CRIME AND MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 76, 29 March 1924, Page 19

CRIME AND MYSTERY.

I Criminalsi Dodge Detectives— Clever Organisation—Crime Artist Charles Peace— Hrides-an-the-Bath Smith—Seddon the Poisoner —The Infamous Landru.

r e the crooks of to-day cleverer than tBOSe of yesterday ? This is a question that is often asked and very seldom completely jUSffered. The differences between the cirjnmstances with which criminals of fifty yjjrs ago had to contend and those to b<; faced by their likes to-day are so gre-it tbat a comparison is difficult, though by no a cans impossible.

Every day some new device is being invented, or some old one- improved, to SSSiSt the gnarrtians of law and order jj, their task of defeating criminals. Wiroless telegraphy and telephon.v are being adapted for police purposes, the Bertillon fjstem of identification by finger-prints is being greatly improved, international police (Operation is daily becoming closer and closer, and even aerrtplanes are being Utilised for the pursuit of suspects.

In fact, the old professional crook of the Bill Syfces type is being crushed out of existence in these days of specialism. There is no living for the ignorant ruffian who works by violence.

Of course, the bnitnl highway robbery gtill happens. Every now and again some footpad attacks a person on n lonely road. aui makes off with what he can collect. But capture always follows, and crooks in prison don't count. Working in Gangs. There is only one class of niastercriminal, and the members of this set are known to the general public. That is why they are masters. They work in such a way as to remain just within the law. As Sir Leonard Dunning, Inspector o£ Constabulary, has said, "Modern crime is Civilised and educated, because the criminal of to-day knows that it is far safer and more profitable to swindle hundreds than to rob one by knocking him on the head."

The greatest advance made by criminals Is in organisation. Since the great Improvement in the manufacture of safes. It has become almost impossible for a tingle crook, whether an ordinary jimmy, wielder or a real-life "A. J. Raffles," sueKssfully to crack a crib.

Nowadays anything up to half a dozen men will work on the same job, each having his own particular part to perform. Sot so many weeks ago a large jeweller's •hop tras burgled, and It was done in such ■ way as would have turned that "Old master of crime," Adam Worth, green with «nvy. Several men were engaged on the job. First, a series of Iron bars protecting the top-storey windows were cut with a steel law. Entrance effected to the premises »bove the shop, the gang next cut a large hole In the ceiling, first lowering a large umbrella to catch all falling debris.

But their troubles were not ended when they got into the shop. The strong-room doors were of triple steel, and would have withstood a charge of dynamite. The crooks, however, were prepared for a long job, and had come provisioned for the week-end.

Setting to work, they first of all erected ■ pasteboard replica of the wail into which the safe was fitted. This was so well done that it completely deceived the constable on the beat, who hourly made his inspection through the peephole in the blind.

Behind this screen the crooks worked. They were armed with acetylene cylinders, and with the aid of this powerful agency ent the lock right out of the safe. To protect themselves from the flare they had erected mica screens and also little troughs to catch the molten steel that came from the safe, and which otherwise would have •et th& floor on fire. *

This is burglary up-to-date. What a difference from the times of Charley Peace! But primitive in his methods as Peace was, he, too, was an artist In crime, and was tble to adapt himself co well to the circnmstance3 that it is safe to suggest that even in modern times he would have been •nccessful.

His greatest feat, that of being arrested aii Imprisoned for begging, while ttie police of the whole country were searching after him for murder, Iβ unparalleled In criminology. Perhaps the nearest to it was the case of the famous Jonathan Wild, Trio, at one and the same time was leader of the crooks of London, chief resetter In the kingdom, police spy, and latex police official.

Tie last of the great "lone wolf" crooks 'was Adam Worth. He was the leader of a considerable gang, but always carried one the big jobs assisted only by a watcher.

In this manner he etole the famous Gainsborough "Duchess of Devonshire," a tew months later robbei a hank at the Cape of thousands of pounds, and then railed back to Europe to hold up the bullion wagons on their way to Lonvaln. This Job proved his downfall, but, previous to it lie had managed to Seep immune from capture, and had been living like a lord in a London suburb, while a powerless police knew him to be the greatest criminal of the age. Arranging a Burglary. To-iay Worth would have filled a different role, the position that is at present lelfl by a known "wrong *un," who. nevertheless, has cracked a crib. This is "the crook adviser to the city. ,.

Every morning he mates his jonrncj to his office, silk-hatted and white bespatted as a city magnate. But once arrived there a different scene is unfolded.

Instead of dealing in stocks an* shares, lie deals in burglary, forgery, and blackmail, but always in an advisory capacity enly.

For a prtce he will make all arrangements for a burglary, or will advise an Weiperlenced client how to carry ont a campaign of blackmail. In this line his great asset is his unrivalled knowledge of how much a person will pay without squealingHe will also supply forgers with correct details of the documents they intend to imitate an* will further supply full details ef the easiest method of turning the forged documents into cash.

Farther, for a consideration, he will make all necessary arrangements for a firm to fail successfully, and his knowledge of how to drive a horse and cart through the law is second to none.

But in all Ills work he never actually takes a hand In any criminal action. He is an adviser, nothing more, and it is for this reason that he claims that he is immnne from arrest. Still, the fact remains that from this nefarious bnsiness he rakes in > •alary of not less than £SOOO per annnm. Then there is the huge class of parasites *ho practise confidence trickery- in ,t? latest guise this is quite a new departure In crime. These are persons who earn large incomes by trading on the extraOrdinary credulity of wealthy people, particularly visitors to this conntry. The adepts in this side-line are men and women of good education and splendid appearance. They frequent the best note.s an* spend money like rrater -when angling for some rich catch. Of these "Bludger Bill" Warren is a striking example. Warren started out on the lines of the old-time criminal, but tecurlns only several terms of imprisonment in various colonies for bis troub.e. thought of something new. He turned to

the confidence trick and followed this line with such success that hie sang became the best organised in the world.

His Big Mistake.

Swindles by this mob have been discovered .ija most European capitals, but, still, Warren manngcJ to dodge arrest. Not by rushing about from one country to another, as if all the fiends were after him —that wasn't his way. He lived in a sumptuous flat in the West End of London, entertained on a lavish scale, descending to trickery only when his funds were running low, and, then taking care to get o;u of ths country before he started operations.

His great mistake was in working too I>U conps, and his last success whereby he netted about £13.000 at Monte Carlo from i well-known English knight, cost him three years in a French prison.

But there are huudreds of others working the same business who treat the police with scorn. They engineer all sorts of bare-faced swindles, from confidence trickery to running bogus firms or wild-eai schemes. v.*hlch nre supposed to brit»4 speedy fortunes to their victim?, but whirli only enrich the promoters.

A splendid example or this type of swindler vras Itawson, who rtlcd a fuw months ago. After floating several weiru companies for 'extracting goW from suitwater, etc., Kawson showed his greatness by Inventing the simplest ts;beme tor gulling the public known lor many a Jay.

This was the opening of the "prayer shop," where people with more sentiment than sonse. and more money than either, paid good coin of the realm to Ret their loved ones prayed for by one o£ the astutest scoundrels of the age.

Even the criminals who continue in the old and beaten paths where Charles Peace once reigned are of a different type from of yore. Look at a picture of Peace and then at one of hie modern counterparts, Alexander Campbell ilason. Both are crooks of a type. What they lacked in. genius they made up for in ferocity, both being ready to kill lv their endeavours to gain their ends. But Peace, repulsively nglr, looked what he was, while, by his appearance. Mason might have been a young clerk of good family.

A comparison between olden murderers and those of the present Is more difficult. The great hindrance in this is the fact that the great artists in this line are those who were never known to be murderers. Those who have gained notoriety

have all been failures, no matter bow great the ingenuity they have shown in their crimes.

Criminal Who Baffled Science. If we compare the capital criminals of all time we find very little change in methods, obviously due to the fact that, no matter how well premeditated a crime may have been, when the time comes for the assassin to strike, science generally goes by the boards anil the brute beast appears.

There are a few exceptions, cases where cool, nerveless individuals have coldly plotted and as coldly executed vile deeds against their kind, but in capital crime the murderer has not kept pace with the medica! science to the same extent as the burglar Las with the science of police investigation.

The only murderer who has been brought to book who bad found a way to bafile science was Landru. This inhuman monster, who into one body had Imprisoned the 'brutality of Burke and Hare, the cool scientific cunning of Crippen and the greed for gold of "Brides In the Bath" Smith, may, perhaps, one day oust the brutal ■Nero from his place of dishonour of the impersonation of evil cruelty.

Not in all the annals of crime can another similar to him be found. He followed no model; he was original in the manner of disposing of the bodies of his victims, and his coolness under cross-examination was that of a man without fear, conscience. or repentance.

When the means available for the detection of poison were cruder, poisoners were almost Immune from suspicion. Wainwright that "artist in paint, poetry, and poison," would to-day be helpless before an analyst, and there is very little hope for a present-day poisoner of killing and escaping.

The two moet inventive of modern poisoners were Crippen and Major Armstrong, for, while Seddon showed much ingenuity in procuring the drug, he showed none in administering it. Crippen. being a doctor, chose hyoscln, a drug whose presence is difficult to detect, and if he had shown a little more personal courage he might have escaped the scaffold.

Armstrong was modern in a different way. His ingenuity lay in the excuses hp had prepared to explain the presence of the poison, his tales x>l gardening experiments, etc., and, farther, from the fact that he poisoned a suffering woman in whom the signs of arsenic might easily hare been mistaken for natural consequences of the Illness for which she had long been medically treated. The Ilford Drama. But the supreme evidence In the case for striving after scientific means for murder Is to be found in the crude and brutal crime that sent Percy Thompson, at llford, to hie death.

The Tbompson-Bywaters letters demonstrate how wonld-be mnrderers, lacking nil knowledge of science, endeavoured to find means to till that would leave no trace. There were the attempts with powdered glass, the references to belladonna, and the plaintive query as to whether they couldn't kill him by ptomaine poisoning. All these abortive efforts at scientific slaughter culminated in the same sort of murder that Jack Sheppard might have perpetrated in the dark days of long ago.

But criminology, great as the improvements that have been made regarding it are. Is still too prone to believe in the discoveries of Lombroso. who classified certain types as definitely criminal.

This is the greatest difference between the old-timers and criminals of to-day. Then one conld almost certainly tell a criminal at sight, for he took a pride !n looking the part. Now all is different, and some of the most handsome and most cultured members of both eeses are numbered amongst the crooked.

It reminds mc of one day when a disciple of Lombroso visited mc. We talked of a certain murder, and I produced two photos, remarking that they were of the murderer and his -victim.

"Ah I" said my friend, looking at one of them. "I can well believe it. What a brutal head! He Is truly a born criminal." Then, turning to the other, he remarked:

■■What a pity, such a nice looking fellow. too." Unfortunately for his theory the latter tvs the photo of the criminal, and the former of the victim.