  who  betrayed  himself  to  the  police  when  they  were 
really  at  fault,  and  their  want  of  acuteness  was  the  subject  of 
much  caustic  criticism.  The  victim  in  this  case  was  an  aged 
woman  of  eccentric  character  and  extremely  parsimonious 
habits,  who  lived  entirely  alone,  only  admitting  a  woman  to 
help  her  in  the  house-work  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  suspicious  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  August. 
When  people  came  to  see  her  on  business  on  the  14th,  15th 
and  16th,  she  made  no  response  to  their  loud  knockings,  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  August,  a  shoemaker,  named  Emm, 
whom  she  sometinies  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  foimd  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  also  splashed  the  walls,  and  a  bloody 


BETRAYED    BY  BABBLING.  25 

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  in  all  good  faith. 
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. 

While  they  were  still  at  fault,  a  man,  named  MuUins,  a 
plasterer  by  trade,  who  knew  Mrs.  Elmsley  well  and  who  had 
often  worked  for  her,  came  forward  voluntarily  to  throw 
some  light  on  the  mystery.  A  month  had  nearly  elapsed 
since  the  murder,  and  during  this  long  period  Mullins's 
attention  had  been  drawn  to  the  man  Emm  and  his  suspicious 
conduct.  MuUins  had  served  in  the  Irish  constabulary;  his 
powers  of  observation  had  been  quickened  by  this  early  train- 
ing, and  he  soon  saw  that  Emm  had  something  to  conceal. 
He  had  watched  him,  had  frequently  seen  him  leave  his 
cottage  and  proceed  stealthily  to  a  neighbouring  brickfield, 
laden  on  each  occasion  with  a  parcel  he  did  not  bring  back. 
Mullins,  after  giving  this  information  quite  unsought,  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  amaze- 
ment the  pohce  turned  on  Mullins  and  also  took  him  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 


26  INTROnnOTION. 

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  his  own  act  he  would  never  have 
been  arrested.  It  may  be  interesting  to  complete  this  case, 
and  show  how  further  suspicion  settled  around  MuUins.  The 
parcel  found  in  the  brickfield  was  tied  up  with  a  tag  end 
of  tape ;  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  MuUins  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 
plasterer's  hammer,  which  was  also  found  in  Mullins's  house. 
It  was  examined  under  the  microscope,  and  proved  to  be 
stained  with  blood.  MuUins  had  made  away  with  an  old 
boot,  which  had  been  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 ;  more- 
over, 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  con- 
cerned, he  was  able  clearly  to  establish  an  alibi,  while 
witnesses  were  produced  who  swore  to  having  seen  MuUins 
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  MuUins. 
The  convict  steadfastly  denied  his  guilt  to  the  last,  but 
left  a  paper  exonerating  Emm.      It  is  diflScult  to  reconcile 


POLICE    FAILURES.  27 

this  with  his  denunciation  of  that  innocent  man,  except  on 
the  grounds  of  his  own  guilty  knowledge  of  the  real  murderer. 
In  any  case,  it  was  he  himself  who  first  Hfted  the  veil 
and  stupidly  brought  justice  down  on  himself. 

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  forthcoming,  and  to  attempt 
prosecution  would  be  to  face  inevitable  breakdown.  To  this 
day  it  is  held  at  Scotland  Yard  that  the  real  murderer  in 
the  Great  Coram  Street  case  was  discovered  by  the  police, 
but  that  the  case  failed  before  an  artfully  planned  alihi. 
Sometimes  an  arrest  is  made  on  grounds  that  afford  strong 
primd  facie  evidence,  yet  the  case  breaks  down  in  court. 
The  BurdeU  murder  in  1857,  in  New  York,  was  one  of  these. 
Dr.  BurdeU  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.  BurdeU  warned  her  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  all 
the  signs  of  a  violent  struggle.  The  wounds  must  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  acquitted  on  trial.  It  came  out  long 
afterwards  that  the  detectives  were  absolutely  right  about 
the  mysterious  Road  (Somerset)  murder,  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 


28  INTBODUGTION. 

nightdress,  and  obtained  what  he  considered  sufficient  proof. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  this  accusation  was  denounced  as 
frivolous  and  unjust.  Mr.  Whicher  was  overwhelmed  with  so 
much  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  others :  Mr.  Kent,  the  father 
of  the  murdered  child,  Gough,  the  boy's  nurse,  and  both  were 
apprehended  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 
actual  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.  Con- 
cerning two  of  them  the  case  was  weak,  although  it  was  based 
on  certain  colourable  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  afterwards  developed 
homicidal  tendencies,  was  confined  in  an  asylum.  This  man 
was  said  to  resemble  the  murderer  by  the  one  person  who  got 
a  gUmpse  of  him — the  pohce-constable  in  Mitre  Court.  The 
second  possible  criminal  was  a  Russian  doctor,  also  insane, 
who  had  been  a  convict  both  in  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  whereabouts  were  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 


JACK    THE    BIPPEB.  29 

that  his  own  friends  entertained  grave  doubts  about  him.  He 
also  was  a  doctor  in  the  prime  of  life,  was  believed  to  be 
insane  or  on  the  borderland  of  insanity,  and  he  disappeared 
immediately  after  the  last  murder,  that  in  Miller's  Court, 
on  the  9th  of  November,  1888.  On  the  last  day  of  that  year, 
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 
fiendish  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  Eipper  "  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.  Certainly  other  doctors  disagreed  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  dis- 
quieting, that  many  murder  mysteries  have  baffled  all  inquiry, 
and  that  the  long  list  of  undiscovered  crimes  continually 
receives  many  mysterious  additions.  An  erroneous  impres- 
sion, 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 
act  always  in  protecting  the  accused.  But  with  all  their  ad- 
vantages, the  power  to  make  arrests  on  suspicion,  to  interrogate 
the  accused  parties  and  force  on  self-incrimination — the  Con- 
tinental 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,  wanting  sufficient  proofs  for  trial, 
in  the  utter  absence  indeed  of  any  suspected  person  to  try. 
In  every  country,  and  in  all  times,  past  and  present,  there 
have  been  crimes  that  defied  detection.     The  memory  of  one 


30  INTRODUCTION. 

or  two  of  the  older  and  half-forgotten  cases  may  be  revived 
as  Ukely  to  interest,  and  perhaps  console,  people  who  may 
imagine  that  great  criminals  enjoy  greater  immunity  from 
detection  to-day  than  heretofore. 

Feuerbach,  in  his  record  of  criminal  trials  in  Bavaria, 
tells  of  the  unsolved  murder  mystery  of  one  Rupprecht,  a 
notorious  usurer  of  Munich,  who  was  killed,  in  1817,  at  one 
stroke,  at  the  doorway  of  a  public  tavern  not  fifty  yards  from 
his  own  residence.  Yet  his  murderer  was  never  discovered. 
The  tavern  was  called  the  "  heU  "  ;  it  was  a  place  of  evil  resort, 
for  Rupprecht,  a  mean,  parsimonious  old  curmudgeon,  v/as 
fond  of  low  company  and  spent  most  nights  here  swal- 
lowing beer  and  cracking  jokes  with  his  friends.  One  night 
the  landlord,  returning  from  his  cellar,  heard  a  voice  in  the 
street  asking  for  Rupprecht,  and  going  up  to  the  drinking 
saloon  conveyed  the  message.  Rupprecht  went  down  to  see 
his  visitor  and  never  returned.  Within  a  minute  deep  groans 
were  heard  as  of  a  person  Lq  a  fit  or  extreme  pain.  AU  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 !  the  axe !  the  axe ! " 

The  wound  had  been  inflicted  by  some  sharp  instrument, 
possibly  a  sword  or  sabre,  wielded  by  a  powerful  hand. 
The  victim  must  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,  stand- 
ing 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  gone  back  into  the  house. 
After  he  had  turned  the  blow  had  been  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 


AN   UNDI800VEBEB    GRIME.  31 

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  inti- 
mate 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  con- 
siderably longer  than  the  blade  of  the  axe,  and  the  blow  from 
an  axe  cannot  be  drawn  along  after  it  has  been  struck.  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  as  good.  Schmidt  was  at  his  mother- 
in-law's,  and  was  to  have  gone  home  a  little  before  the 
murder ;  soon  after  it,  his  wife  found  him  in  bed  and  asleep. 


32  INTBODUCTION. 

If  he  had  committed  the  crime  he  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,  in 
less  than  an  hour.  Further,  it  was  shown  by  trustworthy- 
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  had  been  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  that  he  hated  his  son-in- 
law  especially.  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  wounded 
mortally ;  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  suflScient 
alibi  was  proved  by  Bieringer;  his  time  was  accounted  for 
satisfactorily  on  the  night  of  the  murder.      The  daughter 


THE   BUPPBEGHT  MYSTERY.  33 

was  absolved  from  guilt,  for  even  if  she,  a  woman,  could  have 
struck  so  shrewd  a  blow,  it  was  not  to  her  interest  to  kiU  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  trumpeters  belonging  to  the  regiment  in  garrison  had 
called  on  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  time  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.  But  from  the  first 
attention  had  been  concentrated  on  axes,  wielded  by  wood- 
cutters, and  the  probable  use  of  a  sabre  had  been  overlooked. 
After  the  trumpeters,  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  a  witness  to  the  transaction  with  him. 
Their  innocence  was  also  clearly  proved,  and  although 
many  more  people  were  arrested  they  were  in  aU  cases 
discharged. 

The  murder  of  this  Rupprecht  has  remained  a  mystery. 
The  only  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  fix  this  on  anyone,  for  Rupprecht  made  no 
record  of  his  transactions;  he  could  neither  read  nor  write, 
and  kept  aU  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 


34  INTBOBUGTION. 

the  proper  clue ;   and,  as  it  was,  lie  had  led  the  police  in 
the  wrong  direction. 

Numerous  murder  mysteries  have  been  contributed  by 
American  criminal  records.  Especial  interest  attaches  to  the 
case  of  Mary  Kogers,  "  the  pretty  cigar  seller  "  of  New  York, 
who  was  done  to  death  by  persons  unknown  in  1840,  because 
it  formed  the  basis  of  Edgar  Allen  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 
was  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  alihi.  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  transpired.  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.  The  murder 
occurred  as  far  back  as  1799,  when  New  York  was  little  more 


DETECTION  DEFIEB.  35 

than  a  village  as  compared  to  its  present  size.  The  Manhattan 
Company,  now  a  bank,  had  then  the  privilege  of  supplying 
the  city  with  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  fished  out  of  the  Manhattan  well.  Some 
thought  she  had  committed  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  his  life, 
but  the  case  broke  down,  and  the  murder  has  always  bafiled 
detection.  There  was,  later,  in  1830,  the  mystery  of  Sarah  M. 
Cornell,  in  which  suspicion  fell  upon  a  reverend  gentleman  of 
the  Methodist  persuasion,  who  was  acquitted.  Again,  in 
1836,  however,  there  was  the  murder  of  Helen  Jewitt,  which 
was  never  cleared  up ;  and  recently  that  of  the  Kyans,  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  late  murders  in  Whitechapel. 

A  great  crime  that  altogether  defied  the  New  York 
poHce  occurred  in  1870,  and  is  stUl  remembered  as  an  extra- 
ordinary 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  in  on  their  father  and  found 
him  sleeping  peacefully.  No  noise  disturbed  the  house  during 
the  night,  but  early  next  morning  Mr.  Nathan  was  found  a 


36  INTRODUCTION. 

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  the  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  criminal.  One  of  Mr.  Nathan's  sons  was  suspected,  but 
his  innocence  was  clearly  proved.  Another  person  thought 
to  be  guilty  was  the  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  the  ship  carpenter's 
"  dog  "  was  not  a  housebreaking  tool.  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  this  person  had 
planned  and  executed  the  murder  in  order  to  become  re- 
possessed 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  financial  affairs  in  his  own  hands, 
and  it  was  said  that  none  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  undis- 
covered murder  of  Rupprecht  in  Bavaria,  already  described. 

Taking  a  general  view  of  the  case  as  between  hunted  and 
hunters,  it  may  be  fairly  considered  that  the  ultimate  advan- 
tage is  with  the  last-named.  We  hear  more  of  one  instance 
of  failure  than  of  ninety-nine  successes.  The  first  is  pro- 
claimed trumpet-tongued,  the  latter  pass  almost  unnoticed 
into  the  great  garner  of  criminal  reports  and  judicial  or  police 
statistics.    We  are  bound  at  least,  and  in  common  justice,  to 


IN  PBAISJE   OF  THE  POLIGK  37 

give  due  credit  to  the  ceaseless  activity,  the  continual  pains- 
taking effort  of  the  guardians  of  the  public  weal.  Their 
methods  are  the  outcome  of  long  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  closely  to  a  first 
theory,  wresting  their  opinions  and  forcing  acquired  facts  to 
fit  this  theory,  and  so  travel  further  and  further  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  his  quarry  on  his  guard  and  altogether 
defeat  the  objects  in  view.  But  to  urge  such  shortcomings 
savours  of  hypercriticism.  It  is  more  just  and  more  generous 
to  accept  with  gratitude  the  overwhelming  balance  in  favour 
of  the  police  for  the  results  achieved. 


Mysteries  of  Police  and  Crime 

part  $. 

POLICE-PAST   AISTD    PRESENT. 


CHAPTER    I. 

EARLY  POLICE. 


Origin  of  Police — Definitions — First  Police  in  France  —  Charles  V. — Louis 
XIV. — The  Lieutenant-General  of  Police — His  Functions  and  Powers — The 
first,  La  Reynie — ^His  Measures  against  Crime  and  Disorders— As  a  Censor  of 
the  Press — His  Steps  to  check  Gambling  and  Cheating  at  Games  of  Chance 
—  La  Eeynie's  Successors :  the  D'Argensous,  Herault,  D'Omhreval, 
Berryer — The  Famous  de  Sartines,  his  Buses  and  Detections — Two 
Instances  of  his  Omniscience — Lenoir  and  Espionage — De  Crosne,  the  last 
and  most  feeble  J/ieutenant-General  of  Police — The  Story  of  the  Book- 
seller Blaizot — Police  under  the  Directory  and  Empire — Fouchfi — His 
Beginnings  and  First  Chances — A  horn  Police  Officer— Has  nearly  Carte 
Blanche  from  Napoleon,  but  is  at  last  Discredited  and  Dismissed — General 
Savary  succeeds— His  Character — How  he  organises  his  Service  of  Spies — 
His  humiliating  Failure  in  the  nearly  successful  Conspiracy  of  General 
Malet — At  the  Bourbon  Restoration  Fouche  returns  to  Power  as  Head  of 
the  Police,  but  soon  Dies — 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 
poHce.  The  word  itseK  is  derived  from  TroXt?  (the  "  city  "),  a 
collection  of  people  within  a  certain  area :  a  public  body 
working  regularly  together  for  mutual  advantage  and  defence. 
The  latter  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 
were  to  watch  over  the  common  weal,  and  act  for  the  public 


40  EARLY  POLICE. 

both  in  preventing  evil  and  preparing  or  securing  good. 
From  this  the  pohce  deduces  its  claim  to  universal  inter- 
ference; its  right  to  control  every  action  of  the  citizen.  In 
its  best  sense  this  position  is  defensible,  although  by  exces- 
sive development  it  may  become  too  paternal.  In  its 
worst,  as  seen  in  the  great  despotisms,  it  is  a  potent  engine 
for  the  enslavement  of  a  people. 

These  ideas,  perfect  enough  in  the  abstract,  are  contained  in 
the  definitions  of  police  as  found  in  dictionaries  and  the  best 
authorities.  Our  Imperial  Dictionary  calls  it  "  a  judicial  and 
executive  system  in  a  national  jurisprudence  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  de- 
fines police  as :  "  The  ordered  system  established  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  pre- 
vented or  lessened  by  human  prudence."  Again:  "To 
maintain  public  order,  protect  property  and  personal 
Uberty,  to  watch  over  public  manners  and  the  public 
health;  such  are  the  principal  functions  of  the  pohce." 
Although  we  English  people  were  slow  to  adopt  any  police 
system  on  a  large  or  uniform  scale,  the  principle  has  ever  been 
accepted  by  our  legists.  Jeremy  Bentham  considered  police 
necessary  as  a  method  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  propriety,  good  neighbourhood,  and  good 
manners;  to  be  decent,  industrious,  and  inoffensive  in  their 
respective  stations." 

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 


DEFINITION    OF   "POLICE."  41 

justice  anywhere,  in  the  open  field  or  under  the  first  tree, 
invented  police  "to  increase  the  happiness  and  security  of 
his  people."  It  was  a  fatal  gift,  soon  to  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, 
hve  or  move  from  place  to  place  without  leave.  Louis 
XIV.,  on  his  accession,  systematised  and  enormously  in- 
creased 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  obtain- 
ing good  government  all  freedom  and  independence  were 
crushed  out  of  the  people. 

The  lieutenant  of  police  called  into  existence  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  jurisdiction  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  con- 
victed of  the  malversation  of  pubHc  monies  on  a  gigantic  scale. 
There  were  traitors  even  in  the  highest  ranks,  and  the  Chevalier 
de  Rohan  about  this  period  was  detected  in  a  plot  to  sell 
several  strong  places  on  the  Normandy  coast  to  the  enemy. 
Very  soon  the  civilised  world  was  to  be  shocked  beyond 
measure  by  the  wholesale  poisonings  of  the  Marchioness  of 
Brinvilliers,  Voisin,  and  other  miscreants.  In  the  verj'  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  then  and  there,  for  everyone,  with  or  without  leave, 
carried  swords — even  servants  and  retainers  of  the  great 
noblemen — and  were  prompt  to  use  them.     The  lieutenant- 


42  EARLY  POLICE. 

general  of  police  was  nearly  absolute  in  regard  to  offences 
political  and  general.  In  his  office  were  kept  long  lists  of 
suspected  persons  and  known  evil-doers,  with  full  details 
of  their  marks  and  appearance,  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,  Vincennes,  and  the  rest — 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. 

The  first  lieutenant-general  of  police  in  Paris  was  Gabriel 
Nicholas  (who  assumed  the  name  of  La  Reynie  from  his  estate), 
a  young  lawyer  who  had  been  the  protege  of  the  Governor  of 
Burgundy,  and  afterwards  was  taken  up  by  Colbert.  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  deter- 
mination, and  soon  won  the  entire  confidence  of  the  auto- 
cratic 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  footmen  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  further  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  rdgle.  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. 


LA    BEYNIE.  43 

The  lieutenant-general  of  police  was  the  censor  of  the 
press,  which  was  more  free-spoken  than  was  pleasing  to  a 
despotic  government,  and  often  published  matter  that  was 
deemed  libellous.  The  French  were  not  yet  entirely  cowed, 
and  sometimes  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, '  pamphlets,  or  papers  containing  libellous  state- 
ments 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 
Revolution  were  proved  to  be  insignificant  and  inoffensive, 
and  condemned  on  the  vague  charge  of  being  libellous  either 
on  the  queen  and  royal  family  or  on  the  ministers  of  State. 
An  edition  of  one  work  had  come  from  London  and  was  en- 
titled "  Malle  cachetic  de  Lord  North,"  another  was  called  the 
"  PortefeuiUe  d'un  Talon  Rouge,"  and  was  a  lampoon  upon  the 
whole  Court.  Prohibited  books  were  not  imprisoned  until  they 
had  been  been  tried  and  condemned;  their  sentence  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 
BastiUe ;  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  printers  and  publishers,  and  an  order  to  destroy 
the  press  and  distribute  the  bookseller's  whole  stock. 


44  EARLY  FOLIOB. 

Although  La  Reynie  used  every  effort  to  check  improper 
publications,  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  wiU  always  deserve  credit  for  having  caused  the  chief 
manuscripts  of  the  great  dramatist  Moliere  to  be  carefully 
preserved. 

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  development  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  jurisdiction  in  the  Court,  the  grand 
provost,  was  instructed  to  find  some  means  of  prevent- 
ing 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  far  the  most  difficult,  he 
said,  and  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 


CHEATING   AT  PLAY.  45 

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  wiU 
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.  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  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  Ventadour  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  pro- 
mised La  Reynie  to  put  gambling  down  with  a  strong  hand, 
and  called  for  a  list  of  all  hells  and  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. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  trace  the  succession  of  lieutenants- 
general  between  La  Reynie  and  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 


46  EARLY   POLICE. 

haunts  with  such  ruthless  severity  that  he  was  known  to  the 
thieves  and  criminals  as  Rhadamanthus,  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 ;  of  Herault,  who  persecuted 
the  freemasons,  and  was  so  noted  for  his  bigotry  and  in- 
tolerance, 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  him  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  Abb6  Coquet  was  below.  "  Mettez-le  dans  le  grenier ''  was 
H6rault's  brief  order.  Next  day  the  abb6,  half-starved,  grew 
furious  at  his  detention,  and  Herault's  servants  reported  that 
they  could  do  nothing  with  him.  "  Eh !  Brulez-le  et  laissez- 
moi  tranquille,"  replied  the  chief  of  pohce,  whereupon  an 
explanation  followed,  and  the  Abbe  Coquet  was  released. 

D'Ombreval,  again,  was  a  man  of  intolerant  views. 
He  especially  distinguished  himself  by  his  persistent  per- 
secution of  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  im- 
prisoned 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  was  powerless  to  suppress  the 
Nouvelles  Ecclesiastiques,  as  the  paper  was  called.     A  whole 

*  These  convulsionnaires  were  a  sect  of  tlio  Jansenists  who  met  at  the  tomb  of 
"  Francis  of  Paris,"  where  thoy  preached  and  prophesied  the  downfall  of  the 
Church  and  the  French  monarchy.  Their  ceremonies  were  wild  and  extravagant ; 
they  contorted  their  todies  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  very  severe  against  these  fanatics,  who,  however  sur- 
vived the  most  vigorous  measures. 


BE    SABTINES.  47 

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  mto  circulation  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  poUce  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,  a  later  lieutenant-general,  owed  his  appointment 
to  Madame  de  Pompadour,  whose  creature  he  was,  and  his 
whole  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  was  violated  and  every  letter  read  as  it 
passed  through  the  post.  A  staff  of  clerks  was  always  busy ; 
they  took  impressions  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.  Quesnay 
furiously  declared  he  would  sooner  dine  with  the  hangman 
than  with  the  Intendant  of  Posts  "  who  countenanced  such 
a  base  proceeding. 

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 
the  activity  of  his  nearly  ubiquitous  agents.  He  first 
gained  reputation,  however,  by  a  cunning  ruse.  Soon  after 
his    appointment  a   terrible  ''crime   was   committed  in    the 


48  EARLY   POLICE. 

neighbourhood  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  when  five 
people  were  murdered.  When  de  Sartines  arrived  he  ascer- 
tained that  five  lar^e  boxes  full  of  booty  had  been  removed 
from  the  house  where  the  five  bodies  still  lay  on  the 
ground.  He  also  obtained  particulars  which  put  him  on 
the  track  of  the  murderers,  who  were  quickly  arrested  and 
sent  to  gaoL  Yet  the  whole  story  was  a  fabrication.  The 
bodies  had  been  secretly  taken  to  the  scene  of  the  crime 
in  the  big  boxes  which  had  been  used  to  carry  off  the 
plunder.  It  is  not  recorded  where  de  Sartines  obtained  the 
bodies,  and  no  one  believed  the  explanation,  although  the 
accused  were  released  without  trial  ;  so  difficult  is  it  to 
catch  up  any  story,  however  false,  if  it  gets  the  start,  and 
de  Sartines  was  still  credited  with  extraordinary  astuteness. 
No  doubt  he  had  great  ability,  although  a  man  of 
indiiferent  education;  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  he  had  come 
to  Paris  to  make  his  way.  He  greatly  improved  the 
method  of  the  police  and  largely  increased  the  number 
of  his  agents,  with  all  of  whom  he  was  in  close,  constant 
touch,  and  they  apparently  served  him  well. 

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  his  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  oifered  a  wager,  which  de  Sartines 
accepted,  thathe  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 


DE    SABTINES.  49 

remote  part  of  the  city.  By  noon  that  day  he  received  a 
letter,  delivered  at  his  address,  from  de  Sartines,  who  in- 
vited him  to  dinner  and  claimed  payment  of  the  wager. 

A  great  coup  was  made  by  this  adroit  officer,  but  the 
interest  of  the  aifair  attaches  rather  to  the  thieves  than 
to  the  poUce.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of  the  marriage  of 
Louis  XVI.  and  Marie  Antoinette  in  1770.  During  the 
great  fStes  in  honour  of  the  event  an  extraordinary  tumult 
arose  in  the  Rue  Royals,  where  it  joins  the  modern  Champs 
Elysees.  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  tranipled  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  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  hor- 
rible 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  wholesale  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,  collars,  purses,  all 
kinds  of  jewels.  One  robber  alone  had  two  thousand  francs 
tied  up  in  his  handkerchief. 

Yet  de  Sartines  did  not  always  arrest  the  known 
criminals.  He  kept  a  few  on  hand  for  the  strange  purpose 
of  amusing  fashionable  society.  It  became  his  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  distinguished  audience,  cutting  watch  chains, 
stealing  purses,  snuff-boxes,  and  jewellery. 


50  EARLY  POLICE. 

This  famous  chief  of  police  was  the  first  to  use  espion- 
age on  a  large  scale,  and  to  employ  detectives  who  were 
old  criminals.  When  reproached  with  this  questionable 
practice,  de  Sartines  defended  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 : — 

"In  the  King's  Name. 
"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  notwithstanding  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  in  the  King's  favour." 

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.  The  hawkers  who  paraded  the 
streets  were  in  his  pay ;  he  had  suborned  members  in  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  forgiven  on  condition  that  they  watched  their  friends 
and  gave  information  of  anything  worth  knowing.  One 
fashionable  agent  was  a  lady  who  entertained  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. 

Thiroux   de   Crosne  was   the  last   lieutenant-general    of 


ESPIONAGE.  51 

police,  and  the  revolutionary  upheaval  was  no  doubt  assisted 
by  his  ineptitude,  his  marked  want  of  tact  or  powers  of 
observation.  While  the  city  was  mined  under  his  feet 
with  the  coming  volcanic  disturbance?  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  anyone  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  Kevolution.  The  police 
were  so  anxious  to  save  the  king,  Louis  XVI.,  from  the 
pollution  of  reading  the  many  libels  pubKshed  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  everything  that 
appeared.  He  soon  surprised  his  ministers  by  the  know- 
ledge he  displayed  and  set  them  to  finding  how  it  reached 
him.  Blaizot  was  discovered  and  sent  to  the  Bastille. 
When  the  king,  wondering  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  disappeared,  but  it  was  replaced  by  another  far  more 
noxious ;  a  vast  political  engine,  recklessly  handled  by  every 
bloodthirsty  wretch  who  wielded  power  in  those  disastrous 
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,  and  this  did  not 
mean  in  Paris  alone,  but  extended  all  over  France. 


52  EABLT  POLICE. 

Under  the  Directory  the  office  of  a  police  minister  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  at 
their  lowest  point,  corruption  and  crime  everywhere  rampant. 
The  streets  of  the  city,  every  high  road,  were  infested  with 
bands  of  robbers  with  such  wide  ramifications  that  a  general 
guerilla  warfare  terrorised  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  confessed  the 
hidden  receptacles  of  their  treasure. 

Nine    police    ministers     quickly    followed    each     other 
between    1796  and  1799,  men  of  no  particular   note;   but 
at   last    Barras   fixed   upon   Fouche   as   a  person    he   ima- 
gined  to    be    well   qualified    for    the  important   post.      He 
thus  gave  a  first  opening   to   one  whose  name  is   almost 
synonymous  with  policeman — the  strong,  adroit,  secret,  un- 
scrupulous   manipulator    of    the    tremendous    underground 
forces  he  created  and  controlled,  who  for  many  years  prac- 
tically divided  with  Napoleon  the  empire  of  France.    The 
emperor    had    the    ostensible    supremacy,   but    his    many 
absences   on  foreign  wars   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  Fere  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  he  should 
be  made  a  priest.     Something  of  the  suppleness,  the  quiet, 
passionless  self-restraint,  the  patient,  observant  craftiness  of 
the  ecclesiastic  remained  to  him  through  life. 

The  Revolution  found  him  in  his  native  town,  prefect  of 

*  See  post,  vol.  ii.,  part  viii. 


FOUGHt'8    FALL.  53 

his  college  of  Nantes,  married,  leading  an  obscure  and  blame- 
less 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  readiness  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  Eobespierre,  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  Earras,  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  bom  conspirator  could  best  hancile 
all  the  secret  threads  that  were  needed  to  estabHsh  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  excesses, 
our  misfortunes  and  unhappy  diiferences."  When  the  Con- 
sulate was  first  established,  Fouche  was  one  of  the  most 
important  personages  in  France.  He  had  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  Bourienne  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  poHce  and  all  its  functions  in  his  own 
person,  and  might  easily  prove  a  menace  to  his  new  power. 


54  EARLY  POLICE. 

So  Fouche  was  suppressed,  but  only  for  a  couple  of  years, 
during  which  other  nearer  dangers,  conspiracies,  threatening 
the  very  life  of  Napoleon,  led  the  emperor  to  recall  the  astute, 
all-powerful  minister,  who  throughout  had  maintained  a  private 
poHce  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  Bourbon  king  about 
to  be  issued  in  Paris,  the  existence  of  which  was  unknown 
to  the  official  police.  When  Fouch^  returned  to  the  Pre- 
fecture, it  was  to  stay.  For  some  eight  years  he  was  indis- 
pensable. The  emperor  seemed  to  rely  upon  him  entirely,  passed 
everything  on  to  him.  "Send  it  to  Fouch6 ;  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  sought  and  accepted  with  blind  submission  by 
all.  He  might  have  remained  in  office  to  the  end  of  the 
imperial  regirne  but  that  he  became  too  active  and  interfering 
in  matters  quite  beyond  his  province,  and  his  downfall  was 
hastened  through  a  daring  intrigue  to  bring  about  a  secret 
compact  with  England  and  secure  peace. 

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  uni- 
versal consternation;  it  was  dreaded  as  the  inauguration 
of  an  epoch  of  brutal  military  discipline,  the  advent  of  the 
soldier-policeman,  the  iron  hand  of  the  soldier-emperor,  which 
would  be  heavy  upon  all.  Wholesale  arrests,  imprisonments, 
and  exiles  were  anticipated.  Savary  himself,  although  sub- 
missively 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 
release  him,  and,  taking  him  by  the  hand,  tried  to  stiffen  his 
courage  by  much  counsel.    The  advice  he  freely  gave  is 


8AVABY.  55 

worth  recording  in  part,  as  expressing  the  views  of  a  monarch 
who  was  himself  the  best  poHce  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  are 
found  harsh  and  reactionary.  Dismiss  none  of  your  present 
employes ;  if  any  displease  you,  keep  tliem  at  least  six  months, 
and  then  find  them  other  situations.  If  you  have  to  adopt 
stern  measures,  be  sure  they  are  justified,  and  it  wiU  at  least 
be  admitted  that  you  are  doing  your  duty.  ...  Do  not  imi- 
tate 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  responsi- 
bility. He  was  always  trjdng  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  further 
and  further  astray." 

Savary,  on  assuming  the  reins  of  office,  found  himself  in  a 
serious  dilemma.  He  could  hardly  have  anticipated  that 
Fouch^  would  make  his  task  easy  for  him,  but  the  result  was 
even  worse  than  that.  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  assist- 
ance of  the   superior  agents  upon  whom   Fouche  had   so 


56  EABLY   POLICE. 

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  were 
probabty  of  the  most  important  agents  of  all. 

Having  thus  gained  the  addresses,  Savary  proceeded  to 
summon  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  in- 
variably 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  inquisitive  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 


MALET'S    GONSPIBACY.  57 

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  first, 
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  sj'stem  of  espionage  was  even  more  searching  and 
comprehensive  than  Fouch6's,  and  before  long  earned  him  the 
sobriquet  of  the  S^de  Mouchard  (the  "  Sheik  of  Spies  ").  He 
had  a  whole  army  at  his  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  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  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  surveil- 
lance 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 


58  EARLY   POLICE. 

pretensions  as  a  police  officer  were  utterly  shipwrecked  by  the 
conspiracy  of  General  Malet,  a  half-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 
which  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.  Cambarcferes  represented  the  em- 
peror ;  Savary  held  the  police,  but,  in  spite  of  his  espionage, 
knew  nothing  of  Malet,  and  little  of  the  real  state  of  Paris 
below  the  surface ;  Pasquier,  prefect  of  police,  was  an  admir- 
able 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  comman- 
dant of  the  place,  General  HuUin,  was  a  sturdy  soldier — no 
more  :  a  mere  child  outside  the  profession  of  arms. 

Malet  had  influence  with  Fouche,  through  which,  before 
that  minister's  disgrace,  he  had  obtained  his  transfer  from  La 
Force  to  a  ''-  Maison  de  Sant6  "  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  receive  any  visitors  they  pleased  from  out- 
side. In  this  convenient  retreat,  which  sheltered  other  irre- 
concilable 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  determina- 
tion, who  had  already  been  mixed  up  with  Royalist  plots 
against  the  empire.  The  two  kept  their  own  counsel,  alive  to 
the  danger  of  treacherj^  and  betrayal  in  taking  others  into 
their  full  confidence,  but  Malet  could  command  the  services  of 


POLICE    OF  THE   BESTOBATION.  59 

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.  Malet  and  the  Abb6  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  Pro- 
visional 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,  Quais,  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  Prefecture  and  thence  to  the  Ministry  of  Police,  to  seize 
both  the  prifet  and  Savary  and  carry  them  off  to  gaol.  Guidal 
was  to  support  Laborie.  Malet  himself  with  another  body  of 
troops  proceeded  to  the  Place  Vend6me,  the  military  head- 
quarters of  Paris,  and  proposed  to  make  the  Commandant 
Hullin  his  prisoner. 

The  arrest  of  the  heads  of  the  police  was  accomplished 
without  the  slightest  difficulty  about  8  a.m.  on  the  24th 
October,  and  they  were  transported  under  escort  to  La  Force. 
(Savary  ever  afterwards  was  nicknamed  the  Due  de  la  Force.) 
Malet  meanwhile  had  roused  out  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  inter- 
posed, and,  seizing  his  papers,  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 
some  half-dozen  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, 


60  EARLY  POLICE. 

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   inven- 
tive  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  securing  the  reins  of  power.     No  one  had  stood 
against  him  ;  the  powers  wielded  by  authority  were  null  and 
void ;  chance  alone,  a  mer,e  accident,  had  spoilt  the  enterprise. 
At  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  the  police  organisation 
was  revised,  but  stiU  left  in    much   the  same    hands — ex- 
Napoleonists,  such   as   Beugnot  and  Bourrienne,  who  were 
director-general   and  prefect  respectively.       The  latter   dis- 
tinguished 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 
information  as  to  the  movements  of  the  Allies  before  Water- 
loo, 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  goodwill,  and,  as  the  person  who  could 
be  best  trusted  to  maintain  public  order,  Wellington  urged 
Louis  XVIII.  to  appoint  him  afresh  to  the  head  of  the  police. 
Fouche  had  many  friends  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain,  and 
the  knack  of  seeming  to  be  indispensable.     It  was  accepted  as 
a  bitter  blow  by  the  king  that  Fouche  should  be  forced  on 
him.     When  the  order  of  appointment  was  placed  before  him 
for  signature,  he  glanced  at  it,  let  it  lie  upon  the  table,  the  pen 
slipped  from  his  hand;  he  long  sat  buried  in  sad  thought 


FOUGEiJ-S   ENB.  61 

before  he  could  rouse  himself  to  open  relations  with  the  man 
who  had  been  hitherto  an  implacable  foe  to  his  family. 

Fouche  gained  his  point ;  but  where  all  knew,  aU  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  change  he  had  learnt  the  lesson  of  dissimulation  and  self- 
restraint.  Yet  he  was  still  the  focus  and  centre  of  intrigue,  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  assemblage.  "  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 — Thibau- 
deau,  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  contempo- 
raries. Some  thought  him  an  acute  and  penetrating  observer, 
with  a  profound  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  convul- 
sions, 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  Avith  many  masters,  and  turn  most  things  to  his 
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. 


CHAPTER   II. 

P'OLICE     IN     ENGLAND. 

Early  Police  in  England — Edward  I.'s  Act— EEzabett's  for  'Weatminster — 
George  II.  and  III. — State  of  London,  1777 — Depredations  universal— 
Eobteries  on  the  River  Thames — Keoeivers — Coiners — Low  Standard  of 
Morality— Gambling  and  Lottery  Offices — Henry  Fielding  grapples  with 
Crime — Sir  John  Fielding  also — The  Horse  Patrol — Bow  Street  and  its 
Eunnera  :  Townaend,  Vickery,  and  Others — Blood  Money — Tyhurn  Tickets 
— Negotiations  with  Thievea  to  recover  stolen  Property,  and  Doubts  of 
Honesty  of  Police — Sayer,  George  Euthveu — Sergeant  Ballantine  on  the 
Bow  Street  Eunners  compared  with  modern  Detectives. 

If  a  century  or  more  ago  France  and  other  Continental  coun- 
tries were  generally  over-policed,  England,  as  a  free  country, 
long  refused  to  surrender  its  liberties.  Until  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  incumbent  upon  all, 
but  evaded  by  many  on  payment  of  substitutes.  One  of  the 
earliest  efforts  to  establish  a  systematic  police  was  the  statute 
13  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  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  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, 


EARLY  ENGLISH    POLICE.  63 

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  to  teach  the  art  of 
fencing  was  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  27 
Elizabeth  (1585)  for  the  good  government  of  the  city  and 
borough  of  Westminster,  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  sufiicient  in  law,  the  Dean  of  Westminster  and  the  High 
Steward  were  given  greater  authority.  They  were  entitled  to 
examine  and  punish  "  all  matters  of  incontinences,  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  Hfe  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 


64  FOLIOS  IN   ENGLAND. 

as  to  increase  the  price  of  victuals  by  buying  them  up  before- 
hand ;  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  victual- 
lers and  tavern-keepers,  who  were  ordered  to  keep  one  con- 
venient lanthorn  at  their  street  doors  from  six  p.m.  until  nine 
a.m.  next  morning,  "  except  when  the  moon  shall  shine  and 
give  light."  Kogues  and  sturdy  beggars  were  forbidden  to 
wander  in  the  streets  under  pain  of  immediate  arrest.  Many 
other  strict  regulations  for  the  health  and  sanitation  of  the 
burgesses,  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 
infected  with  the  plague.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Sir 
William  Cecil,  the  great  Lord  Burleigh,  was  the  first  High 
Steward  of  Westminster,  and  that  the  excellent  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  10  George  II.  (1737)  the  Elizabethan 
Act  was  re-enacted  and  its  powers  enlarged.  This  was  an  Act 
for  the  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  the  constables  of 
wards  and  precincts,  the  old  constitutional  authority,  who 
were  expected  to  see  them  observed.  But  the  night-watch- 
men could  act  in  the  absence  of  the  constable  when  keeping 
watch  and  ward,  and  were  enjoined  to  apprehend  all  night- 
walkers,  malefactors,  rogues,  vagabonds,  and  disorderly  persons 
whom  they  found  disturbing  the  public  peace,  or  suspected 
of  evil  designs. 

Forty  years  later  another  Act  was  passed,  14  George  III. 


THE    WATCHMEN   OF   OLD.  65 

(1777),  which  again  enlarged  and,  in  a  measure,  superseded 
the  last-mentioned  Act.  It  is  much  more  detailed,  pre- 
scribing the  actual  number  of  watchmen,  their  wages,  how 
they  are  to  be  "  armed  and  accommodated,"  which  meant  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  watchmen  often  proved  unworthy  of  their 
trust,  and  it  is  recorded  by  that  eminent  police  magistrate, 
Mr.  Colquhoun,  "  that  no  small  portion  of  those  very  men 
who  are  paid  for  protecting  the  public  are  not  only  in- 
struments of  oppression  in  many  instances,  by  extorting 
money  most  unwarrantably,  but  are  frequently  accessories 
in  aiding  and  abetting  or  conceaUng  the  commission  of 
crimes  which  it  is  their  duty  to  detect  and  suppress."  It 
is  but  fair  to  add  that  Sir  John  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,  was  deplorable  at  the  latter  end  of 
the  last  century.  Robbery  and  theft  from  houses  and  on  the 
highway  had  been  reduced  to  a  regular  system.  Oppor- 
tunities were  sought,  intelligence  obtained,  plans  prepared 
with  the  utmost  skUl  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  his  prey.  He  had  his  spies  in  every 
quarter,  among  all  classes,  and  the  earliest  certain  intelligence 


66  POLICE   IN  ENGLAND. 

of  travellers  worth  stopping  when  carrying  money  and 
other  valuables  ;  he  could  count  upon  the  cordial  support  of 
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. 

At  this  time  the  plunder  of  merchandise  and  naval  stores 
in  the  river  Thames  had  reached  gigantic  proportions.  Pre- 
vious 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  com- 
putation to  quite  half  a  million  per  annum.  There  were,  first 
of  all,  the  river-pirates,  who  boarded  unprotecited  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  water- 
men," the  "  game  lightermen,"  the  "  mud-larks  and  the  scufile- 
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 


RIVER    THIEVES.  67 

away.  Cargoes  of  coal,  Kussian  tallow,  hemp,  and  ashes  were 
often  secured  in  this  way.  The  "  light  horseman  "  did  a  large 
business  in  the  spillings,  drainings  and  sweepings  of  sugar, 
cargoes  of  coifee  or  rum,  all  of  which  were  greatly  increased  by 
fraudulent  devices  and  carried  off  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  "  game  watermen "  worked  by 
quickly  receiving  what  was  handed  to  them  when  cargoes  were 
being  discharged,  which  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  large  business  in  purloining 
oil.  A  merchant  who  imported  great  quantities  was  aston- 
ished at  the  constant  deficiency  in  the  amounts  landed,  far 
more  than  could  be  explained  by  ordinary  leakage.  He  deter- 
mined to  attend  at  the  wharf  when  the  lighters  arrived,  and 
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  Hghter  enough  to  fill  five  casks 
more.  No  doubt  this  robbery  had  been  long  practised.  The 
"  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  of  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. 


68  POLICE   IN  ENGLAND. 

the  Naval  Victualling  and  Ordnance  Stores,  which  were 
perpetually  pillaged ;  thefts  not  from  the  dockyards  only,  but 
from  warships,  transports,  and  lighters  in  the  Thames, 
Medway,  Solent,  and  Dart.  Over  and  above  the  peculations 
of  employes,  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  all  kinds  of  stores. 
No  definite  figures  are  at  hand  giving  the  amount  of  these 
robberies,  but  they  must  have  reached  an  enormous  total. 

These  extensive  robberies  were,  no  doubt,  greatly  facili- 
tated by  the  many  means  that  existed  for  the  disposal  of 
the  stolen  goods.  Never  did  the  nefarious  trade  of  the 
"  receiver  "  flourish  so  widely.  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  metro- 
polis alone,  a  few  of  them  no  more  than  careless,  asking  no 
questions  about  the  goods  brought  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  re- 
putable calling — kept  coal-sheds,  potato  warehouses,  and 
chandler's  shops — some  were  pubhcans,  others  dealt  in 
second-hand  furniture,  old  clothes,  old  iron,  rags,  or  were 
workers  and  the  refiners  of  gold  and  silver.  These  were  the 
rank  and  file,  the  retailers,  so  to  speak,  who  passed  on  what 
was  brought  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 


"FUNGUS"    OB    "REGEIVBBS."  69 

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  could  not  be  recognised,  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  employed.  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  outward 
appearance  having  first  been  changed;  the  works  of  one 
were  placed  in  the  case  of  another.  Where  the  proceeds 
of  the  robbery  were  bank-notes,  or  property  whose  identity 
could  not  be  destroyed,  they  were  sent  off  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 
traific,  who  could  be  trusted,  for  their  own  sakes,  to  be 
cautious  and  secret  in  their  proceedings. 

The  general  crime  of  this  period  was  enormously  in- 
creased by  the  extensive  fabrication  of  false  money.  Coining 
was  extraordinarily  prevalent,  and  a  wide,  far-reaching  system 
had  been  created  for  distributing  and  uttering  the  counter- 
feits, not  only  at  home  but  on  the  Continent.  All  England, 
all  Europe,  was  literally  deluged  with  false  money,  the  largest 
proportion  of  which  was  manufactured  in  this  country.  Not 
only  was  the  current  coinage  of  the  realm  admirably  counter- 
feited— guineas,  half-guineas,  crowns,  half-crowns,  shiUings, 
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 


70  POLICE   IN   ENGLAND. 

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  it;  it  went 
off  so  fast  that  the  manufacturers  had  seldom  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  false 
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  two  persons  alone  could  manufacture  between  two  and 
three  hundred  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,  and 
castings  and  "pig  things."  The  first  were  cut  out  of  flat- 
tened 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.  Bank-notes  were  systematically  forged,  although 
the  penalty  was  death.  This  crime  had  been  greatly  stimu- 
lated by  the  suspension  of  specie  payments  and  the  issue  of 
paper  money.  The  Bahk  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  milUon,  and  it  had  issued 
notes  for  values  of  less  than  five  pounds.     Note  forgery  at 


GOINEBS    AND   NOTE-FORGEBS.  71 

once  increased  to  a  serious  extent,  and  as  the  Bank  was  im- 
placable, insisting  on  rigorous  prosecution,  great  numbers  of 
capital  convictions  followed;  the  most  minute  and  elaborate 
provisions  existed,  prescribing  the  heaviest  penalties  not  only 
on  actual  manufacture  and  uttering,  but  on  the  mere  pos- 
session of  bank-note  paper,  plates,  or  engraving  tools.  The 
infliction  of  the  extreme  sentence  did  not  check  the  crime. 
Detection,  too,  was  most  difficult.  The  public  could  not  dis- 
tinguish 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  will  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  their  negotiation  himself ; 
made  his  paper  with  the  correct  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  reputed  wives  (for  he  was  a 
noted  bigamist),  to  put  off  the  notes. 

No  doubt  the  general  level  of  morality  was  low,  and  it 
was  kept  down  by  the  vicious  habits  of  the  people.  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  multiplied  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  sub- 
scription clubs  of  presumably  a  higher  class,  and  even  ladies' 
gaming-houses.  The  pubHc  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  four  hundred   of  them, 


72  POLICE   IN  ENGLAND. 

supporting  2,000  agents  and  clerks,  and  7,500  "  morocco  men," 
as  they  were  called — the  canvassers  who  went  from  door 
to  door  solicitmg  insurances,  which  they  entered  in  a  book 
covered  with  red  morocco  leather.  It  was  said  that  these 
unlicensed  offices  obtained  premiums  of  nearly  two  milHons 
of  money  when  the  England  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  there 
was  some  33  per  cent,  in  favour  of  the  insurers.  Even  in 
those  days  the  principle  of  profiting  by  the  gambling  spirit 
of  the  pubHc  was  strongly  condemned,  but  lotteries  survived 
until  1826,  since  when  the  law  has  been  severe  with  any 
specious  attempts  to  reintroduce  them  under  other  names. 

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  novelist,  was  appointed  a  Middlesex  magistrate 
towards  the  close  of  his  somewhat  vicious  and  tempestuous 
career,  he  strove  hard  to  check  disorders,  waging  unceasing 
warfare  against  evil-doers  and  introducing  a  well -planned 
system  of  prevention  and  pursuit.  Although  in  failing  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. 
He  did  a  great  pubhc  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  the  first  advance 
of  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."  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 


THU    TWO   FIELDING8.  73 

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  confessed  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 
grappled  with  the  street  robbers,  and  in  less  than  three 
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  sup- 
pressed. He  organised  a  scheme  for  protecting  the  suburbs, 
by  which  the  residents  subscribed  to  meet  the  expense  of 
transmitting  immediate  news  to  Bow  Street  by  mounted 
messengers,  with  full  particulars  of  articles  stolen,  and  the 
description  of  the  robber ;  the  same  messenger  was  to  give 
information  at  the  turnpikes  and  public-houses  en  route,  and 
thus  a  hue  and  cry  could  be  raised  and  the  offender  would 
probably  be  soon  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  hfe  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  at  once,  remained 
in  the  house  aU  day  and  the  greater  part  of  the  night. 
It   was    the    same   in   cases   of  highway  robbery,   murder, 


74  POLICE   IN  ENGLAND. 

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.  Dodd,  Hackman,  who  murdered 
Miss  Reay,  the  brother-forgers  the  Perreaus,  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  ot 
conducting  business  have  been  graphically  described  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Summerville,  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  high- 
way 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,  however,  reintroduced  by  the  chief  magistrate  of 
Bow  Street  about  1805,  either  by  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 


BOW   STREET  RUNNERS.  lb 

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.  Yery  marked  and  satisfactory 
results  were  obtained  by  this  excellent  institution ;  it  almost 
completely  ended  highway  robbery,  and  if  any  rare  case 
occurred,  the  guilty  parties  were  soon  apprehended. 

Bow  Street  may  be  called  the  centre  of  our  police  estab- 
lishment 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  modem  detective,  whose 
doings  are  continually  to  be  met  with  in  the  chronicles  of  the 
time.  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  smaU  baton  surmounted  with  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  runner, 
however,  was  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  attempted  outrages  by  mad  people,  called  for 
special  police  protection,  and  two  or  more  of  these  officers 
attended  the  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  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 


76  POLICE    IN  ENGLAND 

from  their  cellars  ;  lie  mixed  himself  up  with  politics,  and  did 
not  hesitate  to  advise  the  statesmen  of  the  day  on  such  points 
as  Catholic  Emancipation  or  the  Reformed  ParUament.  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. 

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  in  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 
Vickery  exhibited  much  acumen  was  in  the  clever  robbery 
effected  from  EundeU  and  Bridges,  the  gold  jewellers  on 
Ludgate  HiU.  Two  Jews,  having  selected  valuables  to  the 
amount  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  were  opened  and 


BLpOD-MONEY.  77 

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  Cold  Bath  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  were  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.  Thip 
blood-money,  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 
parties  to  seduce  others  in  committing  crime.  It  is  estab- 
lished beyond  question  that  at  the  commencement  of  this 
century  persons  were  brought  up  charged  with  offences  into 
which  they  had  been  seduced  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  called  to 
buy  exemption  at  the  price  of  £12,  £20,  or  even  £25.  Again,' 
a  runner  employed  by  other  public  departments  or  by  private 


78  POLICE   IN  ENGLAND. 

persons  might  be,  but  was  not  always,  handsomely  rewarded 
if  successful.  They  had,  of  course,  their  out-of-pocket  ex- 
penses 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  of  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  employe  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  substan- 
tial 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  Com- 
mittee on  the  Police  in  1828.  Thus,  two  banks  that  had 
each  been  robbed  of  notes  to  the  amount  of  £4,000,  re- 
covered them  on  payment  of  £1,000.  In  another  case, 
Spanish  bonds,  nominally  worth  £2,000,  were  given  back  on 
payment  of  £1,000.  Nearly  £20,000  was  restored  for  £1,000. 
Where  bills  had  been  stolen  that  were  not  easily  negotiable, 
£6,000  out  of  £17,000  was  offered  for  £300;  £3,000  had 
been  restored  for  19  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  Sometimes 
after  apprehension  proceedings  were  stopped  because  a  large 
amount  of  the  plunder  had  been  given  up.    The  system 


BUNNBBS'    TEMPTATIONS.  79 

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  for  their  losses,  and 
they  knew  that  no  less  than  £200,000  had  been  a  subject 
of  negotiation  or  compromise  within  a  few  years. 

A  strong  suspicion  was  entertained  that  Sayer,  a  Bow  Street 
runner  already  mentioned,  had  feathered  his  nest  finely  with  a 
portion  of  the  proceeds  of  the  Paisley  Bank  robbery  at  Glasgow. 
He  was  an  acquaintance  of  the  Mackoulls,*  and  it  was  he 
who  proposed  to  the  bank  that  £20,000  should  be  restored  on 
condition  that  aU  proceedings  ceased.  When  Sayer  reached 
the  bank  with  Mrs.  MackouU  the  notes  produced  amounted  to 
no  more  than  £11,941.  Whether  Sayer  had  impounded  any 
or  not  was  never  positively  known ;  but  he  died  at  an  ad- 
vanced age  and  was  then  worth  £30,000.  And  it  has  been  said 
that  shortly  before  his  death  he  pointed  to  the  fireplace  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 — Vaughan — 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, 
arrested,  and  tried. 

Townsend  tells  a  case  in  his  own  glorification — and  there  is 
no  reason  to  deny  him  the  credit — where  he  arrested  a  notori- 
ous old  pickpocket,  one  Mrs.  Usher,  who  had  done  a  very 
profitable  business  for  many  years.     She  was  said  to  be  worth 

*  See  post,  p.  106. 


80  POLICE   IN   ENGLAND. 

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  prosecution.  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  oifered  him  a  bribe  of  £200. 
He  also  tells  how  he  might  have  got  a  considerable  sum  from 
Broughton,  who  robbed  the  York  mail,  but  steadfastly  refused 
to  abandon  the  prosecution.  As  much  as  a  thousand  pounds 
had  been  offered  to  get  rid  of  a  single  witness. 

These  runners  were  often  charged  with  being  on  much  too 
intimate  terms  with  criminals.  It  was  said  that  they  fre- 
quented low  taverns  and  flash  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.  Vickery  spoke  out  boldly, 
and  said  that  the  detection  of  ojffenders  was  greatly  facilitated, 
for  they  knew  exactly  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  undoubtedly  an  evil,  and  the  excuse 
that  they  assisted  in  the  apprehension  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  their  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  rarety 
effected  very  phenomenal  arrests.  He  was  bold,  fairly  well 
informed,  and  reasonably  faithful.  Serjeant  Ballantine,  who 
knew  some  of  the  latest  survivors  personally,  had  a  high 
opinion  of  them,  and  thought  their  methods  generally  superior 


GEORGE   BUTHVEN.  81 

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  estab- 
lishment of  the  "New  Pohce,"  as  the  existing  magnificent 
force  was  long  called.  They  mostly  disappeared,  taking  to 
other  caUings,  or  living  out  their  declining  years  on  compara- 
tively small  pensions.  George  Kuthven,  one  of  the  last,  died 
in  1844,  and  a  contemporary  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  eflScient  poHce  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 
in  discovering  forgeries  to  an  immense  extent,  connected  with 
those  countries.  Since  1839  he  has  been  landlord  of  the 
'  One  Tun  Tavern,'  Chandos  Street,  Covent  Garden,  and  has 
visited  most  frequently  the  spot  of  his  former  associations. 
Among  his  many  notorious  captures  may  be  reckoned  those  of 
Thistlewood,  for  the  Gato  Street  conspiracy,  in  which  daring 
enterprise  Smithers  was  killed ;  the  taking  of  Thurtell,  the 
murderer  of  Mr.  Weare,  and  the  discovery  of  bank  robberies 
and  forgeries  on  Government  to  an  enormous  amount.  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." 

Serjeant  BaUantine,  as  I  have  said,  pays  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 


82  POLIOE   IN  ENGLAND. 

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    III. 

MODERN   POLICE  :    LONDON,   PARIS,   AND   NEW   YORK. 

The  "New  Police"  introduced  by  Peel,  and  why — Hostility  at  first  bitter,  over- 
come by  proved  Value — Brief  Account  of  modem  Metropolitan  Police,  its 
Uses  and  Services — Eiver  Police — City  Police — Police  in  Extra-police 
Duties — Provincial  Police — Modern  Police  of  Paris — Espionage  under 
Second  Empire — Dossiers — Organisation  in  two  grand  Divisions,  Adminis- 
trative and  Active — Clerical  Work — Sergents  de  Ville —  Vaisseaux — Cabmen- 
Lost  Property — Plain-clothes  PoUce — SAreU — New  York  Police,  Character 
and  Organisation. 

The  paramount  necessity  for  a  better  police  organisation 
in  London  much  exercised  the  public  mind  during  the 
early  decades  of  this  century.  At  length,  in  1830,  Sir 
Robert  Peel  introduced  a  new  scheme,  the  germ  of  the 
present  admirable  force.  In  doing  so  he  briefly  recapitulated 
the  shortcomings  and  defects  of  the  system,  or  want  of 
system,  that  stiU  prevailed;  he  pointed  out  how  many 
glaring  evils  had  survived  the  repeated  inquiries  and  con- 
sequent proposals  for  reform.  Parliamentary  Committees 
had  reported  year  after  year  from  1770  to  1828,  all  of  them 
unanimously  of  opinion  that,  in  the  pubHc  interest,  to 
combat  the  steady  increase  of  crime  a  better  method  of 
prevention  and  protection  was  peremptorily  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  stiU  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  aU  proportion  to  the 
growth  of  the  people.  In  1828  as  compared  to  1821  there 
had  been  an  increase  of  41  per  cent,  in  committals,  as  against 
15|  per  cent,  in  population,  and  the  ratio  was  one  criminal 


84    MODERN  POLIGE :  LONDON,  PARIS,  AND  NEW  YORK. 

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  existing  police.  The  necessary  conditions,  unity  of 
action  on  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  miles  in  extent, 
depended  for  its  protection  upon  three  constables  and 
three  headboroughs — none  of  the  latter  very  remarkable 
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 
unprotected,  there  had  been  nineteen  attempts  at  burglary 
in  six  weeks,  and  sixteen  had  been  entirely  successful  In 
Spitalfields,  at  a  time  not  long  antecedent  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  whatever,  no  protection 
but  the  voluntary  exertions  of  individuals  and  the  "  honesty 
of  the  thieves"  in  those  parts.  Such  were  Fulham — with 
15,000  inhabitants  —  Chiswick,  Ealing,  Acton,  Edgware, 
Barnet,  Putney,  and  Wandsworth.  In  Deptford,  with  20,000, 
constantly  reinforced  by  evil-doers  driven  out  of  West- 
minster 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  insure 
vigilance.  Even  where  some  efforts  were  made,  the  watchmen 
were  often  chosen  because  they  were  on  the  parish  rates/ 
The  pay  of  many  of  them  was  no  more  than  twopence  per 
hour. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington,  who  was  the  head  of  the  Ad- 
ministration when  Peel  brought  forward  the  measure  in  1829, 
supported  it  to  the  full,  and  showed  from  his  own  experience 


WELLINGTON  ON   GBIME.  85 

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  footpads.  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  ceased  to  exist.  The  same 
good  results  might  be  expected  from  the  general  introduction 
of  a  better  preventive  system. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  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  deter- 
mination to  enslave,  an  insidious  attempt  to  dragoon  and 
tjrrannise  over  the  people.  Police  spies  armed  with  extra- 
ordinary authority  were  to  harass  and  dog  the  steps  of 
peaceable  citizens,  to  enter  their  houses,  making  domiciliary 
visitations,  exercising  the  right  of  search  on  any  small  pre- 
tence 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  rate- 
payers' 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  interference  with  the 
liberty  of  the  subject,  "  coppers,"  because  they  "  copped  "  or 

*  See  ante,  p.  74. 


86    MODERN  POLICE :  LONDON,  PARIS,  AND  NEW  YORK- 
captured  His  Majesty's  lieges,  survive  to  show  contemporary 


Yet  the  admirable  regulations  framed  by  Sir  Kichard 
Mayne,  who  was  soon  associated  with  Colonel  Rowan,  did 
much  to  reassure  the  pubhc.  They  first  enunciated  the 
judicious  principle  that  has  ever  governed  police  action  in 
this  country:  the  axiom  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  recommended  to  all,  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  indispensable 
qualification;  the  police  officer  should  "never  sufi'er  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, 
not  of  the  arbitrary  character  alleged,  but  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 
policemen,  and,  in  spite  of  a  few  mistakes  from  over-zeal,  soon 
conquered  public  esteem.  The  opposition  died  hard ;  disHke 
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 


LONDON  POLIOB    TO-BAY.  87 

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  the  control.  Yet  a  couple  of  years 
later  these  same  vestries  agreed  that  "  the  unfavourable  im- 
pression 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  con- 
clusion 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 
were  secured. 

It  is  beyond  the  Umits  of  this  work  to  give  a  detailed 
account  of  the  growth  and  gradual  perfecting  of  the  Metro- 
politan police,  from  this  first  germ  into  the  splendid  force 
that  watches  over  every  section  of  the  great  city  to-day.  The 
total  strength  now,  according  to  the  last  official  returns,  is 
15,326  of  all  ranks,  so  that  it  has  about  quintupled  since 
its  first  creation  in  1829.  The  population  of  London  at 
that  date  was  just  one  milUon  and  a  half;  the  area  con- 
trolled by  the  new  police  not  half  the  present  size. 
Now  6,000,000  souls  are  included  within  the  London  bills 
of  mortality,  and  the  area  supervised  by  our  present 
Metropolitan  force  is  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.  How  rapidly 
and  enormously  London  has  grown  will  be  best  seen  from  a 
few  figures.  Between  1849  and  1896,  615,086  new  houses 
have  been  built,  making  12,279  streets  and  104  squares,  with 
a  total  length  of  2,099  miles.  Throughout  the  whole  of  this 
vast  area,  which  constitutes  the  greatest  human  ant-heap  the 
world  has  ever  known,  absolutely  alive,  too,  and  ever  growing, 
the  blue-coated  guardian  of  the  peace  is  incessantly  on  patrol, 
the  total  length  of  police  beats  reaching  to  830  miles.  He  is 
unceasingly  engaged  in  duties  both  various  and  comprehensive 
in  behalf  of  his  fellow-citizens.  By  his  active  and  intelligent 
watchfulness  he  checks  and  prevents  the  commission  of  crime, 


88    MODERN  POLIOE:   LONDON,  PARIS,  AND  NEW  YORK. 

and  if  his  vigilance  is  unhappily  sometimes  eluded  he  is  no 
less  eager  to  pursue  and  capture  oifenders.  He  is  exposed  to 
peculiar  dangers,  in  protecting  the  public,  but  accepts  them 
unhesitatingly,  risking  his  life  gladly,  and  facing  brutal  and 
often  murderous  violence  as  bravely  as  any  soldier  in  the 
breach.  In  the  Whitechapel  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. 
The  last  published  return  (1896)  of  ojfficers  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,  4  bites  by  horses,  and  many  injured  in  dis- 
orderly crowds  or  when  assisting  to  extinguish  fires.  The 
regulation  of  street  trafiSc  is,  everybody  knows,  admirably 
performed  by  the  police,  and  they  ably  control  all  public 
carriages.  The  Lost  Property  Office  is  a  police  institution 
that  renders  much  efficient  service,  and,  in  1896,  38,025 
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  stock — ^parrots,  canaries,  larks,  rabbits, 
dogs,  and  cats;  there  were  books,  bicycles,  weapons,  peram- 
bulators, mail  carts,  golf  clubs,  sewing  machines,  and  musical 
instruments.  In  minor  matters  the  pohce  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  famUy,  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. 
No  account,  however  brief  and  meagre,  of  the  Metropolitan 
force  would  be  complete  which  did  not  include  some  reference 


GITY  POLICE.  89 

to  the  river  and  dockyard  police.  I  have  already  described 
on  a  previous  page  *  the  systematic  depredations  that  went 
on  among  the  Thames  shipping  in  the  earlier  days.  This 
called  imperatively  for  reform,  and  a  marine  police  was  estab- 
lished to  watch  our  ships  and  cargoes  and  guard  the  wharves 
and  quays.  Regular  boat  patrols  were  always  on  the  move 
about  the  river,  and  the  police,  who  carried  arms,  had  con- 
siderable 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,  and  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,  an  irnperium,  in  iwjperio,  one  square  mile  of 
absolutely  independent  territory  interpolated  in  the  very  heart 
and  centre  of  London.  The  City  police  was  formed  when 
Peel's  was,  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  poUce  force.  That  anticipation  has  been 
fully  borne  out,  and  the  City  police  is  a  first-class  force,  well 
organised  and  most  effective,  filled  with  fine  men  of  a  high 
standard  both  of  intelligence  and  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  responsibih- 
ties,  the  duty  of  regulating  the  congested  street  traffic  in  the 
narrow  limits  of  City  thoroughfares  being  perhaps  the  most 
onerous.     Like   their  comrades  beyond   the  boundary,  the 

*  See  ante,  pp.  66,  67. 


90    MODERN  POLIOS:  LONDON,  PARIS,  AND  NEW  YORK. 

City  police  are  largely  employed  by  private  individuals ;  banks, 
exchanges,  public  ofHces,  and  so  forth,  gladly  put  themselves 
under  official  protection.  It  should  have  been  mentioned, 
when  dealing  with  the  Metropolitan  police,  that  1,762  police 
officers  of  all  ranks,  from  superintendent  to  private  constable, 
are  regularly  engaged  in  a  thousand  and  one  posts  outside 
pure  police  duty.  Every  great  department  of  State  is  guarded 
by  them;  the  Queen's  sacred  person,  the  royal  princes,  royal 
palaces,  all  public  buildings,  the  Houses  of  Parliament, 
museums  and  collections,  parks  and  public  gardens,  the  Koyal 
Mint,  the  powder  factories,  the  Post  Office,  are  among  the 
institutions  confided  to  their  care.  Going  further  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 
Drummond's  Banks,  Holland  House,  Hertford  House,  Roe- 
hampton  House,  and  so  on.  The  whole  of  our  dockyards  are 
under  police  surveillance ;  so  are  the  Albert  Hall,  Brompton 
Cemetery,  and  the  Imperial  Institute. 

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,  Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  Birmingham,  and 
the  rest,  yield  nothing  in  demeanour,  devotion,  and  daring  to 
their  colleagues  of  the  metropoUs.  In  the  counties  where 
great  areas  often  have  to  be  covered,  great  independence 
must  be  confided  to  officers  of  often  junior  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  keeping  close  watch  on  all  suspicious  persons.  For 
the  same  reason  special  quahties  are  needed  in  the  county 
chief  constable  and  his  deputy ;  the  task  of  superintending 
their    posts   at  wide    distances   apart,   and    controlling    the 


POLICE   OF  PARIS.  91 

movements  of  tramps  and  bad  characters  through  their  dis- 
trict, 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 — quahties 
that  are  most  often  found  in  military  officers,  who  are,  in  fact, 
generally  preferred  for  these  appointments. 

Some  account  of  the  present  police  arrangements  in  two 
other  large  capital  cities  will  fitly  find  place  here  by  way  of 
contrast  and  comparison.  That  of  Paris  has  already  been 
dealt  with  in  its  early  beginnings,  and  under  the  First 
Empire.  After  the  Bourbon  Kestoration,  and  during  the 
days  of  the  revived  monarchy,  the  least  interesting  feature  of 
the  French  police  had  the  chief  prominence.  Every  effort 
was  strained  to  check  opposition  to  the  reigning  power,  and 
prosecute  political  independence.  But  at  that  time  the 
detection  of  crime  was  undertaken  for  the  first  time  as  a 
distinct  branch  of  pohce  business,  and  it  wUl  be  seen  in  the 
next  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  under 
Count  d'Hirvoix,  who  watched  the  regular  pohce  at  a  cost  of 
some  fourteen  milhons  of  francs.  At  the  fall  of  the  Second 
Empire  there  were  half  a  dozen  different  secret  police 
services  in  Paris.  There  was  the  Emperor's,  already  men- 
tioned ;  the  Empress  had  hers ;  M.  Rouher,  the  Prime 
Minister,  and  M.  Pietri,  the  Prefect,  each  had  a  private 
force,  so  had  M.  Nusse  and  M.  Lafarge.  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.  This 
system  produced  the  dossiers,  the  small  portfolio  or  cover, 
one  of  which  appertained  to  each  individual,  high  and  low, 
innocent  or  criminal,  and  was  carefully  preserved  in  the 
archives  of  the  Prefecture.  There  were  thousands  and 
thousands  of  these,  carefuUy  catalogued  and  filed  for  easy 
reference,  made  up  of  confidential  and  calumniating  reports 


92    MODERN  POLIOE :   LONDON,  PABI8,  AND  NEW  YORK 

sent  in  by  agents,  sometimes  serious  charges,  often  the 
merest  and  most  mendacious  tittle-tattle.  The  most  harm- 
less individuals  were  often  denounced  as  conspirators,  and  an 
agent,  if  he  knew  nothing  positive,  drew  liberally  on  his 
imagination  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  pub- 
lished 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  14207,"  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  which  preserves 
order,  checks  evil-doing,  and  "  runs  in "  malefactors,  falls 
naturally  and  broadly  into  two  grand  divisions,  the  adminis- 
trative 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  clock- 
work. There  is  an  army  of  clerks  in  the  numerous  bureaus, 
hundreds  of  those  patient  Government  employes,  the  ronds 
de  cuir,  as  they  are  contemptuously  called,  because  they  sit 


THi:    SEBOENT  BE    VILLE.  93 

for  choice  on  round  leather  cushions,  writing  and  filling  in 
forms  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" — and  he  is  known  by 
all  three  titles — ^has  many  excellent  quaUties,  is,  no  doubt,  a 
very  useful  public  servant.  He  is  almost  invariably  an  old 
soldier,  a  sergeant  who  has  left  the  army  with  a  first-class 
character,  honesty  and  sobriety  being  indispensable  quali- 
fications. Our  own  Metropolitan  Police  is  not  thus  recruited: 
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  per- 
suasion before  proceeding  to  extremities,  he  is  told  to  warn 
but  not  to  threaten,  very  necessary  regulations  when  deahng 
with  such  a  highly  strung,  excitable  population  as  that  of 
Paris.  The  sergents  de  viUe  are  constantly  stationed  in  the 
same  quarter  of  the  town,  so  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  httle  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  arrondissements.  There  is  a  large  reserve  composed  of 
the  six  central  brigades,  as  they  are  called,  a  very  smart  body 
of  old  soldiers,  well  drilled,  dressed,  and  fully  equipped; 
armed,  moreover,  with  rifles,  with  which  they  mount  guard 


9-i    MOBERN  POLICE:  LONDON,  PABI8,  AND  NEW  YORK. 

when  employed  as  sentries  at  the  doors  or  entrance  of  the 
Prefecture.  In  Paris  argot  the  men  of  these  six  central 
brigades  are  nicknamed  "  vaisneaux"  (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  dite  of  the  force ;  they  come  in  daily  contact  with  the 
Gardes  de  Paris,  horse  and  foot,  a  fine  corps  of  city  gen- 
darmerie, 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  people 
the  vaisseawx,  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  fires,  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  great  part  of  its 
food.  It  is  exceedingly  well  managed,  and  a  model  worthy 
of  imitation  by  us.  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  pohce ;  indeed,  parties  of  the 
French  police  have  from  time  to  time  been  sent  to  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  "  cabmen's,"  and  is 


PARISIAN   CABMEN.  95 

often  full  of  them.  Yet  the  drivers  are  honest  enough, 
possibly  in  spite  of  themselves,  but  many  curious  stories  are 
told  of  the  self-denial  shown  by  these  hardworked,  poorly 
paid  servants  of  the  public.  A  rich  Kussian,  who  had  won 
ten  thousand  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  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  brought  to  the  lost  pro- 
perty office.  He  went  and  asked,  although  the  limit  of  time 
allowed  to  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 
parv/re  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  :  "  No, 
not  I;  he  was  too  rude.  I  hope  I  may  never  see  him  or 
speak  to  him  again." 

AU  cabmen  are  not  so  honest,  however ;  many  seek  to 
hide  their  findings,  even  when  surrendering  them,  by  making 
false  statements  of  the  manner  in  which  they  were  left. 
Thus,  when  the  rightful  owner  claims,  the  story  of  the  loser 
does  not  tally  with  the  finder's.  Now  and  again  the  fraudu- 
lent cabman  gets  caught.  It  was  so  in  the  case  of  a  beautiful 
tortoise-shell  fan,  which  was  deposited  under  a  wrong  de- 
scription and  eventually,  after  the  legal  interval  of  one  year, 
handed    over    to   the   cabman    who    had  |found    it.      Soon 


96    MODFjBN  polio E:  LONDON,  PARIS,  AND  NEW  YORK. 

afterwards  a  lady  turned  up  to  claim  it,  and  as  she  described 
it  exactly,  and  as  the  full  time  to  establish  the  cabman's 
ownership  had  not  elapsed,  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  thie£  I 
know  the  real  owner.  I  have  known  her  from  the  first.  It 
is  Mdlle. ,"  and  he  named  a  popular  actress,  thus  con- 
fessing his  own  misconduct.  The  actress  was  then  summoned, 
and  did  in  effect  identify  the  fan  as  the  one  she  had  lost. 
But  it  was  proved  satisfactorily  that  the  other  lady  had  also 
lost  a  fan  that  was  curiously  similar. 

The  vicissitudes  of  treasure-trove  might  be  greatly  multi- 
plied. 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.  Here 
come  jewellery  and  cash  to  large  amounts.  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  chmbed  on  to 
the  outside  of  an  omnibus.  The  conductor  picked  it  up  and 
restored  it ;  certainly  he  was  rewarded  with  £500,  and  richly 
deserved  it  for  resisting  so  great  a  temptation.  Beds,  brooches, 
boots,  sheets  even,  are  brought  into  the  Prefecture.  A 
mummy  was  once  among  the  trouvailles ;  there  are  umbrellas 
without  end.  Hogier  Grisons,  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  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  8'0/reU — in  other  words,  of  public  safety — the 


THE   POLICE    OF  NEW   YORK.  97 

detective  department  employed  entirely  in  the  pursuit  and 
capture  of  criminals,  of  which  more  anon;  next  comes  the 
police,  now  amalgamated  with  the  S-drete,  that  watches  over  the 
morals  of  the  capital  in  a  fashion  that  would  not  be  tolerated 
in  this  country,  and  with  arbitrary  powers  under  the  existing 
laws  of  France ;  last  of  all  the  brigade  de  gamis,  the  police 
charged  with  the  supervision  of  all  lodging-houses,  from  the 
commonest  "  sZeep-sellers'  shop,"  as  it  is  called,  to  the  grandest 
hotels.  Last  of  all  there  are  the  brigades  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  16  to 
a  quarter  inhabited  by  30,000  to  40,000  people,  so  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  such  headlines  as  the  following  in 
the  daily  papers :  "  Crimes  of  the  Police,"  "  Police  Thieves," 
"  Murder  by  a  Sergent  de  Ville,"  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. 

The  organisation  of  the  New  York  police  is  elaborate,  not 
to  say  cumbrous,  but  it  works  well,  and  till  quite  lately  was 
believed  in  that  city  to  rank  with  the  best  and  finest  in  the 
world.  Its  services  have  been  great,  the  bravery  of  some  of 
its  members  conspicuous  in  life-saving,  and  yet  more  in  quell- 
ing riot  and  disturbance.  At  times  of  emergency  it  is  en- 
trusted with  great  powers ;  a  free  people  readily  perceives  that 
law  must  over-ride  licence,  and  permits  its  constituted  guar- 
dians to  use  the  strong  arm  on  occasion  to  an  extent  that 
would  not  be  tolerated  in  sober  old  England.  To  "  loose  oif 
his  revolver  "  after  the  fugitive  whom  he  cannot  catch  or  who 
has  slipped  through  his  fingers,  is  no  uncommon  practice  with 
the  American  policeman.  I  call  to  my  mind  the  summary  end 


98    MODERN  FOLIGE :  LONDON,  PARIS,  AND  NEW  YORK. 

put  to  a  prolonged  strike  of  "  street-car  "  employes  during  one 
of  my  visits  to  New  York.  A  force  of  policemen  in  plain 
clothes  and  armed  to  the  teeth,  were  sent  "  down  town  "  on 
a  steet  car  with  orders  to  fight  their  way  through,  which  they 
did.  The  number  of  casualities  was  not  reported.  This 
reckless  spirit  is  not  unlikely  to  degenerate  into  absolute 
outrage,  and  the  New  York  policemen  have  been  openly 
accused  of  using  unnecessary  and  brutal  violence,  not  only 
when  making  justifiable  arrests  but  towards  perfectly  in- 
ofiensive  persons.  According  to  a  writer  in  the  North 
American  Review  not  long  since,  "  the  records  of  the  Police 
Commissioners  show  that  within  a  few  years  hundreds  of 
complaints  have  been  made  by  respectable  citizens  who 
have  felt  that  their  persons  and  self-respect  have  been  most 
shamefully  abused  by  policemen." 

The  supreme  authority  is  vested  in  a  board  of  commis- 
sioners, four  in  number,  one  of  whom  is  elected  President ;  but 
he,  like  his  colleagues,  has  his  own  pecuHar  functions.     The 
president    deals    with    discipline  and    the   charges  brought 
against  the  officers  of  the  force  ;  one  commissioner  deals  with 
purchase  and  supplies,  another  with  pensions,  and  the  fourth 
is  the  treasurer  of  the  police  funds.     Under  the  board  there 
is  a  superintendent,  who  is  the  chief  of  the  personnel,  and  has 
direct  control  of  all  out-of-door  police  business.     He  is  assisted 
by  four  inspectors :   three  being  each  responsible  for  a  wide 
district  of  the  city,  the  fourth  being  the  head  of  thB  detective 
department.     The  final  subdivision  is  into  "  thirty-four  pre- 
cincts," each  of  which  is  under  the  immediate  orders  and 
supervision  of  a  police   captain  who   is  responsible  for  the 
public  peace  within  its  limits.     The  captain's  daily  record  of 
duties  and  occurrences  makes  up  the  police  history  of  the  city. 
New  York,  with  a  population  of  nearly  two  millions,  has  a 
police  force  which  many  consider  inadequate  to  its  needs.     By 
the  last  statistics  I  have  to  hand  the  proportion  of  constables 
to  citizens  is  as  1  to  572,  while  here  in  London  the  percentage 
is  as  1  to  342,  and  in  the  city  of  London  it  is  as  1  to  100. 
The  constitution  of  the  New  York  police  is  much  affected  by 
the  political  conditions  of  the  city:  "party"  has  perhaps  too 


BRIBERY  AND   BLACKMAIL.  99 

strong  a  voice  in  appointments,  and  the  policeman's  vote,  or 
the  votes  he  can  influence,  has,  it  is  said,  affected  discipline 
by  giving  the  subordinate  undue  -weight  with  his  superiors. 
Not  long  since  very  grave  charges  were  brought  against  the 
force,  many  of  which  were  more  or  less  substantiated.  The 
existence  of  bribery  and  blackmail  was  proved,  and  to  an 
extent  sufficient  to  damage  the  reputation  of  several  officers 
who  stood  in  high  place  and  in  high  favour. 

Note. — I  had  written  the  foregoing  lines  before  rending  Mr.  W.  T. 
Stead's  remarkable  work,  "  Satan's  Invisible  World  Displayed,"  and  it  is  clear 
that  I  have  understated  the  case  against  the  New  York  Police.  The  appaBing 
disclosures  made  before  Senator  Lexow's  Committee  show  that  up  to  ihe  time 
of  its  appointment  the  police  was  an  organised  tyranny  of  the  worst  kind — that 
of  "  a  body  of  men  practically  above  the  law,  armed  with  powers  hardly 
inferior  to  those  of  the  police  of  St.  Petersburg."  The  city  was  "  terrorised  by 
a  band  of  Thugs."  The  most  atrocious  acts  of  oppression  were  of  daily 
occurrence.  The  citizens  were  subjected  to  appalling  outrages,  ' '  they  were 
abused,  clubbed,  imprisoned,  and  even  convicted  of  crimes  on  false  testimony 
by  policemen  and  their  accomplices."  Bribery  and  corruption  were  screened 
and  supported  by  the  most  criminal  and  unblushing  perjury.  Blackmail 
was  levied  on  all  sides ;  certain  trades  and  callings  could  not  exist  without 
paying  tribute  to  the  police.  Authority,  or  the  pretence  of  it,  was  maintained  by 
the  most  brutal  ill-usage  of  the  innocent  and  weak,  so  that  the  station-houses 
were  called  "  slaughter-houses,"  in  which  prisoners  were  belaboured  unmerci- 
fully. The  guardians  of  the  law  not  only  winked  at  crime,  but  participated 
in  the  illegal  profits  of  swindling  and  fraud.  Gambling  of  all  kinds  flourished 
vmder  the  protection  of  the  police  authoritiee,  with  the  rank  and  file  as  patrons. 
The  administration  of  the  law  was  corrupt,  there  was  no  justice  to  be  found  in 
the  police-court ;  "  the  blackguard  lawyer,  hand-in-hand  vrith  the  bandit  police- 
man, found  an  even  more  detestable  scoundrel  than  themselves  upon  the  bench." 
Last  of  all,  the  freedom  of  the  franchise  was  altogether  subverted  by  the 
police  as  agents  of  Tammany  Hall,  the  supreme  autocracy  under  which  these 
horrors  grew  up  and  flourished.  That  this  awful  picture  is  not  too  darkly 
painted  may  be  realised  by  a  reference  to  the  work  from  which  the  materials  are 
obtained.  Some  attempt  has  now  been  made  to  purge  the  New  York  police  of 
the  evils  that  disgraced  it,  with  what  result  the  future  alone  can  show. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   DETECTIVE,   OLD   AND   NEW. 

The  Detective  in  Fiction  and  in  Fact — Early  Detection — Case  of  Lady  Ivy — 
Thomas  Chandler — Mackoull,  and  clever  Pursuit  by  Scotch  Officer,  Mr. 
Denovan — Tidooq :  his  Early  Life,  Police  Services,  and  End — French 
Detectives  generally — Amicahle  Eelations  between  French  and  English 
Police. 

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  innumerable  novels  and  plays,  the  hero,  the  pivot 
on  which  the  plot  turns.  Readers  ever  fi.nd  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  imagination,  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  domesticated 
and  turned  to  pursue  his  former  associates,  down  to  the 
present  honourable  officer,  the  guardian  of  our  lives  and 
property,  the  law's  chief  weapon  and  principal  vindicator. 

In  times  past  the  pursuit  and  detection  of  crime  were 
left  very  much  to  chance ;  but  now  and  again  shrewd  agents, 
both  public  officials  and  private  persons,  contributed  to  the 
discovery  of  frauds  and  crimes.  Long  ago  in  France,  as  I  have 
shown,  there  was  an  organised  police  force  which  had  often 
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. 


EARLY  DETECTION.  101 

The  ingenious  piecing  togetlier  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. 

LADY  ivy. 

One  of  the  first  cases  on  record  of  a  cleverly  planned  fraud 
on  a  very  large  scale  was  the  claim  raised  by  a  Lady  Ivy, 
in  1684,  to  a  large  estate  in  ShadweU.  It  was  based  on 
ancient  deeds  produced,  and  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  it 
was  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  jury  that  the  deed  put 
forward  had  been  forged.  It  was  discovered  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  Parliament  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."  Agaia,  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.  Other  evidence  was  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 
sculk,  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. 


102  THE   JDETEGTIVE,    OLD   AND   NEW. 

THOMAS   CHANDLER. 

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. 

Upon  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  Beading. 
Having  passed  through  Maidenhead  Thicket  and  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 
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  quahties  of  a  good  detective  ;  he  was 
ingenious,  yet    patient  and   painstaking,   and  he   soon  put 


OLE  FEB    SGHEME    OF   FRAUD.  103 

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; 
again,  that  he  should  not  escape  from  the  pit  till  after  dark, 
or  that  his  bonds  should  have  been  no  better  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,  con- 
cerning which  he  was  strangely  well  informed,  having  all  the 
statutes  at  his  fingers'  ends,  as  though  studied  beforehand, 
he  ordered  a  hot  supper  and  a  bowl  at  the  Hare  and  Hounds 
in  Hare  Hatch,  where  he  kept  it  up  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  Clifibrd's  Inn.  It  now 
appeared  that  Chandler  had  negotiated  a  mortgage  for  a 
cHent  of  his  master,  upon  certain  lands  ia  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Devizes  for  £509,  far  more,  as  it  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  day 
previous  were  also  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 
sums,  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 
Richard  Hoare's  shop  "  for  three  notes,  two  of  £100  and  one 
of  £200.  With  the  whole  of  his  money  he  then  started  tc 
walk  ninety  miles  in  twenty-four  hours,  for  he  was  expected 
next  day  at  Devizes  to  release  the  mortgage. 


104  THE    DETECTIVE,    OLD   AND    NEW. 

Mr.  Hill  had  kept  a  list  of  his  notes  in  Chandler's  hand- 
writing, 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  lumoticed  by  Mr.  HiU 
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  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  Jime,  and  a  verdict  was  given  in  his  iavour  for 
£975,  chiefly  because  Mr.  Hill  was  associated  with  the  mort- 
gage, 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  adver- 
tising 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  proved  to  be  the  case ;  on 
argument  of  the  point  of  law  the  Abingdon  verdict  was  set 
aside.  There  was  good  cause  for  his  other  fears.  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 


GSANDLEB    CHASED.  105 

skewer."  The  indefatigable  Mr.  Wise  presently  found  that 
Chandler  had  been  in  Holland  with  a  trader  named  Casson, 
and  then  found  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  behiad  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, 
and  he  halted, "  being  thus  pretty  sure  of  going  no  further  east- 
ward." But  the  scent  was  false,  and  although  a  young  man 
was  run  into,  whom  they  proposed  to  arrest  with  the  assist- 
ance of  "  three  feUows  from  the  Keys,  who  appeared  to  be 
smugglers,  for  they  were  pretty  much  maimed  and  scarred," 
the  person  was  clearly  not  Chandler.  So,  finding  "  we  had 
been  running  the  wrong  hare,  we  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  there  lost  their 
hare.  This  inn  was  kept  at  that  very  time  by  Chandler,  in 
partnership  with  his  brother-in-law  Smart,  who  naturally 
would  not  betray  him,  although  he  was  in  the  house  when 
asked  for.  ' 

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  Norfolk,  so  he  sold  off  his 
goods  and  moved  to  another  inn  at  Coventry,  where  he  set  up 


106  TEH   DETECTIVE,    OLD    AND   NEW. 

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  com- 
plimented upon  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  in  the  pillory  next  market  day  at  Reading 
from  twelve  to  one,  and  afterwards  to  be  transported  for  seven 
years. 

A  curious  feature  in  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. 

MACKOULL. 

A  detailed  reference  has  been  made  in  previous  pages 
to  the  Bow  Street  runners,  to  Vickery,  Lavender,  Sayer, 
Donaldson,  and  Townsend,  whose  exploits  were  often  remark- 
able in  capturing  criminals.  None  of  them  did  better, 
however,  than  a  certain  Mr.  Denovan,  a  Scotch  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  restoration  of  property  which  was 


AN  HABITUAL    CRIMINAL    OF   OLD.  107 

clearly  the  bank's  and  not  his.  For  the  first  and  probably- 
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  MackouU, 
a  hardened  and,  as  we  should  say  nowadays,  an  "habitual" 
criminal.  He  was  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  characters 
that  have  ever  appeared  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,  hoAvever,  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 
companions.  He  studied  little,  but  soon  became  an  expert 
in  the  science  of  self-defence,  and,  being  active  and  athletic, 
he  took  rank  in  due  course  as  an  accompUshed  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  professional  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,  dressed 
out  in  smart  clothes  and  wearing  conspicuously  exposed  a  fine 
gold  watch  set  with  diamonds.  Mackoull  knew  that  "The  Old 
Raven"  entered  the  park  from  Spring  Gardens  most  days, 
punctually  at  4  p.m.,  so  he  timed  himself  to  arrive  a  little 
earlier.  He  waited  till  the  undertaker  had  passed  him,  then 
pushed  on  in  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 


108  THE   DETECTIVE,    OLD    AND    NEW. 

wMch  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  con- 
duct was  exemplary,  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  cock- 
pit, and  at  the  gaming-table,  he  devoted  himself  to  picking 
pockets  with  great  success.  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  at  "  hocussing,"  and  it  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  played  upon  a  master  baker,  whom  he  encountered 
at  an  election  in  Brentford.  This  worthy  soul  affected  to 
be  learned  in  astronomy,  and  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  post-chaise. 

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, 


MAGKOULL'S    SUPPOSED   MUBDEB.  109 

and  as  MackouU  was  "  wanted,"  lie  escaped  to  the  Continent, 
where  he  frequented  the  German  gambling-tables  and  learnt 
the  language.  He  visited  Hamburg,  the  fair  at  Leipsic, 
Rotterdam,  and  he  is  said  to  have  often  played  billiards 
with  the  Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  whom  he 
reUeved  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,  when  he  "  called  himself 
a  Hamburg  merchant  and  made  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  overtaken.  Having  no 
assistance  at  hand,  the  "  town  officer "  struck  him  on  the 
head  with  his  "  batoon."  MackouU  fell  with  a  deep  groan, 
and  the  officer,  fearing  he  had  killed  him,  made  off.  As  the 
result  of  this  encounter  MackouU  was  long  laid  up,  and  he 
carried  the  scar  on  his  forehead  to  his  dying  day. 

He  grew  more  daring  and  more  truculent  as  time  passed, 
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,  and  the 
murder  remained  a  mystery  to  the  last.  This  victim,  return- 
ing from  Leith  carrying  a  large  parcel  of  bank-notes,  was 
stabbed  in  the  back  at  the  entrance  of  Tweedale's  Court. 
Several  persons  were  suspected,  apprehended,  and  discharged 
for  want  of  evidence.  Yet  the  most  active  measures  were 
taken  to  detect  the  crime.  "  Hue-and-cry  "  biUs  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  MackouU,  but  the  proof  of  his 
guilt  was  still  insufficient. 


110  TEE    DETEGTIVE,    OLD    AND    NEW. 

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  circulation  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  in  pulling  down  the  wall  resided  close  to  the  spot  where 
the  murder  had  been  committed.  But  for  the  good  luck  that 
he  was  able  to  prove  clearly  that  he  was  not  in  Edinburgh  at 
the  time  of  the  murder,  he  might  be  added  to  the  sufficiently 
long  list  of  victims  of  circumstantial  evidence. 

Mackoull  at  this  time  passed  to  and  fro  between  Edin- 
burgh 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,  searched  with  no  result,  for  he  had  dropped 
his  booty  in  the  race.  They  cast  him  into  the  Tolbooth,  but 
he  was  released  after  nine  months'  detention  for  want  of 
proof  As  the  story  is  told,  the  gentleman  robbed  was  much 
displeased  at  Mackoull's  release  and  complained  of  this  failure 
of  justice.  The  judge  before  whom  the  thief  had  been  arraigned 
admitted  that  he  ought  to  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 


BOBS    THE    PAISLEY  BANE.  Ill 

evaded  the  law.  Another  enterprise  in  Chester  failed;  the 
luck  was  against  him  for  the  moment.  But  now,  having 
sought  out  efficient  confederates,  he  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  compassed  on  purpose.  They  broke  into  the  Paisley  Bank 
of  Glasgow  on  Sunday  night,  July  14,  1811,  with  keys  care- 
fully 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  at  once,  travelling  full  speed,  in 
a  postchaise  and  four,  first  to  Edinburgh  and  then  vid 
Edinburgh,  Haddington,  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  Hfe  a  certain  sum  was  surrendered 
to  the  bank ;  but  some  of  the  money,  as  I  have  said  else- 
where,t  seems  to  have  stuck  to  the  fingers  of  a  Bow  Street 
officer,  Sayer,  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  MackouU  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  quantity  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 

*  See  post,  p.  114.  +  See  ante,  p.  79. 


112  THE   DETECTIVE,    OLD   AND   NEW. 

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  a  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,  a  well-known  officer  and  agent 
of  the  Scotch  courts,  and  sent  him  to  collect  evidence  showing 
that  MackouU  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  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  the  latter 
place  to  hunt  up  a  certain  George  Johnson  who  was  said  to 
be  able  to  identify  MackouU.  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  in  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  West- 
moreland, 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 


DENOVAN,    BETEGTIVE.  113 

when  found,  in  the  bar  of  the  Crown  and  Thistle  was  "  so  muti- 
lated 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,  an  ancient  postboy, 
who  remembered  MackouU  as  the  oldest,  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  Scotch  bank  notes.  At  the  Talbot  inn,  Darling- 
ton, where  George  Johnson  had  lived,  the  scent  failed  till 
Denovan  found  him  at  another  inn,  the  King's  Head.  He  quite 
remembered  the  three  fugitives  coming  from  Durham  and 
that  he  had  mentioned  to  his  master  his  surprise  that  "  three 
such  queer-looking  chaps  should  be  posting  it." 

At  Northallerton  there  was  evidence — that  of  Scotch  notes 
changed;  and  at  York  news  of  George  Johnson,  who  was 
found  at  last,  a  fish  hawker  at  Tadcaster.  Johnson's  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  Scotch  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  stuffed  full  of  bank  notes,  all  too  large, 
so  the  first  note  was  changed  by  Johnson  at  the  Darhngton 
bank.  Johnson  was  sure  he  would  know  the  "stiff  man" 
again  amongst  a  hundred  others  in  any  dress. 

There  was  nothing  more  now  till  the  White  Hart,  Welwyn, 
where  the  fugitives  had  taken  the  light  post-coach.  At 
Welwyn,  too,  they  had  sent  off  a  portmanteau  to  an  address, 
and  this  portmanteau  was  afterwards  recovered  with  the 
address  in  Mackoull's  hand,  the  other  two  being  unable  to 
write.  At  Wehvyn  Mr.  Denovan  heard  of  one  Cunnington, 
who  had  been  a  waiter  at  the  inn  in  1811,  but  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 
M  r.  Denovan  pushed  on  to  London  hoping  to  find  him  there. 


114  THB   BETECTIVE,    OLD   AND   NEW. 

"In  company  witli  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  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  would  know  MackouU  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 
Httle  assistance  at  Bow  Street.  The  runners  were  irritated  at 
the  way  the  case  had  been  managed.  One  of  them,  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  presently  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  Mac- 
koull's  wife,  a  lady  of  questionable  character,  who  was  living  in 
comfort  on  some  of  her  husband's  ih-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,  another  famous  runner, 
whom  he  persuaded  to  assist,  and  through  him  he  came  upon 
the  portmanteau  sent  from  Welwyn,  which  had  been  seized  at 
the  time  of  Huffey  White's  arrest.  Huifey  had  been  taken  in 
the  house  of  one  Scoltop,  a  blacksmith  in  the  Tottenham 
Court  Road,  also  the  portmanteau  and  a  box  of  skeleton  keys. 
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  WiUiams'  bloody  jacket,  and  the  maul 
and  ripping  iron    with    which    the   man   Wilhamson    had 


HIS   SUCCESS.  115 

been  murdered  in  Ratcliff  Highway.  The  portmanteau  con- 
tained many  papers  and  notes  damaging  to  MackouU,  and 
in  the  box  were  housebreaking  implements,  punches,  files,  and 
various  "  dubs  "  and  "  skrews,"  as  weU.  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 
ofiicers  in  Bow  Street.  Scoltop  was  the  friend  and  associate 
of  burglars,  and  constantly  engaged  in  manufacturing  imple- 
ments for  them.  He  had  long  been  a  friend  of  Mackoull's 
and  had  made  many  tools  for  him,  those  especially  for  the 
robbing  of  the  Paisley  Union  Bank,  a  coup  prepared  long 
beforehand.  The  first  set  of  keys  supplied  had  really  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  MackouU  came  back  from  Glasgow, 
bringing  with  him  "a  wooden  model  of  the  key  hole  and 
pike  of  the  locks,"  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  swear  also  to 
receiving  the  portmanteau  addressed  in  the  handwriting  of 
MackouU. 

Denovan's  greatest  triumph  was  with  Mrs.  MackouU.  She 
kept  a  house  furnished  in  an  elegant  manner,  but  was  not 
a  very  reputable  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  "  at  the  Public  Oflace,  Bow  Street." 
Then  she  gave  him  her  hand  and  said  "We  understand 
each  other."    But  still  she  was  very  reticent,  acting,  as  Mr. 


116  THE   DETECTIVE,    OLD    AND   NEW. 

Denovan  believed,  under  the  advice  of  Sayer,  the  not  incor- 
ruptible Bow  Street  runner.  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  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 
Cockbum,  who  was  at  that  time  counsel  for  the  Bank,  de- 
clared "  nothing  could  exceed  Donovan's  skiU,  and  that  the 
investigations  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,  Cunington, 
Scoltop,  and  Mrs.  MackouU,  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  afterwards  he  was  indicted  for  the  robbery  of  the  bank, 
and  on  conviction  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  returned 
his  constant  ill-treatment  with  great  generosity,  providing 
him  with  the  means  of  purchasing  every  luxury.  She 
also  applied  for  and  obtained  a  reprieve  for  him.  But  he 
might  escape  the  gallows,  but  not  death.  Within  a  couple 
of  months  of  his  sentence  he  fell  into  mental  imbecility 
his  hitherto  jet  black  hair  grew  white,  and  his  physical 
faculties  failed  him.     Before  the  year  was  ended  he  died. 

FRENCH    DETECTIVES. 

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 


VIDOGQ.  117 

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,  and  they  were  at  first 
bluntly  refused.  M.  Henri,  the  functionary  at  the  head 
of  the  criminal  department  of  the  Prefecture,  sent  him 
about  his  business .  without  even  asking  his  name. 

This  was  in  1809,  during  the  ministry  of  Fouch6.  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  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  part  of  his  compact  that  he  should  associate  freely 
with  other  prisoners  and  secretly  inform  the  poHce  of  all 
that  was  going  on.  He  betrayed  a  number  of  his  unsus- 
pecting companions  and  seems  to  have  been  very  proud  of  his 
treacherous  achievements.  No  prisoner  had  the  shghtest 
suspicion  that  he  was  a  police  spy,  and  none  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  prisoE 
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,  handcuffed  and  lodged  in  the  prison  van ;  but 
I  was  let  out  on  the  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 


118  THE   DETECTIVE,    OLD   AND   NEW. 

Vidocq's  health  was  drunk  with  many  wishes  for  his 
continued  good  fortune. 

Vidocq  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,  innumer- 
able arrests  were  made  ;  one  of  the  most  important  was  the 
head  of  a  gang  of  robbers  named  Guenvive,  whose  acquaint- 
ance 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 
Vidocq  that  he  knew  him  intimately  and  there  was  nothing 
to  be  feared  while  he  was  by.  Together  they  went  to  attack 
Vidocq,  each  carrying  handkerchiefs  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  Kue 
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,  con- 
cealed himself  under  the  bed.  The  end  of  this  business 
was  the  condemnation  of  the  robbers  to  travaux  forces, 
but  they  appeared  to  have  discovered  how  and  by  whom 
they  had  been  betrayed. 

Vidocq  made  another  important  arrest  in  the  person 
of  Fossard,  already  a  notorious  criminal,  but  who  became 
more  famous  by  his  celebrated  theft  of  medals  from  the 
Bibliotheque  Royale.*  Fossard  was  a  man  of  athletic  pro- 
portions 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 

See  post,  vol.  ii. 


ARBESTS    FOSSARR  Hit 

the  teeth,  and  swore  he  would  blow  out  the  brains  of 
anyone  who  attempted  to  take  hun.  He  lived  somewhere 
near  the  Rue  Poissonniere ;  the  neighbourhood  was  known, 
but  not  the  house  or  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. 

Vidocq  now  took  the  tavern-keeper  into  his  confidence, 
warned  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  when- 
ever 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  mes- 
sage, 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  Empire  the  police  were  more 
actively  engaged  with  political  espionage  than  the  capture  of 
criminals,  and  Paris  was  very  much  at  the  mercy  of  the  latter. 
There  were  whole  quarters  given  up  to  malefactors — places, 
particularly  beyond  the  Barrier,  which  offered  a  safe  retreat 


120  THE   DETECTIVE,    OLD   AND  NEW. 

to  escaped  convicts,  deserters,  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  Desnoyez's  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  com- 
pany 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 
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  Siirete," 
which  was  composed  of  a  certain  number  of  agents  devoted 
entirely  to  the  pursuit  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  amongst  them  they 
effected  772  arrests,  many  of  them  of  the  most  important 
character.  Fifteen  of  their  captives  were  murderers,  a  hun- 
dred and  eight  were  burglars,  five  robbers  with  violence, 
and  there  were  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  thieves  of  other 
descriptions.     Such  good  work  soon  gained  Vidocq  detractors, 


VIDOCQ'S   MEN.  121 

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  employes  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,  whom  they 
declared  now  carried  on  their  old  trade  with  impunity.  Vidocq 
soon  heard  of  these  insinuations,  and,  to  give  a  practical  denial 
of  the  charge,  ordered  all  his  people  to  invariably  wear  gloves. 
To  appear  without  them,  he  declared,  would  be  visited  with 
instant  dismissal.  To  understand  this  proceeding,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  remind  the  reader  that  a  pocket  can  only  be  picked  by 
a  bare  hand. 

Certainly  Vidocq  and  his  men  were  neither  idle  nor  expen- 
sive to  maintain ;  their  hours  of  duty  were  often  eighteen  out 
of  the  twenty-four;  sometimes  they  were  days  and  days  consecu- 
tively employed,  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  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  to  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  Vidocq  was  fooled  by 
one  of  his  precious  assistants.     In  selecting  among  candidates. 


122  TEE   DETECTIVE,    OLD   AND   NEW. 

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  on  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  the  owner  of  the  fowls.  When  the 
sdance  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  probably  foresaw  that  he  had  better  withdraw 
before  he  was  dismissed.  The  real  reason  was  that  he  had 
feathered  his  nest  well,  and  was  in  possession  of  sufiicient 
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  he  was  peculiarly  well  fitted  with  his 
abundant  and  varied  experience.  He  soon  possessed  a  wide 
clientele,  and  had  as  many  as  8,000  cases  registered  in  his 
office.  At  the  same  time  his  brain  was  busy  with  practical 
inventions,  such  as  a  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   employes   in   the 


"  TEE    GREAT   INTEBMEBIABY."  123 

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  "  Inter- 
mediary," as  he  called  himself,  sat  at  a  great  desk,  sur- 
rounded by  fine  pictures  (for  one  of  which,  it  was  said,  he 
had  refused  £2,800)  and  installed  with  every  sign  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  poHce  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  that  the  regular  police  could  not  find.  He  had 
started  a  sort  of  "trade  protection  society,"  by  which,  on 
payment  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  un- 
masked 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  villaiuies. 
No  doubt  he  had  made  himself  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  ended  in  a  sentence  of  eight  years'  imprisonment, 
which  was,  however,   reversed  on  appeal.      He  was  much 


124  TEE   BETEOTIVJE,    OLD    AND    NEW. 

impoverished  by  his  lawsuits,  and  one  of  his  last  proceedings 
was  to  appear  before  a  London  audience  dressed,  first,  as  a 
French  convict  in  chains,  then  in  the  various  disguises  he 
used  in  following  up  malefactors.  Although  his  lecture 
was  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 
he  visited  Paris,  of  inviting  the  old  thief-taker  to  dine  with 
him  at  the  Trois  Freres  Kestaurant  in  the  Palais  Royal. 
Vidocq  died  in  penury  in  1857  at  a  very  advanced  age. 

Vidocq's  mantle,  after  his  resignation  of  his  ofiicial  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  constantly  made,  numbers  of 
depredators  were  brought  to  justice,  but  again  and  again 
in  court  there  were  some  discreditable  scenes;  fierce  re- 
criminations between  the  dock  and  the  witness-box,  little 
to  choose  between  the  accused  criminal  and  the  man 
who  had  captured  him.  PubUc  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  con- 
victed 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  aptitudes  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, 


FRENCH  DETECTIVES    TO-BAY.  125 

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  Pre- 
fecture have  been  worthily  maintained  by  such  men  as  Canler, 
Claude,  Mac^  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  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, 
of  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  ; 
a  clue  is  followed  up  at  all  costs  and  all  hazards.  The 
French  police  are  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  butter- 
man'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  mur- 
dered man  had  been  seen  in  company  with  another  the 
day  before  the  crime;  the  latter  was  seen  and  described  to 
the  police,  who  got  on  his  track  within  twenty-four  hours, 
checked  the  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  with- 
out 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  business  among 


126  TEE   DETECTIVE,    OLD    AND   NEW. 

them  :  one  played  the  flute  at  a  hall  frequented  by  their  men, 
another  sold  pencils  in  the  street,  a  third  worked  in  brickfields 
frequented  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  again 
recognised  (by  a  friend)  in  correct  evening  dress  at  a  diploma- 
tic reception.  There  was  once  attached  to  the  Prefecture  a 
regular  wardrobe  of  all  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  clever  do  these  detectives  become  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. 

The  French  detective  often  shows  great  tact  and  prompti- 
tude. 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  depSt  of 
the  Prefecture,  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.  Fortunately, 
most  criminals  are  simplicity  itself,  and  readily  give  them- 
selves away.  It  is  enough  to  send  a  message  for  the  man 
wanted,  and  he  will  appear  at  the  wineshop  round  the  corner. 


POLICE    COURTESIES.  127 

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  certainly  have  tried  to  destroy  his  companion 
on  the  slightest  suspicion  of  his  real  character.  Hand-to- 
hand  encounters  are  common ;  bold  arrests  of  malefactors 
showing  fight  with  knife  or  revolver  are  part  of  the  French 
detective's  daily  business,  and  carried  out  fearlessly. 

It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  very  amicable  relations 
exist  between  London  and  Paris  detectives,  and  one  is  at 
all  times  willing  to  render  assistance  to  the  other.  I  have 
heard  that  the  French  greatly  admire  the  completeness  of 
our  Metropolitan  Police  machine,  its  extensive  ramifications, 
the  "  informations "  or  budget  of  facts  and  police  circum- 
stances issued  four  times  daily  from  Scotland  Yard,  and 
the  facility  with  which  news  is  circulated  and  action  started 
in  aU — even  in  most  remote — parts.  Our  people  have  made 
many  famous  captures  for  the  French:  Francois,  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  indi- 
vidual, and  sent  over  his  photograph  and  description  by  a 
trusted  agent  for  distribution  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.  On  the 
other  hand,  Maxime  du  Camp  tells  a  story  of  the  urgent  visit 
made  to  the  head  of  the  French  police  of  three  Englishmen, 
two  of  them  jewellers,  the  third  a  well-known  London  detec- 
tive, who  were  in  hot  pursuit  of  an  employe  who  had 
"looted"  the  jewellers'  shop  to  the  value  of  some  £16,000. 
Directly  they  had  told  their  story  the  French  ofiicial  quietly 
said,  "I  know  aU  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  produced,  and  one  of  the  jewellers,  overcome 
with  joy,  fainted  away  on   the   spot.      The   affair  seemed 


128  TEE   DETECTIVE,    OLD    AND   NEW. 

miraculous,  and  yet  it  was  perfectly  simple.  Information 
had  readied  the  French  poHce  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  portmanteaus  crammed  full 
of  gems. 


CHAPTER    V. 

ENGLISH    DETECTIVES. 

English  Detectives  —  First  Appointments  of  present  Officials  — Late  Mr. 
■Williamson— Inspector  Melville— Sir  C.  Howard  Vincent — Dr.  Anderson 
— Mr.  Macnaughten— Mr.  Mc William— A  Country  Detective's  Experiences 
— ABan  Pinkerton,  hia  first  Essay  ia  Detection — The  Private  Inquiry 
Agent. 

Although  the  old  Bow  Street  runner  either  retired  from 
business  or  set  up  what  we  should  call  now  private  inquiry 
offices,  the  new  organisation  did  not  include  any  members 
especially  devoted  to  the  pursuit  and  detection  of  crime. 
The  want  of  them  caused  much  inconvenience,  and  after 
fifteen  years'  life  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  ten- 
tatively, for  the  old  distrust  and  suspicion  of  secret  spies 
and  underhand  police  processes  lingered.  There  was  some- 
thing unpleasant,  people  said,  in  the  idea  of  a  disguised 
pohce;  personal  freedom  was  in  danger,  and  it  was  there- 
upon tried  on  a  very  small  scale.*  No  more  than  a  round 
dozen  were  appointed  at  first — three  inspectors  and  nine 
Serjeants,  but  very  shortly  six  constables  were  added  as 
"auxiliaries,"   and  gradually   the  total  became   108,   only  a 

*  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  minor  acceptance  of  the  term,  as  a  practice  most 
abhorrent  to  the  feelings  of  the  people  and  most  alien  to  the  spirit  of  the 
constitution." 


130  ENGLISH   DETECTIVES. 

small  proportion  of  the  total  6,000  which  made  up  the 
whole  force. 

The  real  intention  and  uses  of  this  "  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  them  down  unperceived.  They  quickly  overcame 
the  first  prejudice  against  them,  and  began  by  their  sub- 
stantial services  to  win  popular  esteem.  Charles  Dickens 
may  be  said  to  have  discovered  the  modern  detective.  His 
papers  in  Household  Words  were  a  revelation  to  the  public, 
and  the  life  portraits  he  drew  of  some  of  the  most  notable 
men  employed  in  this  comparatively  new  branch  of  criminal 
pursuit  were  the  just  rewards  accorded  to  those  excellent 
officers. 

A  few  words  may  fitly  find  place  here  concerning  some  of 
our  latest  developments  of  this  most  useful  and  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,  intelligent,  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  years  of 
arduous  and  uncompromising  service.  Few  but  the  initiated 
recognised  the  redoubtable  detective  in  this  quiet,  unpre- 
tending, middle-aged  man,  who  walked  leisurely  along 
Whitehall,  balancing  a  hat  that  was  a  httle  large  for  him 
loosely  on  his  head,  and  often  with  a  sprig  of  a  leaf  or 
flower  between  his  lips.  He  was  naturally  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  passion;  and 
his  blooms  were  famous  in  the  neighbourhood  where  he  spent 
his  unofficial  hours.  Another  very  favourite  diversion  with 
him,  until  the  increasing  pressure  of  work  denied  him  any 
leisure,  was  boating.     He  was  very  much  at  home  on   the 


MB.   WILLIAMSON.  131 

Thames,  a  powerful  sculler,  and  very  fond  of  it.  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,  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  the  misconduct  of  his  comrade  detectives  in  the  well- 
known  and  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  astuteness,  who  were  the  more 
unscrupulous  because  he  trusted  them  so  implicitly,  with  the 
trust  of  a  right  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  know- 
ledge and  long  experience  in  exotic  crime.  It  was  Williamson 
who  was  first  on  the  scene  when  dynamite  was  discovered, 
infernal  machines  had  exploded,  or  might  be  expected  to  do 
so  at  any  moment. 

To  him  the  officer  who  is  nowadays  our  chief  mainstay 
and  defence  against  these  outrages.  Inspector  Melville,  owes 
much  of  his  insight  into  the  peculiar  business  of  the  "  special 
section,"  as  this  important  branch  of  criminal  investigation 
is  called.  The  latter  not  long  ago  disposed  very  ingeniously 
of  a  case  which  might  have  led  to  very  serious  mischief 


132  ENGLISH  DETECTIVES. 

Fertility  of  resource  with  great  promptitude  in  action  are 
among  Mr.  Melville's  strongest  and  most  valuable  traits. 
On  one  occasion,  during  the  visit  to  England  of  a  foreign 
Sovereign,  information  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  pro- 
cession, which  had  either  actually  started,  or  would  in  the 
course  of  an  hour  or  so.  The  malcontent  was  employed  as 
cellarman  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  care- 
lessly, and  the  man  crossed  over  to  the  far  end  of  the  vault 
to  look  before  he  answered.  This  was  all  the  astute  officer 
wanted.  With  a  sudden  inspiration  he  seized  upon  the 
opportunity,  stepped  back  out  of  the  cellar,  closed  the  door 
promptly  and  locked  it.  The  irreconcilable  cellarman  was 
a  prisoner,  and  was  left  there  perfectly  unable  to  carry  out 
his  fell  purpose.  After  the  procession  was  over  he  was  set 
free. 

Most  of  the  prominent  detectives  of  to-day  learnt  their 
work  under  Williamson : — Butcher,  now  chief  inspector,  who 
is  as  fond  of  flowers  as  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  present  curator  of  the 
Black  Museum:  a  sturdy,  self-reliant,  solid  detective  officer 
with  the  esprit  of  his  calling  strong  in  him;  who,  among 
other  great  cases,  worked  to  a  successful  issue  the  "  Orrock " 
murder,  when  the  syllable  "  rock "  scratched  upon  a  chisel 
led  to  ultimate  detection. 


CHIEFS   OF  CRIMINAL  INVESTiaATION.  133 

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,  comparatively  speaking,  unknown,  inex- 
perienced 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 
of  organisation ;  above  all,  a  gentleman  of  high  character 
and  integrity.  His  reign  at  Whitehall  Place  may  not  have 
been  marked  by  any  phenomenal  feats  in  detection ;  in  the 
pursuit  of  crime  he  was  dependent  upon  his  most  able 
subordinates,  and  it  was  his  rule  to  summon  the  most  ex- 
perienced to  advise  on  all  serious  cases.  In  the  more  subtle 
processes  of  analysis  and  deduction,  of  working  from  effect  to 
cause,  from  vague,  almost  impalpable  indices  to  strong  pre- 
sumption of  guilt,  Howard  Vincent  did  not  shine  ;  nor  did  he 
always  realise  the  value  of  reticence  and  secrecy  in  detective 
operations ;  but  he  did  good  work  at  Scotland  Yard  by 
raising  the  general  tone  and  systematising  the  service. 

Mr.  Anderson,  one  of  the  Assistant  Commissioners  of 
Police,  the  present  chief  of  the  Investigation  Department,  is 
an  ideal  detective  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.  He 
seizes  on  the  essential  point  almost  by  intuition,  and  is 
marvellously  ready  in  finding  the  real  clue  or  indicating 
the  right  trail.  With  all  this  he  is  the  most  discreet,  the 
most  silent  and  reserved  of  public  functionaries.  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,  which  Mr.  Anderson  culti- 
vates and  parades  on  occasions.  If  he  is  asked  an  em- 
barrassing question,  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 ; 


134  ENGLI8S   DETECTIVES. 

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. 

Subordinates  naturally  look  up  to  such  a  leader,  relying 
confidently  upon  his  advice,  and  eager  for  his  encouragement. 
Of  course  he  holds  his  whole  department  in  the  hollow  of  his 
hand;  from  his  desk  he  can  communicate  with  all  its  branches. 
The  speaking  tubes  hang  just  behind  his  chair.  A  little  fur- 
ther off  is  the  office  telephone,  which  brings  him  into  converse 
with  Sir  Edward  Bradford,  the  Chief  Commissioner,  or  col- 
leagues and  subordinates  in  more  distant  parts  of  the  bouse. 
He  is,  and  must  be,  perforce,  an  indefatigable  worker,  for  the 
labours  of  his  department  are  unceasing,  and  often  of  the  most 
anxious,  even  disappointing,  character.  Although  he  has 
perhaps  achieved  greater  success  than  any  detective  of  his 
time,  there  will  always  be  undiscovered  crimes,  and  just 
now,  as  we  know,  the  tale  is  pretty  full. 

Mr.  Macnaughten,  the  Chief  Constable,  or  second  in  com- 
mand of  the  Investigation  Department,  is  a  type  of  man 
admirably  adapted  to  supplement  his  chief.  He  is  essentially 
a  man  of  action,  whilst  Mr.  Anderson  is  perhaps  best  and 
strongest  in  the  closet.  He  is  in  very  close  touch,  too,  with 
the  personnel  of  the  department,  who  gladly  recognise  his 
authority,  and  are  eager  to  second  him  and  give  effect  to  his 
views.  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  deep  with  reports  and  papers,  but  the  walls 
are  bright  with  photographs  of  officials,  personal  friends,  and 
of  some  notorious  criminals.  Mr.  Macnaughten  keeps  by  him, 
as  a  matter  of  business,  some  other  and  more  gruesome  pic- 
tures, always  under  lock  and  key ;  photographs,  for  instance, 
of  the  victims  of  Jack  the  Ripper,  and  of  other  brutal 
murders,  taken  immediately  after  discovery,  and  reproducino- 
with  horrible  fidelity  the  mutilated  remains  of  a  human  body, 
but  which  might  belong  to  a  charnel-house  or  abattoir.  It  is 
Mr.  Macnaughten's  duty,  no  less  than  his  earnest  desire,  to 


GITY  BETEGTIVES.  135 

be  iirst  on  the  scene  of  any  such  sinister  catastrophe.  He 
is  therefore  more  intimately  acquainted  perhaps  with  the 
details  of  the  most  recent  celebrated  crimes  than  anyone  in 
Scotland  Yard. 

Nor  can  the  detective  officers  of  the  City  Police  be  passed 
by  without  an  acknowledgment  of  their  skill  and  devotion  to 
the  public  service,  especially  Mr.  McWilliam,  who  has  long 
been  chief  of  the  department.  He  has  repeatedly  shown 
himself  a  keen,  clear-headed,  highly  intelligent  official,  and  he 
has  gained  especial  fame  in  the  unravelling  of  forgeries  and 
commercial  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  mystery  which  still  remains 
unsolved.  Under  such  chiefs  as  these  the  rank  and  file  labour, 
assiduously  utilising  the  qualities  which  really  serve  them 
best — patience  and  persistence,  following  the  hints  and  sug-- 
gestions  given  them  by  their  more  thoughtful  leaders.  The 
best  detective  is  he  who  has  that  infinite  capacity  for  taking 
trouble  which  has  been  defined  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,  painstaking 
investigation  of  the  traces  left  upon  the  theatre  of  the  deed. 
The  smallest  clues,  in  the  hands  of  these  laborious  workers 
will  often  bring  them  to  the  end  of  the  labyrinth.  Not  long 
ago,  half  a  horn  button,  picked  up  on  the  floor  of  a  house 
rifled  by  burglars,  led  to  the  arrest  of  the  perpetrators. 
The  detective  employed  remembered  that  certain  notorious 
"  family  men  "  were  just  then  at  large,  and  he  made  it  his 
business  to  beat  up  their  quarters.  Fortune,  that  most 
useful  adjunct  in  detection,  helped  him,  for  the  man  he 
wanted  was  in  custody  for  some  minor  offence,  and  he  was 
discovered  in  a  police  cell  wearing  the  very  coat  with  the 
other  half  of  the  broken  button. 

People  whom  business  or  chance  has  brought  much  into 
contact  with  detectives  must  have  been  struck  with  their 
ubiquity.    All  who  have  a  good  memory  for  faces  or  the 


136  ENGLISH  DETECTIVES. 

wit  to  penetrate  disguises  mil  have  had  many  opportunities 
of  recognising  them  in  strange  places  and  at  unexpected 
times.  The  police  officer  is  to  be  met  with  in  railway 
trains,  on  board  steamboats,  in  hotels,  at  all  places  of 
public  resort.  They  may  be  seen  in  "  the  rooms "  at  Monte 
Carlo,  retained  by  "  the  administration "  of  the  casino  to 
keep  their  eye  on  the  company,  or  engaged  on  business  of 
their  own,  "shadowing"  some  shady  character.  I  have 
given  my  coat  and  hat  to  a  detective  at  a  great  London 
reception  in  a  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"  were  certainly  not  the 
least  gentlemanlike  in  manners  or  costumes  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  their  profession,  and 
they  are  seldom  communicative  except  on  perfectly  safe 
ground.  It  was  my  good  fortune  once  to  be  thrown  with 
a  well-known  member  of  a  provincial  force,  many  of  whom 
include  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  was 
not  cut  in  the  very  last  fashion,  perhaps,  but  it  was  of  glossy 
cloth  and  in  good  style;  he  wore  a  pearl  pin  in  his  black 
silk  scarf,  and  his  boots,  although  thick-soled  and  sub- 
stantial, were  neatly  made.  His  face  was  hard,  shrewd,  but 
not  unkindly,  and  there  was  a  merry  twinkle  in  his  pene- 
trating grey  eyes,  which  seemed  to  see  through  you  in  a 


A   COUNTRY  DETEGTIVE.  137 

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  by  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  with  a  young  man  of  this  town,  and  had  robbed  him  of 
over  a  hundred  pounds.  He  made  tracks  out  of  the  place,  no 
one  knew  where.  He  was  a  betting  man,  and  I  hunted  for 
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- 
room  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.  Over 
we  went.  The  course  was  very  crowded  as  we  drove  on,  and 
there  was  a  goodish  lot  of  roughs  about,  up  to  the  usual 
games.  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  feUow  to  me  all  at  once, '  that's  him,'  pointing  to  the 
man  who  was  taking  the  money.  That  was  a  fine  stroke 
of  luck,  sir,  wasn't  it  ?  But  how  was  I  to  take  him 
among  such  a  mob  ?  I  got  down,  and  sent  the  trap  to 
the  other  side  ot  the  tents,  then  stepped  up  to  my  man 
and  asked  him  plump  for  change  of  a  five-pound  note. 
He  knew  me  directly,  and  showed  fight.  I  collared  him, 
and    moved  him    on   towards    the   trap,   when    the   roughs 


138  ENGLISH   DETECTIVES. 

raised  a  cry  of  '  Kouse,  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  in  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  myseK — his 
wrist  to  mine.  '  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  MetropoHtans. 
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,  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.  Thicknesse — that  was  the  town  councillor's 
name — gave  us  every  assistance.  It  was  quite  plain  how  it 
had  come  there.  There  was  no  suspicion  against  Mr.  Thick- 
nesse, of  course;  and  do  what  we  could,  we  couldn't  pick 
up  the  man  we  wanted.     By-and-by  the  town  councillor  went 


TWO  GOOD  ARRESTS.  139 

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  dropped,  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.  Thicknesse.  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,  and  ours  helped 
to  swell  the  case.    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  without  any  help  from  the  London  police.  He 
was  in  the  theatrical  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  all  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  you  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  off"  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  soon  as  he  could;  but  which 


140  ENGLISH  DETECTIVES. 

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 — who  his  friends  were,  and  how  he  spent  his  time.  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  of  his  own  accord. 
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  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  left  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.  Nor  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 


THE  OABTE  BE  VISITE.  141 

chap,  to  see  if  I  could  come  upon  his  habits  that  way.  '  Who 
were  his  friends,  now  ? '  I  asked.  '  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  the  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  visite  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  him ;  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  visite,  particularly  when  the  portrait's  that  of  a 
theatrical.  I  found  the  person  who  answered  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  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.  Rehearsal,  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. 


142  ENGLISH  DETECTIVES. 

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.  '  'Um,'  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  this  time  in  a  cab  to  the  City. 
I  followed  them  to  Leadenhall-street,  where  they  went  into 
the  ofi&ces  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  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 


ALLAN  PINEEBTON.  143 

writing.  She'd  done  it  with  a  hard  pencil,  which  showed 
through.  There  was  the  address  as  plain  as  ninepence — no 
mystery  or  circumlocution — '  Burbidge,  King's  Head  Hotel, 
Kingston.'  I  was  there  same  evening,  just  before  his  dinner. 
I  asked  if  Mr.  Burbridge  was  here.  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  dis- 
guised. He  gave  in  without  a  word.  The  tickets  were  on  him, 
and  in  his  bag  upstairs  a  lot  of  the  cash  he'd  stolen ;  hke- 
wise  a  wardrobe  of  clothes — the  old  gentleman's  suit,  and  all 
the  rest." 

Our  American  cousins  are  no  doubt  well  served  by 
their  poHce,  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  at  Dundee,  some  38  mUes  north-west  of 
Chicago,  about  1847.  The  times  were  primitive ;  barter  took 
the  place  of  cash  payments  in  the  absence  of  a  currency 
and  circulating  medium.  To  remedy  this  inconvenience,  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 
these  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  were  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 


144  ENGLISH   DETECTIVES. 

associate  of  thieyes  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.  Pinker- 
ton  found  him  waiting  at  the  saddler's,  where  some  repairs 
were  being  made  to  his  saddle,  and  easily  got  into  con- 
versation with  him.  The  stranger  wanted  to  know  where  old 
man  Crane  lived,  and  when  informed,  casually  mentioned  that 
he  had  often  some  business  with  him.  Pinkerton  seemed 
to  understand,  and  the  other  suddenly  asked,  "Do  you 
ever  deal,  any  ? "  "  Yes,  when  I  can  get  a  first-rate  article," 
promptly  replied  Pinkerton.  ^^Tiereupon  the  stranger  said 
he  had  some  that  were  "  bang  up,"  and  pulled  out  a  bundle 
of  notes,  which  he  handed  over  to  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  fabrica- 
tion of  false  notes.  Pinkerton  said  afterwards  that  he  had 
never  seen  anything  more  perfect  than  these  spurious  notes  ; 
they  were  exactly  imitated  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  with- 
out 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 
enterprising  agent  was  much  required.  Then  he  offered 
Pinkerton  the  job  to  work  the  entire  "  western  field,"  and  that 
he  could  supply  him  with  from  500  to  1,000  forged  biUs,  for 
which  he  need  only  pay  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 


CAPTURES   BANK-NOTE   FOBGEB.  145 

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 "  was  soon  afterwards  completed  in  Elgin  town. 
Pinkerton  proceeded  on  foot,  taking  with  him  the  necessary 
cash  provided  by  his  friends  in  Dundee.  He  met  his  new 
confederates  in  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  had  no  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  tempted  into  crime. 

This  was  only  a  passing  weakness  successfully  resisted, 
and  Pinkerton  now  lent  all  his  energies  to  securing  the  arrest 
of  Craig.  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  cap- 
ture. A  warrant  was  obtained  and  the  services  of  a  couple  of 
officers.  Craig  came,  and  the  pair  entered  into  business  at 
once.  Craig  was  ready  with  four  thousand  bills  and  would 
deliver  them  within  an  hour ;  but  Pinkerton  objected,  and 
would  not  hand  over  the  cash  without  seeing  the  bills.    Craig 


146  ENGLISH  DETECTIVES. 

resented  this,  and,  becoming  distrustful,  broke  up  the  con- 
ference, 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  in  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  in  obtaining  this,  and  soon  bolted, 
gladly  forfeiting  his  recognisances  rather  than  face  a  severer 
punishment.  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  ad- 
ventures. 

A  special  product  of  modern  times  is  the  private  in- 
quiry agent,  so  much  employed  nowadays,  whose  ingenuity, 
patient  pertinacity,  and  determination  to  succeed  have  been 
usefully  engaged  in  unravelling  intricate  problems,  verging 
upon,  if  not  actually  included  within,  the  realm  of  crime.  I 
knew  one  who  was  employed  by  a  famous  firm  of  soHcitors  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  ex-wife,  hke  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 


PRIVATE    INQUIRY.  14T 

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  lurther  than  Monte  Carlo.  The  detective  found  it 
impossible  to  kidnap  the  child,  so  he  managed  to  make 
friends  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 — 
aU  in  the  way  of  business — turned  out. 

Another  story  is,  perhaps,  more  dramatic.  A  man  of  con- 
siderable property,  strictly  entailed,  who  was  married,  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  dif&culty  about  it,  go  out  on  the  landing  and 
call  out  '  Bartlett  ! '  A  man  wiU  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  chdd,"  says  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." 


148  ENGLISH  BETECTIVE8. 

"  Who  are  you,  tlien  ?  "  both  inquired,  astonished  beyond 
measure. 

And  "Bartlett,"  having  completed  his  mission,  quietly 
informed  the  lady,  whom  he  had  been  watching,  and  the 
next-of-kin,  who  was  reaUy  his  employer,  that  he  was  the 
detective  engaged  to  unravel  the  case. 

With  such  men  as  this,  long-continued  fraud,  however 
astutely  prepared,  becomes  almost  impossible.  The  private 
inquiry  agent  is  generally  equal  to  any  emergency. 

I  can  remember  another  story — it  shall  be  the  last — of  a 
detective,  crossing  on  a  Channel  steamer  to  France,  when  he 
ran  up  against  the  very  person  he  was  intended  to  watch  in 
Paris.  It  was  of  the  utmost  importance  that  this  person 
should  not  realise  the  detective's  mission,  who,  by  the  way, 
was  perfectly  well  known  to  him.  Before  the  steamer  reached 
Calais  the  detective  had  persuaded  the  other  to  give  him 
a  job  in  Paris,  as  though  he  had  had  no  idea  of  going  there, 
a  job  which  would  enable  him,  moreover,  to  carry  out  all  the 
better  the  original  mission  on  which  he  had  been  despatched. 


part  55* 
JUDICIAL   EEEORS. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

WRONGFUL   CONVICTIONS. 

Judge  Cambo,  of  Malta,  passes  Sentence  of  Death,  declining  Evidence  of  his 
own  Eyes — The  D'Anglades,  a  French  Marquis  and  his  wife,  wrongly 
convicted  of  Theft — The  Lady  Mazel  murdered :  Crime  fixed  on  trusted 
Servant,  but  in  Error — William  Shaw  executed  by  Mistake  for  murdering 
his  Daughter — The  SaUmaker  of  Deal  and  the  alleged  Murder  of  a  Boat- 
swain :  latter  comes  to  Life — Du  Moulin,  the  Victim  of  a  Gang  of  Coiners, 
narrowly  escaped  Death — The  Case  of  Jean  Galas,  of  Toxilouse,  falsely 
accused  of  Parricide,  sentenced  to  Death,  tortured,  and  broken  on  the 
"Wheel :  Indignation  throughout  Europe. 

THE  criminal  annals  of  all  countries  record  cases  of 
innocent  persons  condemned  by  judicial  process  on 
grounds  tliat  seemed  sufficient  at  the  time,  but  that  ulti- 
mately proved  mistaken.  Where  circumstantial  evidence  is 
alone  forthcoming,  terrible  errors  have  been  committed,  and 
when,  later,  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  having  been  seen  near 
the  scene  of  the  crime,  having  let  drop  incautious  words, 
being  found  with  articles  the  possession  of  which  has  been 
misinterpreted  or  given  a  wrong  impression.  Often  a  sudden 
accusation  has  produced  confusion,  and  consequently  a  strong 
presumption  of  guilt;  another  time,  the  accused,  although 
perfectly  iunocent,  has  been  weak  enough  to  invent  a  false 
defence,  as  in  the  case  quoted  by  Sir  Edward  Cope  of  a  man 
charged  with  killing  his  niece.     The  accused  put  forward 


150  WRONGFUL    OONVIGTIONS. 

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

JUDGE   CAMBO   OF   MALTA. 

A  curious  old  story  of  judicial  murder,  caused  by  the 
infatuation  of  a  judge,  is  to  be  found  in  the  annals  of 
Malta,  when  under  the  Knights,  early  last  century.  This 
judge,  Cambo  by  name,  having  risen  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  jvidge  above.  Then,  picking  the  cap 
up  quickly,  he  ran  on,  throwing  away  the  sheath  of  his 
knife,  and  turning  into  another  street,  made  off. 

While  still  doubtful  how  he  should  act,  the  judge  now  saw 
a  baker,  carrj-ing  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  concluded  that  the  fugitive 
was  the  criminal,  and  made  close  search  for  him.  When  they 
presently  caught  him,  they  found  him  confused  and  in- 
coherent, 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.  He  was  accordingly  taken  into  custody 
and  carried  off  to  prison. 

All  this  went  on  under  the  eyes  of  the  judge,  yet  he  never 


JUDGE    CAMBO.  151 

interposed  to  protect  an  innocent  man.  The  police  came  soon, 
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  the  evidence  of  the  witnesses.  So  he  sat 
on  his  bench  to  hear  the  circumstantial  proofs  against  a  man 
whom  he  had  no  sort  of  doubt  was  actually  innocent.  When 
he  saw  that  the  evidence  was  insufficient,  amounting  to  no 
more  than  sevii  prova,  half-proof,  according  to  Maltese  law, 
he  used  every  endeavour  to  make  the  accused  confess  his 
crime.  Failing  in  this,  although  there  was  no  crime,  he 
ordered  the  baker  to  be  "  put  to  the  question,"  and  achieved 
the  extraordinary  result  that  the  man,  under  torture,  confessed 
to  what  he  had  not  done.  Cambo  was  now  perfectly  satisfied ; 
the  accused,  innocent  in  fact,  was  guilty  according  to  law,  and 
having  thus  satisfied  himself  that  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  hap- 
less wretch  soon  after  underwent  the  sentence  of  the  law." 

The  sad  truth  came  out  at  last,  when  the  real  murderer, 
having  been  convicted  and  condemned  for  another  crime,  con- 
fessed that  he  was  guilty  of  the  murder  for  which  the  baker 
had  wrongly  suffered.  He  appealed  to  Judge  Cambo  himself 
to  verify  this  statement.  He  knew  that  the  j  udge  had  seen  him, 
for  as  he  was  plunging  his  knife  into  his  victim's  body  he  had 
caught  a  glimpse  of  the  one  witness  in  the  window  above. 
He  remembered,  too,  that  his  cap  had  fallen  off  and  must  have 
betrayed  his  features  to  the  judge.  He  had  no  hope  of 
escaping  justice  until  the  arrest  and  trial  of  the  unfortunate 
baker  had  occurred.  Why  the  judge  had  suppressed  the  real 
facts  had  been  always  incomprehensible  to  the  true  culprit. 

The  Grand  Master  of  the  Knights  of  Malta  now  called 
upon  Judge  Cambo  to  defend  himself  from  this  grave  imputa- 
tion. Cambo  freely  admitted  his  action,  but  still  held  that  he 
had  only  done  his  duty,  that  he  was  really  right  in  sending  an 


152  WRONGFUL    CONVICTIONS. 

innocent  man  to  an  ignominious  death  sooner  than  do  violence 
to  his  own  scruples.  There  was  no  other  witness  in  the 
prisoner's  favour,  and  he  maintained  that  it  was  not  within 
his  own  province  to  speak  for  him.  The  Grand  Master  was 
of  a  more  liberal  mind,  and  condemned  the  judge  to  degrada- 
tion 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 
at  the  latter  end  of  last  century,  mainly  through  the  obstinate 
persistence  of  the  Lieutenant-General  of  Police  in  believing 
that  he  had  discovered  the  real  perpetrators  of  a  theft.  Cir- 
cumstantial evidence  was  accepted  as  conclusive  proof  against 
the  unblemished  character  and  the  high  social  position  of  the 
accused. 

The  Marquis  d'Anglade  and  his  wife  lived  in  the  same 
house  with  the  Comte  and  Comtesse  de  Montgomerie ;  it  was 
in  the  Eue  Koyale,  the  best  quarter  in  Paris,  and  both  kept 
good  estabUshments.  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,  frequently  visited,  and  accepted  each 
other's  hospitality.  When  the  Comte  and  Comtesse  went 
to  their  country  house,  the  D'Anglades  often  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  Montgomeries  went 
alone,  but  took  most  of  their  servants  with  them.  When 
they  returned  to  Paris,  a  day  earlier  than  they  were  expected, 
they  found  the  door  of  the  apartment  open,  although  it  had 
been  locked  on  leaving.  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 


THE  B'ANGLADES.  153 

did  not  break  up  till  a  late  hour.  There  was  no  suspicion 
of  anything  wrong  then. 

Next  morning,  however,  the  Comte  de  Montgomerie  dis- 
covered 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  of 
a  new  pattern  coinage,  and  a  valuable  pearl  necklace.  The 
poHce  were  summoned  at  once,  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  Ul  and  weak,  remained  downstairs. 

Here,  in  the  garret,  the  searchers  came  upon  76  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,  and  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  incrimina- 
tory 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  were 
questioned,  yet  they  were  as  likely  to  be  guilty  as  the 
accused,  more  so  indeed,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact,  one  of  them 
was  really  the  thief  The  police  thought  only  of  arresting 
the  D'Anglades,  one  of  whom  was  imprisoned  in  the  ch^telet, 
the  other  in  the  Fors  I'EvSque  prison. 

The  prosecution  was  of  the  most  rancorous  and  pitiless 
kind.      Justice,  or  rather  the  parody  of  it,  prejudiced  the  case 


151  WRONGFUL    00NV10TI0N8. 

in  D'Anglade's  disfavour,  and,  as  he  still  protested  his  inno- 
cence, 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  consigned  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'Anglades, 
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  declared  that  he  knew  th«  chief 
agent  to  have  been  the  Comte  de  Montgomerie's  almoner,  a 
priest  called  Gajmard,  who  had  stolen  the  money,  aided  by 
accomplices,  mainly  by  one  Belestre,  who,  from  being  in  great 
indigence,  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  manufactured  which  opened  the  strong  box 
Belestre  was  also  proved  to  be  in  possession  of  a  fine  pearl 
necklace. 

The  true  criminals  were  now  taken  into  custody  and  sub- 
jected to  torture,  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 
to  the  value  of  the  property  confiscated. 

LADY   MAZEL. 

One  of  the  earliest  of  grave  judicial  blunders  to  be 
found    in    French    records    is    commonly   called    the    case 


LADT   MAZEL.  155 

of  Lady  Mazel,  who  was  a  lady  of  rank,  living  in  a  large 
mansion,  of  wMch  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  alone  ;  above, 
on  the  third  floor,  were  the  servants. 

One  Sunday  evening  the  mistress  supped  with  the  abbe, 
as  was  her  general  practice ;  then  went  to  her  bedroom,  where 
she  was  attended  by  her  waiting  maids.  Her  valet,  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  door  behind 
him  with  its  spring. 

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  Brun,  the  valet,  and  the  maids  began  to  be  uneasy,  and  at 
last  the  son  of  the  house,  who  was  married  and  lived  elsewhere, 
was  called  in.  He  expressed  his  fears  that  his  mother  was 
iU,  or  that  worse  had  happened,  and  a  locksmith  was  called  in, 
by  whom  the  door  was  presently  broken  open. 

Le  Brun  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!" 
which  he  followed  by  an  act  that  afterwards  went  against  him. 
He  opened  the  wardrobe  and  took  out  the  strong  box.  "  It  is 
heavy,"  he  said ;  "  at  least  there  has  been  no  robbery." 
The  murder  had  been  committed  with  horrible  violence.  The 
poor  woman  had  fought  hard  for  life.  She  could  not  summon 
assistance,  for  the  bell-pull  had  first  been  twisted  round  the 
mattress,  but  she  had  struggled  with  her  murderer ;  her  hands 
were  all  cut  and  lacerated,  and  there  were  quite  fifty  wounds 
on  her  body.   A  clasp  knife,  much  discoloured,  was  found  in  the 


156  WRONGFUL   GONVIGTIONS. 

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  a  portion  of  gold  abstracted. 

Suspicion  fell  at  once  upon  the  valet,  Le  Brun.  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 
open  wide.  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  in  his  pocket:  a  false  or  skeleton  key,  the  wards 
of  which  had  been  newly  filed,  and  it  fitted  nearly  all  the 
locks  of  the  house,  including  the  street  door,  the  antechamber, 
and  the  back  door  of  the  lad3''s  bedroom.  The  napkin  night- 
cap 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  murder  himself 
No  blood' had  been  found  on  any  of  his  clothes,  although  there 
were  scratches  on  his  person,  as  there  might  have  been, 
seeing  how  fiercely  the  lady  had  struggled.  A  shirt  much 
stained  with  blood  had  been  discovered  in  the  loft,  but  it 
did  not  fit  Le  Brun,  nor  was  it  Uke  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  of  the  doors,  which  showed  no  signs  of  having 
been  forced,  and  by  the  discovery  of  Le  Brun'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  good  husband,  a  good  father,  and  a  good  servant," 


THE   REAL    CULPRIT.  157 

yet  the  prosecution  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. 

A  month  later  the  real  culprit  was  discovered.  The 
police  of  Sens  had  arrested  a  horse-dealer  whose  name  was 
Berry,  a  man  who  had  been  in  Lady  Mazel's  service  as  a 
lacquey,  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  kUling  a  cat. 
He  was  also  put  to  the  torture  prior  to  being  broken 
on  the  wheel,  when  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  had  returned  to  the  house  with  the  full  inten- 
tion of  committing  the  murder.  He  had  crept  in  un- 
perceived  on  the  Friday  evening,  had  gained  the  loft  on 
the  fourth  floor,  and  had  lain  there  concealed  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  him- 
self 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  tUl 
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  bedroom  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 


158  WRONGFUL    OONVIGTIONS. 

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  floor,  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. 

WILLIAM   SHAW. 

In  England  we  have  on  record  the  case  of  William 
Shaw,  who  was  convicted  of  the  murder  of  his  daughter 
in  Edinburgh  on  no  more  grounds  than  her  own  outcry 
against  his  ill-usage.  They  had  been  on  bad  terms  for 
some  time,  his  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  to  be  seen  still  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 
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  blood  with  a  knife  by  her  side.  She  was 
questioned  as  to  the  words  overheard,  was  asked  if  her 
father  had  kiUed  her,  and  she  was  just  able  to  nod  her 
head  in  the  aflSrmative,  as  it  seemed. 

Now  William  Shaw  returned.  AH  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  his  guilt  fully 
corroborated  the   deceased's  incriminating  words.      Last  of 


WILLIAM  SHAW.  159 

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;  that  her  death 
could  only  be  attributed  to  suicide.  He  explained  the  blood 
stains  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  at  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  followiag  year.  The 
tenant  who  came  into  occupation  of  Shaw's  flat  came  by 
accident  upon  a  paper  which  slipped  down  in  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  with  his  barbarity. 
She  was  so  hopeless  of  marrying  him  whom  she  loved,  so  deter- 
mined 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  burthen  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." 

This  letter,  on  which  there  was  much  comment,  came 
at  last  into  the  hands  of  the  authorities,  who,  having  satisfied 
themselves  it  was  authentic,  ordered  the  body  of  Shaw  to  be 
taken  down  from  the  gibbet  where  it  still  hung  in  chains  and 
to  be  decently  interred.  As  a  further  but  somewhat  empty 
reparation  of  his  honour,  a  pair  of  colours  was  waved  over 
his  grave. 

THE   SAILMAKER. 

A  still  more  curious  story  is  that  of  the  young  sailmaker 
who  went  to  spend  Christmas  with  his  mother  near  Deal. 


160  WRONGFUL    CONVICTIONS. 

On  Ms  way  lie  passed  a  night  at  an  inn  in  Deal,  and  shared 
a  bed  with  the  landlady's  uncle,  the  boatswain  of  an  India- 
man,  who  had  just  come  ashore.  In  the  morning  the  uncle 
was  missing,  the  bed  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  sUver  coin,  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  he  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  sufi&ciently  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 


BBUNELL.  181 

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  directly  for  the  East  Indies.  He  never  thought  of 
communicating  with  his  friends  ;  letter-writing  was  not  much 
indulged  in  at  that  period. 

Doubts  have  been  thrown  upon  this  story,  which  rests 
mainly  upon  local  tradition,  although  it  made  much  noise 
at  the  time  in  Kent.  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  of  the  silver 
coin.  It  has  been  suggested  that  when  the  sailmaker  took 
it  out  of  the  boatswain's  pocket  the  coin  had  stuck  between 
the  blades  of  the  knife. 

BRUNELL  THE   INNKEEPEK. 

The  astute  villainy  of  a  criminal  in  covering  up  his  tracks 
was  never  more  successful  than  in  the  case  of  Brunell,  the  inn- 
keeper 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  in  another  direction. 

Presently  he  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, 
according  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  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 


162  WRONGFUL    CONVICTIONS. 

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  Hves  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." 

They  went  to  Jennings's  room  and  looked  at  his  pockets. 
He  was  in  a  sound  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  he  was  sent  for  trial  and  convicted.  The  case  was  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  feU  dangerously  ill  before  execution. 
As  he  could  not  hve,  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 


VU  MOULIN.  163 

purse  in  the  poor  man's  clothes.     No  sort  of  indemnity  seems 
to  have  been  paid  to  Jennings's  relations  or  friends. 

DV  motjlin's  case. 

Of  the  same  class  was  the  wrongful  conviction  of  a  French 
refugee,  Du  Moulin,  who  had  fled  to  England  from  the  religious 
persecutions  in  his  own  country.  He  brought  a  small  capital 
with  him,  which  he  employed  in  buying  goods  condemned  at 
the  Custom-house  and  disposing  of  them  by  retail.  The 
business  was  "shady"  in  its  way,  as  the  goods  in  question 
were  mostly  smuggled,  but  Du  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  first  payment ;  and  this  happened  so  often  that  he  pre- 
sently got  into  disrepute,  losing  both  his  business  and  his 
credit.  The  cHmax  came  when  he  received  a  sum  of  £78  in 
guineas  and  Portugal  gold,  and  "scrupled,"  or  questioned, 
several  of  the  pieces.  But  he  took  them,  giving  his  receipt. 
In  a  few  days  he  brought  back  six  coins,  which  he  insisted 
were  of  base  metal.  His  cHent  Harris  as  positively  declared 
that  they  were  not  the  same  as  those  he  had  paid.  Then 
there  was  a  fierce  dispute.  Du  Moulin  was  quite  certain  ;  he 
had  put  the  whole  £78  into  a  drawer  and  left  the  money 
there  till  he  had  to  use  it,  ^hen  part  of  it  was  at  once 
refused.  Harris  continued  to  protest,  threatening  Du  Moulin 
with  a  charge  of  fraud,  but  presently  he  paid.  He  lost  no 
opportunity,  however,  of  exposing  Du  Moulin's  conduct,  doing 
so  so  often,  and  so  hbellously,  that  the  other  soon  brought  an 
action  for  defamation  of  character. 

This  drove  Harris  to  set  the  law  in  motion  also,  on  his 
own  information,  backed  by  the  reports  of  others  on  whom 
Du  Moulin  had  forced  false  money.  A  warrant  was  issued 
against  the  Frenchman,  his  house  was  searched,  and  in  a 
secret  drawer  all  the  apparatus  of  a  counterfeiter  of  coin  was 
discovered — files,  moulds,  chemicals,  and  many  implements. 
This  evidence  was  damnatory ;  his  guilt  seemed  all  the  more 


164  WRONGFUL    CONVICTIONS. 

dear  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,  innocently. 

A  day  or  two  before  his  execution,  one  Williams,  a  seal 
engraver,  was  thrown  from  his  horse  and  killed,  whereupon 
his  wife  fell  iU,  and  in  poignant  remorse  sent  for  Du  Moulin, 
to  whom  she  told  this  story : — 

That  Williams,  her  husband,  was  one  of  a  gang  of  counter- 
feiters, and  she  helped  by  putting  off  the  coins.  One  of  them 
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,  substi- 
tuting them  for  an  equal  number  of  good  pieces. 

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

CALAS. 

A  case  in  which  "justice"  was  manifestly  unjust  is  that 
of  the  shameful  prosecution  and  punishment  of  Galas,  a 
judicial  murder  begun  in  wicked  intolerance  and  carried 
out  with  almost  inconceivable  cruelty. 

Bitter,  implacable  hatred  of  the  Protestant  or  Reformed 
religion  and  all  who  professed  it  survived  in  the  south  of 
France  till  late  in  the  last  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 
fStes  on  its  anniversary.  It  was  on  the  eve  of  that  of  1761 
that  a  terrible  catastrophe  occurred  in  the  house  of  one 
Jean  Galas,  a  respectable  draper,  who  had  the  misfortune 
to  be  a  heretic — in  other  words,  a  criminal,  according  to  the 
ideas  of  Toulouse. 

Marc  Antoine  Galas,   the  eldest  son  of  the  family,  was 


JEAN  GALAS.  165 

found  in  a  cupboard  just  off  the  shop,  hangmg  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,  functionaries  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  Galas  family.  He  was  bigoted,  ambitious,  self- 
sufficient,  full  of  his  own  importance,  of  strong,  fiercely  ener- 
getic temperament,  and  undeviating  in  his  pursuit  of  any 
fixed  idea  or  belief 

Now,  when  called  up  by  the  watch  and  told  of  the 
mysterious  death  of  Marc  Antoine  Galas,  he  jumped  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  a  inurder,  and  that  the  perpetrator  was 
Jean  Galas ;  in  other  words,  that  Galas  was  a  parricide.  The 
motives  of  the  crime  were  not  far  to  seek,  he  thought.  One 
Galas  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,  held  with  all  the 
strength  of  his  obstinate  nature,  de  Beaudrigue  thought 
only  of  what  would  confirm  it.  He  utterly  neglected  the 
first  duty '  of  a  police  officer :  to  seek  with  an  impartial, 
unbiassed  mind  for  any  signs  or  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  leave 
traces  behind  them. 


166  WRONGFUL    CONVICTIONS. 

De  Beaudrigue  thought  only  of  securing  those  he  already 
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  was  taken  and  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  find  it  easily  on  his  return,  he  was  told  sardonically, 
"  You  will  not  return  in  a  hurry."  The  request  and  its 
answer  went  far  to  make  a  revulsion  in  his  favour  with 
the  impressionable  crowd.  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. 

Now  en  route  for  prison  they  were  hooted  with  yells  and 
execrations.  It  was  already  taken  for  granted  that  they 
had  murdered  Marc  Antoine.  Arrived  at  the  Hdtel  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.  "  Gome,"  said  the 
capitoul  to  Pierre,  "  confess  you  kiUed  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  want  of  it  recourse  was  had  to  an 
ancient  ecclesiastical  practice,  the  monitoire,  a  solemn  appeal 
made  to  the  religious  conscience  of  aU  who  knew  anything 
to  come  forward  and  declare  it.  This  notice  was  affixed  to 
the  pulpits  of  churches  and  in  street  corners.  It  assumed  the 
guilt  of  the  Galas  family  quite  illegally  because  without  the 
smallest  proof,  and  it  warned  everyone  to  come  forward 
and  speak  whether  from  hearsay  or  of  their  own  knowledge. 


BELIOIOUS  INTOLEBANOE.  167 

Nothing  followed  the  inonitoire,  so  these  pious  sons  of  the 
Church  went  a  step  further  and  obtained  a  fulmination ;  a 
threat  to  excommunicate  all  who  could  speak  yet  would  not 
speak,  which  was  duly  launched,  caused  great  alarm. 
Religious  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  abjured  heresy.  He  was 
honoured  as  a  martyr ;  a  little  more  and  he  would  have 
been  canonised  as  a  saint. 

Still  nothing  satisfactory  was  forthcoming  against  the 
Calas.  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  me,"  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  competent  to 
bear  witness;  the  accused,  moreover,  were  permitted  to  call 
no  one.  It  would  be  hard  to  credit  the  disabilities  still 
imposed  upon  the  French  Huguenots  were  it  not  that  we 
are  reminded  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,  archers,  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  persisted 
in  obstinately,  not  merely  because  the  law  officers  were  full  of 
prejudice,  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  ample,  nay,  overwhelming  explanation. 


168  WRONGFUL    OONVICTIONS. 

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,  dis- 
liking 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  dis- 
satisfaction with  this  law  that  led  to  the  conjecture — and 
there  was  little  else — that  he  wished  to  abjure  his  own  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,  was  seen  at  the  billiard  tables  and  tennis 
courts  of  Toulouse,  and  became  much  addicted  to  play. 
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  for  exchange  from  silver  into  gold. 

All  this  pointed  to  the  probability  of  suicide.  The  Galas 
themselves,  however,  would  not  hear  of  any  such  solution. 
Suicide  was  deemed  disgraceful  and  dishonourable.  Sooner 
than  suggest  suicide,  the  elder  Galas  was  prepai-ed  to  accept 
the  worst.  One  of  the  judges  was  strongly  of  opinion  that  it 
was  clearly  a  case  of  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  both 
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, 
all  good  friends,  should  take  one  of  their  number  downstairs 
and  hang  him  ?  Gould  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 


GALAS  EXECUTED.  169 

judgment  against  the  accused,  yet,  although  so  satisfied  of 
guilt,  they  ordered  the  torture  to  be  applied  to  extort  fuU 
confession.  Now  the  prisoners,  being  heavily  ironed  for  safe 
custody,  appealed.  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  tor- 
ture, 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 
duly  passed  on  Galas,  who  was  to  suffer  first,  in  the  hope  that 
by  his  admissions  on  the  rack — for  the  torture  was  to  precede 
execution — the  guilt  of  the  rest  might  be  assured. 

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  interrpgatories,  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  stiU  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.  He  suffered  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  of 
all  who  witnessed  his  execution.  "He  died,"  said  a  monk, 
"  like  one  of  our  Gatholic  martyrs." 

This  noble  end  caused  deep  chagrin  to  his  judges ;  they 
were  consumed  with  secret  anxiety,  hoping  to  the  last  that  a 
full  confession  would  exonerate  them  from  their  cruelty.  At 
Toulouse  there  had  been  a  fresh  burst  of  fanaticism,  in  which 
more  lives  were  lost ;   and  now,  the  news  of  Galas'  execution 


170  WRONGFUL    CONVICTIONS. 

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  con- 
demned to  banishment.  Another  brother  had  escaped  to 
Geneva,  where  he  met  with  much  sympathy. 

The  feeling  in  other  Protestant  countries  was  intense,  and 
loud  protests  were  pubHshed.  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.  "  Everyone  is  up  in  arms. 
Foreign  nations,  who  hate  us  and  beat  us,  are  full  of  indigna- 
tion. 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  ease.  The  Encyclopaedists, 
with  d'Alembert  at  their  head,  followed  suit.  All  Paris,  aU 
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,  but  in 
the  end  it  was  decided  to  reverse  the  conviction.  "  There  is 
still  justice  in  the  world!"  cried  Voltaire, "  stiU  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  take  the  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 


BE   BEAUBRIQUE'S  DEATH.  171 

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  did  it  again,  and  died  murmuring  the  word  "  Galas  " 
with  his  last  breath. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

DISPUTED     OR    MISTAKEN     IDENTITY. 

The  "Nameless  Woman,"  or  Champignelles  Mystery — Claim  of  French 
Marquise  disputed  by  her  Supposed  Brother — She  is  imprisoned — Long 
Litigation— Law  decides  she  is  Nameless — Judge  Garrow's  Story — The 
Imposition  practised  at  York  Assize — Hoag  or  Parker  ? — Husband  claimed 
by  Two  Wives — Lesurques,  and  the  Robbery  of  the  Lyons  Mail — A  Modem 
Scotch  Case — The  Kingswood  Rectory  Murder :  Mistaken  Identification  of 
Karl  Franz. 

THE   CHAMPIGNELLES  MYSTERY. 

One  day  in  October,  1791,  a  lady  dressed  in  mourning 
appeared  at  the  gates  of  the  Chateau  of  Champignelles,  and 
was  refused  admission.  "I  am  the  Marquise  de  Douhault, 
nde  de  Champignelles,  the  daughter  of  your  old  master. 
Surely  you  know  me  ? "  she  said,  lifting  her  veil.  "  The  Mar- 
quise 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  de- 
ceased 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  cheiteau." 

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  municipality.''  The  lady  gave  many  satis- 
factory proofs,  too,  speaking  of  things  that  "  only  a  daughter 
of  the  house  could  know."    Thus  encouraged,  she  proceeded 


\ 


WHO    WAS   SHE?  173 

to  serve  the  legal  notice  on  her  brother  and  claim  her  rights 
— her  share  of  the  property  of  Champignelles  as  co-heir,  and 
a  sum  in  cash  for  back  rents  during  her  absence  when 
supposed  to  be  dead. 

Where  had  she  been  all  this  time  ?  Who  had  died,  if  not 
she  ?  Her  story,  although  clear,  precise,  and  supported  by 
evidence,  was  most  extraordinary.  To  understand  it  we  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  twenty-three  to  the 
Marquis  de  Douhault,  who  coveted  her  dowry  and  did  not 
prove  a  good  husband.  He  was  subject  to  epileptic  fits, 
eventually  went  out  of  his  mind,  and,  after  wounding  his 
wife  with  a  sword,  was  shut  up  in  Charenton.  The  wife  led 
an  exemplary  life  till  his  death,  which  was  soon  followed  by 
that  of  her  father.  Her  brother  now  became  the  head  of  the 
family,  and  is  said  to  have  been  a  frank  blackguard,  the  cause 
really  of  his  father's  death.  He  proceeded  to  swindle  his 
mother,  who  was  entitled  by  settlement  to  a  life  interest  in 
the  Champignelles  estates,  paying  only  pensions  to  her 
children,  and  persuaded  her  to  reverse  that  arrangement — 
she  to  surrender  her  property,  he  to  pay  her  an  annual 
allowance.  He  had  gained  his  sister's  concurrence  by  ob- 
taining her  signature  to  a  blank  document,  which  he  filled 
up  as  he  wished. 

The  son,  of  course,  did  not  pay  the  allowances,  and  very 
often  the  mother  was  in  sad  straits,  reduced  at  times  to  pawn 
her  jewels  for  food.  She  appealed  now  to  her  daughter,  who 
sided  with  her  naturally,  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. 

She  had  a  strange  presentiment  that  this  journey  would 
be  unlucky,  and  postponed  it  as  long  as  possible,  but  went 
at  length  the  day  after  Christmas  Day,  1787.  Arrived  at 
Orleans,  she  accepted  the  hospitality  of  a  M.  de  la  Konciere  and 


174  DISPUTED    OR   MISTAKEN  IDENTITY. 

rested  there  some  days.  On  January  15,  1788,  she  was  to 
continue  her  journey,  but  in  the  morning  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,  was  seized  with  violent  pains  in  the  head 
followed  by  great  drowsiness,  stupor,  and  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 
BuLrette,  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,  Madame  de  Polignac,  of  her  imprisonment, 
and  on  July  13,  1789,  she  was  released,  to  find  herself  alone 
in  Paris  in  the  midst  of  the  Revolution,  of  the  burning  of 
barriers  and  the  capture  of  the  Bastille. 

She  was  friendless.  Her  brother,  to  whom  she  at  once 
applied,  repudiated  her  as  an  impostor ;  an  uncle  was  equally 
cruel ;  she  asked  for  her  mother,  and  was  told  she  had  none. 
Then  she  ran  to  Versailles,  where  many  friends  resided,  found 
an  asylum  with  Madame  de  Polignac,  and  was  speedily 
recognised  by  numbers  of  people,  princes,  dukes,  and  the 
rest,  all  members  of  the  French  aristocracy  that  were  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.  BaUly,  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  escaped  into  the  country.     Here 


ANNE   BUmETTE?  1V5 

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  tiU,  in  1791,  she  reappeared 
at  Champignelles. 

Such  was  the  case  she  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  seiize  his  chS,teau  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  SalpStriere 
from  January  3,  1786.  This  date  was  a  crucial  point  in  the 
case.  The  claimant  had  adopted  it  as  the  date  of  her  entry 
into  the  Salpgtriere,  yet  it  was  clearly  shown  that  at  that  time 
the  Marquise  de  Douhault  was  alive  and  resided  on  her 
property  of  Chazelet  through  1786  and  1787.  On  other  points 
she  showed  a  remarkable  knowledge  of  facts,  remembered 
names,  faces  of  people,  circumstances  in  the  past,  all  tending 
to  prove  that  she  was  the  real  person.  But  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  repubUc  stated  it 
fully,  and  with  a  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. 


.1^6    ■  DISPUTED    OB   MISTAKEN   IDENTITY. 

It  rested  first  on  tlie  proved  death  of  the  marquise.  This 
was  supported  by  the  certificates  of  the  doctors  who  attended 
her  in  her  last  ilhiess,  documents  legalised  by  the  munici- 
pality of  Orleans,  which  testified  to  both  illness  and  death. 
Another  document  bore  witness  that  extreme  unction  had 
been  administered,  and  that  the  burial  had  been  carried  out 
in  the  presence  of  many  relatives.  The  family  went  into 
morning  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  Graiaville,  names  that  were  not  exact.  It  was 
asserted  that  the  real  marquise  was  a  lady  of  great  intelligence, 
cultured,  highly  educated  as  became  her  situation,  knowing 
several  languages,  a  good  musician,  and  especially  well  able  to 
write  prettily  and  correctly. 

Then  the  identity  of  the  claimant  with  Anne  Buirette  was 
strong  on  seemingly  conclusive  evidence,  the  strongest  being 
her  own  statement  of  the  date  on  which  she  was  received  at 
the  Salpetriere.  AH  the  story  of  her  release  through  the 
appeal  to  the  Duchess  de  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  repeated  here.  It 
was  in  1785,  on  the  occasion  of  the  birth  of  a  royal  prince, 
when  the  queen  wished  charitably  to  redeem  a  number  of 
the  pledges  in  the  Mont  de  Piet6,  and  the  woman  Buirette 
Baudin,  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  Salpetriere,  from  which  she  was  released  in 
October,  1789,  and  not,  as  she  stated,  on  the  day  of  the 
barricades. 


OONFLIGTING    EVIBENGE.  177 

From  this  moment  the  fraud  began,  whether  at  her  own 
instance  or  not  could  not  be  shown.  But  now  she  first  signed 
herself  Champignelles,  and  was  sued  on  bills  she  gave  the 
lawyers  who  would  have  helped  her,  but  found  she  was  an 
adventuress.  Her  movements  were  traced  from  place  to  place 
seeking  recognition  and  assistance,  now  accepted,  more  often 
rejected,  by  those  to  whom  she  appealed.  Finally  the  com- 
missary closed  the  case  by  pointing  to  the  physical  dissimi- 
larity 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  constitution,  the  claimant 
seemed  strong  and  robust ;  the  first  had  blue  eyes,  the  second 
black;  the  first  walked  lame,  the  second  showed  no  signs 
of  it 

Yet  the  claimant  persisted,  and  her  counsel  upset  much 
that  had  been  urged.  It  was  shown  that  the  death  certificate 
was  not  produced ;  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  docu- 
mentary evidence,  and  taking  its  stand  upon  the  date  of 
entry  into  the  Salpgtriere,  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  recom- 
mended 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 ;  secondly, 
to  establish  whether  or  not  the  claimant  was  Anne  Buirette, 
and  if  not,  thirdly,  to  say  whether  she  was  the  marquise. 


178  DISPUTED    OR   MISTAKEN  IDENTITY. 

There  were  now  great  discrepancies  as  to  the  date  of  death 
and  the  circumstances  of  it.  Some  said  it  occurred  on 
January  17,  1788,  some  the  18th,  some  again  on  the  19th. 
Other  facts  were  also  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,  153 
out  of  224  witnesses  declared  positively  that  this  was  the 
marquise  herself;  but  53  said  either  that  it  was  not  or  that 
they  had  never  seen  her,  whilst  among  the  number  were 
several  who  had  been  satisfied  as  to  her  identity  in  the  first 
instance. 

These  inquiries  were  followed  by  others  as  to  hand- 
writing, 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  she  was 
supposed  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  Bourges  upheld  it.  The 
Procureur-G6n6ral  pronounced  his  opinion  based  upon  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. 


OXFORD    0A8E.  179 

When  she  died  the  authorities  would  not  permit  any  name  to 
be  inscribed  on  her  tomb. 

JUDGE    GAREOW'S    STORY. 

Cases  of  error  through  mistaken  identity  are  numerous 
enough  in  the  judicial  records  of  every  country.  Now  and 
again  mischief  that  would  have  been  most  deplorable  has 
been  prevented  at  the  eleventh  hour.  Thus,  Samuel  Male,  in 
1782,  would  certainly  have  gone  to  the  gallows  on  the  sworn 
evidence  of  his  alleged  victim,  who  had  no  doubt  whatever  of 
his  identity,  had  he  not  been  able  to  appeal  to  the  books  of 
the  court,  which  proved  plainly  that  he  was  in  custody  on  the 
day  of  the  supposed  robbery. 

Other  extraordinary  cases  may  be  cited — that,  for  in- 
stance, once  told  by  Judge  Garrow  on  the  Oxford  circuit. 
He  described  how  a  man  was  being  tried  before  him  for  high- 
way 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  lite  of  a  fellow  creature,  the  prisoner  now  at  the  bar. 
This  strange  interruption  would  have  been  resented  by  the 
judge,  but  the  new  arrival  called  upon  all  present  to  look 
at  him,  especially  the  prosecutor.  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  dumbfoundered,  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  inno- 
cence, and  now,  of  course,  the  gravest  doubts  arose  as  to 
his  guilt.  The  prosecutor  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  a  robbery  had  certainly 
been  committed  by  one  of  two  persons  present,  the  prosecutor 


180  DISPUTEB   OB   MISTAKEN  IDENTITY. 

could    not    distinguisli    between    them,  and   there  was  no 
alternative  but  acquittal. 

So  the  first  man  got  off";  but  now  a  fresh  jury  was  im- 
panelled, 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  behef  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,  but 
the  whole  scene  had  been  got  up  between  them  for  the 
purpose  of  imposing  on  the  court. 

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,  where  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  another  very  distant  place,  Dover,  on  the  day  of 
the  alleged  robbery,  and  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 


HO  AG    OB   PARKER  ?  181 

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  also  given  his  name  as  a  member  of  a  very 
respectable  firm  of  London  bankers,  and  altogether  his  credi- 
bility appeared  beyond  question.  Then  came  the  book  which 
fixed  the  date  of  his  visit  to  Dover.  AU  this  remarkable  testi- 
mony, 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  for  bigamy  under  the  idea  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,  swore  to  the  other  con- 
tention. Whereupon  the  court  recalled  the  first  set  of 
witnesses,  who  maintained  their  opinion,  being  satisfied  that 
he  was  James  Hoag,  that  his  stature,  shape,  gestures,  com- 
plexion, looks,  voice,  and  speech  left  them  no  doubt  on 
the  subject ;  they  even  described  a  particular  scar  on  his  fore- 
head, underneath  his  hair,  and  when  that  was  turned  back 
there  was  the  scar.  Yet  the  Parker  witnesses  declared  that 
Thomas  Parker  had  Uved  among  them,  worked  with  them. 


182  DISPUTED   OB  MISTAKEN  IDENTITY. 

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  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  his  evidence 
to  the  effect  that  he  had  known  him  from  a  chUd,  as  Thomas 
Parker  had  often  given  him  employment.  So  Mrs.  Parker 
carried  off'  her  husband  in  triumph. 

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  im- 
personation of  the  dual  rdle,  Lesurques-Duboscq,  by  Sir 
Henry  Irving. 

Lesurques  was  positively  identified  as  a  man  who  had 
travelled  by  the  mail  coach,  and  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  was  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  Kevolutionary  Legislature  by  the  Directory,  who  called  for 
a  reprieve.  But  the  Five  Hundred  refused,  on  the  extra- 
ordinary ground  that  to  annul  a  sentence  which  had  been 
legally  pronounced  "  would  subvert  all  ideas  of  justice  and 
equality  before  the  law." 


LUSURQUJES.  183 

Lesurques  now  lost  all  hope,  and  he  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  as 
follows : — 

"  Man  in  whose  place  I  am  to  die,  be  satisfied  with  the 
sacrifice  of  my  life.  If  you  are  ever  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  poUce,  but  the  prime  mover  was  long  at  large.  Even 
when  he  was  taken  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  and  striking  Hkeness  was  immediately  apparent. 
He  denied  his  guilt,  but  he  was  convicted  and  guillotined. 
Thus  two  men  suffered  for  the  same  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  regivfiea — the 
Directory,  Consulate,  Empire,  and  the  Restoration.  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  until  the  time  of  Louis  PhiHppe. 

One  of  Lesurques'  sons  died  in  the  French  campaign  in 
Algeria. 

A    MODEKN    CASE. 

A  comparatively  recent  case  of  mistaken  identity  occurred 
in  Scotland,  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  moonlight  night,  but 
cloudy,  and  the  features  of  a  face  were  not  fully  recognisable. 
Other  witnesses  were  less  certain  than  the  keeper,  but 
they  could    speak  to   the  poacher's   dress  and   appearance 


184  DISPUTED   OB  MISTAKEN  IDENTITY. 

and    they    saw    him    disappearing    towards    his    (alleged) 
father's  house. 

An  attempt  to  set  up  an  aZifei  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,  although  an  innocent  man,  he 
left  the  country  to  take  up  a  situation  at  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope. 

Not  long  afterwards  the  keepers,  whose  evidence  had  con- 
victed the  wrong  man,  met  the  real  one  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 
lorward  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.  Now,  Hammond 
himself,  knowing  he  could  not  be  tried  for  an  offence  for 
which  another  had  suffered,  voluntarily  confessed  the 
poaching.  Great  sympathy  was  shown  the  innocent  victim 
and  the  gentleman  whose  game  had  been  killed  offered 
to  befriend  him  in  any  possible  way.  But  the  young  man 
had  already  made  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  given  a  licence  to  shoot  for  the 
rest  of  his  days  over  the  estates  he  was  supposed  to  have 
poached. 

KARL    FRANZ. 

On  the  11th  June,  1861,  Kingswood  Rectory,  in  Surrey, 
was  broken  into,  and  the  caretaker  murdered;  the  family 
being  absent  at  the  time.  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  half  down  her 
throat.  There  had  been  no  robbery;  the  house  had  been 
entered  by  a  window  in  the  basement,  foimd  open,  but 
nothing  in  the  house  was  missing,  although  the  whole  place 


KARL    FBANZ.  185 

had  been  ransacked.  In  doing  this,  however,  trace  enough 
had  been  left  to  estabhsh  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  them. 

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,  in  reply 
to  an  appeal  for  help.  Besides  these,  there  was  a  sheet  of 
paper  on  which  were  inscribed  the  addresses  of  many  pro- 
minent personages ;  part  of  the  stock-in-trade  of  a  begging- 
letter  writer.  All  these  papers  plainly  implied  that  one 
of  the  criminal  intruders  in  Kingswood  rectory  was  a 
German.  Moreover,  within  the  last  few  days,  several  German 
tramps  had  been  seen  in  the  neighbourhood  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,  com- 
mitted for  trial  at  the  Croydon  assizes.  The  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  previous  6th  April. 
Another  witness  swore  to  Franz  as  one  of  the  men  seen  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  rectory  on  the  11th  June;  while 
a  third  deposed  to  having  met  two  strangers  in  a  wayside 
public,  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  Reigate  deposed  that  two  men, 
speaking  some  unknown  tongue,  had  come  into  the  shop  the 
day  of  the  crime,  and  had  bought  a  hank  of  cord.     One  of 


186  DISPUTED   OR    MISTAKEN  IDENTITY. 

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 
overwhelming  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  Kingswood  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  MuUer,  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 
Northamptonshire  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  North- 
amptonshire, 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  Kingswood  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  the  thieves,  on  examination,  found  the  diary 
useless,  and  got  rid  of  it.  Another  of  these  second  lot  of 
papers  was  a  certificate  of  confirmation  in  the  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- 
plice of  the  accused,  but  then  it  must  have  been  believed  that 


KABL    FRANZ.  187 

these  men  kept  their  papers  together  in  one  lot,  which  was 
hardly  hkely. 

Another  curious  point  on  which  the  prosecution  relied 
also  broke  down.  A  piece  of  cord  had  been  found  in  Franz's 
lodging,  identically  the  same  as  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  ;  only  one  manufactured  that  quality,  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  lodging,  and  opposite  to  a 
tobacconist's  shop.  On  further  inquiry  it  was  not  only  found 
that  the  rope  shop  which  alone  supplied  this  cord  was 
situated  within  a  few  yards  of  Franz's  lodging,  but  when  his 
sohcitor  verified  this,  he  picked  up  a  scrap  of  the  very  same 
cord  in  front  of  a  shop  in  that  same  street. 

Justice  may  be  excused  if  it  fails  where  evidence  is 
incomplete,  and  facts  mysterious.  There  have  been  several 
instances  in  which  it  has  been  thus  misled  in  the  past 
with  very  regrettable  consequences,  but  in  the  one  more 
modem  case  of  the  three  to  be  detailed  in  the  next  chapter, 
at  least  no  irreparable  mischief  was  caused. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PROBLEMATICAL  ERRORS. 

Captain  Douellan  and  the  Poisoning  of  Sir  Theodosins  Boughton — Donellan's 
Saspioious  Conduct — John  Hunter  the  great  Surgeon's  Evidence — Sir 
James  Stephen's  View — Corroborative  Story  from  his  Father — The  Lafarge 
Case — Husband  Poisoning — Madame  Lafarge  and  the  Cakes— Question  of 
"  White  Powder  " — Doctors  differ  as  to  Presence  of  Arsenic  in  Eemains — 
Possible  Grmlt  of  Denis  Barbier — Madame  Lafarge's  Condemnation — 
Pardoned  by  Napoleon  IIL — The  Jewels  said  to  be  stolen  by  Madame 
Lafarge  from  a  School  Friend — Defence  that  they  were  to  buy  a  lover's 
Silence — Conviction  of  Madame  Lafarge  of  Theft — Madeleine  Smith  charged 
with  Poisoning  her  Fiance — "  Not  proven." 

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  some  opinions, 
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  guUty  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.     Miss  Donellan  was  her  brother's  heir;    if  he  died, 

*  "  Criminal  Law  of  England." 


THE   FATAL   DOSE.  189 

childless  everything  would  go  to  her.  Donellan  claimed 
afterwards  to  have  been  quite  disinterested.  He  had  all  his 
wife's  fortune  settled  on  her  and  her  children,  and  would  not 
even  keep  a  life  interest  in  her  property  in  case  she  pre- 
deceased him.  This  settlement  extended  not  only  to  what 
she  had  but  what  she  expected,  and  his  conduct  in  this  matter 
was  one  of  the  points  made  by  the  defence  in  his  favour. 

Boughton  was  suffering  from  a  slight  specific  disorder,  but 
was  otherwise  well;  Donellan  wished  to  make  it  appear 
otherwise.  Talking  of  him  to  a  friend,  he  described  his  con- 
dition as  such  that  the  friend  remarked  the  young  man's  life 
would  not  be  worth  a  couple  of  years'  purchase.  "  Not  one," 
promptly  corrected  Donellan.  On  the  29th  August,  1780, 
a  country  practitioner  called  in,  pronounced  Sir  Theodosius 
in  good  health  and  spirits,  but  prescribed  a  draught  for 
him :  jalap,  lavender  water,  nutmeg,  and  so  forth.  The  re- 
mainder 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  a.m.  next  morning.  He 
had  been  neglectful  about  taking  it ;  kept  it  locked  up  in  a 
cupboard,  and,  at  his  brother-in  law's  suggestion,  left  it  on  the 
shelf  in  another  room — where,  as  the  prosecutor  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  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  boy 
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 


190  PROBLEMATICAL   EBBORS. 

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  desired  her  to  let  them  alone.  But  now  Sir 
Theodosius  was  in  the  death  throes,  and  while  she  was 
engaged  with  him  the  bottles  disappeared. 

Donellan,  after  the  event,  wrote  to  the  baronet's  guardian, 
Sir  William  Wheler,  notifying  the  death,  but  giving  none  of 
the  peculiar  circumstances  of  it.  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  WilUam  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  WilHam  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.  Alter  this  Donellan  wrote  to 
Sir  WiUiam  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 


BODY   EXHUMED.  191 

William,  too,  having  learnt  that  nothing  had  been  done, 
reiterated  his  desire  for  a  post  'mortem,  and  two  more  doctors 
arrived  at  Lawf'ord  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  immediate  cause  of  death.  One 
said  that  the  nature  of  the  poison  was  sufi&ciently  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 
smeU,  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  im- 
portant discovery  that  Donellan  had  a  private  still  in  a  room 
which  he  called  his  own,  and  that  he  distOled  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 

*  Townsend's  "  Life  of  Justice  BuUer." 


192  PROBLEMATIOAL   ERRORS. 

to  explain  why  he  had  washed  or  made  away  with  the 
bottles.  He  submitted  that  he  had  urged  the  doctors  to 
the  post  Tnortem  by  producing  Sir  WiUiam  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  feUow-prisoner  while 
he  was  awaiting  trial.  He  said  openly  that  he  belicYed  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,  having  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,  who  told  him  that  he  also  had  firmly 
believed  in  Donellan's  innocence  until  one  day  he  proposed 
to  his  client  to  retain  Dunning,  the  eminent  counsel,  for  his 
defence.  DoneUan  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  un- 
necessary, 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  base  of  the  argument  in  Donellan's  favour,  backed  by 
the  opinion  of  so  eminent  a  scientist  as  Hunter.  He  deposed 
that  he  did  not  see  the  slightest  suspicion  of  poison,  while  he 
admitted  that  death  following  so  soon  after  the  draught  had 
been  swallowed  was  a  curious  fact,  yet  he  could  see  no  neces- 
sary connection  between  the  two  circumstances.  The  symp- 
toms, 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 


MADAME    LAFABGE.  193 

against  him.  He  was  deemed  an  adventurer,  a  fortune- 
hunter,  who  had  gained  a  footing  into  a  good  family  by  some- 
what discreditable  means,  and  it  was  assumed  that  he  was 
prepared  to  go  any  length  to  feather  his  nest  further. 

This  was  rather  an  exaggerated  view.  Donellan  was  a 
gentlemaa  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,  and  made  the  most  of  it,  by  doing  a  civil 
thing.  Lady  Boughton  was  unable  to  find  accommodation 
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  it  is  hardly 
possible,  when  reviewing  the  facts  as  stated  above,  not  to 
follow  on  the  same  side  as  Sir  James  Stephen. 

MADAME   LAFARGE. 

One  of  the  greatest  poisoning  trials  on  record  in  any 
country  is  that  of  Madame  Lafarge,  and  its  interest  is  un- 
dying, for  to  this  day  the  case  is  surrounded  in  mystery. 
Although  the  guilt  of  the  accused  was  proved  to  the  satis- 
faction 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  Prussiain  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 


194  PROBLEMATICAL   ERRORS. 

once  accused  his  wife  of  having  poisoned  him.  This  wife 
differed  greatly  in  disposition  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  weU-known  general  secretary  of  the  Bank  of  France.  She 
had  been  delicately  nurtured ;  her  father  held  good  military 
commands,  and  was  intimate  with  the  best  people  about, 
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  school- 
girls 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;  taU,  slim, 
with  dead-white  complexion,  jet-black  hair  worn  in  straight 
shining  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 
deny  it  positively.  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    LETTER.  195 

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  sur- 
roimdings,  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  unbearable  marriage. 

This  letter,  dated  25th  August,  1839,  began  thus  : — 

"  Chables, — I  am  about  to  implore  pardon  on  my  knees.  I  have 
betrayed  you  culpably.  I  love  not  you,  but  another.  .  .  ."  And  it 
continued  in  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,  /  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.  "  Makie." 

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  he 
won  her  over  at  length.  She  withdrew  her  letter,  declaring 
that  she  did  not  mean  what  she  wrote,  and  that  she  would  do 
her  best  to  make  him  happy.  "  I  have  accepted  my  position," 
she  wrote  to  M.  Garat,  "  although  it  is  difficult.  But  with  a 
little  strength  of  mind,  with  patience,  and  my  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 


196  PROBLEMATIGAL   ERBOBS. 

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  atten- 
tions. 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, 
an  underhand  proceeding,  of  which  his  wife  was  not  told. 
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  conceived  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 
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 


MARIE    BUYS   AB8ENIG.  197 

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.  But  the  object  of  the  change  was  evidently  evil. 
For  now  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. 

In  support  of  this  grave  charge  it  was  found  that  on  the 
12th  December,  two  days  before  the  box  left,  she  had  pur- 
chased a  quantity  of  arsenic  from  a  chemist  in  the  neighbour- 
ing town.  Her  letter  asking  for  it  was  produced  at  the  trial, 
and  it  is  worth  reproducing.  "  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 
harmless  drugs. 

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  ex- 
pressed 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  her  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  in  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, 


198  TBOBLEMATIOAL   EBR0R8. 

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  5  th  January,  1840.  That 
same  day  Madame  Lafarge  wrote  to  the  same  chemist's  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  had  given  her  a  prescription  for  it ; 
she  said  this  "  so  as  to  quiet  the  chemist's  conscience,  and 
lest  he  should  think  she  meant  to  poison  the  whole  province 
of  Limoges."  She  also  informed  the  chemist  that  her  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 
she  insisted  on  remaiaing  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  white-washed  waU.  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 


MARIE    ACGUBED    OF  MtfBBER.  199 

drink,  heard  him  cry  out,  "  What  have  you  given  me  ?  It 
burns  hke  fire."  "  I  am  not  surprised,"  replied  Marie  quietly. 
"  They  let  you  have  wine,  although  you  are  suifering  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  her  to  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  com- 
plaining 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-kiUer.  Here  the  facts  were  scarcely 
against  Marie  Lafarge. 

Matters  did  not  improve,  however,  and  on  the  13th 
Madame  Lafarge,  senior,  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 
arsenic  for  Marie  Lafarge,  but  that  she  had  begged  him 
to  say  nothing  about  it.  The  doctor,  Lespinasse  by  name, 
saw  the  patient,  immediately  ordered  antidotes,  while  some  of 
the  white  powder  was  sent  for  examination  to  the  chemist 
who  had  originally  supplied  the  arsenic.  He  does  not  seem 
to  have  detected  poison,  but  he  (the  chemist)  rephed  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  that  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  between  the  mother  and 
Marie  by  the  side  of  the  still  warm  corpse.  High  words, 
upbraidings,  threats  on  the  one  side,  indignant  denials  on  the 


200  PROBLEMATICAL  EBB0R8. 

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  morteTn  was,  how- 
ever, 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  exam- 
inations 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  convinced  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,  is  highly  probable — the  evidence  against  her 
was  never  conclusive,  and  there  were  many  suspicious  circum- 
stances 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  Avas 
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  ne- 
gotiated 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, 


WAS   DENIS   BABBIEB    GUILTY?  201 

and  at  another,  a  few  minutes  later,  that  he  only  conlessed 
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 
shaU  be  master  here!"  All  through  that  illness  he  had 
access  to  the  sick-room,  and  he  could  easily  have  added 
the  poison  to  the  various  drinks  and  nutriment  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  would  rather  have  formulated  charges  against 
him  than  against  Madame  Lafarge." 

Summing  up  the  whole  question,  they  were  of  opinion 
that  the  case  was  fiiU  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  circumstantial  evidence  against 
another  person.  The  verdict  should  decidedly  have  been 
"  not  proven."  But  public  opinion,  hastily  formed,  condemned 
Madame  Lafarge  in  advance,  and  the  well-known  machinery 
of  the  French  criminal  law  helped  to  create  a  new  judicial 
error,  through  obstinate  reliance  on  a  preconceived  opinion, 
following  the  mistaken  public  view. 

Marie  Lafarge  was  sentenced  to  hard  labour  for  life,  after 
exposure  in  the  public  pillory.  The  latter  was  remitted,  but 
she  went  into  the  Montpelier  prison  and  remained  there  many 
years.  Not  long  after  her  conviction  there  was  a  strong 
revulsion  of  feeling,  and  during  her  seclusion  she  received 
some  six  thousand  letters  from  outside.  Six  thousand  in  all, 
a  few  of  them,  half  a  dozen  at  most,  harsh  and  vindictive,  but 
the  bulk  sympathetic  and  kindly.    Many  in  prose  or  verse, 


202  FBOBLEMATIOAL   EBB0B8. 

and  in  several  languages,  were  signed  bj^  persons  of  the 
highest  respectability.  A  large  number  offered  marriage, 
some  the  opportunities  for  escape,  and  the  promise  of  happi- 
ness in  another  country.  She  replied  to  almost  all  with  her 
own  hand.  Her  pen  was  her  chief  solace  during  her  long  im- 
prisonment, 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 
without  some  account  of  another  mysterious  charge  brought 
against  her  shortly  after  her  arrest  for  murder.  When  her 
mother-in-law  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  ccmse  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  discussed.  Each  new 
fact  or  statement  was  taken  as  clear  proof  of  one  or  the 
other,  and  the  public  press  warmly  espoused  either  side. 

The  charge  of  theft,  although  the  lesser,  took  precedence 
of  that  of  murder,  and  Madame  Lafarge  was  tried  by  the 
Correctional  Tribunal  of  Tulle  before  she  appeared  at  the 
assizes  to  answer  for  her  life.  She  was  prosecuted  by  a 
certain  Vicomte  de  Leautaud  on  behalf  of  his  wife.  This 
accusation  was  clear  and  precise.  Madame  de  Leautaud's 
diamonds  had  disappeared  for  more  than  a  year ;  the  Vicomte 
beheved  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 


MABIE   LAFABGE   EXPLAINS.  203 

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  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  conscientious  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  genuine  emo- 
tion.    It  ran : 

"  Maeib  (de  Leautaud), — 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  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  con- 
science' 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  continues  in  these  terms,  and  need  not  be  repro- 
duced at  length.     Marie  Lafarge  continues  to  implore  her  old 


204  PROBLEMATICAL   ERRORS. 

friend  to  save  her,  reminding  her  that  only  thus  can  she  save 
herself.    Otherwise  all  the  facts  must  come  out. 

"Kemember  "—and  here  seems  to  protrude  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.  Acknow- 
ledge 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  circumstances,  and  of  humble  condition,  whose 
indiscretions  might  prove  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  discussion  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  sus- 
pected. 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. 


THE    MYSTEBT   OF    THE   DIAMONDS.  205 

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  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,  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 


206  PBOBLEMATIOAL   EBB0B8. 

"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  theft,  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  char- 
acters, M.  Allard  had  asked  about  the  other  inmates,  and  the 
guests.  Then  M.  de  Leautaud  mentioned  Marie  Cappelle 
(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  Madame  Garat's,  Marie 
Lafarge's  aunt's  house,  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  Cappelle 
Lafarge  had  had  something  to  say  to  this  theft  ? 

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  bank  note  at  her  aunt's,  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'  imprison- 
ment.    She  appealed  against  this  finding,  and  appeared  no 


MADELEINE   SMITH.  207 

less  than  four  times  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  that  of  life. 

There  were  many  who  believed  in  Marie's  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  deceased  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. 

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  ifimile  I'Angelier,  an  einploye  in  the  firm 
of  Huggins,  in  Glasgow — a  small,  insignificant  creature,  alto- 
gether unworthy  of  her  in  looks  or  position.  The  acquaintance 
ripened,  and  Madeleine  seems  to  have  become  devotedly 
attached  to  her  lover,  whom  she  often  addressed  as  her  "  own 
darling  husband."  They  kept  up  a  clandestine  correspond- 
ence, 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  forth- 
with. 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  Made- 
leine, and  was  greatly  enamoured  of  her.  Early  in  January, 
1857,  he  offered  her  marriage,  and  she  became  engaged  to  him. 
It  was  necessary,  now,  to  break  with  L'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 


208  PROBLEMATICAL    ERRORS. 

witk  Madeleine  Smith,  and  some  of  them  had  now  advised 
him  to  let  her  go.  "  No ;  I  will  never  surrender  the  letters, 
nor,  so  long  as  I  live,  shall  she  marry  another  man."  On 
the  9  th  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  deter- 
mined 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  L'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  L'Angelier,  and  had  several  interviews  with  him.  What 
passed  at  these  meetings  of  the  11th  and  12th  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  AUan,  where 
Mr.  Minnock  followed,  and,  at  his  urgent  request,  the  day  of 
marriage  was  fixed.  Then  they  all  returned  to  Glasgow,  and 
missed  L'Angelier,  who  had  also  followed  Madeleine  to  Bridge 


L'ANGELIEB  DIES.  209 

of  Allan.  He  remained  at  Stirling,  but,  on  receiving  a  letter 
from  her,  he  went  on  to  Glasgow,  being  in  good  health  at  the 
time.  This  was  the  22nd  February,  a  Sunday,  on  which 
night,  about  eight  p.m.,  he  reached  his  lodgings,  had  tea,  and 
went  out.  As  he  left,  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  L'Angelier 
there,  half  doubled  up  with  pain.  He  described  himself  as 
exceedingly  ill.  A  doctor  was  sent  for,  who  put  him  to  bed, 
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  la^t 
words.  When  the  doctor  presently  reappeared,  L'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  im- 
portance was  found;  but  a  letter  addressed  to  him  signed 
"  M'eine,"  couched  in  passionate  language,  imploring  him  "  to 
return."  "  Are  you  iU,  my  beloved  ?  Adieu !  with  tender 
embraces."  The  handwriting  of  this  letter  was  not  identified, 
but  a  friend  of  L'Angelier's,  a  M.  de  Mean,  hearing  of  his 
sudden  death,  went  at  once  to  warn  Madeleine  Smith's  father 
that  L'Angelier  had  letters  in  his  possession  which  should  not 
be  allowed  to  faU  into  strange  hands.  It  was  too  late :  the 
friends  of  the  deceased  had  sealed  up  his  effects  and  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  L'Angelier  had  come  up 
from  the  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 


210  PROBLEMATICAL   EBBOBS. 

that  she  had  seen  nothing  of  him  for  three  weeks.  She  went 
further  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  never  appeared, 
although  she  had  waited  for  him  some  time.  This  appoint- 
ment had  been  made  that  she  might  recover  her  letters.  All 
through  this  painful  interview  with  de  Mean  Madeleine 
appeared  in  the  greatest  distress.  It  must  have  preyed 
greatly  on  her  mind,  for  next  morning  she  took  to  flight. 

Madeleine  was  pursued,  but  by  her  family,  not  the  police, 
and  overtaken  on  board  a  steamer  bound  for  Rowallan. 
Soon  after  her  return  to  Glasgow  the  contents  of  her  letters 
to  L'Angelier  were  made  public,  and  a  post  morteTn  had  been 
made  on  the  deceased.  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  carefully  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  difSculties  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  admin- 
istered. The  question  was  keenly  debated,  and  it  was  gener- 
ally 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  L'AngeUer  had  met  Made- 
leine Smith  on  the  Sunday  night. 

The  case  against  her  became  more  decided  when  it  was 
ascertained  that  she  had  been  in  the  habit  of  buying  arsenic, 
but  with  the  alleged  intention  of  taking  it  herself  for  her 


NOT  PROVEN.  211 

complexion.  She  was  now  arrested  and  sent  for  trial  at 
Edinburgh,  on  a  charge  of  poisoning  L'AngeUer.  Her  pur- 
chases of  arsenic  were  proved  by  the  chemist's  books  under 
date  of  the  21st  February,  four  days  before  the  murder,  and 
again  on  the  6th  and  18th  March. 

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 
L'Angelier's  first  illness  on  February  the  19th.  But  it  was 
proved  in  evidence  that,  on  the  night  of  his  death,  Sunday 
22nd  March,  L'Angelier  had  been  seen  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Blythswood  Square,  where  the  Smiths  lived ;  again,  that 
he  had  himself  bought  no  arsenic  in  Glasgow. 

Madeleine's  plucky  demeanour  in  court  gained  her  much 
sympathy;  she  never  once  gave  way;  only  when  her  im- 
passioned letters  were  being  read  aloud  did  she  really  lose 
her  composure.  She  stepped  into  the  dock  as  though  she 
was  entering  a  ball-room,  and  although  she  was  under  grave 
suspicion  of  having  committed  a  dastardly  crime,  the  conduct 
of  L'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. 

On  acquittal,  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  re- 
view 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. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

POLICE      MISTAKES. 

The  Saffron  Hill  Murder — Narrow  Escape  of  Pellizioni — Two  Men  in  Newgate 
for  Same  Offence — Murder  of  Constable  Cock — Habron  and  Peace — The 
Edlingham  Burglary — Arrest,  Trial,  and  Conviction  of  Braimagan  and 
Murphy,  on  Evidence  said  to  be  Manufactured — Severity  of  Judge  Manisty 
— Eev.  Mr.  Percy  Intervenes  and  Guesses  at  Guilt  of  Edgell  and  Another 
Man,  Richardson — New  Trial — Second  Convictions  for  Same  Burglary — 
Brannagan  and  Murphy  Pardoned  and  Compensated — Survivors  of  Police 
Prosecutors  put  on  their  Trial,  but  Acquitted — Lord  Cochrane's  Case — No 
Doubt  the  Victim  of  Government  Persecution — Alleged  Facta  and  their 
Explanation— Great  Lawyers'  Opinions — Tardy  Eehabilitation  of  Lord 
Cochrane. 

No  human  institution  is  perfect,  and  the  police  are  fallible 
like  the  rest.  They  have  in  truth  made  mistakes,  all  of 
them  regrettable,  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  wrong ;  but  there  have  been 
occasions  when  even  the  pressure  of  new  and  positive  facts, 
put  forward  in  protest  by  still  dissatisfied  people,  have  hardly 
elicited  a  reluctant  admission  that  they  have  gone  wrong. 
One  or  two  instances  of  this  will  now  be  adduced. 

PELLIZIONI. 

In  the  PelUzioni  case,  1863-4,  there  might  have  been 
a  terrible  failure  of  justice,  as  terrible  as  any  hitherto  re- 
corded in  criminal  annals.  This  was  a  supposed  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 


TWO   MEN   GONVIOTED    OF    ONE    CRIME.  213 

mortally  wounded.  The  police  were  speedily  summoned, 
and,  on  arrival,  they  found  an  Italian,  Pellizioni  by  name, 
lying  across  Harrington's  prostrate  body,  in  which  life  was 
not  yet  extinct.  Pellizioni  was  at  once  seized  as  the  almost 
obvious  perpetrator  of  the  foul  deed.  He  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  scufHe  he  had  been 
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  Martiu,  and  although 
the  evidence  was  extremely  conflicting,  the  learned  judge 
said  that  he  thought  it  quite  correct  and  conclusive.  He 
summed  up  dead  against  the  prisoner,  and  the  jury  brought 
in  a  verdict  of  guilty,  whereon  Pellizioni  was  sentenced  to 
be  hanged.  This  result  was  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  inter- 
ested in  him.  It  was  known  that  in  the  locality  of  Saffron 
Hill  he  bore  good  repute  as  a  singularly  quiet  and  inoften- 
sive  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  condemned,  singly  not  jointly,  of  one  and  the 
same  crime.  If  Mogni  had  struck  the  blows,  clearly  Pelli- 
zioni 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  knifes 
and  this  knife  had  been  found  some  distance  from  the 
scene  of  the  crime,  where  Pellizioni  could  not  have  thrown 
it.  And  again,  it  was  known  and  sworn  to  as  Mogni's 
knife,  which,  after  stabbing  the  others,  he  had  handed  to 
a  friend  to  convey  away. 


214  POLICE   MISTAKES. 

The  gravamen  of  the  charge  against  the  pohce  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  per- 
missible 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  Pelhzioni  would  not  have  been  condemned.  The 
defence,  in  his  case,  went  the  length  of  declaring  that  to 
this  questionable  proceeding  the  police  added  cross  swear- 
ing, and  that  some  should  have  been  indicted  for  perjury- 
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  ofiicers  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  pre-eminence 
among  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 
injured  him. 

In  July,  1875,  two  brothers,  William  and  John  Habron, 
were  taken  before  the  magistrates  of  Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 
near  Manchester,  charged  with  drunkermess.  Grave  doubts, 
were,  however,  expressed  in  court  as  to  the  identity  of  William 
Habron.  The  chief  witness,  constable  Cock,  was  very  positive ; 
ke  knew  the  man,  he  said,  because  he  had  so  often  threatened 
reprisals  if  interfered  with.  But  the  magistrates  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 


BABBON  AND   PEACE.  215 

same  night  Bent  was  roused  out  -with  the  news  that  Cock  had 
been  shot.  He  ran  round  to  West  Point,  where  the  unfortu- 
nate officer  lay  dying,  and  although  unable  to  obtain  from 
him  any  distinct  indication  of  the  murderer,  decided  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  WiUiam,  he  has 
such  an  abominable  temper."  All  three  brothers — WiUiam, 
John,  and  Frank  Habron — were  arrested  in  their  beds  and 
taken  to  the  police-station.  In  the  morning  a  strict  examina- 
tion of  the  ground  where  Cock  had  been  shot  revealed  a 
number  of  footmarks.  The  Habrons'  boots  were  brought  to 
the  spot  and  found  to  fit  these  marks  exactly. 

The  evidence  now  centred  against  William  Habron  par- 
ticularly, 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,  which  failed  on 
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  others  swore  to  seeing  them  drinking  in  a 
public-house  at  eleven  p.m.  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.  WilUam  Habron  alone  was  con- 
victed, 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  kiUed 
constable  Cock  on  the  night  in  question. 

THE     EDLINGHAM     BURGLARY,     1879. 

Almost  at  the  very  time  that  William  Habron  was  re- 
ceiving tardy  justice  a  new  and  still  more  grievous  error  was 
being  perpetrated  in  the  west  of  England.  The  Edlingham 
burglary  case  will  always  be  remembered  as  a  grave  failure  of 


216  POLIOS   MISTAKES. 

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  vUlage  near  Ahiwick, 
was  broken  into  on  the  7th  February,  1879.  The  only  occu- 
pants of  the  house  were  Mr.  Buckle,  the  vicar,  his  wife,  an 
invalid,  his  daughter,  and  four  female  servants.  The  daughter 
gave  the  alarm  about  one  a.m.  that  burglars  were  in  the  house, 
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  poHce  and  doctor  summoned. 
The  latter  attended  to  the  wounds,  which  were  serious,  and 
the  poKce,  under  the  orders  of  Superintendent  Harkes,  an 
energetic  officer,  immediately  took  the  necessary  steps. 
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  EdUngham  to  view  the  premises.  He 
found  the  stiU  open  window  in  the  drawing-room  through 
which  the  burglars  had  entered,  and  the  room,  all  in  con- 
fusion, ransacked  and  rifled.  One  of  the  servants  gave  him 
a  chisel  which  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 


FIRST  ABBESTS.  217 

marks  made  that  the  chisel  had  been  used  to  prize  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.  Bran- 
nagan was  quickly  followed,  and  arrested  as  he  was  taking  oft' 
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  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  Eedpath. 

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  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.  Moreover, 
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  their  commission  of  the  crime.  When  brought 
before  the  magistrates  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 


218  POLICE   MISTAKES. 

Alnwick  road.  Plaster  casts  were  produced  of  these  foot- 
marks, also  the  boots  and  clogs  of  the  prisoners,  and  all  were 
found  to  correspond.  The  chisel  found  in  the  vicarage  had 
been  traced  to  Murphy.  His  brother-in-law,  old  Eedpath, 
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  damming  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  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  been  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  police. 
One  was  positive  information  that  other  persons  had  been 
abroad  from  Alnwick  that  night ;  another  was  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  opposite  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 


VERDICT   OF   GUILTY.  219 

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,  after- 
wards a  Q.C.  His  case  was  that  Mr.  Buckle  (who  had  corrected 
his  first  denial,  and,  later,  had  identified  the  men)  was  mis- 
taken by  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  re- 
proach of  another  undetected  crime.  In  support  of  this  grave 
charge  he  argued  that  even  if  the  footprints  had  not  been 
made  deliberately  with  the  boots  and  clogs  in  their  possession, 
there  had  been  a  great  crowd  of  curious  folk  all  around  the 
house  after  the  crime,  any  of  whom  might  have  made  the 
marks.  But  a  stiU  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  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  where  it  was  found  with  maUcious  intention. 
Lastly,  several  witnesses  swore  that  they  had  never  seen  any 
chisel  such  as  that  produced  in  the  possession  of  old  Redpath ; 
while  as  to  the  gun,  it  was  denied  that  either  prisoner  had 
ever  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  as  to  their 
verdict.      They  deliberated    for    three    hours,  and    at    last 


220  POLICE   MISTAKES. 

delivered  a  verdict  of  guilty,  whereupon  the  judge  com- 
mended 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 ;  feeling  it  his  duty  to  deter  others 
from  committing  so  grave  a  crime.  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  accident  from  making  as  grievous  a 
mistake  as  that  into  which  any  of  his  predecessors  had  fallen. 

Brannagan  and  Murphy  were  removed  from  court  pro- 
testing 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  Hght  was  about  to  be 
let  in  on  the  case.  It  came  to  the  knowledge  of  a  young 
solicitor  in  Alnwick  that  a  certain  Greorge  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  feUow-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 
authoritatively  that  Harkes,  the  police  superintendent, 
who  was  now  dead,  admitted  that  he  had  been  wrong,  but 
that  it  was  too  late  to  recall  the  mistake. 

There  was  some  strong  counter  influence  at  work,  and 
Mr.  Percy  found  presently  that  another  man,  named 
Charles  Eichardson,  was  constantly  hanging  about  Edgell. 
The  reason  came  out  when  at  last  EdgeU  made  fuU  con- 
fession of  the  burglary,  and  it  was  seen  that  this  Richard- 
son was  his  accomplice.  They  had  been  out  on  a  poach- 
ing expedition,  but  had  had  little  success.     Then  Richardson 


THE    TRUTH   COMES    OUT.  221 

proposed  to  try  the' vicarage,  and  they  forced  their  way  in. 
Richardson  used  a  chisel  which  he  had  picked  up  in  an  out- 
house to  prize  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  oif 
the  only  bit  of  spoil  worth  having.  Miss  Buckle's  gold 
watch,  and  this,  by  a  curious  Nemesis,  afforded  one  of  the 
best  proofs  of  his  guilt.  A  seal  or  trinket  had  been 
attached  to  the  chain,  and  years  after,  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.  Eichardson  was 
a  great  burly  rufl&an  of  great  height,  broad  shoulders,  and 
possessed  of  enormous  strength;  a  quarrelsome  desperado, 
who  had  already  been  tried  for  the  murder  of  a  pohceman 
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  JSTewcastle 
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  points  have 
been  already  set  forth,  and  it  is  enough  to  state  that 
Brannagan  and  Murphy  were  forthwith  released  and  re- 
turned in  triumph  to  Northumberland.  The  Treasury 
adjudged  them  the  sum  of  £800  each,  as  some  slight  com- 
pensation for  their  seven  years  spent  in  durance  vile.  The 
money  was  safely  invested  for  them  in  the  hands  of 
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 


222  PULIGE   MISTAKES. 

trade  when  he  married  the  girl  Agnes  Simm,  who  had 
tried  to  befriend  him  in  regard  to  the  coat  on  the  morn- 
ing after  the  burglary. 

The  real  offenders  were  in  due  course  put  upon  their  trial 
at  Newcastle,  before  Mr.  Baron  Pollock,  found  guilty,  and 
sentenced  each  to  five  years'  penal  servitude.  A  petition, 
with  upwards  of  three  thousand  signatures,  had  been  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  im- 
possible 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  iuequality  in  the  sentences  that  may  be 
passed  than  that  of  Mr.  Justice  Manisty  inflicting  "  life," 
where  Mr.  Baron  Pollock  thought  five  years  sufiicient. 

Another  trial  was  inevitable  before  this  unfortunate 
affair  came  to  an  end.  The  conduct  of  the  police  had 
been  so  strongly  impugned  that  nothing  less  than  a  judicial 
investigation  would  satisfy  the  pubUc  mind.  A  Scotland 
Yard  detective,  the  well  -  known  and  highly  intelhgent 
Inspector  Butcher,  had  been  sent  down  to  Northumber- 
land to  verify,  if  possible,  strong  suspicions,  and  hunt  up 
aU  the  facts.  He  worked  upon  the  problem  for  a  couple 
of  months,  and  a  criminal  prosecution  was  ordered  on  his 
report.  Harkes  was  now  dead,  but  four  other  constables, 
Harrison,  Sprott,  Gair,  and  Chambers,  were  charged  with 
deliberately  plotting  the  conviction  of  two  innocent  men. 
They  were  accused  of  having  made  false  plaster  casts  of 
footprints ;  of  having  entrapped  Redpath  into  a  mistaken 
recognition  of  the  chisel;  of  tearing  a  piece  of  the  news- 
paper 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  a  piece  of  fustian 
from  Brannagan's  trousers,  which  they  placed  in  the 
vicarage  garden,  to   show   that  Brannagan  had  been   there 


POLICEMEN  ARRAIGNED.  223 

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.  Their  story 
was  received  with  respect,  coming  as  it  did  from  men  who 
were  suifering  imprisonment  on  their  own  confession.  It 
was  credibly  believed  that  Richardson  had  picked  up  the 
chisel,  all  the  probabilities  corroborated  their  statement 
that  they  had  covered  up  their  feet  with  sacking.  The 
defence  was  that  the  confession  was  all  a  lie,  and  that 
the  men  who  made  it  were  worthless  characters.  In  sum- 
ming up,  Mr.  Justice  Denman  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  proofs 
than  of  positive  innocence.  But  the  result  was  no  doubt 
influenced  by  the  fact  that  the  principal  person  in  the 
plot,  if  plot  there  was,  had  passed  beyond  human  justice. 
The  chief  mover  in  the  prosecution  was  Superintendent 
Harkes,  and  the  rest  were  acting  at  his  instigation. 

LORD   COCHRANE. 

The  prosecution  and  conviction  of  Lord  Cochrane  in  1814 
may  weU  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  pursuit  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  the  Earl  of  Dun- 
donald)  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,  sus- 
picious 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  (EUenborough) 


224  POLIOB   MISTAKES. 

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  guilty,  and  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  £500, 
to  stand  in  the  piUory,  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  as  told  by  Lord  Cochrane  himself  in  his 
affidavits  will  best  describe  what  happened.  Having  just  put 
a  new  ship  in  commission,  H.M.8.  Tonnant,  he  was  preparing 
her  for  sea  with  a  convoy.  He  was  an  inventive  genius,  and 
he  had  recently  patented  certain  lamps  for  the  use  of  the  ships 
sailing  with  him.  He  had  gone  into  the  city  one  morning, 
the  21st  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  uniform,  whose  name  was 
not  known,  nor  could  it  be  deciphered  from  the  illegible 
scrawl  of  the  letter.  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  earHest  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 


BE  BEBENGEB'S  STOBY.  225 

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  unsus- 
piciously 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  transcen- 
dent 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 
shght  acquaintance  with  his  lordship,  and  had  already 
petitioned  him  for  a  passage  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  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  perfecting  my  lamp 
invention  for  the  use  of  the  convoy,  of  which  I  was  in  a 
few  days  to  take  charge,  instead  of  being  on  the  only  spot 


226  POLICE    MISTAKES. 

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  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  I  usually 
had,  and  it  was  sold  under  an  old  order  given  to  my  brokers 
to  sell  at  a  certain  price.  It  had  necessarily  to  be  sold." 
It  was  clear  to  Lord  Cochrane's  friends — who,  indeed,  and 
rightl}',  held  him  to  be  incapable  of  stooping  to  fraud — that 
had  he  contemplated  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 
he  should  have  been  absolved  from  the  charge. 

Great  lawyers  like  Lords  Campbell,  Brougham,  and 
Erskine  have  commented  on  this  case,  aU  of  them  ex- 
pressing their  belief  in  Lord  Cochrane's  innocence.  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  luminaries  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  judg- 
ment 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. 


OAPTAIFS    OF    OEIME. 


CHAPTER    X. 

SOME   FAMOUS   SWINDLERS. 

Eecurrenoe  of  Criminal  Typea — Heredity  and  Congenital  Instinct — The  Jukes 
Family — Criminal  Tendencies  Transmitted — Sharpers  and  Swindlers  "Work 
on  Much  the  Same  Lines — Hatfield — Anthelme  Collet,  a  product  of  French 
Kevolutionary  Epoch — Unparalleled  Caieer  of  Fraud — Exposed  at  Length 
and  Sent  to  Galleys — Always  Possessed  of  Funds  to  the  Last — Cognard 
in  Spain — Count  Pontis  de  St.  Hel&ne,  who  Fought  in  Spain  with  French 
Armies,  and  Gained  High  llank — Betrayed  by  Old  Convict  Comrade — 
Eelapses  into  Crime,  and  Sent  to  Galleys  for  Life — Major  Semple,  an 
English  Officer,  who  served  in  American  War — His  many  Vicissitudes  in 
Foreign  Armies,  Thief  and  Begging-Letter  Writer — Transported  to  Botany 
Bay. 

THE  regular  recurrence  of  certain  crimes  and  the  re- 
appearance of  particular  types  of  criminals  has  been 
often  remarked  upon  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  trans- 
mitted tendencies  to  crime  can  be  illustrated  by  many  well- 
authenticated  cases,  where  whole  famihes  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 


228  SOME   FAMOUS    SWINDLERS. 

brought  out  by  the  patient  investigation  of  Mr.  Dugdale,  an 
American  scientist.  An  old  case  is  recorded  of  a  Yorkshire 
family,  the  DunhiUs,  the  head  of  which  spread  terror  through 
the  East  Biding  as  the  chief  of  a  band  of  burglars.  This 
Snowdon  Dunhill,  by  name,  was  convicted  in  1813  for  robbing 
a  granary,  and  sentenced  to  seven  years'  transportation.  He 
returned  from  the  Antipodes  to  earn  a  second  sentence  ot 
exile,  and  his  son  was  at  the  same  time  sentenced  to  trans- 
portation. One  of  his  sisters.  Rose  Dunhill,  was  twice  im- 
prisoned for  larceny;  another,  Sarah,  had  been  repeatedly 
convicted  for  picking  pockets,  and  was  finally  sent  across  the 
water  for  seven  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  Avas  found  that 
they  were  all  of  one  famUy,  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  manifesta- 
tion 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  impli- 
cated, a  Villet  and  a  Lemaire.  These  three  names,  Hugot, 
Villet,  and  Lemaire,  were  fuU  of  sinister  significance  in  the 


HEREBITARY  CRIME.  229 

neighbourhood,  and  recalled  a  long  series  of  dark  deeds,  per- 
petrated by  the  ancestors  of  these  very  criminals. 

Lombroso  has  collected  a  number  of  cases  showing  how 
the  criminal  tendency  has  reappeared  in  successive  genera- 
tions. DumoUard,  the  wholesale  murderer  of  women,  was  the 
son  of  a  murderer ;  Patetot,  another  murderer,  was  the  grand- 
son and  great-grandson  of  a  criminal.  There  was  a  family 
named  Nathan,  who  on  one  particular  day  united  fourteen 
members  in  the  same  goal.  These  Nathans  were  a  band  of 
thieves  entirely  made  up  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  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  aU  seem  bound  by  tradition  to  prey  upon 
their  fellows.  Again,  in  the  Madras  Presidency,  at  Trichino- 
poly,  a  whole  caste  of  thieves  existed,  one  and  aU  vowed  to 
various  kinds  of  crime,  and  the  practice  of  crime  by  certain 
Indian  tribes  generation  after  generation  is  well  known  to 
Indian  poHce  officers. 

That  the  criminal  virus  is  widely  disseminated  is  proved 
by  its  unfailing  reappearance  in  all  times  and  places.  The 
same  sort  of  crimes  have  been  and  are  being  continually 
committed,  with  no  greater  difference  than  is  due  to  surround- 
ings, opportunities,  individual  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,  murderers,  and  aU  kinds  and 
classes  of  criminals  who  make  mankind  their  prey,  have  been 
reproduced  again  and  again.  Men  and  women  have  been 
found  under  the  same  baleful  impulse,  showing  greater  or  less 
ingenuity,  but  working  on  the  same  lines.  The  sharper  follows 
out  his  long  career  of  successful  fraud  and  imposture  century 
after  century.     Such  men  as  Hatfield,  Collet,  Coster,  Sheridan, 


230  SOME   FAMOUS    SWINDLERS. 

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  in 
Mrs.  Gordon  Baillie,  La  "Comtesse,"  Sandor,  and  Bertha 
Heyman.  Gain  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  close 
this  part  with  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,  DumoUard,  De  TourviUe,  and  Peace. 

HATFIELD. 

One  of  the  earliest  swindlers  on  record  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  suc- 
ceeded in  passing  himself  off  as  a  man  of  rank  and  fortune 
without  detection  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,  for  the  first  time  apparently,  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  her  to  marry  him.  The  happy  pair 
proceeded  then  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  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,  and  he  was  sent  to  a  debtors'  prison. 
About  this  time  his  wife  died  in  great  penury.  Hatfield  soon 
afterwards,  by  a  series  of  artful  misrepresentations,  obtained 
money  from  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  who  secured  his  release. 


HATFIELD.  231 

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  relation  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,  how- 
ever, 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  con- 
nections, and  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  Kutland,  his  Grace  again  weakly 
agreed  to  pay  his  debts  if  he  would  promise  to  leave  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 
he  became  partner  in  a  firm  at  Tiverton.  Then  he  offered 
himself  as  parliamentary  candidate  for  Queenborough,  but  his 
past  misdeeds  had  been  too  notorious,  and  the  constituency 
would  not  elect  him.  Disappointed  and  balked  in  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 


282  SOME    FAMOUS    SWINDLERS. 

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  a  public-house  on  the  shores 
of  the  lake.  He  was  not  long  in  winning  her  affections. 
But  the  double-faced  scoundrel  at  this  moment  was  paying 
attention  to  another  young  lady,  the  rich  ward  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 
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.  It  never  transpired 
why  he  preferred  this  sweet  girl,  whose  charms  were  after- 
wards sung  by  Wordsworth,  to  his  other  well-dowered  partie. 
Some  do  him  the  justice  to  say  that  he  really  loved  Mary 
Robinson ;  others  that,  already  fearing  detection  and  exposure, 
he  thought  it  wise  to  disappear. 

The  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  neigh- 
bourhood 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 


A    PBOnUGT   OF  THE   FRENCH  REVOLUTION:       233 

of  death  was  passed  upon  him,  and  he  suffered  on  the 
3rd  September,  1803.  "Notwithstanding  his  various  and 
complicated  enormities,"  says  a  contemporary  chronicle,  "  his 
untimely  end  excited  considerable  commiseration.  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,  successes.  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  in  the  commencement  of  the  present 
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  then  returned  to  France,  and 
entered  the  military  school  at  Fontainebleau,  from  which  he 
graduated  as  sous-heutenant,  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  that  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  deter- 
mination. He  was  sent  for  cure  to  hospital,  that  of  San 
Giacomo,  in  Naples,  and  there  met  a  Dominican  monk 
chaplain  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  he  did  not  recover.     At  his  death 


234  SOME   FAMOUS   SWINDLERS. 

the  major  left  Collet  all  Ms    possessions — 3,000  francs  in 
money,  a  gold  watch,  and  two  very  valuable  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  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  those  of  a  high-born 
gentleman,  and,  fiUing  up  one  of  his  passports  in  the  name, 
of  the  Marquis  de  Dada,  started  vid  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  ItaHan  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  the  Cardinal  Archbishop 
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 


GHAMELEON-LIKE  CHANGES.  235 

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  de- 
frauded 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 
desired  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  money  freely. 
His  next  idea  was  to  organise  amateur  theatricals,  and  he 
forthwith  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,  deco- 
rations, 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  necessary  papers  and  was  fuUy  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 


236  SOME   FAMOUS    SWINDLERS. 

church,  and  collected  30,000  francs  for  the  good  work, 
promising  to  make  up  any  balance  required  from  his  own 
purse.  The  building  was  set  on  foot,  an  architect  engaged, 
and  many  purchases  made  by  the  false  curd,  who  was,  of 
course,  treasurer  of  the  fund.  Collet  finished  up  by  paying 
a  visit  to  a  neighbouring  town,  where  he  bought  reUgious 
pictures,  candelabra,  and  church  plate,  all  on  credit,  and 
despatched  them  to  his  parish.  But  he  proceeded  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  (which  he  had  stolen 
from  Cardinal  Fesch),  and  created  himself  Bishop  of  Mon- 
ardan,  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,  fortunately,  he  had  by 
heart  of  Bourdaloue's. 

The  rdle  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  to  his  first  appointment  in  the  army,  and  being 
well  provided  with  funds,  he  renewed  his  acquaintance  by 
giving  this  friend  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  CoUet  started 
for  the   west   to  join  his  regiment.     But  he  does  not  seem 


BECOMES    COUNT    OF   BOBBOMEO.  237 

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  Fr^jus  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,  be- 
fore 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,  and  soon 
had  a  suite  of  some  twenty  people.  Amongst  the  papers 
he  had  forged  was  one  which  empowered  him  to  draw 
upon  the  mihtary  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  Montpeher  his  luck  turned.  He  had  begun  well ; 
a  crowd  of  suppliants  fell  at  his  feet,  including  the  prefet, 
to  whom  Collet  promised  his  influence  and  a  strong  recom- 
mendation 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-^- manger  and  arrested  Collet  as  he  sat  at  table 
with  the  prefet  and  his  staff.  No  fault  could  well  be  found 
with  those  whom  Collet  had  duped,  but  the  swindler  him- 
self was  in  momentary  fear  of  being  shot.  He  was,  however, 
kept  in  confinement  awaiting  superior  orders. 

One  day  the  prefet,  still  chafing  at  the  trick  played 
upon  him,  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 


238  SOME  FAMOUS    SWINDLERS. 

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,  the  two  sentries 
on  the  door  outside.  Here  he  found,  to  his  surprise  and 
dehght,  a  full  suit  of  white,  the  costume  of  a  Tnarmiton, 
a  cook's  assistant.  He  quickly  assumed  the  disguise,  and 
taking  up  the  nearest  dish,  walked  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 
Montpelier,  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  benign- 
ant and  smiling,  that  he  was  nicknamed  by  his  comrades 
of  the  chain,  "  Monsieur  I'eveque."  Numberless  attempts 
were  made  to  discover  the  sources  of  his  wealth ;  he  was 
supposed  to  have  secreted  a  private  store  of  precious  stones, 
but,  although  he  was  watched  and  frequently  searched  him- 
self, they  were  never  found.  He  was  free-handed,  too,  with 
his  money,  gave  freely  to  other  convicts,  and  was  much 
respected  and  esteemed  by  them.     It  is  told  of  one  who 


AN  AMIABLE   GONVIGT.  239 

committed  a  murder  in  the  Bagne  that,  when  permitted  to 
address  his  comrades  before  execution,  after  acknowledging 
their  general  kindness  to  himself,  he  added,  "  I  wish  especially 
to  thank  Monsieur  Collet."  He  did  not  live  to  return  to 
liberty,  and  died,  only  a  few  days  before  the  end  of  his  term, 
consumed  with  despair  at  ending  his  days  at  the  Bagne,  but 
carried  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, 
and  toothsome  food,  the  gold  flowed  from  his  hand  as  if 
by  legerdemain. 

COGNAED. 

Collet's  adventures  are  outdone  by  those  of  Cognard,  an 
ex-conyict,  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 
in  the  Bagne  of  Brest,  made  his  escape,  and  passed  into  Spain, 
where  he  joined  an  irregular  corps  under  the  Guerilla  Nina, 
when  he  gained  the  cross  of  Alcantara.  While  in  garrison 
in  one  of  the  towns  of  Calatonia,  he  made  the  acquaintance 
of  a  person  who  had  been  a  servant  to  Count  Pontis  de  Ste. 
H^lene,  recently  deceased.  This  servant  had,  by  some  means 
or  other,  laid  hands  upon  the  Count's  titles  of  nobility,  and 
handed  them  over  to  Cognard,  who  forthwith  adopted  the 
name  and  title  without  question.  Despite  his  antecedents, 
he  appears  to  have  displayed  great  strictness  in  dealing  with 
public  money,  and  on  one  occasion  denounced  two  French 
oiEcers  whom  he  caught  in  malpractices.  They  turned  on 
him,  and  accused  him  of  complicity.  General  Wimpfen 
ordered  all  in  arrest,  but  Cognard  resisted,  and  was  only 
taken  by  force.  He  was  relegated  to  a  military  prison  in  the 
island  of  Majorca,  from  which,  with  a  party  of  prisoners,  he 


240  SOME  FAMOUS  SWINDLERS. 

escaped,  and,  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  occupied, 
and  where  the  pretended  Comte  was  appointed  to  Soult's 
staff.  He  took  part  in  the  later  operations  in  the  Pyre- 
nees, 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  behaved  well 

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  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  was  now  seemingly  at  the  height  of  prosperity,  but  his 
downfall  was  near  at  hand. 

There  was  a  review  one  day  in  the  Place  Venddme,  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  old 
convict  was  struck  by  Cognard's  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 
home  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 


GOQNABD   TRAPPED.  241 

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  head-quarters.  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,  accompanied  by  an  officer  of 
gendarmes,  to  seek  his  papers.  On  the  way  Cognard 
inveighed  against  the  cowardly  Hes  that  were  being  told, 
and  had  no  difficulty  in  gaining  the  sypapathy  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  Hvery,  and  in  a  striped  waist- 
coat, with  an  apron  round  his  waist,  and  a  feather  brush  in 
his  hand,  he  quietly  walked  down  the  back  staircase,  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 
Q 


242  SOME  FAMOUS  SWINDLERS. 

was,  of  course,  no  Cognard,  and  the  officer  returned  to  the 
War  Office  without  his  prisoner. 

Meanwhile  Cognard  returned  at  once  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  fort- 
night 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  behoved  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  Httle  time,  but  a  close  watch  Avas  set  upon  his 
movements,  and  he  was  eventually  arrested  by  Vidocq, 
although  he  stoutly  defended  himself,  and  wounded  one  of 
the  pohce-officers  with  his  pistoL  When  brought  to  ttlal  he 
was  in  due  course  condemned,  and  sentenced  to  travaux 
forcds  for  life. 

At  that  time  the  French  bagnes  were  honoured  by  the 
presence  of  many  supposititious  men  of  title.  The  so-called 
Marquis  de  Chambreuil  was  at  Rochefort ;  a  nobleman  with 
easy  and  distinguished  manners,  who  could  write  verses 
as  was  then  the  fashion,  with  much  fluency,  and  of  whose 
antecedents  many  doubts  were  entertained.  Another  convict 
nobleman  was  the  Comte  d'Arnheim,  who  carried  his  coat-of- 
arms  worked  in  silk  upon  his  convict's  cap,  the  well-known 
bonnet  vert,  and  who  always  held  himself  aloof  from  his 
felon  associates. 


A    SOLDIER    OF   FORTUNE.  243 


SEMPLE. 


Among  our  own  compatriots  Major  Semple,  alias  Lisle, 
has  been  handed  down  as  a  champion  swindler  in  his 
time,  which  was  at  the  close  of  the  last  century,  and 
he  was  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  Ul  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  vav/rien,  a  low-class  adventurer,  put  to  any  shifts  to 
live.  In  his  early  days  he  had  served,  not  without  distinction ; 
had  borne  a  commission,  and  taken  part  in  the  American 
War  of  Independence,  when  he  was  wounded  and  made 
prisoner.  When,  after  his  release,  he  was  retired  on  a  pension, 
he  married  a  lady  of  good  family  and  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  to  St.  Petersburg,  where  she  set  up  a 
brandy  distillery.  It  was  probably  through  her  good  oiEces 
that  he  was  introduced  to  Prince  Potemkin,  through  whom 
he  was  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  had 
still  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, 


244  SOME   FAMOUS    SWINDLERS. 

he  was  pardoned  on  condition  that  he  left  the  country 
forthwith.  This  took  him  again  to  France,  just  then  in 
the  throes  of  the  Revolution,  and  he  became  actively  con- 
cerned with  Petion,  Eoland,  and  others  in  passing  events. 
He  was  present  at  the  king's  trial,  but  was  soon  after- 
wards denounced  to  the  Committee  of  PubUc  Safety  as  a 
spy,  and  with  difficulty  escaped  from  France  and  the 
guHlotuie.  Once  more  this  soldier  of  fortune  returned  to 
his  old  profession,  and  joined  the  aUied  armies  now  operat- 
ing on  the  frontier  against  the  French  republic.  He  was 
engaged  in  several  weU-fought  actions,  and  always  dis- 
tinguished 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  con- 
sequences 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  obtain- 
ing a  shirt  and  a  few  yards  of  calico  on  false  pretences. 
In  Angelo's  memoirs  about  this  date  (1795)  a  side-hght 
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.  "Sample  always  stuck  close  to  us," 
writes  Angelo,  "  took  care  to  follow  us  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  VauxhaU,  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 
spunging  companion  continued  these  intrusions  for  about 
three  months,  when  suddenly  he  disappeared  without  paying 


UTTER    DESTITUTION.  245 

for  his  instruction  or  anything  else.     To  write  of  his  various 
swindling  cheats,  so  well  known,  would  be  needless." 

The  calico  fraud  ended  in  another  sentence  of  transporta- 
tion for  seven  years,  and  again  interest  was  made  to  spare 
him  this  penalty,  but  without  avail.  He  was  shipped  off, 
but  on  the  voyage  out  escaped  convict  Hfe  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,  however,  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  was  next 
met  with  in  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  Kock,  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  again  return  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,  how- 
ever, 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,  must  not 
submit.  ...  Do  not,  I  request  you,  again  expose  your- 
self. .  .  ."  The  outrage  and  the  protest  were  both  for- 
gotten 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 


246  SOME   FAMOUS   SWINDLERS. 

a  shirt.  .  .  .  Let  me  pray  you  to  accord  me  a  little 
assistance,  a  few  shillings."  Angelo  records  that  he  "sent 
the  poor  devU.  a  crown  in  answer  to  his  letter,  most  prohably 
falsehoods  to  create  sympathy.  He  took  care  never  to 
appear  himself,  but  had  boys  in  different  parts  of  the  town 
to  deliver  his  begging  letters,  and,  judging  from  the  number 
of  letters  he  would  send  in  one  day,  if  they  made  any  sort 
of  impression,  I  should  think  he  could  never  be  iu  want  of 
a  fire  or  a  shirt.  At  all  events,  though,  perhaps  he  was 
obliged  to  forego  his  former  luxurious  style  of  living."  Mr. 
Angelo  may  have  had  special  knowledge,  but  certainly  the 
records  do  not  show  Semple  as  at  any  time  in  comfortable 
circumstances. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

SWINDLERS   OF   MORE   MODERN   TYPE. 

Richard  Coster,  his  extensive  Operations — Sheridan,  a  high-class  American 
Bank  Thief — His  Detection  by  the  Pinkerton  Agency — ^After  Release 
carries  out  enormous  Depredations — Gathers  his  Assets  and  crosses  to 
Europe,  and  takes  up  Residence  in  iSrussels — Returns  to  United  States, 
caught  in  Speculative  Mania,  and  again  arrested — The  Frenchman 
AUmayer,  a  typical  Nineteenth  Century  Swindler — Great  Gifts,  mental 
and  personal — Ingenious  Schemes— Clever  Escape  from  Mazas  hy  forging 
Judge's  Order — Pursues  adventurous  Career,  and  commits  many  great 
Frauds — Police  long  at  fault,  but  at  last  capture  him,  and  he  is  trans- 
ported to  the  Antipodes — Paraf — An  expert  Chemist — Discovers  Aniline 
Byes,  but  swindles  Manufacturers  wholesale  —  The  Tammany  Frauds, 
outward  SymptoQi  of  widespread  Depredation — Burton  alias  Count  von 
Havard — Mr.  Vivian,  bogus  Millionaire  Bridegroom — Mock  Clergymen — 
Dr.  Berring^n — Dr.  Keatinge — Harry  Benson,  a  Prince  of  Swindlers — 
Early  Career — Associated  with  Kurr,  plans  Turf  Frauds — Misguided 
Comtesse  de  Goucourt  —  The  Scotland  Yard  Detectives  suborned  — 
Meiklejohn,  Druscovitch,  and  Palmer — Benson  arrested  and  does  Time — 
His  Adventures  after  Release  at  Brussels,  in  Switzerland,  and  beyond  the 
Atlantic — Caught  in  City  of  Mexico — Commits  Suicide  in  the  Tombs — Max 
Shinbum;  achieves  a  fine  Fortune  by  great  Thefts  and  Frauds — Retires 
to  Belgium  and  lives  respectably. 

It  might  be  inferred  from  the  previous  chapter  that  mankind 
has  been  easily  duped  in  the  past,  and  that  a  great  super- 
structure of  fraud  has  often  been  raised  upon  rather  a  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  wiU  now  be  seen. 

RICHARD    COSTER. 

In  the  long  Ust  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  ia  known  as 


248  SWINDLERS    OF   MORE   MODERN    TYPE. 

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  suflScient 
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  that 
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  obtaining  goods  by  false  pretences. 
Immediately  after  his  release  he  again  started  under  the 
name  of  Coster  &  Co.,  but  moved  back  shortly  to  London. 

Here  his  movements  were  erratic,  and  no  doubt  unavow- 
able.  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  &  Smith,  and  also  of  Smith  &  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  &  Co.,  in  Little  Winchester 
Street,  and  as  Casey  &  Coster,  near  Upper  Thames  Street. 
During  these  many  changes  and  chances  he  did  not  entirely 
escape  the  attention  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  &  Co.,  feather-bed  manu- 
facturers; as  Wright  &  Co.,  of  Little  Winchester  Street, 
engaged  in  the  glove  trade,  and  so  on.     The  secretary  to  the 


ONE    OF    THE   FIRST   OF   LONG   FIEM8.  249 

Society  for  the  Protection  of  Trade  reported  in  a  circular 
that  "Young,  Richards  &  Co.,  of  Upper  Thames  Street; 
Young  &  Co.,  of  Little  Winchester  Street ;  Brown  &  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  money- 
lender 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,  manufacturers, 
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  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  bills  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  cir- 
cumstances 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  obUged  to  sacrifice 
their  property  by  locking  it  up  in  mortgages  for  one  half 
its  value,  and  spend  the  other  half  in  paying  solicitors' 
enormous  biUs  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 — 
which  must  be  transmitted  before  the  bills  could  be  accepted 
References  were  also  required,  but  thej"  strictest  secrecy  and 


250  SWINDLERS    OF   MORE    MODERN    TYPE. 

delicacy"  would  be  observed  in  taking  them  up.  The 
borrower  might  send  money  or  goods  at  any  time  to  redeem 
bUls,  and  the  advertiser  was  ready  always  to  guarantee  his 
own  respectability. 

Coster  was  long  enabled  to  carry  on  his  trade  with 
great  plausibihty  and  success.  He  worked  mainly  on  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  transaction  was  to  be  carried 
through  by  Young  &  Co.  of  Little  Winchester  Street, 
Brown  &  Co.  of  Cushion  Court  answered  all  inquiries, 
declaring  Young  &  Co.  to  be  persons  of  the  highest  credit. 
And  this  system  he  multiplied  almost  indefinitely.  The 
bills  of  exchange  were  freely  accepted,  the  goods  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  dared  not  call  their 
souls  their  own,  and  carried  out  his  instructions,  acting  now 
as  principal,  now  as  agent,  just  as  he  required.  They  were 
mostly  decayed  tradesmen  and  persons  in  straitened 
circumstances,  whom  he  "  sweated "  and  paid  starvation 
wages,  salaries  of  from  ten  to  twenty  shillings  per  week.  One 
man  only  he  trusted  as  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  difiicult  had  not  the  villain  added 
forgery  to  his  lesser  swindles.  He  began  to  circulate  bogus 
bank-notes,  and  in  February,  1833,  sent  to  Honiton  an  order 


A   JSrUTOBIOUS   AMEBIGAN.  251 

for  lace,  enclosing  three  ten-pound  notes  in  payment,  aU  of 
which  were  forged.  Clark,  the  lacemaker,  discovered  the 
fraud,  and  forwarded  the  notes  to  Freshfield's,  the  solicitors 
of  the  Bank  of  England.  A  plan  was  laid  for  the  trans- 
mission of  fictitious  parcels  to  the  address  given  by  Coster, 
«  W.  Jackson,  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. 
The  strongest  evidence  against  the  prisoner  was  that  of 
two  of  his  former  instruments,  who  gladly  turned  on  him. 
Coster  was  transported  for  life.  Smith  for  a  shorter  term. 

WALTER    SHERIDAN. 

One  of  the  most  successful  of  modern  criminal  adventurers 
has  been  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  it  may  be  doubted, 
and  his  name  was  never  mixed  up  with  the  affair.  An 
eminent  pohce  officer  of  New  York,  Mr.  George  W.  Walling, 
states  in  his  reminiscences  that  Sheridan  became  disgusted 
with  the  way  the  job  was  being  worked,  and  declined  to  be 
further  associated  with  such  unsatisfactory  partners.  It  is 
possible  that,  had  he  been  allowed  to  carry  out  "  the  job  " 
his  own  way,  it  might  have  been  accomplished  without 
detection  and  to  the  more  serious  discomfiture  of  the  bank. 

Sheridan  is  a  typical  modern  criminal,  having  great 
natural  gifts,  unerring  instincts  in  divining  profitable  opera- 
tions, uncommon  quickness  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  modem  trade  and  finance.  He  began 
in  the  lower  lines  of  fraud.  Full  of  an  evil,  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 


252     SWINBLEB8    OF  MOBS   MODERN   TYPE. 

he  at  once  fell  into  bad  company,  and  became  associated 
with  desperadoes,  especially  those  engaged  in  the  confidence 
trick.  But  in  1858,  when  just  twenty,  he  was  caught  and 
tried  for  horse-stealing,  and  just  before  sentence  escaped 
to  Chicago,  where  he  became  the  pupil  of  a  certaia  Joe 
Moran,  a  noted  hotel  thief,  with  whom  he  worked  the 
hotels  around  very  profitably  for  two  or  three  years,  but 
was  at  last  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,  being 
greatly  aided  in  the  business  by  a  fine  presence  and  in- 
sinuating address.  He  was  the  life  and  soul  of  the  gang 
he  joined,  the  brains  and  leader  of  his  associates,  and  his 
successes  were  many  in  this  direction.  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. 
Agaia  37,000  dollars  from  the  Mechanics'  Bank  of  Scranton. 
A  very  few  years  of  this  made  him  a  rich  man,  and  he 
was  supposed  to  be  worth  some  £15,000  to  £20,000  by 
1867.  He  had  gone  latterly  into  partnership  with  the 
notorious  George  Wilhams,  commonly  called  "  English  George," 
a  well-kno^vn  depredator  and  bank  thief  About  this  time 
he  participated  in  the  plunder  of  the  Maryland  Fire  Insur- 
ance Company  of  Baltimore,  and  fingered  a  large  part  of 
the  75,000  doUars  taken,  in  money  and  negotiable  bonds, 
not  one  cent  of  which  was  ever  recovered.  One  of  his 
neatest  thefts  was  the  relieving  of  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 


TEE   PINKEBT0N8   ON  HIS    TBAOK.  253 

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  cau- 
tiously prosecuting  inquiries,  to  secure  a  photograph  of 
the  man  so  much  wanted — for  nothing  of  the  kind  was  as 
yet  in  the  hands  of  the  police  authorities — young  Pinker- 
ton  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  through 
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 — in  fees, 
and  was  eventually  acquitted  through  the  clever  use  of 
technicalities  in  the  law. 

Sheridan,  after  this  narrow  escape  from  well-merited 
retribution,  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  cultivated  good  business  and  social  relations.  They 
aided  him  in  the  still  larger  schemes  of  forgery  on  which 
he  now  entered,   the    largest    ever    known  in    the  United 


264  SWINDLERS    OF  MORE   MODERN   TYPE. 

States,  and  which  comprised  the  most  gigantic  creation  of 
false  securities  and  bonds.  It  was  an  extraordinary  under- 
taking, slowly  and  elaborately  prepared.  Taking  the  name 
of  Kalston,  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  repre- 
sented that  his  mother  held  a  great  number  of  railway 
bonds,  on  which  he  sought  a  large  loan  to  cover  the  pur- 
chase of  real  estate.  Sheridan  offered  £25,000  worth  of 
these  securities,  and  readily  obtained  an  advance  to  a  third 
of  their  value.  These  bonds  were  all  forgeries,  but  so  fault- 
less 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  beheved  that  the 
total  losses  incurred  by  the  companies  and  institutions  on 
whom  Sheridan  forged  amounted  to  nearly  a  million  of 
money.  Many  Wall  Street  brokers  and  a  number  of 
private  investors  were  ruined  utterly  by  these  wholesale 
frauds. 

A  little  before  the  discovery  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. 
A  portion  were,  however,  stolen  from  him  in  Switzerland 
by  a  girl  who  said  she  had  burned  them,  believing  the 
pohce  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  foresworn 
his  own  country,  to  which  he  never  meant  to  return. 

But  he  could  not  keep  away  h:om  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 


SHERIDAN'S   ARREST.  255 

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.  He  was  brought  to  trial  on  no  less  than 
eighty-two  indictments,  including  the  New  York  forgeries, 
and  was  sentenced  to  five  years'  imprisonment  in  Sing  Sing. 
After  that  he  was  again  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,  following  one  close  on  the  other,  and, 
as  his  health  was  already  failing  when  last  apprehended,  it 
is  probable  that  he  did  not  long  survive.  Now,  at  any 
rate,  the  curtain  has  fallen  upon  him  and  his  criminal 
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, 
was  backed  by  many  natural  gifts.  Although  at  forty-five 
he  had  spent  more  than  half  his  hfe  in  gaol,  he  was  still, 
when  at  large,  a  man  of  distinguished  appearance,  with 
good  looks  and  pleasant  manners,  an  accomplished  hnguist 
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  biUets  provided  in  that 
easy-going  prison  for  its  most  favoured  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 


256  SWINDLERS    OF   MORE   MODERN    TYPE. 

discharge  book  so  as  to  reduce  the  term  of  imprisonment 
of  anyone  for  a  stipulated  sum.  By  the  agency  of  certain 
chemicals  he  erased  entries  and  substituted  others,  all  in 
favour  of  the  prisoner.  He  was  not  subjected  to  any  prison 
rule  save  detention  for  the  allotted  term,  and  this  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 
ofificials  who  winked  at  his  escapades  were  also  implicated 
in  his  frauds. 

After  one  of  his  releases  from  Sing  Sing,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  1873,  he  created  a  Central  Fire  Insurance  Company 
in  Philadelphia,  with  a  capital  of  £40,000.  The  stock  was 
long  in  good  repute  and  held  by  many  respectable  business 
men.  Suspicion  was,  however,  aroused,  and  the  reality  of  its 
sound  condition  was  doubted.  The  Pinkertons  were  called 
in  to  investigate,  and  they  soon  ascertained  that  the  assets 
of  the  company  consisted  of  forged  railway  securities.  The 
fraud  had  been  cunningly  devised.  A  certain  quantity  of 
real  stock  had  been  purchased,  but  of  shares  represent- 
ing small  amounts,  and  the  figures  had  been  altered  by 
the  same  chemical  process  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  nU. 

ALLMAYER. 

Among  swindlers  of  the  'eighties,  the  Frenchman  Allmayer 
fills  a  prominent  place,  and  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  the 
nineteenth  century  criminal;  one  who,  although  fairly  well 
born,  undeniably  well  educated,  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 


ALLMAYEB.  257 

of  Allmayer's  father,  and  duly  paid.  By-and-by  the  fraud 
-was  discovered,  the  author  of  it  exposed  and  sharply  re- 
primanded, but  he  suffered  no  more.  Soon  afterwards  he 
again  swindled  his  father.  He  stole  a  registered  letter  con- 
taining notes,  and  laid  the  blame  on  a  perfect  stranger. 
Now  Monsieur  AUmayer  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 
he  did  not  possess.  To  pay  his  debts  he  robbed  his  captain. 
Although  he  managed  to  defer  his  trial  by  a  clever  escape 
from  the  mihtary  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.  They  took  him  into  the 
bosom  of  the  family,  where  for  some  time  he  hved  a  steady, 
respectable  life,  and  might  have  done  ~ well,  for  he  had  un- 
doubted 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  lay  about  his 
table,  and  which  disappeared  always  after  Allmayer's  visits. 
But  he  had  no  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  bUl  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 


258  SWINDLEIiS    OF   MORE   MODERN    TYPE. 

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  Avas  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  as  a  matter  of  amusement 
they  were  arrested,  and  the  case  looked  black  against  them. 
AUmayer,  however,  obtained  their  release  in  the  following 
manner. 

From  the  first  discovery  of  the  fraud,  AUmayer  had 
taken  a  great  interest  in  the  affair.  Being  K.'s  intimate 
friend,  he  accompanied  him  to  the  prefecture  of  police, 
and  was  called  as  a  witness  by  the  juge  d'instruction 
when  dealing  with  the  clerks.  Taking  the  judge  aside,  he 
privately  told  him  a  story,  with  that  air  of  perfect  frank- 
ness 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  M.  K.,  being  in  pressing  need 
of  money  for  his  personal  use,  had  himself  abstracted  the 
bill  belonging  to  his  firm.  M.  K.  was  then  called  in,  and 
taxed  by  the  judge  with  the  deed.  K.,  utterly  taken  aback, 
protested,  but  in  vaia  AUmayer,  who  was  present,  implored 
him  to  confess.  The  unfortunate  man,  still  quite  bewUdered, 
stammered  and  stuttered,  and  gave  so  many  evidences  of 
his  guilt,  that  the  judge  committed  him  to  Mazas.  But 
as  he  was  not  quite  satisfied  with  AUmayer,  who,  moreover, 
had  a  "history,"  he  sent  him  also  to  prison.  Now  the  K. 
family  intervened,  and,  strongly  suspecting  that  their  son 
was  really  guilty,  were  glad  to  compromise  the  affair. 
Both  the  prisoners  were  then  released,  and  AUmayer 
thought  it  prudent  to  cross  the  frontier.  It  was  well 
he  did  so,  for  now  the  true  inwardness  of  the  story  was 
revealed.  AUmayer  had  secured  the  assistance  of  an  old 
comrade  in  the  Algerian  discipline  corps,  whom  he  had 
taken  with  him  first  to  a  public  telephone  oflSce,  where  the 


SE   E  SO  APES    FROM   MAZAS.  259 

communication  was  made  with  the  banker  C.  as  though 
coming  from  K.'s  offices.  Then  AUmayer  sent  this  old 
soldier  to  collect  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  AUmayer  to  the  effect  "  Joseph  is  after  you,  is  at  Oran 
to-day,  will  be  at  Tlemcen  to-morrow,  proceed  to  New  York." 
Joseph,  it  must  be  understood,  meant  the  detective-officer 
in  pursuit. 

It  seemed  unlikely  that  AUmayer  would  leave  Mazas  as 
easily  now  as  on  his  first  visit.  But  he  made  one  of  the  most 
dariag  and  successful  escapes  on  record,  and  passed  through 
the  gates  of  that  gloomy  stronghold  openly.  As  he  was 
being  interrogated  day  after  day  by  the  judge  in  his  cabinet, 
and  taken  to  the  prefecture  for  that  purpose,  he  managed, 
while  seated  at  the  table  facing  the  judge,  to  abstract,  almost 
from  under  his  nose,  a  sheet  of  official  paper  and  an  official 
envelope.  This  he  accomphshed  by  scattering  his  own  papers, 
which  were  very  numerous,  upon  the  table,  and  mixing  the 
official  sheets  unperceived  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  AUmayer,  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  with  the 
judge's  seal  to  carry -the  proper  weight.  One  morning,  as 
he  sat  before  the  judge,  he  entered  into  an  animated  conversa- 
tion 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.    AUmayer,  fuU  of  apology,  pointed  to  the 


260  8WIA'DLEBS    OF   MORE   MODEIiN    TYPE. 

water-bottle  on  the  mantelpiece,  the  Guard  rushed  towards  it, 
the  judge  and  the  clerk  followed  him  with  their  eyes,  and 
at  that  moment  AUmayer,  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  indignantly, 
"  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."  AUmayer  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 
AUmayer  was  not  surrendered.  Only  Belgium  refused  to 
give  him  hospitality,  and  he  was  conducted  to  the  German 
frontier,  whence  he  gained  the  nearest  port  and  embarked 
for  Morocco. 

At  that  time  AUmayer  was  a  gentlemanly,  good-looking 
youth,  with  fair  complexion  and  rosy  cheeks,  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  of  the  highest  fashion.  He 
assumed  many  aliases,  mostly  with  titles,  the  Vicomte  de 
Bonneville,  the  Comte  de  MottevUle,  the  Comte  de  Maupas, 
and  so  on.  Sometimes  he  was  satisfied  with  plain  "Mon- 
sieur," and  was  then  generally  Meyer  or  Mayer,  and  these 
were  his  business  names.  For  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  business  affairs.  One  wool  merchant 
whom  he  defrauded  declared  his  surprise  at  finding  this 
smart  young  gentleman  so  fuUy  at  home  in  the  quaUty 
and  character  of  the  wools  of  the  world.  AU  this  time 
he  moved  freely  to  and  fro,  returning  frequently  to  France 


HE   LEADS    THE   BETEGT1VE8   A    DANOE.         261 

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  large  supply  of  arms  to  the  Sultan  of  Morocco,  when 
he  mentioned  casually  that  he  was  owed  a  sum  of  £30,000 
by  one  of  the  largest  bankers  in  Paris,  and  held  his  accept- 
ance 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  no  little  indignation  were  ex- 
pressed in  Paris  at  the  carelessness  of  the  police  in  allowing 
AUmayer  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.  AUmayer  attended  at  Mon- 
sieur K.'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  M.  R  believed, 
but  AUmayer  by  a  dexterous  sleight  of  hand  had  sub- 
stituted another  exactly  similar,  whUe  that  with  the  notes 
was  safely  concealed  in  his  pocket.  It  is  said  that  the 
high  functionary  received  a  letter  containing  nothing  but 


262  SWINDLERS    OF   MORE   MODERN   TYPE. 

a  number  of  pieces  of  old  newspaper  carefully  cut  to  the 
size  of  bank  notes,  and  did  not  understand  it  until,  later 
on,  M.  K.  wrote  him  a  letter  of  sorrowful  reproach  at  not 
having  kept  his  word  by  giving  the  contract  in  exchange 
for  the  notes. 

Still  AUniayer  pursued  his  adventurous  career  without 
interference,  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  signaUsed  his  stay  by  cheating, 
borrowing,  and  swindling  on  every  side.  The  commissary 
of  pohce  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  AUmeyer 
the  chance  of  escape  before  the  Parisian  police  arrived  to 
arrest  him.  He  had  gone  ostensibly  to  Paris,  but  his  bag- 
gage 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,  and  in  the  pleasant  suburb  of  St.  Addresse, 
but  the  covert  was  drawn  blank  till  aU  at  once,  by  that 
strange  interposition  of  mere  chance  that  so  often  tells  against 
the  criminal,  the  detectives  came  upon  him  upon  the  Boule- 
vard 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  AUmayer,  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  Conciergerie,  under  the  constant 
surveillance  of  two  police  ofiicers.  Even  there  his  mind  was 
actively  employed  in  planning  escape ;  the  true  he  tried  was 
by  confiding  to  the  head  of  police  the  secret  of  a  hidden 
receptacle  of  certain  thieves,  who  had  collected  a  quantity 


HIS   APFEARANGE   IN    COURT.  263 

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  im- 
posed upon,  and,  by  inquiring  elsewhere,  learnt  that  the 
whole  story  was  a  fabrication.  AUmayer  had  arranged  that 
on  arrival  at  the  ground  he  should  be  rescued  by  a  number 
of  friends  assembled  for  the  purpose. 

The  secret  of  his  many  successes  was  that  he  was  a 
consummate  actor,  and  could  play  any  part.  Now  an 
officer,  ke  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  ex- 
cited in  Piris  at  the  arrest  of  this  notorious  swindler,  so 
clever  at  disguises,  so  bold  in  his  schemes,  Avho  had  so 
long  set  the  police  at  defiance.  Yet  when  he  appeared  in 
court  he  disappointed  everyone,  and  showed  up  as  a  poor, 
timid,  brokea-backed  creature,  half  imbecile,  surely  incap- 
able 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-birl  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  if  his  judges,  and,  instead  of  the  heaviest, 
the  lightest  seitence  was  imposed  upon  him.  All  this  was 
a  clever  piece  if  acting;  he  had  assumed  the  part  for  the 
purpose  which  he  had  achieved. 

Allmayer  wis  sentenced  to  twelve  years'  transportation, 
and  he  was  lasi  heard  of  in  the  Safety  Islands,  where  he 
was  employed  £s  a  hospital  nurse,  and  had  made  himself 
very  popular  vith  his  keepers.  Someone  who  met  him 
lately  describes  him  as  still  prepossessing,  but  with  a 
singularly  false  face,  bright,  intelligent  eyes,  fluent  as  ever 
in  speech.  By-and-by  he  may  reappear  to  despoil  his 
more  confiding  fellows,  and  be  the  despair  of  the  police. 


264 


SWINDLEIiS    OF   MORE   MODERN   TYPE. 


PARAF. 

This  was  an  extraordinary  swindler  who  amassed  con- 
siderable sums  by  his  frauds.  He  came  of  a  really  good 
stock,  and  might  have  earned  fame  and  fortune  had  he  not 
been  afHicted  with  incurably  low  tastes.  Paraf  was  bom  about 
1840  of  a  respectable  family  in  Alsace ;  he  was  highly  edu- 
cated, 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,  wjiere  the 
young  man's  knowledge  and  intelligence  were  most  valuable. 
But  once,  while  making  a  tour  through  Scotland,  (his  funds 
ran  short,  and  his  father  would  not  supply  him  yith  more 
money.  So  he  carried  an  alleged  newly  discovered  dye  to 
a  Glasgow  manufacturer,  and  sold  it  for  severa/  thousand 
pounds,  which  sum,  passing  over  to  Paris,  pe  quickly 
squandered  in  dissipation.  This  dye  was  wc/tthless,  but 
Paraf  was  not  really  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  i),  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  wiln  all  he  got. 
When  utterly  destitute,  he  stole  the  patent  fir  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  Yort,  where  he  was 
well  received.  Of  engaging  person  and  fraik  manners,  he 
gained  the  friendship  and  confidence  of  sejeral  capitalists, 
to  one  of  whom  he  sold  an  aniline  black  lye  for  £12,000- 
He  now  launched  out  into  a  career  of  will  extravagance 
he  occupied  magnificent  rooms  at  a  first-chss  hotel,  bathed 
in  sweet-scented  waters,  and  gave  sumptions  dinners  at 
Delmonico's.  His  money  did  not  last  loag,  and  he  had 
recourse  to  fresh  swindles.  His  next  transa(tion  was  the  sale 
of  an  alleged  cloverine  dye  to  a  damask  n  anufacturer,  and 
he  persuaded  Governor  Sprague,  of  Khode  jCsland,  to  invest 


TAMMANY  FBAUD8.  265 

£100,000  in  a  madder  dye,  which  proved  a  failure.  Then  he 
became  acquainted  with  a  Frenchman,  Monsieur  Mourier, 
who  invented  oleo-margarine,  which  Paraf  stole  from  him 
and  fraudulently  sold  to  a  New  York  firm.  Mourier  estab- 
lished his  first  claim  to  the  invention,  and  the  firm  had  to 
buy  their  rights  afresh. 

After  tbis  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  last  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 
developments  to-day  than  heretofore.  Schemes  are  larger, 
plunder  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  the  Antipodes.  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,  when,  in  1872,  "  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  pohce  pro- 
tection not  only  imperfect  but  untrustworthy.  The  Tam- 
many frauds  were  exposed,  as  we  know,  by  an  Englishman, 
Mr.  Louis  Jennings,  the  representative  of  the  Tirnes  in  New 
York,  who,  coming  by  chance  upon  the  fringe  of  the  frauds, 
pursued  his  clue,  despite  many  disheartening  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 


266  SWINDLERS    OF  MORE   MODERN    TYPE. 

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  of  money.  No  wonder  tliat  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  man- 
sions on  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. 

BURTON,  ALIAS   THE  COUNT  VON  HAVARD. 

Compared  to  these  top-sawyers  and  high-flyers  in  crime  we 
have  little  to  show  on  this  side ;  but  I  may  mention  one  or 
two  notorious  swindlers  of  these  latter  days,  remarkable  in 
their  way  for  their  dexterity  and  the  pertinacity  with  which 
they  pursue  their  nefarious  trade.  Every  now  and  again  the 
police  lay  their  hands  on  some  fine  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,  but  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  de- 
scription 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 


DB.    VIVIAN.  267 

speaking  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  blackmail.  One  of 
his  devices  is  to  enter  into  a  correspondence  with  relatives 
of  deceased  persons,  leading  them  to  suppose  they  are  bdndjici- 
aires  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  dis- 
tinguished 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 ;  now  at  Biarritz, 
now  Homburg,  now  Ostend,  and  this  constant  movement  to 
and  fro  no  doubt  helped  him  to  elude  the  police. 

DR.   VIVIAN. 

Another  man  of  the  same  stamp  called  himself  Dr.  Vivian, 
of  New  York,  and  burst  upon  the  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  Wilkes,  to  whom  he  at 
once  paid  his  addresses,  and  made  such  rapid  progress  in 
her  good  graces  that  they  were  married  by  special  license 
a  week  or  two  later.  The  wedding  was  of  the  most  splendid 
description;    the  happy  bridegroom  had  presented  his  wife 


268  SWINDLERS    OF  MORE    MODERN    TYPE. 

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  proceeded  to  London,  and  were  next 
heard  of  at  the  "  Langham "  hotel,  living  in  the  most  ex- 
pensive style.  The  bridegroom  spent  large  sums  amongst 
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  the  "  Queen's "  hotel, 
Birmingham.  This  person  was  strongly  suspected  of  a  theft 
at  a  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  the  man  wanted  for  this  theft  and  Dr.  Vivian  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, 
otherwise  George  Guelph,  a  notorious  convict,  but  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  boolemaker  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  con- 
viction, 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  somewhere 
safely  while  he  was  at  large,  and  that  on  his  release  he 
had  drawn  upon  the  deposit.     At  the  same  time  there  had 


FALSE    CLERGYMEN.  269 

been  some  serious  thefts  at  the  "  Langham  "  hotel  during  the 
prisoner's  honeymoon  residence,  and  there  is  very  little 
doubt  that  Vivian,  alias  Barnet,  was  an  accomplished  hotel 
thief.  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  appear- 
ance continually,  but  not  enough  to  defy  detection.  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  detec- 
tive, who  was  pretty  certain  that  he  had  "passed  through 
his  hands."  The  accumulated  evidence  was  strongly  against 
him,  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  garb.  This  is  generally  done  by  criminals  who 
at  one  time  or  other  had  been  in  holy  orders,  and  un- 
frocked for  their  misdeeds.  Dr.  Berrington  was  a  notable 
instance  of  this.  Although  he  Avas  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  from  the  livery  stables 
of  the  nearest  town  was  driven  by  a  man  who,  like  him- 
self, was  a  license-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  at  the  school  hour  he  was  amusing 
himself  with  a  Hebrew  grammar.  "  What !  Do  you  know 
Hebrew  ? "  said  a  visitor  to  the  gaol  who  was  passing  through 


270     8WINBLEB8    OF  MORE   MODERN   TYPE. 

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  he  lost 
every  shilling  he  was  worth  on  the  turf,  and  one  day,  when 
seized  with  the  old  gambling  mania,  he  made  an  improper 
use  of  a  friend's  cheque-book.  He  was  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  obtainiag 
money  under  false  pretences,  the  latest  of  a  long  series  of 
similar  crimes.  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  ad' 
mitted  to  orders,  and  for  some  time  held  the  post  of  Latin 
translator  and  general  secretary  to  Cardinal  Pecci  of  Perugia, 
the  present  Pope  Leo  XIII.  After  that,  he  said  that  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 


TRE    "COMTE    BE    MONTAGUE."  271 

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  persecution,  but  at  last  escaped 
from  Rome,  by  the  assistance  of  a  lady,  who  afterwards 
became  his  wife,  when  he  seceded  from  the  Romish  Church. 
After  that  he  appears  to  have  lapsed  into  a  life  of  vagabond- 
age and  questionable  adventure.  He  suffered  many  con- 
victions, mostly  for  false  pretences,  and  the  Dubhn  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  pro- 
minence in  connection  with  the  Goncourt  frauds  and  the 
disloyalty  of  certain  London  detectives.  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  respect- 
able. He  came  of  very  decent  folk ;  his  father  was  a  pros- 
perous merchant,  established  in  Paris,  with  offices  in  the 
Faubourg  St.  Honore,  and  a  person  of  undeniably  good  repute. 
Young  Benson  was  well  and  carefully  educated :  he  spoke 
several  languages  with  ease  and  correctness ;  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  Bonapartist.     He  lived  in  fine  style,  had 


272  SWINDLERS    OF  MORE   MODERN   TYPE. 

carriages  and  horses,  a  sumptuous  appartement,  gave  many 
entertainments,  and  was  generally  a  very  popular  fashionable 
personage,  much  esteemed  for  his  great  courtliness  and  his 
pleasant,  insinuating  address.  Nothing  is  loiown  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  Chateaudun,  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  Benson.  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  him- 
self badly.  He  was  ever  afterwards  lame,  and  obliged  to  use 
crutches  ;  an  unmistakable  addition  to  his  signalement  which 
would  have  seriously  handicapped  any  less  audacious  offender. 
The  more  extensive  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  connec- 
tion with  a  man  who  was  to  be  his  confederate  and  partner 
in  many  nefarious  schemes.  A  certain  William  Kurr  engaged 
him,  and  they  soon  came  to  an  understanding,  becoming 
associated  on  equal  terras.  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  busi- 
ness 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 


PARTNERSHIP    WITH   EURB.  273 

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  &  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 
the  great  conspiracy  which  presently  involved  other  officers, 
who  weakly  sacrificed  their  honour  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  entrapping  the  unwary.  They  first  worked 
carefully  through  the  directories,  Bottin  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  attractive  circular,  setting 
forth  in  specious  terms  the  extraordinary  advantages  of  their 
system  of  betting.  These  were  distributed  broadcast  through 
the  country,  accompanied  by  a  copy  of  a  sporting  paper 
specially  prepared  for  this  particular  purpose.  It  was  the 
only  copy  of  the  paper  that  ever  appeared,  although  it  was 
numbered  1,713.  It  had  been  printed  on  purpose  in  Edin- 
burgh, 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  an  imaginary  Mr.  Montgomery — 
Benson's  alias  in  this  fraud — and  the  excellence  of  his  system 
of  betting  investment.  It  was  stated  that  this  Mr.  Hugh 
Montgomery,  who  had  invented  the  system,  had  already 
netted    nearly  half    a    miUion   of  money  by  following    its 


274  SWINDLERS    OF  MORE    MODERN    TYPE. 

principles,  and  it  was  open  to  anyone  to  reap  the  same  hand- 
some profit.  They  had  only  to  remit  funds  to  the  firm  at 
any  of  their  numerous  offices,  and  these  were  established  in 
London,  or  rather  persons  to  receive  letters  at  the  addresses 
given,  Cleveland  Road,  Duke  Street,  St.  James's,  and  else- 
where. 

This  brilliant  schenie  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  specula- 
tion. The  comtesse  threw  herself  eagerly  into  the  arrange- 
ment, and  forwarded  several  substantial  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, 
who  was  especially  charged  with  the  Continental  business 
of  Scotland  Yard,  was  approached  and  tempted.  He  was  a 
weU-meaning  man,  with  a  good  record,  but  in  very  straitened 
circumstances,  and  he  fell  before  the  tempting  offers  of  the 
insidious  Benson.  AU  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,  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 


BENSON  AND   BESOUBOEFULNESS.  275 

mucli  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,  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  requested  the  Scotland  Yard  authorities, 
by  telegraph,  to  intercept  letters  from  Paris  which,  it  was 
believed,  contained  large  remittances.  But  Benson  con- 
trived to  secure  this  telegram  before  it  was  delivered. 
Knowmg  that  he  had  good  friends,  Benson  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  some- 
body, 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  seemed  to  have  held  the  bulk  of 
their  booty  in  Bank  of  England  notes,  a  very  tell-tale 
conmiodity  which  could  always  be  traced  through  the 
numbers.  Benson  solved  this  difficulty  by  deciding  to 
change  the  Bank  of  England  notes  into  Scotch  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  good  money  in  the  Alloa 
Bank.  He  was  on  very  friendly  terms  with  its  manager, 
and  was  actually  at  dinner  with  him  when  a  telegram  was 


276  SWINDLERS    OF   MORE   MODERN    TYPE. 

put  into  his  hands  warning  him  to  decamp,  for  Drusco- 
vitch  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  in  earnest  than  he  was,  and  England 
became  too  hot  for  Benson.  The  exchange  of  Bank  of 
England  into  Clydesdale  notes  was  known,  and  some 
of  the  numbers  of  the  latter.  A  watch  was  therefore  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  pohce,  purporting  to  come  from 
Scotland  Yard,  and  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  Drus- 
covitch 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  complacent  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  impUcate 
the  detectives. 

When  Clarke,  Druscovitch,  Meiklejohn,  Palmer  (and 
Froggatt)  were  put  upon  their  trial,  the  facts,  as  already 
stated,  were  elicited,  and  it  was  found  that  the  swindlers 
had  long  secured  the  connivance  and  support  of  all  these 
leading  policemen,  except  Clarke.  A  letter,  which  was  im- 
|:ounded,  written  by  Meiklejohn  to  Kurr  as  far  back  as 
1874,  shows  how  eager  Meiklejohn  was  to  earn  his  money. 


BENSON'S   LATER    OABEEB.  277 

It  was  an  early  notification  of  the   issue  of  a  warrant,  and 
warned  iiis  friends  to  keep  a  sharp  look  out : — 

"Deae  Bill,"  it  ran,  "Eather  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." 

It  was  said  that  for  this  important  service  Meiklejohn 
received  a  douceur  of  £500.  All  these  misguided  men 
were  sentenced  to  various  terms  of  imprisonment,  and  the 
discovery  of  their  faithlessness  led  to  very  important  changes 
in  police  constitution,  and  the  creation  of  the  now  well- 
known  department  for  Criminal  Investigation. 

I  can  remember  Benson  while  he  was  a  convict  at  Ports- 
mouth, 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  prison.  He  bore  an 
exemplary  prison  character  and  was  released  on  ticket-of- 
leave  in  1887,  having  fully  earned  his  remission.  He  was 
not  long  in  seeking  new  pastures,  and  soon  used  his  ver- 
satile talents  and  many  accomplishments  in  fresh  schemes 
of  fraud.  It  was  his  duty  to  report  himself  as  a  license- 
holder  to  the  metropolitan  police,  but  this  did  not  suit 
so  erratic  a  genius  as  Benson,  and  within  a  few  months 
he  was  advertised  for  in  the  Police  Gazette,  accompanied 
by  a  woodcut  engraving  of  his  features  with  the  following 
description  of  the  man  "  wanted  " — 

"Age  39,  height  5  ft.  4  in.,  complexion  sallovif,  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  Mor- 
ton, Andrew  Montgomery,  Henry   Younger    (the  name  he 


278  SWINDLERS    OF  MOIiE   MODERN    TYPE. 

went  under  at  Rose  Bank  Cottage,  Shanklin,  Isle  of  Wight), 
Montague  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  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  oppor- 
tunity of  reopening  his  relations  with  Kurr,  who  had  been 
released  a  little  earlier.  Soon  after  this  the  police  missed 
them,  and  they  appeared  to  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  and 
started  in  a  new  line  as  company  promoters,  mainly  in 
connection  with  mines  of  a  sham  character.  Benson  appears 
to  have  done  well  in  this  nefarious  business,  and  returned 
to  Europe,  making  Brussels  his  headquarters  and  carrying  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'  imprisonment  in  a  Belgian 
prison,  and  on  his  release  transferred  himself  to  Switzer- 
land, setting  up  at  Geneva  as  an  American  banker  with 
large  means.  He  stopped  at  the  best  hotels  and  displayed 
all  his  old  fondness  for  ostentation.  Here  he  received 
many  telegrams  from  his  confederates,  who  were  stUl  "  work- 
ing "  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  invariably  dealt 
with  high  figures — about  the  hotel,  throwing  them  down 
carelessly  in  the  billiard-room,  smoking-room,  and  other 
apartments,  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, 


BENSON'S   LATER    CAREER.  279 

upon  her,  and  so  won  upon  the  father  that  he  consented  to  the 
marriage.  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  worthless  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  aliaa — 
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  live  out  of  the  seven 
thousand  pounds  he  was  hberated.  It  was  now  discovered 
that  his  presents  to  his  fiancee  were  all  in  sham  jewellery, 
and  that  the  scrip  he  had  given  in  exchange  for  the  £7,000 
were  reaUy  worth  only  a  few  pounds.  After  this  most 
brilhant  coup  Benson  abandoned  Europe,  re-crossed  the 
Atlantic,  and  resumed  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,  wearied  apparently  by  the  law's  delay,  he  committed 
suicide  in  gaol  by  throwing  himself  over  the  railings  from 
the  top  storey,  thus  fracturing  his  spine. 

MAX    SHINBUKN. 

The  career  of  Max  Shinburn  cannot  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  lame,  by 
his  dishonest  proceedings  between  1860  and  1880,  and  alter 
sundry  vicissitudes,  ended  in  Belgium  as  a  millionaire,  enjoy- 
ing every  luxury  amidst  the  pleasantest  surroundings. 


280  t<WINBLER8    OF   MOBE    MODERN   TYPE. 

According  to  one  account,  Shinburn  was  a  German  Jew, 
who  emigrated  to  the  United  States  rather  hurriedly  to  evade 
poKce  pursuit.  He  found  his  way,  it  is  said,  to  St.  Louis,  and 
soon  got  into  trouble  there  as  a  burglar ;  his  intimate  know- 
ledge of  the  locksmith  trade  was  useful  to  the  new  friends  he 
made,  but  did  not  save  him  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,  through  his  skill  as  a  locksmith.  We  have  here 
some  corroboration  of  the  first  account  of  his  origin ;  if 
he  had  begun  life  as  a  clerk  he  could  not  well  have  acquired 
skill  as  a  locksmith.  It  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  his 
largest  and  most  remunerative  "  aifairs ''  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  extra- 
ordinary; 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  all  he  earned  thus  guiltily  in  wasteful 
excess.  He  lived  most  extravagantly,  at  the  best  hotels, 
consortLQg  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  retri- 
bution until  a  confederate  betrayed  him,  in  connection  with 
the  wrecking  of  the  Concord  Bank,  when  at  least  200,000 
dollars  were  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  was  so 
prominent  a  member.  His  consignment  to  gaol  checked  his 
baleful  activity,  but  not  for  long.  His  fame  as  a  high-class 
gentleman  criminal  secured  him  considerate  treatment,  which 


A    RIGS- CLASS    CRIMINAL.  281 

on  the  free-and-easy  system  of  many  American  gaols,  meant 
that  his  warders  and  he  were  on  very  familiar  terms.  One 
evening  Shinburn  called  an  officer  to  his  cell,  and  after  a 
short  gossip  at  the  door,  invited  him  inside.  Next  moment 
he  had  throttled  the  warder,  overpowered  him,  and  seized 
his  keys.  Then,  making  his  victim  fast,  he  walked  straight 
out  of  the  prison. 

Once  more  re-captured  and  re-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  the 
chief  feats  was  the  forcing  of  the  vaults  of  the  Lehigh  Coal 
and  Navigation  Company,  at  Whitehaven,  Pennsylvania,  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,  contrived  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  in  securities,  notes,  and  gold.  With  this  fine  booty 
he  returned  to  Belgium,  bought  himself  a  title,  and — at 
least  outwardly — lived  out  his  life  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  Belgian  crimes. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

SOME   FEMALE   CRIMINALS. 

Criminal  Women  worse  than  Criminal  Men — Some  Rise  to  first  Bank  of 
Offenders — BeU  Star — Comtesse  Sandor — Mother  Mandelhaum,  famous 
female  Receiver  of  stolen  Goods — The  "  German  Princess  " — Jenny  Diver — 
Mrs.  Gordon  Baillie,  began  as  Miss  Bruce,  then  Miss  Ogilvie  White — Her 
dashing  Career — Becomes  Mrs.  Percival  Frost — The  Crofter's  Friend — 
Triumphal  Visit  to  Antipodes^ — On  return  Home*  embarks  on  extensive 
Frauds  on  Tradesmen — Run  in  at  last,  and  sentenced  to  Penal  Servitude — 
Since  Release  has  been  again  in  Trouble— Big  Bertha,  the  "  Confidence 
Queen" — Confidence  Extraordinary — The  Halliotts,  husband  and  wife,  and 
Mrs.  Willett. 

It  has  been  universally  agreed  that  criminal  women  are 
the  worst  of  all  criminals.  "  A  woman  is  rarely  wicked," 
runs  the  Italian  proverb,  "  but  when  she  is  so,  she 
is  worse  than  the  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  passion,  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  crime.  Now  and 
again  a  woman  rises  into  the  first  rank  of  offenders,  and  some 
female  criminals  may  be  counted  amongst  the  most  remark- 
able of  any  depredators  known.  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  the  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  chUd  she  learnt  to  handle  the  lasso,  revolver,  carbine, 
and  bowie  knife  with  extraordinary  skill.     As  she  grew  up 


BELL   STAB.  283 

she  developed  great  strength,  and  became  a  fearless  horse- 
woman, 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  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'hdte  beside  the  judge  of  the  district,  and  heard 
him  boast  that  he  knew  BeU  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  Govern- 
ment troops ;  many  pitched  battles  were  fought  between  them, 
in  one  of  which  this  masculine  heroine  was  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  lore- 
most  in  acts  of  daring  brigandage,  fighting,  revolver  in  hand, 
always  in  the  first  rank.  She  was  a  woman  of  great  intel- 
lectual gifts  and  many  accompHshments,  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  disguised  as  a  man, 
and  as  such  gained  the  affections  of  the  daughter  of  a  wealthy 


284  80ME   FEMALE    GRIMINALS. 

Austrian,  whom  she  actually  married.  Theodosia  W.  made 
a  large'  fortune  m  St.  Petersburg  as  a  receiver  of  stolen 
goods,  and  managed  her  felonious  business  with  remarkable 
astuteness.  Another  notorious  female  receiver  was  Mother 
Mandelbaum  of  New  York,  who,  with  her  husband,  William 
Mandelbaum,  kept  a  haberdashery  shop  in  that  city  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  'Seventies.  They  were  Jews  and  keen 
traders.  Their  shop  in  Clinton  Street  was  a  perfectly  re- 
spectable establishment  on  the  surface.  The  proper  assort- 
ment of  goods  was  on  hand  to  supply  the  needs  of 
regular  customers.  She  served  in  the  shop  herself,  assisted 
by  her  two  daughters,  and  did  so  good  a  business  that 
they  might  have  honestly  acquired  a  competence.  But 
Mother  Mandelbaum  was  in  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  to  be 
enormous ;  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  police  officers  who  were  corruptible, 
or  throw  them  off  the  scent,  and,  on  due  consideration,  she 
arranged  for  the  defence  of  the  accused.  It  was  said  that  she 
had  secured  in  advance  the  services  of  certain  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,  providing 
funds  if  required,  and  helping  to  support  their  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  Mandelbaum 
allowed  none  of  the  swag  to  come  to  Clinton  Street.  The 
bulk  of  the  proceeds  of  any  robbery  was  first  stored,  and 
the  receiver  invited  to  send  an  agent  to  examine  and 
report    upon    it.      Having    estimated    its    value,    she    then 


THB  BENEVOLENT  MOTHER  MANDELBAUM.         285 

proceeded  to  haggle  over  the  price,  which  eventually  she 
paid  in  cash,  taking  over  the  whole  of  the  property  and 
accepting  all  the  risks  for  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,  where  she  took  up  her 
residence  at  Toronto,  and  is  said  to  be  still  there,  living  a 
quiet,  respectable  life.  Report  goes  that  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  to  thieves  of  both  sexes,  gave  hand- 
some entertainments,  employed  a  good  cook,  and  had  a 
full  cellar  of  choice  wines.  On  the  surface,  too,  she  enjoyed 
an  excellent  reputation  as  a  liberal  supporter  of  the  Syna- 
gogue and  Jewish  charities,  and  was  generally  esteemed. 

THE   "GERMAN   PRINCESS." 

Female  sharpers  have  abounded  in  every  age  and  country. 
The  feminine  mind  is  so  full  of  resource,  a  woman  can  be 
so  inventive,  so  clever  in  disguising  frauds  and  keeping  up 
specious  appearances,  that  we  come  upon  the  female  adven- 
turess 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  Canter- 
bury Cathedral,  and  the  wife  of  a  shoemaker,  she  passed  her- 
self off  at  Continental  watering-places  as  the  ill-used  child 
of  a  sovereign  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  land- 
lord'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  title  as  the  "German  Princess  " 


286  SOME   FEMALE    GBIMINAL8. 

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.  After  this  she  resumed  her  robberies 
and  led  a  life  of  vagabondage,  ia  which  she  swindled  trades- 
rnen,  especially  jewellers,  out  of  much  valuable  property. 
Fate  overtook  her,  and  landed  her  at  the  plantations  as  a 
convict;  but  even  in  Jamaica  her  impudent  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  occu- 
pied, recognised  her,  and  carried  her  off  to  gaol.  She  was 
soon  identified  as  a  convict  who  had  returned  from  trans- 
portation, and  her  adventurous  career  presently  ended  at 
the  gallows. 

JENNY   DIVER. 

Mary  Youns,  alias  Jenny  Diver,  was  of  the  same  stamp  as 
the  "German  rrincess,"  but  in  a  somewhat  lower  grade  and 
of  a  later  date.  Her  business  was  pocket-picking  chiefly, 
her  ad^oi'lness  in  which  gained  her  the  sobriquet  as  one 
who  "  dived "  deep  into  other  people's  pockets.  She  was 
an/  Irish  girl  in  service,  who  formed  an  acquaintance  with 
ia  thief,  and  accompanied  him  to  London.  The  man  was 
(arrested  on  the  way,  and  Mary  Young,  arriving  alone  and 
nelpless,  soon  joined   a    countrywoman,   Ann  Murphy,  and 

**;tried  to  earn  her  livelihood  by  her  needle.  Murphy  told 
Tier  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  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 


EMILY  LAWRENCE.  287 

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  the  king  on  his  way  to 
the  House  of  Lords.  She  was  attended  by  a  footman  and 
several  accomplices.  Seizing  a  favourable  opportunity, 
between  the  Park  and  Spring  Gardens,  she  pretended  to  be 
taken  seriously  ill,  and  while  the  crowd  pressed  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, 
accompanied  by  her  footman,  she  pretended  to  be  taken 
ill  at  the  door  of  a  fine  house  and  sent  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  valu- 
ables she  could  find.  But  she  was  at  last  arrested  in  the 
very  act  of  picking  a  gentleman's  pocket  and  was  trans- 
ported to  Virginia,  from  which  she  returned  before  the 
completion  of  her  sentence  and  resumed  her  malpractices 
at  home.  Having  made  a  successful  tour  through  the 
provinces,  she  returned  to  London,  frequented  the  Royal 
Exchange,  the  theatres,  the  Park,  London  Bridge,  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  now  was  sentenced  to  death. 

Before  passing  on  to  more  modern  developments,  it  may  be 
interesting  to  mention  briefly  one  or  two  other  female  criminals 
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,  and  long  went  scot  free.     At  one  time  she  was 


288  BOMB   FEMALE    CRIMINALS. 

I 
"  wanted  "  for  stealing  "  loose  "  diamonds  in  Paris  to  the  value 
of  £10,000,  and  was  soon  afterwards  arrested  for  other  jewel 
robberies  at  Emmanuel's,  and  Hunt  &  Koskell's,  in  London. 
An  imprisonment  for  seven  years  followed,  after  which  she 
resumed  her  operations,  choosing  Brighton  now,  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 
contraiy,  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,  m.  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  secured  when  Millbank 
was  destroyed,  root  and  branch,  a  few  years  ago  (1895)  to 
make  room  for  the  Tate  picture  gallery. 

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  &  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  HI  to 
leave  her  room,  and  they  must  be  taken  in  to  her.  He 
demurred  at  first,  then  jdelded,  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  house  was  empty.  The  ladies  had  disappeared 
with    the   jewels.      The  house   had  been    hired    furnished, 


LADY   THIEVES.  289 

the  carriage  was  also  hired,  and  the  footman  in  livery 
Pursuit  was  quickly  organised  in  this  case  of  Hunt  & 
Roskell's,  and  Miss  Constance  Browne  was  captured  in  a 
second-class  carriage  on  the  Great  Western  Railway,  with  a 
quantity  of  the  stolen  jewels  in  her  possession. 

MRS.    GORDON    BAILLIE. 

The  modern  female  sharper  is  generally  more  inventive 
and  works  on  more  ambitious  lines  than  the  foregoing, 
although  in  criminality  there  is  little  to  choose  between  the 
old  and  the  new  practitioner.  If  the  "  German  Princess " 
had  had  the  same  scope,  the  same  large  theatre  of  opera- 
tions, she  would  probably  have  outdone  even  the  famous  Mrs. 
Gordon  Baillie,  whose  extensive  frauds  were  exposed  some  ten 
years  ago,  and  gained  her  a  sentence  of  five  years'  penal  servi- 
tude. This  ingenious  person  long  turned  the  creduhty  of  the 
British  public  to  her  own  advantage,  and,  posing  as  a  lady 
of  rank  and  fashion,  she  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  andple  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  price,  and  much  appreciated,  not 
only  in  the  island  of  Skye,  when  she  was  "on  the  stump," 
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  balance  and  a  cheque- 
book as  a  client  of  one  of  the  oldest  banks  in  London. 

AU  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  aUases,  had  been  twice  married,  and 


290  SOME   FEMALE    CRIMINALS. 

was  so  deeply  engaged  in  shady  transactions  tliat  she  had 
been  very  much  "wanted,"  until  she  changed  her  identity 
and  thus  evaded  pursuit.     She  was  born  of  humble  parents 
at  Peterhead — her  mother  having  been  a  servant,  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  con- 
victed 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  Sutherland  Bruce,  her  own  name 
and  she  retained  it  after  her  release,  when  she  returned  to  her 
swindling  courses,  this  time  in  Edinburgh,  from  which  she 
was  obliged  to  bolt.     Her  movements  were  now  erratic ;  she 
passed  rapidly  from  London  to  Paris,  from  Paris  to  Kome, 
Florence,  Vienna,  visiting  aU  the  principal  cities  of  Europe, 
and  leaving  behind  her  unpaid  tradesmen  and  disappointed 
landlords,  but  turning  up  smiling  in  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 
start  in  the  management  of  a  London  theatre.     She  was  now 
resident  in  a  pretty  house  near  the  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  dis- 
appear.    When  next  she  rose   above    the    surface    it  was, 
phcenix-like,  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    had    the    good    fortune    to    become    intimately 
acquainted  with  an  old  baronet,  a  gentleman  on  the  other 
side  of  eighty,  and  already  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) 


MBS.   OOBDON  BAILLIE.  291 

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  declar- 
ing he  was  unable  to  manage  his  own  affairs,  having  signed 
these  acceptances  under  undue  influence,  a  petition  in  bank- 
ruptcy was  filed  against  him,  so  that  the  claims,  which  ran 
to  thousands  of  pounds,  might  be  thoroughly  investigated. 
Mrs.  Gordon  Baillie  was  much  "  wanted "  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  was  really  made  at  a  later  date. 

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  his  account  in  floating  the  bills 
which  his  future  wife  was  obtaining  from  the  baronet  above 
mentioned.  The  manipulation  of  these  considerable  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  time  entirely  without  means,  yet  he  contrived  to 
get  good  backing  from  bankers  in  Lombard  Street,  and  one 
city  solicitor  lent  him  a  thousand  pounds  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  of  a  severe 
winter,  but,  nothing  daunted,  went  on  stump  through  the 
island,  received  everywhere  with  enthusiasm  by  the  agita- 
tors, 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 


292  SOME   FEMALE    CRIMINALS. 

by  the  members  for  Skye  and  others.  Now  she  went  out 
to  AustraUa,  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  wherever  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  swindUng,  which  was  neither  profitable  nor  very  success- 
ful. Her  system  argued  that  she  was  no  longer  backed 
by  any  capital,  and  that  she  was  reduced  to  rather  com- 
monplace 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  in  cash.  The  cheques  were 
presently  dishonoured,  but  Mrs.  Gordon  Baillie  had  scored 
twice,  having  both  ready  money  and  the  goods  themselves, 
which  she  promptly  re-sold.  Frost  was  concerned  in  these 
transactions,  for  the  counterfoils  of  the  cheque-book  were 
in  his  handwriting.  The  Frosts  constantly  changed  their 
address,  moving  from  furnished  house  to  furnished  house, 
adding  to  their  precarious  means  by  plundering  and  pawn- 
ing all  articles  on  which  they  could  safely  lay  their  hands. 

In  all  this  she  was  no  doubt  greatly  aided  by  her 
fashionable  appearance  and  winning  ways.  Not  only  did 
shopmen  bow  down  before  her,  but  she  imposed  upon  the 
shrewd  pressmen  who  interviewed  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 


A    FASHIONABLE    SWINDLER.  293 

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  at  large. 

BIG  BEBTHA. 

America  has  produced  a  rival  to  Mrs.  Gordon  BaiUie 
in  Bertha  Heyman,  sometimes  known  as  "Big  Bertha," 
sometimes  as  the  "  Confidence  Queen,"  a  lady  of  the  same 
smart  appearance  and  engaging  manners,  who  reaped  a 
fine  harvest  from  the  simpletons  who  were  only  too  willmg 
to  believe  ia  her.  One  of  her  first  exploits  was  to  wheedle 
a  palace  car  conductor  out  of  a  thousand  dollars  when 
travelhng  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  con- 
fidence game.  Her  schemes  were  extraordinarily  bold  and 
ingenious,  and  they  were  covered  by  much  ostentatious 
parade.  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,  and  to  have  both  a  lady's-maid  and  a  man-servant  in 
her  train.  She  talked  big  of  her  influential  friends,  and  was 
always  taken  at  her  own  price.  Yet  she  was  constantly  in 
trouble,  and  saw  the  inside  of  many  gaols  and  peniten- 
tiaries, 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 


294  SOME   FEMALE    CRIMINALS. 

was  enormously  ricli,  worth  at  least  eight  miUion  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. 

CONFIDENCE   EXTEAORDINAEY. 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  stories  ot  a  successful 
confidence  trick  is  told  by  Allan  Pinkerton  as  having 
come  within  his  own  knowledge  at  Baltimore. 

In  1868  a  rich  old  man  named  Willett  died  and  left 
behind  a  young  and  pretty  widow.  Mrs.  Willett,  after  the 
first  year  of  mourning,  was  living  at  a  Baltimore  hotel,  and 
there  became  acquainted  with  a  fascinating  little  French- 
woman, Mademoiselle  Villiers,  who  was  supposed  to  have 
just  arrived  in  the  United  States.  After  some  time 
Mademoiselle  Villiers  introduced  Mrs.  Willett  to  a  certain 
Henry  Halliott,  the  reputed  son  of  a  Federal  officer ;  hand- 
some, of  good  connections,  rich,  and  pleasant  in  manner. 
Soon  Mrs.  Willett  took  Mademoiselle  Villiers  to  live  with 
her,  and  Halliott  became  a  frequent  visitor  at  the  house. 
Mrs.  Willett  lost  her  heart  to  him,  and  the  Frenchwoman, 
to  all  appearance,  favoured  the  suit.  She  had  quite  wormed 
herself  into  the  confidence  of  the  widow,  managed  her  house, 
guided  her  in  all  matters,  and  advised  her  in  regard  to  the 
disposition  of  her  real  estate.  Mrs.  Willett  in  1869  sold 
property  valued  at  40,000  dollars  and  received  the  money; 
this,  of  course,  was  known  to  Mademoiselle  ViUiers. 

Ere  long  Halliott  became  the  widow's  fiance,  and  matters 
seemed  approaching  a  successful  denouement.  But  after 
the  sale  of  the  property  above  mentioned,  Halliott  was 
taken  suddenly  ill  and  was  visited  at  his  hotel  by  Mrs. 
Willett,  who  was  disconsolate.  Day  after  day  the  illness 
ran  its  course  and  the  sick  man  was  said  to  be  getting 
worse  and  worse,  until  at  last  a  message  summoned  her 
to  her  dying  lover's  bedside.     She  went,  and  in  a  seeming 


ROMANTIC    SWINDLING.  295 

agony  of  remorse,  whilst  in  the  widow's  arms,  Halliott  con- 
fessed that  the  Frenchwoman  was  his  wife,  and,  more  than 
that,  she  would  soon  become  a  mother.  He  appealed  to 
her  to  protect  his  wife  and  child  when  he  was  gone,  and 
the  duped  woman  consented.  Returning  home,  there  was 
a  scene,  but  the  Frenchwoman  was  forgiven,  and  Mrs. 
Willett  promised  to  carry  out  all  Halliott's  wishes.  The 
next  day  the  man  "died."  Mrs.  Willett  did  not  attend 
the  funeral,  but  Jeannette  Villiers  or  Halliott  did. 

There  was  no  breach  between  the  two  women,  no  in- 
terruption to  their  friendship ;  they  continued  to  live 
together.  Within  a  month  Mrs.  Willett  consulted  an  attor- 
ney, thence  went  to  the  executor  of  her  husband's  estate, 
received  from  him  10,000  dollars,  and  in  the  presence  of 
witnesses  at  an  hotel  handed  the  money  to  the  French- 
woman as  a  free  gift.  Three  months  passed  and  a  boy 
was  born  to  Mrs.  Halliott  at  the  Willett  mansion.  Mrs. 
Willett's  heart  was  touched,  and  when  Jeannette  was  suffi- 
ciently recovered,  she  was  again  taken  to  the  hotel  and 
presented  before  witnesses  with  40,000  dollars  in  Govern- 
ment bonds,  the  proceeds  of  a  further  sale  of  Mrs.  Willett's 
real  estate.  One  week  from  the  day  the  last  gift  had  been 
made  Mrs.  HaUiott  and  the  child  mysteriously  disappeared. 

Time  went  by,  and  Mrs.  Willett  was  inconsolable ;  but  her 
eyes  were  not  opened  until  she  had  consulted  her  executor. 
He  had  made  no  objection  when  Mrs.  Willett  had  given  the 
10,000  dollars,  but  he  knew  nothing  of  the  gift  of  40,000, 
and,  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  widow,  he  applied  to  Pinker- 
ton  to  unravel  the  mystery.  Little  could  be  done ;  Mrs. 
Willett  would  give  no  information,  Villiers  had  removed  the 
photographs  and  every  clue  before  leaving  the  mansion. 
Failing  this,  Pinkerton  turned  his  attention  to  HaUiott's 
rather  mysterious  death.  He  found  out  a  certain  hotel  clerk 
who  had  been  discharged  for  irregularities,  and  who  con- 
fessed that  he  had  helped  Halliott  to  "  die."  It  was  further 
disclosed  that  Halliott  was  living  in  luxurious  comfort  at  St. 
Louis,  had  married  a  French  widow  who  had  a  young  child, 
and  that  they  now  went  under  the  assumed  name  of  Hilliers, 


296  SOME   FEMALE    CRIMINALS. 

an  easy  conversion  of  Villiers.  Putting  things  together, 
Pinkerton  was  convinced  that  he  had  found  a  clue  to  the 
smart  pair  who  had  victimised  Mrs.  Willett.  The  executor 
was  determined  to  probe  the  matter  to  the  bottom,  whether 
any  of  the  50,000  dollars  was  discovered  or  not.  The  strange 
thing  was  that  Mrs.  Willett,  who  was  now  convinced  that  she 
had  been  swindled,  persisted  in  her  determination  to  let  the 
couple  live  in  peace.  One  of  Pinkerton's  detectives,  who  was 
a  dashing  man  of  the  world,  found  Halliott  out  at  St.  Louis, 
got  into  his  confidence,  and  extracted  from  him  everything 
in  connection  with  his  deeply  laid  scheme  to  rob  Mrs.  Willett. 
Halliott  and  his  partner  were  living  in  affluence  at  St.  Louis, 
and  the  man  was  now  in  a  lucrative  business.  Piece  by 
piece  the  whole  plot  was  divulged,  and  this  is  the  story. 

Halliott  had  exhausted  his  means ;  had  in  the  meantime 
married  Jeannette  Villiers,  but  pretended  to  be  single  for  the 
purposes  of  plunder,  so  a  conspiracy  was  formed  to  relieve 
Mrs.  Willett  of  her  surplus  wealth.  Villiers  won  her  con- 
fidence and  esteem,  and  then  introduced  her  confederate, 
who,  as  we  know,  succeeded  in  gaining  the  affection  of  the 
widow.  Halliott  then  pretended  to  die,  after  making  a 
dying  confession  and  extracting  an  oath  from  Mrs.  Willett 
that  she  would  never  desert  Villiers,  and  hence  the  first  gift  of 
the  10,000  dollar  cheque ;  that  afterwards  Halliott  suddenly 
came  to  life  in  Mrs.  Willett's  presence.  Mrs.  Willett  nearly 
died  of  fright,  but  was  so  overjoyed  at  his  being  alive  that 
she  forgave  him,  refused  to  prosecute,  and  the  swindlers  were 
suffered  to  go  unpunished. 

There  is  a  strange  finale  to  all  this.  Mrs.  Willett 
presently  married  again,  and  with  her  husband  remained 
on  the  best  terms  with  the  Halliotts,  whom  they  often  met 
in  society. 


297 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

WHOLESALE      HOMICIDES. 

Muxderera  on  a  large  Scale :  Throw-back  to  tlie  aboriginal  Savage— Bichel  a 
German  "Jack  the  Ripper" — As  a  pretended  Fortune-teller  lures  Women 
to  their  Death — Detected  by  a  Dog — DumoUard  a  similar  type  in  France — 
Burke  and  Hare — Body  Snatchers  and  Resurrectionists — The  Murder  of 
the  Italian  Boy  leads  to  Execution  of  Bishop  and  'WilHams— Williams 
supposed  Author  of  -wholesale  Murders  in  East-End — Two  Families,  the 
Marrs  and  Williamsons,  butchered  —  Williams  commits  Suicide  before 
Trial — Doubts  of  his  being  the  Criminal — Troppmann  and  the  Crime  of 
Fantin  —  His  Plot  against  the  Kinck  Family  and  their  Possessions  — 
Destroys  first  Wife  and  five  Children,  then  one  remaining  Son  —  In- 
veigles the  Father  into  Alsatian  Forest,  and  poisons  him — -Troppmann's 
Arrest  Accidental  as  Kinck  pere — Identity  at  last  Ascertained — De 
Tourville :  only  four  known  Murders  proved  against  him  —  Marries 
Money  to  secure  it  by  Assassination — For  the  last  Case  in  Tyrol  sentenced 
to  Imprisonment  for  Life  in  a  Fortress — Charles  Peace:  aU  his  Murders 
not  known :  only  those  of  Mr.  Dyson  and  Constable  Cock — Certainly  many 
more — His  Career  and  extraordinary  Character — My  personal  Dealings 
with  him. 

I  PROPOSE  to  deal  next  with  the  murderer  on  a  large 
scale.  I  mean  the  miscreant  who  "  takes  life  as  coolly 
as  he  drinks  a  glass  of  water,"  and  is  no  better  than 
the  unreasoning  wild  beast  that  springs  by  mere  instinct 
on  his  prey.  This  is  the  blackest  specimen  of  the  bom 
criminal,  the  "  throw-back "  and  survival  of  the  savage,  the 
brainless  brute  who  is  impelled  to  destroy  life  as  a 
matter  of  course  if  the  fancy  takes  him,  or  to  satisfy  the 
smallest  needs,  to  secure  the  pettiest  gains.  Such  an  one  is 
made  up  of  negative  qualities.  He  has  no  feeling  for  others, 
is  quite  callous  to  the  pain  he  inflicts,  performs  his  task  with 
ferocious  yet  mechanical  insensibility,  suffers  no  remorse  for 
his  crimes.  This  type  has  often  appeared ;  its  latest  mani- 
festation was  in  Jack  the  Ripper.  But  he  had  many 
prototypes  who  happily  did  not  escape  retribution,  and  some 


298  WHOLESALE  HOMICIDES. 

reference  will  now  be  made  to   this   class — the  wholesale 
murderer. 

ANDREW  BICHEL. 

One  of  the  earliest  cases  recorded  is  that  of  Andrew 
Bichel,  who  lived  at  Regendorf,  in  Bavaria.  His  character 
was  strangely  contradictory.  Until  his  terrible  misdeeds 
were  finally  brought  home  to  him,  he  did  not  enjoy  a  bad 
reputation.  He  was  not  a  drunkard,  nor  a  gambler,  nor 
quarrelsome ;  he  was  married  to  a  wife  with  whom  he  lived 
on  good  terms,  had  children,  and  was  esteemed  for  his  piety. 
But  below  the  surface  he  was  a  pilferer  and  petty  thief; 
suspected  of  robbing  his  neighbours'  gardens,  he  was  caught 
by  the  master  he  served,  an  inn-keeper  of  Regendorf,  stealing 
hay  from  his  loft.  His  nature  really  was  abjectly  and 
inordinately  covetous ;  he  was  a  coward  who  persisted  in 
his  crimes  because  he  seemed  to  have  secured  perfect 
immunity  from  detection.  They  were  committed  on  the 
defenceless ;  his  victims  were  helpless,  credulous  women, 
who  trusted  him  and  made  no  attempt  to  defend  them- 
selves. Cunning  in  him  was  allied  to  great  cruelty,  and  both 
were  backed  by  such  extraordinary  greed  that  he  thought 
the  pettiest  plunder  worth  the  greatest  crime.  "  A  man 
thus  constituted  will  commit  no  crimes  requiring  energy 
or  courage,"  writes  the  judge  who  tried  him.  "  He  will  never 
venture  to  rob  on  the  highway,  or  break  into  a  house ;  but 
he  would  commit  arson,  administer  poison,  murder  a  man 
in  his  sleep,  or,  like  Bichel,  cunningly  induce  young  girls 
to  go  to  him,  and  then  murder  them  in  cold  blood  for  the 
sake  of  their  clothes  or  a  few  pence." 

No  suspicion  was  roused  against  Bichel  for  years.  Girls 
went  to  Regendorf,  and  were  never  heard  of  again.  One, 
Barbara  Reisinger,  disappeared  in  1807,  and  another,  Catherine 
Seidel,  the  year  after.  In  both  cases  no  report  was  made  to 
the  police  until  a  long  time  had  elapsed,  and  a  first  clue  to 
the  disappearance  of  the  last-named  was  obtained  by  a  sister, 
who  found  a  tailor  making  up  a  waistcoat  from  a  piece  of 
dimity  which  she  recognised  as  having  formed  part  of  a 
petticoat  worn  by  Catherine  when  she  was  last  seen.     The 


A   MURDERER    OF    WOMEN.  299 

waistcoat  was  for  a  certain  Andrew  Bichel,  who  lived  in  the 
town,  and  who  now  followed  the  curious  profession  of  fortune- 
teller. 

Catherine  Seidel  had  been  attracted  by  his  promises  to 
show  her  fortune  in  a  glass.  She  was  to  come  to  him  in  her 
best  clothes,  the  best  she  had,  and  with  three  changes,  for 
this  was  part  of  the  performance.  She  went  as  directed,  and 
was  never  heard  of  again.  Bichel,  when  asked,  declared  she 
had  eloped  with  a  man  she  met  at  his  house. 

Now  that  suspicion  was  aroused  against  Bichel,  his  house 
in  Regendorf  was  searched,  and  a  chest  fuU  of  women's 
clothes  was  found  in  his  room.  Among  them  were  many 
garments  identified  as  belonging  to  the  missing  Catherine 
Seidel.  One  of  her  handkerchiefs,  moreover,  was  taken  out 
of  his  pocket  when  he  was  apprehended. 

Still  there  was  no  direct  proof  of  murder.  The  dis- 
appearance of  Seidel  was  undoubted,  Reisinger's  also, 
and  the  presumption  of  foul  play  was  strong.  Some  crime 
had  been  committed,  but  whether  abduction,  manslaughter, 
or  murder  was  still  a  hidden  mystery.  Repeated  searchings 
of  Bichel's  house  were  fruitless ;  no  dead  bodies  were 
found,  no  stains  of  blood,  no  traces  of  violence. 

The  dog  of  a  police  sergeant  first  ran  the  crime  to  ground. 
He  pointed  so  constantly  to  a  wood-shed  in  the  yard,  and 
when  called  off  so  persistently  returned  to  the  same  spot, 
that  the  officer  determined  to  explore  the  shed  thoroughly. 
In  one  corner  lay  a  great  heap  of  straw  and  Htter,  and  on 
digging  deep  below  this  they  turned  up  a  quantity  of  human 
bones.  They  went  a  foot  deeper,  and  found  more  remains. 
Near  at  hand,  underneath  a  pile  of  logs  by  a  chalk  pit,  a 
human  head  was  found.  Not  far  off  was  a  second  body, 
which,  like  the  first,  had  been  cut  in  half  One  was  believed 
to  be  the  corpse  of  Barbara  Reisinger,  the  other  was  actually 
identified,  through  a  pair  of  pinchbeck  earrings,  as  that  of 
Catherine  Seidel. 

Bichel  stood  defiant  before  the  searching  questions  of  the 
judge ;  he  Ked  continually,  and  was  proved  to  have  lied. 
Still  he  would  make  no  avowaL     Even  when  confronted  with 


300  WHOLESALE   HOMICIDES. 

the  corpses  of  his  alleged  Yictims,  as  was  then  the  custom  in 
Bavaria,  he  would  not  yield.  Although  so  greatly  agitated 
that  he  all  but  fainted  on  the  spot,  he  had  yet  the  strength 
of  will  to  master  his  emotions,  and  when  again  asked  if  he 
recognised  his  handiwork,  he  protested  that  he  had  never 
seen  the  corpses  before.  "  I  only  trembled,"  he  protested, 
when  taxed  with  the  weakness,  "  I  only  trembled  at  the  sight. 
Who  would  not  tremble  on  such  an  occasion  ? "  But  he 
could  not  stand;  he  sank  into  a  chair.  All  his  muscles 
quivered,  his  face  was  horribly  contorted. 

Yet  a  deep  impression  had  been  left  on  his  mind,  and 
when  relegated  to  prison  "  his  imagination,"  as  Feuerbach 
says,  "overcame  his  obstinacy."  He  made  full  confession  of 
these  two  particular  crimes.  Reisinger  he  had  killed  when 
she  came  seeking  a  situation  as  maid-servant.  He  was 
tempted  by  her  clothes.  To  murder  he  had  recourse  to  his 
trade  of  fortune-telling,  saying  he  would  show  her  in  a  magic 
mirror  her  future  fate,  and  producing  a  board  and  a  small 
magnifying  glass,  placed  them  on  a  table  in  front  of  her. 
She  must  not  touch  these  sacred  objects;  her  eyes  must  be 
bandaged,  her  hands  tied  behind  her  back.  No  sooner  had 
she  consented  than  he  stabbed  her  in  the  neck,  and  it  was 
aU  over  with  her. 

This  success  emboldened  him  to  repeat  the  operation. 
He  sought  to  entrap  other  girls,  choosing  always  the  best 
dressed,  and  putting  forward  the  bait  of  the  magic  mirror. 
But  he  failed  with  three,  and  then  caught  Catherine  Seidel 
in  the  toils.  The  process  was  exactly  the  same  as  with 
Barbara  Reisinger,  but  this  victim  was  not  killed  so  easily. 
The  after  part  was  the  same. 

Bichel  now  resolved  to  adopt  murder  as  a  trade,  and 
looked  about  him  for  fresh  victims.  But  although  the 
motive  was  strong  and  his  cunning  great,  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  enticed  many  more  within  reach  of  his  knife. 
The  police  heard  of  several  cases  in  which  he  had  used 
the  same  lure  of  the  magic  glass  upon  girls  who  promised 
to  go  to  him  dressed  in  their  best,  but  who,  fortunately  for 
themselves,   thought  better  of  it.     They  escaped,  some  by 


MARRIED    MURDERERS.  301 

want  of  faith  in  the  mirror,  others  by  a  secret  aversion  to 
Bichel,  a  few  by  mere  accident. 

Bichel  was  found  guilty  and  condemned  to  be  broken 
on  the  wheel,  but  the  sentence  was  commuted  to  beheading. 

DUMOLLARD. 

Fifty  years  later  the  crimes  of  Bichel  were  almost  exactly 
repeated  in  France  by  Dumollard,  a  criminal  who  pursued  his 
dreadful  calling  for  a  dozen  years,  unknown  as  a  murderer, 
undetected  at  least,  although  long  suspected  of  mysteriously 
secret  crimes,  and  a  terror  to  his  neighbourhood,  one  of 
the  Eastern  departments,  L'Ain,  not  far  from  the  city 
of  Lyons.  Dumollard  came  of  a  criminal  family;  his 
wife,  who  was  his  accomplice,  had  been  a  beggar  on  the 
highway.  Up  to  the  age  of  forty  he  was  a  labouring  man  in 
the  little  village  of  MoUard,  from  which  he  took  his  name. 
The  exact  date  of  his  first  crime  was  not  proved,  but  once 
embarked  he  continued  his  murders  for  twelve  years.  The 
method  was  simple.  Man  and  wife  repaired  to  Lyons;  the 
woman  called  at  a  servants'  registry  office,  engaged  some 
female  servant,  and  gave  her  a  country  address.  When  the 
girl  travelled  thither  she  was  met  somewhere  by  the  man 
Dumollard,  who  led  her  to  a  wood  or  lonely  place,  then 
murdered  her  and  took  possession  of  her  effects.  Then  he 
proceeded  to  his  cottage,  knocked,  using  a  watchword  "  Haidi!" 
His  wife,  who  was  waiting,  took  over  the  plunder,  while 
Dumollard  proceeded  to  bury  the  body  of  his  victim. 

This  horrible  pair  lived  in  comfort  on  the  proceeds  of 
these  dastardly  crimes.  They  saved  money,  bought  land 
and  a  slice  of  vineyard.  Madame  Dumollard  wore  the  clothes 
of  the  murdered  girls,  and  at  the  time  of  arrest  a  large 
wardrobe  of  such  garments  was  found  in  the  cottage.  On 
the  woman's  back  was  a  shawl  identified  as  the  property 
of  their  latest  victim.  Retribution  came  tardily,  but  it 
came  through  DumoUard's  failure  to  complete  his  crime 
on  one  occasion;  his  victim  escaped  and  described  the 
would-be  murderer.  Soon  afterwards  a  body  was  found, 
dead,  in  the  depths  of  a  lonely  wood,  but  the  police  could 


302  WHOLESALE    HOMICIDES. 

gain  no  positive  information.  The  neighbours  were  afraid 
to  speak,  being  in  deadly  fear  of  Dumollard.  Several  more 
murders  followed.  There  was  truce  then  for  three  years, 
after  which  they  recommenced  under  the  same  circum- 
stances, arousing  the  same  suspicions. 

The  chief  witness  against  Dumollard  was  his  wife,  who 
made  full  confession  and  pointed  out  the  places  where  the 
victims  had  been  disposed  of  It  was  found  that  one  at 
least  had  been  buried  alive.  So  deep  was  the  indignation 
when  these  miscreants  were  put  upon  their  trial  that  the 
crowd  would  have  torn  them  to  pieces  on  entering  the 
court.  The  man  Dumollard  is  described  as  a  rough-look- 
ing, stolid,  but  seemingly  inoffensive  peasant.  He  had  a 
shock  head  of  jet-black  hair  and  a  thick,  short  beard. 
His  dark  eyes  were  sleepy  and  stupid  until  his  evil  pas- 
sions were  roused,  when  they  lighted  up  with  tiger-like 
ferocity.  His  face  was  made  hideous  by  a  great  sear  just 
over  his  mouth,  which  gained  him  the  sobriquet  of  "Hare 
Lip."  His  wife  was  a  very  little  thin  woman,  with  small, 
cunning  eyes,  a  reddish  face,  and  an  air  of  great  effrontery. 
Dumollard  was  guillotined,  but  the  jury  found  extenuat- 
ing circumstances  for  his  wife,  chiefly  on  account  of  her 
evidence.  On  the  very  scaffold  the  man's  cupidity  was 
shown.  His  last  words  to  his  wife,  who  accompanied  him. 
were  to  remind  her  that  a  villager  owed  them  twenty-seven 
francs. 

BURKE   AND   HARE. 

The  curious  honour  of  having  added  a  word  to  the 
Enghsh  language  must  be  accorded  to  the  principal  actor 
in  the  series  of  atrocious  crimes  that  devastated  Edinburgh 
about  1828.  To  "  burke "  means  to  suppress  or  destroy, 
although  not  necessarily  by  such  atrocious  criminal  methods 
as  those  who  invented  the  practice.  There  had  been  many 
suspicious  disappearances,  but  the  police  were  at  fault  until 
chance  laid  bare  one  particular  case,  and  the  revelations 
of  a  "king's  witness"  did  the  rest.  It  now  came  out 
that  murder  had  long  been   rampant  in   the   city.     It  was 


BURKE   AND  HARE.  303 

proved  that  there  had  been  sixteen  murders  in  a  few  months, 
and  many  more  suspected  but  not  brought  home  to  their 
perpetrators.  The  high  price  paid  for  bodies  at  the  medical 
schools  for  anatomical  purposes  had  created  this  dreadful 
trade.  The  gang,  of  which  Burke  and  Hare  were  the 
most  prominent  members,  numbered  sixteen,  and  the 
deeds  were  done  in  the  various  dens  and  houses  occupied 
by  these  miscreants.  The  sale  of  the  body  of  a  dead 
lodger  who  had  owed  Hare  rent  was  the  origin,  it  is  said, 
of  the  traffic,  which  was  remunerative,  for  the  price  paid 
was  from  eight  to  ten  guineas  per  subject. 

The  first  discovery  was  made  when  certain  lodgers  in 
Burke's  house  missed  a  woman  to  whom  he  had  given 
shelter  the  night  before.  They  came,  however,  upon  a 
human  arm  under  some  straw,  and  at  once  informed  the 
police,  who  resolved  to  make  strict  search  through  the 
medical  dissecting-rooms  of  Edinburgh;  At  the  school  and 
museum  of  Dr.  Knox  they  heard  that  a  subject  had  been 
brought  the  previous  night,  and  following  the  porter  into 
an  underground  cellar  they  found  the  body  of  the  missing 
woman  in  an  old  tea  chest.  It  had  been  brought  by 
Burke  and  Hare  in  this  same  box.  "  Something  for  the 
doctor,"  Burke  said,  as  he  had  often  said  before,  and  it  was 
purchased  for  five  guineas. 

The  two  men  were  forthwith  arrested,  but  clear  proof 
of  the  murder  was  wanting,  and  conviction  seemed  hardly 
probable,  when  Hare  was  admitted  "king's  evidence,"  with 
a  promise  of  pardon  in  return  for  his  disclosures.  He  un- 
folded a  tale  of  horror,  which  I  will  not  transcribe,  and 
gave  a  long  Hst  of  the  victims  who  had  suffered  by  the 
hands  of  this  gang.  The  plan  was  to  first  decoy,  then 
drug  with  laudanum  in  drink,  then  suffocate,  so  that  the 
"  subject "  might  be  handed  over  intact  to  the  scientific  pur- 
chasers. Many  of  the  murders  had  been  committed  in  Hare's 
house,  among  others  a  pretty  young  girl  named  Mary  Pater- 
son  had  been  killed  there,  and  Daft  Jamie,  a  half-witted  boy. 
Burke  before  execution  confessed,  but  maintained  that  Hare 
was  the  more  guilty.     He  had  originated  the  deadly  practice, 


304  WHOLESALE   HOMICIDES. 

had  committed   the   first  murder,  and  had  persuaded   the 
others  to  join  in. 

Hare  survived,  it  is  said,  for  forty  years  after  the  execution 
of  his  chief  confederate,  but  as  a  pitiable  blind  mendicant  in 
the  London  streets.  Soon  after  the  trial  he  had  been  seized 
by  some  workmen,  who  threw  him  into  a  lime  pit,  where 
he  lost  his  eyesight,  but  not  his  life. 

THE   RESURRECTIONISTS. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  Bishop,  May,  and  Williams 
found  their  inspiration  in  Edinburgh,  or  whether  the  same 
scientific  needs  created  the  same  demand.  It  is  a  fact  that 
about  the  same  date,  1831,  the  supply  of  anatomical  sub- 
jects encouraged  the  same  ghastly  crimes.  Bishop,  the 
notorious  body-snatcher,  made  a  confession  in  Newgate 
before  execution,  in  which  he  owned  to  having  disposed  of 
between  600  to  1,000  bodies,  but  "  declared  before  God," 
that  they  were  all  obtaiued  after  death,  save  in  the  one 
case,  that  of  the  Italian  boy,  for  which  he  suffered.  But 
Bishop  began  a  second  confession,  which  was  unfortunately 
interrupted,  in  which  he  acknowledged  to  sixty  murders, 
but  gave  no  details. 

The  known  victim  was  one  of  the  itinerant  minstrel  class, 
who  showed  white  mice  about  the  streets  in  a  squirrel  cage. 
The  three  murderers  had  decoyed  him  into  Bishop's  house 
in  Shoreditch  on  the  pretence  of  finding  him  work.  There 
he  was  given  food  and  drink,  the  latter  a  cupful  of  rum 
and  laudanum,  which  sent  him  into  a  profound  sleep  in 
less  than  ten  minutes.  They  took  him,  as  he  was  asleep 
and  insensible,  and,  having  attached  a  rope  to  his  feet,  let 
him  slide  head  first  into  a  well  in  the  garden.  After  some 
three  quarters  of  a  hour,  passed  by  the  murderers  in  stroll- 
ing about  Shoreditch  "  to  occupy  the  time,"  they  drew  up 
the  body,  now  quite  dead,  stripped  it,  buried  the  clothes, 
and  leaving  "  it "  in  an  outhouse,  went  off  to  trade  it  away. 
At  one  place,  Mr.  Tuson's,  in  WindmiU  Street,  they  were 
too  late;  he  had  waited  so  long  that  he  had  been  obliged 
to    buy  what  he  wanted    elsewhere.     At    Dr.   Carpul's,  in 


THE   ITALIAN  BOY.  305 

Dean  Street,  they  -were  not  more  successful,  haggling  long 
over  the  price,  which  for  such  things  varied  between  eight 
guineas  and  twelve.  Next  day  they  hawked  their  subject 
all  over  London;  to  school  after  school,  to  Guy's  Hospital, 
and  to  King's  College,  where  at  last  they  agreed  with  Mr. 
Pentridge,  the  demonstrator,  for  nine  guineas.  The  body 
was  then  delivered,  but  some  question  arose  as  to  a  cut 
on  the  forehead,  and  this  seems  to  have  first  started  sus- 
picion, which  was  confirmed  on  closer  examination.  Mr. 
Pentridge  asked  what  had  been  the  cause  of  death,  but  the 
medical  experts  soon  decided  for  themselves,  having  found, 
beyond  doubt,  that  blows  had  been  inflicted  and  had  caused 
the  death  of  an  otherwise  healthy  person.  So  with  one 
excuse  and  another  they  delayed  the  body-snatchers  until 
the  police  could  be  called  in. 

The  case  against  them  was  very  cleverly  put  together. 
The  Italian  boy  and  his  white  mice  were  identified  by  two 
of  his  compatriots;  it  was  proved  that  he  had  been  seen 
m  the  neighbourhood  of  Bishop's  house.  An  innkeeper 
swore  to  the  purchase  of  rum,  several  chemists  to  that  of 
laudanum  in  small  quantities.  All  three  prisoners  were 
convicted  and  sentenced  to  death.  Bishop  and  Williams 
were  hanged,  but  May,  the  third  prisoner,  was  respited. 
His  own  story,  that  he  knew  nothing  of  the  crime,  that 
he  had  never  seen  the  boy  or  the  body  until  he  was  asked 
to  help  in  carrying  it  out  for  sale,  was  generally  believed. 

WILLIAMS. 

There  have  been  man-slayers  as  blood-thirsty  as  any  of 
the  foregoing,  as  eager  to  kill  on  the  slightest  provocation,  at 
sign  of  danger  or  interference,  to  gain  their  ends,  whether 
great  or  small.  They  are  ready  to  destroy  any  human  being 
that  crosses  their  path  or  their  plans,  to  destroy  every  actual 
or  potential  enemy.  Among  the  most  prominent  of  this 
type  of  murderer  were  Williams,  Troppmann,  Peace,  and 
de  Tourville.  Their  black  deeds  shall  be  now  briefly 
described. 

The  first  case,  that  of  Williams,  was  never  actually  proved 


306  WHOLESALE    HOMICIDES. 

against  him,  for  he  committed  suicide  before  the  trial,  and 
doubts  of  his  guilt  have  been  freely  expressed  in  later  years. 
It  was  fully  believed  at  the  time,  and  the  murders  of  those 
two  whole  families,  the  Marrs  and  the  Williamsons,  caused  an 
immense  sensation.  They,  in  fact,  inspired  the  remarkable 
monograph  of  De  Quincey  entitled  "Murder  as  One  of  the 
Fine  Arts.'' 

The  Marrs  lived  in  the  East  End ;  the  head  of  the  family 
kept  a  draper's  shop  and  did  a  good  trade.  At  the  close  of  one 
busy  day  he  sent  oS'  his  maid-servant  to  buy  oysters  for 
supper.  She  was  absent  for  half  an  hour,  spent  in  fruitless 
search  for  the  oysters,  then  returned  to  the  shop  and  found  it 
closed  and  silent.  No  one  answered  her  bell  although  she 
rang  several  times.  A  watchman  on  his  round,  who  had 
already  remarked  that  the  shutters  of  the  man's  house  were 
not  quite  closed,  came  to  help  the  maid  in  obtaining  admis- 
sion. So  did  a  neighbour  who  had  been  disturbed,  and  who 
suggested  forcing  an  entrance  by  the  back  yard.  The  last- 
named  came  himself,  armed  with  a  poker,  and  climbing  the 
wall  entered  the  house,  where  he  found  a  lighted  candle  in 
the  hall  but  no  signs  of  life. 

On  the  contrary,  the  first  object  he  clearly  made  out  was  the 
corpse  of  Mr.  Marr,  lying  behind  the  counter,  with  the  brains 
dashed  out  of  it.  At  a  little  distance,  near  the  door,  was  Mrs. 
Marr,  also  dead  and  showing  terrible  wounds  in  the  head. 
The  floor  of  the  shop  was  inundated  with  blood. 

There  was  still  the  child  of  the  Marrs  to  be  accounted  for. 
The  neighbours,  hardly  thinking  that  it  would  be  injured,  still 
searched  for  it,  and  at  last  found  its  cradle  in  a  corner  of  the 
kitchen.  Inside  was  the  poor  little  thing  barely  a  few  months 
old,  with  its  throat  cut  so  cruelly  that  the  head  was  nearly 
separated  from  the  body.  There  was  no  apparent  reason  for 
this  needless  crime.  The  child  could  never  have  been  a 
witness,  nor  could  it  well  have  given  the  alarm.  It  argued 
that  the  murderer  was  in  a  state  of  homicidal  mania,  ready  to 
go  any  length  sooner  than  be  betrayed  by  an  infant's  cries. 
The  violence  of  the  attack  bore  out  this  supposition,  and  the 
murder  was  in  consequence  attributed  to  some  lunatic  at  large. 


"MURBER   AS   ONE    OF    THE   FINE   ARTS."         307 

Very  general  consternation  prevailed  in  the  East  End.  No 
traces  of  the  murderer  could  be  discovered.  He  had  gained 
very  little  by  his  slaughter  of  the  Marrs ;  what  was  to  prevent 
him  from  sweeping  out  of  existence  some  other  family  which 
promised  more  profitable  results  ? 

In  less  than  a  fortnight  another  massacre  occurred  in  the 
same  district.  The  victims  were  the  landlord  of  a  popular 
little  tavern  in  Gravel  Lane,  and  his  wife.  The  first  knowledge 
of  foul  play  was  afforded  by  a  man  who  was  seen  escaping 
from  the  inn  by  a  rope  of  sheets  hanging  from  the  second 
floor.  As  he  dropped  to  the  ground,  he  cried,  "  Murder !  they 
are  killing  everybody  in  the  house  ! " 

The  first  corpse  found  was  that  of  Mr.  Williamson,  the 
landlord.  He  lay  on  the  stairs  of  the  cellar  horribly  wounded 
about  the  head,  which  was  nearly  severed  from  his  body. 
Close  by  lay  a  pair  of  tongs  stained  with  blood,  which  had  no 
doubt  been  used  in  the  foul  attack. 

Search  was  now  made  for  Mrs.  Williamson.  She  also  had 
been  killed,  so  had  her  maid-servant.  The  two  lay  side  by 
side  in  the  parlour  on  the  ground  floor.  The  brains  of  both 
had  been  dashed  out,  and  their  throats  were  cut.  The  one 
person  who  had  escaped  was  the  fugitive  who  had  used  the 
sheets ;  a  lodger  on  the  second  floor.  His  story  was  that  he 
had  been  roused  from  his  first  sleep  by  loud  cries  of  murder ; 
that  he  had  crept  downstairs  and  come  upon  the  murderer, 
who  was  rifling  Mrs.  Williamson's  pockets  as  she  lay  upon  the 
ground.  He  distinctly  saw  the  man,  dressed  in  a  long,  loose 
great-coat,  very  dark  in  colour,  and  "  looking  like  a  gentle- 
man." His  was  the  only  direct  evidence  of  the  appearance  of 
the  murderer :  "  A  taU  man,  six  feet  high,  well-dressed,  and 
looking  like  a  gentleman." 

Yet  four  days  later  quite  a  different  person  was  arrested 
on  suspicion  of  the  Williamson  murder.  The  facts  against 
him  were  not  strong,  but  they  sufficed  for  the  police.  He  was 
an  Irish  sailor  who  lived  in  a  seamen's  lodging-house  ;  his 
name  was  Williams,  and  the  suspicious  circumstances  that 
led  to  his  arrest  were  : — 

.1.   His  return   to  his  lodging   about    midnight   on  the 


308  WHOLESALE   SOMICIDES. 

evening  of   the  crime,   and  the    belief  that  he  had  been 
drinking  at  Williamson's. 

2.  His  anxiety  that  his  room  mate  should  extinguish  his 
candle. 

3.  His  being  in  possession  of  a  £1  note  and  some  silver, 
although  previously  he  was  without  funds. 

4.  That  a  pair  of  muddy  stockings,  supposed  to  be  his, 
were  found  in  the  dormitory;  and, 

5.  That  he  had  shaved  off  his  whiskers. 

To  each  and  aU  of  these  WilUams  had  a  perfectly  good 
answer. 

His  lingering  at  the  tavern  was  nothing  strange ;  others 
did  the  same  sometimes,  and  the  whole  of  the  quarter  was 
given  to  late  hours.  Williams  had  asked  his  comrade  to 
extinguish  the  light  because  he  was  reading  in  bed  and  there 
was  a  danger  of  fire  ;  that  his  stockings  were  muddy  proved 
little,  the  whole  neighbourhood  was  muddy,  and,  besides,  there 
was  nothing  to  show  that  these  were  Williams's.  The  last 
fact,  that  he  had  shaved  his  whiskers,  was  the  most  suspicious, 
but  it  was  scarcely  enough  to  substantiate  a  criminal  charge. 

It  was  a  weak  case  with  many  points  in  favour  of  the 
defence.  Williamson,  the  landlord,  had  remarked  a  stranger 
loafing  about  the  premises  that  evening  and  had  desired 
the  watchman  to  take  him  up.  This  could  not  have  been 
Williams,  who  was  an  habitue  of  the  inn.  The  lodger, 
who  had  seen  the  murderer  at  his  work,  did  not  recognise 
him;  yet  he  knew  Williams  well. 

On  the  other  hand  fresh  evidence  was  collected  against 
the  accused.  The  weapons  employed  in  the  murder  of  the 
Marrs  had  been  a  ship  carpenter's  maul,  broken  at  the  point, 
and  a  long  ripping  chisel.  Both  were  found  in  the  house, 
and  the  former  was  covered  with  marks  of  fresh  blood.  It 
was  now  identified  as  the  property  of  a  young  Swedish 
sailor,  by  name  John  Peterson,  who,  on  going  to  sea,  had 
left  his  tool-chest  with  his  landlord  to  keep  till  his  return. 
This  landlord  kept  the  "  Pear  Tree  "  inn,  and  it  was  there 
that  the  accused,  Williams,  lodged.  The  maul,  which  was 
marked  "  J.  P.,"  as  were  the  other  tools,  had  been  lying  in 


FACT8   AGAINST  AND  FOB    WILLIAMS.  309 

the  very  room  where  Williams  slept,  near  his  "  sea-bed."  This 
broken-pointed  maul  was  not  very  safely  kept,  however,  for 
a  witness  described  how  her  children  often  played  with  it 
in  the  square  near  the  "  Pear  Tree  "  inn. 

Another  piece  of  damaging  evidence  was  given  by  a 
laundress  who  washed  the  prisoner's  linen,  and  who  stated 
that  Williams  had  given  her  a  shirt  to  wash  which  was  much 
torn  and  stained  with  blood.  This  was  just  before  the 
murder  of  the  Marrs,  but  he  gave  her  a  second  shirt  in  the 
same  condition  a  few  days  after  the  crime.  To  this  the 
prisoner  replied  that  he  had  got  into  a  quarrel  with  some 
Irish  coal-heavers,  and  the  shirt  was  torn  and  stained  with 
blood  during  the  fight. 

Such  was  the  case  against  Williams,  backed  mainly  by 
circumstantial  evidence,  and  there  it  ended.  For  while  the 
magisterial  inquiry  was  still  in  progress  the  prisoner  hanged 
himself  in  his  cell  at  Coldbath  Fields  prison.  Thus  the 
murders  must  be  classed  with  other  mysterious  crimes ; 
their  perpetrator  was  never  positively  known  nor  the 
motive  that  inspired  them.  It  was  not  greed,  for  no 
robberies  followed.  In  the  house  of  Mr.  Marr  £160  in 
notes  and  cash  was  found,  nor  was  anything  abstracted 
from  Williamson's  public-house.  There  were,  no  doubt, 
many  suspicious  points  against  Williams,  most  of  which 
have  been  set  forth.  Yet  another  has  not  been  men- 
tioned :  that  he  had  been  an  old  shipmate  of  Marr's.  Both 
had  sailed  in  the  Dover  Castle  East  Indiaman,  Marr  as 
captain's  servant,  Williams  before  the  mast.  Marr  had 
been  "  sober,  peaceable,  diligent,  and  obliging,"  and  so  won 
upon  his  master  that  on  the  ship's  return  home  he  helped 
him  to  establish  a  shop  in  Ratchff  Highway.  Williams, 
on  the'  other  hand,  was  idle,  dissolute,  and  quarrelsome,  and 
dismissed  the  ship.  Here  were  the  secret  motives  of  envy 
and  hatred;  but  nothing  to  show  that  they  had  impelled 
Williams  to  the  bloody  deed.  Moreover,  if  the  previous 
acquaintance  afforded  suspicion  with  regard  to  the  Marrs, 
no  such  suggestion  accompanied  the  case  of  Mr.  Williamson ; 
while  it  was  quite  clear  that  the  only  witnesses  who  had 


310  WHOLESALE   HOMICIDES. 

set  eyes   upon  the  actual  murderer  described  him  as  very 
different  in  appearance  from  WiUiams. 

Can  it  have  been  an  early  case  of  "  Jack  the  Ripper,"  or 
"  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde  "  ? 

TROPPMANN. 

This  later  specimen  of  the  class  under  consideration 
must  always  hold  a  foremost  place  in  the  ranks  of  atrocious 
murderers.  Tropmann  was  little  more  than  a  lad  when  he 
destroyed  his  eight  victims.  The  motive  in  his  case  was 
perfectly  clear. 

He  desired,  by  removing  every  member  of  the  Kinck 
family,  to  appropriate  their  small  fortune  and  secure  a 
provision  for  his  own  guilty  self  It  is  terrible  to  think 
how  every  step  in  this  homicidal  scheme  was  planned 
carefully,  precisely,  and  with  extreme  deliberation ;  when 
all  was  prepared  the  crime  was  consummated  with  brutal 
completeness  and  unshaken  nerve.  He  was  then  not  more 
than  nineteen,  a  smooth-faced,  beardless  boy,  with  an  open 
countenance,  and  soft  sensuous  eyes  that  sometimes  flashed 
fire ;  something  of  the  beauty  of  youth  and  innocence  stUl 
hung  about  his  face,  and  his  short  slight  figure  seemed  at 
first  sight  weak  and  immature.  He  was  endowed  really  with 
great  muscular  strength  and  great  activity.  He  could 
jump  his  own  height  and  run  like  a  hare.  On  closer 
inspection  it  was  seen  that  his  hands  were  almost  gigantic, 
great  broad,  bony,  hairy  hands  with  very  long  fingers  and 
enormous,  really  deformed,  thumbs.  Taken  unawares,  he 
had  an  air  of  ferocity,  heightened  by  a  sneer. 

Of  German  extraction,  he  resided  in  Paris  with  his  father, 
an  ingenious  old  rascal  with  a  turn  for  chemistry,  who  was 
engaged  in  coining  and  in  passing  false  money,  which  was 
manufactured  in  the  Vosges  for  distribution  in  and  about 
Paris.  Young  Troppmann  had  made  the  acquaintance  of 
a  Frenchman  named  Kinck,  a  manufacturer  in  easy  circum- 
stances, who  resided  at  Roubaix,  and  who  showed  the  lad 
much  kindness.  Kinck  was  of  a  credulous  nature  and 
quickly  entered  into  a  scheme  which  was  propounded  by 


THE  MASSACRE   OF  THE  EINGK8.  311 

Troppmann  for  securing  him  great  wealth.  From  the  first 
Troppmann  had  marked  his  friend  down  as  his  prey  and 
slowly  matured  a  plan  for  acquiring  his  possessions. 

The  crime  of  Pantin  was  the  result.  It  was  only  dis- 
covered by  accident,  Troppmann  himself  only  arrested  by 
chance.  One  day  a  workman  in  the  open  ground  beyond 
the  Butte  de  Chaumont,  near  Paris,  was  shocked  to  find 
traces  of  blood  upon  the  ground  ;  and  at  one  point,  where  the 
earth  had  been  recently  moved,  he  picked  up  a  blood-stained 
handkerchief.  With  the  assistance  of  this,  and  under  the 
eyes  of  the  police,  he  presently  dug  up  six  bodies  which  had 
been  recently  buried,  the  bodies  of  a  woman  and  five  children. 
On  examination  of  the  garments  worn  by  the  children,  it  was 
found  that  the  buttons  bore  the  name  of  a  tailor  of  Roubaix, 
and  it  was  soon  ascertained  that  the  murdered  family  were 
named  Kinck,  and  that  they  had  been  summoned  to  Paris  by 
the  father,  Jean  Kinck,  where  they  arrived  on  the  19th  of 
September,  1869.  Further  investigation  told  the  police  that 
a  certain  Jean  Kinck  had  lodged  on  that  date  at  an  hotel 
near  the  Northern  railway  station,  who  registered  himself  as  a 
resident  of  Roubaix,  in  the  Rue  d'Alouette.  On  the  after- 
noon of  the  19th  a  woman  with  five  children  had  come  to 
this  hotel  and  asked  for  Jean  Kinck,  but  he  was  out.  She 
took  bedrooms  for  herself  and  children,  left  her  baggage, 
and  the  whole  family  went  out  again.  She  never  returned, 
nor  did  Jean  Kinck  until  the  following  morning,  when  he 
went  up  to  his  room,  quickly  changed  his  clothes,  came  down- 
stairs and  disappeared.  Everything  now  pointed  to  Kinck's 
being  the  murderer  of  his  wife  and  children.  Further  evi- 
dence against  him  was  aiforded  by  a  cabman,  who  had  actually 
driven  a  party  of  seven — a  man,  woman,  and  five  children — 
across  to  Pantin,  where  they  had  alighted,  and  he  had  seen 
no  more  of  them,  but  thought  he  had  heard  the  distant  cries 
of  children.  On  being  taken  to  the  Morgue,  he  identified  the 
bodies  of  the  persons  he  had  carried.  All  this  fixed  the  crime 
more  and  more  strongly  upon  Jean  Kinck.  It  was  not 
difficult  to  obtain  his  signalevnent  from  Roubaix,  and  this 
was    presently    circulated    through    France.      The    horrible 


312  WHOLESALE   HOMICIDES. 

nature  of  the  crime  had  greatly  excited  pubUc  opinion,  and 
everyone  was  on  the  alert  to  catch  this  merciless  murderer. 

Suddenly  the  news  came  that  he  had  been  arrested  at 
Havre,  and  imder  strange  and  dramatic  circumstances.  It 
appeared  that  a  young  man,  so  young  indeed  that  on  the 
face  of  it  he  could  not  be  the  man  wanted — the  father  of 
six  children — was  inquiring,  in  a  cafd  on  the  quay  side  at 
Havre,  as  to  the  formalities  to  be  observed  in  taking  a 
passage  to  America.  The  man  was  overheard  by  a  gendarme, 
who  was  seated  at  a  neighbouring  table,  and  the  officer  of  the 
law  remarked  that  it  was  first  necessary  to  produce  papers  in 
order  :  "  Where  are  yours  ?  "  The  would-be  traveller  was  com- 
pelled to  admit  that  he  had  none ;  on  which  the  gendarme, 
with  an  eye  to  business,  promptly  took  him  into  custody. 
The  prisoner  was  searched  at  the  nearest  police  office,  and  on 
him  were  found  a  number  of  documents  connecting  him  with 
the  Pantin  murder  and  the  family  of  Kinck.  These  were 
mostly  receipts  for  money,  a  certain  amount  of  stock, 
memoranda  concerning  the  purchase  of  houses  and  other 
property,  a  pocket-book  with  more  papers,  two  watches,  and 
various  other  articles.  It  was  concluded  that  the  man  seized 
was  Jean  Kinck  himself,  although  there  was  an  absolute 
difference  between  the  appearance  of  the  prisoner  and  the 
description  of  Jean  Kinck  circulated  through  France.  Among 
other  papers  found  on  him  were  letters  addressed  to  Jean 
Baptiste  Troppmann,  and  when  he  was  presently  interrogated 
by  the  magistrates,  he  admitted  that  that  was  his  real  name. 

The  method  of  interrogating  a  suspected  criminal  in 
France  is  well  known,  and  although  it  may  bear  hardly  upon 
really  innocent  persons,  it  has  often  undoubtedly  the  effect 
of  bringing  real  guilt  to  light.  Troppmann,  after  the  first 
interview  with  the  instructing  magistrate,  stated  that  he  had 
been  associated  with  Jean  Kinck  and  his  son  Gustave  in  the 
murder  of  Madame  Kinck  and  the  children,  but  he  stoutly 
maintained  that  he  had  taken  no  part  in  the  actual  crime. 
But  now  a  seventh  body  was  discovered  very  near  the  spot 
where  the  other  six  had  been  unearthed,  and,  after  some 
difficulty,  this  was  identified  as  another  member  of  the  Kinck 


TEOPPMANN.  313 

family,  Gustave,  tlie  eldest  boy,  about  sixteen  years  of  age. 
This  satisfactorily  disproved  his  connection  with  the  other 
murders.  It  was  still  possible,  however,  that  Jean  Kinck 
might  be  the  guilty  person,  but  he  was  still  not  to  be  found. 
The  last  heard  of  him  was  that  he  had  left  Roubaix  on  the 
24th  of  August,  nearly  a  month  before  the  discovery  at 
Pantin,  saying  that  he  would  be  only  absent  a  few  days ;  and 
inquiries  made  from  this  point  brought  out  that  he  had 
arrived  at  a  place  called  BollwiUer,  in  Alsace,  where  he  was 
met  by  Troppmann,  and  the  two  together  travelled  by 
ominibus  to  a  distant  point  named  Soultz.  Jean  Kinck 
had  not  been  seen  since,  although  letters  purporting  to  be 
from  him,  but  not  in  his  handwriting,  had  reached  Madame 
Kinck  at  Roubaix,  one  of  them  being  to  the  effect  that 
Gustave  Kinck,  the  son,  should  go  to  his  father  in  Paris. 
The  lad  went  to  his  death ;  because  he  was  met  by  Tropp- 
mann, who  took  him  to  an  hotel,  which  they  were  seen  to 
leave  together. 

At  last  definite  news  was  received  concerning  Jean 
Kinck.  A  thorough  search  of  the  neighbourhood  in  which 
he  had  been  last  seen  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  his  body, 
not  far  from  Watteweller,  in  the  depths  of  a  forest,  and  at  the 
foot  of  the  ruins  of  the  old  castle  of  Herrenflung.  It  had 
been  roughly  buried  there,  and  a  heap  of  stones  had  been 
piled  on  the  top  of  the  grave  the  better  to  conceal  the  body. 
It  was  not  easy  to  see,  at  first,  what  had  been  the  cause  of 
death,  but  presently  the  evidence  of  the  medical  experts  dis- 
covered that  Kinck  had  been  poisoned,  and  by  prussic  acid. 
Kinck  had  been  persuaded  to  accompany  Troppmann  to 
this  lonely  spot  by  a  very  specious  tale.  He  must  have  been 
of  a  singularly  credulous  nature  to  have  believed  what  Tropp- 
mann told  him ;  namely,  that  he  had  discovered  a  gold-mine 
in  the  Vosges  mountains.  Kinck  was  delighted,  and  entered 
fuUy  into  a  scheme  for  the  establishment  of  a  pretended 
factory  at  Guebvillier,  which  was  to  cover  mining  operations 
to  get  out  the  gold.  For  this  purpose  Kinck  foolishly  gave 
Troppmann  a  power  of  attorney — in  other  words,  the  complete 
control  of  his  property — and  this  power  was  amongst  the 


314  WHOLESALE   HOMICIDES. 

papers  found  upon  Troppmann  at  Havre.  The  most  profound 
secrecy  was  to  be  observed,  lest  others  should  work  the  gold- 
mine, and  Kinck  readily  joined  Troppmann,  as  has  been 
described,  in  order  to  verify  the  store  of  precious  metal  in  the 
mountains.  It  is  supposed  that  on  the  road  to  the  chateau 
in  the  forest,  Troppmann  handed  his  companion  a  flask  which 
contained  the  prussic  acid,  and  thus  accomplished  the  first 
murder.  The  second  crime  was  the  disposal  of  the  eldest 
son,  Gustavo ;  who,  following  the  supposed  instructions  of  his 
father,  proceeded  to  Paris,  as  has  been  said.  The  morning 
after  his  arrival  he  went  out  with  Troppmann,  and  never 
returned.  The  exact  method  by  which  Troppmann  made 
away  with  this  second  victim  was  never  known,  but  he 
certainly  buried  him  in  the  plain  of  Pantin,  and  took  posses- 
sion of  all  his  effects.  Several  articles  belonging  to  Gustave 
were  found  on  Troppmann's  person  when  arrested,  and  at  his 
lodgings. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  follow  this  atrocious  drama  further. 
The  evidence  against  Troppmann  was  overwhelming ;  and, 
notwithstanding  the  magnificent  speech  in  his  defence  from 
the  eloquent  Maitre  Lachaud,  he  was  sentenced  to  death,  and 
died  on  the  guillotine. 

DE  TOUBVILLE. 

There  was  only  one  murder  proved  against  the  criminal 
who  went  by  this  name,  and  his  right  to  it  was  never 
established.  He  was  undoubtedly  guilty  of  others,  but  was 
never  called  to  account  for  them,  and  if  the  whole  of  his 
Hfe  could  be  fully  exposed  it  would  be  certainly  that  he  had 
not  rested  satisfied  with  these  occasional  crimes.  He  was  (is, 
it  might  be  said,  for  a  year  or  two  back  he  was  still  aUve 
in  an  Austrian  prison)  of  the  class  of  the  unscrupulous,  un- 
hesitating man-slayer,  one  of  the  same  type  as  Troppmann 
and  the  rest. 

De  Tourville  was  a  Frenchman.  His  fuU  name  was 
Henri  Dieudonne  Pineau  de  Tourville,  but  the  aristocratic 
sufiix  was  probably  assumed.  He  was  first  met  with  in  Paris, 
where  he  was  a  waiter  in  a  restaurant  in  the  early  seventies. 


THE   WIFE  MURDEBEB.  315 

A  pleasant,  ingratiating  fellow,  no  doubt,  then  and  after- 
wards, if  he  chose,  and  this  won  him  the  protection  of  a 
travelling  Englishman,  whom  he  accompanied  to  various 
places  abroad.  It  was  on  these  tours,  probably,  that  he 
picked  up  English.  His  master,  or  patron,  was  his  first 
victim,  although  exactly  how  he  made  away  with  him  never 
transpired. 

We  next  come  across  de  Tourville  at  Scarborough,  where 
he  was  provided  with  ample  funds,  cutting  a  dash  as 
a  French  count  and  quite  a  great  personage.  There  he 
made  the  acquaintance  and  won  the  aifections  of  a  lady 
of  good  fortune,  who  presently  became  his  first  wife.  De 
Tourville's  money  by  this  time  had  run  low,  and  he  was 
clever  enough  to  get  a  considerable  sum  out  of  his  mother- 
in-law,  his  excuse  being  that  cheques  or  remittances  he  had 
expected  from  abroad  had  not  arrived.  The  advance  thus 
made,  which  covered  the  expenses  of  his  honeymoon  trip,  he 
could  not  pay  on  his  return,  and  this  brought  him  to  the 
commission  of  his  second  great  crime. 

He  called  one  day  to  see  his  mother-in-law  and,  strange 
to  say,  he  brought  a  pair  of  pistols  in  his  pockets.  When 
he  was  alone  with  her  a  pistol  shot  was  heard,  and  de 
Tourville  ran  out  shouting  that  she  had  killed  herself.  His 
explanation  was  almost  ludicrously  improbable,  and  was  to 
the  effect  that  the  poor  woman  had  been  looking  down  the 
barrel  of  one  of  the  pistols,  which  was  loaded,  and  it  had 
gone  off  in  her  hands.  Even  then,  when  there  was  nothing 
known  of  de  Tourville's  real  character,  this  story  was  not 
exactly  believed,  and  a  Scotland  Yard  detective  was  sent 
down  to  report  upon  the  case. 

The  report  of  the  officer — he  was  one  of  the  detectives 
afterwards  involved  in  the  "great  turf  frauds"  case — was, 
strange  to  say,  favourable  to  de  TourvUle.  The  inquest  was 
hurried  over  without  proper  examination  of  the  body,  which 
was  buried,  and  no  more  said  about  the  case.  But 
by-and-by — it  will  be  best  to  complete  this  criminal  episode 
here — when  de  Tourville  was  awaiting  extradition  for  his 
last    murder,    the    mother-in-law's    mysterious    death    was 


316  WHOLESALE    H0MIGIBE8. 

remembered,  and  her  body  was  exhumed  and  examined.  It 
was  found  that  the  wound  that  had  caused  death  was 
in  the  head,  but  at  the  back  of  the  skulL  So  she  could 
not  possibly  have  shot  herself  there  while  looking  down  the 
barrel,  and  beyond  aU  question  she  had  been  murdered  from 
behind.  This  fact  was  fully  established  by  an  examination 
of  the  skull  by  that  eminent  medico-legist,  Mr.  Thomas  Bond, 
who  has  so  often  rendered  valuable  service  to  the  police 
authorities. 

De  Tourville,  freed  of  his  mother-in-law,  proceeded  next 
to  rid  himself  of  his  wife — his  first  wife,  remember,  who  now 
began  to  pine  and  fade  away.  She  was  so  constantly  ill- 
used,  so  constantly  ailing,  that  one  friend  of  the  family,  who 
had  access  to  the  house,  had  his  doubts  about  this  illness. 
He  strongly  suspected  that  the  invalid,  who  was  invariably 
attended  by  the  husband,  and  by  him  alone,  taking  her  medi- 
cines and  everything  from  his  hands,  was  being  done  away 
with — neither  more  nor  less.  But  again  the  matter  was  ' 
hushed  up  when  this  third  victim  died,  whether  of  poison  or 
of  a  broken  heart,  or  both,  will  never  probably  be  known. 

She  left  de  Tourville  two  children  and  some  property, 
including  a  house  which  was  secured  to  the  infants.  De 
Tourville  saw  a  fresh  chance  of  acquiring  a  fortune,  and, 
having  insured  the  house  and  its  contents  for  a  large  amount, 
burned  it  down.  The  crime  of  incendiarism  was  never  fully 
proved,  but  suspicion  was  so  strong  that  the  insurance  office 
refused  to  pay  the  policy.  De  TourviUe's  own  children 
narrowly  escaped  death  in  the  conflagration.  He  had  by 
this  time  become  naturaUsed  as  an  Englishman.  To  give 
himself  a  better  position  he  entered  the  Temple  as  a  student, 
and  in  due  course  was  called  to  the  Bar.  Now  he  met 
the  lady  who  was  to  become  his  fourth,  so  tar  as  known, 
and,  at  any  rate,  his  last  victim.  This  murder  was  destined 
to  bring  down  weU-merited  retribution  upon  him. 

He  was,  of  course,  a  systematic  fortune-hunter,  and,  need- 
less to  say,  his  second  wife  was  rich.  She  had  a  separate  estate 
worth  £40,000  to  £50,000,  the  whole  of  which  de  Tourville 
arranged  should   come   to   him   after  her  death.     She,  poor 


A   SYSTEMATIC  FORTUNE-EUNTEB.  317 

infatuated  creature,  in  thus  yielding  to  his  greed,  practically 
signed  her  own  death  warrant.  He  did  not  wait  long  to 
efiect  his  fell  purpose,  for  he  only  married  in  November, 
1875,  and  in  July,  1876,  he  had  compassed  her  destruction. 
There  was  a  simplicity  in  this  last  crime  which  amounted 
almost  to  genius,  and  it  was  only  unsuccessful  because  his 
explanations  were  not  sufficiently  plausible  to  satisfy  the 
Austrian  officers  of  justice. 

One  fine  morning  Mr.  and  Mrs.  de  Tourville,  who  were 
making  a  tour  in  the  Austrian  Tyrol,  left  a  little  town,  called 
Trafoj,  in  order  to  visit  the  Stelvio  Pass.  They  drove  in 
a  carriage  and  pair  as  far  as  Francishohe,  meaning  to  go  on 
still  further  to  Ferdinandshohe,  but  as  time  ran  short  and 
they  could  not  complete  the  whole  journey  in  the  day,  the 
party  returned  to  Trafoj  for  the  night. 

On  the  way  back  the  de  Tourvilles  left  the  carriage, 
meaning,  as  they  said,  to  do  the  rest  of  the  journey  on  foot. 
It  was  a  pleasant  evening  for  a  walk.  The  scenery  of  the 
Pass  was  very  beautiful,  high  cliifs  above,  long  slopes  below 
the  road,  falling  to  where  a  mountain  river  rushed  noisily 
in  the  hollow — a  romantic  but  lonely  spot,  with  a  deep 
ravine,  just  suited  to  the  accompHshment  of  de  Tourville's 
murderous  plans.  All  through  this  journey  both  man  and 
wife  appeared  to  be  on  the  most  excellent  terms,  according  to 
the  coachman's  evidence.  No  cause  of  quarrel,  no  difference 
between  them,  yet  de  Tourville  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
kin  the  poor  confiding  creature  in  the  Pass. 

When,  late  in  the  evening,  he  reached  the  hotel  at  Trafoj, 
he  was  alone.  His  wife,  he  said,  had  fallen  over  some  rocks ; 
he  feared  she  had  intended  suicide  ;  would  some  of  the  people 
at  the  inn  go  back  with  him,  and  either  rescue  or  recover 
her  ?  A  search  party  was  organised,  and  went,  accompanied 
by  the  head  of  the  local  gendarmes,  to  the  spot  indicated  by 
de  Tourville.  The  searchers  went  down  the  slope,  and 
presently  came  upon  a  woman's  body  quite  at  the  bottom, 
near  the  stream,  already  dead. 

De  Tourville,  who  had  remained  upon  the  road  above,  in 
the  carriage,  when  he  heard  of  its  recovery,  called  out  to  the 


318  WSOLESALE    HOMICIDES. 

searchers  to  bring  it  up.  But  the  stolid  yet  shrewd  gendarme 
refused,  saying  it  must  remain  where  it  lay  until  full  inves- 
tigation had  been  made  of  the  causes  of  death.  There  were 
some  suspicious  facts  about  the  case  which  counselled  him 
to  be  cautious.  It  seemed  quite  impossible  for  Mrs.  de 
Tourville  to  have  rolled  down  so  far.  Great  boulders  and 
rocks  intervened,  which  would  certainly  have  checked  her 
downward  progress.  Besides,  a  body  falling  from  such  a 
height  would  have  followed  an  irregular  course  ;  whereas  the 
marks  on  the  undergrowth  all  showed  that  it  had  moved  one 
way,  lengthwise,  as  if  it  had  been  dragged  along. 

So  the  chief  gendarme  bade  de  Tourville  to  consider 
himself  under  arrest.  The  case  must  be  cleared  up  before  he 
could  be  allowed  to  leave  Trafoj.  Suspicion  was  so  strong 
against  de  Tourville,  in  this  worthy  man's  mind,  that  he 
would  not  suffer  him  to  go  to  a  neighbouring  village  to 
telegraph  a  message  to  England. 

Nevertheless,  after  a  detention  of  some  days,  followed 
by  a  magisterial  inquiry,  the  accused  was  discharged  from 
custody,  and  presently  returned  to  England. 

Yet  the  Austrian  police  were  not  quite  satisfied.  A 
further  and  closer  examination  of  the  corpse  revived  sus- 
picion. The  idea  of  accident,  and  still  more  of  suicide,  was 
found  to  be  untenable.  The  body  could  not  have  rolled 
down  the  slope  as  it  did,  by  pure  force  of  gravity.  It  must 
have  been  dragged  down.  There  were  numerous  indica- 
tions, bruises,  and  torn  and  ragged  clothes,  to  prove  that 
there  had  been  a  sharp  encounter,  a  fierce  struggle  between 
the  unfortunate  victim  fighting  for  very  life,  and  the  ruth- 
less miscreant  resolved  on  slaughter.  These  evidences  were 
so  convincing  that  the  Austrian  Government,  having  traced 
de  Tourville  to  London,  demanded  his  arrest  and  extra- 
dition on  the  capital  charge. 

It  was  in  the  early  days  of  extradition.  De  Tourville  was 
now  rich  with  his  murdered  wife's  inheritance,  and  he  could 
pay  handsomely  for  legal  assistance.  The  case  was  hotly  con- 
tested in  the  courts,  and  there  was  a  long  delay,  but  in  the 
end  de  Tourville  was  surrendered  to  the  Austrian  authorities. 


A    CRIMINAL    OF  MY   AGQUAINTANOE.  319 

He  was  eventually  tried  for  his  life,  and  sentenced  to 
twenty  years'  imprisonment  in  a  fortress. 

CHARLES  PEACE. 

I  will  close  this  list  with  some  account  of  a  famous 
criminal  of  this  class,  one  with  whom  I  had  some  personal 
acquaintance  in  the  closing  scenes  of  his  desperate  career. 
Charles  Peace  might  be  classed  under  another  head,  as  a 
most  daring  and  successful  burglar,  but  he  was  guilty  of 
the  still  greater  offence  of  murder,  and  on  a  wholesale 
scale.  Only  two  murders  were  definitely  brought  home  to 
him,  that  of  Mr.  Dyson,  at  Banner  Cross,  near  Sheffield, 
for  which  he  was  executed,  and  the  earlier  one  at  Whalley 
Range,  near  Manchester,  for  which  William  Habron  was 
wrongly  convicted,  as  has  already  been  told.*  But  it  is 
well  known  that  when  Peace  was  "  at  work "  he  always 
carried  weapons,  and  was  ever  ready  to  use  them.  It  is 
probable,  therefore,  that  in  his  long  career  of  crime,  he 
frequently  took  Ufe,  and  with  as  much  cool  recklessness 
as  any  of  the  murderers  I  have  just  described. 

Peace  long  escaped  retribution,  and  was  in  fact  only 
captured  by  accident  at  last.  A  constable,  named  Robinson, 
who  was  on  duty  on  Blackheath  Common  on  the  night 
of  November  17th,  1878,  came  upon  a  burglar  in  a  house 
in  St.  John's  Park,  and  proceeded  to  apprehend  him.  The 
burglar  at  once  defended  himself,  and  fired  five  shots  from 
his  revolver  at  the  constable,  who  although  desperately 
wounded,  secured  him.  They  had  a  desperate  hand-to- 
hand  encounter,  but  the  burglar,  who  was  a  small  man, 
was  at  length  thrown  to  the  ground.  Even  there  he  con- 
tinued to  struggle,  and  endeavoured  to  stab  his  captor  with 
a  sheath  knife.  When  the  prisoner  was  got  to  the  station 
it  was  found  that  he  had  a  revolver  strapped  to  his  wrist 
It  was  a  brand-new  weapon  of  first-class  American  make. 
He  refused  to  give  any  name  or  address,  and,  as  his  face 
was  stained  dark  with  walnut  juice,  he  was  mistaken  at  first 
for  a  mulatto  or  half-caste.     When  pressed  he  said  he  was 

*  8e6anie,  page  215. 


320  WHOLESALE    HOMICIDES. 

a  half-caste  from  the  United  States,  named  John  Ward, 
but  after  a  fortnight  of  search  and  investigation,  the  detec- 
tives ascertained  that  he  was  called  Johnson,  and  that  he 
resided  in  a  comfortable  house  in  the  most  respectable 
part  of  Peckham.  This  house  was  closely  searched  and  in 
it  were  found  a  number  of  pawn-tickets,  referring  to  gold 
and  silver  plate,  and  a  quantity  of  jewellery,  soon  verified 
as  the  proceeds  of  recent  burglaries.  The  inquiries  did 
not  end  there,  and  it  was  at  last  elicited  that  Ward,  alias 
Johnson,  was  really  a  professional  burglar,  named  Charles 
Peace,  who  was,  at  that  very  time,  much  wanted  for  a 
murder  near  Sheffield,  committed  on  the  night  of  Novem- 
ber 22nd,  1876.  It  had  been  put  about  after  that  afi'air 
that  Peace  had  made  away  with  himself,  but,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  he  had  only  removed  to  a  new  neighbourhood, 
and,  resuming  operations  as  a  burglar,  had  gathered  up  a 
quantity  of  spoil  in  the  East  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  especi- 
ally at  HuU.  Thence  he  moved  to  Nottingham  and  took 
up  his  quarters  with  a  near  relative,  who  continued  to 
give  him  shelter,  although  a  large  reward  was  being  offered 
for  his  apprehension.  He  made  Nottingham  a  centre  for 
warehouse  robberies,  in  which  he  got  large  quantities  of 
silk  goods.  A  hue  and  cry  was  now  raised  for  him, 
but  he  was  not  to  be  found.  It  was  reported  that  he  had 
gone  to  the  Continent,  but,  although  he  reaUy  leit  Notting- 
ham for  a  time,  he  doubled  back  there,  and  continued  his 
depredations  in  the  Midland  counties. 

At  last  he  moved  to  London,  and,  some  six  months 
after  the  Banner  Cross  murder,  settled  in  Lambeth.  The 
time  of  his  residence  in  that  district  was  signalised  by  a 
series  of  great  burglaries ;  they  succeeded  each  other  so 
fast  and  were  so  mischievous,  that  it  was  thought  they 
were  the  work  of  a  large  gang.  But  Peace  acted  then, 
as  always,  single-handed.  This  was  a  cardinal  principle 
with  him,  to  work  always  alone.  He  said  he  would  have 
no  pals  or  partners,  they  only  interfered  at  the  wrong 
time,  or  betrayed  and  gave  him  away  when  there  was 
danger.     After    he    had   devastated    Lambeth,  he  went    to 


A    MASTER    HAND.  321 

Greenwich,  took  a  good  house  and  became  known  there 
as  a  gentleman  of  independent  means.  Greenwich  was 
next  the  scene  of  his  innumerable  burglaries.  Night  after 
night  the  houses  of  the  leading  residents  were  broken  into, 
quantities  of  plate,  jewellery,  and  furniture  were  carried 
off.  Peace  was  furnishing,  in  fact,  and  when  he  went  on  to 
Peckham,  to  a  still  larger  house,  it  was  beautifully  mounted. 
In  the  drawing-room  was  a  fine  suite  of  walnut  wood,  worth 
fifty  or  sixty  guineas;  there  were  mirrors  on  the  walls,  a 
Turkey  carpet  on  the  floor,  at  one  end  a  bijou  piano,  and  near 
it  an  inlaid  Spanish  guitar,  which  was  afterwards  known 
to  be  the  property  of  a  lady  of  title.  Peace  was  fond  of 
music,  and  when  the  time  came  to  overhaul  his  ill-gotten 
possessions,  quite  a  fine  collection  of  Cremona  fiddles  was 
found,  the  proceeds  of  various  burglaries.  The  plunder 
he  obtained  was  indeed  immense ;  this  house  at  Peckham 
was  crammed  full  of  stolen  goods,  and  when  space  was 
wanting,  he  took  other  houses,  which  he  put  in  charge  of 
some  respectable  servant  or  matron,  and  filled  with  valu- 
ables. These  lady  assistants  he  employed  to  dispose  of  his 
stolen  property,  by  sending  them  round  to  the  pawnshops, 
at  points  remote  from  the  scene  of  the  burglary. 

It  was  not  until  he  had  been  tried  and  sentenced  to 
penal  servitude  for  life  for  the  murderous  assault  on  the 
policeman  at  Blackheath  that  the  truth  came  out  about 
the  Dyson  murder. 

Sufficient  evidence  was  soon  obtained  to  warrant  his  trial 
on  the  capital  charge,  and  he  was  removed  from  Pentonville 
ot  appear  at  the  Leeds  assizes.  It  was  during  this  removal 
under  escort  that  he  made  his  historical  and  phenomenal 
leap  through  the  window  of  a  railway  carriage,  while  the  train 
was  traveUing  at  express  speed. 

This  desperate  and  really  hopeless  venture  showed  the 
daring,  reckless  character  of  the  man.  It  failed,  as  all  such 
foolhardy  enterprises  must  fail,  and  he  was  picked  up  very 
near  where  he  had  fallen,  a  place  called  Shire  Oaks,  very 
much  smashed  and  battered,  and  with  a  broken  leg.  He 
gave  no  reason  for  his  attempted  escape,  but  it  was  believed 


322  WHOLESALE   HOMICIDES. 

that  he  knew  the  game  was  up,  that  the  net  was  closing 
around  him,  and  that  he  must  inevitably  be  convicted  and 
hanged.  Some  six  or  eight  weeks  elapsed  before  he  was 
sufficiently  recovered  from  his  injuries  to  be  arraigned. 
Then  it  was,  and  afterwards,  that  I  obtained  some  account 
of  his  extraordinary  and  long-successful  criminal  career.  I 
had  many  opportunities  of  talking  with  him,  and  learning 
his  methods.  He  was  a  criminal  genius  in  his  way.  He 
struck  out  so  many  original  lines  of  action,  and  his  combina- 
tions, both  before  and  after  the  deed,  were  cleverly  designed 
and  astutely  carried  through. 

Then  he  was  an  artist  in  the  way  of  disguising  himself, 
and  he  was  a  very  different  personage  in  every  locaHty  he 
favoured.  At  Peckham,  it  will  be  remembered,  he  was  a 
one-armed  man ;  he  had  "  faked  up "  his  left  hand,  and 
always  carried  an  old-fashioned  hook  instead. 

It  was  at  this  period,  while  residing  at  Peckham,  of 
which  parish  he  was  a  churchwarden,  much  respected  and 
esteemed,  that  the  following  incident  occurred,  which  he 
quoted  to  me  once  in  proof  of  his  own  line  of  argument. 

We  had  been  discussing  questions  of  general  morality 
and  conduct,  more  especially  the  advantages  of  veracity. 
He  maintained  the  opposite.  "What  is  the  good  of  telling 
the  truth  ? "  he  asked.  "  No  one  believes  you  when 
you  do." 

"Now  listen  to  this.  When  I  was  Mr.  Johnson,  of 
Peckham,  I  went  into  the  chemist's  one  morning,  smoking 
an  excellent  cigar. 

"The  chemist  observed,  'That  is  very  good  tobacco, 
Mr.  Johnson.     Where  do  you  get  your  cigars  ? ' 

" '  Steal  them,'  I  replied,  perfectly  frankly  and  truth- 
fully. It  was  the  absolute  fact.  I  had  stolen  those  cigars. 
But  my  friend  the  chemist  thought  it  an  excellent  joke. 
He  roared  with  laughter,  and,  of  course,  did  not  believe 
me  in  the  least. 

" '  I  wish  you'd  steal  me  a  few  of  the  same  kind,'  he 
said,  and  I  very  generously  promised  to  do  so. 

"  Some  weeks  afterwards  I  came  across  a  very  fine  lot  of 


PEACE  A8   A   MORALIST.  323 

Havanas  in  a  house  I  visited  rather  late  at  night,  and  I 
secured  them.     The  chemist  got  a  box  of  them. 

" '  There,  Mr.  So-and-so,"  I  said, '  I  have  stolen  you  these. 
I  hope  you  will  like  them.'  Again  he  laughed  loudly,  and  he 
no  more  beUeved  me  than  before.  Still  I  had  only  told  him 
what  was  perfectly  true." 

In  the  long  period  that  had  elapsed  before  his  trial  his 
beard  had  been  allowed  to  grow,  and  it  was  a  snow-white 
appendage  that  gave  him  a  very  venerable  appearance.  He 
wagged  this  great  beard  gravely  as  he  harangued  his  relatives 
and  friends,  who  came  and  visited  him  constantly,  showing 
much  respectful  and  pitying  affection.  Possibly  he  was 
thought  to  be  rich,  and  have  large  hoards  put  by,  the  secret 
of  which  would  be  divulged  to  his  heirs. 

They  listened  attentively  to  his  counsels  and  admonitions ; 
for  he  was  fond  of  preaching  to  them,  and  pointed  his  lessons 
by  his  own  dreadful  example.  He  was  good  enough  to  remind 
me  also  of  the  reprisals  that  inevitably  overtake  the  evil- 
doer, and  he  warned  me  to  be  careful  of  my  ways.  I  am 
happy  to  think  that  this  excellent  advice  has  not  been  lost 
on  me. 

But  the  old  Adam  was  still  strong  in  him.  So  seared  was 
his  conscience,  so  garbled  the  sense  of  right  and  wrong  in  this 
convicted  murderer,  that  within  a  few  hours  of  his  death  he 
tried  to  make  a  barter  of  an  act  of  justice  he  was  bound 
by  every  consideration  to  carry  out.  He  had  hinted  of 
another  crime  of  which  he  alone  was  guilty,  but  for  which 
another  innocent  man  was  suffering  penal  servitude,  and 
he  had  expressed  some  intention  of  confessing.  But  there 
had  been  some  httle  difficulty  with  the  magistrates  as  to 
his  visits  from  his  friends;  Peace  loudly  declared  that  if 
he  was  not  granted  what  he  asked  he  would  say  nothing 
at  all. 

In  other  words,  as  I  told  him,  when  pretending  to  make 
his  peace,  and  preparing  to  go  out  of  the  world  in  a  proper 
frame  of  mind,  he  was  willing  to  make  a  small  question  of 
prison  discipline  come  between  him  and  a  sacred  duty. 
Fortunately  for  Habron,  the  convict  in  question,  then  serving 


324  WHOLESALE   HOMICIDES. 

in  the  Portland  quarries,  Charles  Peace  thought  better  of 
it,  withdrew  his  pretensions,  and  took  upon  himself  his 
own  crime. 

To  the  last  Peace  exhibited  half-hypocritical,  half-defiant 
demeanour,  and  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  he  died  really 
penitent.  The  story  goes  that  there  was  a  grim  jest  upon  his 
hps  just  before  he  suffered.  He  is  said  to  have  complained  to 
Marwood,  just  as  he  was  turned  off,  that  the  halter  was  too 
tight,  and  that  it  hurt  him ;  but  I  cannot  vouch  for  the 
accuracy  of  this. 


OEIMES    OF    THE    HIGHWAY. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

HIGHWAYMEN   AND  MAIL   COACH   ROBBERS. 

Causes  of  Highway  Crime — Insecurity  of  the  English  Roads  in  the  Seventeenth 
Century — Earliest  Recorded  Highway  Robbery  near  York — Highwaymen 
of  the  Commonwealth — "  Captains  "  Hind  and  Stafford — "  Mulled  Sack  " — 
Nevison,  or  "  Swift  Nick "  (and  not  Turpin)  rides  from  London  to  York 
in  the  day — Claude  Duval — Dick  Turpin— John  Rann — William  Page — 
William  Parsons — James  Maclean — Galloping  Dick — Mail  Coach  Rob- 
beries :  Bristol  Mail,  Leeds  Mail,  Hertford  Mail,  Glasgow  Coach. 

CRIMES  of  the  highway  have  been  ever  prevalent  in  un- 
settled times  when  the  organised  protection  of  the  law 
was  absent  or  insufficient.  The  insecurity  of  the  road  continues 
to  this  day  in  new  countries  without  police  or  where  recent 
turmoil  has  upset  the  community  and  withdrawn  the  proper 
safeguards.  The  traveller  has  in  consequence  been  exposed  to 
many  dangers  from  brigands  and  banditti  in  unsettled  lands ; 
the  lonely  resident  of  outlying  stations  has  been  at  the  mercy 
of  the  daring  robber ;  pirates  and  buccaneers  have  infested  the 
wilderness  of  the  sea  and  laid  their  embargo  on  all  defenceless 
shipping.  Whenever  the  old  conditions  reappear  there  is  a 
recrudescence  of  these  crimes.  The  gentleman  highwayman 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  was  the  proto- 
type of  the  "  road  agent ''  who  stUl  at  times  "  holds  up  "  the 
passengers  of  a  modem  railway  train.  None  of  his  villainous 
exploits  outdid  the  ravages  of  the  Australian  bushrangers. 
The  isolation  of  the  railway  carriage  has  developed  an  entirely 
new  form  of  railway  crime,  and  we  shall  see  in  the  many 


326       SIGEWAYMEN  AND    MAIL    COAGH  BOBBERS. 

railway  murders  how  the  new  iacilities  of  rapid  transit  are 
saddled  with  pecuhar  dangers  of  their  own.  There  are  stiU 
pirates  in  the  far-off  Chinese  seas,  wreckers  on  lonely  shores ; 
ships'  companies  mutiny  still  and  murder  their  officers,  seize 
ships  and  cargoes,  as  recklessly  as  any  who  sailed  under  the 
Black  Flag;  an  old  crime,  that  of  feloniously  casting  away 
vessels  with  intent  to  defraud  shipowners  and  underwriters, 
has  been  practised  till  quite  a  late  day. 

I  propose  first  to  deal  with  the  highwaymen  of  old,  taking 
some  of  the  more  prominent  cases  in  times  when  these 
desperadoes  were  a  terror  to  all  wayfarers.  AU  through  the 
seventeenth  century  there  was  little  or  no  security  for  the 
traveller.  In  this  country  none  of  the  great  roads  were  safe ; 
all  were  infested  with  banditti.  The  mails,  high  officials, 
foreigners  of  distinction,  noblemen,  merchants,  private 
persons,  aU  were  constantly  stopped  upon  the  highway. 
The  diaries  of  the  period  contain  such  entries  as  these : — 

"  His  Majesty's  mails  from  Holland  robbed  near  Ilford,  in 
Essex,  and  £5,000  taken,  belonging  to  some  Jews  in  London." 
"  The  Worcester  waggon,  wherein  was  £4,000  of  the  King's 
money,  was  set  upon  and  robbed  at  Gerard's  Cross,  near 
Uxbridge,  by  sixteen  highwaymea  The  convoy,  being  near 
their  inn,  went  on  ahead,  thinking  all  secure,  and  leaving 
only  two  persons  on  foot  to  guard  it,  who,  having  laid  their 
blunderbusses  in  the  waggon,  were  on  a  sudden  surprised  by 
the  sixteen  highwaymen,  who  took  away  £2,500,  and  left  the 
rest  for  want  of  convenience  to  carry  it."  Two  French  officers 
(on  their  way  to  the  coast)  were  robbed  by  nine  highwaymen 
of  one  hundred  and  ten  guineas,  and  bidden  to  go  home  to 
their  own  country.  Another  batch  of  French  officers  was 
similarly  dealt  with  on  the  Portsmouth  road.  Fifteen  butchers 
going  to  market  were  robbed  by  highwaymen,  who  carried 
them  over  a  hedge  and  made  them  drink  King  James's  health. 
The  Portsmouth  mail  was  robbed,  but  only  of  private  letters  ; 
and  the  same  men  robbed  a  captain  going  to  Portsmouth 
with  £5,000  to  pay  his  regiment  with.  Three  highwaymen 
robbed  the  receiver-general  of  Bucks  of  a  thousand  guineas, 
which  he  was   sending  up  by  the   carrier  in   a  pack;  the 


HiaaWAYMEN   OF   OLD.  327 

thieves  acted  on  excellent  information,  for  although  there 
were  seventeen  horses,  they  went  directly  to  that  which  was 
laden  with  the  gold.  Seven  on  the  St.  Albans  road,  near 
Pinner,  robbed  the  Manchester  carrier  of  £15,000  king's 
money,  and  killed  and  wounded  eighteen  horses  to  prevent 
pursuit.  The  purser  of  a  ship  landed  at  Plymouth  and  rode 
to  London  on  horseback,  with  £6,000  worth  of  rough  diamonds 
belonging  to  some  London  merchants  which  had  been  saved 
out  of  a  shipwreck.  Crossing  Hounslow  Heath,  the  purser 
was  robbed  by  highwaymen.  "Oath  was  thereupon  made 
before  a  justice  of  the  peace,"  says  Luttrell,  "  in  order  to  sue 
the  Hundred  for  the  same."  The  Bath  coach  was  stopped  in 
the  Maidenhead  thicket,  and  a  footman,  who  had  fired  at 
them,  w£is  shot  through  the  head.  The  Dover  stage  coach, 
with  foreign  passengers,  was  robbed  near  Shooter's  Hill,  but 
making  resistance,  one  was  killed.  The  Western  mail  was 
robbed  by  the  two  Arthurs,  who  were  captured  and  com- 
mitted to  Newgate.  They  soon  escaped  therefrom,  but  were 
again  arrested  at  a  tavern  by  Doctors'  Commons,  being  be- 
trayed by  a  companion.  They  confessed  that  they  had  gone 
publicly  about  the  streets  disguised  in  "  Grecian  habits,"  and 
that  one  Ellis,  a  tobacconist,  assisted  them  in  their  escape,  for 
which  he  was  himself  committed  to  Newgate.  John  Arthur 
was  soon  afterwards  condemned  and  executed.  Henry  Arthur 
was  acquitted,  but  soon  after  quarrelling  about  a  tavern  bill 
in  Covent  Garden,  he  was  killed  in  the  inelie. 

One  of  the  earliest  recorded  cases  of  highway  robbery  was 
that  of  Henry  William  Genyembre,  who  was  executed  at  York, 
Castle  in  1585  for  robbery  on  the  Queen's  highway.  He  was 
a  man  advanced  in  years  and  he  had  long  done  business  in 
horse-stealing.  Five  years  later  two  others  suffered  for  the 
same  offence,  highway  robbery  on  the  road  between  York  and 
Hull.  About  this  date  the  Earl  of  Dumfries  was  stopped  on 
the  great  north  road  between  Lincoln  and  Bawtrey;  he 
deposed  that  he  was  "  sett  upon  by  Nicholas  Spavild  and 
Richard  Drew  who  took  from  him  one  bay  mare  and  a  black 
nagg  with  a  great  lether  mail  full  of  goods.  Thereupon  hee 
was  forced  to  go  to  Bawtrey  on  foot  and  there  raysed  the  hue 


328       EIGHWATMEN  AND   MAIL    COACH   ROBBERS. 

and  cry  after  them."  When  captured  and  tried  their  defence 
was  that  the  gentleman  was  riding  off  the  road  and  over  the 
corn ;  that  when  they  complained  he  dismounted  and  taking 
his  servant  with  him  left  his  horses,  which  the  prisoners 
carried  to  the  pinfold  or  pound.  Highway  robbery  was  much 
practised  in  Yorkshire  and  the  north  at  that  time,  when  Amos 
Lawson  and  Ebenezer  Moor  were  noted  gentlemen  of  the 
road. 

Many  notorious  road  robbers  flourished  in  the  time 
of  the  Commonwealth.  Captain  Hind  (highwaymen  were 
always  dubbed  '■  captain ")  did  not  take  entirely  to  the 
road  until  after  the  execution  of  Charles  I.,  and  according 
to  his  own  showing  he  was  driven  to  it  chiefly  by  horror  of 
that  crime,  having  been  ever  a  staunch  royalist.  So  his 
victims,  for  choice,  were  sought  among  the  regicides  and 
Cromwell's  supporters.  With  one  comrade  he  attacked  the 
Protector  himself,  but  Oliver  had  seven  men  in  his  train,  and 
Hind  escaped  with  difficulty  while  his  companion  was  cap- 
tured. With  Hugh  Peters  he  had  more  luck,  and  emptied  his 
pocket  of  thirty  broad  pieces  after  chopping  texts  with  the  old 
preacher  for  more  than  an  hour.  Hind  also  stopped  Brad- 
shaw  between  Sherburn  and  Shaftesbury,  but  only  got  some 
silver  out  of  him  until  he  swore  to  take  his  Ufe,  when 
Bradshaw  produced  "a  purseful  of  Jacobuses."  Colonel 
Hamson  was  another  of  his  victims,  whom  he  robbed  of 
£70  on  Maidenhead  thicket  when  crossing  it  in  a  coach- 
and-six. 

Hind,  like  many  of  his  fellows,  was  generous  and  kind  to 
the  poor  and  distressed.  Once  when  the  luck  was  against 
him  he  met  an  old  man  on  his  way  to  buy  a  cow  with  forty 
shillings  it  had  taken  him  two  years  to  save.  Hind  was  loth 
to  rob  him,  but  he  was  in  sore  straits  at  the  moment,  so  he 
merely  borrowed  it,  promising  to  restore  double  the  amount 
on  a  certain  date.  This  he  punctually  performed,  and  the  man 
was  thus  enabled  to  buy  two  cows  instead  oi  one.  On  another 
occasion  he  met  between  Petersfield  and  Portsmouth  a  coach 
full  of  ladies  and  ascertained  that  one  of  them  carried  £3,000 
with  her,  her  dowry,  as  she  was  on  the  point  of  marriage. 


CAPTAIN  HIND.  329 

Hind  pretended  that  he  was  travelling  the  country  like  Don 
Quixote  in  order  to  win  the  favour  of  a  hard-hearted  mistress, 
and  said  he  required  assistance  to  pursue  his  adventures. 
"  My  name  is  Captain  Hind,  and  I  must  make  bold  to  borrow 
one  out  of  the  three  thousand  pounds."  The  ladies,  now 
greatly  terrified,  thankfully  gave  up  the  portion  demanded 
and  went  on  without  further  hindrance  from  the  gallant 
highwayman.  Hind  took  service  with  Charles  II.  and  joined 
his  army  in  the  west,  with  which  he  was  engaged  at  the 
battle  of  Worcester.  After  the  defeat  he  escaped  from  the 
field  and  came  to  London,  where  he  lay  concealed  at  a 
barber's  in  Fleet  Street,  opposite  St.  Dunstan's  church.  But 
a  friend  informed  against  him  and  he  was  taken,  first  before 
the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  then  to  Newgate. 
There  being  nothing  against  him  in  London  that  could  touch 
his  life,  he  was  removed  to  Reading  and  arraigned  there  for  a 
murder  committed  in  Berkshire.  Again  he  was  like  to  escape, 
for  an  act  of  amnesty  was  published  for  all  offences  but  those 
against  the  State ;  but  Hind  was  now  sent  to  Worcester,  where 
he  was  "wanted"  badly,  and  here  he  was  convicted  and 
sentenced  to  be  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered  as  a  traitor  to 
the  Commonwealth. 

Another  outlaw  of  the  same  class  and  nearly  the  same 
date  was  Captain  Philip  Stafford,  who  had  served  for  some 
time  in  the  royalist  ranks,  and  having  had  his  small  estate 
sequestrated,  took  to  the  road.  Stafford's  early  adventures 
were  in  jewel  robberies  and  swindling  devices,  by  which  he 
extorted  blackmail  from  women.  When  at  length  he  turned 
highwayman  he  soon  secured  several  rich  prizes  by  luck  and 
boldness,  and  having  amassed  a  considerable  sum  he  with- 
drew to  a  little  village  in  the  far  north.  His  way  of  life  was 
was  now  so  simple  and  edifying  that  he  was  chosen  by  the 
simple  villagers  to  fill  the  place  of  minister  of  their  congre- 
gation and,  he  became  a  noted  preacher,  highly  esteemed, 
until  he  bolted  with  the  church  plate.  After  this  Stafford 
affair  he  travelled  south  and  set  up  at  his  old  business  on  the 
Reading  road.  But  in  his  very  first  adventure  he  was  over- 
taken, after  robbing  a  wealthy  farmer  of  the  price  of  his 


330       n:iGEWATME]Sr  AND   MAIL    GOAOH    BOBBERS. 

wheat,  captured,  and  lodged  in  gaol.  He  was  quickly  tried 
and  condemned. 

Jack  Cottington,  alias  "  Mulled  Sack,"  was  another  high- 
wayman of  widespread  notoriety  in  the  days  of  the  Common- 
wealth who  long  terrorised  the  country.  His  robberies  were 
very  varied  in  character.  He  began  as  a  pickpocket,  being 
given  to  frequenting  the  churches  and  meeting-houses  of 
London  dressed  in  black  and  with  demure,  devout  demeanour. 
He  purloined  a  good  watch,  set  with  diamonds,  and  a  gold 
chain  from  Lady  Fairfax  during  prayers,  and  carried  out  other 
robberies  of  the  same  kind.  Another  hunting-ground  was 
Westminster,  and  he  was  caught  in  the  act  of  picking  the 
pocket  of  Oliver  Cromwell  himself  as  he  came  out  of  the 
Parliament  House,  but  could  not  be  proceeded  against  for  want 
of  legal  proof.  After  this  he  took  to  the  road.  One  of  his 
first  exploits,  disguised  as  a  Cavalier  in  rich  apparel,  was  to 
stop  the  carriage  of  the  same  Lady  Fairfax  on  Ludgate 
Hill.  He  accomplished  this  by  a  trick.  Having  first  removed 
the  linchpin,  the  coach  came  down,  when  he  offered  his 
services  to  my  lady  and  then  robbed  her.  Hounslow  Heath 
was  his  favourite  scene  of  action,  and  here,  alone  or  ia  com- 
pany, he  took  many  purses.  With  one  Home,  who  had  been  a 
captain  in  Downe's  regiment,  he  stopped  Oliver  Cromwell,  but 
was  beaten  off.  Home  was  taken  out  of  hand,  Cottington 
escaped  and  his  next  feat  was  to  rob  a  Government  waggon 
carrying  money  to  the  army.  At  the  head  of  half  a  dozen 
desperadoes  he  attacked  and  dispersed  the  escort  of  twenty 
troopers  about  dusk  when  they  were  dismounted  and  watering 
their  horses.  The  plunder  thus  obtained  was  very  great,  but 
it  was  soon  dissipated  in  riotous  living. 

His  operations  were  conducted  on  a  very  wide  scale. 
He  was  served  by  a  legion  of  spies  who  kept  him  supplied 
with  the  best  information,  especially  where  rich  booty 
was  to  be  secured.  On  one  occasion  he  secured  the  whole 
of  a  jeweller's  stock  as  it  was  being  transferred  from  Read- 
ing to  London,  and  afterwards  appeared  publicly  wearing 
some  of  the  most  valuable  gems.  Again,  at  Reading,  he 
robbed  the  receiver's   office   of  £6,000  in  hard  cash,   which 


"SWIFT  NIGK."  331 

he  carried  off  on  horseback.  The  magnitude  of  this 
robbery  and  his  now  notorious  character,  led  to  his  arrest 
on  suspicion,  and  he  was  brought  to  trial  at  Abingdon 
assizes,  but  was  acquitted,  it  was  said,  through  bribery. 
After  this  he  left  England,  but  continued  his  depredations 
on  the  continent.  One  of  his  greatest  exploits  was  at 
Cologne,  where  he  robbed  Charles  II.,  then  in  exile,  of  a 
quantity  of  silver  plate,  valued  at  about  £1,500.  He  now 
returned  to  England,  and  sought  to  make  his  peace  with 
Cromwell  by  offering  to  hand  over  a  mass  of  secret  corre- 
spondence which  he  had  got  from  Charles  II.,  but  he  failed 
in  his  promises,  and  having  been  recognised  as  the  author 
of  many  robberies,  he  was  sent  to  Newgate,  where  he 
suffered  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law  in  1659. 

Cottington's  mantle  fell  upon  Nevison,  commonly  called 
"  Swift  Nick  "  a  famous  highwayman  in  the  time  of  Charles  II. 
Nevison  actually  performed  the  great  feat  in  horsemanship 
with  which  the  notorious  Dick  Turpin  was  afterwards  credited. 
Tradition  has  preserved  Nevison  as  rather  an  interesting 
tigure ;  a  man  of  pleasing  address,  gentlemanly  demeanour, 
of  large  stature,  and  unparalleled  courage.  He  was  never 
charged  with  murder,  and  only  once  took  life  in  resisting 
capture  by  a  butcher  with  half  a  dozen  others,  when  he 
killed  the  butcher  in  self-defence.  According  to  Dr.  Eaine, 
of  the  Surtees  Society,  a  great  Yorkshire  antiquary,  he 
might  have  been  called  the  Claude  Duval  of  the  North. 
Contemporary  chronicles  are  full  of  stories  of  his  daring 
and  of  his  charity.  Much  of  what  he  levied  from  the  rich 
he  gave  to  the  poor.  The  story  goes  that  once  at  a  village 
alehouse  he  heard  that  a  poor  farmer  had  been  sold  out 
by  the  bailiffs.  That  same  night  he  lay  in  wait  for  the 
bailiffs  on  the  high  road  as  they  were  going  home  with 
the  proceeds  of  the  sale,  eased  them  of  the  money,  and 
restored  it  to  the  farmer.  Nevison  was  an  especial  terror 
to  the  carriers  and  cattle  drovers  of  the  north,  who  regu- 
larly paid  him  blackmail,  a  certain  sum  quarterly,  for 
which  he  contracted  to  keep  them  from  the  attacks  of 
other  highwaymen. 


332       HIOSWAYMEN   AND   MAIL    GOAOH  ROBBERS. 

Nevison  was  arrested  on  suspicion  in  1674,  and  although 
the  evidence  was  incomplete,  condemned  to  death,  but 
subsequently  reprieved,  when  he  was  drafted  into  Kirk's 
Lambs  and  served  for  a  time  at  Tangier.  From  this  he 
soon  deserted  to  resume  his  old  calling  in  England.  Again 
he  came  within  the  grip  of  the  law  for  robberies  near 
Wakefield,  and  was  again  cast  for  death.  This  time  he 
escaped  prison  just  before  execution,  but  was  once  more 
and  finally  captured  in  the  town  of  Milford  for  a  trifling 
robbery  at  a  pubHc-house.  He  was  hanged  on  the  gallows 
at  Knavesmire,  just  outside  York. 

Nevison,  whose  real  name  was  Brace  or  Bracy,  was  a  native 
of  Burton  Agnes,  in  the  East  Riding,  and  belonged  to  a 
gang  variously  stated  at  from  six  to  twenty  in  number.  The 
"  Bloody  News  from  York,"  is  a  quarto  pamphlet,  published 
in  London,  1764,  concerning  twenty  highwaymen  who  set  upon 
fifteen  butchers  coming  from  Northallerton  fair.  The  robbers 
had  no  fixed  abode,  but  made  their  headquarters  often  at 
the  Talbot  inn  at  Newark,  where  they  kept  ten  rooms  by 
the  year,  and  divided  the  spoil.  Mary  Burton,  their  house- 
keeper, deposed  that  she  knew  of  ten  robberies  by  which 
they  had  realised  some  £1,500.  "  She  thinks  the  master 
of  the  Talbott  is  privy  to  their  carriages,  for  that  she  hath 
often  seen  them  whisper  together,  as  also  one  William 
Anwood,  the  ostler  there,  she  having  oiten  seen  the  said 
parties  give  him  good  sums  of  money,  and  order  him  to 
keep  their  horses  close,  and  never  to  water  them  but  in 
the  night  time."  These  thieves  were  in  the  habit  of  fre- 
quenting fairs  and  markets  and  race  meetings  all  over  the 
country,  and  they  had  many  spies  as  well  as  receivers 
everywhere. 

Brace,  Bracy,  or  Nevison  "  worked "  mostly  in  Yorkshire, 
and  often  single-handed,  for  the  gang  was  only  summoned 
to  execute  some  great  coup.  Nevison  was  the  leader  and 
the  most  famous,  being  celebrated  in  ballads  and  doggerel 
stiU  extant,  as  a  "  bold  hero  "  who  maintained  himself  "  like 
a  gentleman,"  and  besides  was  good  to  the  poor.  The  date 
of  his  ride  from  London   to  York  cannot  be  fixed  exactly. 


THE    RIDE   FROM  LONDON    TO    YORK.  333 

It  must  have  been  in  summer  when  the  daylight  hours 
were  long,  and  it  was  probably  just  previous  to  his  last 
arrest  and  trial  in  1674.  According  to  the  best  accounts  he 
committed  a  robbery  in  London  about  dawn,  and  being 
recognised,  jumped  on  his  horse  and  started  for  the  north. 
Another  account  says  that  the  robbery  was  committed  at 
Gadshill,  that  he  rode  thence  to  Gravesend,  crossed  the 
Thames,  reached  Chelmsford,  and  baiting  there  rode  on 
through  Cambridge  and  Godmanchester  to  Huntingdon, 
where  he  again  baited  and  rested  an  hour,  then  remount- 
ing, rode  on  at  even  pace  until  sunset,  when  he  entered 
York,  having  ridden  the  distance,  two  hundred  miles,  in 
fifteen  hours.  When  he  was  captured  in  York  a  few  days 
later,  he  set  up  an  alibi  which  was  unanswerable.  People  had 
actually  seen  him  between  seven  and  eight  p.m.  on  the  bowl- 
ing-green at  York  the  very  evening  of  the  day  the  robbery 
was  committed  in  London.  This  satisfied  the  jury,  and 
Nevison  was  acquitted.  He  got  his  sobriquet  of  "  Swift 
Nick  "  from  Charles  II. 

CLAUDE   DUVAL. 

To  this  period  belongs  the  celebrated  Claude  Duval, 
a  highwayman  of  French  extraction,  who  was  bom  at 
Domfront,  in  Normandy,  of  humble  parents,  and  brought 
up  with  the  idea  of  entering  service.  When  about  thirteen 
he  was  turned  adrift  in  the  world,  and  started  for  Paris  to 
seek  his  fortune.  On  his  way  he  fell  in  with  a  number  of 
post  horses  at  Kouen,  and  was  allowed  to  ride  one  of  them 
to  Paris.  Some  English  gentlemen,  exiled  royalists,  took  a 
fancy  to  him,  and,  at  the  Restoration,  he  crossed  to  England 
as  a  footman  to  one  of  them,  a  gentleman  of  quahty.  Young 
Duval  soon  fell  into  dissolute  ways ;  the  times  were  vicious, 
the  national  rejoicings  at  Charles's  return  had  degenerated 
into  the  worst  extravagance,  and  drunkenness  and  de- 
bauchery prevailed  on  every  side.  Duval  had  no  money 
but  what  he  could  earn,  and  it  was  easier  to  fill  his 
pockets  on  the  highway  than  with  his  wages  as  a  foot- 
man.      He    must    have    been    expressly    adapted    to    the 


334       HIGHWAYMEN  AND    MAIL    COACH  ROBBERS. 

business,  for  he  soon  made  himself  an  extraordinary  repu- 
tation. So  much  so  that  within  a  very  short  time  his 
name  became  notorious  and  stood  first  in  a  proclamation 
issued  for  the  arrest  of  certain  dangerous  highwaymen. 
Many  of  the  stories  told  of  him  are  probably  apocryphal, 
but  a  few  may  be  mentioned  to  show  the  sort  of  man  he  was. 

There  is  the  somewhat  threadbare  legend  of  the  dance 
upon  Hampstead  Heath,  when  he  stopped  a  coach  carrying 
an  aged  knight  and  his  young  wife,  as  well  as  a  considerable 
sum  in  gold.  As  the  highwayman  approached,  the  lady 
pulled  out  a  flageolet  and  played  a  tune  upon  it  charm- 
ingly. Duval  rode  up  to  the  carriage  door,  and,  suggesting 
that  she  probably  danced  as  well  as  she  played,  invited  her 
to  tread  a  "  corranto "  with  him  on  the  heath.  The 
knight  consented,  the  lady  stepped  out,  and  it  is  recorded 
that  no  London  dancing-master  could  have  done  better 
than  Duval  although  he  was  weighted  with  a  pair  of  heavy 
French  riding  boots.  When  the  knight  would  have  ridden 
away,  Duval,  protested  that  he  had  forgotten  to  pay  for 
the  music,  whereupon  the  victim  produced  £100  from 
under  the  seat  of  his  coach.  Duval  accepted  this  sum, 
declaring  that  a  generous  gift  was  worth  ten  times  the 
amount  taken  by  force,  adding  that  the  knight's  noble 
behaviour  had  saved  him  the  other  three  hundred  pounds 
that  the  highwayman  knew  were  in  the  carriage. 

There  are  other  stories  of  the  same  kind,  all  illustrating 
Duval's  courtesy,  especially  to  ladies.  Whenever  he  was  on 
the  road  and  came  across  any  country  festivities,  he  joined 
gladly  in  the  dance  and  song,  using  his  vigilance,  notwith- 
standing, in  observing  any  among  the  company  whom  he 
could  afterwards  stop  on  the  road.  On  one  occasion  he  met 
Roper,  the  master  of  the  king's  buckhounds,  in  Windsor 
Forest;  it  was  a  lonely  spot,  and  the  highwayman  ordered 
the  huntsman  to  stand  and  deliver,  then  bound  him  neck 
and  heels,  and,  leaving  the  horse  by  his  side,  rode  out  of 
the  forest.  His  depredations  were  not  Hmited  to  England, 
and  when  his  life  was  proclaimed  he  crossed  to  France, 
and  pursued  his  trade  in  and  about  Paris.     One  exploit  is 


TUB    REAL   BIGK    TUBPIN.  335 

remembered  to  his  credit :  that  of  his  robbing  a  learned  Jesuit, 
who  was  a  notable  miser,  and  whom  Duval  swindled  under  pre- 
tence of  imparting  the  secret  of  the  philosopher's  stone.  Both 
in  Paris  and  in  England,  Duval  was  no  less  famous  for  his 
successes  at  the  gaming-table  than  on  the  road.  He  seemed 
to  play  fair,  but  he  was  one  of  the  most  skilfal  cheats  and 
manipulators  of  cards  in  that  time ;  he  was  fond  of  laying 
bets,  having  astutely  prepared  to  win  them  by  studying  all 
the  facts  and  intricacies  of  the  case  on  which  he  betted.  He 
had  gained  a  considerable  smattering  of  learning,  was  an 
adept  in  mathematical  quibbles  and  scientific  tricks,  and  often 
put  forward  a  seeming  paradox  which  won  him  substantial 
wagers. 

Fate  seems  to  have  overtaken  him  soon  after  his  return 
from  France.  How  long  he  went  scot  free  is  not  recorded, 
but  he  was  carried  in  Chandos  Street,  at  the  "  Hole  in  the 
Wall,"  comniitted  to  Newgate,  condemned,  and  executed  on 
the  21st  January,  1670.  A  great  concourse  witnessed  the 
ceremony,  and  after  his  execution  he  lay  in  state  at  the 
Tangier  Tavern,  St.  Giles's,  where  numbers  of  outwardly 
respectable  people  came  to  pay  their  last  respect ;  and 
among  them  were  many  ladies  of  quality,  masked. 

DICK   TURPIN. 

A  certain  halo  of  romance  has  been  cast  around  the  name 
of  Dick  Turpin,  whom  the  novehst  has  portrayed  as  a  man  of 
chivalrous  courage  and  of  many  remarkable  adventures.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  he  was  a  very  low-class  robber  and  pilferer. 
By  trade  a  butcher,  he  simplified  his  business  transactions  by 
stealing  his  neighbours'  cattle  instead  of  buying  carcases  of 
his  own.  He  was  caught  at  this,  and  fled  into  Essex  marshes 
(Turpin  was  an  Essex  man),  where  he  joined  a  gang  of 
smugglers,  and  did  well  for  a  time.  Checked  by  the  activity 
of  the  Custom-house  ofi&cers,  he  took  next  to  stealing  deer 
ia  Epping  Forest  and  the  neighbouring  parks.  Finding  this 
unprofitable,  he  adopted  housebreaking,  with  several  con- 
federates. The  story  appears  to  be  authentic  of  his  having 
seated  an  old  woman  on  the  fire  until  she  confessed  where 


336       EIQEWAYMEN  AND    MAIL    GOAGH   BOBBERS. 

she  concealed  her  treasure.  This  was  at  Loughton,  in  Essex> 
where  the  poor  old  creature  had  the  imprudence  to  keep  a 
store  of  some  seven  or  eight  hundred  pounds,  the  whole  of 
which  the  robbers  secured.  Turpin  was  thus  the  forerunner 
of  the  famous  band  of  chauffeurs  who  terrorised  provincial 
France  during  the  revolutionary  epoch. 

The  depredations  of  Turpin  and  his  gang  were  numerous 
and  extensive.  They  robbed  right  and  left,  attacking  for 
choice  lonely  farmhouses  or  detached  country  residences, 
where  they  secured  cash,  plate,  and  other  valuables.  Presently 
the  hue  and  cry  was  raised  for  their  apprehension,  and  the 
gang  broke  up.  Turpin  determined  now  to  work  alone,  and, 
riding  down  into  Cambridgeshire,  turned  highwayman.  Near 
Cambridge  he  fell  in  with  a  young  gentleman,  well  dressed 
and  well  mounted,  whom  he  stopped,  demanding  his 
money  or  his  life.  The  would-be  victim  laughed  in  his  face, 
and  cried,  "  What !  dog  eat  dog  ?  Come,  brother  Turpin,  I 
know  you  if  you  do  not  know  me."  It  was  Tom  King,  the 
famous  gentleman  highwayman,  and  the  pair  went  into 
partnership  on  the  spot.  They  resolved  to  seek  out  some 
quiet  retreat  as  a  base  of  operations,  and  a  refuge  when 
danger  threatened.  Somewhere  between  the  King's  Oak  and 
the  Loughton  Road,  in  Epping  Forest,  they  found  a  sort  of 
cave,  large  enough  to  receive  them  and  their  horses.  The 
place  was  close  set  with  bushes  and  brambles,  which  effectually 
concealed  its  occupants  from  passers-by,  although  they  could 
see  out.  Here  they  lurked  in  wait,  and  regularly  issued  forth 
to  rob  and  plunder  all  who  seemed  worth  it.  They  went  far 
afield,  too,  and  rode  into  Suffolk  in  search  of  plunder,  return- 
ing always  to  their  forest  hiding-place.  But  even  this  became 
too  hot  for  them,  and  they  agreed  to  separate.  King  rode 
away,  but  Turpin  still  used  the  retreat  from  time  to  time. 
He  was  nearly  captured  once  by  a  gentleman's  servant,  who 
had  come  out  to  capture  him,  tempted  by  the  great  reward 
offered.  Turpin  saw  him  approaching,  and  shouted  out, 
warning  him  that  he  would  find  no  hares  in  the  forest.  "  No, 
but  I  have  found  a  Turpin,"  replied  the  man,  presenting  his 
gun.      Whereupon  Turpin   promptly  shot  him   dead.     This 


TURPIN  AND    TOM  KING.  337 

murder  raised  the  country  against  him,  and  Turpin  was 
forced  to  seek  another  place  of  concealment.  He  retired  into 
Hertfordshire,  where  King  rejoined  him,  and  they  resumed 
their  highway  robberies.  Riding  together  towards  London, 
they  overtook  a  Mr.  Major,  near  the  "  Green  Man,"  Epping, 
who  was  mounted  on  a  fine  horse,  which  Turpin  coveted,  and 
forced  him  to  exchange.  After  the  robbery,  handbills  were 
issued  advertising  for  the  lost  horse,  and  it  was  found  at 
The  Red  Lion,  Whitechapel.  A  person  came  to  claim  it, 
who  proved  to  be  King's  brother,  and  who  was  seen  to  be 
carryiag  a  whip  with  Major's  name  on  the  handle.  His  story 
was  that  he  had  been  sent  to  fetch  the  horse  by  a  man  who 
was  waiting  hard  by,  and  a  posse  of  people  started  forthwith 
to  seize  him.  It  was  King,  who  resisted  capture  for  some 
time,  but  finding  the  fight  going  against  him,  he  called  out  to 
Turpin,  who  hovered  near,  "Shoot,  Dick,  shoot,  or  we  are 
done."  Turpin  fired  his  pistol,  but  to  his  dismay  he  mortally 
wounded  King. 

Turpin  was  driven  now  to  wander  from  place  to  place 
seeking  concealment.  He  resolved  at  last  to  go  down  into 
Yorkshire,  where,  being  unknown,  he  hoped  to  evade  the 
officers  of  justice.  His  last  danger  had  been  close,  for  he  had 
been  hunted  by  Mr.  Ives,  the  king's  huntsman,  who  took  out 
two  hounds  to  track  him,  and  Turpin  only  escaped  by  cHmb- 
ing  into  an  oak  tree,  when  the  hounds  ran  past  their  quarry. 
On  his  way  northward  he  paused  at  Long  Sutton,  in  Lincoln- 
shire, where  he  stole  several  horses ;  and,  finding  that 
business  safe  and  profitable,  he  adopted  it  on  reaching 
Yorkshire.  Taking  the  name  of  John  Palmer,  he  became 
ostensibly  a  dealer  in  horses,  which  he  bought  and  sold  at 
various  fairs.  He  became  well  known  in  these  parts,  and 
popular,  joining  with  the  gentry  and  farmers  in  the  pursuit  of 
sport.  One  day  he  had  words  with  a  neighbour  about  the 
shooting  of  a  cock  in  the  farmyard.  Turpin,  forgetting  him- 
self, angrily  answered,  ''Wait  till  I  can  reload,  and  I  will 
shoot  you  too."  Some  inquiry  followed  into  Turpin's  real 
character  and  way  of  life.  It  was  rumoured  that  instead  of 
buying  horses  he  stole  them;  and  about  this  time,  some 
w 


338       HIGHWAYMEN  AND    MAIL    GOACH   BOBBERS. 

people  coming  from  Lincolnshire  claimed  a  mare  and  foal  in 
his  possession  as  their  property.  Turpin  was  unable  to  rebut 
this  charge,  nor  could  he  give  any  satisfactory  account  of 
himself,  so  he  was  committed  to  York  Castle  on  suspicion. 

Possibly  Turpin  would  never  have  been  identified  but  for 
his  own  imprudence,  and  the  strange  action  of  chance.  He 
wrote  a  letter  to  a  brother  in  Essex,  telling  him  he  was  laid 
by  the  heels  on  a  charge  of  horse-stealing,  and  imploring  him 
to  come  down  to  York  and  give  him  a  character.  As  the 
postage  had  not  been  prepaid  this  letter  was  returned  un- 
opened to  the  local  post-office.  Here  the  schoolmaster  who 
had  taught  Turpin  to  write  saw  it  by  mere  chance,  and, 
marvellous  to  relate,  recognised  the  hand.  It  may  be  re- 
marked parenthetically  that  Turpin's  brother  should  have 
known  the  writing ;  still,  the  letter  may  have  been  returned 
without  his  having  seen  it.  In  any  case,  the  schoolmaster 
carried  the  letter  to  a  magistrate,  who  broke  it  open,  and 
guessing  what  had  happened,  sent  the  schoolmaster  down  to 
York.  There  was  no  hope  for  Turpin  after  this.  He  was 
ftiUy  committed  for  trial,  and  eventually  executed.  His 
detection  in  York  caused  considerable  sensation  at  the  time, 
for  his  evil  character  was  now  very  generally  known.  Refer- 
ence has  been  already  made*  to  his  apocryphal  ride  to  York, 
an  exploit  belonging  rightly  to  Nevison. 

JOHN   EANN. 

"  Sixteen-string  Jack "  was  the  sobriquet  of  a  famous 
highwayman,  named  John  Rann,  who  flourished  in  the  latter 
end  of  last  century.  He  had  begun  life  in  a  stable,  was  then 
advanced  to  post-boy,  and  became  in  due  course  a  gentleman's 
coachman.  This  training  gave  him  a  sound  knowledge  of 
horseflesh,  and  greatly  helped  him  when  he  took  to  the 
highway.  Having  lost  his  place  he  was  driven  to  thieving, 
and  from  picking  pockets  rose  to  be  a  highwayman.  One  of 
his  first  exploits  was  to  rob  a  traveller  near  the  nine-mile 
stone  on  the  Hounslow  road,  from  whom  he  took  money 
and  a  watch.     The  latter  was    soon  afterwards  seen  in   the 

*  Seepage  332. 


"  SIXTEEN-STBING   JACK."  339 

possession  of  a  woman,  who  said  she  had  got  it  from  Eann. 
His  arrest  followed,  and  he  was  sent  for  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey. 
Here  he  first  appeared  in  the  brave  apparel  he  afterwards 
affected  :  he  appeared  with  an  enormous  bouquet  in  the  breast 
of  his  coat,  his  irons  were  tied  up  with  blue  ribbons,  and  he 
had  eight  strings  at  each  knee  of  his  breeches,  and  thus 
gained  his  appellation  of  "  Sixteen-string  Jack." 

The  first  trial  ended  in  acquittal,  but  not  many  weeks 
afterwards  he  was  again  arraigned  for  burglary,  and  again 
acquitted.  His  career  was  brief,  however,  and  he  would 
hardly  be  remembered  but  for  his  bravado  in  showing  him- 
self in  his  peculiar  attire  at  many  public  places,  attracting 
much  attention,  and  openly  proclaiming  himself  "Sixteen- 
string  Jack."  His  last  affair  was  in  this  same  year,  1774, 
when  he  "  worked  "  the  Uxbridge  road  in  association  with  one 
William  Collier.  In  company  they  robbed  Dr.  William  Bell, 
chaplain  to  the  Princess  Amelia.  As  the  reverend  doctor  was 
riding  near  Ealing  he  was  overtaken  by  two  men  of  suspicious 
appearance,  one  of  whom  suddenly  rode  across  his  front  and 
demanded  his  money  with  the  usual  threats.  Dr.  Bell  gave 
all  he  had :  Is.  6d.  and  a  common  watch  in  a  tortoiseshell 
case.  Watches  were  fatal  to  Rann,  and  this  second  time- 
keeper led  to  Rann's  arrest.  It  was  offered  the  same  evening 
for  sale  at  a  pawnbroker's  in  the  Oxford  road,  who  impounded 
it,  and  finding  the  maker's  name  traced  it  to  Dr.  Bell.  It  was 
proved  that  Rann  had  been  seen  at  Acton  within  twenty 
minutes  of  the  time  of  the  robbery.  This  evidence  sufficed 
to  hang  him.  He  showed  the  utmost  unconcern  during  his 
trial,  and  appeared  at  the  bar  dressed  out,  as  usual,  in  an 
extravagant  manner.  He  wore  a  brand-new  suit  of  pea-green 
cloth,  a  ruffled  shirt,  and  a  hat  bound  round  with  silver  strings. 
He  appears  to  have  counted  a  little  too  confidently  upon 
acquittal,  for  he  had  actually  ordered  supper  for  a  large  party 
to  celebrate  his  release. 

WILLIAM   PAGE. 

This  notorious  highwayman  was  the  son  of  a  farmer  in 
Hampton,  who  sent  him  to  London  to  complete  his  education 


340       lilOHWAYMEN  AND    MAIL    GOAGS   BOBBERS. 

with  a  cousin,  a  haberdasher,  who  soon  grew  sick  of  him. 
Vanity  was  Page's  consuming  passion;  he  was  a  coxcomb, 
inordinately  fond  of  fine  clothes.  When  his  cousin  stopped 
his  credit  with  the  tailors.  Page  sat  up  at  nights  with  a 
dark  lantern,  continuing  to  alter  his  garments  into  the 
prevailing  fashion.  To  provide  himself  with  funds  he  pro- 
ceeded to  rob  the  till  in  the  shop,  thus  securing  £15,  for 
which  the  servants  were  blamed.  The  haberdasher,  anxious 
to  bring  home  the  theft,  put  a  number  of  marked  guineas  in 
the  till,  and  when  it  was  again  robbed  he  insisted  on  searching 
every  pocket  in  the  house.  The  marked  money  or  part  of  it 
was  found  with  William  Page,  whereupon  he  was  turned  out 
of  doors,  and  could  never  obtain  forgiveness. 

Neither  his  kinsman  nor  his  parents,  to  whom  he  applied, 
would  supply  him  with  funds,  and  as  he  was  sadty  in  want 
he  took  service  with  a  gentleman,  whom  he  accompanied  to 
London  by  the  road.  They  were  stopped  by  a  highwayman, 
and  it  was  now  that  Page  first  conceived  the  idea  of  adopting 
this  profitable  profession.  Yet  he  lived  on  with  his  master 
for  quite  a  year  without  taking  to  evil  courses.  It  was  not 
till  he  was  reduced  again  to  destitution,  after  a  long  illness, 
that  he  followed  his  bent  towards  highway  robbery. 

His  first  expedition  was  on  the  Kentish  road.  He  stopped 
the  Canterbury  coach  at  Shooter's  Hill,  and  eased  the 
passengers  of  their  watches  and  money  to  the  value  of  forty 
pounds.  After  that  he  rode  through  Kent  reconnoitring  the 
roads  and  approaches  to  London,  gaining  knowledge  that  was 
of  much  service  to  him.  He  followed  up  this  first  observation 
by  others  more  extensive,  and  gradually  prepared  a  good  map 
for  his  private  use  of  the  roads  twenty  miles  around  London. 
His  operations  were  extensive,  and  he  soon  acquired  con- 
siderable sums.  When  thus  in  funds  he  took  good  lodgings 
near  Grosvenor  Square,  frequented  the  billiard  and  gaming 
tables,  and,  being  fortunate,  added  largely  to  his  store,  without 
needing  to  go  on  the  road.  When  the  luck  changed,  he  rode 
towards  Hampton  Court,  stopped  a  post  chaise,  and  secured 
watches,  money,  and  a  diamond  ring.  After  this  he  grew 
more    and    more  bold,    and    had   soon   gathered   up   some 


A    "CSANOE    ARTISTE."  341 

£200.  His  ambition  was  still  to  cut  a  dash,  and  he  now  set 
up  as  a  law  student  in  Lincoln's  Inn,  where  he  made  many 
genteel  acquaintances,  and  became  popular  in  society.  He 
learnt  to  dance,  he  sported  the  smartest  apparel,  he  read  the 
fashionable  novels  of  the  day,  and  became  a  great  ladies'  man. 
He  paid  devoted  court  to  one  in  particular  at  Hampstead 
whom  he  might  have  married;  the  wedding  clothes  had  indeed 
been  bought,  and  the  day  fixed,  when  someone  recognised 
him  as  having  been  in  service,  and  the  match  was  broken  off 
abruptly. 

Page  after  this  disappointment  became  more  systematic 
and  more  daring  in  his  robberies.  His  map  gave  him  the 
most  intimate  knowledge  of  the  environs  of  London  for 
twenty  miles  around,  with  all  the  roads  and  byepaths  and 
places  of  resort,  iie  travelled  always,  at  the  outset,  in  a 
phaeton  and  pair  driven  by  a  confederate,  and  in  this  respect- 
able conveyance  his  real  character  was  not  suspected.  He 
used  to  dress  in  a  lace  or  embroidered  frock  and  wear  his 
hair  tied  behind.  When  he  had  been  driven  a  distance 
from  London  he  would  turn  into  some  unfrequented  place, 
and  having  disguised  himself  in  other  clothes,  with  a  grizzle 
or  black  wig,  he  would  saddle  one  of  the  carriage  horses,  and 
riding  to  the  main  road,  commit  a  robbery.  This  done,  he 
hastened  back  to  the  carriage,  resumed  his  usual  dress,  and 
drove  back  to  London.  He  was  frequently  cautioned  to  be 
on  his  guard  against  one  particularly  daring  highwayman 
(himselO  who  might  meet  and  rob  him.  "  No,  no,"  Page 
would  reply,  "  he  cannot  do  it  a  second  time,  unless  he  robs 
me  of  my  coat  and  shirt,  for  he  has  taken  all  my  money 
already." 

He  had  once  an  escape  of  a  very  remarkable  kind.  Having 
just  robbed  a  gentleman  near  Putney,  he  was  surprised  by 
certain  persons,  who  pursued  him  so  closely  that  he  was 
obliged  to  seek  safety  by  crossing  the  Thames.  In  the 
interim  some  haymakers  crossing  the  field  where  Page  had 
left  his  carriage,  found  and  carried  ofi  his  gay  apparel, 
and  the  persons  who  had  pursued  him  meetiag  them,  charged 
them  with  being  accomplices  in  the  robbery.     A  report  of 


342       HIQHWAYMEN  AND   MAIL    COAGH   BOBBERS. 

this  affair  being  soon  spread,  Page  heard  of  it,  and  throwing 
his  clothes  into  a  well,  he  went  back  almost  naked,  claimed 
the  carriage  as  his  own,  declaring  that  the  men  had  stripped 
him  and  thrown  him  into  a  ditch.  All  the  parties  now  went 
before  a  justice  of  the  peace  ;  and  the  maker  of  the  carriage 
having  been  called  testified  that  it  was  the  property  of  Mr. 
Page.  The  poor  haymakers  were  committed  for  trial,  but 
obtained  their  libertj'  after  the  next  assizes,  as  Page  did  not 
appear  to  prosecute. 

These  cases  sufficiently  show  the  ingenuity  and  daring 
with  which  Page  carried  out  his  depredations.  All,  however, 
that  he  made  by  pillage  he  lost  at  play.  He  frequented  the 
gaming-tables  of  all  the  fashionable  provincial  resorts — Bath, 
Tunbridge,  Scarborough,  and  Newmarket — where  he  was 
thought  to  be  a  man  of  fortune  addicted  to  heavy  gambling. 
At  length  he  joined  forces  with  an  old  schoolfellow,  Darwell; 
and  these  two  within  three  years  committed  over  three 
hundred  robberies.  About  this  time  Page  heard  of  the 
serious  illness  of  a  relative  who  had  promised  to  make  him 
his  heir.  Taking  passage  by  boat  to  Scotland  so  as  to  be  near 
him  on  his  deathbed,  Page  was  shipwrecked  and  landed  in  a 
destitute  condition  only  to  find  that  his  relative  had  already 
died  without  making  any  provision  for  him.  Foiled  thus  of 
his  hopes  of  a  settled  income,  he  and  Darwell  recommenced 
operations,  and  in  the  course  or  six  weeks  committed  between 
twenty  and  thirty  new  robberies  on  the  high  roads  round  and 
about  London.  At  length  information  was  given  that  Darwell 
might  be  met  with  on  the  Tunbridge  road,  and  he  was  even- 
tually apprehended  near  Sevenoaks.  Brought  before  the 
magistrate  he  begged  to  be  admitted  as  evidence  for  the 
Crown,  and  his  request  being  granted  he  made  a  full  con- 
fession of  all  the  outrages  perpetrated  by  him  and  Page, 
particularly  mentioning  the  chief  houses  of  entertainment 
used  by  the  latter  on  the  road.  The  officers,  acting  on  the 
information,  soon  apprehended  Page  with  all  his  arms  and 
paraphernalia  upon  him.  He  was  remanded  to  Newgate  and 
remained  there  for  some  months.  He  was  acquitted  on  the 
first  indictment  for  want  of  evidence ;  but  being  tried  again 


WILLIAM  PARSONS.  343 

at  Rochester  for  a  second  robbery  he  was  convicted,  received 
sentence  of  death,  and  was  executed  at  Maidstone  on  the  6th 
AprU,  1758. 

WILLIAM  PAKSONS. 

The  "  road "  was  a  favourite  resource  for  impecunious 
gentlemen  willing  to  hazard  their  necks  for  a  little  ready  cash 
and  a  generally  short-lived,  rollicking  career.  The  criminal 
records  of  the  latter  end  of  last  century  contain  many  in- 
stances of  this  :  of  youths  of  good  birth,  with  reputable  con- 
nections, who  became  highwaymen,  and  died  in  most  cases 
upon  the  gallows. 

Prominent  among  these  is  that  youngest  son  of  a  Not- 
tinghamshire baronet,  who  is  honoured  in  all  contemporary 
accounts  with  the  title  of  William  Parsons,  Esquire.  He  was 
sent  to  Eton  at  fourteen,  where  he  was  soon  noted  for  his 
petty  thefts  from  his  schoolfellows,  and  especially  for  a  trick 
he  played  on  his  own  brother.  Their  aunt,  the  Duchess  of 
Northumberland,  had  given  them  each  a  five-guinea  piece 
which  they  were  to  show  her  when  she  met  them.  William 
Parsons  soon  changed  his  and  then  stole  his  brother's.  The 
poor  victim  (who  afterwards  became  a  clergyman)  was  greatly 
distressed  when  he  next  faced  his  aimt,  not  haviag  the  coin, 
while  WilUam  triumphed  over  him.  The  Duchess  was  in- 
clined to  beheve  the  elder  brother's  story  to  the  effect  that 
he  had  the  coin  in  his  pocket  on  going  to  bed,  but  that  in  the 
morning  it  was  gone,  and  she  begged  Mr.  Bland,  the  head 
master  of  Eton,  to  make  diligent  inquiry  into  the  case.  Not 
many  five-guinea  pieces  were  in  circulation  in  the  smaU  town 
of  Eton,  and  the  shop  at  which  WiUiam  Parsons  had  changed 
his  was  soon  found.  For  this  disgraceful  offence  he  was 
"  whipped,"  says  the  chronicle,  "  tUl  the  skin  was  flea'd  off 
his  back  and  afterwards  rubbed  with  pickle ;  yet  not  all  the 
punishments  he  suffered,  tho'  ever  so  severe,  could  ever 
reclaim  this  unhappy  man  or  eradicate  that  natural  pro- 
pensity for  wickedness." 

Parsons  was  soon  afterwards  removed  from  Eton  and  sent 
to  live  with  an  uncle.  Captain  Dutton,  at  Epsom,  from  whom 


344       HIGHWAYMEN  AND    MAIL    COACH   ROBBERS. 

he  had  fine  expectations,  but  his  profligacy  ruined  his  chances, 
and  he  was  soon  expelled  Irom  his  uncle's  house.  Another 
relative  took  him  in,  but  "  here  playing  several  sUppery  tricks, 
his  friends  were  at  last  determined  to  send  him  to  sea,  the 
general  resource  for  such  sort  of  sparks."  He  sailed  on  board 
H.M.S.  Brake  to  the  West  Indies,  where  he  was  out  of  mis- 
chief for  a  time,  but  returning  to  England  was  cleaned  out  at 
the  gambling-tables ;  he  levied  contributions  on  his  aunt,  the 
Duchess  of  Northumberland,  from  whose  dressing-room  he 
stole  a  miniature  set  in  gold  that  hung  to  her  watch  chain. 
The  Duchess  offered  a  large  reward  for  its  recovery  and  Parsons 
would  gladly  have  given  it  up,  but  could  find  no  means  of 
restoring  it  without  drawing  down  suspicion,  and  he  soon 
sold  it  for  a  quarter  of  the  sum  advertised  as  a  reward. 

Another  theft  that  might  have  landed  him  in  gaol  was 
that  of  a  pair  of  gold  shoe-buckles  which  he  secured  in  the 
assembly  rooms  at  Buxton — the  property  of  a  Mr.  Graham. 
Having  appropriated  them  unperceived.  Parsons  broke  them 
up  and  sold  them  next  day  to  a  goldsmith  in  Nottingham. 
Mr.  Graham  having  advertised  his  loss,  the  goldsmith 
reported  that  he  had  bought  the  pieces  of  a  pair  of  buckles 
from  Parsons,  and  they  were  immediately  identified.  Had 
not  Sir  William  Parsons  interposed  and  made  up  the 
matter  with  Mr.  Graham,  rather  than  have  his  son  publicly 
disgraced,  it  would  have  gone  hard  with  the  thief 

Once  more,  after  certain  gallant  adventures  in  town,  where 
he  shamelessly  robbed  a  too  confiding  lady.  Parsons  went  to 
sea,  now  on  board  H.M.S.  Romney,  Captain  Medley,  RN. 
During  this  cruise  his  habits  did  not  improve ;  he  played 
continually  and  with  false  dice  or  marked  cards,  and  became 
so  discredited  that  none  of  his  brother  officers  would  keep 
him  company.  He  had  an  ingenious  way,  too,  of  misappro- 
priating ladies'  jewellery,  snuff-boxes,  rings,  and  so  forth, 
which  he  pretended  to  admire,  and  which  "  he  had  no  sooner 
in  his  hand  than,  with  a  genteel  air,  he  put  them  in  his 
pocket,  saying  they  were  mighty  pretty  things,  and  he  would 
keep  them  for  their  sakes,  and  so  laughing  the  ladies  out  of 
them,  he  used  afterwards  to  convert  them  into  cash." 


THE    GENTLEMAN  THIEF.  345 

Parsons  did  not  stay  long  in  the  navy,  and  on  his  discharge 
resumed  his  dissolute,  extravagant  life  in  London,  where  he 
played  high,  and  losing  much  was  put  to  many  fraudulent 
shifts  to  make  up  his  income.  Being  overburdened  with 
debts  and  "pretty  near  exhausted  as  to  cash,"  his  friends 
importuned  him  to  go  out  as  a  writer  in  the  African  Company, 
but  not  liking  the  climate  he  passed  on  to  Jamaica,  where  he 
stayed  some  time.  Here  he  forged  a  letter  purporting  to  be 
from  his  aunt,  in  which  the  Duchess  agreed  to  be  answerable 
for  any  sum  he  raised  as  far  as  £70.  He  got  the  whole  amount 
from  a  merchant,  and  returned  to  England  very  much  about 
the  time  that  the  draft  arrived,  when  the  Duchess  repudiated 
it,  and  declared  she  had  never  written  any  letter  to  Parsons. 
This  fraud  so  much  incensed  her  that  she  disinherited  him, 
and  left  £25,000  she  had  meant  for  him  to  his  sister.  The 
defrauded  merchant  would  have  arrested  him,  but  he  climbed 
out  upon  the  roof  of  a  house,  and  so  escaped. 

The  next  move  was  a  fortunate  marriage  with  a  young 
lady  who  had  £12,000.  He  married  her  in  1740,  and  re- 
ceived £4,000,  the  balance,  £8,000,  being  invested  by  his  wife's 
friends  in  "  Exchequer  tallies,"  or  annuities.  Now,  too,  he 
joined  the  army,  purchasing  a  commission  in  Cholmondeley's 
regiment,  and  making  "a  very  gay  appearance."  He  lived 
"  in  a  genteel  manner  in  Poland  Street,  but  stUl  following 
the  pernicious  practice  of  gaming,"  he  lost  his  £4,000,  and 
persuaded  his  wife  to  sell  a  part  of  her  annuities.  In  effecting 
this  sale  he  took  in  a  Jew  broker,  and  disposed  of  a  part  of 
the  annuities  twice  over. 

Within  three  years  Parsons,  now  a  Ueutenant,  was  ordered 
to  Flanders  with  his  regiment,  and  found  new  openings  for  his 
villainy.  One  was  to  contract  for  the  whole  of  the  soldiers' 
clothing,  and  when  he  got  it  to  abscond  to  England,  where  he 
sold  the  lot.  This  finished  his  military  career,  for  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland  dismissed  him  summarily,  and  applied  the  price 
of  his  commission  to  the  making  good  of  his  frauds.  Now, 
being  separated  from  his  wife,  who  had  gone  back  to  her  friends, 
he  set  up  in  Panton  Square,  having  furnished  the  house 
"genteely"  from   the  best  tradesmen,  including  goldsmiths. 


346       HIGHWAYMEN   AND   MAIL    COACH   BOBBERS. 

who  supplied  a  quantity  of  silver  plate,  but  when  they  came 
to  be  paid  they  found  the  place  shut  up  as  if  uninhabited.  Yet 
Parsons  was  there,  and  remained  in  it  the  best  part  of  a  year, 
entering  and  leaving  the  house  by  a  private  door  through  the 
stable  yard.  The  landlord  broke  in  at  last,  and  found  the 
house  all  but  empty ;  Parsons  had  sold  ofi"  everything. 

He  next  devised  "  a  big  base  design  "  of  raising  funds  by 
agreeing  with  one  who  had  been  a  footman  to  run  off  with 
his  sister.  She  had  £25,000  to  her  fortune,  and  the  man 
when  he  secured  it  was  to  pay  Parsons  a  handsome  com- 
mission. Miss  Parsons,  who  lodged  in  Spring  Gardens,  was  to 
be  waylaid,  seized  and  carried  off  by  force;  her  maid  having 
been  bought  over  to  assist  at  the  price  of  £500.  The 
future  husband  was,  however,  indiscreet ;  he  went  to  a 
milliner's  to  bespeak  some  "  fine  Dresden  ruffled  shirts,"  and 
openly  announced  his  coming  marriage  with  the  wealthy 
Miss  Parsons,  niece  and  heiress  of  the  Duchess  of  North- 
umberland. But  a  lady  came  in,  and  overhearing  this,  exposed 
the  trick,  for  the  fellow  had  once  been  her  footman.  Miss 
Parsons  was  warned  to  be  on  her  guard,  and  she  moved  her 
lodging,  having  learnt  what  was  in  the  wind  from  her  maid, 
who  confessed  the  whole  affair. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  follow  this  unprincipled  swindler 
through  all  the  nefarious  schemes  and  devices  he  invented  to 
obtain  money  from  the  confiding — bills  forged,  goods  fraudu- 
lently obtained,  innocent  girls  deceived  with  pretended  mar- 
riages ;  when  he  was  committed  to  Maidstone  for  passing  a 
spurious  note  he  imposed  upon  a  fellow  prisoner,  whom  he 
persuaded,  after  receiving  a  bribe,  to  dig  for  jewels  in  the 
garden  of  an  empty  house  in  Chelsea,  where,  of  course,  nothing 
was  found.  His  last  offence  condemned  Parsons  to  be  sent 
to  the  Plantations,  and  he  was  taken  to  Maryland  with  other 
transports.  On  the  voyage  out  he  so  ingratiated  himself  with 
the  captain  as  to  be  allowed  to  eat  at  his  table,  and  Lord  Fairfax, 
the  Governor,  on  his  arrival,  took  him  into  his  own  house 
and  treated  him  like  a  son.  This  kindness  he  repaid  by  theft, 
and  having  laid  hands  on  £70,  he  stole  off  to  England,  landing  at 
Whitehaven,  "  at  which  place  he  again  began  his  old  pranks." 


JAMES    MAG  LEAN.  347 

None  were  suflBciently  remunerative;  his  losses  at  play 
were  very  high,  and  being  nearly  cleaned  out  he  resolved  to 
take  to  robbery  on  the  highway.  The  country  he  worked 
was  between  Turnham  Green  and  Hounslow  Heath,  and  here 
he  met  his  fate.  Information  had  reached  him  of  a  large  sum 
going  to  London  by  this  road,  and  he  laid  in  wait  for  it. 
Presently  two  gentlemen  came  across  the  heath  in  a  post 
chaise,  one  of  whom  knew  him,  and  bade  him  keep  his 
distance.  Parsons  did  not  dare  to  attack,  but  only  hovered 
around  hoping  to  take  the  two  at  a  disadvantage,  but  having 
no  opportunity.  At  last  he  unwarily  entered  the  town  of 
Hounslow  with  them,  when  these  gentlemen  called  upon  him 
to  surrender.  They  took  him  to  the  Rose  and  Crown, 
where  he  was  disarmed  and  searched;  in  his  pockets  a 
quantity  of  powder  and  ball  was  discovered.  The  landlord 
also  bore  witness  that  Parsons  answered  the  description  of  the 
highwayman  who  had  long  infested  the  neighbouring  roads. 

He  was  soon  committed  to  Newgate,  and  from  the  first 
there  was  no  hope  for  him.  He  lay  there  five  months,  during 
which  he  wrote  many  letters  and  petitions,  one  of  the  latter 
to  the  king  himself,  others  were  to  his  wife,  his  relations,  and 
influential  friends,  all  to  no  purpose ;  he  was  thought  too 
deserving  of  death  to  be  reprieved,  and  he  suffered  on  the 
11th  of  February,  1750. 

JAMES   MACLEAN. 

This  was  another  "  gentleman  "  highwayman  who  achieved 
great  notoriety  about  the  same  time  as  Parsons,  and  who, 
although  not  high  born,  came  of  decent,  respectable  folk ;  his 
father,  Laughlin  Maclean,  was  a  Presbyterian  minister  at 
Monaghan,  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  and  his  eldest  brother 
was  also  in  orders,  and  became  pastor  to  the  English  congre- 
gation at  the  Hague.  James  was  brought  up  for  a  merchant, 
was  taught  Latin,  and  became  "  a  perfect  master  of  writing 
and  accompts,"  but  his  father  died  as  he  was  on  the  point 
of  putting  him  with  a  Scotch  merchant  at  Rotterdam.  Mr. 
Maclean  left  no  great  store,  but  there  was  enough  to  establish 
James  in  business ;  the  youth,  however,  enchanted  at  becoming 


348       HiaSWAYMEN  AND   MAIL    GOAGE   BOBBERS. 

his  own  master  at  eighteen,  "  forgot  all  thoughts  of  a  Dutch 
Compting  House,  equipped  himself  in  the  gayest  dress  he 
could  procure,  bought  a  fine  gelding  and  set  up  as  a  man 
of  fashion." 

The  little  town  of  Monaghan  was  too  narrow  for  his 
ambition,  and  he  soon  moved  to  Dublin,  where  he  designed 
to  assure  his  fortune  by  a  rich  marriage.  But  he  only  ran 
through  his  money,  making  no  better  acquaintances  but 
lacqueys,  ostlers,  and  some  raw  boys  at  the  university,  and  in 
eleven  months  he  was  quite  penniless.  He  returned  on  foot 
to  Monaghan  to  be  the  laughing-stock  of  the  place;  his 
relatives  would  have  nothing  to  say  to  him:  he  was  even 
refused  credit  for  a  dinner,  and  must  have  starved  had  not  a 
gentleman  passing  through  offered  him  the  place  of  servant, 
his  man  having  just  died. 

He  was  ill-fitted  for  a  footman,  with  a  saucy  tongue  and 
high  notions  of  his  gentility,  and  was  soon  discharged.  But 
failing  to  get  any  help  beyond  a  few  pounds  from  his  brother 
at  the  Hague,  he  again  took  service,  now  as  butler  to  a  family 
in  Cork,  which  place  he  also  lost  through  misconduct.  His 
first  master  now  generously  helped  him  to  return  to  London, 
where  he  thought  of  joining  the  array,  but  would  accept  nothing 
but  a  pair  of  colours,  which  he  had  no  money  to  buy.  He 
would  have  gone  to  France  as  a  soldier  iu  the  Irish  legion, 
but  had  Protestant  scruples  as  to  serving  a  Catholic  king. 
He  would  assuredly  have  starved  but  for  his  marriage  with 
the  daughter  of  an  innkeeper  and  horse-dealer,  with  whom  he 
received  £500.  With  this  capital  he  started  as  a  grocer  and 
chandler,  and  might  have  done  well  but  for  his  love  of 
pleasure  and  weak  desire  to  appear  as  a  gentleman. 

Then  his  wife  died,  and  selling  off  all  he  possessed,  he 
sought  to  replace  her  by  resuming  his  laced  clothes  and 
seeking  another  and  a  better  fortune.  He  hoped  to  win  an 
heiress  by  "  the  gracefulness  of  his  person  and  the  elegance  of 
his  appearance."  He  went  to  Tunbridge  Wells,  passed  off  as 
a  fashionable  beau,  and  had  almost  succeeded,  when  an 
unfortunate  quarrel  with  an  apothecary  led  to  the  exposure 
of  his  early  vicissitudes  as  a  footman  and  a  grocer.     He  was 


ABOVE   HIS   STATION.  349 

everywhere  given  the  cold  shoulder,  and  returned  to  London 
with  no  more  than  live  guineas  in  his  pocket.  His  friends 
now  got  enough  money  together  to  send  him  to  Jamaica,  but 
when  they  rashly  entrusted  it  to  his  own  keeping  he  promptly 
lost  the  whole  at  the  gaming-tables. 

An  Irish  doctor,  one  Plunkett,  "  who  had  lived  all  his  hfe- 
time  on  the  sharp,"  with  whom  he  had  had  dealings,  now 
suggested  that  Maclean  should  take  to  the  road.  "They 
agreed  upon  a  kind  of  co-partnership,  and  hired  two  horses." 
Plunkett  provided  pistols,  for  he  was  not  new  to  the  business, 
and  then  lay  in  wait  for  graziers  returning  from  Smithfield 
Market,  one  of  whom  they  robbed  without  resistance  of  sixty 
or  seventy  pounds.  Maclean  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  work; 
although  they  both  wore  "Venetian  masques."  "This  thin 
covering,"  says  the  chronicler,  "  could  not  stifle  conscience  in 
Maclean,  nor  animate  him  to  courage."  He  was  with  Plunkett, 
but  had  no  hand  in  it,  for  his  fear  was  so  great  he  had  no 
power  to  utter  a  word,  nor  to  draw  his  pistol.  "After  the 
robbery  he  rode  for  miles  without  speaking ;  when  they 
reached  an  inn  he  hid  himself,  and  seemed  afraid  of  his  very 
shadow." 

Their  next  attempt  was  against  the  St.  Alban's  coach, 
and  Maclean  engaged  in  it  with  marked  reluctance.  At 
last,  goaded  by  his  companion's  taunts,  he  said,  "needs 
must  when  the  devil  drives ;  I  am  out  of  shoes  and  must  don 
boots."  In  the  attack  he  behaved  "in  so  distracted  a  manner" 
that  it  almost  failed.  Afterwards,  at  Richmond,  where  they 
took  refuge,  he  "  had  as  much  the  horrors  as  at  London ; "  "  no 
rest,  no  peace  of  mind,  was  suUen,  sulky,  and  perplexed 
what  course  to  pursue." 

Yet  Plunkett  kept  him  busy,  and  during  the  next  six 
months  they  had  committed  alone  or  together  some  six- 
teen robberies,  in  Hyde  Park,  near  Marylebone,  or  within 
twenty  miles  of  London,  and  got  some  large  prizes.  They 
rode  down  towards  Chester,  too,  and  waylaid  several  parties 
between  Stony  Stratford  and  Whitchurch,  but  their  greatest 
.haul  was  after  their  return  to  town,  where  they  learnt  that 
an  officer  of  the  East  India  Company's  service  was  bringing 


350       HIGHWAYMEN   AND   MAIL    OOAGH   ROBBERS. 

a  large  sum  of  money  to  London,  and  stopped  him  near 
Greenwich.  After  this  Maclean  paid  a  short  visit  to  his 
brother  at  the  Hague,  while  Plunkett  looked  about  and 
prepared  for  fresh  enterprises. 

The  pair  were  now  pretty  well  known  about  St.  James's, 
"  as  well  as  any  gentlemen  that  lived  in  that  quarter," 
wrote  Horace  Walpole,  "who  perhaps  go  upon  the  road 
too."  Walpole  himself  had  been  robbed  by  them  of  a  watch, 
and  a  pistol  having  gone  off  in  the  encounter  the  bullet  had 
grazed  his  cheekbone.  They  had,  however,  nearly  come 
to  the  end  of  their  tether.  On  the  26th  June,  1750,  riding 
by  Tumham  Green,  they  came  up  with  the  Salisbury  coach 
with  five  male  passengers  and  one  female.  They  obliged 
the  men  to  descend  one  by  one  and  robbed  them  of  all 
they  had,  the  lady  was  not  ill-treated,  and  they  only  took 
what  she  chose  to  offer.  After  this  Maclean  was  foolish 
enough  to  return  for  the  cloak  bags  which  were  in  the 
boot  of  the  coach,  and  these  led  to  his  arrest.  For  that 
same  day  (on  which  they  also  robbed  the  Earl  of  Eglin- 
ton  of  only  seven  guineas)  Maclean  sent  to  a  Jew  sales- 
man to  call  and  look  at  some  clothes  he  had  to  sell. 
These  were  part  of  the  contents  of  the  cloak  bag,  and  they 
were  presently  identified  with  certain  effects  for  which  one 
of  the  victims  had  advertised.  Maclean  was  yet  more  un- 
lucky, for  he  had  stripped  the  gold  lace  off  a  coat  and 
offered  it  for  sale  to  the  very  lace  man  who  had  supplied  it. 

When  apprehended  he  strongly  denied  his  guilt,  then 
made  full  confession,  hoping  to  be  accepted  as  king's 
evidence  against  Plunkett,  and  when  this  was  refused, 
behaved  "  in  a  most  dastardly  and  pusillanimous  manner, 
whimpering  and  crying  like  a  whipt  schoolboy."  He  tried 
to  retract  his  confession  when  brought  to  trial,  but  the 
jury  found  him  guilty  without  leaving  the  court.  He  was 
sentenced  to  death  and  suffered  at  Tyburn. 

GALLOPING   DICK. 

Richard  Ferguson,  who  gained  this  sobriquet,  was  of 
the   same    stamp   as   Sixteen-string  Jack.       The   son    of    a 


"QALLOPING  BIGK."  351 

gentleman's  valet,  lie  was  taken  as  helper,  and  being  a 
smart,  active  lad,  was  soon  advanced  to  the  rank  of  postillion, 
which  in  due  course  took  him  to  London.  But  here  he 
fell  into  bad  ways,  and  lost  both  his  place  and  his  char- 
acter. After  frequenting  public-houses  and  low  haunts, 
making  many  vicious  acquaintances,  and  falling,  as  it 
seemed,  beyond  hope  of  recovery,  he  was  rescued  for  a 
time  by  obtaining  a  billet  with  a  livery-stable  keeper  in 
Piccadilly.  By  degrees  he  rehabilitated  himself,  and  so 
pleased  his  master  that  at  the  latter's  death  he  found  that 
he  had  inherited  a  legacy  of  £50. 

This  proved  his  ruin.  It  seemed  untold  wealth,  but  it 
was  soon  squandered  in  riotous  living.  Again  Ferguson 
sought  service,  and  found  it  in  his  old  line  as  postiUion. 
The  roads  he  travelled  were  in  and  about  the  metropolis, 
and  one  night  he  fell  in  with  the  famous  Jerry  Abershaw, 
the  highwayman,  with  whom  he  was  slightly  acquainted. 
Abershaw  knew  that  his  life  was  in  Ferguson's  hands,  and 
set  some  of  his  companions  to  corrupt  him.  He  was  in- 
vited to  supper  and  induced,  after  a  night  spent  in  revelry, 
to  become  one  of  their  number.  At  first,  however,  it  was 
considered  best  to  employ  him  only  as  an  informer  and 
spy;  he  knew  all  the  neighbouring  roads  well,  and,  still 
working  as  a  postillion,  he  could  give  early  news  of  any 
profitable  business.  In  this  way  he  led  many  of  those  he 
drove  straight  into  the  mouth  of  the  highwaymen,  who 
thus  secured  considerable  booty.  But  Ferguson's  collusion 
was  suspected,  and  he  presently  lost  his  place  as  postiUion. 

Now  he  threw  himself  eagerly  into  the  more  daring 
business,  and  took  to  the  road  himself  His  courage  was 
remarkable,  his  knowledge  of  horses  invaluable,  and  as 
he  was  always  well  mounted  and  rode  at  top  speed,  he 
gained  the  title  of  "Galloping  Dick."  Again  and  again 
he  escaped  when  the  pursuers  were  close  on  his  heels, 
and  once  in  an  aifair  off  Edgware  Road,  while  two  of  his 
companions  were  captured,  he  galloped  clear  away.  It 
was  supposed  that  he  was  concerned  in  almost  every  im. 
portant  highway  robbery  for  many  years.     He  was  highly 


352       HIGHWAYMEN  AND    MAIL    GOACH   BOBBERS. 

esteemed  by  his  confederates,  and  his  name  was  a  terror 
to  the  travelling  public.  He  was  frequently  arrested  and 
brought  to  trial,  but,  strange  to  say,  as  often  acquitted.  At 
last  he  was  taken  red-handed,  near  Aylesbury,  having  just 
committed  a  very  daring  robbery.  There  was  no  question 
now  of  his  guilt;  he  was  arraigned,  and,  on  convincing 
evidence,  sentenced  to  death. 

ROBBING  THE    MAIL. 

When  improved  communications  and  the  establishment 
of  mounted  patrols  along  the  highways  checked  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  gentlemen  of  the  road,  another  class  of 
depredators  came  into  fashion.  As  overt  force  was  no 
longer  possible,  artifice  and  stratagem  were  employed.  It 
was  still  necessary  in  banking  and  commercial  transactions 
to  transmit  considerable  sums  in  cash  to  the  provinces 
from  the  capital,  and  vice  versd,  so  that  there  was  much 
tempting  spoil  constantly  in  transit  along  the  road.  Some 
very  clever  robberies  were  effected  from  coaches,  but 
before  describing  them  it  will  be  interesting  to  note  that 
the  mails  were  often  stopped  in  the  earlier  days  and  some 
very  daring  robberies  effected.  Thus  as  far  back  as  1781 
the  Bristol  mail  cart,  when  being  driven  between  Maiden- 
head and  Cranford  Bridge  o  its  way  to  the  London  General 
Post  Office,  in  Lombard  Street,  was  stopped  and  rifled  by  a 
single  highwayman.  The  robber,  at  the  pistol's  point,  desired 
the  post-boy  to  alight  and  go  back  whence  he  came,  but  not 
to  turn  his  head  or  he  would  be  shot.  On  reaching  Houns- 
low,  however,  the  boy  gave  the  alarm,  and  the  whole  village 
rose  to  go  in  pursuit  of  the  thief  The  wheels  of  the  cart 
were  tracked  along  the  Uxbridge  road  as  far  as  Ealing 
Common,  near  which,  in  a  field,  lying  on  its  side,  the  cart 
itself  was  found.  The  mail  bags  from  Bristol  and  Bath  had 
been  cut  open  and  ransacked,  their  contents  lay  mostly 
strewn  about  the  ground,  but  all  letters  with  valuables  had 
been  abstracted.  Twenty-eight  other  bags  had  been  carried 
off  bodily,  although  one  or  two  had  been  picked  up  at  other 
points,  all  of  them  rifled. 


BOBBING    THE   MAIL.  363 

News  of  the  robbery  was  sent  post-haste  to  London,  and 
handbills,  giving  an  account  of  the  transaction,  with  a 
promised  reward  for  the  arrest  of  the  unknown  thief,  were 
circulated  throughout  the  country.  The  very  day  after  the 
robbery,  on  the  30th  January,  a  gentleman  arrived  at  Notting- 
ham, a  hundred  miles  from  Maidenhead,  travelling  post  with 
well-paid  postillions.  He  was  a  naval  officer  in  uniform,  and 
he  desired  the  waiter  of  the  Black  Moor's  Head,  where  he 
put  up,  to  go  with  certain  bills  drawn  in  Bristol  and  obtain 
cash  for  them  at  Smith's  bank.  Messrs.  Smith  refused  to 
accept  them  without  knowing  more  of  the  holder;  but 
another  long-established  bank  of  Nottingham,  Wright's, 
made  no  difficulty  when  the  naval  officer  in  his  uniform  came 
and  presented  one  himself  at  their  counter.  He  endorsed 
it  "James  Jackson,"  in  a  scrawling  hand,  got  his  cash, 
returned  to  the  inn,  and  ordered  a  post-chaise  to  take  him  on 
his  road.  That  was  through  Mansfield  and  Chesterfield, 
northward  to  Leeds,  York,  Northallerton,  Darlington  and 
Durham,  to  Newcastle,  and  thence  to  Carlisle,  and  his  track 
was  followed  by  the  bank  biUs  he  cashed  along  the  route 
wherever  he  could.  From  Carlisle,  having  got  rid  of  much 
of  his  paper,  he  turned  once  more  southward,  taking  the 
direct  road  to  London: 

One  of  the  handbills  advertising  the  robbery  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Wright,  the  banker  of  Nottingham,  who  at  once 
concluded  that  his  naval  officer  was  the  man  who  had  stopped 
the  mail  cart  near  Maidenhead.  He  caused  the  notice  to  be 
immediately  reprinted,  and  distributed  copies  in  his  own 
neighbourhood.  Thus  the  joint  post-master  and  keeper  of 
the  Saracen's  Head,  Newark,  learnt  what  had  happened, 
and  remembered  that  on  the  2nd  February  a  naval  officer  had 
come  to  his  house  in  a  chaise  and  four,  had  changed  horses 
and  a  £25  note,  then  posted  on  to  Grantham.  Keen  pursuit 
was  started  at  once,  but  the  man  wanted  reached  London 
three  hours  before  those  who  followed  him.  He  had  been 
heard  of  at  Enfield,  whence  four  fresh  horses  had  carried  him 
to  Bishopsgate  Street  the  same  night.  There  he  changed 
into  a  hackney  coach,  taking  with  him  his  portmanteau  and 


354       HIGHWAYMEN  AND    MAIL    GOAGH   BOBBERS. 

his  pistols.  The  post-boys  saw  him  drive  off,  but  did  not  hear 
the  address  he  gave  the  coachman  or  mark  the  number  of  the 
coach. 

^  The  Bow  Street  officers  were  now  put  upon  the  track  of 
this  masquerading  naval  officer,  and  a  reward  was  offered  for 
the  hackney  coachman  which  soon  brought  him  out.  He 
proved  to  be  an  old  friend  and  fellow  lodger  of  his  fare,  whom 
he  knew  as  George  Weston,  and  whom  he  had  driven  that 
night  to  a  court  off  Newgate  Street.  Weston  had  alighted 
here,  and  disappeared  through  the  court,  with  his  portmanteau 
and  pistols  under  his  arm,  and  that  was  the  last  seen  of  him. 
But  a  naval  officer's  uniform  coat  and  waistcoat  had  been 
picked  up  in  the  Pimlico  sewer,  near  Chelsea  waterworks, 
and  identified  as  his,  and  his  continued  presence  in  London 
was  surmised  from  the  large  number  of  the  stolen  bills  and 
bank  notes  that  were  being  put  off  at  various  banks  in  the 
town. 

The  missing  man  was  at  last  run  into  by  chance,  although 
he  had  strengthened  the  scent  by  another  misdeed.  A  man 
had  swindled  several  London  tradesmen  out  of  furniture  and 
other  goods  for  a  house  near  Winchelsea.  He  had  also 
victimised  a  jeweller,  and  the  whole  of  them,  combining,  went 
down  to  Winchelsea,  accompanied  by  a  sheriffs  officer.  The 
swindler  and  a  friend  were  encountered  riding  on  the  high 
road,  when  a  sharp  affray  ensued.  The  villains  beat  off  their 
assailants,  then  galloped  home,  packed  up  their  plate  and 
valuables,  and  disappeared,  travelling  towards  London.  A 
conference  followed  between  the  Londoners  and  the  local 
authorities  at  a  public-house,  and  the  description  of  the  man 
wanted  was  given  out  aloud.  It  was  overheard  by  a 
frequenter  of  the  place.  This  feUow  produced  one  of  the 
handbills  first  published  from  Bow  Street,  advertising  for  the 
maU.  cart  robber,  and  it  was  seen  that  the  swindler  and 
George  Weston  were  one  and  the  same. 

Report  of  this  was  made  forthwith  to  Bow  Street,  and  a 
fresh  hue  and  cry  was  raised  for  Weston  and  his  companion. 
They  were  traced  from  place  to  place,  and  at  last  to  an  hotel 
near  Wardour  Street,  Soho,  where  the  landlord  took  their 


THE    BOBBERY    OF  THE   LEEDS   MAIL.  355 

part,  and  warned  them  of  coming  danger.  They  ran  for  it, 
producing  pistols  when  the  officers  came  up;  many  shots 
were  exchanged,  and  a  sharp  fight  followed,  but  they  were 
captured  after  all.  The  prisoners  were  two  brothers  Weston ; 
one  a  noted  highwayman,  the  other  a  receiver,  and  both  were 
soon  afterwards  tried  and  hanged. 

We  come  later  on  (1812)  to  the  robbery  of  the  Leeds  maU 
at  Higham  Ferrers,  in  Northamptonshire,  under  the  following 
circumstances.  The  money  (to  what  amount  is  not  stated  in 
the  records)  was  carried  in  the  boot  of  the  coach,  under  the 
special  charge  of  the  guard.  But  during  his  momentary 
absence  the  thieves  opened  the  lock,  and  carried  off  the  bags. 
Two  persons  had  been  seen  that  afternoon  in  a  gig  near 
Higham  Ferrers,  the  only  gig  that  had  passed  that  way  during 
the  evening.  The  same  two  men  were  seen  at  a  public-house 
hard  by  late  that  night.  They  were  tracked  all  the  way  to 
London,  where  one  of  them,  a  notorious  robber  named  Huffey 
White,  who  was  concerned  in  the  robbery  of  the  Paisley 
Bank,  at  Glasgow,  was  found  to  have  negotiated  some  of  the 
bills  and  notes  which  had  been  abstracted  from  the  bags. 
Huffey  White  and  his  associate  were  forthwith  arrested, 
and  tried  for  their  lives  at  Northampton,  where  eventually 
they  suffered  death. 

THE    HERTFORD    MAIL    ROBBED. 

These  mail  coach  robberies  were  often  perpetrated  by 
men  who  had  been  officials  or  employes,  and  thus  had  special 
knowledge  of  the  machinery  and  method  of  transmitting 
valuable  parcels.  Two  remarkable  cases  occurred  in  1813-14, 
in  which  the  thieves  were,  or  had  been,  guards.  One  was  a 
clever  theft  from  the  Hertford  coach,  which  by  arrangement 
carried  notes  and  bullion  from  Christie's  bank,  in  Hertford,  to 
the  Bull  inn,  Holborn,  where  they  were  handed  over  to  the 
bankers'  representatives  in  London.  The  system  was  to 
enclose  parcels  of  notes  and  bills  in  an  iron-bound  box,  which 
was  carefuUy  locked,  the  keys  in  duplicate  being  held  by  the 
bankers  at  each  end.  When  remittances  were  to  be  made, 
the  box  was  always  taken  to  the  coach  office  and  securely 


356       HIGHWAYMEN  AND   MAIL    OOAGH   BOBBERS. 

screwed  into  a  small  receptacle  inside  and  at  the  back  of  the 
coach,  the  vehicle  then  standing  in  the  street,  opposite  the 
inn  door.  On  the  evening  of  the  14th  May,  Messrs.  Christie's 
clerk  brought  the  box,  and  was  seen  by  a  witness  to  put  it  in 
its  place.  Immediately  after  the  clerk  had  left,  another  man, 
who  had  been  hanging  about  the  market-place  and  street, 
got  into  the  coach,  and  remained  inside  for  five  minutes,  very 
much  in  the  same  attitude  as  the  clerk  had  been  when 
fastening  down  the  box.  He  presently  walked  off,  and  was 
not  seen  again.  Certainly  he  did  not  travel  by  the  coach. 
During  this  brief  space  the  robbery  had  been  effected.  On 
the  arrival  of  the  coach  at  the  Bull  inn,  Holbom,  the  recep- 
tacle was  opened  by  the  bank  clerk  who  attended  on  purpose, 
but  it  was  found  empty.  The  iron  box  was  gone.  From 
the  evidence  of  the  person  in  Hertford  who  had  seen 
what  happened,  suspicion  was  attracted  to  a  man  named 
Cooke,  who  had  once  been  guard  to  the  Monmouth  mail 
coach,  and  who  was  believed  to  be  living  in  Lazenby  Court, 
Long  Acre.  He  was  not  found  there,  his  wife  declaring  him 
to  be  at  Brighton,  although,  as  a  fact,  he  had  gone  over  to 
Dieppe.  Before  going  he  had  called  on  a  woman  named 
Porter,  whom  he  had  asked  to  take  charge  of  a  small  parcel  of 
notes,  £200  worth,  and  she  had  noticed  that  he  had  a  great 
many  more. 

Vickery,  the  Bow  Street  runner,  so  often  mentioned 
already  in  these  pages,  was  charged  with  the  pursuit  of 
Cooke,  whom  he  knew  well,  and  whom,  after  a  long  search,  he 
came  upon  quite  unexpectedly,  travelling  up  to  town  by  the 
Yarmouth  coach.  Cooke  was  apprehended  at  the  Whalebone 
turnpike,  on  the  Romford  road,  and  suffered  the  extreme 
penalty. 

A  couple  of  years  before,  in  October,  1813,  another  robbery 
had  been  successfully  accomplished  from  the  Swansea  mail 
on  its  journey  between  Newport  and  Bristol  Certain  New- 
port bankers  had  transmitted  a  number  of  notes  and  cash  to 
their  London  agents,  enclosed  in  a  box  which  for  greater 
security  was  placed  in  a  canvas  bag  with  another  address  on 
it,  to  give  it  the  appearance  of  an  ordinary  parcel     The  bag 


A  DI8S0NE8T  GUARD.  357 

and  box  reached  London,  but  the  valuables  within  had  dis- 
appeared. Vickery  was  again  employed,  and  at  Bristol,  a  long 
time  afterwards,  he  met  the  man  Weller,  who  had  been  guard 
to  the  Swansea  coach  on  the  day  of  the  robbery.  From  him 
he  elicited  the  fact  that  he  (the  guard)  had  seen  the  bag 
en  route,  but  this  was  all  he  would  say,  although  Vickery  was 
certain  he  knew  more.  The  next  day,  feeling,  no  doubt,  that 
the  scent  was  warm,  Weller  absconded,  was  picked  up  in 
London,  and  apprehended.  When  committed  to  the  House 
of  Correction,  at  Coldbath  Fields,  he  voluntarily  confessed 
that  he  had  opened  the  canvas  bag,  also  the  box  within,  had 
abstracted  the  parcel  of  valuables,  and  then,  making  all  right 
on  the  surface,  had  left  the  coach  at  Bristol  with  his  plunder. 
The  notes  had  been  in  part  changed  into  coin  at  Bristol, 
through  the  intermediary  of  a  woman  named  Hickman,  a 
friend  of  the  thief.  She  had  changed  nearly  £400  in  this 
way  at  various  shops  in  Bristol,  but,  growing  alarmed,  had 
buried  the  rest — £700  worth — in  a  hole  in  her  garden,  where 
they  remained  for  fifteen  months.  When  dug  up  they  were 
in  a  very  damaged  condition. 

ROBBING   THE   CALAIS-DOVEE   MAIL. 

In  the  early  morning  of  the  29th  January,  1827,  when 
the  mail  portmanteau  was  taken  from  the  Dover  coach 
into  the  General  Post  Office,  Lombard  Street,  it  was  seen 
that  it  had  been  cut  open  with  a  knife.  The  hole  was 
large  enough  to  admit  of  the  abstraction  of  the  inner  bags, 
and  when  they  were  counted  over  and  compared  with 
the  way-bill  the  Italian  bag  was  found  to  be  missing.  The 
solicitor  to  the  Post  Office  went  down  to  Dover  forthwith 
and  soon  ascertained  that  the  robbery  must  have  been 
effected  on  this  side  of  the  Channel.  The  great  mail  bag 
had  been  landed  intact  from  the  French  packet,  for  it  had 
been  impounded  by  the  Custom  House  authorities  on  account 
of  its  suspicious  weight  and  closely  examined  for  contra- 
band. The  inquiry  was  therefore  narrowed  to  the 
Dover  coach  and  what  might  have  happened  along  the 
Dover    road.     There    were    four  inside    passengers    booked 


358       HIGHWAYMEN  AND   MAIL    COACH  BOBBERS. 

through  to  London,  and  three  outside,  one  of  the  latter 
going  no  further  than  Canterbury,  while  another  was  booked 
as  far  as  he  pleased  along  the  road.  These  two  had  got 
down  at  Canterbury  and  were  joined  by  a  third  man  who 
was  waiting  for  them.  The  party  presently  entered  the 
Kose  Inn,  where  they  ordered  a  post  chaise  for  London. 
Kefreshments  were  served  in  a  private  room,  and  the  waiter, 
entering  suddenly,  found  them  busy  with  an  open  bag,  from 
which  they  were  drawing  a  number  of  letters  and  packets, 
feeling  them  and  examining  them  minutely  by  the  Hght 
of  a  candle. 

These  travellers,  after  they  started  for  London,  were 
easUy  traced  along  the  road.  Many  people  met  them,  and 
joined  the  innkeeper  and  waiter  of  the  "Rose"  in  furnishing 
particulars  of  appearance.  The  description  given  was  like 
print  to  the  Bow  Street  officers,  who  read  it  at  once,  in  one 
case  at  least,  as  indicating  a  certain  Tom  Partridge,  a 
man  often  in  trouble,  and  always  on  account  of  mail-coach 
robberies.  He  was  soon  hunted  down,  and  when  captured 
easily  identified  as  one  of  the  outside  passengers  by  the 
Dover  coach  on  the  night  of  the  crime.  A  conviction 
seemed  certain,  yet  when  tried  at  the  next  Maidstone 
assizes  he  was  able  to  put  in  an  undeniable  alibi,  and  was 
necessarily  acquitted.  It  was  proved  by  witnesses  that  on 
the  night  of  the  29th  January,  and  for  many  days  before, 
he  was  travelling  in  the  far  west  of  England,  from  Exeter 
to  Tiverton ;  he  had  been  seen  at  Glastonbury,  Bridge- 
water,  and  other  places.  The  defence  was  supported  by 
facts  that  admitted  of  no  sort  of  doubt,  and  the  jury  could 
not  but  conclude  that  Partridge  was  guiltless  of  the  Dover 
affair. 

Two  years  later  the  same  solicitor  to  the  Post  Office 
was  walking  along  Bishopsgate,  when  he  met  Tom  Part- 
ridge, whom  he  had  not  forgotten,  nor  the  still  unexplained 
alibi.  Tom  went  into  a  public-house,  came  out  again,  and, 
as  he  stood  in  the  street,  was  hailed  from  a  window  above 
by  another  Tom,  his  exact  facsimile.  The  man  had  a  double, 
his  elder  brother  Sam,  "  as  like  him   as   two  peas."     From 


TOM   PARTBinOE.  359 

inquiries  set  on  foot  it  came  out  that  Sam  Partridge  had 
been  long  absent  in  America,  and  on  his  return  the  plot 
was  laid  against  the  French  mail.  As  a  leading  part  of 
it  the  alibi  was  prepared.  Sam  was  the  brother  in  the 
west  of  England,  travelling  there  ostentatiously,  seen  and 
spoken  to  by  many;  Tom  meanwhile  was  despoiling  the 
foreign  mail  bags.  But  the  robbery  had  not  been  effected 
on  the  high  road,  as  was  supposed.  Tom  Partridge  and 
his  confederates  (one  of  whom  gave  away  the  whole  story 
after  the  likeness  of  the  two  brothers  had  been  disclosed) 
had  watched  the  mail  portmanteau  into  the  agent's  office 
at  Dover,  where  it  lay  unprotected  the  whole  of  that  Sun- 
day afternoon.  Then  Tom,  with  a  skeleton  key,  opened 
the  office  door,  and  the  thieves  walked  in  to  work  their 
wicked  will  on  the  mail  bags.  How  the  gash,  made  in  the 
leather  side  of  the  portmanteau,  had  passed  unnoticed 
when  the  coach  was  loaded  did  not  transpire. 

BOBBING  THE  GLASGOW  COACH. 

One  of  the  most  dexterous  coach  robberies  on  record 
was  effected  in  1831,  on  the  Prince  Regent  coach,  which 
plied  between  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh.  A  bank  parcel 
containing  notes  and  gold  to  the  value  of  £5,700  had  been 
sent  by  the  branch  of  the  Commercial  Bank  in  Glasgow 
to  its  headquarters  at  Edinburgh.  The  parcel  was  con- 
tained in  a  tin  box  and  placed  in  the  coach  with  the  usual 
precautions.  On  arrival  at  Edinburgh,  the  coachman  who 
drove  the  last  stage,  on  opening  the  boot,  found  that  the 
valuable  contents  had  been  abstracted  from  the  box.  They 
must  have  been  secured  from  the  inside,  for  the  stuffing 
had  been  cut  and  an  entrance  made  into  the  boot  of  the 
coach  by  first  piercing  the  woodwork  with  a  brace  bit, 
then  cutting  out  a  piece  with  a  saw.  The  thieves  had 
thus  got  at  the  box  from  the  interior  of  the  coach,  and 
rifled  it,  leaving  the  paper  in  which  the  parcel  had  been 
packed  and  part  of  one  of  the  notes.  All  that  was  known 
at  first  was  that  the  whole  of  the  inside  seats  had  been 
secured  in  Glasgow,  four  in  the  name  of  a  Mrs.   Gordon, 


360      HIGHWAYMEN  AND    MAIL    OOAOH  ROBBERS. 

two  in  that  of  a  Mr.  Johnstone.  Yet  the  coach  had 
really  started  without  any  inside  passengers.  Beyond  the 
town  a  man  and  a  woman  were  taken  up  and  travelled 
inside  to  within  three  miles  of  Airdrie,  where  they  left  the 
coach.  There  was  at  this  time  one  outside  passenger  only, 
and  he  appears  to  have  got  down  to  help  the  others  out 
of  the  coach. 

A  long  and  searching  inquiry  was  at  once  set  on  foot, 
which,  through  the  arduous  and  persevering  efforts  of  a 
police  officer  named  Nish,  brought  about  the  arrest  of  the 
thieves.  They  seem  to  have  been  discovered  iu  the  first 
instance  through  the  notes  which  they  had  stolen.  AU 
had  been  issued  by  the  Commercial  Bank,  and  had  blue 
borders  of  a  peculiar  kind,  differing  from  the  notes  generally 
in  circulation.  They  were  to  the  value  of  £20,  £5,  and  £1 
respectively.  The  moving  spirit  in  the  robbery  was  a  coach 
proprietor  named  George  Gilchrist,  who  lived  on  the  road 
between  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh,  and  who  was  well  aware 
of  the  precious  burden  often  carried  by  the  Prince  Kegent 
coach.  He  laid  his  plans  accordingly  to  rob  the  coach, 
and  worked  it  with  several  assistants,  principally  his 
brother,  William  GUchrist,  and  one  James  Brown.  On  the 
day  of  the  robbery  William  Gilchrist  and  Brown  travelled 
from  Glasgow  on  the  outside.  Three  miles  out,  George 
Gilchrist,  who  was  disguised  in  female  apparel,  met  the 
coach,  accompanied  by  another  assistant  and  from  the 
precaution  taken  to  secure  the  whole  of  the  inside  seats 
the  thieves  had  now  the  interior  to  themselves.  George 
Gilchrist  set  to  work  at  once,  and,  having  ripped  up  the 
cloth  lining,  attacked  the  body  of  the  coach  with  brace 
and  bit;  they  soon  had  access  sufficient  to  allow  them  to 
prize  open  the  tin  box  with  a  chisel.  Then  they  got  out 
two  parcels  of  notes  and  a  heavy  package  which  was 
supposed  to  be  gold.  After  that  the  Ud  was  shut  down 
and  the  box  put  back  seemingly  untouched.  The  two 
thieves  then  concealed  the  notes  and  gold  in  their  pockets  ; 
Gilchrist  put  on  his  shawl  and  bonnet.  On  a  signal  from 
Brown  above  that  the  coast  was  clear,  George  Gilchrist  and 


A    CLEVER    OOAGH  ROBBEBT.  361 

his  companion  walked  rapidly  away  till  they  came  to  a 
plantation,  where  Gilchrist  took  off  his  disguise  and  re- 
sumed men's  clothes. 

All  the  thieves  were  put  upon  their  trial,  and  only 
George  Gilchrist  was  conyicted.  He  was  sentenced  to 
death,  but,  on  making  important  disclosures  to  the  police 
of  the  whereabouts  of  a  great  portion  of  the  booty,  the 
capital  sentence  was  commuted  to  transportation  for  Hfe. 

Here  is  one  more  story  on  all  fours  with  those  pre- 
ceding, in  which  another  clever  coach  robbery  was  com- 
mitted in  the  town  of  Bury  (Lancashire),  on  I7th  February, 
1842.  Messrs.  Cunliffes,  Brooks  and  Co.,  bankers,  of 
Manchester,  had  been  in  the  habit  of  forwarding  fort- 
nightly large  quantities  of  cash  and  notes  to  their  bank 
at  Blackburn.  On  the  above  -  mentioned  evening  the 
usual  messenger  took  down  to  the  coach  a  box  containing 
1,500  sovereigns  and  £500  in  Bank  of  England  notes, 
and  deposited  it  in  the  fore-boot,  as  was  his  custom.  The 
messenger  remained  standing  by  the  coach,  and  whilst 
there  a  man  named  Skerrett,  who  had  formerly  been  em- 
ployed at  the  inn  whence  the  coach  started,  came  up  in  a 
hurried  manner  with  a  drab-coloured  carpet  bag  in  his  hand, 
stating  it  belonged  to  a  gentleman  who  was  going  by 
the  coach.  The  carpet  bag  seemed  light,  and  the  job  of 
depositing  it  should  not  have  occupied  a  minute ;  but  it  was 
remarked  that  Skerrett  remained  standing,  mounted  on  the 
coach,  one  foot  on  the  splinter-bar  and  the  other  on  the  fore- 
wheel,  fumbling  about  in  the  boot  for  some  time.  The  horse- 
keeper  at  the  horses'  heads  also  noticed  Skerrett's  pecuhar 
conduct,  and  called  to  him  to  come  down.  Skerrett  not 
doing  as  he  was  told,  the  man  let  go  the  horses'  heads,  the 
animals  became  restive,  and  Skerrett  was  thrown  off.  Now 
the  passengers,  four  in  number,  mounted  to  their  seats  ;  three 
were  known,  but  the  fourth  was  a  stranger,  and  understood  to 
be  the  owner  of  the  carpet  bag.  There  was  also  a  man 
muffled  up  who  sat  on  the  box-seat  with  the  driver,  and  from 
his  looks  excited  the  latter's  attention.  On  arrival  at  a  turn- 
pike gate,  two  miles  from  Bury,  the  man  who  sat  with  the 


362       HIGHWAYMEN  AND   MAIL    COACH   BOBBERS. 

coachman  alighted  and  inquired  his  way  to  Kadcliff ;  he  was, 
no  doubt,  an  accomphce,  for  on  inquiries  no  such  man  had 
been  seen  at  RadcHff.  On  the  arrival  of  the  coach  at  the 
"  White  Horse,"  Bury,  the  strange  man — the  supposed  owner 
of  the  carpet  bag — stood  on  the  coach- wheel  after  the  other 
passengers  had  alighted,  as  if  endeavouring  to  get  his  bag 
out  of  the  boot.  He  was  observed  to  pull  at  the  bag,  as 
though  it  contained  something  heavy ;  he  struggled  with  it 
while  on  the  coach  wheel,  and  seemed  to  have  great  difficulty 
in  getting  it  down  on  to  the  flagway.  Finally  he  succeeded, 
and,  entering  the  bar  of  the  inn,  placed  the  carpet  bag  on 
the  floor  beside  him.  The  landlady's  attention  was  drawn  to 
him  as  he  appeared  agitated,  but  he  was  not  interfered  with. 
When  the  coachman  came  in,  the  man  with  the  bag  offered 
him  a  glass  of  brandy  and  they  drank  together,  after  which 
the  coach  went  on,  leaving  the  passenger  behind. 

It  was  evident  that  the  fore-boot  containing  the  cash-box 
was  not  examined  at  Bury;  equally  certain  that  the  box 
would  then  have  been  missed,  and  that  had  it  been  searched 
for  at  once  it  must  have  been  found  in  the  carpet  bag.  As 
it  was,  the  man  who  had  brought  in  the  bag  no  doubt 
passed  it  on  to  others — one  or  more  accomplices  already  in 
the  house — who  must  have  conveyed  it  away  surreptitiously 
from  the  bar.  It  was  never  seen  again.  Soon  afterwards  the 
man  who  had  brought  it  was  seen  to  leave  the  inn  a  short 
time  after  the  coach  had  started ;  he  walked  down  the  street 
at  a  rapid  pace  and  presently  broke  into  a  run.  That  was  the 
last  of  him. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

CRIMES   OF   THE   HIGHWAYS. 

Early  Pirates  and  Sea  Eobbere — Piracy  Foouesed  in  the  West  Indies— Some 
Famous  Rovers  :  Captain  Teach,  Major  Bonnet,  &c. — Later  Piracies — A 
Modem  Instance  of  Attempted  Piracy — The  Ferret,  of  Glasgow — Other 
Forms  of  Piracy— Mutiny  at  Sea  :  Jefferson  Bordm,  Flowery  Land,  and  the 
Lennie  —  Marine  Insurance  Frauds  —  Early  Cases  —  The  RacTiette — The 
Adventure  cast  away  by  Captain  Codling — Frequency  of  these  Frauds — The 
Bannah  Mary,  and  others — Methods  Employed — The  Dryad,  Severn,  Amora 
Oliver. 

PIRACY   AND   ROBBERY   AFLOAT. 

The  great  highway  of  the  sea  has  always  offered  peculiar 
facilities  to  the  adventurous  spirit.  Piracy  is  as  old  as  the 
hUls.  "  There  be  land-rats  and  water-rats,  water  thieves  and 
land  thieves,  I  mean  pirates,"  says  Shylock  in  the  Merchant 
of  Venice.  The  old  sea  rovers  were  no  better  than  banditti ; 
the  modern  buccaneer  was  foreshadowed  by  the  Greek  pirates 
of  the  jiEgean  Seas ;  the  pirates  of  the  Mediterranean  were  a 
standing  menace  to  Rome.  These  last  issued  from  the  coast 
of  Africa,  where  they  had  their  arsenals  and  commodious 
harbours  holding  mighty  fleets,  "  weU  equipped  and  furnished, 
with  galliots  of  oars,  manned  not  only  with  men  of  desperate 
courage,  but  also  with  expert  pirates  and  mariners"  ; 
they  were  not  contented  with  "  committing  piracies  and  in- 
solencies  by  sea,"  but  they  made  conquests  by  land ;  "  they 
took  and  sacked  no  less  than  four  hundred  cities ''  in  the  time 
of  Csesar,  "  plundered  the  temples  of  the  gods,  enriched  them- 
selves with  the  offerings  deposited  in  them,  plundered  the 
villages  along  the  seacoast,  ransacked  the  fine  houses  of  the 
noblemen  along  the  Tiber."  It  is  quite  possible,  according  to 
the  historian,  that  when  Pompey  attacked  the  pirates  and  beat 
them  they  might  have  overthrown  him,  if  they  had  concen- 
trated, and  "Rome,  which  had  conquered  the  whole  world, 
might  have  been  subdued  by  a  parcel  of  pirates."    It  was  they 


364  0BIME8    OF    THE    HIGHWAYS. 

who  first  invented  the  practice  of  walking  the  plank.  When 
they  took  a  ship  they  hung  out  the  ladder,  and,  telling  each 
person  he  had  his  liberty,  "  desired  him  to  walk  out  of  the 
ship,  and  this  in  the  middle  of  the  sea,  all  with  mighty 
shouts  of  laughter,  so  wanton  were  they  in  their  cruelty." 
The  Scandinavians  and  Norsemen  were  aU  pure  pirates. 
Later  on,  the  Barbary  corsairs  were  the  masters  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  levied  blackmail  upon  the  world's  com- 
merce. Bajbarossa  defied  the  whole  strength  of  Charles  V., 
and  his  great  exploits  were  imitated  by  generations  of  petty 
pirates  issuing  from  Tunis  and  Algiers.  Nor  they  alone. 
In  mediaeval  days  vessels  richly  freighted  were  ever  Hable 
to  attack,  and  when  robbed,  restitution  or  redress  could  never 
be  obtained  from  the  government  or  country  to  which  the 
pirates  belonged.  The  Hanseatic  League  was  formed  for 
common  protection  against  the  rovers  of  the  Baltic.  Pirates 
in  the  sixteenth  century  infested  the  narrow  seas,  the 
English,  French,  and  Dutch  waters,  and  were  a  perpetual 
scourge  to  the  shipping  of  all  nations  at  that  period. 

The  discovery  of  the  New  World  opened  up  new  seas 
pecuUarly  well  adapted  to  the  trade  of  pirates,  whose  noxious 
business  was  long  focussed,  so  to  speak,  in  the  West  Indian 
Islands.  The  first  fiUbusters  were  English  and  French 
settlers,  who  would  have  disputed  the  Spanish  supremacy  in 
the  West  Indies.  These  freebooters,  who  came  to  be  known  as 
buccaneers,  prospered  greatly  by  preying  upon  the  ships  of 
every  flag,  long  resisting  every  attempt  at  suppression,  and 
were  a  continual  pest  upon  the  high  seas.  As  I  have  said, 
the  pirates  aflected  the  West  Indies,  because  they  found  here 
"  so  many  uninhabited  little  islands  and  quays,  with  harbours 
convenient  and  secure  for  cleansing  their  vessels,  and  abound- 
ing with  what  they  often  want,  provision  :  water,  seafowl, 
turtle,  shell  and  other  fish."  It  was  a  fine  cruising  ground, 
moreover,  for  there  was  much  commerce  between  those  parts 
and  Europe :  "  they  are  sure  in  the  latitude  of  these  trading 
islands  to  meet  with  prizes,  booties  of  provision,  clothing  and 
naval  stores,  and  sometimes  money,  there  being  great  sums 
remitted  this  way  to  England  .    .    .   and,  in  short,  by  some 


WEST  INDIAN  PIRATES.  366 

one  or  other,  all  the  riches  of  Potosi."  Yet  again,  the  traffic 
was  encouraged  by  the  difficulty  of  pursuit  among  the  many 
small  islands,  lagoons  and  harbours,  -which  afforded  many 
natural  refuges  for  the  pirates.  At  the  commencement  of 
the  eighteenth  century  a  very  determined  effort  was  made 
to  suppress  piracy  in  the  West  Indies.  "The  pirates  are 
grown  so  numerous  that  they  infest,  not  only  the  seas  near 
Jamaica,  but  even  those  of  the  Northern  Continent  of 
America,  and,  unless  some  effectual  means  be  used,  the  whole 
trade  from  Great  Britain  to  those  parts  wiU  not  only  be 
obstructed  but  in  imminent  danger  of  being  lost."  A  general 
combination  of  the  Eiiropean  nations  was  formed  against 
them.  The  rover  and  sea-robber  was  held  to  be  hostis  humani 
generis,  the  enemy  of  the  whole  human  race.  The  offence 
was  international  felony,  and  might  be  punished  by  any  com- 
petent authority  in  any  country  on  the  coasts  of  which  there 
had  been  piUage  or  in  the  waters  of  which  violence  had 
been  perpetrated. 

England  took  the  lead  in  this  league,  and  a  whole 
fleet  of  king's  ships  was  ordered  to  cruise  along  the  West 
India  Islands.  No  doubt  they  did  much  to  clear  the  seas  of 
such  pests.  They  disposed  of  such  depredators  as  Captain 
Teach,  the  notorious  "  Black  Beard,"  who  gained  his  name 
firom  "that  large  quantity  of  hair,"  which,  according  to  a 
contemporary  chronicle,  "  covered  his  whole  face  like  a 
frightful  meteor,  and  frightened  America  more  than  any 
comet  that  has  appeared  there  for  a  long  time."  "This 
beard  was  black,"  goes  on  the  same  account ;  "  he  suffered  it  to 
grow  to  an  extravagant  length ;  as  to  breadth,  it  came  up  to 
his  eyes ;  he  was  accustomed  to  twist  it  with  ribbons  and  in 
small  taUs,  after  the  manner  of  our  RamiUes  wigs,  and  turn 
them  about  his  ears ;  in  time  of  action  he  wore  a  sling  over 
his  shoulders,  with  three  brace  of  pistols,  hanging  in  holsters 
with  bandoliers;  and  stuck  lighted  matches  under  his  hat, 
which  appearing  on  each  side  of  his  face,  his  eyes  naturally 
looking  fierce  and  wild,  made  him  altogether  such  a  figure, 
that  imagination  cannot  form  an  idea  of  a  Fury,  from  Hell,  to 
look  more  frightful" 


366  GRIMES    OF    TEE    HIGHWAYS. 

Another  pirate  then  suppressed  was  Major  Stede  Bonnet, 
who  had  been  bred  a  gentleman  and  was  the  "master  of 
a  plentiful  fortune,"  who  took  to  piracy,  it  was  supposed, 
from  a  disordered  mind,  and  who,  after  many  vicissitudes, 
was  hanged  at  Charlestown,  South  Carolina,  with  aU  his  crew. 
There  was  Captain  Edward  England,  again,  the  scene  of 
whose  depredations  was  rather  East  than  West,  and  who, 
after  ravaging  South  Africa  and  Madagascar,  returned  to  the 
Spanish  West  Indies  and  surrendered  to  the  Spanish  governor 
of  Porto  Bello.  There  were  Captain  Charles  Vane,  hanged  at 
Jamaica ;  Captain  Racham,  who  also  suffered  there  with  his 
crew  ;  there  was  Anne  Bonney,  the  female  pirate,  who  became 
Racham's  wife,  and  who  was  present  at  his  execution,  where 
she  reproached  him,  saying,  "  If  he  had  fought  like  a  man,  he 
need  not  have  been  hanged  like  a  dog."  Mary  Read  was 
another  female  pirate  who  sailed  in  several  pirate  ships  and 
was  eventually  hanged.  There  was  Captain  Bartho  Roberts, 
once  an  honest  shipmaster,  afterwards  one  of  the  boldest  and 
most  systematic  of  the  West  Indian  pirates.  On  one  occasion 
he  plundered,  sank  or  burned  twenty-two  sail  in  a  harbour  of 
Newfoundland,  and  soon  afterwards  a  number  of  others, 
making  a  total  of  400  captures.  He  extended  his  depre- 
dations to  Whydah,  in  Calabar,  and  he  was  eventually  killed 
in  an  engagement  with  a  king's  ship.  He  made  a  gallant 
figure  throughout  the  fight,  "  being  dressed  in  a  rich 
crimson  damask  waistcoat  and  breeches,  a  red  feather  in 
his  hat,  a  gold  chain  round  his  neck,  with  a  diamond 
cross  hanging  to  it,  a  sword  in  his  hand,  and  two  pair  of 
pistols  hanging  at  the  end  of  a  silk  sling,  flung  over  his 
shoulders  (according  to  the  fashion  of  the  pirates),  and  is 
said  to  have  given  his  orders  with  boldness  and  spirit." 

The  list  is  long,  and  the  story  always  much  the  same. 
Captain  Anstis,  Captain  Worley,  Captain  George  Lowther,  all 
hanged  on  the  gallows  ;  Captain  John  Phillips,  Captain  Smith, 
alias  Gow,  also  hanged ;  Captain  Phillip  Roche,  who  was  one 
of  the  first  to  invent  the  fraud  of  insuring  ships  to  a  great 
value  and  then  destrojring  them,  of  whom  it  was  said  that 
"  his  black  and   savage  nature   did  nowise   answer   to   the 


A    NEST    OF  PIRATES.  367 

comeliness  of  his  person,  his  life  being  almost  one  continued 
scene  of  villany.'' 

The  West  Indies  continued  to  be  a  nest  of  pirates  far  into 
the  present  century,  and  warships,  both  English  and  American, 
were  constantly  engaged  with  these  modern  freebooters.  Their 
depredations  extended  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  a  United 
States  cruiser  captured  a  pirate  vessel  off  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  in  1819.  During  that  year  there  were  no  fewer 
than  forty-four  cases  of  piracy  in  these  parts,  and  sixteen 
pirates  were  executed  at  New  Orleans.  The  New  York 
insurance  oifices  at  length  petitioned  the  President  to  take 
more  active  measures  against  the  growing  evil.  There  were 
some  15,000  to  20,000  seamen  engaged  in  piracy,  but  under 
cover  of  commissions  issued  by  the  South  American  States. 
The  pirates  boldly  sent  their  prizes  into  the  neighbouring 
ports  for  sale  ;  the  booty  was  openly  disposed  of  at  Matanzas 
and  the  Havannah ;  houses  were  filled  with  them,  there  was  a 
regular  price  current;  Russian  sheeting  was  six  dollars  per 
piece,  gin  one  and  a  half  dollars  per  case,  nails  four  dollars  per 
can,  a  doubloon  (16  doUars)  would  purchase  a  horse- load  of 
merchandise. 

The  combined  efforts  of  the  cruisers  made  no  impression 
for  some  years.  It  was  reported  in  an  American  newspaper 
that  "  piracy  gains  strength  daily,  and  must  be  put  down,  or 
it  will  acquire  force  of  appalling  character.  Spain  is  powerless 
to  control  it;  other  nations  must  do  so."  There  was  a 
great  conflict  in  July,  1823,  with  Diableto's  piratical  schooner. 
Next  year,  June,  1824,  H.M.S.  Hussar,  pursuing  pirates  about 
the  Isle  of  Pines,  destroyed  a  whole  fleet  of  pirates,  "  Pepe's  " 
falucha  with  two  schooners  and  three  piratical  canoes.  In 
the  same  neighbourhood  the  British  cutter  Grecian  engaged  a 
force  double  its  strength,  and  killed  the  famous  pirate  La  Cata. 
Another  sloop  of  war  captiured  a  pirate  schooner  off'  St. 
Domingo,  with  a  crew  of  sixty,  and  plunder  on  board  to  the 
value  of  20,000  dollars,  all  in  specie.  Again,  "  Old  Tom,"  an 
ex-convict  captain,  was  captured  off  New  Providence,  and 
another,  Lafitte,  a  notorious  pirate  who  refused  quarter. 
Spain  now  began  to  wake  up,  and  eleven  pirates  were  hanged 


368  CRIMES    OF    THE    HIGHWAYS. 

in  1825  at  Porto  Rico.  The  merchants  of  St.  Domingo  fitted 
out  a  ship  of  their  own,  commanded,  strange  to  say,  by  a 
colonel,  who,  after  a  twelve  days'  cruise,  secured  twenty-two 
pirates,  and  returned  with  much  goods  and  treasure. 
Gradually  order  and  security  were  re-established. 

An  extraordinary  case  of  proposed  piracy  was  laid  bare  in 
1881,  but  the  details  of  this  clcYcr  scheme  show  that  it  is 
difficult  nowadays  to  escape  the  network  of  modern  marine 
police. 

In  September,  1880,  a  stranger  arrived  in  Glasgow,  giving 
the  name  of  Walker.  Professing  to  act  as  broker  on 
behalf  of  a  principal  named  Smith,  he  chartered  the  Ferret,  a 
steamer  of  346  tons,  from  the  Highland  Railway  Company, 
stating  that  Smith  intended  to  take  a  six  months'  yachting 
cruise  for  the  benefit  of  his  wife's  health.  Stores  were 
obtained,  including  wine  to  the  value  of  £1,490,  the  goods 
being  paid  for  by  a  three  months'  bill,  which  was  afterwards 
dishonoured.  The  steamer  was  taken  down  to  Cardiff  by  a 
temporary  crew ;  at  Cardiff  the  new  crew  was  shipped,  coal 
was  taken  on  board,  and  there  "  Smith  "  and  his  invahd  wife 
made  their  appearance.  The  Ferret  started  on  the  first 
of  November,  ostensibly  for  Marseilles.  She  passed  through 
the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  with  Smith,  or  Henderson,  as  he 
afterwards  called  himself,  as  owner,  and  Walker  as  purser. 
After  passing  Gibraltar  the  steamer's  funnel,  previously  white, 
was  painted  black ;  and  her  boats,  before  blue,  became  white. 
The  ship's  course  was  turned  round  in  the  night,  and  she 
steered  back  past  Gibraltar  with  lights  obscured.  Then,  when 
nearly  out  of  the  Straits,  boats,  buoys,  casks,  and  other  articles 
bearing  upon  them  the  name  of  the  Ferret  were  thrown 
overboard.  When  the  crew  became  inquisitive,  they  were 
answered  with  threats ;  secrecy  was  imposed  on  pain  of  death. 
On  the  other  hand,  handsome  remuneration  was  promised  to 
all  who  would  co-operate  in  the  venture,  which  was  frankly 
stated  to  be  piracy. 

The  steamer  reached  the  Cape  Verd  Islands  on 
November  21st,  where  fresh  stores  were  shipped,  and  a  bill — 
fraudulent,  of  course — was  given  in  payment.     Leaving  Cape 


MODERN  PIBAGY.  369 

Verd,  the  name  of  the  ship  was  changed  to  the  Benton, 
and  the  confederates  steered  for  Santos,  where,  after  some 
delay,  they  obtained  by  false  pretences  a  cargo  of  coffee  for 
Marseilles.  They  then  steamed  off  a  straight  course  for  Cape 
Town,  and  on  the  way  the  name  of  the  ship  was  again 
changed  to  the  India.  At  Cape  Town  the  coffee  from  Santos 
was  sold  for  between  £13,000  and  £15,000. 

Eventually  the  Ferret,  alias  Benton,  aUas  India,  arrived  out 
at  Melbourne.  Already  the  real  owners,  the  Highland  Railway 
Company,  had  become  anxious  for  their  property ;  no  news 
had  reached  Lloyd's  of  the  vessel's  movements.  She  had 
not  been  sighted  or  reported,  and  a  watch  was  accordingly 
set  for  her  at  all  maritime  stations.  There  might  have  been 
no  suspicion  of  the  India  had  not  the  would-be  pirates,  a 
little  sick  of  their  enterprise,  sought  to  sell  their  borrowed 
steamer.  Walker,  now  calling  himself  Wallace,  applied  to  a 
shipping  agent,  Mr.  Duthie,  of  Melbourne,  to  find  a  purchaser 
but  would  not  permit  the  sale  to  be  advertised  until  all  other 
methods  had  failed.  Meanwhile,  Mr.  Duthie  had  searched 
Lloyd's  Register,  and  could  find  no  steamer  India  of  the 
Ferret's  tonnage.  He  mentioned  this,  and  was  assured  that 
the  vessel  had  been  sent  as  a  trader  to  the  West  Indies  before 
registration;  that  she  had  been  purchased  there  by  her 
present  owners,  and  that  full  particulars  of  her  would  no 
doubt  be  found  in  the  next  supplement  to  Lloyd's  list. 

But  this  was  not  thought  satisfactory,  and  there  were 
other  suspicious  circumstancea  Neither  captain  nor  crew 
put  foot  ashore  ;  it  was  observed  that  the  steamer's  fires  were 
always  banked,  and  that  she  was  kept  ready  to  go  to  sea  at  a 
moment's  notice.  After  some  hesitation,  the  Commissioner  of 
Customs  decided  to  seize  the  ship.  Very  condemnatory 
evidence  was  at  once  secured.  The  changes  in  the  steamer's 
name  and  number  were  discovered.  In  the  cabin  was  found 
an  advance  note  which  had  been  issued  for  the  steamer 
Ferret.  In  a  box  were  found  the  articles  of  the  Ferret,  a  log 
book  purporting  to  be  that  of  the  Benton,  and  another 
purporting  to  be  that  of  the  India.  In  a  small  tin  box  were 
found  duty  stamps  of  all  nations.  Customs  seals  of  all  ports 


370  CRIMES    OF    TEE    SIQHWAY8. 

where  a  steamer  was  likely  to  call.  The  sale  or  contract  note 
of  the  cargo  of  coffee  also  was  found  on  board,  and  a  secret 
code  of  telegrams,  which  contained  provision  for  the  following 
messages  in  cipher : — "  Sell  ship  for  most  you  can  get,  and 
come  home."  "  Accept  charter  referred  to,  and  lose  vessel 
before  you  arrive  in  port."  "  Ship  is  fully  insured.  Destroy 
her  some  way."  "Ship  is  fully  insured  against  fire.  Bum 
her."  "  Game  is  up ;  all  discovered.  Destroy  or  hide  every- 
thing, and  make  yourself  scarce.  Communicate  through  the 
arranged  channeL"  The  officers  and  crew,  when  questioned, 
spoke  to  the  efforts  made  to  win  them  over.  The  chief 
engineer,  who  had  been  much  dissatisfied,  had  inquired  the 
reason  for  the  strange  proceedings  of  the  steamer  in  passing 
and  re-passing  through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar.  "Smith," 
having  first  sworn  him  to  secrecy,  told  him  that  he  was 
colonel  of  an  American  regiment,  and  had  held  high  official 
positions  in  the  United  States,  but  having  been  exiled  for 
political  reasons,  he  dared  not  be  seen  in  America.  He  was 
now  travelling  incognito,  and  was  desirous  of  destroying  all 
traces  of  his  whereabouts. 

Henderson,  alias  Smith,  Wallace  or  Walker,  and  the  cap- 
tain, Wright,  were  apprehended,  when  the  first-named  made 
the  following  statement :  "  I  hold  the  ship  for  £275  or  £276 
a  month  for  six  months,. and  I  paid  one  month  in  advance. 
I  had  the  right  to  purchase  the  vessel  for  £7,000,  and  any- 
thing I  paid  on  account  of  the  hire  was  to  be  deducted  from  the 
purchase  money.  The  charter  party  is  in  a  box  on  board  the 
vesseL  If  I  had  been  let  alone  I  should  have  taken  the  ship 
back.  You  see  the  six  months  are  only  just  expired.  There 
is  plenty  of  money  to  pay." 

The  prisoners  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  escape  from 
gaol  while  awaiting  trial,  but  it  faUed,  and  they  were 
eventually  convicted  of  various  other  frauds,  that  of  ship- 
stealing  included. 

The  organised  efforts  of  the  pirates  became  impossible 
when  the  police  of  the  high  seas  was  more  and  more  perfected, 
and  the  black  flag,  when  raised,  inevitably  drew  down  the 
vengeance  of  all  the  nations.     But  other  classes  of  crime 


THE    CASE    OF    THE    "LENNIE."  371 

constitute  piracy,  and  these  have  never  disappeared.  Accord- 
ing to  the  old  law,  "  masters  of  ships,  seamen  or  mariners  who 
ran  away  with  any  ship,  barge,  or  boat  were  deemed  pirates,  and 
also  any  who  revolted,  or  mutinied,  or  committed  any  capital 
or  felonious  crimes  at  sea."  Some  terrible  tales  of  the  sea 
are  on  record,  many  of  them  within  the  memory  of  the 
present  generation.  There  was  the  mutiny  of  the  Jefferson 
Borden,  an  American  ship,  in  which  the  mates  were  kiUed 
and  thrown  overboard.  It  was  preceded  in  point  of  time  by 
the  murderous  mutiny  of  the  Flowery  Land,  a  ship  which 
sailed  for  Singapore  with  a  polyglot  crew — Spaniards,  Greeks, 
Turks,  a  Frenchman,  a  Norwegian,  three  Chinamen,  and  a 
black.  Discipline  had  to  be  maintained  with  a  high  hand 
among  such  truculent  scoundrels,  who  at  last  turned  on  their 
officers  and  took  their  revenge  in  blood.  The  captain  was 
killed  in  the  dead  of  night,  and  the  first  mate,  the 
captain's  brother,  was  thrown  overboard;  the  second  mate  was 
spared,  in  true  Clark  Russell  style,  in  order  to  navigate  the 
ship.  He  took  it  to  the  River  Plate,  but  while  on  board  went 
constantly  in  danger  of  his  life.  The  crew  ransacked  the 
ship,  broached  the  cases  of  champagne  which  constituted  the 
cargo,  and  sailed  on  and  on  for  weeks,  continually  drunk  and 
dangerous.  On  sighting  land  they  scuttled  the  ship  and 
took  to  the  boats,  but  on  landing  at  a  place  north  of 
Maldonado,  at  the  mouth  of  the  River  Plate,  the  mate 
managed  to  give  secret  information  to  the  Brazilian  autho- 
rities. The  mutineers  were  arrested  and  sent  home  to 
England  for  trial.  Two  of  seven  were  reprieved,  but  the 
other  five  were  executed  m.  one  batch. 

The  case  of  the  Lennie,  twelve  years  later  (1876),  was 
another  sea  massacre  on  much  the  same  lines  as  the  Flowery 
Land.  The  ship  was  manned  with  a  foreign  crew,  aU  Greeks 
save  one  Frenchman,  known  as  "  French  Peter,"  who  even- 
tually became  the  ringleader.  The  Lennie  sailed  from  the 
Scheldt  for  New  Orleans,  and  the  captain,  Hatfield,  soon 
foimd  that  he  had  an  indift'erent,  unseamanlike  crew. 
He "  was  greatly  vexed,  and  often  spoke  to  them  roughly, 
although  no  real  acts  of  harshness  occurred.     But  the  ship 


372  CRIMES    OF    THE   HIGHWAYS. 

had  not  been  a  week  at  sea  before  the  crew  rose,  butchered 
the  captain  and  the  mates,  and  compelled  the  steward,  who 
had  some  knowledge  of  navigation,  to  shape  the  vessel's  course 
towards  the  Mediterranean.  He  brought  her,  however,  into 
port,  and  secured  the  arrest  of  the  mutineers,  who  were,  mainly 
on  his  evidence,  convicted  and  hanged. 

MARINE    INSURANCE    FRAUDS. 

A  whole  class  of  seafaring  crimes,  destructive  to  property, 
and  calculated  to  endanger  many  lives,  is  comprised  under 
the  head  of  marine  insurance  frauds.  Many  more  or  less 
successful  attempts  to  impose  upon  the  underwriters  of 
Lloyd's  and  all  those  who  take  sea-risks  have  been  perpetrated 
from  the  earliest  times.  There  was,  no  doubt,  strong  tempta- 
tion to  the  dishonest  person  to  insure  a  vessel,  valuable  in 
herself  and  laden  with  still  more  valuable  freight ;  then,  taking 
advantage  of  the  uncertainties  of  the  sea,  to  cause  her  to 
be  purposely  shipwrecked  or  cast  away.  The  crime  was 
greatly  stimulated  by  the  long-prevailing  vagueness  and 
inefficiency  of  the  law.  The  courts  constantly  varied  in  their 
decisions  as  to  this  class  of  fraud,  demanding  very  distinct 
proofs,  often  most  difficult  to  obtain.  The  accused  thus 
escaped  conviction  frequently,  and  the  offence  greatly  multi- 
plied ;  it  was  asserted  that  towards  the  close  of  last  century 
no  less  than  one-third  of  the  claims  for  losses  made  upon  the 
underwriters  were  "  mixed  with  fraud  " ;  some  were  "  gross 
frauds,"  frauds  of  the  most  daring  and  reckless  character. 
Hence  the  underwriters  banded  themselves  together  to 
prosecute  vigorously,  and  use  every  effort  to  obtain  evidence 
that  would  be  found  valid  in  the  courts.  Their  action  was 
strengthened  by  fresh  penal  enactments,  but  the  private  enter- 
prise of  the  insurance  brokers  was  still  the  most  efficacious 
method  of  checking  the  crime. 

One  of  the  earliest  cases  on  record  was  that  of  a  French 
vessel,  the  Rachette,  which,  in  1786,  sailed  from  London  to 
Rochelle.  Both  ship  and  cargo  had  been  insured  at  Lloyd's, 
the  cargo  being  the  property  of  a  Mr.  Hague.  The  Eachette 
herself  was  owned  by  a  Frenchman  and  sailed  by  a  French 


FRAUDULENT   CASTING   AWAY.  373 

captain,  so  that  the  two  combined  to  scuttle  her.  This  having 
failed,  the  cargo  was  sold  on  false  bills  of  lading ;  but  before 
the  conspirators  could  divide  the  spoil  they  were  arrested  by 
the  French  police  and  sent  to  the  galleys.  Mr.  Hague  now 
sued  the  underwriters  for  the  value  of  his  policy  on  the  cargo, 
but  they  refused  to  pay.  As  it  could  not  be  shown  that  he 
had  any  share  in  the  fraud  he  got  a  verdict  from  a  Guildhall 
jury.  The  underwriters  now  appealed,  and  the  case  was 
heard  by  Lord  Mansfield,  who  made  a  famous  ruling.  The 
great  judge  was  of  opinion  that  although  a  gross  fraud  had 
undoubtedly  been  committed,  for  which  the  owner  and  captain 
of  the  Rachette  had  been  justly  punished,  their  condemnation 
did  not  affect  the  English  poHcy,  and  that  the  underwriters, 
not  Mr.  Hague,  must  suffer  the  loss. 

THE    "ADVENTURE." 

Another  case  a  few  years  later  was  the  casting  away  of  the 
brig  Adventwre  by  the  noted  'Captain  Codling,'  a  purely 
English  case,  and  very  discreditable,  for  it  showed  that  the 
wilful  sinking  of  ships  had  become  a  sort  of  business  carried 
on  in  the  most  barefaced  manner  as  an  ordinary  mercantile 
transaction.  The  owners  of  the  Adventiire  were  two  London 
merchants,  Mr.  George  Easterby  and  Mr.  William  Macfarlane, 
-who  insured  their  ship  and  her  cargo  for  £5,000  at  Lloyd's. 
She  was  bound  for  Gibraltar  and  Leghorn,  and  was  said  to 
carry  a  freight  of  cutlery,  plated  goods,  watches  and  musical 
instruments.  Captain  Codling,  leaving  the  Thames  on  the 
8th  of  July,  1802,  took  the  brig  first  to  Yarmouth,  where  he 
laid  in  a  further  assortment  of  goods  of  the  same  class,  and 
on  the  strength  of  this  the  first  insurances  were  doubled  in 
value.  He  was  in  no  hurry  to  reach  his  destination ;  he  lay 
with  his  ship  for  a  week  at  Yarmouth,  then  sailed  south  as 
far  as  Deal,  after  which  he  returned  to  Aldborough  on  the 
Suffolk  coast,  then  finally  got  to  the  Downs  and  anchored, 
waiting  a  favourable  wind.  Some  misgiving  as  to  the  fate  in 
store  for  her  must  have  got  abroad,  for  the  super-cargo  left 
the  Adventure  at  Yarmouth,  and  the  mate  went  ashore  at 
Deal.     Captain  Codling  replaced  the  latter  by  Thomas  Cooper, 


374  CRIMES    OF    THE   SIGSWAYS. 

an  ordinary  seaman  from  before  the  mast,  although  he  pro- 
tested that  he  knew  nothing  of  navigation. 

At  last,  on  the  7th  of  August,  just  a  month  after  leav- 
ing the  Thames,  the  Adventure  proceeded  on  her  voyage, 
and  next  morning,  about  7  a.m.,  she  was  abreast  of  Brighton. 
Here  the  captain  and  his  crew  suddenly  took  to  their  boat. 
Soon  afterwards  it  was  seen  that  the  deserted  Adventure 
was  in  a  sinking  condition;  but  she  still  remained  afloat, 
and  was  towed  in  towards  the  shore  by  a  revenue  cruiser. 
Two  days  later  Lloyd's  agent  arrived  at  Brighton,  a  Captain 
Robert  Douglas,  "a  discreet  person,  and  of  experience  in 
matters  of  navigation."  Captain  Douglas  found  Codling 
and  his  men  comfortably  settled  at  the  Old  Ship  Inn, 
where  he  desired  them  to  stay,  so  that  they  might  help 
in  the  salvage  of  the  brig.  Next  day  the  owners,  Messrs. 
Easterby  and  Macfarlane,  also  appeared  on  the  scene,  and 
by  their  actions  showed  their  guilty  complicity  in  the  fraud, 
for  they  gave  Codling  money,  and  hurried  him  away 
under  an  assumed  name  to  London.  Meanwhile  Captain 
Douglas,  assisted  by  the  Brighton  hobblers,  had  beached 
the  brig,  and  then  it  was  plainly  seen  how  clumsily  she 
had  been  cast  away.  There  was  a  large  opening  in  the 
planks  on  the  port  side,  caused  by  a  number  of  bored 
holes;  while  a  further  examination  inside  exposed  the  very 
instruments  with  which  the  holes  had  been  made — a  large 
gimlet  and  a  hatchet  lying  near  the  breach  at  the  bottom 
of  the  ship. 

Lloyd's  decided  at  once  to  commence  a  criminal  prose- 
cution. The  owners,  who  had  concealed  themselves,  were 
discovered  and  arrested.  Captain  Codling  had  disappeared, 
no  one  knew  whither.  Lloyd's  agent,  however,  this  same 
Captain  Douglas,  was  very  clear  sighted,  very  pertinacious  in 
pursuit — evidently  a  born  detective.  He  had  found  amongst 
Easterby's  papers  a  letter  from  Codling,  dated  August  12th, 
from  London,  in  which  the  skipper  said  he  was  on  the 
point  of  starting  for  Harwich,  where  he  hoped  to  get 
passage  to  the  Continent  in  packet,  "  bye-boat,  or  colHer." 
Lloyd's    agent  hurried   to   Harwich,   and   on    arrival   found 


CAPTAIN   COBLING.  375 

two  packets  on  the  point  of  departure.  Captain  Codling's 
name  was  on  the  Hst  of  passengers  of  neither,  but  the 
agent,  proceeding  on  board  with  his  warrant  of  arrest, 
made  diligent  search  through  both  ships,  and  at  last  found 
Codling,  tied  up  in  a  bundle  of  bedclothes,  in  one  of  the 
berths.  Cooper,  the  acting  mate,  was  still  wanted,  but  the 
promise  of  a  large  reward,  and  the  offer  of  pardon  as  king's 
evidence,  brought  him  out  of  hiding  to  be  the  chief  instru- 
ment in  securing  conviction.  He  had,  in  fact,  been  the 
chief  agent  in  the  scuttling,  and  he  told  the  story  plainly 
and  simply :  how  Codling  had  desired  him  to  go  down  to 
the  hold,  "take  up  the  scuttle  hatch  and  bore  holes  with 
an  auger,  close  in  the  run,  as  near  the  bottom  as  possible." 
These  holes  did  not  appear  to  be  sufficient,  and  they  were 
enlarged,  first  with  a  spiked  gimlet,  and  then  with  a  hatchet, 
and  the  brig  was  soon  waterlogged. 

This  testimony  sufficed  to  hang  Captain  Codhng ;  but 
the  promoters  of  the  whole  fraud,  Easterby  and  Macfarlane, 
escaped  on  technical  grounds.  It  was  ruled  that  as  they  had 
not  been  actually  on  board  the  Adventv/re,  or  anywhere 
at  sea  when  the  crime  was  committed,  the  Court  had  no 
jurisdiction  over  them,  and  they  were  eventually  set  free. 
Yet  it  was  well  known  that  they  had  deliberately  contrived 
the  whole  plot,  having  bought  the  Adventmre  on  purpose 
only  a  couple  of  months  before  she  sailed,  and  it  was  proved 
that  they  had  already  owned  a  brig  called  the  William,, 
which  was  strangely  liable  to  accidents — in  other  words,  was 
often  shipwrecked  with  the  loss  of  her  cargo. 

The  frauds  upon  underwriters  were  very  numerous  in 
those  times.  One  of  the  leading  underwriters,  Mr.  Throck- 
morton, in  giving  evidence  before  a  Parliamentary  Committee 
in  1810,  spoke  of  several.  .  .  .  The  first  he  remembered  was 
on  a  ship  called  the  Eagle.  The  instructions  for  insurance 
came  from  Philadelphia,  and  the  policy  was  taken  out  by  an 
American ;  but  it  was  fully  proved  afterwards  that  he  knew 
that  the  ship  was  already  lost  when  he  wrote  the  order 
for  the  insurance.  The  next  case  was  that  of  the  Adven- 
ture (just  described).     A  third  was  that  of  a  sloop  proceeding 


376  CRIMES    OF   THE    HIGHWAYS. 

from  Dieppe,  in  France,  to  an  English  port  which  she  never 
reached ;  she  was  supposed  to  carry  a  large  freight  of  specie, 
which  was  heavily  insured,  but  was  never  put  on  board. 
She  was  reported  lost  on  the  French  coast,  yet  the  very 
morning  after  she  had  sailed  the  captain  and  crew  were 
seen  at  breakfast  near  Dieppe.  A  grave  case  was  that  of 
a  ship  leaving  Leghorn,  said  to  be  freighted  with  valuable 
silks,  but  really  loaded  with  brimstone.  "In  this  case  the 
ship,  insured  against  sea  risk  only,  went  to  sea  on  a  fine 
morning,  and  was  destroyed  in  the  evening,  the  captain 
and  crew  coming  quietly  on  shore  in  their  boats.  Insurances 
had  been  effected  at  a  number  of  places — London,  Liver- 
pool, Marseilles,  and,  I  believe,  Manchester ;  and,  a  claim 
for  total  loss  being  made,  the  witnesses  actually  came  here 
to  substantiate  their  claim,  but  they  took  wing  the  day 
before  the  trial  was  to  come  on.  There  was  another  insur- 
ance by  the  same  parties,  at  nearly  the  same  time,  on  another 
risk  of  a  similar  kind,  but  against  capture  only.  In  this 
instance  the  ship  was  taken  and  carried  to  Corsica  in  the 
course  of  a  few  hours  after  she  had  left  Leghorn,  and, 
though  it  was  found  to  be  a  fraud,  the  discovery  of  it 
came  too  late,  as  the  money  had  been  paid  by  the  under- 
writers." * 

Extraordinary  cleverness  and  no  little  daring  were  shown 
in  some  of  these  insurance  frauds.  A  ship  from  Boston, 
the  Hannah  Mary,  was  purposely  sunk  after  being  insured 
not  only  at  Lloyd's  in  London,  but  in  Bristol  and  at 
Liverpool.  The  culprit  was  detected  and  taken  up,  when 
he  confessed  that  he  had  forged  the  bills  of  lading,  the 
invoices,  and  other  documents,  all  of  which  were  regularly 
legalised  by  American  stamps  obtained  for  the  purpose. 
A  most  audacious  case  was  that  of  a  ship  proceeding  from 
Gibraltar  to  Lisbon,  during  the  French  war,  when  she 
became  a  prize  to  a  cruiser  just  outside  Gibraltar  Bay, 
and  in  full  sight  of  the  fortress.  Special  couriers  were  at 
once  dispatched  to  Lisbon,  carrying  four  or  five  duplicate 
orders  for  insurance,  and  these  found  their  way  to  London 
*  Martin's  "  History  of  Uoyd's." 


AUDACIOUS   INSURANCE    FRAUDS.  377 

before  the  news  of  the  capture  of  the  ship.  However,  the 
fraud  was  discovered  in  good  time,  and  the  policy  was 
not  paid.  Mr.  Throckmorton  quoted  many  other  cases : — 
The  Aurora,  bound  to  the  Brazils  from  Lisbon,  and  burnt 
by  design  in  Madeira  Roads ;  the  Philippa  Harben,  destroyed 
at  sea  between  New  York  and  Belfast ;  the  Merry  Andrew, 
sunk  in  the  King's  Road,  Bristol ;  the  Bordeaux  Trader,  which 
sailed  from  Portsmouth  on  a  Saturday  morning  and  was 
immediately  captured  just  off  the  Isle  of  Wight.  The 
captain  escaped,  and,  joining  the  owner  at  Portsmouth, 
orders  for  insurance  were  sent  up  to  London  that  Sunday 
afternoon. 

The  improved  laws  and  the  unfailing  activity  of  Lloyd's 
no  doubt  helped  to  check  insurance  frauds  in  this  country. 
But  they  still  flourished  in  the  United  States,  and  were 
carried  out  in  the  most  systematic  manner.  In  1840  a 
fraternity  of  plunderers  existed  in  New  York  who  did  a 
very  extensive  business  in  such  frauds.  According  to  a 
writer  in  Hunt's  Mercantile  Magazine,  about  that  date, 
"their  usual  plan  has  been  to  buy  a  vessel,  part  cash,  part 
credit,  and  then  to  get  a  merchant  to  advance  money  upon 
her,  and  procure  in  his  own  name  a  policy  of  insurance  for 
a  valuation  exceeding  by  at  least  50  per  cent,  her  real  cost. 
Having  got  the  advance,  and  with  it  another  stretch  of 
credit,  a  cargo  is  procured,  and  this  generally  secures  a 
second  advance  of  cash  upon  the  cargo  and  freight,  covered 
by  further  policies  of  insurance.  The  advance  on  these  last 
policies  pays  the  vessel's  outfit,  and  repays  the  amount  of 
cash  which  they  have  advanced  on  her  purchase.  The  rest 
of  the  adventure  is  easily  described.  The  vessel  sails,  is 
burnt,  scuttled,  or  otherwise  cast  away.  Sometimes  she  is 
dismasted  by  cutting  the  'lee  laniards  of  the  lower  stand- 
ing rigging,'  so  that  when  they  '  back  ship '  she  may  lose 
her  masts  without  any  apparent  act  of  the  master;  and  to 
effect  this,  a  dark  night,  and  squally  or  rough  weather,  are 
most  convenient.  In  another  case  she  is  run  ashore,  and, 
if  she  do  not  bilge,  holes  are  bored  to  destroy  her  cargo 
and  make  the  vessel  appear  to  be  worthless.    As  an  auxiliary 


378  GRIMES    OF    THE    HIGHWAYS. 

to  the  bilging  by  boring,  the  masts  are  often  cut  away 
under  the  pretence  of  making  her  'he  easy,'  or  to  prevent 
'thumping.'  Cutting  away  the  masts,  when  no  holes  are 
bored,  is  practised  where  the  stranding  takes  place  within 
the  reach  of  wreckers  who  might  save  the  vessel,  and  it 
is  done  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  right  of  condem- 
nation, or  with  the  desire  to  make  any  attempt  at  saving 
useless,  and  not  worth  the  expense. 

"Holes  have  been  bored  in  vessels  and  plugs  fitted  and 
inserted,  to  be  taken  out  at  sea ;  and  arrangements  have  been 
made  with  the  captains  of  other  vessels  to  keep  company  and 
take  off  the  captain  and  men  when  this  was  done.  A  ship 
bound  to  New  Orleans  was  purposely  run  in  among  the 
Florida  reefs,  and,  owing  to  the  ignorance  of  the  captain,  she 
became  so  situated  as  to  require  much  perseverance  on  his 
part  to  keep  her  in  a  dangerous  situation,  two  good  channels 
being  so  open  to  him  as  to  make  it  necessary  to  get  help  from 
the  wreckers,  who  came  in  sight,  to  find  a  bad  one.  He  went 
on  board  one  of  the  wrecking  vessels,  and  agreed  that  they 
should  give  him  one  thousand  dollars  for  the  job  of  running 
her  ashore.  The  day  was  too  bright  and  the  wind  too  fair  to 
insure  success,  and  the  ship  remained  at  anchor  until  a  dark 
night  and  a  head  wind  afforded  a  more  favourable  oppor- 
tunity. But,  with  these  and  all  their  combined  skUl,  she 
came  so  near  going  through  the  channel  safely  as  to  render 
it  necessary  to  make  her  toss  about  for  the  space  of  two  hours 
to  find  a  reef  which  was  hard  enough  and  sharp  enough ;  and 
when  they  had  with  much  patience  selected  the  place,  and 
got  a  cable  and  anchor  to  heave  her  harder  ashore,  she  would 
not  stay  stranded  with  their  best  efforts,  but  floated  over  the 
reef  As  daylight  came  they  had  to  take  her  to  Key  West, 
where,  as  the  fraud  was  apparent,  the  judge  of  the  Admiralty 
Court  refused  to  decree  any  salvage.  The  captain  being 
thus  about  to  lose  his  1,000  dollars,  he  consummated  his 
villainy  by  swearing  for  the  wreckers  that  they  '  acted  in 
good  faith.'  He  then  procured  the  condemnation  and  sale 
of  the  ship."  None  of  the  stories  which  follow  show  greater 
ingenuity  or  recklessness. 


THE   BROTHERS    WALLACE.  379 

LOSS   OF   THE   "DRYAD." 

Frauds  upon  underwriters  and  marine  insurance  offices  can- 
not be  said  to  have  ceased  to  this  day.  A  story  of  the  sea  that 
would  serve  as  the  foundation  of  an  exciting  sea  romance  is 
to  be  found  in  the  loss  of  the  brig  Dryad,  in  1840.  The  plot 
was  cleverly  laid,  and  proved  perfectly  successful  for  a  time. 
The  ship  was  lost,  the  insurances  paid  ;  the  delinquents — two 
brothers  named  Wallace,  one  a  merchant,  the  other  a  sea 
captain — might  have  enjoyed  their  ill-gotten  gains  to  the  end 
but  for  the  inconvenient  return  of  some  of  the  crew.  Then 
suspicions  that  had  been  only  vague  became  certainty,  and 
one  brother,  Patrick  Wallace,  was  forthwith  arrested.  The 
other,  Michael,  who  had  been  living  in  the  Commercial  Koad, 
absconded,  abandoning  his  house  and  furniture.  He  was 
traced,  in  due  course,  to  Lancaster,  where  he  was  taken. 

Michael  Wallace,  on  his  own  behalf,  pleaded  that  he  had 
been  led  into  the  crime  by  the  evil  advice  and  example  of  a 
City  friend,  who  had  made  a  very  profitable  business  of  such 
frauds.  Patrick  Wallace  put  forward  the  same  defence ;  he  had 
become  acquainted  with  a  gentleman  in  Liverpool  who  had 
made  a  fortune  by  bu3dng  old  ships  on  purpose  to  lose  them 
when  fully  insured.  The  brothers  set  about  their  fraud  with 
aU  the  skiU  of  old  hands.  Michael  purchased  the  pre- 
ponderating share  in  the  brig  Dryad — three-fourths,  in  fact, 
£1,600  in  all — and  had  expended  another  £600  in  making 
her  "a  first-class  ship."  Patrick  Wallace  took  the  part  of 
securing  a  complaisant  ship-master,  and  found  him  in 
Edmund  Loose,  who  was  appointed  to  the  Dryad  with  the 
clear  understanding  he  should  lose  her  somewhere,  somehow, 
the  sooner  the  better. 

While  these  essential  preliminaries  were  being  settled, 
Michael  Wallace  sought  out  a  merchant  to  ship  a  cargo,  and 
the  Messrs.  Zulueta  chartered  the  Dryad  to  carry  goods  to 
the  value  of  £300  to  Santa  Cruz,  in  the  West  Indies.  Heavy 
insurances  were  next  effected  on  the  ship  and  the  freight. 
The  owners  got  a  policy  for  £2,200  from  the  Marine  Insurance 
on   the  first,  and   £300  on   the  latter.      But  the  Wallaces 


380  CRIMES    OF    THE   HIGHWAYS. 

insured  the  Dryad  and  her  cargo  further  in  other  offices,  and 
these  policies  standing  in  their  names  amounted  to  £6,617, 
a  sum  far  exceeding  their  actual  holding  La  the  ship  and 
what  she  carried. 

The  chief  testimony  against  the  Wallaces  was  that  of  the 
mate  of  the  Dryad,  who  escaped  the  shipwreck,  and  who 
described  the  whole  proceeding.  He  described  the  lading  of 
the  ship  at  Liverpool,  and  how,  when  Messrs.  Zulueta's  goods 
were  all  on  board,  quite  one-third  of  the  hold  remained  un- 
filled. Michael  Wallace  was  to  have  shipped  a  consignment 
of  flannels,  cloths,  beef,  pork,  butter,  and  earthenware,  but 
never  did  so,  although  Captain  Loose  had  signed  bills  of 
lading  as  having  received  them.  A  suspicious  circumstance 
was  the  insufficient  quantity  of  provisions  sent  for  the  crew. 
It  was  usual  to  send  enough  for  both  outward  and  homeward 
voyages,  but  barely  enough  for  the  first  was  provided.  The 
ship  was  also  badly  found.  There  was  no  proper  log-line  on 
board ;  the  pump  was  never  made  to  suck ;  the  long-boat 
was  fitted  with  tackle,  and  ready  to  launch  at  a  moment's 
notice.  Nothing  happened,  as  the  weather  continued  "  set  fair,'' 
but  they  steered  a  strange  course,  northward,  deviating  from 
the  customary  track,  and  first  sighted  land  at  Virgin  Gorda, 
and,  holding  on,  ran  close  to  the  breakers  off  Anagada, 
both  of  them  rocky  reefs  on  the  outer  fringe  of  the  West 
Indies. 

The  captain  was  called  up  from  below,  while  the  mate  put 
the  ship's  head  about.  But  the  captain,  coming  on  deck, 
seized  the  helm  and  ran  her  straight  for  the  breakers.  Now 
the  crew  interposed,  swearing  they  did  not  mean  to  lose  their 
lives  for  the  captain's  pleasure,  whereupon  he  left  the  wheel, 
and  one  of  the  crew  taking  it,  put  the  ship's  head  round. 
Two  days  the  course  was  between  the  Silver  Keys  and  the 
north  of  St.  Domingo,  but  so  much  too  near  the  former, 
which  are  dangerous  rocks,  that  the  Dryad  struck  upon  one 
of  them,  but  again  she  escaped,  this  time  with  the  loss 
of  her  rudder.  They  then  coasted  along  the  coast  of  St. 
Domingo,  close  in  shore,  and  after  passing  Cape  Hayti  struck 
on  a  reef  at  Cape  Cruz.     She  might  have  been  got  off,  for 


THE    CASE    OF    THE    "SEVERN."  381 

she  was  making  no  water,  but  no  efibrts  were  made.  The 
crew  with  the  captain  deserted  her,  but  not  before  one  of 
them  had  detected  a  large  hole  under  her  stern  which  could 
not  have  been  made  by  a  rock,  but  was,  no  doubt,  the  captain's 
work  from  one  of  the  state-rooms.  He  was  never  brought  to 
trial,  however,  for  he  died  before  proceedings  were  taken. 
Both  the  Wallaces  were  found  guUy  and  sentenced  "  for  life." 

THE   "SEVERN." 

Five-and-twenty  years   later,   Charles  Webb,  mate,  with 
Thomas  Berwick  and  Lionel  Holdsworth,  owners,  and  Joseph 
Dean,  agent,  were  charged  with  the  scuttHng  of  the  Severn 
She    was    a   ship    of    1,200   tons  burden,   Layland   master, 
and  she  sailed  from  Newport  on  the  15th  May,  1866,  on  a 
voyage  to  Shanghai,  her  cargo  consisting  principally  of  coals. 
On  the  14th  of  June  following  she  was  found  to  have  sprung 
a  leak,  and  was  making  water  so  fast  that  the  crew  found  it 
necessary  to  abandon  her,  and  to  take  to  their  boats,  all  of 
which  were  picked  up.     Webb's  boat  was  taken  in  to  Per- 
nambuco,  the  other  boat  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  all  hands 
were  eventually  sent  to  England.     The  case  against  Holds- 
worth  and  Berwick  was  that  they  had  originally  purchased 
the  Severn  for  about    £5,000    from    one  Sweet,  but   that, 
wishing  to  conceal  the  fact  of  their  ownership,  they  pro- 
cured a  person  named  Ward  to  act  as  the  registered  owner, 
giving  him  £50  for  so  doing.     This  was  part  of  a  deeply-laid 
scheme  of  fraud,  the  consummation  of  which  was  to  be  the 
destruction  of  the  vessel,  so  as  to  obtain  the  value  of  the 
insurances  at  Lloyd's.     The  total  amount  for  which  policies 
were  effected  was  £17,000,  whereas  the  ship  and  all  the  cargo 
she  contained  were  not  worth  more  than  £7,000  or  £8,000. 
At   the  time  the  vessel  sprang  the  leak  the  weather  was 
perfectly  calm,  and  there  was  nothing  to  account  for  such  an 
accident.     Positive  evidence  was  given  by  several  of  the  crew 
that  after  they  had  taken  to  the  boats  they  distinctly  saw 
two  large  holes  in  the  stern  of  the  vessel ;  these  had  evidently 
been  bored  from  the  inside,  as  the  splinters  were  forced  out- 
wards.    There  was  also  evidence  that  Webb  was  in  his  cabin, 


382  OBIMEB    OF    TEE   HIGSWAT8. 

where  he  would  have  an  opportunity  of  making  these  holes, 
immediately  before  the  leak  was  discovered, 

Layland,  the  captain  of  the  ship,  said  that  he  dined  with 
Berwick  and  Holdsworth  at  Newport  before  starting,  and 
they  told  him  that  Webb  was  put  on  board  for  a  particular 
purpose,  and  that  he  must  not  be  interfered  with ;  at  the 
same  time  they  expressed  their  opinion  that  the  Severn  would 
never  reach  her  destination,  and  that  if  this  were  realised 
it  would  be  £700  in  the  pocket  of  the  captain.  At  the  time 
that  the  leak  was  sprung  it  was  so  evident  that  Webb 
had  a  hand  in  it  that  the  captain  remonstrated  with  him ; 
but  Webb  said  it  would  be  all  right ;  he  had  done  the 
same  to  the  Jane  Brown,  another  vessel  in  which  he  had 
formerly  sailed,  and  which  had  sunk  at  sea. 

The  ship  left  England  in  May;  they  encountered  a  gale 
after  passing  Cape  St.  Vincent.  A  first  leak  was  discovered. 
It  was  not  the  only  one.  The  crew  were  continually  at  the 
pumps,  even  until  within  half  an  hour  of  their  leaving  her. 
They  were  then  in  the  "Trades,''  with  perfect  weather,  yet 
the  ship  filled  fast,  and  the  pumps  made  no  impression.  About 
eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  Webb  said  they  had  better  get 
the  boats  ready.  Then  the  captain  accused  Webb  of  tamper- 
ing with  the  ship,  and  he  admitted  he  had  bored  a  hole  in  the 
skin,  which  he  had  tried  to  plug,  but  found  it  impossible  to 
stop  the  hole.  The  next  morning  the  boats  were  got  out  and 
the  ship  abandoned. 

Holdsworth  had  packed  twelve  large  cases  with  salt 
(worth  about  £4)  and  sent  them  down  to  the  ship  at  New- 
port before  she  sailed,  pretending  that  they  were  a  valuable 
consignment  of  firearms  and  swords,  and  this  apparently  was 
the  only  cargo  the  Severn  carried. 

The  log-book  of  the  ship  was  kept  by  Webb.  It  was  taken 
to  the  British  Consul  at  Pernambuco,  but  the  captain  next 
saw  it  at  Holdsworth's  ofiice  in  Fenchurch  Street.  A  few  days 
afterwards,  when  Layland  was  again  at  Holdsworth's  office, 
Holdsworth  took  out  the  log-book  and  asked  the  captain  if 
it  would  do.  It  was  a  new  one.  Holdsworth  had  said  that 
the  log-book  would  not  do,  as  it  had  been  tampered  with,  and 


AN   INDIAN   OASE.  383 

Webb  said  he  would  get  a  new  one  and  copy  it  out.  And 
the  captain  afterwards  saw  Webb  turning  down  and  soiling 
the  leaves.  Holdsworth  gave  the  captain  £10  per  month  until 
the  policies  should  be  settled. 

The  chief  actor  in  this  fraud  was  sentenced  to  ten  years' 
penal  servitude,  and  I  remember  well  that  when  he  was  under- 
going his  term  in  the  convict  prison  of  Gibraltar  (he  was  cox- 
swain of  my  gig)  he  never  admitted,  always  positively  denied 
his  guilt  to  me ;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  very  clearly  proved. 

THE   "AURORA." 

One  of  the  most  flagrant  frauds  against  underwriters 
was  perpetrated  in  the  burning  of  the  ship  Aurora,  which 
left  Bombay  in  June,  1870,  laden  with  a  cargo  of  cotton 
heavily  insured.  Rumours  of  foul  play  had  got  abroad  before 
the  ship  weighed  anchor,  and  the  underwriters  would  have 
had  her  stopped,  but  the  poHce  were  just  too  late  to  catch 
her.  Within  a  few  miles  of  port  she  was  utterly  destroyed  by 
fire.  Suspicion  now  grew  into  certainty  but  stiU  there  were  no 
positive  proofs.  The  Bombay  poHce  were  actively  pursuing 
inquiries,  when  one  Soonderji  Shamji,  a  native  broker  who 
had  chartered  the  ship,  came  forward  and  volunteered  to  tell 
all  he  knew.  The  captain  of  the  Aurora,  who  with  his  crew 
had  been  saved  from  the  burning  ship,  also  confessed  that  he 
had  been  engaged  to  scuttle  the  ship,  but  found  it  easier  to 
have  her  burnt. 

Two  Bombay  brokers  were  the  authors  of  this  plot,  Messrs. 
Elmstone  and  Whitewell,  Englishmen,  who,  when  tried  and 
sentenced,  were  severely  censured  by  the  judge  for  having 
disgraced  their  race  and  name  before  the  whole  East  by  their 
criminal  conspiracy.  The  plan  was  simple  enough  ;  it  was  to 
get  advances  from  the  banks  on  bills  of  lading  signed,  con- 
trary to  law,  by  the  captain  before  the  goods  were  shipped.  A 
certain  amount  of  cargo  was,  however,  to  be  put  on  board,  100 
bales,  purporting  to  be  of  good  sound  cotton,  whereas  the 
stuff  was  the  bazaar  refuse  known  as  "  droppings."  On  this 
spurious  cargo,  and  on  the  ship  itself,  the  brokers  effected 
large  insurances  with  the  underwriters,  so  that  on  the  whole 


384  CRIMES    OF    THE   HIGHWAYS. 

a  vast  profit  was  expected  from  the  destruction  of  the 
Aurora,  if  it  could  be  accomplished. 

For  this  it  was  first  necessary  to  seduce  the  captain,  Harriott, 
which  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  very  difficult  task.  He 
was  bought  for  the  sum  of  £1,000,  and  as  he  could  not  work 
alone,  £600  was  also  promised  to  Marks,  the  carpenter,  who 
readily  fell  in  with  the  scheme.  As  Mr.  Whitewell,  the 
tempter,  put  it,  "  This  was  a  chance  that  happens  but  once  in 
a  man's  life."  There  was  a  fortune  in  it,  he  said,  and  the  weak 
fools  readily  agreed.  Marks  was  to  follow  the  usual  methods 
in  such  frauds — to  bore  holes  in  the  bottom ;  but,  as  he  after- 
wards confessed,  "  the  idea  suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  I 
could  set  fire  to  the  ship.  On  the  impulse  of  the  moment  I 
struck  a  match,  lighted  a  bit  of  oakum,  and  threw  it  inside  the 
lazarette,  where  some  turpentine  had  been  spilt,  purposely,  on 
the  deck."  Marks  then  shut  the  door  of  the  lazarette  and  an  ex- 
plosion was  heard  within,  and  the  whole  ship  was  soon  in  flames. 

When  brought  to  trial  all  the  prisoners  were  convicted ;  the 
two  brokers  got  "  life,"  Harriott  fifteen,  and  Marks  ten  years. 

This  Aurora  case  is  not  the  only  one  of  its  kind  recorded 
in  the  criminal  annals  of  Bombay.  A  wealthy  native  mer- 
chant, Aloo  Paroo,  was  in  1844  sentenced  to  transportation  for 
life  for  having  conspired  to  cast  away  the  ship  Belvedere  on 
the  voyage  between  Bombay  and  China.  Other  frauds  on 
underwriters  had  also  been  perpetrated  about  the  time  of  the 
loss  of  the  Aurora.  A  well-known  and  prominent  Bombay 
merchant,  ELarsondas  Madhowdas,  was  detected  in  conspiring 
to  defraud  a  bank  by  producing  bills  of  lading  for  1,000  bales 
of  cotton  shipped  on  board  the  Theresa,  when  as  a  fact  not  a 
single  bale  had  been  put  on  board.  There  was  a  cargo  in  the 
hold  of  the  Theresa,  but  only  of  putrefying  rubbish,  which 
"  stank  so  horribly "  that  the  surveyors,  sent  by  the  under- 
writers to  verify  the  cotton,  could  not  remain  below. 
Suspicion  also  fell  upon  another  ship,  the  Greyhound,  but 
the  captain  absconded  before  any  fraud  could  be  proved. 
Again,  three  Bhattiahs  were  arrested  for  having  shipped 
rubbish  instead  of  cotton,  and  defrauding  certain  merchants 
of  £1,380  by  this  means. 


THE    CASE    OF    THE    "CLIPPER."  385 

THE   "CLIPPER." 

The  loss  of  the  Clipper  was  as  clumsily  contrived  as  that 
of  the  old  Adventure,  nearly  a  century  earlier.  On  the  9th 
March,  1858,  she  sailed  from  London  for  Newport  to  take  in 
a  cargo  of  coal,  but  when  anchored  oflf  Dungeness  one  morning 
she  was  found  to  be  in  a  sinking  condition,  and  soon  after- 
wards foundered.  The  captain,  Lakey  by  name,  and  crew  took 
to  the  long-boat  and  got  safely  ashore,  and  by-and-by  the 
former  put  in  his  claim  for  the  policies.  He  had  insured  his 
own  effects  for  £150,  an  unusually  large  amount  for  a  man  in 
his  position,  and  the  vessel  had  been  insured  for  £800.  Suspicion 
was  aroused  and  the  agent  from  Lloyd's  was  sent  to  raise  her. 
When  they  got  her  into  port  and  laid  her  up  partly  dry,  it 
was  discovered  that  the  ballast  port,  which  should  have  been 
secured,  had  been  left  open ;  more,  a  hole  two  inches  square 
had  been  cut  with  a  chisel  in  the  starboard  quarter  of  the 
ship's  run ;  yet  again  there  were  two  auger  holes  about  an  inch 
in  diameter  in  her  side,  and  a  third  not  quite  cut  through. 
Otherwise  the  Clipper  was  water-tight,  and  when  the  holes 
were  plugged  she  was  towed  in  to  Dover. 

Lakey,  it  was  proved,  had  bored  the  holes  himself  with  the 
assistance  of  the  cook.  The  mate  saw  them  at  work  and 
heard  the  skipper  give  orders  to  knock  out  the  ballast  port, 
saying  the  ship  was  bound  to  be  a  coffin  some  day,  and  it  was 
better  she  should  sink  at  once.  He  was  part  owner,  having 
succeeded  the  last  skipper  and  brought  the  ship  home  on  her 
previous  voyage,  when  he  bought  an  eighth  share.  An  inde- 
pendent witness,  master  of  a  lugger  at  Dungeness,  deposed 
that  he  had  gone  on  board  the  Clipper  the  evening  before  she 
sank,  thinking  there  was  something  amiss  with  her.  He  saw 
that  she  Avas  heeled  over,  chiefly  because  the  chain-cable  was 
lumped  in  a  heap  upon  her  starboard  quarter;  the  main 
hold  was  half  full  of  water,  yet  the  pumps  were  not  rigged, 
and  the  crew  stood  idle  about  the  deck.  Lakey  declined 
the  skipper's  help. 

The  case  was  brought  home  to  the  culprit,  who  was 
sentenced  to  three  years'  penal  servitude. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

ROBBERIES   BY  THE   WAY   AND   RAILWAY   CRIMES. 

The  Gold-Dust  Robbery  from  the  London  Docks — The  Gaspers  and  "  Money  " 
Moses — Bullion  Robbery  on  South  Eastern  Railway — Belgian  MaU  Robbery 
— MoCalla's  Clever  Robbery  of  the  Union  Express  Company  on  the 
Alleghany  Railroad^The  St.  Louis  Express  Robbery — Extraordinary 
Story  of  Detection — Railway  Murders  :  of  Mr.  Briggs  by  MiiUer— Jud — 
of  Mr.  Gould  by  Lefroy— of  M.  Bareme. 

THE  GREAT  GOLD-DUST  ROBBERY. 

The  transmission  of  bullion  was  at  one  time  a  constant 
temptation  to  the  dishonest,  just  as  nowadays  the  trans- 
mission of  diamonds  and  other  precious  stones  has  called 
into  existence  a  new  class  of  robbery.  One  of  the  most 
daring,  and  for  a  time  thoroughly  successful,  cases  of  stealing 
gold  was  in  the  abstraction  of  two  boxes  of  gold-dust  from  the 
London  Docks  in  March,  1839.  This  precious  consignment 
had  reached  England  from  South  America  on  the  18th  of  that 
month ;  it  had  been  brought  home  by  H.M.S.  Seagull,  from 
which  it  had  been  landed  at  Falmouth,  to  be  forwarded  to 
London  by  sea.  The  two  boxes  were  put  on  board  the  City 
of  Limerick  steamer  and  landed  at  St.  Katherine's  Dock, 
London,  on  the  25th  of  March.  That  morning  the  agents  of 
the  Dubhn  Steam  Navigation  Company  received  a  letter  from 
Messrs.  Carne  and  Co.,  of  Falmouth,  informing  them  that  a 
quantity  of  gold-dust  would  be  landed  at  their  wharf  from 
the  City  of  Limsrick,  and  begging  them  to  hand  the  same 
over  to  a  person  who  would  call  at  their  office,  armed  with 
the  necessary  credentials.  That  same  afternoon  a  man 
drove  up  to  the  door  to  claim  the  boxes;  he  described  the 
marks  upon  them  and  gave  other  seemingly  satisfactory 
proofs  of  his  good  faith.  His  right  to  the  boxes  was  not  con- 
tested, and,  when  he  had  paid  the  wharfage  dues,  he  was 
permitted  to  load  them  upon  a  cab  and  drive  away. 

Not  long  afterwards  a  representative  of  the  real  owners, 


TBE   GREAT  GOLD-DUST  ROBBERY.  387 

to  whom,  in  fact,  the  boxes  had  been  consigned,  arrived  at 
the  Dubhn  Navigation  Office  and  demanded  the  boxes.  He 
also  produced  vouchers  which  were  obviously  authentic,  and 
the  fraud  was  thus  discovered.  It  was  a  serious  matter  for  the 
Dublin  Company,  upon  whom,  of  course,  the  loss  would  fall, 
and  two  special  police  officers,  Messrs.  Lea  and  Koe,  were 
commissioned  to  follow  up  the  thieves.  They  soon  discovered 
the  cab  in  which  the  gold  had  been  removed,  and  questioned 
its  driver,  who  remembered  no  more  of  the  circumstance  than 
that  he  had  been  hired  in  Cheapside,  had  proceeded  to  the 
wharf,  and  then  to  Wood  Street,  where  his  employer  changed 
cabs  and  drove  off  in  the  other  towards  Holborn.  This  was 
but  vague  information ;  but  the  police  continued  their  search, 
and  at  last  traced  the  thief  to  New  Street,  London  Hospital. 
Again  there  was  a  break,  for  the  man  had  left  New  Street 
and  moved  to  Mansel  Street,  Goodman's  Fields,  and  again 
had  left  that  address,  going  no  one  knew  whither.  But  now 
it  was  ascertained  that  the  man  in  question  was  one  Moss 
a  watchmaker,  who  was  on  intimate  terms  with  a  clerk 
in  the  office  of  the  Dublin  Steam  Navigation  Company,  by 
name  Casper.  This  Casper  had  a  confidential  post,  and  it 
was  he  who  had  opened  the  letter  from  Messrs.  Came  &  Co., 
of  Falmouth,  which  had  brought  about  the  mistaken  sur- 
render of  the  gold.  Moss  was  also  on  friendly  terms  with 
Casper's  father,  and  had  been  seen  in  close  conversation 
with  him  on  the  morning  of  the  robbery.  Other  suspicious 
facts  came  out  against  Moss.  He  had  left  home  on  the 
morning  of  the  robbery  dressed  in  his  best  clothes,  an  un- 
usual thing  with  him ;  he  had  come  home  in  the  evening 
in  a  cab,  bringing  two  boxes  with  him  very  similar  to  those 
which  had  contained  the  gold  dust ;  his  servant  had  found 
in  the  grate  of  his  room  the  burnt  fragments  of  the  boxes, 
and  the  next  morning  Moss  and  his  wife  had  disappeared. 
The  Caspers  were  taken  into  custody,  but  Moss  as  yet 
could  not  be  found. 

Meanwhile  other  useful  information  had  been  obtained. 
Certain  bullion  dealers  in  Cheapside  had  purchased  a 
quantity  of  bar  gold  from  a  gold  refiner  named  Solomons, 


388    BOBBERIES  B7  THE  WAT  AND  RAILWAY  CRIMES. 

soon  after  the  robbery.  Solomons  was  brought  up  at  the 
pohce  office,  when  he  admitted  that  he  had  sold  £1,200  worth 
of  gold  as  stated,  but  he  pretended  that  it  was  the  product 
of  a  number  of  old  snuff-boxes  and  other  gold  plate  which 
he  had  melted  down  in  the  usual  way  of  business.  When 
further  pressed  he  declined  to  answer,  and  left  court  under 
considerable  suspicion.  Next  time  he  appeared  it  was  as 
a  prisoner,  charged  as  a  confederate  of  the  Gaspers,  and 
the  case  began  to  look  black  against  them  all.  For  Moss 
had  given  himself  up,  and  was  now  brought  into  court  as 
a  witness  and  approver.  Solomons  was  anxious  to  do  the 
same,  and  later  was  also  admitted  as  a  witness.  On  the 
joint  testimony  of  Solomons  and  Moss  two  new  prisoners 
were  arrested — a  man,  Emmanuel  Moses,  commonly  known 
as  "  Money  "  Moses,  a  notorious  "  fence,"  or  receiver  of  stolen 
goods,  and  with  him  his  daughter,  Alice  Abrahams,  a  widow. 
The  case  against  the  two  last  named  was  that  they  had  sold 
a  quantity  of  gold  dust  to  Solomons,  who  must  have  been 
aware  that  it  had  been  improperly  obtained,  for  he  promised 
in  melting  it  down  to  throw  in  a  portion  of  copper  and 
silver  so  as  to  change  its  character  and  prevent  identification. 
The  case  was  clearly  proved  against  the  Gaspers,  with 
whom  the  scheme  no  doubt  originated.  They  had  ap- 
proached Moss  and  begged  him,  As  a  favour,  to  remove  the 
boxes  from  the  wharf  when  landed.  Moss  appears  to  have 
been  well  aware  that  he  was  engaged  in  a  robbery,  and  he 
detailed  at  considerable  length  the  precautions  he  had  taken 
to  get  the  boxes  home  without  being  observed.  Moss  seems 
also  to  have  been  quite  ready  to  appropriate  the  whole  of 
the  gold  dust  to  himself,  but  the  Gaspers  hung  about  him 
and  prevented  any  foul  play;  indeed,  a  point  most  clear  in 
the  whole  of  this  nefarious  transaction  was  the  effort  made 
by  aU  parties  to  "jew"  each  other.  Moss  was  to  have  been 
paid  a  percentage,  and  he  was  defrauded  by  Moses  and  his 
daughter  declaring  that  they  had  got  a  much  smaller  price 
than  was  expected;  Mrs.  Abrahams  had  cheated  her  father 
by  keeping  for  herself  a  lot  of  loose  dust  deposited  in  her 
pockets  when  she  carried  the  gold  to  Solomons ;  Solomons 


A  JEW  CONSPIRACY.  389 

defrauded  them  all  by  retaining  £1,800  worth  of  dust  in 
his  own  possession  and  refusing  to  surrender  it  on  account 
of  the  stir  made  about  the  robbery. 

At  the  end  of  the  trial,  when  all  the  parties  were  con- 
victed, Ellis  Casper  and  Moses  were  sentenced  to  fourteen 
years'  transportation,  Lewin  Casper  to  seven  years,  and 
Alice  Abrahams  to  four  months.  Solomons  seems  to  have 
escaped,  and  Moss  was  let  off  with  twenty-four  hours'  im- 
prisonment at  Newgate  in  consideration  of  his  testimony. 

A  few  words  here  as  to  this  "  Money "  Moses,  a  man  at 
one  time  well  known  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Covent  Garden. 
He  was  the  landlord  of  the  Black  Lion  public-house  in 
Vinegar  Yard,  Drury  Lane,  where  he  carried  on  a  most  ex- 
tensive and  almost  unblushing  business  of  fence.  It  rami- 
fied through  every  class,  including  the  purchase  of  every 
kind  of  stolen  goods,  and,  when  he  was  finally  convicted, 
great  surprise  was  expressed  that  he  should  have  carried 
on  his  trade  so  long  unchecked.  He  appears  to  have  been 
closely  concerned  with  Ikey  Solomons,  another  notorious 
receiver  of  stolen  goods. 

BULLION   ROBBERY   ON   SOUTH   EASTERN   RAILWAY. 

Years  afterwards  the  regular  transmission  of  bullion  by  rail 
from  London  to  the  Continent  tempted  certain  professional 
thieves  to  make  a  bold  stroke  for  a  fortune  by  robbing  the  gold 
van  on  a  South  Eastern  train.  The  idea  was  first  conceived  by 
one  Pierce,  who  had  been  mixed  up  with  several  frauds,  and 
was  at  the  moment  clerk  in  a  betting  office.  He  put  the 
matter  before  a  "professional"  friend.  Agar,  a  noted  and 
successful  thief,  who  saw  that  the  scheme  contained  the 
elements  of  success  if  they  could  suborn  some  of  the  em- 
ployes of  the  line.  They  therefore  sounded  one  of  the 
guards,  Burgess,  who  was  often  in  charge  of  trains  conveying 
bullion.  He  soon  fell  in  with  the  plot  and  detailed  the 
method  of  transmission.  The  gold  was  sent  in  the  guard's 
van,  packed  in  one  or  mor6  iron-bound  boxes,  each  of  which 
was  deposited  in  a  safe  with  a  Chubb  lock.  The  safes  had  two 
locks,  and  of  course  two  keys,  common  to  all.     These  two  keys 


390    ROBBEBIES  BY  'ISE  WAY  AND  RAILWAY  CRIMES. 

were  in  triplicate,  and  were  held  by  the  confidential  offi  cers  of  the 
Company — one  pair  by  the  trafiic  superintendent  in  London, 
another  by  the  head  of  the  Folkestone  railway  office,  a  third 
by  the  skipper  of  the  Folkestone-Boulogne  boat.  Beyond  the 
Channel  the  French  railway  authorities  became  responsible. 

As  the  booty  was  carried  in  the  guard's  van  it  was  clear 
that  the  robbery  might  easily  be  effected  when  Burgess  was 
on  diity  as  guard,  if  only  the  safes  could  be  opened.  This 
pointed  to  the  necessity  for  obtaining  false  keys,  and  first  of 
all  of  getting  wax  impressions  of  the  real  keys.  The  assist- 
ance of  another  railway  official  was  indispensable,  and  he  was 
Ibund  by  Burgess  in  one  Tester,  a  clerk  in  the  traffic  depart- 
ment at  London  Bridge.  There  were  occasions,  Tester 
reported,  when  the  safes  were  sent  to  Chubb's  for  repair,  and 
then  one  key  was  sent  with  them.  This  key  might  be  im- 
pounded for  a  few  moments,  enough  to  take  an  impression  in 
wax,  and  this  Tester  adroitly  managed  without  detection. 
But  the  safes  had  each  the  second  key  which  was  not  sent  to 
Chubb's  (they  had  their  own),  and  this  second  key  was  never 
within  Tester's  reach.  One  of  these  second  keys  was,  how- 
ever, kept  in  the  Folkestone  office  rather  carelessly,  as  the 
conspirators — Agar  and  Pierce — ascertained,  after  hanging 
about  this  office  for  weeks  on  the  watch.  It  hung  in  a  cup- 
board not  always  locked,  and  one  day  Pierce  stepped  boldly  in 
when  the  office  was  empty,  seized  the  key,  passed  it  to  Agar, 
who  took  the  impression,  returned  the  key  to  Pierce,  who  put 
it  back  in  its  place,  and  left  the  office  altogether  unobserved. 

All  was  ready  for  the  cov/p.  The  thieves  only  awaited  the 
news  that  a  consignment  of  bullion  was  to  be  despatched,  and 
it  was  the  business  of  Tester,  who  had  the  run  of  the  Com- 
pany's books,  to  obtain  this  information.  Meanwhile  the 
others  completed  their  preparations  with  the  utmost  care.  A 
weight  of  shot  was  brought  and  stowed  in  carpet  bags,  ready 
to  replace  exactly  the  abstracted  gold.  Courier  bags  were 
bought  to  carry  the  "  stuff,"  slung  over  the  shoulders  ;  and, 
last,  but  not  least.  Agar  frequently  travelled  up  and  down 
the  line  to  test  the  false  keys  he  had  manufactured  with 
Pierce's   assistance  —  they  were    common   to   all   the 


REAL    KEYS   AND  FALSE  KEYS.  391 

Burgess  admitted  him  into  the  guard's  van,  where 
he  fitted  and  filed  the  keys  till  they  worked  easily  and 
satisfactorily  in  the  locks  of  the  safe.  One  night  Tester 
whispered  to  Agar  and  Pierce,  "  All  right,"  as  they  cautiously 
lounged  about  London  Bridge.  The  thieves  took  first-class 
tickets,  handed  their  bags  full  of  shot  to  the  porters,  who 
placed  them  in  the  guard's  van.  Just  as  the  train  was 
starting  Agar  slipped  into  the  van  with  Burgess,  while  Pierce 
got  into  a  first-class  carriage.  Agar  at  once  got  to  work  on 
the  first  safe,  opened  it,  took  out  and  broke  into  the  bullion 
box,  removed  the  gold,  substituted  the  shot  from  the  carpet 
bag,  refastened  and  resealed  the  bullion  box,  and  replaced  it 
in  the  safe.  At  Redhill,  Tester  met  the  train  and  relieved  the 
thieves  of  a  portion  of  the  stolen  gold.  At  the  same  station 
Pierce  joined  Agar  in  the  guard's  van,  and  there  were  now 
three  to  carry  on  the  robbery.  The  two  remaining  safes  were 
attacked  and  nearly  entirely  despoiled  in  the  same  way  as  the 
first,  and  the  contents  transferred  to  the  courier  bags.  The 
train  was  now  approaching  Folkestone,  and  Agar  and  Pierce 
hid  themselves  in  a  dark  part  of  the  van.  At  that  station  the 
safes  were  given  out,  heavy  with  shot,  not  gold ;  the  thieves 
went  on  to  Dover,  with  Ostend  tickets  previously  procured, 
returned  to  London  without  mishap,  and  by  degrees  disposed 
of  much  of  the  stolen  gold. 

The  theft  was  discovered  at  Boulogne,  when  the  boxes 
were  not  found  to  weigh  exactly  what  they  ought.  But  no 
clue  was  obtained  to  the  thieves,  and  the  theft  might  have 
remained  a  mystery  but  for  the  subsequent  bad  faith  of  Pierce 
to  his  accomplice  Agar.  .  The  latter  was  ere  long  arrested  on 
a  charge  of  uttering  forged  cheques,  convicted  and  sentenced 
to  transportation  for  Ufe.  When  he  knew  that  he  could  not 
escape  his  fate,  he  handed  over  to  Pierce  a  sum  of  £3,000,  his 
own,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly  acquired  never  came  out, 
together  with  the  unrealised  part  of  the  bullion,  amounting  in 
all  to  some  £15,000,  and  begged  his  accomplice  to  invest  it 
as  a  settlement  on  a  woman  named  Kay,  by  whom  he  had 
had  a  chUd.  Pierce  made  Kay  only  a  few  small  payments, 
then  appropriated  the  rest  of  the  money.    Kay,  who  had 


392    BOBBERIES  BY  THE  WAT  AND  RAILWAY  GRIMES. 

been  living  with  Agar  at  the  time  of  the  bullion  robbery, 
went  to  the  police  in  great  fury  and  distress  and  disclosed 
aR  she  knew  of  the  affair.  Agar,  too,  in  Newgate,  heard  how 
Pierce  had  treated  him,  and  at  once  readily  turned  approver. 
As  the  evidence  he  gave  incriminated  Pierce,  Burgess,  and 
Tester,  all  three  were  arrested  and  committed  to  Newgate 
for  trial.  The  whole  strange  story,  the  long  incubation  and 
elaborate  accomplishment  of  the  plot,  came  out  at  the 
Old  BaUey,  and  was  acknowledged  to  be  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  on  record. 

BELGIAN   MAIL   ROBBERY. 

One  of  the  most  serious  of  recent  mail-train  robberies 
occurred  between  Ostend  and  Brussels  in  November,  1886. 
When  the  express  carrying  the  English  mails  for  Germany 
reached  Verviers  on  Saturday  morning,  the  27th  of  November, 
it  was  found  that  the  post-office  van  had  been  rifled.  This 
van  had  left  Ostend  at  half-past  three  that  morning ;  it  was 
locked  with  a  padlock  and  chain — a  new  method  of  security 
which  had  replaced  the  old  practice  of  merely  sealing  the 
doors.  When  the  train  passed  through  Brussels  an  official 
had  noticed,  from  the  platform,  that  this  padlock  and  chain 
were  not  of  the  regulation  pattern,  but  had  said  nothing. 
When  the  train  reached  Verviers,  the  frontier,  the  post-office 
authorities,  who  were  charged  with  the  transfer  of  the  mail 
bags  from  the  Belgian  to  the  German  line,  made  the  same 
discovery.  The  proper  chain  and  padlock  had  been  removed 
during  the  night  and  another  similar  in  appearance  substi- 
tuted. They  then  entered  the  van  and  found  that  it  had 
been  ransacked.  Out  of  a  total  of  ninety  leathern  mail-bags 
twenty-two  had  been  cut  open,  evidently  with  a  sharp  knife, 
and  their  contents  rifled.  The  interior  of  the  van  was  in  a 
state  of  extraordinary  confusion ;  letters  and  parcels  were 
thrown  about  pell-mell,  no  doubt  just  as  they  had  been 
examined  by  the  thieves,  who  were  in  search  only  of  the 
registered  letters  and  parcels.  The  mail  was  a  particularly 
heavy  one.  The  night  of  the  robbery  had  been,  no  doubt, 
specially  chosen  as  that  on  which  the  New  York  bags  passed 


MAIL    TRAIN  BOBBED.  393 

from  England  on  their  way  to  Germany.  Moreover,  on  this 
occasion,  as,  no  doubt,  the  thieves  were  aware,  a  rich  consign- 
ment of  diamonds,  forty-one  parcels  of  them,  were  in  transit 
from  New  York  to  Alexandrovst,  in  Russia;  while  a  large 
amount  of  letters  of  credit  and  sums  in  cash  were  being 
forwarded  by  English  bankers  to  their  representatives  abroad. 
It  was  calculated  that  the  whole  value  of  the  booty  abstracted 
amounted  to  forty  or  iifty  thousand  pounds. 

The  police  were  of  course  set  in  motion  at  once,  and 
their  inquiries  were  concentrated  in  particular  upon  three 
individuals  who  took  tickets  at  Dover  for  Malines  the  pre- 
vious night.  One  of  these  was  a  tall  man  of  about  forty, 
wearing  a  grey  overcoat  and  a  felt  wide-awake.  He  was 
fair  and  had  a  short  light  beard,  spoke  French  badly,  and 
travelled  second  class.  The  second  was  a  man  of  fifty,  also 
tail  and  growing  grey;  the  third,  dark  and  short.  It  was 
remarked  at  Ostend  that  these  three  travellers  showed  ex- 
treme eagerness  to  take  their  seats  in  the  composite  car- 
riage, which  was  last  but  one  in  the  train,  the  last  being 
the  mad  van.  One  of  the  guards  declared  that  they  ran 
like  hares  from  the  steamboat  to  the  platform  and  jumped 
straight  into  the  carriage.  There  were,  however,  five 
travellers  in  that  compartment  in  all — confederates,  no 
doubt — one  of  whom,  it  was  ascertained  beyond  doubt,  was 
travelling  without  a  ticket  and  had  only  joined  the  train 
at  Ostend.  These  confederates  had,  of  course,  been  charged 
with  the  business  of  ascertaining  the  exact  position  of  the  mail 
van.  There  was  very  little  doubt  that  the  five  passengers 
left  the  train  at  Brussels,  and  this  fixed  the  place  of 
robbery  as  somewhere  between  Ostend  and  Brussels.  Two 
of  the  thieves  left  the  Brussels  station  by  the  door  opening 
on  to  the  Rue  de  Brabant,  and  the  remaining  three  by  that 
on  the  Place  Rogier.  It  was  supposed  that  all  had  left 
Brussels  the  same  day,  three  for  Calais  and  two  for  Paris 
and  the  South. 

The  credit  of  picking  up  these  thieves  rests  with  the 
London  police,  who  soon  traced  their  movements.  Three  of 
them  had  gone  straight  to  Calais — two  crossed  to  Dover  at 


394    ROBBERIES  BY  THE  WAY  AND  RAILWAY  CHIMES. 

once,  the  third  followed  next  day.  The  two  others,  who  had 
left  the  Gare  du  Nord  at  Brussels  by  the  door  leading  into 
the  Rue  de  Brabant,  remained  in  that  city  a  couple  of  days, 
then  proceeded  also  to  London.  The  thieves  now  devoted 
themselves  to  getting  rid  of  some  of  their  plunder,  and 
three  of  them  were  found  to  have  visited  the  more  impor- 
tant receivers  of  stolen  goods,  offering  rough  diamonds  for 
sale.  There  could  be  no  doubt  of  their  identity,  for  they 
were  well-known  criminals,  all  Englishmen,  whose  photo- 
graphs were  at  Scotland  Yard,  and  these  portraits,  when 
sent  over  to  Belgium,  were  immediately  recognised  by  the 
guards  and  ticket-collectors  who  had  seen  the  thieves  on 
the  line.  There  was,  however,  a  technical  difficulty  regard- 
ing their  arrest,  and  although  they  were  constantly  shadowed 
they  were  never  taken  into  custody,  or  brought  to  account 
for  their  crime.  It  was  generally  supposed  that  the  notorious 
American  bank  robbers,  Sheridan  and  Max  Shinbum,  were 
associated  with,  if  not  the  prime  movers  in,  this  crime. 

mccalla's  fraud. 

Ingenuity  was  adopted  by  railway  thieves  when  open 
force  was  no  longer  possible,  or  likely  to  fail.  A  clever 
robbery  was  effected  in  1877  by  one  McCaUa,  from  the 
Union  Express  Company,  of  which  he  pretended  to  be  an 
employe.  His  astuteness  was  no  less  remarkable  than  the 
patient  skill  with  which  his  discovery  and  capture  was 
brought  about  by  the  detectives. 

McCalla  began  his  fraud  at  a  lonely  point  upon  the  Alle- 
ghany railroad,  somewhere  between  Kittanning  and  Cowan- 
shannock.  The  line  ran  there  beneath  high  banks  where  land- 
slides were  frequent  and  boulders  often  rolled  on  to  the  perma- 
nent way.  To  prevent  accidents  and  give  needful  warning, 
watchmen  were  stationed  at  regular  intervals  along  the 
route,  and  were  housed  against  the  elements  in  small  box- 
sheds.  McCalla  selected  one  of  these,  and  told  the  watch- 
man he  was  an  inspector  examining  the  wires.  No  objection 
was  made  to  his  mounting  one  of  the  telegraph  poles,  and 
he  soon  cut  the  wire  he  wanted,  that  from  Pittsburg,  dropped 


THE    UNION  EXPRESS   BOBBED.  395 

the  end  to  the  ground,  and  connected  it  with  a  pocket  in- 
strument he  had  brought  with  him.  He  was  now  in  com- 
mand of  the  whole  line,  having  the  power  to  wire  down  it, 
as  from  Pittsburg,  and  to  intercept  all  messages  to  Pitts- 
burg going  up. 

His  first  message  was  to  a  station  called  Brady's  Bend, 
inquiring  the  name  of  the  express  messenger  in  charge  of 
the  safe  and  valuables  on  the  up  train.  He  signed  this  in  the 
name  of  the  express  superintendent,  George  Bingham,  at 
Pittsburg.  The  answer  came  that  it  was  another  Bingham, 
brother  to  the  superintendent.  McCalla  then  flashed  an 
order  to  this  second  Bingham  to  look  out  for  a  new  mes- 
senger, by  name  J.  G.  Brooks,  who  would  meet  him  at 
Templeton,  en  route,  to  whom  he  was  to  turn  over  his 
cash  and  valuables,  taking  a  receipt  for  the  same,  and  return 
whence  he  came,  Parkersburg,  where  he  was  to  report 
to  a  superior  who  "wished  to  see  him  on  an  important 
matter."  Messenger  Bingham  replied  to  his  brother  acknow- 
ledging his  instructions,  but  that  answer  never  got  beyond 
McCalla,  who,  having  thus  laid  his  plans,  left  the  place,  to 
walk  across  country  to  Templeton.  He  was,  however,  in- 
cautious enough  to  leave  his  pocket  instrument  on  the  line, 
where  it  was  afterwards  found,  and  became  a  most  damaging 
clue  to  his  identity. 

Bingham  with  his  train  duly  reached  Templeton,  and 
there  handed  over  his  charge  to  the  man  purporting  to 
be  Brooks,  who  was,  of  course,  McCalla.  The  latter,  on 
assuming  the  duty  of  expressman,  proceeded  to  act  as 
though  he  had  long  been  used  to  the  business,  delivering 
and  receiving  parcels  and  boxes  all  along  the  road  with 
great  precision.  On  arriving  at  Pittsburg  his  safe,  as  usual, 
was  hoisted  on  to  the  express  waggon,  to  be  conveyed  through 
the  streets  to  headquarters.  McCalla  sat  on  top  of  the  safe 
and  was  driven  with  it  as  far  as  the  City  Hall.  There,  to 
the  surprise  of  the  hackman,  he  jumped  off  and  quickly 
disappeared.  The  safe  was  lodged  in  the  ofiice,  but, 
in  the  absence  of  the  new  messenger  with  the  keys,  was 
left   unopened    till    eleven   p.m.      Then   it   was    forced   by 


396    ROBBERIES  BY  THE  WAY  AND  RAILWAY  CRIMES. 

the  superintendent  Bingham,  and  was  found  to  have  been 
rifled. 

So  much  for  the  crime.  Now  for  the  pursuit,  which 
was  entrusted  to  the  chief  of  the  Missouri-Pacific  Kailway 
Secret  Service,  a  Mr.  Thomas  Furlong.  Accompanied  by 
an  assistant  named  Cupples,  he  took  up  the  trail  at  Temple- 
ton.  Here  there  had  been  once  some  active  business  owing  to 
the  blast  furnaces,  latterly  shut  down,  but  now  few  passengers 
got  in  and  out  of  the  train.  Strange  to  say,  no  one  had 
been  seen  to  board  it  on  the  day  that  the  bogus  messenger 
supplanted  the  real  one.  The  stationmaster  and  his  wife 
could  give  no  information,  but  a  child  of  theirs  had  seen 
a  man  on  a  log  hard  by,  who  was  engaged  in  tearing  up 
a  piece  of  paper  and  scattering  the  fragments  around.  On 
examining  the  spot  a  number  of  these  were  found  and 
picked  up  by  the  detectives,  who  took  them  to  Pittsburg 
and  spent  a  night  in  joining  them  together.  They  also 
obtained  from  the  child  a  description  of  the  man's  appear- 
ance, enough  to  secure  identification. 

The  torn  paper  proved  to  be  a  blank  cheque  on  the 
bank  of  CarHsle.  Its  attempted  destruction  was,  no  doubt 
to  sever  all  connection  with  that  town,  to  which  place  the 
detectives  at  once  guessed  their  man  belonged.  They  pro- 
ceeded thither,  and  went  first  to  the  telegraph  office  to 
inquire  for  him,  entering  into  talk  with  the  operator,  to 
whom  they  gave  his  description.  "  You  must  mean  McCalla,'' 
the  youth  answered  readily.  "Will  McCalla,  who  used  to 
live  over  yonder  with  his  brother  George.  Will  has  gone 
down  Texas  way,  where  he  is  doing  right  weU  as  an  operator 
and  express  agent."  "  Ha ! "  said  the  detective,  "  is  that 
so  ?  Then  if  Will  McCalla  has  taken  to  telegraphy  he  would 
like  to  have  a  pocket  instrument.  I've  been  wishing  to 
make  him  a  present."  This  was  one  of  those  lucky  shots 
that  so  often  befriend  the  successful  detective.  "  The  very 
thing,"  answered  the  telegraph  clerk.  "  I  know  Will  McCalla 
wants  just  such  a  thing.  He  asked  me  not  long  ago  to 
recommend  a  good  maker,  and  I  gave  him  an  address. 
Here  it  is." 


TEE   ST.    LOUIS    EXPRESS.  397 

The  address  was  identically  the  same  as  that  on  the 
instrument  which  McCalla  had  left  on  the  line  when  he  had 
tapped  the  Pittsburg  wire.  Here  was  sufiScient  evidence 
to  connect  him  with  the  robbery,  and  the  case  would  be 
complete  if  only  he  could  be  found.  The  detectives  pro- 
ceeded with  all  speed  to  Palmer,  Texas,  where  McCalla  was 
reported  to  be  in  a  good  position.  But  he  had  falsified  his 
accounts,  and  had  bolted  to  Atlanta  City.  The  pursuers 
followed  and  would  have  run  into  him  there,  but  he  was 
warned  in  time  and  again  escaped.  From  Atlanta  the 
chase  proceeded  first  to  Savannah,  then  to  Lake  City,  then 
Key  West,  and  at  last  to  Havannah  in  Cuba.  But  he  agara 
made  oiF  and  sailed  for  Rio  Janeiro.  The  detectives  would 
have  still  followed,  but  were  recalled  to  Pittsburg  by  the 
great  railroad  riots  of  July,  1877.  Will  McCalla  was  thus 
left  to  his  own  devices,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  never 
arrested.  His  brother  George  was,  however,  taken,  but 
died  before  trial. 

THE   ST.   LOUIS   EXPRESS   ROBBERY. 

A  great  robbery,  on  the  lines  of  McCalla's,  just  described, 
was  committed  on  the  St.  Louis  and  San  Francisco  Railway 
on  the  night  of  October  25th,  1884.  When  the  train 
reached  Pacific  Junction,  thirty-six  miles  from  St.  Louis, 
it  was  found  that  the  safes  ia  the  Adams  Express  coach 
had  been  forced  and  rifled.  The  robbery  amounted  to 
£16,000  in  cash,  with  valuables  and  papers.  The  express 
agent,  Fotheringham  by  name,  was  discovered  in  a  corner 
of  the  coach,  gagged  and  bound.  The  story  he  gave  was 
that  just  before  their  departure  from  St.  Louis  a  man  ap- 
peared with  a  letter  of  introduction.  This  letter  was  written 
on  the  Adams  Express  Company's  official  paper,  and  was 
sent  by  the  head  agent  at  St.  Louis;  it  was  to  the  eftect 
that  the  bearer  was  to  be  shortly  taken  into  the  service  of 
the  Company,  and  that  they  had  sent  him  to  Fothering- 
ham to  have  an  opportunity  of  learning  his  business.  On 
this,  Fotheringham  admitted  him  into  the  coach,  and  the 
train  started.     But  it  was  barely  outside  the  city  before  the 


398    BOBBERIES  BY  THE  WAY  AND  RAILWAY  OBIMES. 

stranger  drew  a  revolver  and  overawed  the  agent,  whom  he 
secured  and  made  fast  as  he  was  found.  Then  he  took  the  safe 
keys  from  the  agent's  pocket  and  thus  got  possession  of 
the  contents  of  the  safe.  Shortly  before  reaching  Pacific 
Junction,  the  robber  left  the  train. 

A  number  of  detectives  belonging  to  Pinkerton's  agency 
were  at  once  put  upon  the  case.  They  began  their  search 
at  Pacific  Junction  and  closely  examined  all  the  waggon 
roads  leaving  that  place,  seeking  some  clue  of  the  robber. 
At  the  same  time  they  went  through  the  Express  Com- 
pany's records  to  find  if  any  agents  had  been  recently  dis- 
charged from  their  service.  The  first  suspicious  fact  elicited 
was  that  some  nine  months  previously  a  man  named  Haight 
had  been  dismissed  on  suspicion  of  theft,  and  that  he  had 
been  at  one  time  on  the  same  road  as  Fotheringham.  Haight 
was  now  traced  from  place  to  place,  and  was  found  ultimately 
at  Chicago,  where  he  had  been  employed  as  a  waggon  driver 
by  one  Frederick  Witrock,  who  kept  a  coal  yard.  About 
this  time,  barely  a  week  since  the  robbery,  the  first  of  a 
series  of  letters  appeared  in  a  St.  Louis  paper,  the  Globe 
Democrat.  The  first  letter  had  been  posted  at  St.  Joseph, 
not  far  from  Kansas  City,  on  the  western  border  of  Mis- 
souri The  object  of  this  letter  was  to  exonerate  Fother- 
ingham, and  in  proof  thereof  the  writer  said  that  a  package 
lying  at  the  left  property  office  of  the  St.  Louis  railway 
station  contained  things  bearing  on  the  case.  The  parcel 
was  seized  and  examined,  but  was  found  to  contain  no 
more  than  a  few  shirts,  some  manuscript  songs  not  in  the 
handwriting  of  the  letter,  and  a  printed  ballad.  AU  these 
articles  were  carefully  inspected,  the  songs  and  the  ballad 
under  the  microscope.  By  this  means  the  detectives  came 
upon  another  important  clue ;  it  was  found  that,  in  the  corner 
of  the  ballad,  an  address  had  been  written,  apparently  in 
the  same  handwriting  as  the  letter.  This  address  was 
number  2,108,  Chestnut  Street,  St.  Louis,  and  the  detectives 
at  once  called  there  to  prosecute  inquiries.  The  woman  of 
the  house  met  them  frankly,  and  from  her  they  learned  that 
two  men  had  lodged  with  her  from  the  18th  October,  but 


DETECTIVES    ON   TRE    TRAIL.  399 

that,  three  nights  before  the  robbery  on  the  line,  one  of 
them  had  gone  by  train  to  Kansas  City,  and  the  night 
following  the  second  had  also  left;  he  was  carrying  a 
valise  at  the  time.  The  woman  gave  a  full  description  of 
the  personal  appearance  of  both  men. 

Another  clue  was  found  in  this  house  in  Chestnut  Street : 
a  medicine  bottle,  bearing  the  label  of  a  chemist's  shop  hard 
by,  and  the  name  of  a  prominent  physician  in  St.  Louis. 
Both  the  chemist  and  the  doctor  were  visited,  and  both 
described  their  patients  in  terms  exactly  corresponding  to 
those  of  the  landlady.  Moreover,  it  was  found  that  one  of 
the  shirts  in  the  package  above-mentioned  was  stained  with 
marks  from  the  substance  which  the  medicine  bottle  had  con- 
tained. The  inquiry  had  now  reached  a  stage  when  it  was 
seen  that  the  two  men  who  had  lodged  in  Chestnut  Street  were 
the  persons  described  in  the  anonymous  letter,  and  that  their 
movements  immediately  antecedent  to  the  railway  robbery 
were  very  suspicious.  It  went  a  step  further  now,  for  an 
engine  driver  on  that  line,  having  seen  the  letter  in  the 
Globe  BeTnocrat,  came  forward  with  information — a  fact  that 
had  come  under  his  own  observation  on  the  very  night  of  the 
robbery.  This  man  had  been  standing  on  the  track,  close  by 
Fotheringham's  train,  and  he  saw  someone,  just  as  it  was 
starting,  hurry  along  the  line  and  jump  into  the  Express 
coach.  The  messenger — Fotheringham,  that  is  to  say — was 
there  awaiting  him,  seemingly ;  in  any  case,  he  helped  him  to 
climb  into  the  coach.  This  pointed  clearly  to  Fotheringham's 
complicity,  and  the  story  became  more  significant  when  it 
was  known  that  the  new-comer  carried  a  valise  precisely 
similar  to  that  described  by  the  landlady.  To  these  items 
another  of  value  was  soon  added — namely,  that  on  the  Friday 
night,  three  nights  before  the  robbery,  a  man  had  travelled 
with  Fotheringham  in  his  Express  coach,  who  answered  to 
the  description  of  one  of  the  men  in  Chestnut  Street,  and  the 
inference  was  that  he  had  made  the  journey  in  order  to 
become  acquainted  with  the  road. 

Another  party  of  detectives  had  meanwhile  been  on  the 
track   of   Haight,   the    discharged   expressman   working   in 


400    BOBBERIES  BY  TEE  WAY  AND  RAILWAY  GRIMES. 

Chicago.  It  was  ascertained  that  he  had  been  in  very 
poor  circumstances,  earning  small  wages,  until  two  or  three 
days  after  the  robbery.  Then  about  October  27th  he  appeared 
very  flush  of  money,  and  left  almost  immediately  for  Florida, 
in  the  south,  whither  his  wife  soon  followed  him. 

As  everything  connected  with  Haight  was  of  importance, 
the  character  and  history  of  his  employer,  Witrock,  were 
now  investigated,  and  it  was  found  that  he  had  come  from 
Leavenworth,  in  Kansas,  to  which  place  Haight  had  also 
belonged.  Witrock  was  absent  from  Chicago  at  this  time, 
but  his  description  was  obtained,  and  it  was  very  much 
that  of  the  man  with  the  valise,  of  whom  the  St.  Louis 
landlady  had  spoken.  Specimens  of  Witrock's  handwriting 
were  obtained,  which  was  pronounced  by  an  expert  to  be  very 
similar  to  that  of  the  letter  sent  to  the  Globe  Democrat.  By 
this  time  other  letters  of  similar  import  had  been  received  by 
that  newspaper,  posted  from  various  parts  of  the  country,  all 
of  them  tending  to  exonerate  Fotheringham.  These  letters 
were  obviously  from  the  pen  of  one  conversant  with  aU  the 
details,  but  it  was  difficult  to  believe  that  the  writer  could  be 
so  stupid  as  to  attract  attention  to  himself  if  he  were  really 
one  of  the  guilty  parties.  Nevertheless,  it  came  out  after- 
wards that  they  were  written  by  Witrock  in  the  vain  hope  of 
covering  his  tracks,  although  they  had  the  very  contrary 
effect.  Thus  Witrock  went  out  of  his  way  to  say  that  after 
the  robbery  the  thief  had  gained  the  Missouri  river,  not  far 
from  Pacific  Junction,  and  had  floated  down  it  on  a  skiff 
which  he  had  obtained  at  St.  Charles.  Inquiries  made  at 
St.  Charles  showed  that  two  men  had  embarked  there  in  a 
boat,  with  provisions,  but  that  they  had  gone  up  stream,  and 
that,  of  the  two  men,  one  answered  to  the  description  of 
Witrock  and  the  other  of  a  man  named  Weaver,  who  kept  a 
laundry  close  by  Witrock's  colliery.  But  for  the  information 
thus  afforded,  nothing  of  this  would  have  been  known. 

A  still  more  damaging  clue  was  obtained.  It  should 
have  been  stated  above  that  when  the  lodging  in  Chestnut 
Street,  St.  Louis,  was  searched,  an  Express  tag  had  been 
found   on  which  was   a  small  green  waxen   seal.     The  seal 


DAMAGING   GLUES.  401 

was  the  same  as  that  on  the  letter  sent  to  the  Globe  BeTnocrat, 
and  the  tag,  after  much  difficulty,  was  deciphered  as  one 
which  had  been  attached  to  a  valise  sent  by  express  to  St. 
Louis  from  St.  Charles.  This  valise  had  been  in  the  posses- 
sion of  one  of  the  men  who  had  gone  up  the  river  in  a  boat. 

The  case  was  now  pretty  complete,  and  the  police  were  in 
a  position  to  lay  their  hands  upon  all  the  conspirators  except 
Witrock.  Weaver  had  been  identified  by  the  St.  Louis  land- 
lady as  one  of  the  men  who  had  stopped  at  her  house.  Haight 
had  been  traced  to  Kansas  City,  and  was  under  surveillance 
there ;  the  detectives  had  ascertained  beyond  question  that  he 
had  planned  the  robbery  and  had  greatly  helped  its  execu- 
tion. It  was  he  who  had  had  the  bogus  letter-paper  of  the 
Company  prepared,  and  he  had  written  to  the  superintending 
agent  at  St.  Louis  on  some  pretext,  so  as  to  obtain  this 
official's  signature.  Another  man  connected  with  the  case 
was  found  in  Kansas  City,  one  Oscar  Cooke,  an  old  friend  and 
fellow-townsman  of  Witrock's,  who  appeared  to  be  very  flush 
of  money  in  the  latter  end  of  October,  and  who  had  made 
many  journeys  to  and  fro  between  Chicago  and  Kansas.  All 
this  time  a  watch  was  kept  upon  Witrock's  house,  and  upon 
Kinney,  his  brother-in-law,  who  was  managing  his  coal 
business  for  him  during  his  absence.  But  for  weeks  Witrock 
remained  absent.  At  last,  the  man  Kinney,  having  left 
Chicago  for  Quincey,  Illinois,  there  received  a  telegram  signed 
Rose  W^itrock,  which  came  into  the  detective's  hands,  and 
which  announced  Witrock's  return  to  Chicago.  The  house 
there  was  still  kept  closed,  with  blinds  carefully  drawn,  but 
there  were  lights  within,  and  the  watch  was  never  relaxed 
until  one  morning  a  party  of  four  came  cautiously  out  and 
made  for  a  neighbouring  restaurant.  AU  of  them  were 
promptly  arrested,  and  one  proved  to  be  Witrock.  He  fought 
hard  against  arrest,  using  his  revolver,  but  the  whole  party 
was  overpowered  and  carried  off  to  the  police-station.  Con- 
siderable sums  of  money  were  found  on  all  of  them,  and  when 
Mrs.  Witrock  was  also  taken,  money  and  valuables,  including 
a  fine  diamond,  were  found  sewn  up  in  her  dress. 

It  appeared,  on  the  trial,  that  Haight  had  first  conceived 


402    BOBBERIES  BY  TEE  WAY  AND  RAILWAY  CRIMES. 

the  idea  of  the  robbery,  and  had  then  persuaded  Witrock  to 
join.  It  was  Witrock  who  had  boarded  the  train  and  had 
actually  secured  the  plunder.  Cooke  was  employed  as  the 
go-between,  to  divide  the  shares  amongst  the  conspirators; 
he  had  been  charged  also  with  the  distribution  of  the  letters 
for  the  Globe  Democrat.  Fotheringham's  complicity,  although 
strongly  suspected,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  proved. 

RAILWAY   MURDERS. 

Peculiar  dangers  have  surrounded  the  newest  method  of 
locomotion,  some  inseparable  from  rapid  travelling,  such  as 
collisions  and  other  railway  catastrophes.  More  particularly 
the  isolation  of  a  passenger  in  the  old-fashioned  railway 
carriage,  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  assistance,  and  the  want 
of  proper  communication  with  others,  have  led  to  terrible 
crimes  on  the  line.  It  may  be  hoped  that  newer  methods 
may  reduce  these,  perhaps  entirely  end  them;  the  more 
extended  use  of  the  corridor  train  and  connected  carriages, 
with  its  free  access  from  end  to  end,  has  added  enormously 
to  the  safety  of  the  person,  if  not  of  property ;  and,  as  I 
write,  I  hear  of  a  new  application  of  electricity  to  give 
immediate  alarms.  Before  we  forget  what  passengers  have 
suffered  in  railway  travelling,  I  will  now  describe  one  or  two 
of  the  most  remarkable  cases  recorded  of  railway  crimes. 

MULLER. 

One  of  the  first  was  the  kilUng  of  Mr.  Briggs  on  the  North 
London  line — a  notorious  murder,  memorable  also  for  the 
ingenuity  and  promptitude  with  which  its  perpetrator  was 
detected.  Mr.  Briggs,  a  gentleman  advanced  in  years,  was 
chief  clerk  in  Robartes'  bank,  and  after  business  hours  he  had 
gone  dowQ  to  Peckham  to  dine  with  his  daughter,  and  had  then 
returned  via  Fenchurch  Street  to  Hackney,  where  he  lived. 
When  the  train  by  which  he  travelled  reached  Hackney  and 
pulled  up  at  the  platform,  a  passenger  who  was  about  to  enter 
one  of  the  carriages  found  the  cushions  soaked  with  blood. 
There  was  no  occupant,  nothing  in  the  compartment  but  a 
walking-stick  and  a  small  black  leather  bag.     A  strict  search 


RAILWAY  BANGERS.  403 

was  made  along  the  line,  and  a  body  was  discovered  near  the 
railway  bridge  by  Victoria  Park.  It  was  that  of  an  aged  man 
whose  head  had  been  battered  in  by  a  life-preserver.  There 
was  a  deep  wound  just  over  the  ear,  the  skull  was  fractured, 
and  there  were  several  other  blows  and  wounds  on  the  head. 
Strange  to  say,  the  unfortunate  man  was  not  yet  dead,  and  he 
actually  survived  more  than  four-and-twenty  hours.  His 
identity  was  established  by  a  bundle  of  letters  in  his  pocket, 
which  bore  his  full  address :  "  T.  Briggs,  Esq.,  Kobarts  &  Co., 
Lombard  Street." 

The  friends  of  Mr.  Briggs  were  communicated  with,  and  it 
was  ascertained  that  when  he  left  home  on  the  morning  of  the 
murderous  attack  he  wore  gold-rimmed  eye-glasses  and  a 
gold  watch  and  chain.  The  stick  and  bag  were  his,  but  not 
the  hat.  A  desperate  and  deadly  struggle  must  have  taken 
place  in  the  carriage,  and  the  stain  of  a  bloody  hand  marked 
the  door.  The  fact  of  the  murder  and  its  object — robbery — 
were  thus  conclusively  proved.  It  was  also  easily  established 
that  the  hat  found  in  the  carriage  had  been  bought  at  Walker's, 
a  hatter's  in  Crawford  Street,  Marylebone ;  while  within  a  few 
days  Mr.  Briggs's  gold  chain  was  traced  to  a  jeweller's  in  Cheap- 
side,  Mr.  Death,  who  had  given  another  in  exchange  for  it  to 
a  man  supposed  to  be  a  foreigner.  More  precise  clues  to  the 
murderer  were  not  long  wanting ;  indeed,  the  readiness  with 
which  they  were  produced  and  followed  up  showed  how  greatly 
the  publicity  and  wide  dissemination  of  the  news  regarding 
murder  facilitate  the  detection  of  crime.  In  little  more  than 
a  week  a  cabman  came  forward  and  voluntarily  made  a  state- 
ment which  at  once  drew  suspicion  to  a  German,  Franz  Miiller, 
who  had  been  a  lodger  of  his.  Miiller  had  given  the  cabman's 
little  daughter  a  jeweller's  cardboard  box  bearing  the  name  of 
Mr.  Death.  A  photograph  of  Miiller  shown  to  the  jeweller 
was  identified  as  the  likeness  of  the  man  who  had  exchanged 
Mr.  Briggs's  chain.  Last  of  all,  the  cabman  swore  that  he 
had  bought  the  very  hat  found  in  the  carriage  for  Miiller  at 
the  hatter's.  Walker's,  of  Crawford  Street. 

This  fixed  the  crime  pretty  certainly  upon  Miiller,  who 
had  already  left  the  country,  thus  increasing  the  suspicion 


404    B0BBEBIE8  BY  THE  WAY  AND  RAILWAY  OBIMES. 

under  which  he  lay.  There  was  no  mystery  about  his  de- 
parture; he  had  gone  to  Canada  by  the  Victoria  sailing 
ship,  starting  from  the  London  Docks  and  bound  for  New 
York.  Directly  the  foregoing  facts  were  established,  a  couple 
of  detective  officers,  armed  with  a  waiTant  to  arrest  Muller, 
and  accompanied  by  Mr.  Death,  the  jeweller,  and  the  cabman, 
went  down  to  Liverpool  and  took  the  first  steamer  across  the 
Atlantic.  This  was  the  Gity  of  Manchester,  which  was 
expected  to  arrive  some  days  before  the  Victoria,  and  did  so. 
The  officers  went  on  board  the  Victoria  at  once,  Muller 
was  identified  by  Mr.  Death,  and  the  arrest  was  made.  In 
searching  the  prisoner's  box,  Mr.  Briggs's  watch  was  found 
wrapped  up  in  a  piece  of  leather,  and  Miiller  at  the  time  of 
his  capture  was  actually  wearing  Mr.  Briggs's  hat,  cut  down 
and  somewhat  altered. 

JUD. 

A  double  railway  crime  was  committed  in  France,  or  in 
what  was  then  France,  by  a  notorious  criminal  named  Jud, 
who  was  never  brought  to  account.  He  was  an  adventurer 
who  had  long  preyed  upon  Paris,  but  who  had  fallen  from  the 
rank  of  false  count  to  that  of  private  soldier  in  the  corps  of 
Equipages  MHitaires.  It  was  said  that  in  this  capacity  he  acted 
as  a  Prussian  spy,  and  supplied  much  useful  information  to  the 
War  Office  in  Berlin.  In  any  case,  in  1860,  he  deserted,  and 
passing  through  Alsace  into  Germany,  somewhere  between 
Tillischeim  and  Ilfurth,  found  himself  alone  in  a  train  with 
another  passenger.  This  was  a  Russian  army  doctor.  At  one 
of  the  halts  the  latter  was  found  shot  dead.  There  were  two 
fatal  wounds,  both  inflicted  by  a  revolver.  At  first  it  was 
believed  to  be  suicide,  but  was  soon  seen  to  be  murder.  His 
companion  in  the  train  was  identified  as  Jud,  and  he  was 
presently  arrested,  but  as  quickly  escaped  from  custody. 

Three  months  later  another  train  murder  was  committed, 
this  time  between  Troyes  and  Paris.  The  victim  was  a  judge 
of  high  rank — a  M.  Poinsot,  President  of  the  Imperial  Court. 
Again  suicide  was  imagined,  but  murder  was  soon  proved,  and 
against  this  same  Jud,  who  was  recognised  by  a  cotton  com- 
forter, dark  red  in  colour,  which  was  found  in  the  railway 


THE   RED    GOMFOBTEB.  405 

carriage,  and  known  to  be  his  property.  A  mysterious  reason 
was  given  for  both  these  murders.  Orders,  it  was  said,  had 
been  issued  from  Berlin  to  remove  the  Russian  doctor,  who 
was  on  a  secret  mission  from  the  Czar  to  Napoleon  III.  M. 
Poinsot,  it  has  been  supposed,  had  become  possessed  of 
certain  documents  incriminating  Jud  as  in  the  pay  of  the 
Prussians,  and  the  villain  was  determined  to  recover  these 
papers  at  all  costs.  The  murderer  had  watched  his  victim 
enter  the  train,  efi'ected  his  purpose  somewhere  near  Nogent, 
and  escaped  before  the  murder  was  discovered. 

His  identity  was  clearly  established,  and  his  description 
was  forthwith  circulated  throughout  France,  with  orders  for 
his  arrest,  wherever  found.  But  Jud  was  never  captured, 
although  the  search  was  keen  and  continuous  through  all  the 
eastern  provinces.  Dozens  of  suspected  Juds  were  taken,  his 
own  brother  among  them,  but  the  man  himself  always  evaded 
the  police.  M.  Claude,  the  chief  of  the  Paris  detectives,  under- 
took the  pursuit  himself,  and,  disguised,  visited  Nogent  and 
Fenette,  Jud's  native  place,  then  travelled  into  Alsace  and 
across  the  frontier.  The  story,  as  reported  by  French  writers 
at  the  time,  was  that  when  in  Germany  he  was  recognised  by 
the  Prussian  poUce  and  warned  that  he  would  never  be 
permitted  to  find  or  arrest  Jud. 

LEFROY. 

The  memory  of  the  Gold-Lefroy  case  on  the  Brighton  line 
is  still  fresh,  although  the  murder  is  now  nearly  eighteen  years 
old.  The  victim  was  a  retired  merchant,  residing  at  Preston 
Park,  Brighton,  who,  in  1881,  met  his  death  between  Merstham 
and  Balcombe  tunnels  whilst  travelling  in  a  first-class  carriage 
of  the  afternoon  express  train.  Shots  were  heard  by  the  other 
occupants  of  the  train  as  it  was  entering  the  first-named 
tunnel,  a  struggle  between  two  passengers  was  witnessed  by 
cottagers  at  Horley,  and  the  body  of  the  murdered  man  was 
found  on  the  line  within  the  Balcombe  tunnel.  Medical 
evidence  showed  that  Mr.  Gold  was  not  disabled  by  the  pistol 
wound,  and  that  the  actual  cause  of  death  was  fracture  of  the 
skull  when  falling  from  the  train.     The  other  occupant  of 


406    ROBBERIES  BY  TEE  WAT  AND  RAILWAY  CRIMES. 

the  carriage,  who  gave  the  name  of  Lefroy,  attempted  to  leave 
the  train  at  Preston  Park,  asserting  that  he  had  been  the 
victim  of  a  murderous  assault,  and  had  been  insensible  till 
just  before  the  train  stopped.  His  story  was  that  there  had 
been  two  other  passengers  in  the  carriage,  one  by  appearance 
a  countryman,  and  that  on  entering  the  Merstham  tunnel  he 
(Lefroy)  had  heard  a  pistol  shot,  and  next  moment  became 
senseless  from  a  violent  blow  on  the  head. 

The  story  was  not  implicitly  believed ;  suspicion  was  aroused 
against  Lefroy.  It  was  not  sufficiently  strong  to  justify  deten- 
tion, but  the  detectives  kept  him  in  view.  When  searched, 
two  Hanoverian  coins  had  been  found  upon  him,  similar  to 
others  picked  up  in  the  railway  carriage.  The  ticket-collector 
at  Preston  Park  station  noticed  that  he  was  covered  with 
blood,  that  he  had  lost  his  collar  and  tie ;  from  the  look  of 
his  shirt,  they  had  been  torn  off.  Moreover,  an  end  of  a 
watch-chain  was  hanging  out  from  his  boot. 

The  police  now  accompanied  him  to  Croydon,  where  he 
was  supposed  to  reside,  and  they  called  at  a  ladies'  boarding- 
school  kept  by  relatives  of  Lefroy's.  Here  he  asked  per- 
mission to  make  some  change  in  his  clothes,  and  the  officers 
allowed  him  to  enter  the  house  alone.  That  was  the  last 
they  saw  of  him.  He  had  quickly  changed  his  clothes,  and 
on  the  excuse  that  he  was  going  to  see  a  doctor,  he  decamped 
through  the  back  door. 

The  case  now  looked  black  against  him,  and  fresh  evi- 
dence was  forthcoming.  Lefroy  had  a  watch  in  his  posses- 
sion at  Brighton,  the  number  of  which  was  identical  with 
Mr.  Gold's;  and  when  Mr.  Gold's  body  was  picked  up  his 
watch  had  disappeared,  as  well  as  some  £40  in  cash — an 
amount  he  had  collected,  dividends  and  takings,  at  several 
shops  he  owned  in  London.  With  regard  also  to  the 
Hanoverian  coins,  of  which  Lefroy  had  denied  all  knowledge, 
although  two  had  been  found  on  him,  new  evidence  was 
obtained.  It  was  also  proved  that  a  day  or  two  after  the 
murder  he  had  passed  two  of  them  at  a  grocer's  in  payment 
for  goods.  The  shop-boy  had  taken  them  for  gold  and  given 
13s.  6d.  change. 


MUBBEB    OF   M.    BABSME.  407 

Lefroy  was  eventually  run  down  by  the  police  and  cap- 
tured in  a  lodging  in  Stepney.  It  had  been  noticed  by  his 
landlady  that  he  kept  his  blinds  constantly  down  and  wished 
to  escape  observation,  going  by  the  name  of  Park,  and  passing 
fox  an  engraver  who  needed  rest  and  quiet  for  his  work. 

MURDER   OF   A   FRENCH   PREFECT. 

A  murder  which  reproduces  most  of  the  features  of  the 
foregoing  was  that  of  a  M.  BarSme,  Prefect  of  the  Eure,  who 
was  killed  on  the  line  between  Paris  and  Cherbourg.  His 
body  was  found  by  the  conductor  of  a  goods  train,  some 
five  hundred  yards  from  Maison  Lafitte ;  he  was  lying  between 
the  two  lines  of  rails,  dead  from  a  wound  caused  by  a  small 
revolver  ball,  which  had  evidently  penetrated  the  brain. 
Another  wound  was  found  at  the  back  of  the  head,  a  cut 
made  by  a  sharp  instrument,  or  possibly  in  a  fall  against 
broken  glass.  There  was  every  appearance  of  a  struggle, 
as  the  deceased's  overcoat  and  clothing  were  much  torn. 
A  little  further  along  the  line  the  hat  and  cane  of  the 
murdered  man  were  also  picked  up,  and  it  was  supposed 
that  his  murderer  must  have  thrown  them  out  of  the 
carriage  after  committing  the  crime.  The  prefect's  portfolio 
and  hat  were  missing,  but  a  purse  containing  money, 
and  an  envelope  with  five  hundred  francs  in  notes,  had 
been  left  untouched.  It  was  supposed  that  the  guard's 
whistle,  giving  notice  as  the  train  approached  Maison  Lafitte, 
had  disturbed  the  murderer,  who  thought  it  was  about  to 
stop,  and  was  thus  impelled  to  throw  the  body  out  of  the 
window. 

The  first  real  halt  of  the  train  was  at  Mantes,  just  an 
hour's  run  from  Paris,  and  on  its  arrival  a  tall,  thin  man 
was  seen  to  get  out  of  the  wrong  side  of  the  carriage ;  he 
was  checked  for  this,  and  apologised,  then  walked  away. 
Robbery  was  therefore  scarcely  the  motive  of  the  crime, 
which  was  rather  attributed  to  revenge.  M.  BarSme  had 
been  active  in  pursuing  a  gang  of  card-sharpers  who  had 
infested  the  Western  Railway,  and  they  were  said  to  have 
sworn  revenge  against  him. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

BRIGANDS,   BUSHRANGERS,   OUTLAWS,   AND   ROAD   AGENTS. 

Brigandages  generally — Italian,  Greek,  and  Spanish  Brigands — The  Sicilians 
Camusso  and  Esposito— The  latter  arrested  in  the  United  States — Bush- 
rangers :  Their  Origin  in  the  System  of  Transportation  to  New  South 
Wales — Davis  the  Jew — A  Black  Bushranger — Latter-day  Bushrangers — 
Gardiner  and  the  Robbery  from  the  Lachlan  Gold  Escort — Captain 
Thunderbolt — Tasmanian  Bushrangers — American  Border  Outlaws — The 
Youngers  and  the  James  brothers. 

The  expression  brigandage  may  be  said  to  cover  the 
whole  class  of  highway  crimes  on  terra  firma.  They  have 
their  origin,  as  has  been  already  observed,  in  times  and 
places  where  there  is  but  little  organised  protection  for 
the  community.  In  new  countries,  with  wide  areas, 
sparsely  inhabited,  in  more  settled  lands  weakly  governed, 
and  given  over  to  turbulence  and  disorder,  the  Ishmaelite, 
whose  hand  is  turned  against  his  fellows,  may  long  pursue 
his  desperate  calling  unchecked.  We  have  had  brigands 
everywhere  under  such  conditions,  under  different  names, 
but  following  always  the  same  trade,  now  reproducing  the 
exploits  of  the  highwayman  of  old,  now  adopting  new  methods 
favoured  by  new  facilities,  adding  to  pillage,  robbery,  arson, 
murder,  the  more  ingenious,  and  often  more  profitable, 
business  of  making  prisoners  and  keeping  them  for  ransom. 
This  last,  indeed,  is  one  ot  the  latest  developments  of 
brigandage,  and  innumerable  cases  might  be  quoted  that 
have  been  seen  in  recent  years.  Now  that  Italy  has  ad- 
vanced to  the  forefront  among  civilised  nations,  it  is  hard 
to  believe  that  Englishmen  were  held  captive  by  brigands  of 
Southern  Italy  for  three  months  and  more,  in  constant  terror 


SICILIAN  BBIGANDAOm.  409 

of  their  lives,  and  only  released  on  payment  of  £5,000. 
Barely  twenty  years  ago  an  English  clergyman.  Mr.  Rose, 
was  captured  by  a  Sicilian  brigand  not  a  mile  from  the 
railway  station  of  Lecrera.  He  was  accompanied  by  two 
Italian  gentlemen  whom  the  brigands  soon  set  free,  but 
they  held  Mr.  Rose  to  ransom,  and  carried  him  into 
the  mountains.  As  his  friends  delayed  in  paying  up 
the  £5,000  demanded,  the  brigands  proceeded  to  cut  off 
one  oi  his  ears,  which  was  sent  to  his  wife.  A  second  ear 
was  sent  in  the  same  way,  with  a  threat  that,  unless  ransom 
was  paid,  he  would  be  destroyed  piecemeal.  The  British 
Government  now  interposed  and  advanced  the  money,  which 
was  peremptorily  demanded  from  the  Italian  authorities. 
The  brigands  in  this  case  had  already  signalised  themselves 
by  another  daring  feat — the  carrying  off  of  a  gentleman, 
Signer  Fasci,  from  his  country  seat,  just  outside  Palermo. 
Their  prisoner  was  old,  helpless,  deaf,  almost  blind,  and 
enormously  fat.  Having  obliged  his  servants  to  dress  him, 
they  mounted  him  on  one  of  his  own  mules  and  took  him 
off  to  the  mountains.  He  was  thrown  there  into  a  cave 
near  the  summit  of  Mount  Calogero.  Both  entrances  to 
this  cave,  one  above  and  the  other  at  the  flank  of  the  hill, 
were  hermetically  closed  by  the  miscreants,  and  the  old 
man  was  held  there  in  danger  of  his  life,  until  the  ransom 
demanded  was  paid.  Fortunately  for  Signer  Fasci,  the 
authorities  had  promptly  pursued  the  brigands  and  found 
out  the  cave  through  the  information  of  one  of  the  band; 
the  cave  was  reopened  just  in  time  to  save  Signor  Fasci 
as  he  lay  dying  on  the  bare  earth. 

In  1865,  and  again  in  1870,  Greek  brigands,  the  direct 
descendants  of  About's  "  Roi  des  Montagnes,"  terrorised  all 
Greece.  On  the  latter  occasion,  when  Lord  and  Lady  Mun- 
caster,  Mr.  Vyner,  Mr.  Lloyd,  and  others,  were  captured,  not  a 
dozen  mUes  from  Athens,  the  ransom  demanded  was  £50,000. 
Before  it  was  paid,  four  of  the  prisoners  were  murdered.  In 
1869  Mexican  brigands,  always  prominent  in  their  nefarious 
profession,  slew  a  victim  out  of  hand  when  he  refused  to  pay 
ransom.     The  Spanish  brigand  has  driven  a  fine  trade  until 


410  BRIGANDS,  BU8HBANGEB8,  OUTLAWS,  ETO. 

quite  recently.  There  was  tlie  capture  of  tlie  Bonnells,  near 
Gibraltar,  in  1870,  when  £27,000  was  demanded  and  paid  for 
their  release ;  again,  Mr.  Arthur  Haseldin  was  taken  in  the 
Sierra  Morena  and  held  for  £10,000,  but  released  on  payment 
of  a  Httle  more  than  half ;  and  Mr.  Edward  Rouse,  in  the 
same  neighbourhood,  who,  fortunately  for  himself,  was  released 
on  payment  of  £1,000.  The  Turkish  brigand  is  still  active  ; 
bands  composed  of  many  nationalities,  Turks,  Albanians, 
Armenians,  most  of  them  old  soldiers,  good  marksmen,  inured 
to  great  fatigue,  have  raised  brigandage  into  a  lucrative  calling. 
An  attempt  has  been  made  to  defend  brigandage  as 
a  sort  of  rough-and-ready  though  savage  protest  against 
tyrannical  rulers.  The  Russian  serf  sometimes  rose  against 
his  masters  and  perpetrated  thefts  and  murders  in  remote 
districts.  The  Italian  brigand,  too,  has  been  excused  on 
the  grounds  that  he  only  warred  against  oppression. 
Brigandage  was  greatly  fostered  in  Calabria  by  Bourbon 
misrule,  and  was  more  than  mere  robbery.  It  was  the  war  of 
the  poor  against  the  rich ;  but  in  its  progress  the  country  was 
devastated,  and  murder,  with  lesser  crimes,  was  rampant. 
Between  1860  and  1868  there  were  four  distinct  bands  of 
brigands  committing  the  worst  excesses,  remorselessly  cruel 
in  their  acts.  One  was  led  by  Carnusso,  a  noted  chief  who 
had  some  fifty  followers  under  his  command.  One  of  his 
crimes  vies  with  any  in  history.  Believing  that  certain  villages 
had  given  information  against  him,  he  made  a  descent  upon 
them  and  seized  a  party  of  harvesters: — forty  men,  women, 
and  children — in  the  fields,  all  of  whom  he  murdered.  He 
ordered  them  to  kneel  down  and  say  a  prayer,  then  passed 
along  the  ranks,  cutting  throat  after  throat.  After  1868,  when 
the  new  Italian  Government  assumed  power,  a  large  reward 
was  offered  for  Carnusso,  and  bodies  of  troops  were  sent  out 
after  him.  Still  he  remained  at  large.  No  one  dared  earn 
the  reward,  and  the  soldiers  were  led  astray  by  the  peasantry, 
to  be  waylaid  and  killed  in  small  parties  among  the  hiUs. 
Carnusso  was  at  last  betrayed  by  the  mother  of  his  child,  to 
revenge  an  atrocious  act  of  barbarity.  Pretending  that  the 
baby's  cries  endangered  the  safety  of  his  band,  he  had  stabbed 


SICILIAN  BRIGANDAGE.  411 

it  to  the  heart.     The  mother  had  escaped,  and  then  headed 
the  troops  which  attacked  his  hiding-place. 

Sicily  was  long  the  home — the  peculiar  home — of  the 
brigand.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  brigandage  has  been 
entirely  stamped  out  even  now.  AU  through  the  'sixties  and 
the  'seventies  men  gained  evil  reputations  for  their  persistent 
hostility  to  society ;  such  names  as  those  of  Di  Pasquale, 
Leone,  Rinaldi,  Capraro,  AMano,  Plaja,  Calabrese  and  Sajeva, 
are  still  remembered  with  terror  in  the  country.  One  of  the 
latest  and  most  successful  of  Sicilian  brigands  was  Esposito, 
alias  Randazzo,  who  was  long  at  the  head  of  a  great  associa- 
tion of  malefactors.  It  was  he  who  organised  the  above- 
mentioned  captures  of  Signer  Fasci  and  Mr.  Rose ;  he  came 
and  went  as  he  pleased,  imposing  his  will  upon  the  country- 
folk, on  whom  he  visited  the  sternest  reprisals  if  they 
attempted  to  betray  him.  He  was  guilty  of  innumerable 
murders,  some  in  self-defence,  but  many  more  in  revenge. 
So  great  were  the  enormities  committed  by  Esposito  and  his 
people  that  the  ItaUan  Government  employed  a  small  army  of 
regular  troops  to  pursue  them  into  their  lairs.  Still,  several 
years  passed  before  the  band  was  entirely  broken  up.  Esposito 
was  at  last  taken  and  carried  to  gaol  in  Palermo ;  but  on  the 
road  the  prison  van  was  attacked  and  he  was  rescued.  He 
fled  across  the  Atlantic  and  took  refuge  in  the  United  States. 
A  large  reward  was  offered  for  his  apprehension,  and  the 
Italian  Ambassador  at  Washington,  hearing  that  he  was  peace- 
fully engaged  as  a  fruit-seller  in  New  Orleans,  obtained  a 
warrant  for  his  arrest.  Pinkerton's,  the  famous  private 
detectives,  were  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  warrant. 
One  of  their  agents  accordingly  secured  a  man  supposed  to  be 
Esposito-Randazzo,  and  carried  him  back  in  irons  to  New 
York,  where  he  was  safely  lodged  in  gaol  pending  the  arrival 
of  witnesses  from  Sicily  to  identify  him ;  for  he  stoutly  denied 
that  he  was  the  person  supposed,  and  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  conflict  of  evidence  when  the  witnesses  arrived. 
Feeling  ran  high  in  the  Italian  colony,  and  there  was  a  strong 
party  for  and  against  the  prisoner ;  indeed,  it  is  believed  that 
the  dispute  led  to  fierce  blood  feuds  which  are  not  yet  extin- 


412  BRIGANDS,  BU8SBANGERS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

guished.  So  far  as  the  prisoner  was  concerned,  the  American 
Court  held  that  the  case  had  been  made  out  against  him ;  he 
was  duly  extradited  and  sent  back  to  his  own  country  for  trial. 

BUSHRANGERS. 

Having  taken  this  general  review  of  modern  brigandage,  I 
propose  to  describe  now  various  manifestations  of  it  in  detail 
It  was  never  more  actively  and  daringly  practised  than  in  the 
Antipodes.  The  Australian  bushrangers  were,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  brigands :  and  some  of  the  most  notorious  have 
never  been  outdone  in  reckless  cruelty  or  in  the  extent  of  their 
depredations.  They  were  the  direct  product  of  the  system  so 
long  pursued  by  this  country  of  transporting  felons  beyond 
the  sea.  The  philanthropic  theorists,  who  hoped  great  things 
from  giving  them  a  fresh  start  in  a  new  land,  never  realised 
what  might  follow  from  the  accumulation  of  so  much  rascality 
in  one  territory,  however  wide,  and  with  few  of  the  safeguards 
of  a  well-organised  society.  The  result  soon  proved  that  it 
was  a  dangerous  experiment.  In  the  early  decades  of  this 
century  Sydney,  the  chief  Australian  town,  was  known  as  the 
wickedest  place  in  the  world.  "  There  is  more  immorality  in 
Sydney  than  in  any  English  town  of  the  same  size,"  wrote  a 
careful  observer  at  this  time.  Never  in  the  history  of  man 
was  crime  more  prevalent  than  in  the  Antipodes.  Not  only 
were  heinous  offences  of  frequent  occurrence,  but  the  moral 
tone  of  the  colony  was  low  in  the  extreme,  and  drunkenness 
was  nearly  universal.  At  that  period  the  number  of  con- 
victions for  highway  robbery  in  New  South  Wales  alone  was 
equal  to  the  whole  of  the  convictions  for  all  crimes  in  the 
United  Kingdom.  Murders  and  criminal  assaults  were  as 
common  as  petty  larcenies  at  home.  Sydney  was  a  den  of 
thieves  ;  the  leaders  of  the  whole  fraternity  were  concentrated 
and  collected  there;  every  class  of  criminal  came  to  the  colonies. 

The  system,  or,  more  exactly,  the  absence  of  system,  tended 
to  foster  crime.  The  colony  was  one  prison,  yet  without  walls 
or  warders,  proper  discipline,  or  reformatory  processes.  The 
care  of  the  convict,  his  correction  and  coercion,  his  deteriora- 
tion or  improvement,   were   entirely  in   the   hands   of   the 


CRIME  IN  THE   ANTIPODES.  413 

employer  or  master  to  whom  he  was  assigned.  Many  of  these 
had  been  convicts  once  themselves ;  the  rest  were  free  settlers, 
who  could  not  be  expected  to  know  or  do  their  duty  by  the 
convicts.  Although,  to  their  credit,  be  it  said,  some  tried  to 
make  their  men  forget  that  they  were  convicts,  as  a  rule  only 
one  process  was  understood  or  practised  to  secure  good  order ; 
that  was  the  free  infliction  of  the  lash.  Any  magistrate  could 
order  it  on  the  mere  request  of  the  master,  and  for  the  most 
trifling  offences.  Men  were  flogged  cruelly,  brutally,  and 
repeatedly  for  simple  drunkenness,  disobedience,  idleness,  and 
neglect  of  work.  Cases  were  known  of  men  on  whom,  in  the 
aggregate,  two  and  three  thousand  lashes  had  been  inflicted. 
There  was  Uttle  or  no  alleviation  of  their  hard  lot ;  to  drink 
and  drink  again,  to  gamble,  quarrel,  fight,  were  the  only 
relaxations  within  their  reach. 

As  time  passed,  and  the  convict  population  increased 
dangerously,  growing  more  and  more  unmanageable,  other 
methods  of  coercion  were  devised.  These  were  the  road 
parties,  the  chain  gangs,  and  the  penal  settlements,  to  which 
the  worst  characters  were  consigned,  to  labour,  not  severely, 
and  in  association,  so  as  further  to  corrupt  and  contaminate 
each  other.  The  chain  gangs  were  kept  mostly  in  the  interior, 
lodged  in  stockades,  under  a  military  commandant,  with  soldier 
guards,  while  fairly  watchful  discipline  was  maintained.  Lastly, 
the  penal  settlements,  such  as  Norfolk  Island,  and  latterly  Port 
Arthur,  Moreton  Bay,  and  Tasman's  Peninsula,  became  the 
receptacle  of  the  absolutely  irreclaimable;  these  were  foul 
dens  of  iniquity,  filled  with  the  very  dregs  of  convictdom, 
where,  in  the  words  of  an  eminent  colonial  judge,  "  the  heart 
of  a  man  was  taken  from  him,  and  he  was  given  the  heart 
of  a  beast." 

The  rdgirae  in  all  these  places  of  durance  was  much  the 
same  where  it  could  be  enforced  :  plentiful  coarse  food,  the 
obligation  to  daily  labour,  with  harsh  discipline,  and  the  pro- 
longed loss  of  freedom.  But  with  the  utmost  precautions,  with 
the  severest  penalties,  it  was  found  impossible  to  prevent 
escapes.  The  more  daring  spirits  constantly  got  away  and 
took  to  the  "  bush,"  to  develop  speedily  into  that  awful  curse 


iU         BRIGANDS,  BUSHRANGERS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

to  the  community,  the  bushrangers,  the  notorious  highwaymen 
of  Australia. 

I  propose  now  to  deal  with  some  of  the  most  prominent 
of  these  desperate  offenders.  Many  of  them  were  men  of 
great  courage,  with  the  power  to  command  and  organise,  so 
that  they  soon  became  the  nucleus  for  other  bandits  to  gather 
round.  In  other  remarkable  cases  the  desperado  worked 
singly,   and  often  more  safely  and  profitably  for  himself. 

NEW   SOUTH    WALES. 

In  the  old  colony,  one  of  the  most  notorious  bushrangers 
was  the  "bold  Donohue,"  who  ravaged  the  Hunter  district 
about  1830-5,  and  whose  greatest  crime  was  the  cold-blooded 
murder  of  a  much-esteemed  gentleman  named  Clements. 
Donohue  had  confederates ;  two,  Webber  and  Walmsley, 
were,  like  himself,  runaway  convicts ;  so  was  a  third,  Under- 
wood, who  long  "  worked  "  with  him,  but  who  was  afterwards 
shot  deliberately  by  his  leader,  on  the  plea  that  he  had  played 
him  false.  This  small  party  of  four  met  Mr.  Clements  on  his 
way  to  Sydney  from  the  Hunter  Kiver,  when  he  was  carrying 
on  him  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  He  was  accompanied 
by  two  armed  attendants,  and  as  he  was  crossing  the  Bulga 
road,  leading  to  the  river,  Donohue  rode  up  and  asked  for 
some  tobacco.  Mr.  Clements  recognised  his  man  instantly, 
and  would  have  drawn  his  pistol.  Unfortunately,  it  was 
fastened  to  his  belt  through  the  trigger  cover,  and  before  he 
could  call  up  his  men  to  his  assistance,  Donohue  discharged 
both  barrels  of  his  gun,  and  killed  the  poor  fellow  on  the 
spot.  Donohue  was  shortly  afterwards  hunted  down  and  shot 
red-handed,  having  first  wounded  one  of  the  policemen  sent 
to  arrest  him.  Webber  and  Walmsley  were  ultimately  cap- 
tured Donohue  was  a  popular  hero ;  songs  were  composed  in 
his  honour,  and  his  name  was  on  every  tongue.  He  moved 
to  and  fro  with  almost  supernatural  rapidity,  he  seemed 
ubiquitous,  and  his  exploits  sometimes  read  like  a  romance. 

In  1837  the  Port  Phillip  district  of  New  South  Wales  was 
harassed  by  a  gang  of  bushrangers,  who  were  headed  by  one 
Dignum,  a  convict  who  had  escaped  from  assigned  service. 


DIONUM.  415 

and  who  was  soon  joined  by  five  others,  among  them  a  stripling 
named  Comerford.  When  they  had  made  the  neighbourhood 
too  hot  to  hold  them,  they  rode  southward,  seeking  some  sea- 
port where  they  might  take  ship  and  quit  the  country.  But 
on  reaching  Mount  Alexander,  a  spot  which  became  subse- 
quently a  famous  goldfield,  their  provisions  ran  short  in  the 
bush,  and  they  were  threatened  with  death  from  starvation. 
In  this  extremity  Dignum  conceived  the  base  idea  of  mur- 
dering his  eight  companions,  one  by  one ;  then,  having  secured 
the  whole  of  the  provisions  left,  of  continuing  his  journey 
alone.  He  was  about  to  carry  out  his  design  in  the  dead  of 
night,  when  young  Cornerford  awoke  unexpectedly,  and 
Dignum  had  no  alternative  but  to  take  him  into  the  plot. 

They  were  only  two  against  seven,  yet  they  contrived  to 
complete  the  deed  of  blood.  Dignum  is  supposed  to  have 
shot  six  of  his  companions  with  his  own  hand,  and  Cornerford 
brained  the  last  with  an  axe.  The  murderers  now  took 
counsel  together  and  decided  to  work  towards  Melbourne, 
which  they  reached  safely,  and  there  hired  themselves  out  as 
free  labourers.  Service  did  not  suit  them,  and  they  quickly 
abandoned  it,  only  to  be  rearrested  and  handed  back  to  their 
employer,  who  handcuffed  them  in  a  room  hard  by,  to  wait 
till  he  had  dined  and  could  take  them  on  to  the  nearest 
police-station.  Dignum  soon  possessed  himself  of  the  key  to 
the  cuffs,  and  set  himself  and  his  partner,  Cornerford,  free 
Once  more,  having  stolen  firearms,  they  took  to  the  bush. 
They  were  pursued,  but  got  off,  to  resume  their  robberies  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Adelaide.  There  was  no  loyalty  or 
attachment  between  them ;  each  distrusted  the  other,  and 
once  Dignum  anticipated  a  quarrel  by  firing  at  Comerford 
while  he  rode  a  little  in  advance.  The  victim,  who  had  so 
narrowly  escaped,  galloped  on  to  Melbourne  and  gave  himself 
up.  On  his  information  Dignum  was  run  down.  Cornerford 
had  confessed  to  the  wholesale  murders  in  the  bush,  and  to 
test  the  truth  of  his  statement  a  search  party  visited  Mount 
Alexander,  where  unmistakable  traces  of  the  tragedy  were 
found  —  human  remains,  bones,  skulls,  and  fragments  of 
clothing. 


416  BBIGAND8,  BUSHRANGERS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

Cornerford  had  accompanied  the  police  so  as  to  point  out 
the  exact  spot.  By  some  unaccountable  carelessness  he  was 
left  with  a  single  guard;  unhandcuffed,  and  watching  his 
chance,  he  shot  the  policeman  and  bolted  into  the  bush. 
After  this  Cornerford,  the  boy  bushranger,  ranged  the  neigh- 
bourhood alone,  a  terror  to  all ;  but  he  was  at  length  seized 
by  a  station  hand  and  secured.  They  now  carried  him  on  a 
dray,  bound  hand  and  foot,  to  Melbourne,  where  he  was  soon 
afterwards  hanged.  His  evidence  was  thus  lost  against 
Dignum,  who  escaped  capital  punishment,  but  was  sent  to 
Norfolk  Island  for  life. 

DAVIS   THE   JEW. 

This  man  escaped  from  a  chain  gang  near  Sydney  in 
1840,  and  ranged  the  country  between  the  Humber  and  Bris- 
bane Water,  where  he  was  joined  by  an  Irishman,  named 
Ruggy,  and  five  others,  aU  runaways.  Their  operations  were 
very  extensive.  They  stopped  travellers,  broke  into  inns 
and  storehouses,  pillaged  private  stations,  and  promptly 
carried  off  their  plunder  on  pack-horses  to  some  new  scene 
of  action.  Their  rapid  transit  from  point  to  point — levying 
blackmail  everywhere  —  long  saved  them  from  capture ; 
but  at  last  their  depredations  became  intolerable,  and  a 
strong  force  of  police  was  sent  out  to  hunt  them  down. 
The  gang,  so  far,  had  only  robbed ;  murder  had  not  been 
committed,  but  Ruggy,  in  an  encounter  with  their  pursuers 
being  hard  pressed,  shot  a  young  colonist  who  had  volun- 
teered his  aid  to  the  police.  This  raised  the  whole  country, 
and  the  bushrangers  fled  before  the  outraged  people  and 
took  refuge  in  the  Liverpool  Range. 

A  Mr.  Day,  magistrate  of  Muswell  Brook,  and  formerly 
an  officer  of  the  17th  Regiment,  headed  a  pursuing  party, 
which  followed  the  hoof-marks  of  the  fugitives'  horses  for 
forty-three  miles,  and  all  but  caught  them  at  Atkinson's 
Inn,  on  the  Page  river.  Next  day,  however,  they  came 
upon  the  gang  encamped  at  Doughboy  Hollow,  in  the  bush 
below  the  hills.  Riding  to  the  edge  of  the  hollow,  Mr.  Day 
dismounted  and,  gun  in  hand,  rushed  the  camp.      The  gang 


DAVIS   THE  JEW.  417 

seized  their  arms  and  a  fierce  skirmish  ensued,  in  which  Davis 
fired  repeatedly  at  Mr.  Day,  but  without  effect,  and  the 
energetic  magistrate,  eager  to  take  the  miscreant  ahve, 
closed  with  him  and  captured  him.  Ruggy  was  also  taken, 
and  the  rest  laid  down  their  arms.  All  the  gang  were 
carried  to  Sydney,  tried,  condemned,  and  executed.  The 
Jewish  community,  however,  made  strenuous  but  unavail- 
ing efforts  to  save  Davis's  life. 

A   BLACK   BUSHRANGER. 

I  have  by  me  a  detailed  account,  from  one  who  knew 
him  personally,*  of  a  more  modern  bushranger  who  was  as 
remarkable  in  his  way  as  any  of  his  predecessors.  He  was 
an  Australian  black  who,  when  a  child,  had  been  taken 
into  the  service  of  an  up-country  station  holder,  by  name 
Loder.  The  boy  was  bright  and  intelligent,  and,  benefited 
quickly  by  such  education  as  was  at  hand.  He  soon  learned 
English,  not  only  to  speak,  but  also  to  read  and  write 
fluently.  He  was  kept  away  from  his  own  people,  and 
became  in  habit  and  appearance,  if  not  in  thought  and  in- 
clination, a  civilised  being.  As  he  grew  up  he  repaid  his 
patron's  kindness  by  giving  good  service  as  a  skilful  stock- 
man, and  showed  great  aptitude  in  every  detail  of  bush 
station  work.  Then  all  at  once  Mr.  Loder  died,  and  the 
new  owner  of  the  property  turned  the  young  black  adrift 
upon  the  world. 

Charlie  Loder,  as  he  was  called  after  his  old  master, 
was  now  about  five-and-twenty  years  of  age.  He  wandered 
from  station  to  station,  taking  what  employment  he  could 
get,  and  in  1867  was  at  Coolatai,  where  he  was  taken  on 
to  help  in  the  wool-scouring,  which  was  then  in  full  swing. 
"Charlie"  was  tall,  muscular,  well-proportioned;  all  trace 
of  savagery  had  disappeared  from  his  face;  he  was  a 
general  favourite;  willing,  good-tempered,  industrious,  and 
trustworthy,  he  punctually  carried  out  any  work  entrusted 
to  him  without  question  or  supervision.  But  he  did  not 
like    wool-washing;    the    constant    wetting    to    which    he 

*  My  lorother,  Captain  GrriiEths,  formerly  of  the  61st  Eegiment. 
B  B 


418  BRIGANDS,  BU/3IIRANGEB8,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

was  subjected  affected  his  health,  he  said,  and  after  a  month 
he  left  the  station.  Nothing  was  heard  of  him  for  months 
and  months,  and  when  strange  rumours  were  rife  of  a  black 
bushranger  who  was  at  large  in  a  neighbouring  district,  no 
one  dreamt  of  connecting  him  with  Charlie  Loder,  the  re- 
claimed aboriginal. 

Yet  so  it  was.  Charlie's  identity  was  presently  established 
beyond  all  doubt.  Travellers  turned  up  who  had  seen  and 
recognised  hira  on  the  roads,  mounted,  and  armed  with 
gun  and  pistols.  Precise  stories  were  told,  too,  of  his  depre- 
dations, which  were  always  stained  with  merciless  cruelty 
The  innate  barbarity  of  his  nature  had  reasserted  itself 
through  the  thin  veneer  of  civilising  processes,  and  he  had 
relapsed  into  the  brutal  aboriginal  savage.  He  was  quite 
unsparing  in  his  attacks,  made  always  on  defenceless  women, 
for  he  was  too  cowardly  to  interfere  with  men.  He  pre- 
ferred to  "stick  up"  the  distant  hut  of  the  shepherd  when 
the  shepherd  was  far  away  and  his  wife  was  alone  and  at 
his  mercy;  he  demanded  toll  in  drink  and  food  from  the 
lonely  taverns  by  the  wayside,  or  robbed  the  isolated  bush 
tenements,  occupied  mostly  by  peace-loving,  inoffensive 
women-folk.  His  atrocities  were  everywhere  of  the  most 
barbarous  and  revolting  character. 

The  district  of  Warialda,  in  New  South  Wales,  was 
"  Charlie's "  favourite  sphere  of  action,  and  so  great  was 
the  terror  he  inspired  that  no  one  dared  to  interfere  with 
him.  The  work  of  tracking  him  down  was  left  to  the 
mounted  police,  who  did  nothing,  and  fresh  instances  of 
the  bushranger's  daring  exploits  cropped  up  continually. 
His  cool  effrontery  was  matchless.  On  one  occasion,  about 
Christmastide,  he  quartered  himself  upon  a  shepherd,  who, 
with  his  wife,  occupied  a  hut  not  a  hundred  yards  from 
the  high  road.  By  menace  and  intimidation  he  swore 
them  to  secrecy,  then,  extorting  money,  he  rode  to  a  neigh- 
bouring public-house  to  lay  in  liquor,  so  that  he  might 
keep  the  Christmas  festival  properly.  He  was  seen,  although 
not  identified,  on  the  road,  in  company  with  two  others, 
labouring  men  from  Coolatai,  who,  when  encountered  later, 


ORAllLIE  LODEB.  419 

seemed  much  flurried,  and  it  transpired  that  he  had 
threatened  them  with  terrible  vengeance  if  they  betrayed 
him.  At  the  tavern  he  was  at  once  recognised  as  he  swag- 
gered into  the  bar  with  his  pistols  at  his  belt  and  demanded 
drink  The  landlord  supplied  him  obsequiously,  and  the  by- 
standers, many  of  whom  knew  him  well,  accepted  his  offer 
to  play  pitch  and  toss,  a  game  which  went  without  intermission 
for  a  couple  of  hours.  All  were  abashed  at  his  presence, 
even  the  tavern-keeper,  a  tall,  stalwart  "  cornstalk,"  and  no 
attempt  was  made  to  secure  the  desperado,  though  this 
might  have  been  easily  accomplished.  As  he  was  riding  away 
from  the  tavern,  however,  a  black  native  policeman  and 
tracker  of  a  neighbouring  township  called  out  to  him  to 
stop.  As  the  bushranger  made  no  reply,  the  policeman, 
by  name  "  Kangaroo,"  unbuckled  his  carbine  and  prepared 
to  shoot,  whereupon  Charlie  galloped  for  his  life,  followed 
by  several  shots,  none  of  which  took  effect.  "  Kangaroo  " 
afterwards  condemned  the  cowardice  of  the  innkeeper  and 
the  rest  in  very  forcible  and  contemptuous  terms. 

Now,  however,  there  was  a  general  hue  and  cry  for  Charlie, 
and  the  local  constabulary  were  always  hot  on  his  track.  He 
kept  mostly  out  of  sight  in  the  thick  scrub,  but  was  put  to 
great  straits  for  food.  At  last,  faint  with  hunger,  he  ventured 
forth  one  day  and,  approaching  the  river  Macintyre, 
found  a  German  trader's  encampment.  Charlie  had  now 
degenerated  into  the  true  savage,  hideous  and  imkempt, 
like  the  hunted  beast  that  he  had  become.  He  was 
entirely  naked  but  for  a  waist-cloth,  his  body  shone  with 
oil,  and  his  wooUy  hair  was  cropped  close  to  his  head. 
Walking  up  to  Schneider,  the  German  trader,  he  de- 
manded food,  tea,  sugar,  and  the  rest.  Schneider  guessed 
immediately  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  and  pretended  to 
comply.  He  climbed  on  to  his  dray  to  open  one  of  the 
boxes,  Charlie  standing  expectant  below.  In  an  open  conflict 
the  naked,  sHppery  savage  would  have  an  undoubted  ad- 
vantage. So  Schneider  tried  a  stratagem,  which  was  to  fall 
on  him  bodily  from  above.  This  strange  and  novel  method 
of  attack   quite   disconcerted  the  villain,  and  although  he 


420         BRIGANDS,  BUSEBANGEBS,  OUTLAWS,  JBTO. 

struggled  violently,  the  combatants  rolling  over  and  over  upon 
the  ground,  he  was  vanquished  in  the  end.  The  German 
now  produced  a  strong  rope  and  made  his  prisoner  fast  to 
the  wheel  of  his  dray.  Charlie,  convulsed  with  rage,  cursed 
him  like  a  demon,  and  made  the  air  hideous  with  his  yells. 
Presently  the  police  came  up,  and  he  was  conveyed,  under 
strong  escort,  to  Warialda  gaol. 

Charlie  Loder  was  indicted  on  several  counts :  robbery 
under  arms,  bushranging,  criminal  assaults,  crimes  enough  to 
hang  the  wretch  a  dozen  times  over.  But  no  capital  charge 
could  be  brought  home  to  him,  and  although  he  was  found 
guilty  of  the  first-named  offence,  the  heaviest  punishment 
that  could  be  inflicted  was  hard  labour  for  ten  years.  He  did 
not  long  survive  his  imprisonment;  the  gaol,  after  a  life  in 
the  open,  under  the  free  air  of  heaven,  soon  proved  fatal,  and 
he  died  within  three  years. 

LATTER-DAY   BUSHRANGERS. 

The  early  bushrangers  were  mostly  escaped  convicts,  as 
has  been  described.  When  this  class  had  nearly  disappeared 
others  of  a  different  stamp  took  to  the  desperate  profession. 
They  were  for  the  most  part  native-bom  Australians,  who, 
weary  of  an  idle,  dissolute  life,  had  taken  to  bush  enterprise 
out  of  pure  devilry  and  a  superabundance  of  animal  spirits. 
Many  of  these  latter-day  bushrangers  began  the  business 
for  fun,  almost  as  a  "  lark,"  but  followed  up  some  first  wild 
adventure  by  more  criminal  and  determined  performances. 
They  were  better  educated,  and  worked  on  wider  lines.  When 
a  leader  of  this  kind  appeared,  he  soon  became  a  centre  and 
focus  for  the  evilly  disposed,  and  the  gangs  thus  reached 
formidable  proportions.  There  was  still  a  strong  criminal 
element  in  those  Australian  colonies  where  transportation 
had  flourished.  Heredity  showed  itself,  and  the  descendants 
of  the  old  convicts  were  drawn  almost  irresistibly — by  con- 
genital instinct,  it  may  be  said — to  the  malpractices  of  their 
forefathers.  The  latest  development  of  the  bushrangers  was 
far  worse  than  the  first.  Their  organised  "  robberies  under 
arms  "  were  bolder  and  more  extensive.     The  growth  of  the 


LATER   BUSHBANGEBS.  421 

colonies,  the  adoption  of  the  banking  system,  above  all  the 
enormous  increase  in  wealth  due  to  the  gold  discoveries,  and 
the  consequent  temptation  to  secure  the  precious  metal,  stored 
or  in  transit,  encouraged  them  to  the  most  daring  exploits, 
which  were  long  continued  with  impunity.  The  poUce, 
although  weU-intentioned,  were  often  feeble  in  pursuit,  and 
unequal  to  the  task  of  suppression.  The  robbers  had  many 
friends  among  the  settlers,  gained  partly  by  terrorism,  partly 
by  sympathy,  engendered  by  admiration,  and  a  certain  halo 
of  false  glory  that  hung  around  them.  Spies  gave  them  the 
earhest  intimation  of  police  movements ;  of  the  opportunities 
that  offered  for  fresh  robberies.  The  result  was  that  for  years 
the  whole  country  was  unsafe.  "  Robberies  have  now  become 
so  frequent,"  says  a  newspaper,  in  1862,  "  that  it  is  dangerous 
to  travel  or  move  about.  ...  A  representation  should  be 
made  to  Govermnent  showing  the  unprotected  state  of  life 
and  property."  But  the  authorities  remained  powerless  even 
to  check  these  unnumbered  outrages.  The  bushrangers  were 
ubiquitous,  and  defied  pursuit  or  capture. 

GAKDINER. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these  latter-day  bushrangers 
was  Frank  Gardiner,  who,  aU  through  the  western  and  southern 
districts  of  New  South  Wales,  enjoyed  the  sobriquet  of  the 
King  of  the  Road.  He  had  several  aliases,  but  whether  as 
Gardiner,  Christie,  or  Clarke,  he  may  claim  to  be  the  father 
of  the  robberies  that  harassed  the  colonies  for  some  ten  or 
twelve  years,  beginning  iu  1860. 

Gardiner  was  at  first  no  more  than  a  horse  thief  His  first 
exploit,  at  twenty  years  of  age,  was  that  of  "  lifting "  a  horse 
on  the  border  of  Victoria,  in  1850.  That  district  was  infested 
then  with  bands  of  men  well  mounted,  who  systematically 
robbed  out-stations  of  horses  and  cattle.  Gardiner  soon 
became  prominent  among  these,  and  when  he  was  captured 
with  others,  after  a  sweeping  raid  on  a  station  at  Salisbury 
Plains,  he  was  riding  a  magnificent  thoroughbred  chestnut, 
which  he  had  acquired  by  theft.  In  that  robbery  every  horse 
on  the  station  but  four  had  been  carried  off.     The  thieves 


422         BRIGANDS,  BUSEIiANGERS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

were  sentenced  to  long  imprisonment,  but  Gardiner,  with  ten 
more,  soon  escaped.  His  next  exploits  were  in  and  about  tlie 
goldfields  of  Bendigo,  whence  he  returned  to  his  own  country, 
Goulburn,  in  New  South  Wales,  where  he  was  again  sentenced 
for  horse  stealing,  and  sent  to  the  penal  settlement  on  the 
Paramatta  river.  It  was  not  until  his  release  from  Cockatoo 
Island  on  ticket-of-leave,  in  1861,  that  he  adopted  bush- 
ranging  as  a  business,  and  developed  into  the  notorious 
knight  of  the  road  he  soon  became — "  a  terror  to  every  settler, 
and  the  boldest  and  greatest  breaker  of  the  law  that  then 
troubled  the  colony." 

The  chief  scene  of  his  depredations  was  the  mountainous 
country  of  the  Murrumbidgee  and  the  district  of  Goulburn 
as  far  as  Abercrombie.  He  was  associated  with  other  old 
gaol  comrades,  notably  by  one  Jack  Piesley,  and  together  they 
"  bailed  up  '  many  persons,  single  travellers  and  mail  coaches, 
and  "  stuck  up  "  stations  continually.  They  had  many  narrow 
escapes.  Gardiner  was  actually  captured  near  the  Fish  river 
by  a  poUce  sergeant  and  one  trooper,  in  1861,  having  been 
first  badly  wounded  in  a  fierce  affray.  But  he  was  rescued,  by 
Piesley  and  another,  as  he  was  being  carried  off.  A  good 
picture  is  given  of  this  Piesley  in  the  proclamation  of  a  reward 
for  his  apprehension.  " .  .  .  .  About  twenty-eight  years  of 
age,  five  feet  ten  inches  high,  stout  and  well  made,  fresh  com- 
plexion, very  small  light  whiskers,  quite  bald  on  the  top  of 
head  and  forehead  .  .  .  puffed  and  dissipated-looking  from 
hard  drinking ;  invariably  wears  fashionable  Napoleon  boots, 
dark  cloth  breeches,  dark  vest  buttoned  up  to  the  front,  large 
albert  gold  guard,  cabbage  tree  hat  and  duck  coat.  Some- 
times wears  a  dark  wig,  and  always  carries  a  brace  of 
revolvers." 

WhUe  Gardiner  went  into  hiding  till  his  wounds  were 
healed,  Piesley  kept  the  road — to  so  much  purpose  that 
again  the  Bathurst  newspaper  declares  : — "  We  live  in  troublous 
times,  and  unless  some  steps  are  taken  to  arrest  these  day- 
light marauders,  and  put  a  stop  to  their  proceedings,  it  will 
shortly  be  unsafe  to  travel  any  distance  from  the  town." 
Piesley  about  this  time  committed  a  murder,  the  result  of  a 


"BAILED    VP"    OR   "STUCK   UP."  423 

drunken  quarrel,  and  there  was  a  fierce  hue  and  cry  for  him, 
but  with  no  result,  until  he  was  at  last  met  with  in  the 
Wagga-Wagga  district  and  "  stuck  up  "  himself  by  a  plucky 
settler.  He  was  ridmg  "  a  remarkably  fine  and  fast  animal," 
and  had  a  good  pack-horse  which  carried  his  "  swag."  He 
was  tried  and  duly  hanged  at  Bathurst. 

Meanwhile  Gardiner,  now  fuUy  recovered,  was  ravaging 
the  district  of  Bunagong.  He  "  stuck  up ''  everyone  he  met. 
In  one  case  a  gold  digger  and  storekeeper  named  Horsing- 
ton  was  robbed  of  about  £1,000  in  cash  and  gold  dust. 
The  gold  digger  was  driving  in  a  spring  cart  and  was  escorted 
by  one  or  two  friends,  but  the  bushrangers  reheved  them  of 
everything,  going  about  their  business  quietly  and  methodic- 
ally, so  that  they  deprived  their  victims  of  a  nice  little  fortune 
in  about  fifteen  minutes.  This,  so  far,  was  one  of  the  biggest 
hauls  made;  but  it  whetted  the  robbers'  appetites,  and  their 
next  robbery  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  their  many 
daring  exploits.  This  was  the  plundering  of  the  Lachlan 
gold  escort,  by  which  they  secured  some  £14,000,  although 
they  might  have  got  twice  that  sum.  Owing  to  imperfect 
information  —  the  want  of  more  exact  knowledge  of  the 
movement  of  gold — they  missed  that  which  had  been  sent 
down  by  the  escort  of  the  previous  week,  and  which  had 
amounted  to  £34,000. 

The  "  gold  escort "  had  been  instituted  for  the  safe  con- 
veyance of  the  precious  metal  from  the  goldfields  to  the 
bank  at  Sydney,  and  so  to  the  markets  of  the  world.  The 
digger,  when  he  had  won  his  treasure  from  his  claim,  disposed 
of  it  at  once  to  travelling  buyers,  who  paid  cash  and  passed 
it  on,  when  collected,  to  the  sea-coast.  When  a  sufficient 
freight  had  accumulated,  the  gold  was  carefully  packed  in 
strong  boxes,  sealed,  and  sent  down  country  by  mail  coach, 
under  a  police  escort.  On  this  occasion,  the  14th  June, 
1862,  when  leaving  the  town,  then  the  chief  centre  of  the 
Lachlan  goldfields,  the  escort  was  small.  There  were  only 
five  constables,  including  the  sergeant  in  command,  and  on 
the  box  of  the  mail  coach  was  a  stalwart  and  experienced 
driver.     The  treasure  was  in  three  boxes,  addressed  to  various 


424         BRIGANDS,  BUSHBANQEB8,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

banks  in  Sydney,  and  the  aggregate  value,  as  has  been  said, 
was  £14,000.  There  was  also  a  heavy  mail  containing  a 
number  of  registered  letters  with  valuable  effects. 

Five  hours  after  departure,  at  Toogong,  eight-and-twenty 
miles  from  Forbes,  the  coach  came  upon  an  obstacle  in 
the  roadway.  Three  buUock  teams  were  drawn  across  it, 
leaving  only  a  small  passage  between  them,  while  some  high 
rocks  overhung  on  one  side.  To  pilot  his  horses  through  this 
the  driver  pulled  them  up  to  a  walk,  when  suddenly  six 
men  appeared  from  behind  a  sort  of  breastwork  of  rocks  and 
poured  in  a  weU-directed  fire.  The  attack  was  so  sudden 
and  unexpected  that  the  escort,  two  of  whom  were  wounded, 
could  make  no  reply.  Then,  with  mihtary  precision,  the 
first  six  robbers,  who  had  emptied  their  revolvers,  retired, 
and  gave  place  to  another  six,  who  in  their  turn  opened  fire. 
Now  the  constables  made  some  reply,  but  the  coach  horses, 
becoming  terrified,  bolted  and  upset  the  coach,  and  the 
assailants  with  a  loud  cheer  rushed  forward  and  secured  it. 

The  survivors  of  the  escort  made  all  haste  to  a  neigh- 
bouring station  to  give^  the  alarm  and  seek  help,  leaving 
the  bushrangers  to  rifle  the  coach.  They  quickly  seized  the 
gold,  broke  open  the  boxes,  and  transferred  the  treasure  to 
their  saddle-bags ;  then  taking  some  of  the  registered  letters, 
they  galloped  away.  The  whole  of  this  daring  outrage  had, 
no  doubt,  been  planned  by  Gardiner,  although  he  was  not 
positively  identified.  The  robbers  were  carefully  disguised. 
All  had  their  faces  blackened  and  wore  red  shirts  and  red 
night-caps.  The  police  sergeant,  who  survived,  believed 
that  he  had  recognised  Gardiner's  face,  but  that  was  the 
only  clue,  and  it  remained  a  mystery  where  he  had  collected 
his  gang,  which  numbered  at  least  a  dozen. 

A  very  vigorous  pursuit  was  at  once  set  on  foot,  headed 
by  Sir  Frederick  Pottinger,  the  Commissioner  of  Police.  The 
robbers  were  tracked  along  the  route  towards  Narrandera 
and  the  frontier  of  Victoria,  and  three  of  them  were  cap- 
tured with  a  portion  of  the  gold;  but  the  bulk  made  good 
their  escape  into  the  topmost  recesses  of  the  Wheogo  moun- 
tain, where  the  booty  was  divided — some  twenty  pounds  of 


■       MORGAN.  425 

gold  for  each  man,  not  counting  the  bank-notes — and  the 
party  broke  up.  Apparently  the  police  came  up  with 
several  of  the  robbers,  and  in  the  heat  of  the  chase  many 
dropped  their  share.  What  exactly  became  of  Gardiner 
was  not  known  till  long  afterwards,  when  he  was  discovered 
in  Queensland  leading  a  peaceable  life  and  doing  good  busi- 
ness as  a  bush  publican.  He  was  forthwith  arrested,  tried, 
condemned,  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life.  After 
ten  years  he  was  recommended  for  pardon  and,  much  to 
the  surprise  and  disgust  of  law-abiding  citizens,  released. 
According  to  general  belief,  the  ex- bushranger  removed 
himself  to  California  with  his  ill-gotten  gains  and  set  up  a's 
a  publican  in  a  mining  township,  where  he  did  remarkably 
well  His  reputation  as  a  desperate  and  successful  law- 
breaker gained  him  much  custom  and  the  respectful 
admiration  of  many  men  as  lawless  as  himself 

Others  took  up  Gardiner's  mantle  in  New  South  Wales. 
Dunn  and  the.  Clarkes  may  be  mentioned  as  ferocious  crimi- 
nals with  an  insatiable  craving  for  bloodshed.  But  Morgan 
the  murderer  was  worst  of  all.  He  worked  invariably  single- 
handed,  ranging  the  country  alone,  always  without  a  com- 
panion. His  robberies,  which  were  wholesale,  his  "sticking 
ups"  innumerable,  ended  generally  in  murder,  for  he  was 
afflicted  with  blood  madness,  and  pitilessly  slew  all  his 
victims.  A  widespread  sense  of  relief  was  felt  through- 
out the  colony  at  the  news  of  his  death.  The  pohce  came 
upon  him  unawares  and  must  have  shot  him  down  at  once, 
ior  his  body  was  found  riddled  with  bullets. 

CAPTAIN   THUNDERBOLT. 

-The  adventurous  exploits  of  "  Thunderbolt,"  the  sobriquet 
of  a  stockman  named  Ward  who  became  a  bushranger,  might 
make  a  romance ;  but  its  hero  was  in  reality  a  low,  thieving 
scoundrel,  with  no  redeeming  qualities  but  that  of  brute 
courage  and  great  tenacity  of  purpose.  Ward,  who,  like 
most  AustraUans,  was  a  fearless  rider,  infested  the  north- 
western part  of  New  South  Wales.  He  had  been  a  well- 
conducted  man,  but  was  ruined  by  a  sentence  of  imprisonment 


426         SJRIGANDS,  BUSHBANOEBSI,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

for  some  minor  offence.  The  gaol  was  near  Sydney,  on 
Cockatoo  Island.  The  Paramatta  river  encompassed  it 
with  deep  water  on  every  side,  and  the  chances  of  breaking 
prison  seemed  small,  yet  Ward  contrived  to  escape.  Elud- 
ing the  vigilance  of  the  sentries  one  dark  and  stormy  night, 
he  scaled  the  ramparts,  let  himself  down  into  the  river  by 
a  rope,  and  swam  to  the  far  shore. 

He  was  scarcely  at  large  before  he  started  as  a  bush- 
ranger, and  for  the  following  eight  years  gave  more  trouble 
to  the  police  than  any  man  of  his  stamp  mentioned  in  the 
criminal  records  of  the  colony.  He  assumed  the  name  of 
Captain  Thunderbolt,  and  gave  out  that  his  hand  would 
be  for  ever  against  his  fellows,  and  that  he  meant  to 
wage  undying  war  against  society  in  revenge  for  his 
wrongful  conviction  on  perjured  evidence. 

Ward's  first  encounter  was  with  the  manager  of  a  station 
on  which  he  had  been  employed  for  years.  This  gentleman, 
a  Mr.  Eoss,  was  driving  a  lady  in  his  buggy  along  a  bush 
high  road,  when  two  men  rode  up  with  pointed  pistols 
and  in  bushranging  parlance  ordered  him  to  "bail  up." 
Mr.  Ross  immediately  recognised  his  former  stockman  and 
said,  "  Why,  Ward,  I  am  astonished  to  see  you  take  to  this 
shameful  course  of  life.  You  will  surely  not  rob  your  old 
master  ? " 

The  lady  fainted,  and  Mr.  Ross  added :  "  See,  this  is 
the  wife  of  our  doctor,  a  gentleman  whom  you  know 
well."  This  appeal  was  too  much  ibr  the  bushranger,  in 
whom  the  traces  of  kindly  feeling  and  gratitude  still  re- 
mained. On  his  companion  demanding  Mr.  Ross's  watch 
and  purse.  Ward  bade  him  desist,  saying,  "  He  was  a  good 
master  and  shall  not  be  robbed."  Then,  raising  his  hat, 
Thunderbolt  rode  away  with  his  mate.  This  story  is  in 
the  style  of  Claude  Duval ;  nor  was  it  the  only  instance 
in  which  Ward  showed  signs  of  a  generous  disposition. 
Indeed  he  ere  long  earned  the  reputation  so  often  en- 
joyed hj  the  gentlemen  of  the  road,  that  of  robbing  the 
rich  to  give  to  the  poor.  From  that  time  forward  to  the 
close   of  his  life,  the   bushranger  never  stood  in  need  of  a 


A   NEW   CLAUDE    DUVAL.  427 

friend.  When  hard  pressed  by  the  police,  his  knowledge  of 
the  country  enabled  him  to  give  them  the  slip,  while  in 
the  mountainous  districts  it  was  impossible  to  follow  one 
who  was  so  conversant  with  every  nook  and  cranny.  Many 
were  the  eiforts  of  the  police  to  capture  the  ubiquitous 
Thunderbolt.  They  were  ever  at  fault,  nor  were  they  ever 
able  to  elicit  any  information  from  the  small  settlers,  all 
of  whom  gladly  gave   the   fugitive  robber  shelter  and  food. 

Ward  knew  intimately  all  the  good  horses  on  the 
stations  around,  either  by  personal  inspection  or  through 
his  friends.  He  thus  laid  hands  on  the  very  best  animals, 
and  often  covered  great  distances  in  one  day,  as  much 
as  fifty  or  sixty  miles  and  more.  The  manager  of 
Cqolootai  station  owned  a  fine  racer  named  Talleyrand,  a 
great  favourite,  and  worth  at  least  £150.  Talleyrand,  how- 
ever, one  night  disappeared  from  the  paddock,  and  though 
a  reward  of  fifty  pounds  was  ofl'ered  for  his  recovery,  no 
result  followed.  His  master  gave  him  up  for  lost,  when 
one  day  an  old  shearer  arrived  at  Coolootai,  leadiug 
Talleyrand.  The  man's  story  was  that  when  travelling 
along  the  main  road  between  Armidale  and  Glen  Innes 
he  was  met  by  Thunderbolt,  who  was  riding  one  horse 
and  leading  another.  The  shearer  was  an  old  friend  of 
the  bushranger,  and  the  latter  asked  him  if  he  would 
like  to  earn  £50.  "Yes,"  said  the  man,  "that  would 
keep  me  on  the  spree  for  a  month."  "  Then,"  answered 
Ward,  "  you  see  this  horse  I  am  leading ;  his  name  is 
Talleyrand,  and  he  belongs  to  the  manager  of  Coolootai. 
I  have  ridden  him,  but  he  is  of  no  further  service  to 
me;  take  him  to  Coolootai  and  you  will  receive  the  reward 
for  his  recovery."  The  shearer  immediately  took  the  horse 
home  and  was  paid  the  reward.  Talleyrand  was  in  bad 
condition  and  suffered  from  leg- weariness  after  many  months' 
incessant  use,  but  was  in  other  respects  sound  in  wind  and 
limb.  A  short  rest  in  the  paddock  completely  restored  the 
horse. 

The  stony  and  rugged  nature  of  most  of  the  country 
over  which    the    bushranger    travelled    on   his    marauding 


428         BRIGANDS,  BUSEBANOEBS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

expeditions  obliged  him  to  have  his  horses  constantly  re- 
shod.  Accordingly  he  always  carried  shoeing  implements 
in  his  saddle-bags,  and  was  thus  independent  of  the  black- 
smiths. His  knowledge  of  the  capabilities  of  any  animal 
which  he  rode  enabled  him  to  husband  its  strength  till 
occasion  arose  to  put  its  full  powers  of  endurance  to  the 
test.  Travellers  who  came  across  Ward  in  the  bush, 
stockmen  and  others  patrolling  the  runs,  reported  that  the 
bushranger  met  them  without  showing  the  least  sign  of 
fear ;  that  he  entered  into  conversation  with  them  like 
any  ordinary  acquaintance.  His  spies  and  well-wishers,  and 
their  number  was  legion,  kept  him  well  acquainted  with 
the  movements  of  the  police,  so  that  when  any  search 
was  afoot  Thunderbolt  had  early  notice,  and  speedily  re- 
moved himself  to  another  section  of  the  country,  many 
miles  from  the  scene  of  his  last  robbery. 

For  most  of  the  constables  he  had  a  profound  con- 
tempt, calling  them  bad  riders  and  indifferent  bushmen. 
One  alone,  named  Dalton,  a  policeman  stationed  at  the 
small  township  of  Bingera,  gave  Thunderbolt  any  trouble. 
This  Dalton  was  an  accomplished  horseman  and  experienced 
in  bush-tracking,  who  on  one  occasion  followed  the  trail 
for  three  days  and  nights,  running  Ward  so  close  that 
they  often  came  within  sight  of  each  other.  At  last,  when 
nearly  exhausted  by  fatigue  and  constant  exposure,  the 
bushranger  got  clear  away  and  found  a  safe  refuge  in 
one  of  the  wildest  parts  of  the  district.  Here  he  created 
a  retreat  only  known  to  a  few,  in  which  he  concealed 
himself  when  hard  pressed  by  the  police.  It  was  situated 
at  the  extreme  boundary  of  a  run  named  Wellington  Vale, 
amidst  mountainous  country  so  rough  and  inaccessible  that 
parts  were  known  by  such  names  as  the  Gulf,  Land's  End, 
and  Hell-hole.  One  who  was  led  to  the  spot  long  after 
Thunderbolt  had  passed  away  describes  how  he  made  a 
toilsome  ascent  up  high  granite  ridges,  and  also  stony, 
grassless  valleys  with  no  track,  and  the  going  much  im- 
peded by  stones  and  boulders,  until  he  reached  a  high 
altitude,  where,  however,  the  country  opened  on  to  a  table- 


"TEUNDEBBOLT'8"   HIDING   PLAGES.  429 

land  with  grass  and  clumps  of  low  timber.  All  at  once, 
and  without  the  slightest  preparation  for  it,  the  earth 
opened  at  their  feet,  and  they  stood  on  the  brink  of  a 
gorge  that  might  have  been  the  crater  of  an  extinct 
volcano.  It  was  nearly  circular,  half  a  mUe  in  circum- 
ference, with  sides  covered  with  tangled  brushwood,  sloping 
precipitously  deep  into  the  mountain.  To  ride  down  was 
hke  riding  down  the  side  of  a  house,  but  there  was  a 
fairly  marked  smooth  track  which  led  down  into  the  base 
of  the  cavity.  The  opening  was  Hke  an  inverted  cone 
narrowing  to  the  bottom,  where  the  brushwood  ended  in  a 
small  flat  sylvan  glade,  and  here  and  there  were  still  the 
ashes  of  old  fires,  charred  embers  and  fragments  of  bark, 
with  other  signs  of  human  occupancy  in  the  past:  two 
ancient  pint  pots,  an  old  "  bUly,"  saddles,  straps,  worn- 
out  horseshoes,  and  pieces  of  untanned  hide.  This  was 
the  sole  vestige  of  the  outlaw,  who  when  hunted  for 
his   life  had  found   shelter   in   this  wild  and  secluded  spot. 

Thunderbolt  had  other  hiding-places  beside  that  described 
above.  He  was  fond  of  a  hole  on  the  banks  of  the  Macintyre 
river,  some  six  miles  from  Wallangra  station.  This  was  com- 
paratively open  country,  and  there  was  good  pasturage  for 
horses.  There  were  no  habitations  for  miles  around,  and  no 
one  came  that  way  but  the  stockmen  engaged  on  their  yearly 
musters. 

Ward's  operations  would  fill  a  volume.  Besides  the 
simpler  process  of  stopping  single  travellers,  he  several 
times  "  stuck  up "  Her  Majesty's  mails,  whether  carried  by 
coach  or  rider.  The  summons  to  "  bail  up,"  given  at  the 
pistol  point,  was  followed  by  an  order  to  throw  the  mailbags 
into  the  roadway  and  ride  or  drive  on.  Thunderbolt  then 
ripped  open  the  covers  at  his  leisure,  the  bags  disgorged  their 
contents,  letters  were  torn  open,  cheques,  bank  notes,  and 
other  valuables  abstracted.  The  booty  often  reached  a  high 
amount,  and  sometimes  included  cheques  for  £1,000,  although 
these  were  of  little  use  to  Thunderbolt.  Such  mail  robberies, 
with  thefts  from  private  persons,  were  his  favourite  crimes. 
He  was  never  known,  throughout  his  career,  to  have  "  stuck 


430         BEJ0AND8,  BUSHBANGEBS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

up  "  a  station  or  robbed  a  bank,  nor  did  he  injure  poor  people. 
This  gained  him  many  friends  and  sympathisers  among  small 
farmers  and  "  selectors,"  who  were  always  ready  to  shelter  and 
screen  him.  Eventually  a  law  was  especially  passed  making 
this  a  penal  offence.  Yet  the  police  could  never  learn  his 
whereabouts  from  the  settlers,  who  always  denied  all  know- 
ledge, although  they  may  have  seen  him  a  few  hours  before. 

For  years  Thunderbolt  went  scot  free.  A  companion,  the 
son  of  a  New  England  shepherd,  who  often  rode  with  him, 
was  captured  by  the  police,  but  the  bushranger  never.  The 
youth  was  put  on  his  trial  at  Armidale  and  sentenced  to 
detention  in  a  reformatory,  his  friend  Thunderbolt  having  been 
present  in  court,  it  was  said,  during  the  proceedings.  After 
this  a  large  reward,  some  hundreds  of  pounds,  was  offered 
for  his  capture  alive  or  dead.  This  stimulated  the  police  to 
renewed  exertions,  and  at  last  Ward  was  killed.  It  came  to 
pass  in  this  fashion.  He  had  stolen  a  fine  horse,  and,  having 
become  reckless,  he  rode  it  boldly  into  the  town  of  Uralla, 
near  Armidale.  He  was  seen  leaving  it,  and  followed  by  two 
policemen,  one  of  whom  soon  gave  up  the  pursuit.  The  other. 
Walker,  stuck  to  Thunderbolt's  heels,  riding  many  miles  in  a 
seemingly  hopeless  chase.  At  last  the  policeman  caught  up 
his  quarry  on  the  banks  of  a  small  lagoon,  into  which  the 
bushranger  plunged  fearlessly  on  horseback.  Fearing  he 
would  lose  his  prey.  Walker  fired  at  the  horse  and  shot  it. 
Thunderbolt  fell  into  the  water,  but  touching  bottom  he 
stood  up  to  his  opponent,  asking  him  impudently  if  he  was  a 
married  man  and  had  provided  for  his  wife  and  children. 
A  sharp  revolver  duel  ensued,  and  Walker  was  obliged, 
in  self-defence,  to  shoot  his  man  dead.  This  ended  the 
career  of  Thunderbolt. 

TASMANIAN  BUSHRANGERS. 

Among  the  earliest  bushrangers  were  those  of  Van 
Diemen's  Land,  or  Tasmania,  as  it  is  now  called.  The 
territory  was  first  occupied  in  1803  as  a  penal  settlement, 
and  within  five  years  many  bands  of  runaway  convicts  ravaged 
the  district.      In  1815  a  notorious  leader,  Mark  Lemon,  was 


TA8MANIAN  BUSHRANGERS.  431 

captured  with  the  whole  of  his  gang ;  but  next  year  Michael 
Howe  renewed  the  terror,  waylaid  travellers,  "stuck  up" 
stations  and  carried  off  the  cattle.  These  depredations  were 
ended  at  length  by  the  free  colonists,  to  whom  they  had 
become  intolerable,  and  who  joined  forces  to  put  them  down. 
Howe  was  the  last  to  remain  at  large,  and  he  also  was  tracked 
to  his  lair  and  killed.  Brady,  in  1823,  was  very  evilly  known 
in  the  district  of  Macquarie  Harbour.  He  had  been  a  gentle- 
man's servant,  and  was  transported  when  still  quite  a  youth. 
Ill-usage  drove  him  to  escape,  and  he  was  accompanied  by 
one  McCabe,  a  seafaring  man.  The  two  quickly  recruited 
their  numbers,  and  became  a  strong,  much-dreaded  gang. 
They  were  not  apprehended  for  years,  although  many  parties 
pursued  them.  Brady  was  eventually  hanged,  and  seems  to 
have  won  much  sympathy  from  emotional  people,  who  wept 
at  the  story  of  his  sufferings  in  the  bush.  About  this  time 
forty- three  bushrangers  had  been  captured,  and  eighteen 
suffered  capital  punishment.  It  may  be  observed  that  the 
same  causes  were  at  work  in  this  as  in  the  old  colony,  and 
that  the  convicts  were  driven  into  the  bush  by  the  severity, 
the  brutality  of  the  penal  discipline.  Every  commandant  ot 
a  station  had  the  power  to  flog,  and  the  lash  was  administered 
freely  for  the  most  trifling  offence. 

Henry  Hunt  was  a  most  noted  bushranger  of  a  later  date 
(1836).  His  character  had  hitherto  stood  high  in  the  colony, 
but  he  was  convicted  of  stealing  a  gun  and  sent  to  one  of  the 
road  parties  for  fourteen  years,  but  effected  his  escape  and 
became  a  bushranger.  He  murdered  a  Captain  Serjeantson 
but  met  his  end  by  the  hands  of  a  woman,  who,  coming  upon 
him  and  her  husband  during  a  struggle,  fractured  Hunt's 
skull  with  the  butt  end  of  a  musket.  Beaven,  Britton,  Jefkins 
and  Brown  were  perfect  fiends  who  roamed  the  colony  and 
murdered  people  right  and  left.  Their  depredations  became 
so  atrocious  that  large  rewards  were  offered  for  their  appre- 
hension dead  or  alive.  Beaven  was  at  last  shot,  and  the  others 
were  taken  and  hanged. 

"  Jeffries  the  Monster  "  will  long  be  remembered  as  one  of 
the  most  truculent  and   horrible  ruffians  who   cursed  Van 


432  BBiaAKDS,  BUSHBANOEIiS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

Diemen's  Land  with  their  presence.  He  had  been  the  hang- 
man in  Edinburgh  before  his  transportation,  and  had  acted 
as  "  finisher "  in  the  colony,  where  he  was  also  the  official 
flogger.  His  barbarous  cruelty  to  a  poor  drunken  wretch  who 
came  within  his  grip,  and  whose  toes  were  burnt  off  by 
Jeffries'  throwing  him  on  a  bed  of  hot  ashes  when  drunk 
forced  him  to  fly  to  the  bush,  where  he  became  a  terror  to  all 
the  north  of  the  island.  He  was  guilty  of  many  murders, 
most  of  them  from  lust  of  blood,  for  he  afterwards  confessed 
that  he  had  been  prompted  by  neither  fear,  revenge,  nor 
avarice.  One  was  a  comrade,  whom  he  slew  in  cowardly 
fashion  and  afterwards  ate,  so  goes  the  horrible  story.  His 
last  crime  was  the  most  atrocious.  He  dashed  out  the  brains 
of  a  little  child  whose  mother  he  had  compelled  to  accompany 
him  into  the  bush.  This  roused  the  neighbourhood,  and 
every  effort  was  made  to  capture  him.  The  convicts  were 
permitted  to  assist  in  the  pursuit,  and  free  pardon  was  pro- 
mised to  any  who  apprehended  him.  He  was  at  last  secured 
as  he  was  resting  by  a  fire  in  the  scrub.  When  being  carried 
into  Launceston,  the  young  woman  whose  child  he  had 
murdered  sprang  upon  him  and  all  but  tore  him  to  pieces. 

The  list  is  long,  and  the  cases  mostly  present  similar 
features.  Ward,  Newman,  Buchan  and  Dawson  absconded 
from  a  road  party,  driven  to  despair  by  a  frightful  exhibition 
of  cruelty,  the  infliction  of  3,000  lashes  on  an  offending 
comrade.  They  suffered  terrible  privations  as  they  passed 
through  the  unlocated  country  on  the  east  coast.  Two  lads 
Jeffs  and  Conway,  who  absconded  from  a  road  party,  shot  a 
constable  at  Avoca  who  had  tried  to  capture  them,  and 
pursued  their  robberies  for  some  time.  When  arrested  and 
condemned  to  death,  Conway  was  only  twenty-three  and 
Jeffs  twenty-one.  All  through  these  dread  years,  down  to 
1845,  the  bushrangers  flourished  in  Van  Diemen's  Land,  but 
generally  met  their  deserts,  although  often  tardily.  Many 
were  hanged,  others  sent  to  the  penal  settlement  of  Norfolk 
Island.  Three  men  who  gave  the  police  unceasing  and 
nearly  unending  trouble  were  Cash,  Kavanagh,  and  Jones, 
who  made  their  escape  from  Port  Arthur  in  December,  1843. 


THE    Y0UNGEB8.  433 

These  three  comrades  had  implicit  confidence  in  each  other, 
and  worked  in  such  union  that  they  never  feared  to  encounter 
an  equal  number  of  assailants.  They  fought  continually  with 
settlers  and  police,  but  Kavanagh  was  at  last  wounded  and 
taken.  From  Launceston  assizes  he  passed  on  to  Norfolk 
Island.  Cash  was  taken  at  the  bar  of  a  public-house,  but  not 
before  he  had  shot  one  constable  dead.  Cash  also  was  sent  to 
Norfolk  Island,  but  reached  it  after  the  murder  of  Captain 
Price,  and,  escaping  that  stem  official's  rigorous  discipline, 
became  so  noted  for  his  exemplary  conduct  that  on  the 
breaking  up  of  the  establishment  he  was  given  a  small 
Government  appointment,  and  married  a  respectable  woman. 
In  the  end  he  migrated  to  New  Zealand,  obtained  a  grant  of 
land,  and  lived  out  this  days  peaceably  as  a  prosperous  farmer. 
Jones,  the  third  of  this  small  gang,  was  not  captured  imtil 
some  years  later,  and  his  bushranging  career  was  marked  by 
many  atrocities. 

THE   BORDER   OUTLAWS   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

The  American  civil  war  naturally  produced  great  unrest 
throughout  the  territories  where  it  was  waged,  and  peace 
between  the  belligerents  did  not  mean  the  general  pacification 
of  the  country.  Irregular  and  unauthorised  warfare  long 
continued,  carried  on  by  desperadoes  who  had  been  guerillas, 
and  who  were  now  thrown  out  of  employment.  Pillage  and 
rapine,  robbery  and  murder,  had  become  second  nature  with 
many;  outlaws  banded  themselves  together  and  terrorised 
the  sparsely  settled  districts  where  the  State  -  marshal's 
warrant  did  not  run,  and  there  was  not  even  a  shadow  of 
police  protection.  Two  families,  the  Youngers  and  the  James 
brothers,  earned  an  extraordinarily  evil  reputation  in  these 
disturbed  times,  and  their  misdeeds,  long  unchecked,  call  for 
particular  mention  among  latter-day  crimes  of  the  highway. 

Cole  Younger  had  served  in  the  Confederate  ranks  under 
Quantrell,  a  famous  guerilla  chief,  who  inflicted  great  losses 
upon  the  Federals  by  his  knowledge  of  the  country  and  his 
skill  in  contriving  pitfalls  and  ambuscades.  Younger  took  a 
leading  part  as  a  trusted  lieutenant.  Although  often  in 
c  c 


434         BRIGANDS,  BUSEBANGEBS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

peril,  his  luck  brought  him  always  safely  through.  In  the 
great  fight  at  Independence,  he  rendered  great  service  to  his 
side  by  his  boldness  in  reconnoitring.  Again,  in  the  battle  of 
Lone  Jack,  which  the  Confederates  gained,  after  inflicting 
severe  loss  on  the  enemy,  he  was  well  in  the  forefront.  About 
this  time  his  hostility  to  the  Federals  deepened  into  vindictive 
hate,  for  a  band  of  their  irregulars,  commonly  known  as 
Dennison's  Kedlegs,  had  waylaid  and  murdered  his  aged 
father  on  his  farm.  He  vowed  vengeance,  and  ruthlessly 
massacred  all  who  fell  into  his  hands.  He  was  further 
exasperated  by  the  deaths  of  three  sisters,  who  had  been 
arrested  on  a  charge  of  aiding  and  abetting  their  brother,  and 
"who  had  been  killed  by  the  falling  in  of  the  roof  of  a  guard- 
house where  they  were  imprisoned.  Yet  again,  his  mother 
was  forced  to  fly  from  her  home,  being  constantly  harassed 
by  the  enemy ;  she  could  find  no  resting  place ;  and  once,  when 
called  upon  to  betray  the  hiding-place  of  her  son  Cole,  the 
troops,  irritated  at  her  steadfast  refusal,  burnt  her  house  over 
her  head. 

Towards  the  close  of  this  bitter  internecine  war  terrors 
accumulated ;  the  ranks  of  the  guerillas  were  joined  by  crowds 
of  reckless  desperadoes.  Billy  Anderson,  Frank  and  Jesse 
James,  of  whom  more  presently,  were  guilty  of  frightful 
excesses.  Eapine  and  death  ravaged  the  land ;  wholesale 
massacres  took  place ;  men  and  women  were  executed  by  both 
sides  with  no  trial  and  short  shrift ;  and  the  Kansas  States 
Government,  goaded  beyond  bearing  by  a  terrible  deed  of 
blood  in  Lawrence  City,  at  last  concentrated  their  forces  to 
make  an  end  of  Quantrell  and  the  guerilla  bands.  Great 
numbers  of  the  miscreants  were  captured  and  shot ;  the  small 
remnant  hastily  dispersed.  Cole  Younger,  however,  continued 
in  the  field,  and  was  on  the  point  of  raising  a  new  regiment  in 
California,  when  General  Lee's  surrender  at  Richmond  ended 
the  secession  struggle. 

Now  the  Youngers,  Cole  and  his  brother  Jim,  resolved 
to  levy  war  on  their  own  account.  They  had  taken  the  Black 
Oath,  a  terrible  vow  to  slaughter  everyone  who  came  within 
their  power  and  appropriate  their  belongings.     Some  of  the 


BARING   RAIDS.  435 

depredations  committed  by  the  Youngers  and  the  Jameses  may 
be  briefly  mentioned.  One  of  the  first  was  the  robbery  of  the 
Clay  County  Savings  Association,  at  Liberty,  Missouri.  This 
was  in  1866,  and  a  number  of  the  old  guerilla  hands  were 
implicated  in  it.  An  immense  amount  of  booty  was  secured, 
and  the  robbers  eluded  all  pursuit.  In  this  year  the  same 
band  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  release  one  of  their  asso- 
ciates, a  notorious  criminal,  from  the  gaol  at  Independence. 
This  enterprise  failed,  but  the  unfortunate  gaoler  was  shot 
dead  by  the  outlaws.  Many  successful  and  unsuccessful  bank 
robberies  followed.  No  doubt  the  Russelville  Bank  was 
robbed  by  Cole  Younger  and  his  brother  Jim.  After  this  the 
band  broke  up,  and  the  Youngers  made  their  way  into 
Louisiana.  Here  Cole  became  the  hero  of  a  desperate  outrage 
at  a  race  meeting.  Believing  he  had  been  defrauded  of 
money  he  had  fairly  won,  he  opened  fire  on  the  crowd  from 
horseback,  killed  the  stockholder,  two  of  the  judges,  and 
wounded  five  other  men.  Then,  riding  swiftly  away,  he  made 
for  Missouri,  and  eventually  reached  California. 

For  some  eighteen  months  Missouri  was  now  relieved  from 
bank  robberies,  but,  at  the  end  of  that  period,  the  Youngers, 
again  joining  forces  with  the  James  brothers,  returned  to 
their  old  haunts  and  plundered  the  Gallatin  Bank.  This 
robbery  was  effected  with  the  utmost  coolness,  but  the 
cashier  was  killed.  A  posse  of  people  was  hastily  collected 
to  pursue  the  bandits,  but  it  was  fruitless,  and  the  robbers 
got  clear  away  with  their  money.  The  band  was  presently 
strengthened  by  other  bandits,  but  nothing  serious  occurred 
until  1871,  when  a  descent  was  made  upon  the  Corydon 
Bank,  in  the  State  of  Iowa.  This  seems  to  have  been  accom- 
plished quite  easily,  and  a  haul  of  40,000  dollars  was  made. 
Again  the  robbers  evaded  pursuit,  although  competent 
detectives  from  Kansas  City  were  put  upon  their  trail. 
At  this  time  they  organised  a  safe  retreat  in  a  remote 
cavern  in  Jackson  County,  and  here,  surrounded  by  every 
comfort  supplied  by  their  ill-gotten  gains,  they  lived  a  life 
of  luxurious  dissipation  for  many  months.  Tired  at  last 
of    their  idleness   they   sallied   forth    in    search    of    fresh 


436         BRIGANDS,  BUSHRANGERS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

adventures.  They  now  selected  Columbia  City  for  attack. 
Five  men  entered  it  by  different  roads  and  met  at  a  central 
point ;  then  they  dashed  down  the  streets,  firing  right  and 
left  until  they  reached  the  principal  bank.  Dismounting, 
they  rushed  in  with  levelled  revolvers  and  demanded  the 
keys  of  the  safe.  The  cashier  bravely  refused  to  surrender 
them,  and  was  shot  dead  on  the  spot.  The  robbers  were 
foiled,  and,  having  failed  to  open  the  safe,  they  had  to  put  up 
with  such  plunder  as  could  be  found  in  the  drawers,  no  more 
than  2,000  dollars.  Again  a  hasty,  but  fruitless,  search  was 
set  on  foot  by  the  townsfolk,  but  the  outlaws  found  a  hiding- 
place  in  the  rugged  recesses  of  the  Cumberland  Mountains. 

We  next  hear  of  the  gang  at  the  Kansas  City  fair, 
where  the  treasure-box  of  takings  was  seized  (10,000  dollars' 
worth)  as  it  was  being  conveyed  to  the  National  Bank  for  de- 
posit. This  daring  raid  was  carried  out  in  broad  daylight, 
and  in  the  presence  of  hundreds,  Once  more  the  robbers 
escaped ;  their  tracks  were  closely  followed,  but  lost  at  last  at 
the  entrance  of  their  mysterious  cave,  where  they  divided 
their  plunder  at  leisure.  Their  audacity  redoubled  with 
their  continued  immunity  from  capture,  and  their  success 
sharpened  their  appetite  for  plunder.  After  another  bank 
robbery  at  St.  Genevieve,  they  struck  out  a  new  line  of 
depredation  and  perfected  a  plan  for  railway  robbery.  They 
knew  that  a  large  sum  in  cash  was .  to  be  conveyed  along 
the  Union  Pacific  line  in  July,  1871.  At  a  point  named 
Adair,  on  the  Omaha  and  Jackson  branch,  they  loosened 
one  of  the  rails,  and  the  train,  on  crossing  it,  was  hopelessly 
wrecked,  the  engineer  being  killed  and  many  of  the  pas- 
sengers wounded.  The  robbers  then  boarded  the  cars  and 
terrified  the  express  messenger  into  opening  the  safe,  which, 
to  their  bitter  disappointment,  contained  no  more  than 
3,000  dollars,  where  they  had  expected  to  find  50,000  in 
gold.  But  they  obliged  all  the  travellers  to  give  up  their 
valuables.  This  daring  outrage  aroused  the  whole  country, 
and  hundreds  volunteered  to  assist  in  capturing  the 
criminals,  who  were  followed  into  Jackson  County,  where 
the  trail  came  to  a  dead  stop. 


THE    YOUNOEBS    ANB    JAME8ES.  437 

Now  for  three  years  there  was  another  lull.  The  robbers 
remained  inactive  until  1874,  when  they  stopped  the  Hot 
Springs  stage  coach.  The  passengers  were  obliged  to  descend 
after  the  manner  of  old-time  highway  robbery,  and  forced  to 
give  up  their  possessions.  Some  4,000  dollars  were  thus 
secured,  and  at  the  end  of  the  operation  Cole  Younger 
addressed  his  victims,  in  an  eloquent  speech  detailing 
wrongs  from  which  he  and  his  family  had  suffered  and 
which  had  driven  him  into  a  life  of  crime.  This  outrage 
seems  to  have  passed  unnoticed,  and  the  outlaws  were  encour- 
aged to  undertake  others  of  the  same  kind.  The  next  rob- 
bery was  at  GalshiU  Station,  which  was  "  stuck  up,"  to  use  the 
Australian  phrase,  securing  the  officials  and  stopping  the  next 
incoming  train.  The  robbers,  who  were  all  masked,  passed 
slowly  through  the  cars,  revolver  in  hand,  and  looted  every- 
thing ;  the  passengers  were  deprived  of  money  and  valuables, 
the  express  car  was  forced,  the  mail  bags  cut  open  and  rifled. 
It  was  estimated  that  the  plunder  in  this  raid  amounted  to 
12,000  dollars.  The  Railroad  and  Express  Companies  offered 
large  rewards  for  the  apprehension  of  the  robbers,  to  gain 
which  many  armed  parties  hunted  through  the  country,  and 
Pinkerton's  employed  some  of  their  best  detectives  to  beat  up 
the  quarters  of  the  bandits.  A  sharp  encounter  ended  this 
chase.  One  of  the  Youngers — Jim — was  shot,  but  he  and 
his  brother  Bob  had  first  killed  one  detective  and  mortally 
wounded  another.  Not  long  after  this  a  stage  coach  running 
between  Austin  and  San  Antonio,  Texas,  was  stopped,  with 
the  loss  of  3,000  dollars. 

Positive  evidence  is  not  forthcoming  that  the  Youngers  and 
the  Jameses  were  connected  with  all  these  robberies.  Cole 
Younger  repudiated  several  of  them.  No  doubt  he  was  more 
cautious,  and  less  bloodthirsty,  perhaps,  than  his  brethren,  but 
he  was  a  determined  desperado  and  a  noted  leader  among  his 
fellows.  What  they  did  he  probably  initiated,  and  pretty 
certainly  joined  in.  There  were  more  train  robberies,  one  at 
Muncie,  Kansas ;  and  in  September,  1875,  they  committed  a 
bank  robbery  at  Huntingdon,  Virginia,  which  equalled  any  of 
their  previous  exploits  in  audacity.      Having  ridden  openly 


438         BBIGAhWS,  BUSHRANGERS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

into  the  town,  two  of  their  party  opened  fire  upon  the  crowd 
in  the  streets  while  the  rest  forced  the  bank  cashier,  at  the 
revolver  point,  to  open  his  safe,  from  which  they  abstracted 
10,000  dollars.  Then  they  galloped  away,  but  were  closely 
pursued  by  a  number  of  mounted  citizens,  with  whom  they 
had  several  fierce  skirmishes,  resulting  in  many  deaths.  Per- 
haps the  most  remarkable  outrage  of  all  was  an  attack  on 
a  train  at  Rocky  Cut,  on  the  Missouri  Pacific  Railway.  The 
engine  was  stopped  by  placing  ties  on  the  track,  the  engine- 
driver  and  his  assistants  were  made  prisoners  and  locked  up 
in  the  baggage  car.  Meanwhile  the  passengers  were  held 
prisoners  in  the  cars  while  the  bandits,  masked  and  revolver 
in  hand,  slowly  passed  through  and  laid  their  victims  under 
contribution.  An  hour  and  ten  minutes  was  occupied  in  all, 
at  the  end  of  which,  booty  to  the  value  of  15,000  dollars  was 
secured.  One  point  is  worth  noting  here,  that,  during  this 
operation,  the  Youngers  were  distinctly  recognised,  while  one 
of  the  party,  by  name  Kerry,  was  captured.  Kerry,  when  in 
custody,  confessed  and  named  many  of  his  confederates. 

A  short  period  of  inactivity  followed,  and,  when  the  rob- 
beries were  resumed,  the  tide  began  to  turn.  At  the  breaking 
open  of  the  Northfield  Bank  the  robbers'  exit  was  nearly 
prevented  by  a  crowd  of  citizens  who  had  quickly  collected 
around  the  door;  shots  were  freely  exchanged,  by  which  one 
outlaw  was  killed  and  Bob  Younger  wounded,  while  two  more 
of  the  robbers  were  shot  dead  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town. 

A  very  vigorous  pursuit  followed,  and  now  Jim  Younger 
Avas  wounded,  and  the  blood  flowing  from  his  wounds  left 
a  trail  by  which  the  chase  was  continued  for  several  days.  A 
hundred  and  fifty  armed  men  were  now  at  the  heels  of  the 
bandits,  who  were  finally  run  into  among  some  brushwood  on  a 
riverside.  There  was  a  fierce  fight,  which  soon  went  against 
the  outlaws.  One,  named  Charlie  Pitts,  was  shot  dead  by  the 
sheriff.  The  three  Youngers,  after  wounding  several  of  their 
assailants,  were  themselves  frequently  hit,  and  at  last,  when 
nearly  exhausted  from  loss  of  blood,  they  were  aU  secured. 
The  James  brothers  had  escaped,  having  separated  a  little 
previously  and  gone  a  different  road  ;  there  had  been  a  quarrel. 


THE    YOUNGEBS    OAPTUBED.  439 

As  has  been  said  above,  Jim  Younger's  wounds  had  left  a  trail 
of  blood  easily  distinguishable,  and  Jesse  James,  alive  to  the 
danger,  coolly  proposed  that  Jim  should  be  murdered  then 
and  there.  Exasperated  at  this  cold-blooded  proposal,  the 
Youngers  bade  the  Jameses  go  their  own  road,  which  they 
did,  securing  thus  their  own  safety  for  a  longer  time. 

Something  of  the  old  spirit  which  gained  widespread 
popularity  for  highwaymen  in  this  country  prevailed  in  the 
Border  land  at  the  time  of  the  Youngers'  capture.  Crowds 
came  to  see  them  in  gaol  at  Medalia,  and  openly  expressed 
sympathy  and  admiration  for  their  so-called  heroism.  A  halo 
of  romance  was  cast  around  Reta  Younger,  one  of  the  sisters, 
described  as  a  beautiful  girl  of  seventeen,  who  came,  over- 
powered with  grief,  to  share  their  captivity.  When  the 
prisoners  were  tried  at  Faribault,  the  county  seat,  and 
sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life,  Reta  rushed  to  her 
brother's  side  and  fell,  half  fainting  and  crying  bitterly, 
on  his  neck.  No  doubt  the  sympathy  for  the  Youngers 
was  altogether  misplaced;  yet  they  seem  to  have  possessed 
some  fine  qualities,  and  some  excuse  may  be  made  for 
their  persistent  evildoing.  The  three  brothers  are  said  to 
have  been  very  fine-looking  men.  Cole  stood  six  feet  three 
inches  in  height,  Jim  and  Bob  were  nearly  as  tall;  all  had 
gentlemanly  manners  and  were  esteemed  as  kindly  and 
charitable,  after  the  manner  of  other  brigands.  Cole  Younger 
was  noted  during  the  war  for  his  tenderness  to  women  and 
children,  all  of  whom  he  shielded  and  befriended,  whatever 
their  political  opinions. 

One  more  case  of  organised  robbery  in  the  United  States 
may  be  added,  yet  noc  the  latest  and  last,  for  there  have 
been  crimes  still  more  recent  of  the  same  class,  but  it  would 
be  impossible  to  bring  the  subject  quite  "  up  to  date,"  and 
I  will  only  mention  the  attack  upon  the  Adams'  Express 
Company,  two  of  whose  officials,  the  clerk  and  the  assistant, 
were  found  one  night,  lying  in  a  state  of  stupor,  in  the 
rooms  of  the  agency  at  Columbus,  Ohio.  The  place  had 
obviously  been  ransacked,  papers  and  packages  lay  strewn 
about  the  flioor,  the  safes  had  been  forced  and  robbed  of 


440         BRIGANDS,  BUSHBANOEBS,  OUTLAWS,  ETC. 

their  contents.  The  two  men  had  been  chloroformed,  and 
the  matter  was  at  once  placed  in  the  hands  of  Pinkerton's 
detectives.  An  immediate  examination  was  made  of  the 
premises,  and  this,  with  other  inquiries,  satisfied  Mr.  Allan 
Pinkerton  that  the  two  employes  knew  something  about 
the  robbery,  even  if  they  had  not  effected  it  themselves 
The  Express  clerk,  John  Barker  by  name,  had  a  brother 
Henry,  a  notoriously  bad  character,  who  had  been  recently 
seen  in  Columbus.  It  was  hoped  that  by  arresting  the  clerk 
he  would  confess  and  so  implicate  this  brother,  but  he  steadily 
refused  to  speak.  The  brother,  as  well  as  the  assistant  in  the 
agency,  were  placed  under  close  surveillance,  the  effect  of 
which  was  entirely  to  exonerate  the  latter.  Henry  Barker 
was,  however,  still  "  shadowed,"  and  it  was  found  that  he 
suddenly  left  Columbus  for  Chicago.  The  detectives  followed 
and  tracked  him  to  his  wife's  house.  A  watch  was  set  upon  it, 
and  he  was  seen,  one  morning,  to  leave  the  house,  carrying  a 
valise  in  his  hand.  He  now  proceeded  to  the  railway  station 
and  took  a  ticket  for  Canada ;  so  did  the  detectives,  and,  when 
the  train  had  started,  William  Pinkerton,  one  of  the  brothers, 
went  up  to  him  and  accused  him,  then  and  there,  of  having 
robbed  the  Adams  Express.  Barker  was  now  secured  and 
searched,  when  only  50,000  dollars  were  found  upon  him,  but 
on  examining  the  valise  14,000  dollars  in  notes  was  discovered 
between  the  lining  and  the  cover.  After  this,  Henry  Barker 
made  a  clean  breast  of  it,  and  confessed  that  25,000  dollars 
would  be  found  buried  in  a  vacant  lot  near  his  mother's  house 
at  Chicago.  Henry  Barker  also  confessed  how  he  had  com- 
mitted the  crime.  He  had  first  won  over  his  brother,  the 
clerk,  and  arranged  that  they  should  drug  the  assistant,  then 
that  a  small  dose  should  be  administered  to  John  Barker  to 
give  the  impression  that  he  also  had  been  a  victim.  The 
affair  succeeded  as  we  have  seen,  but  the  detectives  were 
cleverer  than  the  criminals. 


part    W. 
MUEDER   MYSTERIES. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

CONCEALMENT. 

Murder  will  Out — Criminal  Astuteness  often  at  Fault — Difficult  to  Explain 
away  the  Evidence — Suicide  as  a  suggested  Cause  will  not  always  Serve 
— Flight  not  Easy  nor  Concealment  Possible — Methods  Employed  to  get 
rid  of  Corpse — Solution  of  Murder  Problems — Processes  of  Detection — 
French  said  to  be  More  Generally  Successful  than  English  Police — Some 
Early  Cases  of  Mystery  Long  Unravelled :  Eugene  Aram  — Theodore 
Gardelle — Hemmings — Huntley — Miss  Hacker  and  Hannah  Dobbs. 

MORDRE  wol  out  that  see  we  day  by  day/'  so  wrote  old 
Geoft'rey  Chaucer  five  centuries  ago.  He  was  satisfied 
that  a  just  God  would  not  suffer  such  loathsome  and  abomin- 
able deeds  to  lie  hidden. 

"  'Tho'  it  abide  a  yere  or  two  or  three, 
Mordre  will  out,  this  is  my  conclusion." 

Shakespeare  was  of  the  same  opinion.  'Murder,"  says 
Hamlet,  "  tho'  it  have  no  tongue  wUl  speak  with  most 
miraculous  organ." 

As  time  passes,  the  fine  fancies  of  the  ancient  poets  are  no 
doubt  largely  corroborated  by  the  records  of  crime.  In  the 
more  complex  conditions  of  modern  life,  ^  in  the  greater 
facilities  it  affords  for  the  commission  of  crime  and  the  evasion 
of  responsibility  for  it,  the  murderer  may  sometimes  escape 
prompt  retribution.  Yet  often  enough  inevitable  Nemesis 
pursues  and  overtakes  him ;  something  more,  let  us  believe, 
than  the  action  of  blind  Chance  interposes  to  reveal  his 
motives  and  methods,  to  lay  bare  incriminating  facts  and 


442  CONCEALMENT. 

bring  home  his  offence.  There  are  Murder  Mysteries  still 
unsolved,  perhaps  unsolvable  for  ever.  Fortunately,  many 
that  were  at  first  sight  secret,  and  for  a  long  time  un- 
explained, have  come  to  be  unravelled  in  the  end. 

I  propose  to  set  forth  here  some  typical  cases  of  various 
dates,  and  collected  from  various  countries.  Cases  of 
murders  most  mysterious,  the  work  of  unknown  hands; 
murders  that  have  left  some  traces  and  have  still  defied 
detection  and  still  remain  a  sealed  page;  murders  that 
seemed  unaccountable  and  inexplicable  and  that  have  yet 
stood  self-confessed  by  the  unexpected,  perhaps  automatic, 
action  of  fortuitous  circumstances,  or,  yet  again,  that  have 
yielded  their  innermost  meaning  to  the  professional  sleuth- 
hound  working  with  natural  iastinct  backed  by  highly-trained 
intelligence. 

We  know  that  in  the  great  sport  of  man-hunting  the 
quarry  is  generally  at  a  disadvantage:  the  hunted  are 
handicapped  by  their  own  shortcomings,  the  hunter  has  the 
best  of  the  game  because  he  has  the  best  weapons,  and  things 
continuiilly  play  into  his  hands.  It  is  a  common  tradition 
that  great  criminals  are  gifted  with  unbounded  astuteness. 
This  is  surely  an  error,  or  at  least  an  exaggeration.  They  will 
show  ingenuity,  inventiveness,  elaborate  and  patient  skill  in 
planning  a  murderous  coup,  will  strike  their  blow  with  cool 
promptitude  and  great  boldness,  will  seem  carefully  to  cover 
up  their  tracks  and  evade  pursuit;  yet  they  will  fail  some- 
where. Somehow  their  work  will  either  be  redundant  or 
lack  completeness. 

Following  out  this  line  of  reasoning,  it  is  now  very 
generally  agreed  that  in  detection  the  simplest  hypothesis 
is  the  best,  the  most  straightforward  explanation  will  give 
the  most  satisfactory  results.  Many  murderers  are  really 
persons  of  inferior  brain  power ;  they  are  too  often  creatures 
of  mere  impulse  to  be  capable  of  any  elaborate  or 
Machiavellian  combination.  It  is  pretty  certain  that  if 
true  genius  were  applied  to  homicide,  life  would  become 
very  cheap  indeed.  We  are  often  reminded  of  the  many 
ingenious  processes  that  might  be  utilised  by  an  artist  in 


PROBLEMS   IN  DETECTION.  443 

crime  so  as  to  produce  the  appearance  of  death  from  natural 
causes  and  thus  solve  the  supreme  difficulty  in  all  murders. 

No  doubt  murderers  before  now  have  sought  to  leave  the 
impression  that  death  has  been  from  natural  causes,  or  a 
suicidal  act.  The  suggestion  of  suicide  has  been  put  forward, 
and  might  have  passed  but  for  the  acumen  of  the  investigator. 
Self-evident  facts  have  contradicted  it  and  given  the  lie  to 
the  ingenious  suggestion.  Yet  this  tempting  method  of 
referring  death  to  suicide  or  natural  causes  does  not  appear 
to  be  very  largely  practised,  and  seldom  successfully.  Either 
the  average  homicide  is  too  slow-witted,  as  so  many  pretend, 
or  the  idea  comes  to  him  too  late,  or  if  he  tries  to  carry  it 
out  he  acts  so  clumsily,  his  work  is  so  incomplete,  there  are  so 
many  teU-tale  gaps  in  his  scheme  that  his  artifice  is  presently 
laid  bare.  Sometimes,  often,  indeed,  any  such  suggestion  is 
forbidden  by  the  manner  of  the  murder,  its  suddenness,  the 
circumstances  of  time  and  place,  the  nature  of  the  instru- 
ments used.  Murderers  must  then  face  the  consequences  of 
their  act  or  seek  to  evade  them  as  best  they  can  by  taking 
one  or  other  of  the  two  principal  avenues  of  escape  offered — 
namely,  flight,  or  the  concealment  of  the  corpse. 

The  first  is  sometimes  out  of  the  question.  Unless  he  can 
stand  his  ground  the  murderer  would  lose  all  recompense ;  he 
has  risked  his  neck  for  nothing  unless  he  can  stay  to  reap  the 
reward  of  his  crime.  It  has  been  prompted,  as  a  great ,  , 
Italian  savant  has  said  when  writing  on  the  so-called  born 
criminal,  by  various  ignoble  passions  :  the  greed  for  money  or 
possessions,  the  desire  to  be  avenged,  to  be  rid  of  a  material 
witness  against  him,  and  all  these  motives  imply  the  necessity 
for  remaining  on  the  spot.  Again,  flight  is,  in  its  way, 
confession,  an  acknowledgment  of  guilt,  a  strong  presumption 
against  him,  when  doubt  still  surrounds  the  crime  and  the 
actual  perpetrator  is  still  unknown.  Nor  can  flight  be  very 
easily  effected  nowadays,  when  electricity  and  newspapers 
quickly  disseminate  broadcast  the  news  that  a  missing  mur- 
derer is  "wanted,"  and  millions  of  people  become  the 
unconscious  assistants  of  the  police;  when,  moreover,  the 
nations  are  banded  together  in  self-defence,  and  are  for  the 


444  CONCEALMENT. 

most  part  agreed  to  surrender  the  evildoer  wherever  and 
whenever  he  is  encountered.  A  Tynan  may  perhaps  escape 
just  retribution,  but  only  on  some  legal  excuse,  and,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  there  is  no  certain  sanctuary  anywhere  for 
the  modern  Cain. 

Concealment  of  the  corpus  delicti,  the  chance  of  sup- 
pressing all  knowledge  of  the  offence,  these  offer  the  best 
security,  the  best  hope  of  immunity,  and  we  accordingly  find 
that  criminal  records  teem  with  efforts  made  in  this  direction. 
The  first  and  simplest  plan  is  to  make  away  with  the  victim 
so  that  all  traces  of  him  are  absolutely  lost — a  plan,  happily 
for  honest,  peaceable  folk,  most  diflScult  of  accomplishment. 
This  may  be  associated  with  plausible  explanation  of  dis- 
appearance, for  there  can  be  no  sufficient  proof  without  the 
production  of  the  corpse.  In  every  case  a  murderer's  first 
care  is  to  get  rid  of  the  plain,  incontestible  evidence  of  his 
guilt.  His  only  chance  of  safety  is  to  conceal,  make  away 
with  the  corpus  delicti  at  once,  to  hide  and  abolish  the  silent 
and  the  terribly  eloquent  witness  against  him.  Hence  a 
whole  series  of  crimes  may  be  grouped  under  this  one  head. 
They  aU  exhibit  in  varying  methods  and  in  different  degrees 
the  same  overmastering  desire  to  dispose  of  the  incriminating 
remains.  The  plan  pursued  varies  from  the  simplest  forms  : 
that  of  burial,  of  casting  out  in  wild  and  remote  localities,  of 
immersion,  sinking  in  deep  wells,  rapid  rivers,  or  the  open  sea, 
to  the  most  intricate  and  most  elaborate  processes  of  dis- 
articulation and  dismemberment,  performed  often  with  the 
utmost  cunning  and  precaution,  and  aided,  but  more  rarely, 
by  profound  scientific  knowledge  and  skill. 

The  solution  of  the  criminal  problems  offered  by  these  fell 
deeds  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  features  in  modern  pohce 
methods.  In  some  cases  the  most  remarkable  intelligence  has 
been  displayed :  great  gifts  have  been  used — of  quick  wit  to  seize 
almost  imperceptible  clues,  the  faculty  of  analysis,  the  power 
of  inductive  reasoning.  I  shall  describe  in  detail  presently  the 
whole  process  of  investigation  as  conducted  from  the  merest 
surmise  to  final  proof,  and  especially  by  French  detectives. 

In  England,  strange  to  say,  our  otherwise  excellent  and 


UNSOLVED    MYSTERIES.  445 

admirably  effective  police  have  been  far  less  successful  than 
those  of  other  countries  in  the  unravelling  of  such  mysteries. 
No  doubt  under  the  British  judicial  system, -with  its  extreme 
tenderness  for  accused  persons,  officers  of  the  law  possess 
smaller  powers  and  are  greatly  handicapped  when  in  pursuit 
of  crime.  The  liberty  of  the  person  and  the  great  principle 
that  no  one  can  be  compelled  to  incriminate  himself  are 
precious  birthrights,  not  to  be  lightly  surrendered,  but  they 
often  tell  in  favour  of  the  criminaL  Many  police  triumphs 
on  the  Continent  are  gained  by  methods  abhorrent  to  English 
law.  Before  blaming  our  police  we  should  remember  the 
disadvantages  under  which  they  act,  and  be  grateful  that, 
notwithstanding,  they  have  done  and  are  doing  so  much. 

Yet  the  fact  remains  that  in  several  remarkable  instances 
English  murder  mysteries  continue  unexplained,  and  that  if 
daylight  has  been  let  into  others  it  has  been  the  result  of 
mere  accident.  This  was  intelligible  enough,  and,  indeed,  ex- 
cusable, in  times  past,  before  the  police  system  was  developed, 
but  the  same  cannot  be  said  for  the  more  recent  cases  of 
Harley  Street,  Waterloo  Bridge,  Battersea,  and  Whitechapel. 
These  were  mysteries  of  murder,  followed  by  mutilation,  that 
will  probably  continue  to  be  mysteries  to  the  end  of  time. 
If  the  police  showed  great  patience  in  unravelling  the  Euston 
Square  case,  they  were  still  unable  to  bring  the  crime  so 
clearly  home  to  Hannah  Dobbs  as  to  secure  her  conviction. 
They  are  not,  perhaps,  to  be  blamed  if  the  first  suspicion 
of  Henry  Wainwright's  crime  arose  from  the  inquisitiveness 
of  a  youth  he  himself  employed ;  we  need  not  discuss  the 
point  whether  or  not  the  original  disappearance  of  Harriet 
Lane  should  have  been  followed  up  from  the  first,  and  it 
is  at  least  certain  that  the  chain  of  evidence  by  which 
she  was  identified  and  Wainwright's  guilt  established  was 
well  worked  out  by  the  police. 

EUGENE  ARAM. 

Old  criminal  records  contain  many  curious  instances  of 
the  immunity  long  enjoyed  by  murderers,  terminated  at  last 
by  merest  accident.     The  story  of  Eugene  Aram  is  one  of  the 


446  OONOEALMENT. 

oldest  and  most  famous.  Great  poets  and  novelists  have 
thrown  a  halo  of  romance  around  the  principal  personage  in 
the  drama:  the  gentle,  amiable  character,  and  seemingly 
blameless  life  of  Eugene  Aram  appeared  to  raise  him  above 
all  suspicion.  There  are  those  who  still  maintain  that  he  was 
convicted  upon  evidence  that  would  scarcely  have  been  deemed 
all-sufficing  to-day.  It  was  to  a  great  extent  circumstantial, 
but  it  was  also  supported  by  the  testimony  of  an  accomplice 
who  turned  "  King's  witness."  Still,  there  were  several 
damaging  facts  clearly  connecting  Aram  with  the  murder, 
and  the  sympathy  felt  for  him  is  rather  due  to  the  genius  of 
Hood  and  Bulwer  Lytton  than  to  any  strong  belief  in  the 
man's  innocence. 

The  story  is  too  familiar  to  need  more  than  a  passing 
reference,  and  that  shall  be  chiefly  to  its  legal  aspect. 

In  1758  some  workmen  digging  for  stone  in  the  near 
neighbourhood  of  Knaresborough  found  the  bones  of  a  human 
body  buried  deep  in  the  ground.  The  discovery  was  soon 
bruited  about,  and  it  was  then  remembered  that  a  certain 
Daniel  Clark  had  mysteriously  disappeared  some  fifteen  years 
before.  Others  also  remembered  that  a  woman  had  said  that 
she  could  hang  her  husband  if  she  was  so  minded.  The  talk 
then  turned  on  a  man  who  was  a  known  associate  of  Clark's, 
Houseman  by  name,  who  had  been  in  the  company  of  Clark 
when  last  seen. 

Houseman  was  soon  found  and  forthwith  arrested.  He 
was  shown  the  skeleton,  but  on  taking  up  one  of  the  bones 
scouted  the  idea  that  it  was  Clark's.  "  It  is  no  more  his,"  he 
declared,  "  than  it  is  mine."  Being  pressed  further,  and 
yielding  no  doubt  to  the  secret  promptings  of  guilt,  he  ad- 
mitted that  Clark  had  been  murdered,  but  said  that  his  body 
would  be  found  elsewhere.  The  spot  he  indicated  was 
searched  and  there  were  the  bones.  Nothing  further  appears 
to  have  occurred  with  regard  to  the  first  skeleton,  although 
there  was  primd  facie  evidence  that  another  murder  mystery 
was  contained  therein. 

The  second  skeleton  plainly  indicated  foul  play.  The 
skull  showed  traces  of  fracture  and  there  was  indentation  of  a 


EUGENE   ARAM.  447 

temporal  bone.  Medical  evidence  declared  that  this  wound 
had  been  made  by  a  blunt  instrument  driving  in  the  bone, 
that  no  such  breach  could  have  been  produced  by  natural 
decay,  and  that  it  appeared  to  be  of  many  years'  standing. 

Up  to  this  point  the  general  belief  had  been  that  Clark 
had  absconded.  He  had  been  engaged  in  certain  fraudulent 
transactions,  had  obtained  quantities  of  valuables  from  local 
tradesmen  by  false  pretences — plate,  jewellery,  watches,  and 
clothing — and  had  disposed  of  them.  His  flight  would  have 
been  a  natural  effort  to  evade  justice,  but  there  was  no 
suspicion  of  him  until  the  time  of  his  disappearance. 

Houseman  was  now  implicated  in  the  frauds  and  confessed 
to  them.  But  he  also  denounced  Aram  as  an  accomphce  in 
the  frauds  and  principal  in  the  murder,  describing  with  great 
minuteness  and  precision  the  whole  of  the  circumstances  of 
the  crime.  He  was  eventually  arraigned  on  his  own  indict- 
ment, acquitted,  and  admitted  as  evidence  against  Aram,  who 
had  been  meanwhile  pursued  and  traced  to  King's  Lynn,  where 
he  was  peacefully  employed  as  usher  in  a  school. 

Houseman's  evidence  went  to  show  that  he  had  entered 
into  a  conspiracy  with  Aram  and  Clark  to  fraudulently  obtain 
goods  on  credit  and  secretly  dispose  of  them.  One  evening 
after  the  division  of  the  proceeds,  the  three  being  together  at 
Aram's  house,  the  latter  proposed  a  stroll  into  the  country 
and  they  walked  towards  St.  Robert's  Cave.  Aram  and  Clark 
climbed  a  hedge  and  entered  a  field ;  a  few  yards  away  from 
the  cave  they  began  to  quarrel,  and  Aram  having  struck 
Clark  several  times,  Clark  fell.  The  part  then  taken  by 
Houseman  does  not  exactly  appear.  Clearly  he  did  not  assist 
Clark ;  probably  he  made  off  at  a  run,  anxious  to  be  well  quit 
of  the  job.  Only  he  went  next  day  to  Aram's  house  to  ask 
what  had  become  of  Clark,  when  Aram  threatened  him, 
vowing  revenge  if  Houseman  spoke  of  the  incident  at 
St.  Robert's  Cave,  or  of  Clark  being  last  seen  in  his  (Aram's) 
company. 

It  was  also  put  in  evidence  that  Aram  when  arrested  by 
a  constable  from  Knaresborough  denied  that  he  knew  the 
place  or  that  he  had  ever  heard  of  a  Daniel  Clark,  but  he 


448  aONGEALMENT. 

subsequently  admitted  these  facts.  He  rested  his  defence, 
which  was  most  ingenious  and  dehvered  with  much  elo- 
quence, first  upon  his  general  character  and  conduct.  He 
defied  "  malignity  to  charge  immorality  upon  him."  "  I 
concerted  no  schemes  of  fraud,  projected  no  violence,  injured 
no  man's  person  or  property.  My  days  were  honestly 
laborious,  my  nights  intensely  studious." 

Next  he  protested  against  the  theory  that  Clark's  dis- 
appearance implied  that  he  was  dead.  Others  had  got  away 
unseen,  among  them  a  prisoner  double-ironed  and  well  secured. 
Why  not  Clark  ?  Again,  the  mere  discovery  of  bones  was  no 
proof  of  murder.  Bones  had  been  exhumed  frequently,  on 
the  site  of  old  hermitages  even  there,  within  easy  reach  of 
Knaresborough.  The  bones  of  this  particular  skeleton  were 
fractured,  no  doubt ;  but  so  were  those  of  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  exhumed  in  1723,  and  yet  it  was  certain  that  he  had 
not  died  from  violence. 

Aram's  great  argument  was  that  it  was  impossible  to 
identify  a  skeleton  after  thirteen  years,  and  on  this  point 
no  definite  testimony  appears  to  have  been  adduced.  Except 
the  evidence  of  Houseman,  a  not  entirely  trustworthy  witness, 
there  was  nothing  to  connect  Daniel  Clark  with  the  bones 
found  in  St.  Robert's  Cave.  Aram  denied  also  the  conclu- 
sions as  to  the  sex  of  the  skeleton,  but  this  objection  was 
entirely  set  aside  by  the  medical  evidence. 

Notwithstanding  the  doubtful  points,  the  jury  found  a  ver- 
dict of  guilty.  Aram  never  explicitly  confessed  the  crime, 
but  before  the  execution  he  admitted  the  justice  of  his 
sentence.  He  also  tried  to  commit  suicide  by  opening  a 
vein  with  a  razor  on  the  morning  on  which  he  was  hanged. 

THEODORE   GARDELLE. 

This  was  only  a  shortlived  mystery,  and  it  is  a  good  in- 
stance of  the  difficulty  of  concealing  the  crime  of  murder.  Ten 
days  elapsed  between  the  crime  and  the  discovery,  but  during 
that  time  the  victim's  disappearance  was  noted  and  she  was 
asked  for  constantly.     Again  the'same  frantic  desire  to  dispose 


THEODORE   GABDELLE.  449 

of  the  corpse  drove  the  murderer  to  try  dismemberment  and 
burning  in  the  manner  of  many  later  offenders. 

On  the  19th  February,  1761,  a  Swiss  miniature-painter, 
named  Theodore  Gardelle,  was  lodging  with  a  Mrs.  King  in 
a  small  house  in  Leicester  Fields  (now  Leicester  Square),  not 
many  doors  from  the  residence  of  Sir  Joshua  E,e3aiolds.  At 
that  moment  there  were  only  three  persons  in  the  house  :  the 
painter,  Mrs.  King,  and  her  maid-of-all-work.  Early  in  the 
morning  Gardelle  sent  the  maid  out  on  a  message.  When  she 
returned  she  met  him  coming  down  from  the  attics,  his  own 
room  being  on  the  second  floor.  There  was  no  landlady; 
G-ardeUe  explained  that  someone  had  called  for  Mrs.  King 
and  she  had  gone  out.  He  now  seemed  most  anxious  to 
get  the  maid  out  of  the  way,  sent  her  on  more  messages, 
and  at  last  said  he  was  commissioned  to  pay  her  her  wages 
and  dismiss  her. 

After  this  Gardelle  remained  alone  in  the  house.  But 
other  people  came  and  went,  the  valet  of  another  (but  absent) 
lodger,  and  some,  asking  for  Mrs.  King,  who  were  to],d  she  was 
unwell  and  keeping  her  own  room.     No  one  saw  Mrs.  King. 

Four  whole  days  elapsed,  and  on  the  23rd  a  friend  came  to 
take  Mrs.  King  to  the  opera.  Gardelle  said  she  had  gone  out 
of  town,  to  Bath  or  Bristol,  and  the  answer  was  accepted  in 
all  good  faith ;  but  the  visitor  remaxked  that  Gardelle  looked 
greatly  perturbed.  Now  a  woman  came  and  took  up  her 
residence  with  Gardelle,  and  presently,  at  her  request,  a 
servant  was  engaged  to  do  the  housework  by  day.  AH  this 
time  the  valet  already  mentioned  continued  to  make  in- 
quiries for  Mrs.  King.  This  man  stated  afterwards  that  at 
the  end  of  a  week — on  the  26th,  that  is  to  say — he  noticed 
a  curious  smell  in  the  house,  that  of  burning  flesh. 

But  no  suspicion  of  foul  play  arose  until  the  charwoman, 
going  to  the  cistern  for  water,  found  it  choked  with  some  soft 
substance  like  rotting  liver.  With  the  help  of  the  valet  she 
drew  out  a  pair  of  sheets,  blankets,  and  bedding.  The  matter 
began  to  look  ugly,  and  after  a  further  fruitless  inquiry  for 
Mrs.  King,  the  police  (Bow  Street  runners)  were  called  in. 
On  gaining  an  entrance  into  Mrs.  King's  bedroom  by  the 

D    D 


460  CONCEALMENT. 

window — it  was  on  the  ground  floor — they  found  the  bed  and 
carpet  soaked  in  blood.  Gardelle  was  forthwith  arrested,  and 
a  minute  search  was  made  throughout  the  house.  A  number 
of  small  morsels  of  human  flesh  were  discovered  under  the 
rafters  of  the  roof,  more  in  other  parts,  and  a  quantity  of 
calcined  bones.  The  body  had  evidently  been  dismembered, 
and  in  part  subjected  to  the  action  of  fire ;  the  head  in  par- 
ticular, for  no  traces  of  it  could  be  found. 

The  evidence  went  far,  but  it  was  unnecessary  to  strengthen 
it,  for  Gardelle  at  once  confessed.  His  story  was  that  he  had 
quarrelled  with  the  deceased,  who  had  assailed  him  with  bitter 
invective,  and  that  at  last  he  had  stabbed  her  in  the  throat 
with  the  sharp-pointed  handle  of  a  comb.  It  was  a  sudden 
impulse,  an  unpremeditated  crime.  This  defence  was  marred 
by  the  fact  that,  a  few  days  before  the  discovery  of  the  crime, 
he  had  sent  off  a  sealed  box  to  a  friend  which  was  found  to 
contain  the  watch,  jewels,  and  other  valuables  of  his  victim. 

Gardelle  was  tried,  condemned,  and  executed  in  the  Hay- 
market,  near  Leicester  Fields.  The  crime  caused  intense 
excitement,  and  was  so  long  remembered  that  seventy  years 
later  Theodore  Hook  makes  one  of  his  characters  say,  "  as 
dead  as  Theodore  Gardelle." 

HEMMINGS. 

The  murder  of  one  Hemmings,  done  to  death  at  Oddingley 
in  Worcestershire,  in  1806,  was  not  discovered  for  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  then  only  by  accident.  The  mystery 
would  have  remained  unsolved  indefinitely  but  for  the  chance 
demolition  of  a  ruined  barn  in  1830,  during  which  a  number 
of  human  bones  were  unearthed.  These  remains  were  not 
immediately  recognised,  but  they  soon  afforded  strong  pre- 
sumptive evidence  of  identity.  Several  articles  were  found 
with  the  body,  a  carpenter's  rule  and  a  pair  of  shoes  with  the 
bones  of  the  feet  still  inside  them.  Both  the  rule  and  the 
shoes  had  been  preserved  intact  by  the  stiff",  marly  clay  soil 
in  which  they  had  been  buried.  The  skull  was  forthcoming, 
and  spoke  plainly  both  as  to  foul  play  and  as  to  the  man  who 
had  owned  it.     Hemmings  had  been  an  old  resident  in  the 


IDENriFYING   A    CORPSE.  451 

locality,  but  was  long  missing ;  he  had  been  a  carpenter, 
and  many  things  combined  to  prove  that  these  were  his 
remains. 

His  widow  stUl  survived  and  swore  to  the  skull,  which 
had  been  smashed  and  battered  in  by  some  heavy  implement ; 
the  jaw  was  peculiar,  the  mouth  of  curious  shape,  and  the 
front  teeth  projected  prominently.  Then  the  shoes  were 
unmistakable.  Hemmings  was  a  man  who  walked  in  a  par- 
ticular way ;  he  trod  very  heavily  on  his  heels,  and  that  part 
of  the  sole  of  his  shoes  was  more  worn  than  the  toes.  The 
carpenter's  rule,  again,  was  immediately  recognised  by  the 
widow ;  she  knew  it  and  could  swear  to  it  by  a  crack  in  the 
wood  near  the  rivet  of  the  hinge.  There  could  be  no  mistake 
whatever  as  to  the  corpse.     It  was  that  of  Hemmings. 

When  this  had  been  established  the  circumstances  of  the 
man's  disappearance  were  brought  to  recollection.  Hemmings 
himself  had  been  a  murderer,  and  there  were  thus  plausible 
reasons  for  his  leaving  the  neighbourhood.  He  had  been 
hired  to  kill  the  rector  of  the  parish,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Parker,  a 
masterful,  much-hated  personage,  known  in  his  time  as  the 
Bonaparte  of  Oddingley.  People — afterwards  arrested — had 
been  heard  to  say  they  would  pay  £50  to  have  Mr.  Parker 
killed.  One  man  went  so  far  as  to  express  a  vnsh  that  he 
might  find  a  dead  parson  that  night  before  he  got  home. 
Soon  afterwards  Mr.  Parker  was  shot,  and  the  crime  was 
fixed  upon  Hemmings,  who  was  supposed,  thereupon,  to  have 
fled  the  country. 

His  readiness  to  commit  the  crime  was  his  own  ruin.  It 
came  out  from  the  confession  of  one  concerned,  and  arrested 
after  the  discovery  of  the  remains,  that  those  who  had  hired 
Hemmings  began  to  fear  he  might  betray  them,  and  were 
resolved  to  put  him  out  of  the  way  of  doing  them  harm. 
Hemmings,  who  was  in  hiding  among  the  straw  of  a  barn, 
was  forced  to  come  out  before  his  accomplices,  when  one  of 
them  promptly  slew  him  by  battering  in  his  brains  with  a 
"  blood-stick." 

After  that  the  murderers  sought  about  how  to  conceal  his 
body,  thinking,  and  rightly,  that  if  there  was  no  trace  of  him 


452  CONCEALMENT. 

it  would  be  supposed  he  had  absconded.  A  secure  and  secret 
grave  was  found  within  the  limits  of  the  barn ;  in  one  comer 
was  a  hole  "  scratched  by  dogs  and  rats,"  which  was  easily- 
deepened  by  the  murderers'  spades,  and  here  the  corpse  was 
interred.  Additional  precautions  were  taken;  several  cart- 
loads of  earth  were  brought  into  the  barn  and  laid  above 
the  grave,  so  as  to  raise  the  level  of  the  floor.  But  there  was 
no  hue  and  cry  for  Hemmings ;  his  disappearance  seemed 
natural,  and  it  removed  suspicion  from  those  concerned  in 
the  clergyman's  death. 

Then  the  farm  at  Oddingley  changed  hands  ;  the  removal 
of  the  barn  was  an  improvement  made  by  the  new  tenant, 
and  the  murder  came  out.  In  spite  of  the  long  interval  that 
had  elapsed,  several  of  the  participators  in  the  crime  were 
still  living  and  in  decent  circumstances.  Three  of  them  were 
arrested  and  tried  for  their  lives.  Their  guilt  seemed  clear 
enough,  yet  the  case  for  the  prosecution  rested  mainly  on  the 
confession  of  one  of  them,  and  there  was  no  conviction. 

HUNTLEY. 

The  Yarm  murder,  perpetrated  in  1830,  discovered  in  1842, 
belongs  to  this  class.  Here  again  it  was  by  pure  accident  that 
the  half-forgotten  crime  was  revealed.  Huntley,  a  well-to- 
do  person,  was  last  seen  in  company  with  one  Goldsborough 
on  the  road  between  Yarm  and  Stokesley.  Huntley  had 
■'  come  into  his  fortune,"  as  he  told  many  people  that  day 
The  lawyers  had  at  last  paid  him  over  a  legacy  about  which 
there  had  been  some  litigation,  and  he  was  carrying  in  his 
pockets  a  large  sum  in  gold  and  notes.  Then  he  and  Golds- 
borough  went  off  on  a  poaching  adventure,  from  which  he 
never  returned.  A  few  days  later  much  blood  was  seen  on 
the  road  near  Crathorne  Wood.  Goldsborough  was  seen  to 
be  flush  of  money,  he  was  proved  to  be  in  possession  of  a 
silver  watch  with  the  initials  "W.  H.,"  and  had  six  new 
shirts  marked  in  the  same  manner.  But  no  steps  were 
taken  to  arrest  him,  and  presently  he  moved  from  Yarm  to 
Barnsley,  where  he  was  residing  in  1842. 

At  that  date  it  was  resolved  to  do  some  work  in  clearing 


THE   EU8T0N   SQUARE    MYSTERY.  453 

the  stream  known  as  Stokesley  Beck,  which  flowed  past  the 
Crathome  Wood.  In  the  process  of  excavation  a  human 
body  was  discovered  in  a  hollow  under  one  of  the  banks  of 
the  river.  It  had  been  thrust  in  doubled  up,  and  now  nothing 
but  the  skeleton  remained.  The  skull  was  intact  and  was 
plainly  recognised  as  Huntley's ;  it  was  identified  beyond 
doubt  mainly  by  a  projecting  molar  or  dog  tooth,  and  various 
features:  flat  forehead,  wide  nose  and  face.  Goldsborough 
was  hunted  up  at  Bamsley  and  brought  to  trial,  but  was 
acquitted  for  want  of  definite  proof. 

HANNAH   DOBBS. 

A  comparatively  recent  concealment  that  proved  all  but 
successful  was  the  so-called  Euston  Square  mystery  in  1879, 
when  proofs  that  a  murder  had  been  committed  were  come 
upon  by  mere  chance.  It  was  first  reported  in  the  morning 
papers  on  the  10th  of  May  in  that  year  that  "  a  shocking 
discovery  was  made  yesterday  in  No.  4,  Euston  Square." 
The  body  of  a  woman  had  been  found  in  a  coal  cellar. 
The  house  was  a  lodging-house,  and  the  cellar  after  having 
been  long  disused  had  been  re-opened  to  take  in  a  ton  of 
coals  for  a  new  lodger.  The  man  whose  business  it  was  to 
go  below  and  shovel  the  coal  into  the  recesses  of  the  cellar 
suddenly  struck  against  something  that  seemed  like  a  sack 
of  clothes.  Looking  closer  he  saw  a  small  mound,  and  this 
proved  to  contain  a  mass  of  human  remains.  These  were 
soon  examined  by  medical  experts,  who  pronounced  without 
doubt  as  to  the  sex,  and  verified  the  age  as  between  fifty  and 
sixty,  judging  by  the  remaining  grey  hairs.  They  were  of 
opinion  also  that  the  remains  had  lain  there  for  two,  perhaps 
three  years. 

There  were  evident  sigQs  of  foul  play.  A  rope  tightened 
round  the  throat  pointed  to  death  by  strangulation  or  hanging. 
The  theory  of  suicide  was  not  tenable,  first  from  the  conceal- 
ment of  the  body,, and  then  from  the  evident  wish  to  destroy 
it  by  the  use  of  quicklime.  This  had  done  its  work,  for  the 
features  were  gone  beyond  recognition,  while  several  of  the 
members  had  become  separated  from  the  trunk.    There  was 


454  CONCEALMENT. 

nothing  at  first  to  assist  identification ;  the  only  fact  estab- 
lished was  that  the  woman  had  worn  a  black  silk  dress. 

Another  fact  was,  however,  soon  proved  by  the  doctors — 
that  the  deceased  was  afflicted  with  curvature  of  the  spine. 
Even  with  allowance  for  this,  the  body  must  have  been  from 
5  feet  7  inches  to  5  feet  8  inches.  It  was  further  seen  that 
it  must  have  been  placed  just  where  it  was  found,  and  when 
fully  dressed.  AU  crumbled  away  to  the  touch,  but  not  only 
was  the  silk  gown  plainly  made  out  but  also  a  jacket  of  the 
same  material,  covering  which  was  a  lace  shawl,  and  outside 
this  another  wrapper  with  some  sort  of  hood.  There  was  a 
bonnet,  too,  of  the  fashion  of  two  or  three  years  back. 
Evidently  the  deceased  when  done  to  death  was  on  the  point 
of  going  out  of  doors.  A  brooch  bf  very  common  material 
dropped  from  the  shawl,  and  a  plain  ring  was  picked  out  of 
the  debris  when  they  had  been  carefully  sifted. 

There  was  no  present  clue  to  the  identity  of  the  indi- 
vidual. The  lodging-house  was  kept  by  a  certain  Severin 
Bastendorff,  who  could  throw  no  light  on  the  mystery.  No 
one  was  missing  in  the  house ;  everyone,  lodgers  and  all,  who 
had  come  in  and  out  for  the  previous  two  years  could  be 
accounted  for.  Then  came  news  from  the  far  west,  from 
Bideford,  where  lived  the  parents  of  a  maidservant,  who  had 
had  a  place  in  this  very  house,  and  of  whom  they  had  heard 
nothing  for  six  months.  Her  name  was  Hannah  Dobbs ; 
could  it  be  her  corpse  that  had  been  found  ?  Her  description 
answered  in  many  respects  to  the  mysterious  body — fair  hair 
worn  in  curls,  one  front  tooth  missing,  another  decaiyed; 
Then  the  police  learnt  that  Hannah  Dobbs  was  alive  and 
doing  six  months  in  Tothill  Fields  for  theft. 

This  Hannah  Dobbs  was  now  closely  examined  by  the 
detective  inspector  who  had  charge  of  the  inquiry.  She  was 
asked  how  long  she  had  lived  in  4,  Euston  Square,  if  she 
remembered  any  of  the  lodgers,  any  ladies,  any  lady  with 
light  curls  ?  Hannah  Dobbs  spoke  at  once  of  one  who  had 
had  the  second  floor  front  a  couple  of  years  before,  and  who 
after  only  six  weeks'  occupancy  had  left  in  October,  1877. 
She   was    an    elderly  lady,    between   fifty  and    sixty,    with 


IDENTIFICATION   OF  REMAINS.  455 

grey  hair — "decidedly  grey,"  said  Dobbs — and  this  did  not 
quite  correspond  with  the  discovery,  for  the  hair  in  the  body 
found,  although  very  light  in  colour,  was  only  turning  grey. 

Something  was  thus  gained,  and  the  detective — Inspector 
Hagen — went  on  to  Euston  Square,  where  he  called  upon 
Mrs.  Bastendorff  to  state  all  she  knew  of  her  lady  lodger. 
A  reference  to-  the  rent  book  showed  that  some  time  in 
August,  1877,  the  second  floor  front  was  let  to  a  "  Miss  Huish," 
so  called.  Miss  Huish  left  the  house  at  an  uncertain  date ; 
indeed,  it  was  not  known  positively  when  she  had  arrived, 
for  the  arrangements  had  all  been  made  by  Hannah  Dobbs, 
to  whom,  on  leaving,  Miss  Huish  had  paid  the  rent.  Hannah 
had  brought  the  money  downstairs,  a  £5  note,  which  Mrs. 
Bastendorff  changed  and  sent  up  the  balance. 

Next  day  the  detective  carried  Dobbs  to  the  St.  Pancras 
mortuary  to  view  the  remains.  On  the  way  in  the  cab  he 
questioned  Dobbs  as  to  the  exact  date  of  Miss  Huish's 
departure.  Dobbs  could  not  say;  she  had  been  out  on 
Hampstead  Heath  with  the  Bastendorff  children,  and  when 
she  got  back  the  lodger — who  had  left  a  shilling  for  her — 
was  gone.  Was  Huish  her  right  name  ?  Dobbs  thought 
not,  but  at  last  remembered  that  it  was  Hacker,  and  that 
Miss  Hacker  came  up  from  Canterbury  to  collect  her  rents. 
"  She  had  plenty  of  money,  then  ?  "  suggested  the  detective. 
"  I  don't  know,"  replied  Hannah ;  "  but  she  had  a  gold  watch 
and  chain  which  she  only  wore  on  Sunday." 

This  watch  and  chain  now  became  an  important  link  in 
the  evidence.  Through  inquiries  of  the  pawnbrokers,  the 
police  traced  them  without  difficulty,  and  found  them  at  a 
pawnshop  adjoining  Euston  Square.  The  assistant  identified 
Hannah  Dobbs  among  a  number  of  women,  as  the  person  who 
had  pawned  them.  She  had  been  seen  wearing  them,  too, 
openly,  in  the  house  of  No.  4,  Euston  Square,  even  when 
doing  her  work,  and  had  been  checked  for  it  as  not  proper  to 
her  place.  Dobbs  had  given  out  that  the  watch  was  a  legacy 
from  an  uncle,  as  also  the  gold  chain.  These  valuables  were, 
however,  clearly  proved  to  have  belonged  to  Miss  Hacker  of 
Canterbury.     The  watch  bore  the  number  and  mark  of  certain 


456  CONCEALMENT. 

Canterbury  makers;  it  was  recognised  and  sworn  to  by  the 
deceased's  brother  and  others.  Dobbs  had  also  been  seen 
with  a  cash-box  which  was  known  to  have  been  Miss 
Hacker's. 

The  inquiry  had  now  got  down  to  something  like  firm 
ground.  There  was  the  identification  of  the  deceased,  and  the 
commencement  of  strong  suspicion  against  Hannah  Dobbs. 

It  was  not  difficult  to  learn  all  about  Miss  Hacker,  and 
the  story  was  an  odd  one.  She  was  one  of  those  eccentric 
characters  who  verge  on  the  borderland  of  weakmindedness, 
without  family  ties,  full  of  strange  prejudices,  and  eaten  up 
with  vanity,  who  find{a  ntoutlet  in  an  excessive  love  for  dress 
and  personal  adornment  of  the  most  absurd  and  most  extrava- 
gant kind.  Those  who  knew  her  well,  under  the  many  aliases 
she  assumed,  for  it  was  another  craze  of  hers  to  hide  her 
identity,  spoke  of  her  smart  costumes,  which  were  always  in 
the  latest  and  most  outrd  fashion.  She  left  one  lodging  in 
blue  silk,  with  a  Mother  Shipton  bonnet  trimmed  with  white 
satin  and  a  long  blue  feather.  Sometimes  she  appeared  in 
a  white  lace  shawl  and  a  red  skirt ;  under  her  white  felt  hat 
her  flaxen  curls  were  arranged  in  short  corkscrew  ringlets. 
Although  she  stooped,  and  had  a  bent,  twisted  back,  she 
walked  with  a  mincing,  sprightly  step,  assuming  an  air  of 
girlishness  and  juvenility.  She  still  believed  herself  attrac- 
tive, and  would  often  talk  of  the  days  when  she  and  her 
sister  were  known  and  greatly  admired  as  the  "Canterbury 
Belles  ''  and  the  "  Winship  Dolls." 

When  not  crossed  she  was  pleasant-mannered  and  lady- 
like, but  she  could  break  out  into  violent  abuse  if  opposed. 
The  police  knew  her,  those  of  Canterbury  in  particular,  and 
the  officers  of  the  county  court,  for  one  of  Miss  Hacker's 
eccentricities  was  a  strong  objection  to  paying  rates  and  taxes, 
and  writs  had  been  often  issued  against  her.  The  watch  and 
chain  already  mentioned  had  been  seized  in  this  way,  and  thus 
gave  further  corroboration  of  its  ownership.  The  trouble  she 
brought  upon  herself  by  this  Htigiousness  was  the  reason  fii 
her  moving  her  residence  continually,  and  always  assuming 
new  names.     In  Bedford  Place,  Russell  Square,  she  was  known 


HANNAH  BOBBS'8    DEFENCE.  457 

as  Miss  Bell ;  in  Momington  Crescent  she  was  Miss  Sycamore  ; 
at  Ramsgate,  Miss  Huish — the  last  name  that  this  poor  ill- 
fated  creature  assumed. 

As  the  inquiry  proceeded,  it  was  ascertained  that  she  must 
have  been  alive  on  the  10th  of  October,  1877.  A  letter  from 
her  to  her  rent  collector  at  Canterbury,  in  her  own  undoubted 
handwriting,  bore  that  date.  After  that,  letters  sent  by  her 
agent  to  her  address — at  a  post  office — were  returned  through 
the  dead  letter  office.  A  neighbour  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
14th  of  October,  a  Sunday,  declared  she  heard  a  loud  scream 
from  the  direction  of  No.  4,  Euston  Square.  At  that  time  it 
was  averred  that  Miss  Hacker  and  Hannah  Dobbs  were  alone 
together  in  the  house.  Bastendorff  was  away  shooting — and 
had  to  answer  for  it  at  the  police  court — Mrs.  Bastendorff  and 
the  one  other  lodger  were  out.  It  was  believed  by  the  police 
that  the  murder  was  committed  at  that  time. 

The  theory  held  was  that  Miss  Hacker  was  struck  down 
by  some  heavy  instrument,  causing  great  effusion  of  blood.  A 
great  stain,  proved  by  medical  experts  to  be  a  blood  ^tain,  was 
found  upon  the  carpet.  Then  the. body  was  probably  dragged 
downstairs  into  the  cellar,  where  it  must  have  appeared  that 
life  was  not  quite  extinct,  and  strangulation  followed.  This 
was  effected  by  a  thick  cord  or  line,  a  clothes-line  found 
deeply  imbedded  in  the  flesh  of  the  neck  and  sufficient  in 
itself,  according  to  the  doctors,  to  have  caused  death.  Some 
acid  oi:  chemical  had  been  used  to  accelerate  decomposition ; 
the  rope  was  found  stained  red  and  very  brittle  under  its 
action. 

Hannah  Dobbs  was  in  due  course  arraigned  and  tried  for 
her  life.  The  facts  above  stated  were  proved ;  her  possession 
of  Miss  Hacker's  property,  and  that  she  was  the  last  who  had 
seen  her  alive.  The  prosecution  was  well  conducted,  the 
evidence  seemed  strong  and  conclusive.  Yet  Dobbs  was  ac- 
quitted. The  defence  set  up  for  her  was  that  there  was  no 
distinct  proof  of  killing.  It  was  urged  that  the  body  found 
might  have  met  a  natural  death,  although  Mr.  Justice 
Hawkins  recalled  the  medical  experts  to  repeat  that  the 
strangulation  would  have  caused  it.     There  was  no  certainty, 


458  GONGEALMENT. 

went  on  Hannah  Dobbs's  counsel,  that  she  and  the  murdered 
woman  were  alone  together  in  the  house.  The  other  lodger 
and  the  landlady  both  had  latchkeys,  and  might  have  come 
in.  This  alone — the  chance  of  meeting  them  on  the  stairs 
— would  have  prevented  anyone  from  running  the  risk  of 
dragging  the  body  all  the  way  down  to  the  cellar.  Yet  more, 
Hannah  Dobbs  had  held  her  ground  in  the  house  for  a  whole 
year.  Would  she  have  done  so  with  the  constant  terror  that 
her  victim  lay  there  in  the  basement,  and  might  be  discovered 
at  any  time  ?  She — Dobbs — had  also  the  run  of  the  house. 
Why  did  she  make  no  attempt  to  remove  the  remains  ?  As 
a  last  argument,  the  identity  of  the  body  with  Miss  Hacker, 
the  owner  of  the  watch  and  cash-box,  was  by  no  means 
made  out.  In  a  word,  if  there  had  been  a  murder,  and  who- 
ever had  done  it,  there  was  not  enough  evidence  to  convict 
Hannah  Dobbs,  and  she  was  eventually  acquitted. 

The  obvious  aim  of  the  defence  was  to  throw  suspicion  on 
the  Bastendorifs.  One  of  them,  Joseph,  who  was  on  very 
intimate  terms  with  Hannah  Dobbs,  was  subsequently  put 
upon  his  trial  for  perjury  and  found  guilty,  but  it  was  on  the 
face  of  it  impossible  that  either  Severin  Bastendorff  or  his 
wife  were  cognisant  of  the  murder,  or  could  have  taken  any 
part  in  it.  For  the  man  himself,  in  all  innocence  of  what 
would  be  laid  bare  therein,  had  ordered  the  cellar  to  be 
cleared  out,  and  the  woman  was  well  aware  that  this  was 
going  to  be  done. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

DISPOSAL   OF  THE    CORPUS  DELICTI. 

LacasBagne  on  Depechage — How  Dismemberment  has  been  effected — In  slrilled 
and  uuskOled  band — Generally  in  six  fragments,  although  sometimes  many 
more — Methods  of  Disposal — Dismemberment  more  common  in  France  than 
in  England — English  cases — Jack  the  Ripper — The  Waterloo  Bridge 
Mystery — The  Battersea  Mystery — Kate  "Webster  and  the  Barnes  Mystery 
— Catherine  Hayes — The  French  Case  of  Madame  Henri — Disposal  by  Com- 
bustion— Indian  Experience — Countess  von  Goerlitz  in  Silesia — Daniel 
Good  and  his  Victim — Cook  and  Mr.  Paas — Bolam  of  Newcastle — Pel,  the 
Watchmaker  of  Montreuil — Dubois  de  Bianco,  an  intricate  case  and  well 
worked  out  Detection — Distribution  after  Dismemberment — Greenaore— 
Eauschmeier. 

We  come  next  to  tlie  more  ingenious  and  elaborate  methods 
employed  for  the  efl'ectual  concealment  of  remains.  There 
are  so  many  common  features  about  these  processes,  and 
the  practice  has  been  so  often  adopted,  that  an  eminent 
French  medico-legist.  Dr.  Lacassagne,  of  Lyons,  has  drawn 
attention  to  it  in  a  monograph,  styled  "  Ddpichage,"  or  dis- 
memberment. 

As  fragments  are  easier  of  carriage  than  the  entire  corpse, 
and  are  at  the  same  time  less  recognisable,  many  murderers 
have  fondly  sought  safety  in  this  method  of  concealment.  The 
most  incriminating  parts  of  the  whole  body,  because  the  most 
easily  identified,  are  the  head,  hands,  and  feet,  and  the  dis- 
posal of  these^  when  separated  and  in  small  compass,  seems 
to  present  no  great  difficulty.  In  the  typical  cases  that  will  be 
given  presently,  it  will  be  seen  that  various  steps  were  taken 
to  make  away  with  the  head,  but  few  equalled  the  ingenuity 
of  the  Frenchman  Voirbo,  who  poured  molten  lead  into  the 
orifices,  mouth  and  ears,  and  then  threw  the  head  thus  heavily 
weighted  into  the  Seine,  with  the  comfortable  assurance  that 
it  would  never  rise  to  betray  him. 

Dr.  Lacassagne  above  quoted,  whose  experience  is  mostly 
French,  has   established  certain  general  principles  in    the 


460  DISPOSAL   OF  THE   GOBPUS   DELICTI. 

process  of  dismemberment.  He  has  sliown  first  of  all  that 
the  skilled  can  be  easily  distinguished  from  the  unskilled 
hand.  The  first  uses  finer  weapons  to  separate  and  disarticu- 
late— bistoury,  razors,  saws,  and  scissors ;  the  latter  only 
bungles  and  hacks  with  brutal,  blind  force.  Thus  Avinain, 
who  had  been  an  assistant  at  a  hospital,  and  attended  many 
post-mortems,  exhibited  great  skUl  and  neatness  in  dis- 
membering his  victim ;  his  cuts  were  clean  and  even,  he 
was  proud  of  his  work,  and  in  speaking  of  it  said,  "  I  did  not 
chop  up,  I  disarticulated."  Liebiez,  another  French  mur- 
derer whose  handiwork  was  intentionally  less  clean  and  pre- 
cise, had  been  a  medical  student.  Prevost,  although  a  police 
officer  at  the  time  of  his  arrest,  had  been  a  butcher,  and 
Vitalis  was  a  collector  of  old  books  and  prints,  from  which 
he  had  learnt  many  useful  lessons  in  anatomy. 

Lacassagne  has  pointed  out  that  in  dismemberment  there 
are  generally  six  fragments  or  pieces  :  first  the  head,  then  the 
two  lower  limbs,  after  that  the  two  arms,  last  of  all  the  body, 
this  sometimes  in  two  parts.  But  murderers  have  gone  much 
farther,  and  have  almost  made  mincemeat  of  the  pieces,  both 
to  evade  detection  and  to  facilitate  disposal.  Menesclou,  who 
murdered  a  child  of  five,  divided  the  head  alone  into  forty- 
three  portions ;  Provost,  above  mentioned,  made  eighty  pieces ; 
Mestag,  the  Belgian,  chopped  up  his  wife  so  small  that  there 
seemed  no  clue  left,  and  yet  identity  was  established  beyond 
doubt  by  the  colour  of  the  victim's  hair  and  the  plain  fact 
that  during  life  the  lobe  of  one  ear  had  been  torn  in  a  certain 
peculiar  fashion.  To  go  farther  into  the  horrifying  details  of 
dismemberment  is  unnecessary. 

Lacassagne  next  refers  to  the  methods  of  disposal,  which, 
as  he  points  out,  have  generally  followed  the  same  lines.  This 
is  either  by  burying  or  casting  the  fragments  away  :  the  first 
in  gardens,  cellars,  secluded  places,  and  aiding  decomposition 
by  artificial  means  that  often  prove  very  disappointing,  quite 
defeating  the  object  in  view  by  preserving  instead  of  destroy- 
ing ;  the  second  by  throwing  them  down  wells,  over  precipices, 
into  sewers  and  dxains,  or  out  upon  the  deep  sea.  The  plan 
of  enclosing  them  in  boxes  or  chests,  and  treating  them  as 


"JAOK    THE   BIPPEB."  461 

railway  parcels  or  mercliandise  for  removal,  has  also  been 
repeatedly  tried.  We  have  had  many  such  cases  in  England 
— notably  that  of  Dr.  Watson. 

It  may  be  observed  as  a  curious  fact  with  regard  to  dis- 
memberment that  the  practice  seems  to  be  more  common 
in  France  than  elsewhere — more  common,  certainly,  than  in 
Great  Britain.     Some  will  say  that  English  people  are  not 
much  given  to  the  use  of  the  knife  either  as  a  weapon  of 
offence  or  defence,  and  that  therefore  it  is  not  near  at  hand 
and  immediately  available  after  the  fact ;  or,  again,  that  they 
will  generally  shrink  from  the  hideous  task,  even  although 
their   safety  depends  on  it.      Others  may  offer  the  psycho- 
logical reason  that  the  intelligence  of  English  criminals  is  not 
so  keen,  that  their  brains  are  less  active  than  those  of  other 
races.     But  the  fact  remains   that  there  are  fewer  cases  of 
dismemberment  recorded  in  English  criminal  annals.      It  is 
equally  true  that  among  these  few  several,  affording  a  clear 
primd  facie  proof  of  crime  committed,  have  remained,  and 
still  remain,  a  mystery  unsolved.     The  whole  series  of  White- 
chapel  murders  attributed  to  the  still  unknown  hand  of  "  Jack 
the  Ripper  "  are  supposed  to  have  effectually  puzzled  the  police 
— supposed,  for,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out  in  the  Intro- 
duction, strong  suspicion   attaches  to  three  men,  homicidal 
lunatics  for  the  time  being,  who,  when  the  fit  had  passed, 
perhaps  forgot  their  offences.     These,  as  we  linow,  carried  the 
destruction  of  identity  as  far  as  it  could  go ;  the  mutilation 
was   more  or  less   complete;   recognition   of  the  individual 
seemed  impossible.     Yet  in  every  instance  the  victim   was 
actually  identified,  although  this,  the  usual  preliminary   to 
the  detection  of  the  perpetrator,  bore  no  fruit.     The  crimes 
were  never  brought  home  to  anyone,  and  failing  authority 
for  the  statement  just  made,  we   are  left  to  adopt  any  of 
the  plausible  hypotheses  suggested  to  explain  away  police 

failure. 

WATERLOO  BRIDGE  MYSTERY. 

While  on  this  branch  of  the  subject  it  may  be  interesting 
to  refer  here  to  one  or  two  other  remarkable  cases  of  dis- 
memberment which  were  a  mystery  at  the  time,  and  which 


462  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    CORPUS   BELIGTI. 

have  since  defied  all  efforts  at  elucidation.  Two  are  especially 
remarkable  in  this  respect — the  notorious  Waterloo  Bridge 
case  in  1857  and  the  Battersea  case  in  1873. 

The  first  murder  was  brought  to  light  soon  after  daybreak 
on  an  October  morning,  when  two  lads,  rowing  a  boat  up 
stream,  came  upon  a  carpet  bag  lying  caught  upon  one  of  the 
buttresses  of  Waterloo  Bridge.  It  was  hanging  just  above 
the  water,  and  either  had  been  placed  there  overnight,  or 
someone  from  above  had  thrown  the  bag  down  and  it  had 
lodged  on  the  projection. 

The  boys  got  possession  of  it,  believing  they  had  picked 
up  a  prize.  It  was  locked  and  corded,  the  rope  having  been 
trailing  in  the  water  when  first  seen.  The  cord  was  cut,  the 
lock  forced,  and  the  contents  laid  bare.  These  were  the 
mutilated  fragments  of  a  human  body,  chopped  up  into  a 
number  of  pieces,  and  mixed  up  with  them  were  unmistak- 
able shreds  of  male  clothing. 

To  carry  the  hideous  trouvaille  straight  to  the  police  was 
the  boys'  first  and  immediate  act.  Medical  men  were  called 
in — the  divisional  police-surgeon  and  Dr.  Taylor,  the  medico- 
legist,  who  had  no  difficulty  in  reporting  as  follows: — 

"  That  the  parts  belonged,  all  of  them,  to  the  same  body, 
and  were  twenty-three  in  number,  mostly  bones  with  flesh 
adhering  to  them ;  that  they  had  been  sawn  up  or  chopped 
up  so  as  to  go  into  a  small  compass ;  and  that  the  mutilation 
was  obviously  intended  to  destroy  identity." 

The  parts  most  likely  to  help  recognition — hands,  feet, 
and  head-^were  missing.  There  was  nothing  left  that  could 
well  assist  identification,  no  marks  or  peculiarities — nothing 
beyond  the  fact  that  the  deceased  was  a  dark  and  hairy 
man,  with  one  other  ominous  indication,  that  of  a  knife- 
stab  between  the  third  and  fourth  ribs,  which  was,  nearly 
certainly,  the  cause  of  death,  its  direction  plainly  showing 
that  it  must  have  entered  the  heart. 

It  was  further  proved  by  their  appearance  that  the  remains 
had  been  partially  boiled,  and  subsequently  salted  or  placed 
in  brine.  Some  parts  of  the  interior  of  the  bones  had  escaped 
the  action  of  the  salt,  and  from  these  it  was  possible  to  arrive 


TEE    WATERLOO   BRIDGE    MYSTERY.  463 

at  an  approximation  to  the  date  of  death,  which  must  have 
taken  place  three  or  four  weeks  antecedent  to  the  discovery 
of  the  bag. 

There  were  a  few  other  indications  that  might  have  con- 
stituted clues.  The  clothes  were  those  of  a  foreigner  and  a 
male,  they  were  much  cut  and  torn,  and  were  all  more  or  less 
blood  stained.  Most  of  these  stains  were  on  the  inside,  and  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  knife-stab,  showing  thus  that  the 
wound  had  been  inflicted  while  the  clothes  were  on  the  body. 
The  cut  had  also  penetrated  them. 

A  reward  of  £300  was  offered  for  the  discovery  of  the 
supposed  murderer,  but  it  was  quite  without  effect.  The 
crime  was  never  brought  home  to  anyone.  The  police  had 
reason  to  believe  that  the  man  murdered  was  a  Swedish 
sailor  belonging  to  some  ship  then  lying  in  the  ThameSi 
That  he  had  died  of  the  stab  was  a  self-evident  conclusion. 
Nothing  that  could  lead  to  identification  was  forthcoming, 
and  failing  this,  the  first  essential  in  detection,  the  mystery 
was  never  solved. 

A  theory  was  started  that  it  was  a  hoax  by  medical 
students,  an  explanation  commonly  offered,  but  in  this  case, 
as  in  many  others,  erroneously.  As  Dr.  Taylor  has  sagely 
observed,  such  a  suggestion  only  tends  to  favour  the  escape 
of  the  real  criminal.  In  the  Waterloo  Bridge  affair  there  was 
no  foundation  for  the  belief.  It  was  utterly  impossible  from 
the  appearance  of  the  remains  that  any  parts  could  have  been 
subjected  to  anatomical  dissection.  In  the  first  place,  medical 
students  do  not,  as  part  of  their  anatomical  exercises,  hack 
and  mangle  a  body  so  as  to  destroy  muscles,  vessels,  nerves, 
and  spinal  marrow ;  nor  do  they  need  to  make  away  with  the 
parts  that  would  lead  to  recognition,  still  less  to  boil  and  salt 
the  remainder.  Corpses  are  not  brought  to  them  for  dis- 
section with  their  clothes  still  on  them.  Moreover,  there  is 
no  conceivable  reason  why  medical  students  should  inflict 
cuts  and  stabs  upon  the  clothing,  or  mark  the  inside  with 
blood  stains  exactly  corresponding  with  the  situation  of  the 
wounds  that  have  unmistakably  produced  death.  It  was 
murder,  and  the  mystery  is  still  unsolved. 


464  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    GOBPUS   DELICTI. 


THE   BATTERSEA   CASE. 

The  second  case  I  shall  quote  here,  known  as  the  Batter- 
sea  case,  arose  from  the  discovery  in  September,  1878,  of 
human  remains  upon  the  mud  banks  below  Battersea  water- 
works. It  was  pronounced  by  the  doctors,  to  whom  it  was 
first  submitted,  to  be  the  mutilated  trunk  of  a  female  corpse, 
and  to  have  been  barely  twelve  hours  in  the  water.  More 
discoveries  rapidly  followed.  Another  part  of  the  body  was 
picked  up  near  Nine  Elms  station,  just  off  Brunswick  wharf: 
then  portions  of  the  lungs  were  found,  one  under  the  old 
Battersea  Bridge,  the  other  near  the  Battersea  railway  pier. 
These  all  corresponded,  and  were  easily  pieced  together  as 
parts  of  the  same  body.  The  head  had  been  severed  with 
a  sharp  knife,  but  a  saw  had  also  been  used.  The  face  half 
of  the  head  had  floated  down  below  Limehouse  and  was 
there  picked  up,  but  mutilated  beyond  all  recognition.  Other 
fragments,  limbs  and  parts  of  limbs,  were  found  at  Woolwich 
Greenwich,  Rotherhithe,  and  near  the  Albert  Embankment 
It  was  a  curious  fact  that  the  pieces  below  the  bridge  had  all 
been  picked  up  on  the  ebb  tide,  each  piece  lower  and  lower 
down  the  river. 

The  body  was  reconstituted  by  Mr.  Hayden,  the  medical 
officer  of  the  Battersea  Union,  and  was  proved  to  be  that  of 
a  female.  The  face,  although  much  battered,  bore  the  trace 
of  a  wound  on  the  right  temple,  which  crushed  in  the  skull 
and  no  doubt  caused  instantaneous  death.  The  dismember- 
ment had  been  effected  subsequently  and  only  a  short  time 
before  the  pieces  were  thrown  into  the  river.  Attention  was 
at  once  drawn  to  the  reported  cases  of  persons  missing,  and 
for  some  time  it  was  believed  to  be  those  of  a  Mrs.  Cailey. 
of  Chelsea.  As  Mrs.  Cailey  was  soon  afterwards  encountered 
alive  and  in  the  flesh  walking  in  the  King's  Road,  Chelsea, 
this  theory  fell  to  the  ground.  No  other  hypothesis  offered, 
and  up  to  the  present  time  no  one  has  been  suspected,  much 
less  arrested,  for  this  most  undoubted  crime. 

Other  cases  strongly  resembling  the  foregoing  have  been 
so  recently  reported  that  they  need  not  be  inserted  here. 


ANOTHER    THAMES   MY8TEBY.  465 

KATE  WEBSTER. 

A  murder  belonging  to  this  group,  and  with  many  similar 
features,  was  that  known  as  the  "  Barnes  Mystery,"  or  the 
Richmond  murder  of  1879.  This  crime  would  probably  have 
remained  unsolved  had  the  police  been  unassisted  by  out- 
siders, and  had  the  criminal  been  a  little  more  circumspect. 
In  the  first  instance,  the  fact  of  foul  play  was  made  plain 
by  the  discovery  of  mutilated  remains,  as  in  the  Waterloo 
Bridge,  Battersea,  and  the  more  recent  Whitechapel  murders. 
Like  them,  the  story  ended  there.  It  would  have  had  no 
sequel  but  for  the  circumstances  above  mentioned. 

The  first  suspicion  of  a  crime  arose  on  the  6th  of  March, 
when  a  man,  walking  along  the  towing-path  at  Barnes,  saw 
a  box  floating  on  the  surface  of  the  water  as  the  tide  was 
running  up  stream.  He  managed  to  get  the  box  ashore,  cut 
the  ropes  that  secured  it,  and  looking  inside  found  several 
fragments  of  a  human  body  neatly  and  closely  packed  in 
brown  paper  parcels.     The  box  was  about  one  foot  cube. 

This  was  a  first  clue  to  some  new  murder  mystery,  and 
the  discovery  was  followed  within  a  few  days  by  others. 
More  human  fragments  were  found  buried  or  planted  at 
various  points  on  the  river  side.  The  police  were,  of  course, 
active  in  their  inquiries,  but  the  mystery  remained  a  mystery 
until  the  18th  of  March,  when  certain  suspicious  facts  were 
first  communicated  to  the  police. 

A  lady  was  missing  at  Richmond,  and  it  was  suspected 
that  she  had  been  the  victim  of  foul  play.  On  the  19th 
of  March  the  police  were  warned  that  this  was  probable, 
and  the  story  told  them  was  as  foUows: — 

A  Mrs.  Thomas,  residing  at  Park  Road,  Richmond,  had 
not  been  seen  or  heard  of  since  the  2nd  of  March.  On  that 
night,  as  she  returned  home  from  the  Presbyterian  church,  a 
friend  had  accosted  her  and  had  received  a  reply.  She  did 
not  show  next  day,  nor  on  the  succeeding  days.  It  was  at  first 
supposed  that  she  was  ill  and  confined  to  the  house.  This 
was  the  answer  given  abruptly,  even  rudely,  to  inquiring 
friends  by  her  servant,  the  only  one  she  kept.     Everything 


466  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    CORPUS    DELICTI. 

went  on  in  the  house  as  usual;  tradesmen  came  for  orders, 
dehvered  meat  and  groceries;  the  house  washing  was  done, 
scrubbing-brushes  were  heard  at  work,  fires  were  poked, 
clothes  were  seen  hanging  upon  the  lines  to  dry. 

The  neighbours,  as  might  be  expected  in  a  narrow  suburban 
street,  grew  more  and  more  curious;  but  nothing  was  said 
imtil  the  18th  of  March,  when  the  owner  of  the  house  which 
Mrs.  Thomas  occupied  was  roused  to  protest.  A  van  appeared 
brought  by  two  men,  who  began  to  move  out  the  fiirniture. 
One  of  them  was  a  publican  who  had  purchased  them.  These 
goods  were  the  landlady's  security  for  rent,  and  she  came  at 
once  to  ask  for  Mrs.  Thomas.  Then  a  tradesman  to  whom 
a  small  debt  was  owing  turned  up,  and  was  strongly  opposed 
to  the  removal  of  the  household  effects.  Where  was  Mrs. 
Thomas  ?    What  had  she  to  say  ? 

But  there  was  no  need  to  wait  for  Mrs.  Thomas  to  justify 
her  deed  of  sale,  for  the  purchaser  of  the  furniture  now  refused 
to  go  any  farther  into  the  business.  He  saw  that  there  might 
be  mischief,  that  Mrs.  Thomas's  goods  might  be  claimed,  and 
that  he  might  be  called  upon  to  restore  them  if  he  carried 
them  off.  The  van  withdrew,  and  as  it  was  leaving  Mrs. 
Thomas — so  the  men  believed — came  running  out  of  the 
house  with  a  couple  of  dresses  and  a  bonnet  box. 

"Here,  take  these,  anyway,"  she  cried,  throwing  them 
into  the  van ;  "  they  can't  be  distrained  for  rent."  And 
the  men  drove  away. 

"  What  do  you  know  of  that  Mrs.  Thomas  ? "  the  publican, 
Church,  now  asked  his  companion,  Porter,  by  whom  he  had 
been  introduced  to  the  lady. 

"  Not  much.  She  used  to  live  down  our  way,  at  Hammer- 
smith, a  year  or  two  back.  Didn't  laiow  her  by  the  name  of 
Thomas  then ;  she  was  only  called  '  Kate.'  She  came  round 
the  other  night  and  asked  me  to  do  her  a  good  turn." 

"  As  how  ?  " 

"  Help  her  to  the  train  at  Hammersmith  and  carry  a 
parcel  She's  been  in  once  or  twice  since — says  she's  a  widow 
now,  name  of  Thomas ;  got  a  comfortable  independence." 

Church  was  only  half  satisfied,  and  when  he  reached  home 


WHERE    WAS    MBS.    TE0MA8  ?  467 

he  had  a  look  through  the  things  he  had  got  from  Mrs. 
Thomas.  In  the  pocket  of  one  dress  was  a  letter  addressed  to 
Mrs.  Thomas,  dated  from  another  part  of  London,  and  signed 
"  Mehennick."  It  was  a  very  friendly  sort  of  letter,  for 
Church  presumed  to  read  it,  and  afterwards  he  called  at  the 
address  to  ask  about  Mrs.  Thomas.  He  was  not  received 
very  cordially  at  first  by  the  Mehennicks,  but  the  warmth 
passed  off,  especially  when  he  had  described  the  Mrs.  Thomas 
he  knew — a  tail,  stalwart,  black-browed,  deep-voiced  Irish- 
woman, not  at  all  resembling  the  Mehennicks'  friend.  Their 
Mrs.  Thomas  was  a  spare  little  woman,  bright,  active,  and  fair. 

"There's  something  curious  about  all  this,"  said  Mr. 
Mehennick.  "  I  shall  write  to-night  to  Mrs.  Thomas's 
solicitors.     I  know  where  to  find  them." 

Next  day  one  of  the  partners  came  down  to  Richmond 
and,  after  hearing  the  facts,  communicated  with  the  police, 
demanding  a  thorough  search  of  the  premises  in  Park  Road. 
Were  there  two  Mrs.  Thomases  ?— or  none  ?  Was  someone 
falsely  masquerading  as  such,  for  purposes  of  her  own  ? 

The  house  in  Park  Road  was  empty — not  a  soul  was  to  be 
seen,  nothing  Hving  found ;  only  a  heap  of  charred  bones 
under  the  kitchen  copper  and  more  charred  bones  under  the 
kitchen  grate.  The  woman,  whoever  she  might  he- — but  of 
this  there  was  soon  no  doubt  at  all — had  absconded.  It  was 
"  Kate,"  Mr.  Porter's  "  Kate,"  but  really  Kate  Webster,  Mrs. 
Thomas's  "  general "  servant. 

Fortunately  for  justice,  although  she  had  flown  she  had 
left  traces  by  which  she  could  be  followed.  In  the  hanging 
cupboard  of  her  bedroom  was  a  dress,  and  in  its  pocket 
her  photograph ;  also  a  letter,  addressed  to  her  by*  name, 
from  her  native  place  in  Ireland. 

A  smart  police  officer  started  at  once  for  Dublin,  and, 
thence  to  the  place  named  in  the  letter — Enniscorthy,  in  the 
county  of  Wexford.  Kate  Webster  was  easily  found,  captured, 
and  brought  back  in  custody  to  London.  She  was  very  com- 
municative on  the  journey.  Although  duly  warned,  she  would 
talk  about  the  case,  and  tried  hard  to  throw  the  blame  upon 
others,  especially  on  the  publican  Church.     "  It  is  not  right 


468  DISPOSAL    OF    TEE    CORPUS    BELIOTI. 

that  the  innocent  should  suffer  for  the  guilty,"  she  declared, 
going  on  to  say  that  Church  had  often  come  to  the  house  in 
Park  Koad,  urging  her  to  put  the  old  woman  out  of  the  way. 
She  asked  "  How  ? "  "  Poison  her,"  said  Church.  But  later 
he  stabbed  her  with  a  carving-knife,  after  which  (Webster 
described  the  operation  minutely),  he  cut  up  and  disposed 
of  the  body,  seized  the  effects,  and  tried  to  carry  off  his 
victim's  furniture. 

That  Webster  was  lying  might  be  guessed  from  the 
simple  fact  that  she  had  never  met  Church  tUl  Porter  had 
introduced  him  as  an  honest  broker  to  buy  the  effects.  But 
the  chain  of  circumstance  was  soon  woven  tightly  around 
her.  Porter's  story  was  quite  condemnatory.  He  told  how 
she  had  come  to  his  house  in  Hammersmith  on  the  evening 
of  the  4th  of  March,  and  asked  him  to  see  her  to  the  train. 
He  had  gone,  accompanied  by  his  son,  a  lad  of  sixteen, 
and  the  two  of  them  carried  a  black  bag  for  her  as  far  as 
the  bridge.  She  had  left  them  at  a  public-house,  and  had 
gone  alone  with  the  bag  across  the  bridge,  where  she  was 
to  meet  a  friend.  When  she  came  back  she  had  no  bag, 
and  said  she  had  handed  it  over  to  her  friend. 

Now  she  asked  Porter  to  let  her  take  his  boy  home  with 
her.  Porter  agreed,  and  the  lad  said  afterwards  that  she  plied 
him  with  rum,  and  then  made  him  help  her  carry  a  box  ;  this 
time  as  far  as  Richmond  Bridge.  Arrived  there,  she  made 
him  walk  on  ahead,  and  he  did  so,  but  not  too  far  to  hear 
the  splash  of  something — no  doubt  the  box — as  it  fell  into 
the  water.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  box  was  gone  when  the 
woman  rejoined  him.  The  boy  readily  recognised  it  as  the 
one  picked  out  of  the  Thames  by  Barnes  towing-path.  It 
was  a  bonnet 'box  of  foreign  make,  about  one  foot  square. 

Webster's  movements  to  and  from  the  house  in  Park 
Road  were  disclosed  by  a  cabman  who  had  frequently  driven 
her  and  her  parcels  to  the  station.  She  was  accompanied  by 
a  fair-haired  man  of  about  five-and-thirty,  and  this  implicated 
Church.  He  was  apprehended  and  eventually  tried,  but  was 
able  to  prove  an  alibi,  and  altogether  clear  himself  of  com- 
plicity, and  was  acquitted. 


TEE   CASE  AGAINST  WEBSTER.  469 

Highly  incriminating  evidence  was  given  by  the  next-door 
neighbours  in  Park  Road.  In  the  early  morning  of  the  8th  of 
March,  the  day  after  the  supposed  murder,  the  kitchen  fires 
had  been  alight,  and  the  boiler  at  work.  The  boilers  in  the 
two  houses  were  back  to  back,  with  only  a  thin  wall  between. 
When  the  boiler  in  one  house  was  used,  it  was  plainly  heard 
in  the  other.  That  portions  of  the  body  had  been  boiled  was 
proved  when  the  fragments  had  been  found,  and  it  was  clear 
that  they  had  been  subjected  to  the  action  of  fire. 

Webster  was  in  due  course  found  guilty  and  executed. 
She  persisted  in  her  denials  to  the  last,  and  stiU  sought  to 
incriminate  others.  This  case  has  something  more  than  a 
passing  interest  to  me,  as  the  woman  Webster  was  actually 
engaged  by  me  as  cook,  only  a  few  months  before  the 
tragedy  in  Richmond.  I  was  at  that  time  governor  of 
the  prison  then  in  process  of  construction  upon  Wormwood 
Scrubs,  and  lived  with  my  mother  in  the  Uxbridge  Road. 
Returning  home  one  evening,  I  was  told  that  a  Suitable 
cook  had  been  seen  and  engaged,  subject  to  satisfactory 
replies  to  references.  My  warder-messenger  happened  to 
be  with  ™e  that  evening,  as  he  had  called  for  the  letter- 
bag.  No  doubt  the  sight  of  the  blue  uniform  aroused 
Webster's  suspicions,  and  she  must  have  learnt  my  official 
position.  In  any  case,  she  never  came  to  take  up  the  place 
that  was  waiting  for  her ! 

CATHERINE    HAYES. 

It  is  right  to  revert  here  to  one  of  the  earliest  cases 
of  dismemberment  recorded  in  England,  as  it  exhibited 
many  of  the  features  that  are  seen  nearly  always  in  this 
class  of  crime.  These  old-time  murderers  -jrere  the  fore- 
runners of  many,  and  did  their  best  to  remove  the  corpus 
delicti  piecemeal,  beginning  "with  the  head. 

It  was  in  1725,  on  the  2nd  of  March,  that  a  watchman,  one 
of  the  "  Charlies  "  of  olden  days,  patrolling  the  river  bank  at 
Westminster,  found  a  human  head  lying  on  the  muddy  fore- 
shore. The  place  was  a  lime  wharf  near  Millbank,  not  many 
hundred  yards  from  the  spot  where  the  great  Penitentiary 


470  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    CORPUS    DELICTI. 

was  erected  about  a  century  later — the  old  prison  tliat  has 
now  given  place  to  the  handsome  edifice  in  which  the  Tate 
collection  of  pictures  is  now  housed.  This  lime  wharf 
was  at  the  Horse  Ferry,  a  passage  way  across  the  Thames, 
that  preceded  the  present  Lambeth  bridge. 

The  news  soon  spread  through  the  neighbourhood,  and 
many  people  flocked  to  view  the  head,  which  had  been  carried 
to  St.  Margaret's  churchyard,  where  it  was  laid  reverently 
upon  a  tombstone.  As  it  was  much  besmeared  with  blood 
and  dirt,  the  churchwardens  ordered  the  features  to  be  washed 
and  the  hair  combed.  Then  it  was  impaled  upon  a  high  pole, 
and  set  up  in  fuU  public  view  "  to  the  end  that  some  discovery 
might  be  made."  At  the  same  time,  the  chief  constable  of 
Westminster  ordered  the  petty  constables  to  keep  close  guard 
upon  all  the  avenues  to  the  river  side,  examine  all  passing 
carts  and  coaches,  and  thus  detect  any  attempt  to  make  away 
with  the  body  in  the  same  way  as  the  head. 

"  Thousands,"  says  a  contemporary  chronicle,  "  went  to 
witness  this  extraordinary  spectacle,  and  there  were  not 
wanting  those  among  the  crowd  who  openly  expressed  their 
belief  that  the  head  belonged  to  one  Hayes." 

A  youth  named  Bennett,  apprenticed  to  the  "  king's  organ 
builder,"  went  to  the  lodgings  of  this  Hayes,  saw  his  wife, 
and  forthwith  told  her.  She  at  first  ridiculed  the  sugges- 
tion, then  grew  angry,  declaring  that  her  husband  was  alive 
and  well,  and  that  it  might  do  great  mischief  to  "  start  such 
a  vain  tale."  The  lad  was  warned  seriously  that  his  wild 
talk  might  get  him  into  trouble,  and  accordingly  he  said 
no  more. 

Others,  however,  had  the  same  opinion.  Patrick  Campbell 
spoke  it  aloud  at  a  public-house  in  the  presence  of  a  certain 
Billings,  who  lodged  with  the  Hayes,  and  was,  indeed,  reputed 
to  be  Mrs.  Hayes'  son.  BiUings  swore  it  was  all  a  mistake ; 
he  had  left  Hayes  that  morning  in  bed,  alive  and  well. 

As  positive  recognition  was  delayed,  steps  were  taken  to 
preserve  the  head,  which  was  put  into  a  glass  case  filled  with 
spirit  of  wine.  It  was  presently  seen  by  others,  who  knew 
it  instantty.      The   continued  absence   of  Hayes  induced  a 


THE   IDENTIFICATION   OF   THE  HEAD.  471 

friend,  Ashby,  to  call  at  his  house  and  inquire  for  him.  Ashby 
was  told  as  a  profound  secret  by  Mrs.  Hayes  that  her  husband 
had  got  into  trouble  and  was  keeping  out  of  the  way.  He 
had  had  a  quarrel  with  another  man,  and  had,  unfortunately, 
killed  him.  Being  unable  to  make  up  the  blood-money 
demanded  by  the  deceased's  widow,  Hayes  had  absconded 
to  Portugal,  as  she  believed. 

This  seemed  a  very  improbable  story,  and  Ashby  went  on 
to  King's  Street  to  consult  with  a  publican  named  Longmore, 
who  kept  the  "  Green  Dragon,"  and  was  nearly  related  to 
Hayes.  Longmore  also  inquired  of  Mrs.  Hayes,  and  heard  a 
different  story  from  that  told  to  Ashby ;  so  the  pair  of  them 
resolved  to  examine  the  head  picked  up  in  the  Thames,  about 
which  there  was  so  much  excitement. 

They  verified  it  at  once,  and  thereupon  applied  to  the 
nearest  magistrate,  "  Justice  "  Lambert,  for  a  warrant  to  arrest 
Mrs.  Hayes  and  all  who  occupied  the  house  in  Tyburn  Road. 
In  those  days  every  good  citizen  was  an  amateur  policeman 
and  eager  to  further  the  ends  of  justice. 

Mrs.  Hayes  was  taken  up,  and  with  her  the  man  Billings, 
also  a  woman,  Mrs.  Springate,  who  lived  above.  They  were 
all  committed  to  gaol  on  suspicion. 

Next  day,  when  called  upon  for  examination,  Catherine 
Hayes  expressed  an  earnest  desire  to  see  the  head,  and  was 
carried  to  the  surgeon's  where  the  glass  case  was  kept.  "  It 
is  my  dear  husband's  head!"  cried  this  infamous  woman, 
with  the  idea,  no  doubt,  of  diverting  suspicion.  Next  she 
took  the  glass  into  her  arms  and  embraced  it,  shedding  many 
tears.  It  was  then  opened  for  her  and  the  head  extracted. 
She  kissed  it  several  times  and  asked  for  a  lock  of  her 
husband's  hair.  But  when  the  surgeon  suggested  that  she 
had  had  enough  of  his  blood  already  she  fainted  away.  The 
part  she  played  was  difficult  to  sustain. 

Further  evidence  of  the  crime  was  at  this  moment 
stumbled  upon.  Fragments  of  the  body  wrapped  in  rags 
of  blanket  were  discovered  in  Marylebone  Fields,  where 
they  had  been  thrown  into  a  pond.  The  case  looked  black 
against  Catherine  Hayes  and  Billings,  but  no  definite  proof  was 


472  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    CORPUS    DELIGTI. 

forthcoming  until  the  third  party  to  the  murder  was  appre- 
hended. One  Wood,  a  friend  of  the  Hayes',  who  had  been 
lodging  with  them  at  the  time  of  the  disappearance,  was 
caught  riding  up  to  the  house.  After  some  demur,  but  on 
learning  that  the  head  and  body  had  been  found,  he  made 
full  confession  of  the  crime. 

Hayes  and  his  wife  lived  together  on  bad  terms.  She  was 
a  woman  of  low  origin  and  not  irreproachable  character ;  he 
was  an  avowed  freethinker,  and  therefore  "  not  fit  to  live,"  as 
Mrs.  Hayes  put  it,  adding  that  she  would  think  it  no  more 
sin  to  kill  him  than  a  dog.  The  idea  of  murdering  him  gained 
strength  with  her ;  she  proposed  it  to  BiUings,  and  afterwards 
to  Wood,  using  the  further  argument  that  Hayes  was  himself 
a  murderer,  having  killed  two  of  his  own  children,  whom 
he  had  buried,  one  under  a  pear  tree,  the  other  under  an 
apple  tree. 

The  deed  was  at  last  agreed  upon  and  accomplished  after 
a  long  drinking  bout.  Hayes  had  boasted  that  he  could 
consume  half  a  dozen  bottles  of  "  mountain  wine  "  without 
feeling  the  effects,  but  became  stupidly  intoxicated  before  he 
liad  finished  them.  Then,  as  he  lay  drunk  upon  the  bed, 
Billings  fractured  his  skull  with  a  hatchet,  and  Wood  com- 
pleted the  business  by  two  more  strokes.  Then  followed  the 
dismemberment.  The  head  was  severed  over  a  pail  to  catch 
the  blood.  The  latter  was  poured  into  a  sink,  followed  by 
several  buckets  of  water.  The  head  Mrs.  Hayes  proposed  to 
boil,  so  as  to  destroy  all  identity,  but  her  accomplices  feared 
the  operation  would  take  too  much  time,  and  the  head  was 
thrown  into  the  Thames.  It  was  not  carried  down  stream 
as  the  murderers  hoped  for ;  the  tide  was  on  the  ebb  and 
the  rising  water  washed  it  again  ashore. 

There  was  no  evidence  against  the  woman  Springate,  but 
the  other  three  were  sentenced  to  death.  Wood  died  in 
Newgate  before  execution,  Billings  was  hanged,  and  Mrs. 
Hayes,  under  the  existing  law,  as  a  husband-murderer  and  so 
guilty  of  petty  treason,  was  burnt  at  the  gallows.  In  such 
cases  it  was  the  rule  that  strangulation  should  precede  com- 
bustion, but  the  executioner  let  go  the  rope  too  soon,  and  the 


HOW    HAYES    WAS    KILLED.  473 

unhappy  creature  Hayes  was  literally  burnt  alive.  This  was 
not  the  only  case  in  which  such  a  horrible  catastrophe  had 
occurred,  but  the  law  that  made  it  possible  continued  in  force 
until  1793.  The  last  woman  convicted  of  petty  treason  and 
sentenced  to  be  burnt  was  Phoebe  Harris,  in  1788. 

MADAME  HENRI. 

History  repeats  itself.  More  than  a  hundred  years  after 
Catherine  Hayes,  another  wife  slaughtered  her  husband  under 
somewhat  similar  conditions.  She  was  a  woman  of  Brittany, 
Henri  by  name,  a  hard-working,  well-disposed  peasant,  but 
avaricious,  hating  all  waste  and  wild  living.  Her  husband's 
ways  exasperated  her.  He  was  not  a  bad  sort  of  creature,  so 
the  neighbours  said,  only  his  own  worst  enemy — an  abso- 
lutely hopeless  drunkard. 

When  he  returned  home  in  his  cups  his  wife  gave  him 
the  cold  shoulder,  put  him  on  a  bread- and- water  diet,  and 
abused  him  furiously. 

The  crisis  came  when  she  inherited  a  small  legacy,  and 
saw  this  provision  for  her  old  age  threatened  by  her  husband's 
propensities.  A  night  or  two  afterwards  he  came  home  drunk 
as  usual,  sneered  at  his  wife  with  maudUn  contempt,  and  met 
his  fate. 

Madame  Henri  possessed  herculean  strength,  and  with 
one  blow  of  a  bludgeon  she  struck  him  down,  as  she  thought, 
dead.  Finding  he  still  moved,  she  repeated  her  blows  on  his 
head  and  chest  until  she  had  beaten  in  the  first  and  his  body 
was  black  and  blue.  Not  satisfied  with  this  savage  treatment, 
she  stabbed  him  several  times  with  a  stable  fork. 

The  deed  done,  she  dragged  the  corpse  down  into  the 
cellar,  covered  it  up  with  straw,  went  to  bed,  and  slept  soundly. 
At  daylight  she  borrowed  a  hatchet  from  her  neighbour  and 
proceeded  to  dismember  the  body.  Afterwards,  when  arrested 
and  under  examination,  she  explained  how  she  had  separated 
the  limbs  from  the  body,  how  she  had  cut  off  the  head  and 
disfigured  it.  To  get  rid  of  the  remains,  she  filled  three  sacks 
with  fragments,  and  carried  them  one  by  one  to  the  river. 
The  distance  was  nearly  five  miles,  but  she  made  the  journey 


474  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    CORPUS   DELICTI. 

with  her  ghastly  burthen  night  after  night  on  three  suc- 
cessive nights,  weighted  each  parcel  with  heavy  stones,  and 
threw  them  into  the  running  stream. 

One  of  the  sacks  betrayed  her.  It  was  caught  in  the  bars 
of  a  water-wheel,  and  hung  there  till  the  miller's  man  came 
and  disengaged  it.  "  It  is  the  hand  of  Providence,"  cried  his 
master,  when  they  examined  it  and  found  the  traces  of  a 
crime. 

This  sack  furnished  a  clue,  at  least,  as  to  the  sex  of  the 
murderer,  which  was  quickly  seized  upon  by  the  instructing 
judge.  The  mouth  of  the  sack  had  been  sewn  v/p.  A  man 
would  have  tied  it :  only  a  woman  sews — she  has  her  needle 
and  thread  always  handy. 

The  discovery  of  the  remains  was  followed  by  their  ex- 
posure for  identification.  At  first  several  mistakes  were 
made ;  this  commonly  happens.  At  last,  positive  evidence 
was  offered  that  the  body  was  Henri's,  and  suspicion  at  once 
fell  upon  his  wife.  The  judge  went  straight  to  her  house,  and 
she  fainted  at  the  sight  of  him.  Blood  stains,  clothes  newly 
washed,  the  borrowed  hatchet,  silly  excuses  for  her  husband's 
absence,  all  helped  to  incriminate  the  wife.  At  last  a  gen- 
darme insinuated  himself  into  her  confidence,  and  she  con- 
fessed that  she  had  killed  him  for  coming  home  di-unk. 
"  Next  morning  I  got  a  hatchet  and  cut  him  up  into  small 
pieces,  so  that  he  should  be  less  in  my  way."  She  waited 
till  the  following  day,  as  she  told  the  judge,  because  she 
believed  that  less  blood  would  flow  in  cutting  up  from  a 
corpse  that  was  quite  cold. 

Madame  Henri  was  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to 
travaux  forces  for  twenty  years. 

DISPOSAL    BY    COMBUSTION. 

It  is  recorded  that  the  body  of  Catherine  Hayes  was  not 
entirely  consumed  for  three  hours.  This  statement  is  not 
based  upon  any  exact  evidence,  so  far  as  I  can  find,  and  it 
does  not  tally  with  later  experience.  The  fact  is  interesting 
in  its  way,  and  I  have  called  attention  to  it,  as  it  brings  up 
the  question  of  disposing  of  murdered  remains  by  the  action 


COMBUSTION.  476 

of  fire.  This  has  been  tried  not  infrequently,  and  seldom  with 
success.  It  is,  in  fact,  extremely  difiicult  to  get  rid  of  a  corpse 
by  combustion.  Dr.  Chevers,  an  eminent  medico-legist,  who 
during  a  long  period  of  service  in  India  collected  materials 
for  a  valuable  work  on  "  Medical  Jurisprudence,"  gives  figures 
to  show  the  enormous  amount  of  fuel  required  to  consume 
an  adult  body  entirely.  He  found  that  in  a  funeral  pyre 
at  Patna,  twenty  maunds  (1,600  lb.)  of  wood,  as  well  as 
two  large  bottles  of  oil  were  used,  and  the  combustion  lasted 
for  eight  hours  and  a  half,  without  completely  destroying 
the  remains. 

The  attempt  is  often  made  to  produce  the  appearance  of 
death  from  fire.  We  shall  come  presently  to  the  celebrated 
case  in  Belgium,  that  of  Dubois  de  Bianco,  whose  charred  body 
was  found  in  his  bed,  and  the  police  were  at  first  satisfied  that 
he  had  burnt  himself  to  death  by  carelessly  igniting  the  bed 
hangings.  This  was  shown  on  closer  investigation  to  be  quite 
a  mistake,  and  as  the  steps  by  which  detection  of  the  crime 
was  effected  constitute  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  police 
stories,  I  shall  deal  with  the  facts  on  another  page.  In  this 
case  it  was  satisfactorily  proved  that  combustion  took  place 
most  unmistakably  after  death. 

COUNTESS   VON   GOERLITZ. 

The  time  taken  in  combustion  and  the  circumstances  in 
which  the  burnt  body  was  found,  brought  about  the  detection 
of  the  murderer  of  the  Countess  von  Goerlitz  in  Silesia.  It 
afterwards  came  out  from  his  own  confession  that  a  servant  in 
the  family,  one  Stauff,  the  Count's  valet,  was  detected  in  the 
act  of  stealing  in  the  Countess's  bedroom.  The  thief  turned 
on  his  mistress,  and  after  a  fierce  struggle,  strangled  her.  He 
was  then  faced  with  the  problem  so  often  presented  to  the 
murderer :  How  was  he  to  conceal  his  crime  ?  He  decided 
upon  burning  the  body,  but  leaving  it  so  as  to  appear  that  the 
Countess  had  been  accidentally  destroyed  by  fire.  He  piled 
combustible  pieces  of  furniture  around  her,  and  then  ignited 
them.  The  fire  must  have  been  slow  in  its  effects.  The 
Countess  was  known  to  have  gone  to  her  room  between  three 


476  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    GOBPUS   DELICTI. 

and  four  in  the  afternoon ;  the  Count  came  and  knocked  at 
her  door  at  seven,  but  on  receiving  no  reply,  went  away,  to 
return  at  nine,  when  the  fire  was  discovered.  During  the 
previous  two  hours  a  bright  hght  had  been  seen  at  one 
of  the  bedroom  windows,  and  a  thick  smoke  issuing  from 
the  chimney. 

The  conclusion  arrived  at,  almost  without  question,  was 
that  the  Countess  had  been  burnt  to  death.  The  doctor 
called  in  could  give  no  other  explanation  than  spontaneous 
combustion,  and  there  was  no  further  inquiry  at  the  time. 
The  funeral  took  place  in  due  course,  and  it  was  not  till 
a  year  later  that  suspicion  first  attached  to  Stauff.  He 
made  an  attempt  to  poison  his  master,  and  it  was  thought 
possible  that  he  might  have  also  murdered  his  mistress.  The 
body  of  the  Countess  was  exhumed,  and  submitted  for  the 
opinion  of  the  Medical  College  at  Neisse.  They  decided  that 
there  had  been  no  spontaneous  combustion  ;  the  Countess  at 
the  time  of  her  death  was  in  excellent  health.  Other  and 
more  precise  evidence  showed,  moreover,  that  when  the  room 
was  first  broken  into  flames  burst  out  simultaneously  from  the 
hangings,  the  writing-desk,  and  the  floor  beneath.  It  was 
assumed,  therefore,  that  the  body  had  undergone  slow  com- 
bustion until  it  had  reached  full  red  heat  ;  it  then  ignited 
its  surroundings,  a  process  the  very  opposite  to  that  which 
happens  when  people  are  burnt  to  death.  Then  it  is  found 
that  the  lighted  surroundings  set  fire  to  the  body.  Expert 
evidence  at  the  trial  convicted  Staufi"  of  having  burnt  the  body 
after  death.  Strangulation  had  preceded  burning,  and  was 
the  actual  cause  of  death,  the  tongue  having  been  found 
greatly  protruding,  as  in  the  case  of  violent  strangulation. 

DANIEL  GOOD. 

The  difficulty  of  disposing  of  the  remains  by  fire  was 
shown  also  in  the  case  of  Daniel  Good,  who  murdered  his  wife 
in  1842  in  the  stables  of  Granard  Lodge,  Roehampton.  The 
discovery  of  the  crime  was  another  instance  of  the  helpful 
action  of  mere  chance.  There  would  probably  have  been  no 
detection  but  for  the  stupid  attempt  made  by  Good  to  steal 


DANIEL   GOOD.  477 

a  pair  of  trousers  from  a  pawnbroker's  shop  in  Wandsworth. 
A  policeman  was  called  in  to  arrest  the  thief,  who  made  off 
and  was  followed  to  the  stables  he  occupied  at  Roehampton. 
Close  search  for  the  stolen  trousers  was  made  in  the  larger 
part  of  these  premises,  the  policeman  visiting  the  carriages, 
the  coach-house,  the  stalls  of  one  stable.  But  there  was 
another  stable,  locked,  and  Good  refused  point  blank  to 
give  up  the  key.  At  last  the  bailiff  who  served  the  same 
master  came  and  insisted  that  Good  should  open  the  stable 
door.  Inside  were  several  corn  bins  and  a  number  of  trusses 
of  hay. 

The  pohceman  began  to  turn  these  over,  Good  evincing 
marked  uneasiness  the  while.  Presently,  without  the  slightest 
warning,  he  bolted  out  of  the  stable,  slammed  the  door  behind 
him,  and  turned  the  key  in  the  lock.  The  imprisoned  police- 
man had  come  upon  something  much  more  significant  than 
the  missing  trousers.  Under  a  truss  of  hay  was  the  trunk  of 
a  woman's  body,  from  which  the  head  and  limbs  had  been 
severed.  The  medical  experts  who  were  called  in  bore 
testimony  to  the  sex  and  age,  those  of  a  woman  between 
twenty-four  and  twenty-five.  Other  ghastly  remains  were 
discovered  in  the  fireplace  of  the  harness-room.  Here  was 
a  large  heap  of  wood  ashes,  and  amongst  them  the  nearly 
calcined  bones  of  head,  arms,  and  legs.  Good,  it  was  now 
remembered,  had  kept  large  fires  constantly  burning  in 
the  harness-room. 

Good's  escape  from  justice  was  only  temporary,  although 
he  eluded  pursuit  for  nearly  a  fortnight.  At  last  he  was 
recognised  quite  accidentally  by  an  ex-policeman  who  had 
known  him  at  Wandsworth.  Good  had  got  as  far  as 
Tunbridge,  where  he  was  working  as  a  bricklayer's  labourer. 
He  denied  his  identity,  but  when  taken  before  the  nearest 
magistrate  was  seen  to  take  a  comb  from  his  pocket  and  use 
it  to  bring  the  hair  back  over  a  bald  place  on  his  crown, 
a  constant  trick  with  the  fugitive  murderer.  Further  evidence 
against  him  was  afforded  by  his  use  of  a  part  of  the  blood 
stained  clothing  as  a  pad  to  protect  his  shoulder  from  the 
bricklayer's  hod. 


478  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    GOUPUS   DELICTI. 


COOK. 

The  cases  where  the  annihilation  of  the  remains  by  fire  has 
been  attempted  might  be  multiphed.  This  process  figured  in 
the  murder  of  Mr.  Paas  by  Cook,  the  bookbinder  of  Leicester. 
It  was  contemplated  by  Bolam,  the  bank  manager  of  New- 
castle, who  sought,  by  setting  fire  to  the  bank,  to  give  such 
a  complexion  to  facts  that  he  would  be  himself  exoner- 
ated. Menesclou,  the  young  miscreant  in  Paris  who  murdered 
a  little  child  of  five  and  then  cut  her  up,  tried  combustion 
to  rid  himself  of  the  remains.  Pel,  the  watchmaker  of 
Montreuil,  a  wholesale  murderer  and  poisoner,  who,  in  one 
case  at  least,  found  the  corpus  delicti  lie  heavy  on  his  hands, 
had  recourse  to  the  same  expedient.* 

Cook  was  a  rather  commonplace  murderer.  He  was  in 
debt  to  Mr.  Paas,  a  manufacturer  who  suppUed  him  with  the 
tools  for  his  trade.  Paas  came  down  from  London  to  Leicester 
to  collect  accounts,  and  was  seen  to  enter  Cook's  workshop. 
A  large  fire  was  blazing  that  same  evening  (Wednesday)  in 
this  workshop,  and  Cook  showed  at  a  public-house  that  he 
was  in  the  possession  of  a  large  sum  in  cash.  Through  the 
night  the  same  strong  light  was  seen  on  his  premises,  and 
he  was  heard  continually  moving  about.  Next  morning 
at  daylight  his  landlord,  who  was  a  milkman,  found  Cook 
busily  engaged  at  his  trade. 

All  Thursday  the  light  blazed  in  the  bookbinder's  work- 
shop, and  towards  evening  had  so  increased  that  the 
neighbours  thought  the  premises  had  taken  fire.  Cook 
himself  was  absent,  and  a  forcible  entrance  was  made.  An 
enormous  fire  was  roaring  in  the  grate,  and  on  top  were 
large  pieces  of  flesh  roasting.  Cook,  when  fetched,  declared 
that  it  was  horseflesh  which  he  was  cooking  for  his  dog. 

Medical  evidence  soon  gave  the  lie  to  this  statement, 
and  found  speedy  corroboration  in  the  discovery  of  human 
remains,  a  mutilated  body  partly  consumed,  and  hidden  about 

*  An  interesting  case  will  be  found  in  vol.  ii.,  p.  83 — the  murder  of  one 
doctor  ty  another  in  Boston,  U.S.A.,  which,  was  detected  through  a  false  tooth 
having  resisted  the  action  of  fiie. 


FIRE    NOT  ALWAYS  EFFECTIVE.  479 

in  various  parts  of  the  workshop.  Evidence  fixing  his  identity 
was  also  forthcoming :  the  leg  of  a  pair  of  black  trousers,  such 
as  Mr.  Paas  had  worn  ;  a  snuff-box,  eyeglass,  and  pencil-case 
with  the  initial  "P,"  and  some  scraps  of  black  cloth  were 
found  in  the  workshop  ;  also  a  gaiter  recognised  as  belonging 
to  Mr.  Paas.  The  floor  of  the  workshop  had  been  recently 
washed  and  scoured,  but  was  still  stained  with  the  marks  of 
some  dark  fluid.  On  the  table  was  a  receipt  from  Paas  in- 
completely signed,  and  it  was  surmised  that  he  had  been 
struck  down,  probably  by  a  bookbinder's  mallet,  as  he  was 
seated  writing. 

The  chief  interest  attaching  to  this  ghastly  story  is  in  the 
obvious  difficulties  encountered  by  Cook  in  burning  the  body. 
The  fireplace  had  been  enlarged  by  the  removal  of  a  couple 
of  bricks,  and  two  large  iron  bars  had  been  fixed  on  top  to 
serve  as  a  gridiron.  The  remains,  although  they  presented 
a  charred,  misshapen,  and  most  unsightly  mass,  were  only 
partially  consumed. 

Cook  had  been  arrested  on  suspicion,  but  then  released  on 
bail,  and  now  he  had  absconded.  It  is  a  curious  illustration 
of  the  incomplete  methods  of  those  days  (1832)  that  the 
pursuit  of  the  supposed  criminal  was  left  to  the  relatives  of 
the  deceased.  The  solicitors  of  the  Paas  family  apphed  to 
Bow  Street  for  the  assistance  of  a  couple  of  runners,  and  a 
warrant  was  entrusted  to  one  of  them  for  execution.  Cook 
was  traced  on  the  road  to  Liverpool ;  he  had  been  met  on  the 
tramp,  trying  to  dispose  of  a  watch  and  chain,  to  get  change 
for  five-pound  notes.  At  Liverpool  he  was  on  the  point  of  taking 
ship  for  America,  but  was  cleverly  and  boldly  arrested  by  a 
Leicester  officer  in  an  open  boat,  just  as  he  had  put  out  to  sea. 

Cook  was  duly  executed  in  front  of  the  gaol  at  Leicester, 
and  his  body  was  afterwards  hung  in  chains  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  town,  one  of  the  last  occasions  of  this  barbarous  custom 
of  exposing  the  bodies  of  great  criminals. 

BOLAM. 

Much  mystery  surrounded  another  case,  that  of  Bolam,  in 
Newcastle.     Murder  was  committed  beyond  all  doubt ;  it  is 


480  DISPOSAL    OF   THE    CORPUS   DELICTI. 

equally  certain  that  there  was  an  attempt  to  conceal  the  crime 
by  conflagration.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  of  the  7th  of 
December,  1839,  the  alarm  was  raised  that  the  Newcastle 
Savings  Bank  was  on  fire.  Help  was  sent  instantly,  and  with 
the  prompt  use  of  engines  the  fire  was  extinguished.  When 
all  danger  had  passed,  the  premises  were  entered  to  ascertain 
the  extent  of  the  mischief.  One  of  the  first  sights  that  met 
the  eye  was  the  body  of  the  clerk  of  the  bank,  extended  life- 
less on  the  floor  of  his  ofiice.  His  skull  had  been  smashed 
in,  his  brains  lay  scattered  about  the  floor,  and — plain 
evidence  of  foul  play — his  pockets  were  filled  with  coal. 
The  body,  obviously,  was  to  have  been  burnt  with  the 
house,  and  the  coals  were  so  placed  to  assist  consumption. 

Another  strange  discovery  was  made  in  the  very  next 
room.  There  lay  the  actuary  of  the  bank,  Mr.  Bolam,  in- 
sensible, and  bleeding  from  wounds  in  his  throat.  The  latter 
were  but  trifling,  however,  and  he  was  soon  sufficiently 
recovered  to  give  his  account  of  the  catastrophe. 

Bolam  declared  that  he  had  received  several  threatening 
letters  warning  him  of  danger  impending.  He  had  returned 
home  in  the  evening  to  take  his  tea,  and  on  looking  into  the 
office  had  seen  the  clerk,  as  he  thought,  lying  asleep  on  the 
hearthrug.  Next  minute  he  was  himself  attacked  by  a  man 
with  a  blackened  face,  who  struck  him  down  and  applied  a 
knife  to  his  throat.     He  remembered  no  more. 

Bolam's  story  was  not  believed.  There  had  been  no 
robbery  of  the  bank.  Only  a  few  of  the  books  were  missing, 
but  the  key  of  the  safe  had  disappeared,  also  a  large  sum  in 
gold,  and  both  were  subsequently  found  in  Bolam's  private 
residence.  The  wounds  upon  his  person  were  only  slight, 
there  was  no  blood  on  the  spot  where  he  had  been  found 
lying,  and  that  which  stained  his  clothes  had  flowed  down 
them,  indicating  a  wound  inflicted  while  he  was  in  an 
upright  or  sitting  posture.  Further  suspicion  was  thrown 
upon  him  by  the  disappearance  of  three  of  his  account 
books. 

At  the  inquest,  a  verdict  of  wilful  murder  was  brought 
against  Bolam,  and  he  was  tried  for  his  life.     It  was  brought  in 


COMBUSTION.  481 

manslaughter,  and  the  only  plausible  theory  of  the  crime  was 
that  expounded  by  the  judge,  who  suggested  to  the  jury  that 
some  quarrel  had  arisen  between  Bolam  and  the  clerk, 
and  that  the  former,  in  a  fit  of  fury,  had  assaulted  the  latter 
with  a  poker,  and  killed  him.  "  This  view,"  said  Mr.  Baron 
Maule,  "  furnishes  motives  quite  sufficient  for  the  fire,  as  well 
as  for  the  other  facts."  It  was  then  explained  how  Bolam,  if 
he  really  started  the  fire,  meant  to  escape  from  its  effects.  He 
clearly  did  not  think  it  would  be  only  a  partial  fire,  or  he 
would  not  have  filled  his  victim's  pockets  with  coals.  The 
only  hypothesis  is  that  he  hoped  to  be  rescued  in  an  early 
stage  of  the  burning. 

MENESCLOU. 

Menesclou's  name  is  still  remembered  with  horror  in 
France,  for  not  only  was  his  crime  of  the  most  atrocious 
character,  but  his  conduct  before  and  after  marks  him  as 
one  of  the  vilest  miscreants  that  ever  disgraced  human  nature. 
The  date  of  his  offence  is  1880,  somewhat  anterior  to  the 
development  of  the  science  of  criminal  anthropology,  but  he 
might  have  been  adduced  by  Lombroso  as  a  complete  type  of 
the  "  born  criminal."  He  exhibited  aU  the  physical  traits 
attributed  to  that  strange  phenomenon  of  our  race,  the  low, 
receding  forehead,  protruding  chin,  thin  beard,  shifting  eye ; 
it  might  have  been  said  he  was  half  an  idiot,  and  this  was 
set  up  in  his  defence,  but  the  medical  evidence  distinctly 
credited  him  with  full  mental  responsibility. 

Yet  it  is  perfectly  obvious  that  there  was  arrested  mental 
development.  From  his  early  childhood  he  had  been  a  curse 
to  his  parents.  He  was  persistently,  wickedly  ill-conducted, 
expelled  from  school  after  school.  He  robbed  his  father,  beat 
his  mother ;  at  sixteen  he  was  packed  off  into  the  naval 
service,  and  he  had  but  just  returned  after  three  years'  service 
when  he  committed  the  stupid,  useless  crime. 

The  small  child  of  five  who  was  his  victim,  he  cajoled 
with  sweetmeats  and  a  bunch  of  fresh  violets.  She  was  last 
seen  entering  his  room,  but  he  denied  all  knowledge  of  what 
had  become  of  her.     The  poor  mother,  a  prey  to  increasing 

P   F 


482  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    CORPUS    DELICTI. 

anxiety  as  the  hours  passed,  repeatedly  asked  Menesclou  if  he 
had  seen  her,  and  his  answer  was  always  a  most  self-possessed 
negative.  At  that  moment  she  was  Ijdng  murdered  in  his 
room,  the  room  where  he  spent  much  of  his  time  in  making 
extracts  from  books  of  poetry,  choosing  such  harmless  morsels 
as  "  Good-day ! "  "  Spring,"  or  "  At  the  time  of  the  cherries." 
He  had  concealed  the  smaU  corpse  in  a  cavity  made  in  his 
mattress,  and  had  actually  slept  on  the  bed. 

The  discovery  came  next  day,  led  up  to  by  the  usual 
horrible  indications ;  overpowering  nauseous  odours  that  filled 
the  whole  house,  a  strong  smell  of  burning.  When  the  police 
were  summoned,  the  commissary  sent  a  workman  up  a  ladder 
on  to  the  roof  Menesclou's  lodging  was  a  garret  with  a  dormer 
window.  Through  this  the  workman  saw  him  at  his  stove, 
with  the  tongs  in  his  hand,  feeding  a  fierce  fire  with  very 
suspicious-looking  fuel.  The  miscreant  seemed  perfectly  self- 
possessed,  and  was  quietly  smoking  a  cigarette. 

On  his  trial  he  preserved  the  same  terrible  sangfroid,  until 
the  indignation  of  the  public  broke  forth  so  fiercely  that  he 
responded  furiously,  "  Well,  you  can  do  just  the  same  tome!" 
He  was  executed  after  conviction. 

PEL   AND   DUBOIS   DE   BIANCO. 

Pel,  the  watchmaker  of  MontreuH,  is  another  miscreant 
that  looms  large  in  recent  French  criminal  records.  His 
crimes  do  not  exactly  faU  within  this  branch  of  my  subject, 
as  he  was  a  poisoner,  and  the  deeds  of  the  poisoners  wiU 
demand  a  section  to  themselves.  But  in  the  disposal  of  at 
least  one  of  his  victims,  he  sought  the  assistance  of  fire,  and  he 
found  the  difficulty  I  have  mentioned  in  other  cases.  He  used 
an  ordinary  stove,  and  experiments  were  made  by  eminent 
French  doctors  with  a  stove  of  similar  pattern.  They  affirmed 
that  complete  combustion  was  not  effected  for  forty  hours. 
The  evidence  against  Pel  was  chiefly  circumstantial,  but  it 
was  supported  by  the  usual  suspicious  indications.  A  blazing 
fire  kept  up  continuously  in  the  dog  days,  strong  odours,  the 
discovery  of  a  large  heap  of  ashes  in  the  grate. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  Chevalier  Dubois  de  Bianco's 


M.   DUBOIS  BE   BIANCO.  483 

case,  as  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  police  stories,  and  will 
now  give  it  at  some  length. 

It  was  on  the  2nd  of  December,  1871,  in  the  morning 
about  half-past  seven,  that  the  large  mansion  in  Brussels, 
occupied  by  M.  Dubois  de  Bianco  alone,  was  seen  to  be  on  fire. 
He  was  an  old  gentleman  of  miserly  habits  but  large  means, 
and  his  house  stood  at  the  angle  of  the  two  streets,  Brederode 
and  Theresienne.  The  fire  was  got  under;  it  had  never 
extended  beyond  the  chevalier's  bedroom,  but  therein  its 
efifects  had  been  fatal.  M.  Dubois  de  Bianco  was  found  dead 
in  his  bed;  the  body  much  charred  by  fire,  but  in  the 
opinion  of  the  doctors  called  in,  his  death  had  been  due  to 
asphyxiation  from  the  smoke. 

When  the  police  arrived,  their  inquiries  elicited  the  fact 
that  the  deceased  was  given  to  the  bad  habit  of  smoking  in 
bed.  He  had  been  known,  moreover,  occasionally  to  exceed 
in  drink.  This  was  the  evidence  of  his  own  servants,  Germans, 
one  a  most  confidential  person  who  had  served  his  master  for 
more  than  twenty  years. 

The  explanation  was  accepted  as  perfectly  satisfactory. 
The  report  of  the  police  was  "death  from  natural  causes." 
Seals  were  attached  to  the  safe  and  wardrobes  containing 
personal  effects,  pending  the  arrival  of  the  heirs,  who  were  not 
in  Brussels  at  the  time ;  the  funeral  took  place,  and  the 
whole  incident  was  seemingly  at  an  end. 

Ten  days  after  the  accident,  M.  Dubois  de  Bianco's 
daughter — who  inherited  his  fortune — his  notary,  and  another 
executor  attended  to  witness  the  removal  of  the  seals,  and 
take  over  all  property  and  valuables  in  the  house.  These 
were  kept,  as  the  notary  well  knew,  in  the  deceased's  dressing- 
room  in  a  fireproof  safe.  This  safe  was  a  "  combination  "  safe, 
and  as  the  deceased  chevalier  trusted  no  one  with  the  secret 
of  the  letters  that  worked  the  lock,  the  assistance  of  a  smith 
to  break  it  open  would  no  doubt  be  necessary. 

But  at  the  first  inspection  it  was  seen  that  the  safe  was 
not  securely  closed.  A  single  turn  of  the  key  sufiiced  to  open 
the  door.  Moreover,  when  the  interior  was  laid  bare,  it  was 
found  that  the  safe  was  almost  empty.     There  were  only  a 


481  DISPOSAL    OF   THE    CORPUS    DELICTI. 

couple  of  hundred  odd  shares  and  165  francs  in  cash  remain- 
ing in  this  secure  receptacle,  where  M.  Dubois  de  Bianco  was 
known  to  keep  the  great  bulk  of  his  securities. 

Here  was  substantial  ground  for  suspicion.  Closer  exam- 
ination afforded  more  distinct  evidence.  In  one  comer  of  the 
safe,  concealed  by  a  slight  projection  of  the  iron  wall,  lay 
a  small  parcel  of  coupons,  twenty-three  in  number,  of  the 
Company  Marcinelle  at  Couillet,  which  were  due  for  payment 
on  the  1st  of  October,  the  day  preceding  the  chevalier's 
decease.  This  1st  of  October  was  a  Sunday,  and  pajTnent 
would  therefore  be  delayed  to  the  2nd.  But  the  shares  to 
which  these  coupons  had  belonged,  and  from  which  they  had 
undoubtedly  been  detached  by  the  deceased,  had  disappeared. 
They  must  have  been  stolen :  that  was  plain  and  obvious. 
The  chevalier  could  not  have  sold  them  before  the  1st  of 
October ;  if  so  he  would  have  sold  the  coupons  with  them, 
and  they  would  also  have  disappeared.  The  shares  were  still 
his  property  on  the  day  preceding  his  death ;  he  had  merely 
cut  off  the  coupons  to  cash  them  next  day.  Meanwhile  he 
had  met  his  death,  and  some  one — his  murderer  ? — had 
carried  off  the  shares  but  overlooked  the  coupons. 

Another  small  document  was  also  found  in  the  safe, 
a  precious  scrap  of  paper  for  the  detection,  a  dangerous  clue 
unconsciously  left  by  the  criminaL 

M.  Dubois  de  Bianco  was  a  man  of  method.  He  kept  an 
exact  record  of  the  whole  of  his  securities,  their  description, 
value,  the  dates  on  which  interest  feU  due,  and  the  amounts 
actually  received  for  many  years.  The  whole  of  these  stocks 
and  shares  had  disappeared,  also  a  large  quantity  of  Prussian 
bank-notes,  with  a  considerable  sum  in  gold  and  silver  thalers, 
the  whole  of  which  he  had  recently  received  from  Germany. 

The  fact  of  robbery  was  now  established  beyond  dispute. 
There  was  strong  presumption,  too,  that  foul  play  had  accom- 
panied the  crime.  An  inquiry  was  forthwith  ordered,  and 
a  high  judicial  functionary  proceeded  to  conduct  it  on  the 
scene  of  the  supposed  crime. 

The  fire,  as  has  been  said,  had  been  limited  to  the  bed- 
room, and  it  had  raged  most  fiercely  around  the  bed.     Close 


OLUES   TO    THE    MY8TEBT.  485 

by  this  bed  hung  the  remains  of  a  bell-rope  communicating 
with  the  room  above,  in  which  slept  the  valet.  Could  the 
asphyxiation  have  been  so  rapid  as  to  have  quite  prevented 
the  deceased  from  summoning  assistance  ?  A  brass  candle- 
stick almost  completely  melted  was  found  in  the  bed.  How 
could  it  have  got  there  ?  Had  it  not  been  used  to  ignite  the 
curtains  ?  Was  not  this  a  more  probable  explanation  of  the 
fire  than  the  cigar  ash  of  the  careless  chevalier  ?  Besides,  the 
proper  place  for  this  candlestick  would  be  on  the  pedestal 
table  by  the  bedside.  This  table  was  intact;  it  had  been 
almost  spared  by  the  fire. 

The  chief  piece  of  furniture  in  the  bedroom  was  a  large 
wardrobe  with  muTors  on  the  doors.  These  glasses  were 
cracked.  Inside  the  wardrobe  it  was  found  that  the  smoke 
and  the  greasy  constituents  of  the  flame  had  deposited  a 
thick  black  powder  which  lay  on  every  object.  When  any- 
thing was  lifted,  it  left  beneath  a  clear,  clean  impression — 
white  on  a  black  ground.  One  article  in  particular  had  lain 
upon  a  pocket-handkerchief  stained  black  by  the  smoke-dust. 
This  was  the  key  of  the  iron  safe. 

On  taking  up  this  key  it  was  found  to  be  without  its 
sheath.  It  had  not  been  covered  with  its  sheath  before  or 
during  the  fire.  This  was  proved  plainly,  because  the  imprint 
of  the  key  upon  the  handkerchief  showed  distinctly  the  two 
small  shts  seen  so  often  near  the  orifice  of  a  safety  key.  It 
was  a  natural  sequitwr  then  that  the  key  had  been  lying  in 
the  wardrobe  during  the  progress  of  the  fire.  The  inference 
was  obvious  :  someone  before  the  fire  had  taken  the  key  from 
the  wardrobe,  had  used  it  without  its  sheath,  and,  stiU  without 
it,  had  replaced  the  key  in  the  wardrobe. 

Where  then  was  the  sheath?  It  was  remembered  now 
that  at  the  time  of  placing  the  seals,  on  the  day  of  the  first 
discovery— the  2nd  of  October,  that  is  to  say — this  sheath  had 
been  found  lying  outside  on  the  top  of  the  safe.  Another 
fact  was  remembered  of  this  date  :  that  the  authorities,  wish- 
ing to  seal  up  the  effects,  had  been  given  the  safe-key  by  one 
of  the  servants — the  valet,  Louis  Grohen,  who  had  been  the 
chevalier's  servant  for  twenty  years. 


48fi  DISPOSAL    OF    TEE    CORPUS   DELICTI. 

Furthermore,  Grohen  had  produced  a  bunch  of  keys,  his 
master's  keys,  from  his  own  pocket,  and  with  one  of  them  had 
unlocked  the  wardrobe  already  described.  It  was  Grohen 
who  got  the  safe-key  out  and  handed  it  over.  It  was  Grohen, 
again,  who,  when  the  key  was  applied  to  the  safe  to  see  if 
it  really  belonged  to  it,  declared  that  it  could  not  be  used 
without  a  knowledge  of  the  combination.  Some  one  certainly 
had  tampered  with  the  lock,  some  one  having  a  certain  but 
not  complete  knowledge  of  its  action. 

The  last  combination  used  by  M.  Dubois  de  Bianco  had 
been  displaced,  a  new  set  of  letters  substituted,  but  the  inter- 
lopers had  forgotten  to  give  a  double  turn  to  the  lock.  This 
proved  that  they  thought  it  sufficient  to  disarrange  the  letters, 
not  knowing  that  the  key  would  open  the  lock  if  "  on  the 
single  "  without  the  combination. 

Grave  suspicion  now  began  to  rest  upon  the  two  servants 
who  alone  resided  with  the  deceased.  Various  remarks  made 
by  them  were  now  remembered  to  their  discredit.  One  had 
declared  that  M.  Dubois  de  Bianco  was  capable  of  burning  his 
securities  sooner  than  let  his  fortune  pass  to  his  daughter, 
whom  he  hated.  Another  hinted  darkly  that  that  daughter's 
husband,  M.  Duval  de  Beaulieu,  had  been  the  first  to  open 
the  safe,  and  that  he  had  stolen  the  securities  as  well  as  a 
will  which  the  servants  believed  had  been  made  in  their 
favour.  One  of  them  told  two  stories  as  to  the  events  of 
the  night.  It  was  he  who  slept  above  the  deceased  who 
at  first  declared  he  had  heard  nothing,  and  then  admitted 
that  the  beU  had  rung  and  a  pistol-shot  had  been  fired. 

Another  suspicious  fact  was  the  disappearance  of  a  pocket- 
book  from  the  safe,  in  which  the  deceased  entered  the  details 
of  his  property.  Grohen,  the  servant,  knew  of  the  existence 
of  this  pocket-book  and  what  it  contained;  indeed,  he  had 
spoken  of  it  to  the  police.  But  its  removal — if  by  design,  as 
was  nearly  certain— was  nullified  by  the  discovery  of  the 
scrap  of  paper  containing  the  very  same  information. 

These  suspicions  were  not,  however,  deemed  sufficient  to 
arrest  the  two  servants,  and  both  presently  left  Brussels. 
Viander  returned  to  his  native  place  in  Germany ;  Grohen 


THE    CASE  AGAINST   THE   SERVANTS.  487 

Stayed  lor  a  time  in  Brussels,  then  went,  about  Decennber,  to 
Sielsdorf,  in  Prussia.  While  there  he  received  a  letter  from 
a  friend  warning  him  to  be  on  his  guard ;  that  inquiries  were 
being  made  for  him,  and  for  Stupp. 

This  was  the  first  mention  of  the  name  Stupp,  the  first 
reference  to  an  individual  who  was  now  to  fill  a  large  space 
in  the  mystery. 

Stupp  was  an  intimate  friend  of  both  Grohen  and 
Viander.  He  was  known  also  to  M.  Dubois  de  Bianco,  having 
married  the  daughter  of  one  of  the  chevaher's  tenants  in 
Germany,  and  taken  over  the  farm  on  his  own  account. 
Stupp  was  a  wastrel,  who  had  spent  his  wife's  portion,  had 
failed  to  pay  his  rent,  and  had  been  ejected  from  the 
farm.  M.  Dubois  had  forbidden  his  servants  to  have  any 
dealings  with  him.  Yet  this  Stupp,  when  he  came  to 
Brussels,  had  been  made  secretly  welcome  in  M.  Dubois  de 
Bianco's  house,  kept  there  for  a  week,  altogether  unknown 
to  its  master. 

Stupp's  movements  in  Brussels  were  subsequently  traced 
with  exactitude.  He  lodged  at  various  places,  always  miserably 
poor,  trying  various  kinds  of  work  and  succeeding  in  none. 
He  spoke  often  of  M.  Dubois  de  Bianco  and  always  in  the 
bitterest  terms.  Towards  the  end  of  September  he  talked  of 
leaving  for  England ;  he  only  awaited  frmds  which  he  expected 
to  a  considerable  amount  from  Germany.  On  the  night  of 
the  1st  of  October  he  left  his  lodgings  suddenly,  abandoning 
his  baggage,  such  as  it  was.  That  was  the  night  of  the  fire 
in  the  Rue  Brederode. 

Now  Stupp  was  lost  sight  of  for  a  time.  The  inquiry 
languished ;  it  was  only  revived  by  the  good  news  that  some 
of  the  stolen  securities  had  come  into  the  market.  The 
names  and  numbers  had  been  industriously  circulated  hj 
the  police,  and  all  the  bankers  and  brokers  were  on  the 
qui  vive.  Early  in  February,  several  coupons  belonging  to 
certain  of  the  missing  shares  were  presented  for  payment  in 
Brussels,  and  traced  back  through  Antwerp  to  London,  and 
then  to  New  York.  Other  correspondence  and  the  shares 
themselves  were  presently  seized  in  New  York,  and  it  was 


488  BI8F08AL    OF    THE    CORPUS   DELICTI. 

clearly  seen  tliat  a  portion  at  least  of  the  stolen  property  was 
being  realised  in  the  United  States. 

Instructions  were  despatched  at  once  to  New  York  to  trace, 
if  possible,  the  person  who  had  been  concerned  in  this  trans- 
action, and  arrest  him.  He  was  taken,  and  although  he  was 
under  another  name,  his  description  taUied  exactly  with  that 
of  the  missiag  Stupp. 

Grohen  was  soon  afterwards  arrested  in  Brussels,  and  steps 
were  taken  to  secure  the  extradition  of  Stupp.  The  case 
seemed  black  against  the  accused.  Stupp  had  no  doubt  com- 
mitted the  robbery,  and  was  cognisant  of,  if  not  the  actual 
author  of  the  murder.  He  could  not  have  got  into  the  house 
without  the  connivance  of  the  servants;  to  have  climbed 
the  walls  or  entered  surreptitiously  was  proved  impossible. 
He  could  not  have  opened  the  safe  except  by  force.  This 
was  unnecessary,  as  both  the  servants,  according  to  clear 
testimony,  were  in  possession  of  the  letters  that  worked 
the  combination. 

Had  Stupp  worked  alone,  he  would  have  forced  the  safe 
and  laid  his  hands  on  the  whole  of  the  contents.  He  would 
hardly  have  been  suspected,  for  his  presence  in  Brussels  at 
that  time  was  not  known,  nor  for  many  weeks  later.  If  he, 
and  he  alone,  had  been  the  thief  and  murderer,  all  the  pre- 
cautions taken  to  re-arrange  the  combination,  put  the  safe-key 
back  into  the  wardrobe  would  have  been  unnecessary;  nor 
would  it  have  been  necessary  to  set  fire  to  the  bed  hangings 
so  as  to  suggest  the  chevalier's  accidental  death. 

In  due  course,  Grohen,  the  only  one  in  custody,  was  sent 
before  the  assize  court  charged  with  the  triple  crime  of  theft, 
incendiarism  and  murder.  But  the  evidence  against  him  was 
not  deemed  conclusive ;  the  fact  that  death  was  due  to  foul 
play  and  not  to  misadventure  was  not  proved  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  jury,  and  Grohen  was  acquitted. 

Two  years  later,  after  many  tedious  formalities,  Strupp  was 
extradited  and  sent  back  to  Belgium.  He  had  been  in  custody 
for  three  years  in  the  United  States,  but  was  now  surrendered 
to  stand  his  trial.  His  defence  when  arraigned  was  to  throw 
the  crime  upon  Viander,  who  had  brought  him   the   stolen 


TRIAL   OF  ACCUSED.  489 

securities  with  sufficient  money  to  take  him  across  the  Atlantic, 
where  he  was  to  dispose  of  them.  In  order  to  test  this 
allegation,  the  presiding  judge  issued  a  safe-conduct  for 
Viander,  who  was  in  Germany  beyond  pursuit,  if  he  would 
consent  to  appear  in  court. 

So  Viander,  who  was  now  serving  in  the  German  army, 
came  and  was  confronted  with  Stupp.  As  he  also  was  an 
accused,  he  could  not  be  sworn,  but  his  testimony  was  taken 
and  apparently  believed.  He  indignantly  denied  the  state- 
ments made  by  Stupp,  whose  guilt  was  presently  made  clear ; 
he  was  convicted  and  sentenced  to  death,  but  did  not  suffer 
the  extreme  penalty. 

DISTKIBUTION    AFTER    DISMEMBERMENT. 

A  common  behef  with  the  murderer  who  has  had  recourse 
to  dismemberment  is  that  he  will  evade  detection  by  distri- 
buting the  fragments  at  wide  intervals  apart.  This  was  clearly 
in  the  mind  of  Greenacre,  who  murdered  Hannah  Brown  in 
1836,  a  mysterious  crime  which  startled  all  London,  and  re- 
mained undiscovered  for  nearly  three  months.  On  the  28th 
of  December  a  bricklayer  found  a  package,  enveloped  in  coarse 
cloth  or  sacking,  concealed  behind  a  paving-stone,  on  the  road 
to  Kilburn,  and  lying  in  a  pool  of  fi'ozen  blood.  The  place 
was  close  to  the  Pine  Apple  toll-bar.  The  contents  of  the 
package  proved  to  be  the  trunk  of  a  female,  the  arms 
still  intact,  the  head  and  legs  dissevered.  This  was  wrapped 
up  in  a  piece  of  blue-printed  cotton,  part  of  a  child's 
frock,  much  worn.  There  was  nothing  likely  to  lead  to 
identification,  except  a  peculiar  malformation,  with  signs  in 
the  hands  and  arms,  that  indicated  that  deceased  had  led  a 
laborious  life.  Ten  days  later  a  head  was  picked  up  in  the 
Regent's  Canal,  Stepney,  at  the  lock  known  as  "Ben 
Johnson's."  The  lockman  had  met  with  an  obstruction  in 
letting  a  barge  through  the  gates,  and  using  his  "  hitcher  "  or 
boat-hook,  had  brought  up  a  human  head. 

It  was  subjected  to  medical  examination,  when  in  addition 
to  the  bruises  and  lacerations  probably  caused  by  the  lockman 
in  recovering  it,  a  severe  bruise  was  found  over  one  eye,  that 


490  DISPOSAL    OF    THE    GOBPUS    DELICTI. 

must  have  been  inflicted  during  life.  It  further  appeared  that 
the  head  had  been  very  rudely  severed  from  the  body,  the 
cervical  vertebrae  had  been  sawn  through  quite  roughly,  and 
it  was  thus  connected  with  the  mutilated  trunk  already  found 
in  the  Edgware  Road.  The  saw-marks  fitted  in  exactly,  and 
the  head  and  body  were  evidently  parts  of  the  same  individual 
in  life.  Still,  no  one  came  forward  to  identify  the  head  which, 
as  in  the  Hayes  case,  was  handed  over  to  the  surgeon,  to  be 
preserved  in  spirits  of  wine. 

Two  months  more  elapsed  before  the  rest  of  the  body  was 
unearthed.  A  labourer  cutting  osiers  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Cold  Harbour  Lane,  CamberweU,  saw  a  large  bundle  lying 
half  immersed  in  the  water  of  a  ditch.  On  raising  it,  he  found 
a  human  toe  protruding,  and  calling  assistance,  the  package 
was  opened,  and  exhibited  a  pair  of  human  legs.  When 
applied  to  the  parts  already  discovered,  they  proved  to  belong 
to  the  human  frame  discovered  in  the  Edgware  Road.  These 
three  discoveries  had  entirely  falsified  the  murderer's  calcula- 
tion ;  he  had  lodged  them  purposely  at  points  far  distant  from 
one  another,  and  yet  they  had  been  picked  up,  compared 
without  difiSculty,  pieced  together,  and  constituted  umistak- 
able  evidence  of  heinous  crime  against  persons  unknown. 

Yet  three  more  weeks  passed  before  the  remains  were 
identified.  A  man  named  Gay,  of  Goodge  Street,  Tottenham 
Court  Road,  asked  for  permission  to  view  the  remains.  He 
had  lost  sight  of  a  sister,  whose  married  name  was  Brown, 
for  several  months.  She  had  not  been  seen  or  heard  of  since 
the  day  before  Christmas  Day.  When  he  examined  the 
severed  head,  he  pronounced  it  at  once  and  unhesitatingly 
to  be  that  of  Hannah  Brown.  Several  people  corroborated 
this  declaration,  and  -thus  at  last  the  first  step  was  made 
towards  detection. 

The  police  soon  ascertained  that  the  woman  Brown  had 
been  last  seen  in  company  with  a  man  named  Greenacre,  to 
whom  she  was  about  to  be  married.  She  had  gone  to  dine 
with  him  on  Christmas  Eve  at  his  house  in  Carpenter's 
Buildings,  CamberweU,  and  never  returned.  That  same  night 
Greenacre  came  to  her  old  lodgings  to  ask  for  her,  saying  the 


GBEENAGBE.  491 

marriage  was  broken  off,  that  she  had  deceived  him  about  the 
value  of  her  property.  He  appeared  angry  and  agitated. 
Three  days  later  he  went  to  the  brother  and  told  him  he  had 
quarrelled  with  Hannah,  that  she  had  left  his  house,  and  that 
he  did  not  know  what  had  become  of  her. 

Greenacre  was  arrested  with  his  supposed  accomplice,  a 
woman  named  Gale,  and  not  a  moment  too  soon.  His  boxes 
were  corded  up,  some  had  already  gone  on  board  ship,  and 
he  was  on  the  point  of  embarking  for  America.  The  trunks 
seized  were  examined,  and  many  incriminating  articles  found ; 
among  them  the  remnants  of  an  old  cotton  dress,  correspond- 
ing in  pattern  and  condition  with  the  pieces  in  which  the  body 
was  wrapped,  when  found  in  Edgware  Road. 

Several  circumstances  told  against  Greenacre.  Noises  of 
scuffling  and  fighting  were  heard  in  his  room  on  Christmas 
Eve.  On  Boxing  Day  Mrs.  Gale  came,  and  the  place  was 
thoroughly  washed  out.  Two  days  later  Greenacre  was  seen 
leaving  the  premises  carrying  a  blue  merino  bag,  and  the 
following  week  he  moved  house  altogether.  The  rooms  he 
vacated  smelt  strongly  of  brimstone,  and  had  evidently  been 
fumigated.  It  was  sworn  that  the  outer  covering  of  the 
Edgware  Road  parcel  was  a  sack  stolen  by  Greenacre  from  a 
shop  in  Tottenham  Court  Road,  the  shopman  having  identified 
it  by  the  shavings  still  inside,  and  the  cord  with  which  the 
mouth  was  closed. 

Greenacre  was  eventually  found  guilty,  and  he  made  a 
strenuous  effort  to  exonerate  the  woman  Gale,  but  she  was 
also  convicted.  Greenacre's  first  stol-y  was  that  he  had  kiUed 
Hannah  Brown  by  inadvertence,  having  playfully  tilted  over  a 
chair  in  which  she  was  rocking  herself  But  before  execution 
he  confessed  that  he  became  furious  at  her  false  statements  in 
regard  to  her  property,  that  he  seized  a  rolling-pin  and  struck 
her  with  it  over  the  eye.  To  his  horror  he  found  that  he  had 
killed  her,  and  then  knowing  he  would  be  charged  with  the 
murder,  he  began  to  consider  how  he  might  screen  himself 
from  the  consequences.  A  variety  of  methods  suggested  them- 
selves, but  he  at  last  decided  on  dismemberment  and  the 
distribution  of  the  pieces.     The  head  he  carried  out  first. 


492  III8P08AL    OF    TEE    CORPUS   DELICTI. 

wrapped  in  a  silk  handkercliief,  and  with  this  ghastly  bundle 
on  his  knees  he  travelled  by  omnibus  from  Camberwell  to 
Gracechurch  Street.  Then  changing  into  a  Mile  End  'bus  he 
reached  Stepney,  and  following  the  course  of  the  Regent's 
Canal  on  foot,  he  "  shot  the  head  fr'om  the  handerchief  into  the 
water,"  at  the  lock.  Early  on  the  morning  of  the  26th  of 
December,  he  again  applied  himself  to  his  loathsome  task, 
and,  having  severed  the  legs,  packed  them  in  a  sack  and  took 
them  to  the  osier-bed  in  Cold  Harbour  Lane.  There  remained 
the  trunk,  and  this  he  wrapped  up  as  best  he  could,  then 
shouldering  the  heavy  bundle,  he  went  out,  still  uncertain 
where  he  should  deposit  this  last  vestige  of  his  crime.  A 
carrier's  cart  passed,  and  the  driver  gave  him  a  lift  as  far 
as  Newington,  where  Greenacre,  thinking  the  progress 
made  too  slow,  took  a  hackney  cab,  and  was  driven  to  the 
Edgware  Road.  The  bundle  he  hid  under  the  seat  until  they 
reached  the  Pine  Apple  toU-gate,  where  he  alighted  and 
walked  on  towards  Eolburn,  tiU  he  found  a  suitable  place  of 
concealment  for  the  sack.  All  this  he  did  in  broad  daylight, 
feeling  in  his  own  mind  more  safe  in  working  thus  openly  than 
under  cover  of  the  night.  At  the  end  of  all  he  was  careful  to 
destroy  his  handkerchief  and  all  other  possible  clues.  But,  as 
we  have  seen,  he  could  not  escape  his  fate. 

Greenacre  wrote  his  autobiography  while  in  the  con- 
demned cell,  after  the  manner  of  more  fashionable  mur- 
derers. His  chief  object  was  to  show  that  he  had  always 
been  an  industrious,  respectable  person,  temperate  in  his 
habits,  abhorring  the  public-house,  a  kindly  master,  long- 
suffering  to  his  debtors,  esteemed  in  his  locality,  and  elected 
by  an  overwhelming  majority  to  the  office  of  overseer  of  his 
parish.  His  business  was  that  of  a  grocer,  and  he  had  so 
prospered  that  he  owned  a  fair  amount  of  house  property  in 
Camberwell.  He  was  a  man  of  strong,  even  violent  pohtical 
bias,  and  was  said  to  have  been  concerned  in  the  famous  Cato 
Street  conspiracy.  He  may  not  have  deliberately  premedi- 
tated the  murder,  but  his  cold-blooded  atrocity  in  dealing 
with  the  remains  betrayed  his  truculent  character,  which  was 
further  illustrated  by  his  strange  conduct  in  endeavouring  to 


A    GERMAN   CASE.  493 

enter  into  another  marriage  soon  after  the  murder.     He  had 

advertised  in  the  Times,  of  the  23rd  of  January,  for  a  partner 

with  £300  to  join  him  in  patenting  a  newly-invented  washing 

machine,  and  amongst  the  replies  was  one  from  a  lady  of 

undoubted  respectability.   A  correspondence  followed,  in  which 

Greenacre  made  "propositions  of  honourable  nature  to  one 

whom  he  might  prefer  as  a  companion  for  life."    The  proposal 

was  not  accepted,  happily  for  the  lady  in  question.    Greenacre 

had  an  eye  to  business,  and  his  victim,  Hannah  Brown,  was 

supposed  to  have  amassed  considerable  savings.     The  woman 

Gale,  Greenacre's  accomplice,  was  sentenced  to  transportation 

for  life. 

Rauschmeier. 

Let  me  diverge  for  a  moment  to  Germany.  The  criminal 
records  of  Bavaria  record  dismemberment  at  a  still  earlier 
date.  A  murder  was  perpetrated  in  Augsburg  in  1821  which 
exhibits  many  of  the  usual  details  of  short-sighted  brutality. 
It  is  to  be  included,  too,  among  those  which  might  not 
have  been  brought  home  but  for  the  over-ruling  action  of 
Chance. 

Maria  Anna  Holzmann  lived  in  the  house  of  a  shoemaker 
of  Augsburg,  and  sublet  part  of  her  lodging  to  two  ne'er-do- 
wells  named  Rauschmeier  and  Stiener.  She  was  an  old  char- 
woman, a  careful  and  industrious  body,  who  was  supposed  to 
have  saved  money.  One  day  she  disappeared,  so  did  her  two 
lodgers.  The  date  was  the  12th  of  April,  yet  the  landlord 
gave  no  notice  to  the  police  until  the  17th  of  May  that  the 
woman  was  missing. 

Holzmann's  relatives,  accompanied  by  a  magistrate,  went 
to  secure  her  effects,  but  found  that  the  best  part  of  her 
property  was  missing.  Moreover,  the  lodging  was  filled  with 
overpoweringly  nauseous  odours. 

Yet  no  further  search  was  made  then.  It  was  supposed 
that  Holzmann  had  committed  suicide,  her  rooms  remained 
unoccupied  and  nothing  more  transpired  till  the  following 
January.  Then  another  lodger,  who  had  gone  up  to  the  loft 
adjoining  Holzmann's  rooms  to  hang  up  linen,  discovered 
parts  of  a  human  body.     The  alarm  was  given,  and  other 


494  DISPOSAL    OF   THE    CORPUS   DELIOTI. 

portions  were  found — some  among  the  heap  of  rubbish  in  the 
comer  of  the  loft ;  more,  six  yards  distant,  wedged  in  between 
the  chimney  and  the  roof.  Near  at  hand  were  an  old  gown, 
a  petticoat,  and  a  red  neckerchief,  all  much  stained  with 
blood. 

The  strangest  discovery  of  all  was  made  in  taking  up  the 
floor  of  the  room  Rauschmeier  had  occupied.  Here  were 
more  remains,  among  them  the  left  arm,  bent  double  and 
wrapped  up  in  an  old  shift.  When  later  the  doctors,  in  their 
efforts  to  reconstitute  the  body,  tried  to  straighten  this  arm,  a 
brass  ring  fell  out  of  the  bend  of  the  elbow,  where  it  had  been 
held  tight  hitherto  by  the  muscular  contraction. 

This  ring  was  a  tell-tale — a  silent  but  still  convincing 
witness  to  the  crime.  It  was  assumed,  and  rightly,  that  it 
belonged  to  one  of  the  murderers,  and  that  it  had  slipped  off 
his  linger  while  he  was  engaged  in  cutting  up  the  body. 

There  was  no  difficulty  in  identifying  the  corpse  as  that  of 
Holzmann.  The  head  was  not  in  the  possession  of  the  poHce, 
although  it  was  supposed  that  it  had  been  seen  in  the  weir  of 
a  factory  adjoining  the  house  in  which  Holzmann  lived.  The 
factory  inspector  had  fished  it  out,  shown  it  to  his  brother, 
and  then  thrown  it  back  into  the  running  water,  by  which  it 
had  been  carried  off.  From  his  description  and  the  scanty 
number  of  teeth  it  was  believed  to  be  Holzmann's  head. 
More  positive  evidence  was  afforded  by  the  remains.  The 
deceased  exhibited  the  peculiarity  that  one  foot,  the  right, 
was  thicker  than  the  left,  and  that  one  of  her  toes  had  been 
removed. 

Suspicion  at  once  rested  upon  the  men  Stiener  and 
Rauschmeier.  The  fact  that  both  had  continued  to  reside  tor 
some  days  in  the  house  without  giving  notice  of  Holzmann's 
disappearance,  and  tihat  they  had  then  absconded,  went  very 
much  against  them.  Rauschmeier,  too,  was  detected  in 
disposing  of  much  of  Holzmann's  property.  He  admitted  the 
theft,  and  the  astute  judge  did  not  press  the  accusation  of 
murder.  So,  when  various  articles  of  Holzmann's  dress  were 
exhibited,  Rauschmeier  admitted  that  he  had  stolen  them. 
When  he  saw  certain  ear-rings,  gold  rings,  and  a  brass  ring,  he 


THE   TELL-TALE   RING.  495 

admitted  to  having  taken  the  first,  but  declared  that  the  last 
was  his  ovm  property. 

"  See ! "  he  cried,  "  it  fits  my  little  finger,  easily,  too  easily. 
It  must  have  slipt  off,  somehow,  somewhere." 

This  naive  acknowledgment  ruined  him.  He  was  con- 
victed by  the  tell-tale  ring. 

Stiener,  who  was  half-witted,  made  a  long  rambUng  con- 
fession charging  Rauschmeier  with  the  crime,  and  admitting 
his  own  comphcity.  The  confession  was  proved  to  be  a  tissue 
of  lies,  and  eventually  Stiener  was  held  to  be  exonerated  by 
Eauschmeier's  statements  and  was  acquitted. 

Eauschmeier  was  convicted  and  duly  executed. 


END  OF  VOLUME  I. 


PRINTED    BY    CASSELL    AND    COMPANY,    LIMITED, 

LA    BELLE    SAUVAGE,     LUDSATB    HILL, 

LONDON,    EX. 


"   S681  II  030 

FEb  IS  ^^^^ 

APB  27  iau3