CHARLES PEACE.
story of a murderer
master of disguise.
FIRST OF THE "CAT BURGLARS." (By CHARLES WILSON.) In the literature of crime, the records of famous criminal trials, there is no narrative more sensationally romantic than that of the man whose crimes and adventures were such a fertile topic of conversation just before I came out to New Zealand, and whose life and misdeeds are set forth by Lord Birkenhead in his "More Famous Trials" (Hutchin60n and Co.). Fnr the benefit of my readers, I will try and retell Peace's story here, placing the facts in chronological order. Peace was the son of a wild beast tamer, employed in Wombwell's menagerie, one of the leading travelling shows of my youth. When quite a youth Charles was hurt in an accident in a mill, injuring his leg and left hand. Permanently lame, with a maimed hand, he nevertheless became a most audacious burglar, the first, so Lord Birkenhead tells us, of the "cat burglars," then known as portico-thieves. In the intervals of his burglaries he was an itinerant musician. From boyhood he had had a taste for music, and he now modestly described himself as "The Modern Pagauini" and. "The Great ■Ethopian Musician."
Not the least proof of his ability to avoid detection was his cleverness in ■concealing his maimed hand under his coat and wearing a falso arm in' his sleeve, terminating with a hook. Peace boasted, with reason, that he could walk past detectives who were searching for him without any fear of recognition. The most remarkable gift he possessed was being abld to protrude his lower .jaw, and by some curious contraction of the muscles to effect a complete change in his appearance. He could at will suffuse his face with blood, and in later life used a walnut juice. When filially brought to justice, he was looking like a mulatto. Now let us take the three principal trials in which Peace was concerned — though in the first he was not in the ■dock. Another Man's Crime. The first was that of two brothers, ■John and William Hebron, or Habron, at Manchester in 1870, who were tried for the murder of Nicholas Cock, a policeman, in August, IS7G. Cock had summoned them for being drunk and disorderly, when William was fined, and the charge against John dismissed. Going his rounds, Cock was shot dead by a man who escaped, two shots being fired, the policeman dying half an hour later. The Hebrons were suspected, having made threats against Cock. One brother, William, was sentenced to death, a sentence altered as the result of a petition widely signed in the district to one of imprisonment for life.
Not until just before Peace's death by hanging for quite another crime did that scoundrel confess that not only was it he who had killed the policeman, but that he had actually sat in court right through the trial of the Hebrons, and had listened to the judge passing sentence upon an innocent man. Peace confessed that he had intended breaking into a house, had been disturbed by two policemen, and when escaping had run into Cock's arms. He fired two shots, one "intended to frighten him, and straight the second." "I got away, which was all I wanted. Plans drawn by Peace of the scene of the crime, and a complete revision of the evidence against Hebron satisfied the authorities, and William Hebron was given a free pardon and an indemnity of £800. Lord Birkenhead adds: "He never ought to lave been convicted."
It is somewhat significant that Peace committed his second murder, that for which he was eventually hanged, on the very next day after he had watched the innocent man sentenced to death for his other crime. Hebron was sentenced to death on November 28, 1870. On the nest day, November 29, Peace shot and killed at Bannercross, Arthur Dyson, a railway engineer, of whom he had been a neighbour at Darnall, a suburb of Sheffield. Peace and Dyson had been at daggers drawn, owing to Peace's advances to Mrs. DyEon. But Very Respectable. Nor would it have been save for a curious succession of incidents. In the years 1877 and 1878, a most respectable old gentleman was living in a most respectable little house in a respectable street of a respectable London suburb, Peekham Rye. His name was "lhompson, and his wife "Mrs. Thompson," a young and handsome woman, whose only fault seemed to be a certain failing for drink. A housekeeper, Mrs. Ward, and her son, Willie, occupied the basement. Thompson was a popular member of the congregation of the nearby parish church. His hobby was collecting musical instruments, violins, and concertinas. Thompson loved animals and had many pets.
Alas, the whole Thompson household was a sham. Thompson was none other than Peace, a murderer of two men, Mrs. Thompson was his mistress, whom he had first met at Nottingham, whilst Mrs. Ward, tlio housekeeper, and her son were Peace's own wife and stepson. How and why Mrs. Peace had agreed to and accepted all this curious anangement was never made public, but one night something happened. After "Mr. and Mrs. Thompson" and Mrs. Ward had spent a musical evening, lie playing the violin, they singing and accompanying him on the harmonium. Peace, or Thompson as lie then called himself, crept out of the house and broke into a house at Blaekheatli. On this occasion, however, a policeman stopped him when coining down the garden—whence he had seen a light moving about in the burglarised house when Peace cried out, "Keep back, back, or I'll shoot you! 1 ' The constable rushed him, three shots were fired, two entering the policeman's head and arm, but fortunately not proving fatal. A sergeant and another policeman close 5 rushed to his aid and overpowered the burglar, whose revolver—as was proved to have been a rule with Peace—was Otrapped to his wrist. He appeared at the Old Bailey, when he was convicted of the Blackheath burglary and the attempt to "i policeman. The sentence vaa pena .servitude for Jj/fi.
Gave Himself Away.
Worse for him was to come. During one of the earlier commitments Peace was foolish enough—your clever criminal has, luckily for the honest public, the habit of often doing the most insane thing—written to a neighbour at Peckham Eye to whom he had posed as an inventor, begging him, as Ward, to visit ''an unfortunate man who through the sin of drunkenness found himself in a most regrettable situation." The neighbour, mvstilied by this letter, and not in the least connecting it with the disappearance of his friend Thompson, arrived, and discovered to his' amazement that "Ward" and Thompson were identical. Ho fortunately told the police, who hastened to communicate with the already alarmed Thompson menage. Mrs. Ward (Mrs. Peace) and her son had already bolted with some of the plunder—the house was very richly furnished—but the "mistress," "Mrs. Thompson,", revealed the astounding fact that their prisoner was the long missing Charles Peace, who was wanted for the murder of Dyson at Bannercross. Mrs. Dyson, who was in America, was brought back. After a preliminary trial, at which Peace repeatedly interrupted her and complained of the reporters sketching him, he was remanded to Sheffield. An attempt to escape on the train failed, he being recaptured bleeding, unconscious, in the snow on the line.
Frank, afterwards Sir Frank Lockwood, was engaged to defend him, but the evidence was conclusive. A verdict of guilty was immediately brought in, and the judge passed sentence of death.
The end came at Aimley Gaol one dreary misty morning (February 25, 1870), when tens of thousands of people thronged the streets around and awaiting the grimly significant hoisting of the black flag which announced the final punishment of one of the greatest criminals of his day.
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 9
Word Count
1,311CHARLES PEACE. Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 9
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