CHARLES PEACE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 117, 13 November 1929, Page 21

CHARLES PEACE

STORY OF HIS ARREST

NEW VERSION RELATED

BETEAYED BY A WOMAN

To the present generation the arch-crim-inal Charles Peace is a name vaguely associated with the series of daring burglaries, accompanied ■in some instances by cold-blooded" murder or deliberate shooting with intent to evade arrest. Half a century ago his name as a desperado was .on everybody's lips, and there was a general feeling of relief when he expiated his crimes on the gallows for killing a neighbour at Sheffield. •

Peace had been arrested at ■ dead ' of night in the grounds of a mansion at Blackheath, and fired point-blank at a constable named Eobinson, who narrowly escaped with his life. It is only three years-iago that Robinson died at Greenwich Infirmary. In his interesting book on "London Rediscoveries and Some Others," published by John Lane, Mr. Walter G. Bell, an unrivalled authority on London history, recapitulates the circumstances of Peace's arrest, and adds a story which is alleged to have been told by Robinson showing how the encounter with Peace was accidental instead of the result of a superior officer's astuteness. It has hitherto been accepted as the real fact_ that Inspector Bonney, who was a familiar figure at Blackheath, and patrolled the district on a white cob, accosted Peace, an under-sized rascal, on the highway. "Hullo, old man; you look tired. Come far?" was the inspector's greeting, and Peace casually replied, "Just tramped m from Dartford." As there was no dust on the stranger's boots, Bonney's suspicions were aroused, and he is supposed by swift conclusion, to have connected Peace with a series of burglaries which had alarmed the neighbourhood, and to have anticipated that the mansion of a Mr. Burness would be singled out for the next nefarious enterprise. A DIFFERENT STORY. It has.been assumed that the presenceol Robinson and other officers on the spot at the time the burglary was committed was the result' of Inspector Bonney's extreme foresight. Mr. Bell, however, tells a different story, which, he says, he feels sure w the true one. It has come to his ears m a roundabout way, and is said to have" been told to somebody by Robinson mis $! the revised edition of Peace's capture, and if,the circumstances are authentic the criminal was brought to justice ■not as the result of police astuteness,/but as the outcome of,a serious dereliction of duty on the part of those who had a hand in it. .

At the back of Mr. Burness's house at iilacklieath was a quiet byway with a miniature avenue of small trees, which gave shelter, from the prying eyes of a superior ofheer, to constables who foregathered for a quiet smoke while on duty "I Jf how Mr. Bell's story proceeds-— . Robinson went there for a smoke with some confidence that at the hour approaching 2 a.m. in that out-of-the-way place there would be no one to detect his lapse from strict duty. To the same place came another constable. . . Then to their consternation came upon the scene Sergeant Brown with a bluff challenge, "Hullo!.. What are you two men doing here at this hour?"

Possibly the sergeant, reading human nature, and a constable himself before promotion, could have supplied an answer,to his own question. Robinson had to say something to explain his presence, and his mind worked quickly. "I thought, sergeant, I saw a light moving in the window of that big house, and we have been\watching for it." A REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE. The sergeant turned sharply in the direction indicated, and observed that he did not see any light. To continue JUy. Bell's narrative: " "That yarn, 'was'not good enough for him. Then, as for some few moments the three watched there was a light, faintly flickering .behind the drawing-room window. It was the devil's own luck. Here were three men collected, a sergeant mid two constables, actually on the spot and ready for instantaneous work. They waited only long enough to make sure about the light. Eobinson was sent over the wall into the rear garden, the second constable vigilantly guarded against a running-escape, and the scrgeaut at the front rang the door-boll, the first alarm of which scut Peace jumping out of the ■window upon the lawn.

_Then it was that Peace and Constable Kobmson came face to face. Peace made a dash from the shrubbery, and was confronted by Constables Robinson and Girling.. The desperado drew a revolver and fired several shots at both men. One bullet struck Robinson'in the right arm but the officer threw himself upon the desperate burglar, who made a superhuman effort to escape, and actually broke away Robinson chased him, and was twice .fired-at..- Luckily the shots missed, and policeman and burglar were ~ seen in a. fierce, struggle. . ... THE JOURNEY TO SHEFFIELD. Peace drew a long knife and tried to stab Robinson, who got hold of the revolver, and subdued his assailant with blows from the butt cud. ■ In the end Peace .was convicted at the Old Bailey of the attempted murder of Robinson, and was sentenced by Mr. Justice Hawkins to twenty years' penal servitude. Inspector Bonney had been closely investigating Peace's antecedents, and he questioned a woman named Sue Bailey, with whom the burglar lived for some -time ..Peace was known at this time as }Y ard» and she, volunteered the-informa-tion, If you are seeking Charles Peace i- »at £ ohn Ward- and you will find him. The inspector'visited Ward in his cell and remarked in casual conversation, Well, Peace, you will soon be making .a journey to Sheffield." The convict turned white with fear, and gasped "Peace-Sheffield.", , Kealising that the game was up, he confessed to the inspector and was tried- and convicted ot the Sheffield murder,, being executed at Leeds in 1879.