DETECTIVE AND SECRET SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 11 (Supplement)

DETECTIVE AND SECRET SERVICE.

Itaring my graduation as a detective patrol in the C.O.C.LD. (Commissioner's Office, Criminal Investigation Department) I served under, and came into association with, many famous officers of Scotland Yard's detective headquarters. These include the late Superin-tendent-John McCarthy, also_ Chief Inspectors John Kane, Alfred Ward, and George' Mercer, ex-Superintendents Sir Patrick Quin, M.V.0., Mr. Prank Froest, JM.Y.O., Superintendent Hawkm .S. .Nicholls, Chief Inspectors W. Gough, Towler, Dew, Cruttchet, and E. Bower— names that have figured prominently "upon numerous past occasions in many notable cases. In fact, I could go on enumerating, but, for the purposes of these stories, the above few names will suffice. _ One of the many wonderful cases that lie to the credit of Scotland Yard is the affair known as "THE PEABL NECKLACE CASE OF 1923." My association with this case centred about much constant watching and weeks of tireless energy displayed by the late Chief Inspector A Ward, in the rounding up of one of the most highly-organised gangs v of international jewel thieves in this country. The story has been recounted many times, so I only intend briefly to resuscitate its history. A wealthy jewel merchant in Paris, by the name of Salamons, dispatched on July 15, 1913, an insured packet per registered post to another well-known merchant in Hatton Garden, a Mr. Mar Mayer. The package was secured, tied and waxed with six private seals, bearing the initials "M.M." and handed in personally "by Mr. Salamons at the Rue du Quatre Septembre Post Office, in Paris. The contents were sixty-one Oriental pearls, with a diamond snap-clasp weighing 76 grammes, and, in addition, plush-lined morocco case containing a pearl necklace valued at £135,000. When Mr. Mayer received the packet en ';hef 16th, it bore no unusual signs of having been tampered with, for the . waxed paper, seals, and string were absolutely intact. ' Imagine, therefore, the consternation of the merchant, when, instead of the matchless pearls, there were displayed to his astonished gaze many pieces of loaf, sugar and coal! The inside story of this case will, I hope, be written by men -in, the near future on a more comprehensive scale, but, for present explanation, brevity of circumstance and fact must suffice. It remains, without a shadow of doubt, paramount in criminal history for highly-organised rohbery on a large scale, a masterpiece of daring, but, like all huge '•'coups," remains the essence of simplicity. Joseph (alias "Cammy") Grizzard was the master-mind. He bribed two post office officials—one an outside auxiliary, the other a permanent inside postman. The necklace was handed to him as prearranged. "Canxmy" had an exact replica of the seals —and there you are! Simple ? Yet the intrigue, scheming and counter-scheming necessary before this audacious coup was brought off must have been boundless. Through the instrumentality of an intermediary, who was, by the way, an expert in pearls and precious stones, touch was kept up with the gang for weeks, sometimes at the First Avenue Hotel, sometimes in Lyons' tea shops, and in many other places. And all the time Chief Inspector Ward was fencing and countering for the opportune moment to strike —which he did. I "was present with other officers on September 1, at about 3.30 pan., when, at the Museum Tub® Station, Ward arrested the gang responsible: "Cammy" Grizzard, Jamea Lockett, Simon Silverman and Leisir Gutwirth. After lengthy police court proceedings and trial, they were found guilty and sentenced to long terms of penal servitude. They fell into the hands of the Law this way: Gutwirth communicated with someone in Paris —a relation—for the sale of the pearls, for which, by this time, a reward of £10,000 had been offered. Undoubtedly the relative recognised the position — also the pearls! The owner was approached, who, in turn, informed the underwriters, and they secretly communicated" with the police, who, by their own inimitable means, were able to bring the offenders to 'justice.

X.—FOUR NOTABLE CASES.

1 ' '(By EDWIN" T. WOODHALL.I

THE LIVERPOOL SACK MTJEDEB.

Prior to the wax a cold-blooded murder Vas perpetrated in Liverpool. The body of a woman, decapitated and tied up in a sack, was found, one morning in a lock jpf the Mersey Canal. For weeks the police were baffled, bat eventually a mai named George Sumner was arrested, and, after a long trial found guilty and executed. During the hue and cry, a message was received at headquarters, Scotland Yard, that a ™n named John Lyons was strongly suspected of the crime, with the request that London police should make full inquiry for the Liverpool police, and ■fal-a whatever steps deemed necessary to keep the 711 aT * Under observation. The inquiry was marked out to me, onrf eventually I found my man in the neighbourhood of Waterloo Boad. As my instructions wera not to effect an arrest until further orders, I decided to watch his address and keep all movements under notice. He did not come out until about midSay and, as he came into the street, he stopped and looked straight across at me, as I stood apparently reading a paper on the-far corner of the road. Intuitively, I felt that he suspected I was after him, for there is a sixth sense in every trained detective that tells him when he is "tumbled" or suspected. However, he made no sign, and set on m the direction of the Strand, with me carefully shadowing Mm some two or three hundred yard 3 in the rear. , When he reached the middle oi tJie Waterloo Bridge, he suddenly stopped, climbed up to the parapet, poised himselr in mid-air —and, before I could re=t^ a ™ him, leaped into the river below, which •was at high tide with a very swift current running. - Now the proper course was i°r me to plunge in after him—but I didnti The reason, however, was this:- At the psychological moment a Thames police patrol boat "was in the immediate vicinity, and I had just time to notice it dash off to where my man had disappeared and o catch a glimpse of him being hauled in o the boat. , ~ , I soon straightened things out and he was charged at Bow Street for attemp ed suicide and remanded. Two ys after, the actual murderer was arrested in Liverpool, and "niy man" stood to answer Ms own charge of attemp e "self-murder." It was very soon ascertained that there was absolutely na

1 foundation whatever for Ma being suspected. Hj was an Australian and had served a sentence of four years in a French Somebody—a womanbad told Mm that lie was wanted for the Liverpool murder. When, in corroboration, be saw me that morning, he completely lost bis bead and decided to kill himself. He was acquitted and bound over to come up for judgment if called upon. I believe that during the Gallipoli affair he served with great distinction in the Australian forces. Anyway, his life was certainly not destined to end in our Elver of Sighs. THE FIRST MOTOR BANDITS. At seven o'clock on June 9, 1914, upoi the premises of A G Robertson, Easi Street, Paddington, was perpetrated thf first real '"smash and grab" motor bandit job in the metropolis. Twenty trays containing £6000 worth of jewels, were taken from under the eyes of the passing public and of the astonished shopkeepers. A taxi cab drew up. One man went to the door of the jeweller's sbop and held him up, another smashed the plateglass window with a hammer whilst a third quickly extracted the trays. Ii was the work of a moments, anc tbe bandits bad dashed off before anyone could -realise the audacity of- the coup. Scotland Yard immediately realised that a new and potent factor in crime perpetration had arrived, but it tools two or tMee more jobs, accomplished with the same daring and by the same gang, in various parts of London, foi them to take urgent steps. After the third "smash" had been achieved with a complete get-away by this gang in the neighbourhood of Esses Road, !N", CMef Inspector Ward sent foi me and said:—"Make up rough and get into Hoxton—you'll be wanted to round up this gang" So, within a few hours, and accomP a °^ j5 *>y Detective-Sergeant Reid ( 'Tich" as he was known), we went loaf-

ing around tie neighbourhood between Shoreditch Church and Kings land Road. I might add that Hoxton of to-day— and it's a bit "creamy now —-was nothing compared with the Hoxton of my novitiate days in crime detection. I most explain that, to get our local knowledge of the suspected motor bandits and, in order to get into the various streets of the neighbourhood without raising suspicion, my colleague and I used to play a street organ outside the various public houses and in certain streets where we hoped to keep under notice the movements of the suspected thieves. "FWTi morning at nine o'clock we -would drag a barrel-organ from the Italian quarter at Saffron Hill to the scene of our activities around Shoreditch and Hoxton, returning late or early, according to the circumstances of the day. Disguise is a practice very favourably resorted to by certain writers of crime fiction but, in actual detective work, no such thing occurs. What does happen is this:—Dressed to the locality one is in and adapting oneself to its environment, it is "even money" that one will pass unnotifed. Combine this with a wide knowledge of crooks, a keen memory for faces, courage, patience and unceasing enthusiasm, and experience will do the rest. My colleague was a splendid detective and, after a few days, we got down to it. But the "snag"' lay in the detection of ourselves by one or other of tne criminal fraternity who might know us. We were aware that the gang met at the entrance to a small cinema at a certain time and in a certain street. We bad our suspicions of whom the gang' comprised, but wanted to make sure of the whole lot, so that nobody slipped through the net. On the morning upon which the arrest i took place, it was arranged that I should run down the street with a bundle of noon " edition papers. The • reason for this was to convey to the waiting police officers that all the gang were in attendance. So, attired in the typical manner of" a running newsvendor, I dashed iown the street, where the thieves were foregathered. I sold two papers on the way down, and had just ducked my head, with a slight turn of the eyes to my left toward the doorway where the gang were, talking, when one of them hailed me for an edition. I ran toward him to get my halfpenny and, try as I would not to, his eyes met mine; but the game was up.

The waiting police from Old Street and tha Yard closed in upon my signal, and the gang, four of tie "beat men" in London, were surroifnded. With, frtwr identification, trial and conviction, closed the first real charge of motor bandit work in the London Metropolitan Police.

«TEE MISSING FLEET PATMASTER CASE." An interesting case occurred in 1913 which clearly demonstrates the importance of details to any trained professional investigator. It takes its place among the many other brilliant affairs which lie to the credit of the Yard. The matter attracted great public notice at the time, owing to the high command held by the absconding officer in the Senior Service. I do not intend to mention either his name or that of his ship; merely to tell you the story as it happened. An officer of high rank in the British Navy suddenly disappeared and defalcations in his accounts to the extent of many thousands of pounds were discovered. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and one pictorial newspaper published a full-page portrait of the missing officer, with a reward of £50 for information leading to his arrest and conviction. Six months almost to the date of his mysterious disappearance, the evening papers came out with the startling information that the missing fleet paymatser had been arrested by Scotland Yard, near a small village named New Milton, on the verge of the New Forest in Hampshire, by Detectives Gimbletl and Solden.

Here, for the first time, is a little inside story of an affair which, for human mother love and relentless official tenacity, speaks for itself. For months Chief Inspector Ward had instructed various officers, including myself, to watch a certain tobacco shop in the south-east of London, where it was known that the missing paymaster had 'been in the habit of purchasing a particularly strong brand of tobacco. It was a remote and slender clue —but, after long watching in relays, a woman called and purchased a quantity of this certain brand, when the two officers below mentioned were on duty. The woman departed, with Detectives Solden and Gimblett shadowing her, little dreaming that four trained eyes of two of the Yard's best shadowers were following her every movement.

From New Cross she took a tail and alighted at Waterloo. She managed to get just through the barrier in time, with, the two detectives still fan awing. She reached her train and ©rcntually alighted about a hundred miles down the line, and, after a long ride in a local conveyance, entered a lonely houfie right on the verge of the New Forest. The sequel took place when, after a long watch, the woman left the house and the detectives settle?* down. to. a lonely night of observation. Presently a light appeared at one of the windows, and the missing fleet- paymaster, although very much altered, was identified by the watching officers. The arrest? an& subsequent proceedings are a matter of public information, but I quote the instance as an example of firstclass detective vigilance. _ Subsequent information brought to light the fact that the missing officer had remained in hiding at this lonely villa from the first moment of his disappearance, being supplied with necessities of life and all the information he required by the one woman who loved him best—his mother, the all-unwitting means of bringing him eventually to what she had so long and earnestly striven to avoid.