SMALL CLUES TO GREAT CRIMES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2016, 25 March 1914, Page 5

SMALL CLUES TO GREAT CRIMES.

CASE OF A PUPPY-CHEWED BOOT, CEOR-CE SUMNER AND THE FALLING SHUTTER. The chance of a shutter falling upon a passer-by was the chief means of coftvictiug the Liverpool' youth George Siimncr of tlie murder. of Miss Brad* field-—;tlio case was known as tlie Liverpool Canal lmtriler. Sucli trifliijpc iuridcijts (observes a writer in the ''Daily Mail") have ofteit Jed to the solution of apparently unfatlioinabie. mysteries. A case flccnrrcd recently in' which the solo guiding duo lies in the fa<:t that a puppy chewed a boat. The headless and armless body of awoman was found in tho River Eden at, Carlisle. There was very little clothing and only ono boot, the top of which had been cut down, It was discovered that Miss £lorencd Smith, assfstaHt iu a tobacconist's stop in Carlisle, who disappeared last May, had a boot cut down. A puppy had ehewed the boot and a local shoemaker advised that ia- ■ stead'of icing patched , tho boot should bo cut down "to first eyelet. This ' was dqne. Tho booMu tho body taken ■ fiom tho river was cut in. this way, ' Trifles That Tell', "In whnt I always coMjder the greatest case in tho. whole history of scientific 'detection,' the Voirbo. affair, JL Maet, whose first bifr case it was, re■coftstrneted every detail of the crime from part of a leg found iii tho welt of ■ a Pa,ris lodgii}£hous<v with nothing to. guufe ?iim save a sodi with the mark ■ 'X B X' upon .it (writes Mr. Gerald Biss, apropos of 'trifles that tell , in the fathommg of mysterious crimes). Talk-. iug of marks, it was the watermark on ewe of Neill Creaui's blackmailini; letters which got tho police to grips with. this very clever yet at the sarnq time ■ very foolish criaiina.l. The ■■mitcrinarlt, ■ 'Fairfidd—Superfine,' stniek Serseaiit ■' M'lntyre, and by dint ef inueh oabiifls he identiliotl it as a Canadian brand sot. obtaimiWo over here, and Neill Cream's ' stationery cabinet supplied tho rest, Oiscovery &y Toothache. i Perhaps the- most extraordinary example of how a trifiiiiK cliatte© will put ■ the polleo on tho right track occurred in this ease of Cottrvwsier, wiio murder- : ed his master. Lord William .Kusseil, in' 1840. The police were at a loss to ae«oiat far tlw {act that the- valet ; whom thoy suspected had no blood' ufen liis belongings. Thon roluctantly a. man who had beau ■ sleeping .m" tho 1 house opposite under compromising cif- ■' cumstaiwes came forward saionymoasly, , a:nd told how he had been racked with'! toothache during the early hours. Hfl , had paced the room all night a-nd at daybreak drawn up tho blind to look out 'and saw a naked uian" at the whitlow opposite- Coun'oisier had commit-' ted tiie crime without a stitch df ttotli- ■ ■ifig on aud had then calmly tnlse'ii a bflthi ; . . In the casij ef the Umi-cier of Dr.! I'arki.ua.ii by Professor Webster in Boston in 1880, the whole body had boon disposed of- except part of the mould made to take the victim's tcefch ;aad ■ the Very y.ear before the body of the ganger O'Coftnor, murdered fliid put under their hearthstone by the l.ian,ninfts, had.been identified by the'.den- : tist's auoiber'.on the plate of the false j teeth he wore. . . Wainwright's diseoyery. wets due to. .an .extraordinary pismemtiou■ iiiid- -at- , tack of Mrves. -which .for. no apparent reaspii.-siiddenly .overtook Stokes, who wa.(j...helping-Ui.m -to remove the , body of Harriet tan« in-two parcels dofle up' in. American ckitli after he had successfully po.ticea.led his vietian for eighteen months tinder tile floor of Ms workshop. This was one of tho examples of ebior<rde of i lime, a. preservative, being used in mistake for rimcMi&e. Trimmed Bca,rd Clue. j Ollison, the Boclmin murderer, hat? I white hair and a brown beard,' both of which he- had trimmed by tie ideal ■Writer the Very day' after tho nwirder. In his victim's tightly clenched hawfe wore found-brown hair hi tito β-iio ujid ■\yliHe- to tlio otliw. hi Uio famous Ehnsley cASe, MnUraSj iii his enddnyottr to assist the police to, fasten the crime on Mmift, led them k> an incriminatiTig jtoreei hidden-in a brickfield. It was : tied up Vs'itli a tag end of tape, a bit 'of an apron string.; and its felfow wits found lying on Mnllius's own Hiaiiiel-p-iece.

Ijce, of BabbaCDirnbej ootiW fiot get away from the incriminating fact that thra paraffin can used was taken out of a clipboard over his bed in the pantry. Strettoa was hanged by the fingerSirints on bis-victim's.cash-bos," and instances of these littlo things that bring murder home could be multiplied over all centuries and all countries.

There was the casp. of supposed suicide, vmrftvellecl by Dr. Laoassagne,. of Lyons, after a lapse <s( seven yeai-s, Tho vktiiii was feuiid dead, shot in the liead. ami tho. tlicary of .gitioide was accepted at the, time, A revolver was found tightly ckitehecl ivi his lyarid, and" tho onus were stretched slown at nicli 'side of the body under the bjartkets, which were drawn tictily iqs to the chiu—hiipossiblo in cases o! rostai.l- - death by Biurder of sJiicido of by stiooting, especially i» -the head., wiueh leaves a persoii exactly as at tho second of death. 'Iheve was no trace of any death agony, tthifa oil tho hody was Jaid a sitmH crucifix outside the coverlet.' ,T'!iera was.no sigff of blaclteni«R or singeing on tSe tcmj)!p,''while tho eyes were shut, ns is never th& ca.si? k violent- deatli. The murderer had rieeii too iivetieulous a»d clever; and Dr. Lacassagne proved that mwrder had been flono.