MAN HUNTERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

MAN HUNTERS

PBy GEORGE DILNOI Trie Man With The Scarred Jaw

Copyright

I HAVE heard it said that John Kane had no sense of humour, which is a slanderous thing to say of any man, but more especially of an Irishman. It was, of course, false, for beneath that dour air of his he reserved a satunine wit which he did not always care to display. I got on this subject first while he was still at Scotland Yard. I remarked that a colleague of his had played his eards badly in a particular case. What did Kane think? "Mr. X," he remarked, eyeing me sideways, "is a very respectable man." I thought it over and let it go at that. Kane was one of the aces at the Yard in the old days. I should like to tell the story of his investigation of the theft of the Dublin Crown Jewels in the early part of the century—perhaps one of the most delicate and difficult problems that have ever confronted any detective, for the mystery involved many highly-placed people. But Kane's report was never made public, possibly because it would have provoked Sso scandalous a sensation. There wen murder cases, too, in which Kane made his mark, and he crossed swords with clever rogues of all degrees. But perhaps his most dramatic stroke — although he always affected to regard it as a passing piece of luck—was when his alertness brought about the vindication of a man after judges, juries, Public Prosecutor, counsel, prison officials, the Home Office, and Scotland Yard unconsciously perpetrated an atrocious blunder. Toward midnight one evening Kane, then a detective-inspector of the D Division, following his usual habit, looked in at Tottenham Court Road police station before knocking off for the day. "Anything doing?" he asked. There was nothing very startling on the face of it. A bloke, they told him, had been brought in for chiselling a couple of girls out of some rings. A plain open and shut case. Ha had been picked up while trying to pawn the rings and was now in a cell. He obstinately refused to give any account of himself. "Eight. 11l have a look at him," said Kane. Reclining on the wooden bench in a cell was a self-possessed elderly dandy— he might have been between 60 and 70. He toyed with the monocle suspended round his neck as he nonchalantly returned the detective's nod.

A Scandal Of English Justice

"They've got you down as William Thomas on the charge sheet," remarked the inspector conversationally. "Would you like to tell me anything about yourself—your real name and where you live, for instance?" The prisoner smilingly shook his head. His business was his own business, he hinted. What the police didn't know they might find out —if they could. That smile froze the detective - inspector into a hard etare. For it made more obvious a scar or indent at the right of the jaw, and his memory was carried back to a scene he had witnessed as an unconcerned spectator at the Old Bailey eight years earlier. Then, less than a fortnight ago, there had been another episode at the Central Criminal Court. His face regained its habitual immobility. But once he was back in his office he began to check up. He had a glimpse of a terrible series of injustices. Took Him at His Own Valuation The prologue had been played out 27 years before. A damsel had thrown a glad-eye on a plausible and fascinating rascal whom she met somewhere near Charing Cross. He was a man who made a habit of following up such opportunities, and, falling into talk, introduced himself as "Lord Willoughby." She took him at his own valuation. Why should she doubt him? Wasn't there a ring on his finger which had come down from his ancestors 500 years 8.C.? He was a fast worker. Within a day or two he was writing to her on the notepaper of a fashionable hotel and calling on her at her lodgings. He hinted that he was prepared to make her his mistress and install her in his mansion at St. John's Wood. She was to have her own carriage, a special page boy and a retinue of servants. But she must be careful not to become too familiar with them. "What jewellery have you got?" he asked casually. "I suppose it is rubbish." The girl admitted that it was mostly cheap stuff. "Don't worry about that," he declared. "Fll fix you up. Let me have that ring so that I can be sure of getting another' made the right size. And those earrings. I like the design, but they're not good enough. I'll get them copied.''

This is the tenth of the series of feature articles from "Man Hunters," written by George Dilnot, called the greatest of living crime reporters, author of "The History of Scotland Yard" and "Great Detectives." It covers methods of detection, especially the fashionable" use of science, giving the mystery of murder from the viewpoint of detective and scientific investigation. The articles set out to encompass the most outstanding crimes in Europe and the United States in recent years, the details being given forcefully and without frills.

He brushed aside her reluctance to part with her trinkets. As soon as his jeweller had carried out the orders she would get them back together with something worth while. He would send them %long by a messenger from the Army and Navy Club, of which he was a member. Meanwhile, she must have money and clothes befitting her new position in life. He wrote out a cheque, which he instructed her to take to the bank in a cab, and an order to a great department store to 6upply her with such expensive clothes as she might wish. Then, most unfortunately, "Lord Willoughby" had come out without any change. He borrowed all the money she had with the exception of a few shillings for her cab fare to the bank, kissed her, and disappeared. That was the last she saw of him till he was arrested for playing the same trick on other women. As John Smith he was convicted and sent to five years' penal servitude. It was 18 years before "Lord Willoughby" turned up again. The interval had brought no change in his technique except that he sometimes used the name "Lord Wilton." He was still seeking a lady to decorate that house in St. John's Wood. He was still using hotel note paper, still handling out dud cheques and orders for dresses. He was still taking jewellery to be copied and running short of change. And a score of complaints were coining into Scotland Yard. Kane remembered how Adolf Beck had been arrested. . Ten women, one after the other, had picked him out as the swindler. Spurrell, a constable who had arrested John Smith, swore in the police court that Beck was the same man. Gurrin, a handwriting expert, had declared that not only were the cheques and letters of 18 years before in the same handwriting, but they had been written by Beck in a disguised hand. Now, Beck asserted that he was a Norwegian business man, well known to many reputable people, and that he could prove that he was not John Smith, because he was in South America while Smith was in prison. If, therefore Smith had committed both series of crimes he was indubitably innocent.

happened. Wadlock, a detectiveinspector, was astounded to find Beck, whom he had known as a respectable citizen for a year or two, charged with such offences.

He reported that he had had Beck stripped, and with the description and photograph of Smith in his hand could find no resemblance. For instance, the eyes of one man were blue while those of the other were brown. The marks on each differed. The case was thereupon taken out of his hands and given to another officer. Beck's solicitor was refused access to the official documents that would have demonstrated the two men to be different persons. By a skilful but questionable

manoeuvre at the trial, Air. Avory—later

But, for one plausible reason after Justice Avory—had prevented the point another, he was given no chance to show as to whether Beck and Smith were this. This was, of course, before the the same person being raised for the days of fingerprints. Inexplicable things defence.

But what Kane chiefly remembered was that Beck had actually been examined in the dock for a 6car on the side of the jaw, and that witnesses had declared they could see it. Beck had

been convicted on what the judge declared to be overwhelming evidence and given I seven years' penal servitude. ; There were bite of the story thai, Kane j did not know as he sat in his office con- j sidering the case of William Thomas. He did not know of the piteous appeals that Beck put up from his prison cell — how petition after petition had been read by some yawning Home Office clerk and minuted "nil" —which meant that nothing was to be done. "Beck save," ran one of these, "that he has no such sear as was identified in Court. It may have disappeared since." Then again, when it was made clear that Smith was a Jew and Beck was not, it was pointed out that even if he were a different man, Beck might still be guilty. "Nil; but let convict be given a fresh number so that his identity with John Smith shall not be affirmed." So Beck, although he continued in prison, was graciously allowed to do so as himself. Firmly convinced that he was the victim of an inhuman conspiracy—and who shall blame him?— Beck was at leased on ticket of leave. His first move was to seek help to prove his innocence. But strenuous efforts, backed by influential friends, proved vain. He picked up the threads of his business and began to re-establish himself. Woman Was Police Decoy To Detective-Inspector Ward a report came that "Lord Willoughby" was up to his old games. Xot unnaturally, Ward turned up the records and discovered that a man named Beck had been convicted for tricking women under that name and in that manner. There was little difficulty in discovering that Beck was living in & street off the Tottenham Court Road, and he laid a trap. One of the women who had complained was stationed at a corner of the main street. "If you see the man who tricked you, speak to him," said Ward. Thus it was that she stopped Beck while he was out for a morning stroll. The detective, who had waited on the opposite side of the road, crossed over and put him under arrest, paying little attention to the protests of the bewildered man. The tragi-comedy went on again. This time five women identified Beck. The attitude taken by the prosecution is indicated by the very short brief they presented:— Five separate cases were investigated at the Police Court, and each of the prisoner's victims has fully identified him as the offender. The defence is an alibi, and the prisoner was asked in the usual way if he wished to give evidence, but although he called upon Heaven to witness and the Press to take note that he was an innocent man, he did not venture to go into the witness box. . . . This will be the third time upon which the prisoner has stood in the dock charged with offences of a like description. The same Mr. Gurrin gave very much the same sort of evidence on handwriting that he had given before. The- distracted Beck was again found guilty. The judge postponed sentence, and there was no doubt that he would have again gone to prison had it not been for Kane's sharp eyes and quick wits. That was ten days before Kane went into the police station cell to take a look at William Thomas. All the detective had to go upon at the moment was the scarred jaw. Ajrainst that was the evidence—taking both cases into account —of no fewer than 1G witnesses. Could they all be wrong? Was William Thomas John Smith? It was a bold assumption on the material he then had. Besides, the jruilt or innocence of Beck was no direct affair of his. He might not be thanked for meddling. If his hunch was right, there must have been gross negligence—to say no worse—in high places.

The dour Kane must have realised this, but he determined to see it through. There was nothing that he could do that night, but early next morning he was busy. His first move was to find out if any of the women possessed letters from William Thomas. He pot hold of one. and, although, unlike Mr. Gurrin, he did not pose as a handwriting expert, it left no doubt in his mind that he was on the right track. It was written on headed note paper of the Hyde Park Hotel. So was one df the letters presented in evidence in the latest case against Beck. On that j Kane immediately sent a report to Scot- | land Yard pointing out that Heck was j probably innocent, and, seeking out Detective-Inspector Ward, so impressed that officer that he also made an emphatic report that he believed William Thomas was John Smith. Kane was going to have no mistake this time. Thomas still kept his mouth tightly shut, but the detectiveinspector talked to one or two reporters. Paragraphs about a mysterious prisoner met the eye of a Highbury resident who had been puzzled about a. missing lod-rcr. "lie called himself Dr. Wyatt." this man explained to Kane, "and paid me — when 1 got it—iive-and-six a week for a back room. He had been staying with me for nearly a year and told me he had come to London from Australia to fight an important case before the Privy Council." '"I'll have a look at that room," said Kane. Even if that search had revealed nothing but half a dozen sheets of notepaper with the heading of the Hyde Park Hotel it would have been worth while. An imitation gold watch and cigarette case and a couple of fake pearl pins told a story. So did the counterfoil of a ticket from South Africa and a number of pawn tickets. There were cancelled cheques on a Denver bank and letters and bills showing that " Dr. Wyatt " had been in New York and South and East Africa. Object of Long Chase All of which was very helpful up to a point. But Kane wanted to prove something more than that Thomas was a rogue; that was easy, because he had been caught, so to speak, in the act. He wanted to show that William Thomas was the John Smith who had been convicted 27 years before, and that he had at any rate been in London at the times Beck "was said to have committed the offences of which he had been found guilty. For a fortnight the man with the scarred jaw preserved a dogged silence while the indefatigable DetectiveInspector Kane pushed personal inquiries in London and by cable in Africa, Australia, the United States and part* of Europe. Presently he laid his hands on two men who had known John Smith well. They were confronted and identified him. "That's the man," said one of them, "who ,as Captain Weiss, lodged with me for a vear about 27 years ago. When he was arrested he wrote, as John Smith, asking me to engage a lawyer to defend him." This broke down Thomas so far that he admitted that he was John Smith. It was the only certain fragment of truth in the romantic story he then told. His tale included adventures in a campaign with the Austrian Army as a doctor; studies with the famous Father Damien in leprosy in the Sandwich Isles; a period as surgeon-general to the King of Hawaii; and some time as a doctor on a campaign with Turkish troops. But he insisted that after he had come out of prison as John Smith he had not set foot in England for 23 years. If that last assertion had been true he could not have been guilty of the first bunch of offences for which Beck had been convicted. But Kane had still something up his sleeve. He knew he was dealing with a bold liar.

"1 have an old friend of yours here," he remarked casually. "A Mr. Day, from Adelaide, Australia." Thomas was momentarily taken aback. "Yes, I know him," he gasped. And then: '•May I make some corrections in that statement!" Day knew him too well for any denials. The *iro had been on intimate terms when Thomas was calling himself Dr. Meyer and ran a lucrative practice and lived in luxurious style in "Adelaide. Day remembered '"Meyer" going to London, had sent money to him there, and they had exchanged much correspondence. That exploded one lie. By arduous and tedious investigation Kane worried out enough of the truth for the rest of the story. Under various names—John Smith. William Thomas, Captain Weiss, Dr. Wyatt, Dr. Marsh, Mr. Markham, Lord Willoughby, Lord Wilton and others—his movements were traced all over the world. Scrambles to Save "Face" This was not made easier by his, habit of sudden disappearance*. But it was clear that at least once—the year before Beck was first charged—he had been acquitted at Bow Street for lack of evidence of another kind of swindlePeople were found who had had dealings with him which showed his presence in London at the times when the crimes for which Beck had suffered had taken place. Beck was released from prison. Everyone concerned, from judges downward, scrambled to show that they had nothing to do with a flagrant miscarriage of justice. Three of the five women who had identified Beck in the later case now identified Thomas. The other two had gone abroad. The ejrregious. Gurrin hastened to write to Kane that the emphatic opinion he had four times sworn to was "inaccurate." A committee presided over by the Master of the Rolls was appointed to hold a public inquiry. In its voluminous report you will only find the name of Detective-Inspector Kane mentioned incidentally. The evidence given in some of those pages is perhaps more damaging to some of the people concerned than the actual report. But it did show that any intelligent person in the Home Office must have known within two years of Beck's first conviction that he was innocent. Yet the whole dreadful tragedy was permitted to drag on for years afterwards. Beck got £5000 and*a '"free pardon." He died five years later. Smith got five years —remember that Beck had seven for similar frauds. Kane was shortly afterwards promoted to chief inspector.