GATHERING CLUES

Evening Post, Issue 79, 2 April 1936, Page 6

GATHERING CLUES

SCOTLAND YARD'S WORK

PATIENCE WINS THROUGH

Piecing clues together in searching for a murderer is seldom an easy task for Scotland Yard, writes C. Hedley Hervey, in a London journal. There must always be a proportion of cases in;which ,the police fail and. the assassin ■escapess''Arid;'then, .iof jcoursp, there' is an outcry from the 'public, about /the | "inefficiericy"-;6J! the detective force. Speaking on this subject recently a, Yard official-stated>th(ityery-often the police succeed mixing'the crime upon the guilty: party, firid.'.thgt he forestalls.justice.by:ending his own'life. In: such ,cases;;tiie real particulars may not-Wvpublished, so thathhe'criminal "passes over" Without bringing too much disgrace upon his family. The police are extraordinarily human. :,. I- :In; other cases a person is detained, questioned, and ultimately charged with the; cflme. Nothing is said about the clues: or.ipther circumstances which led td. the apprehension, yet the most dimcult part^ of the detective's work may have been completed^before an assassin is,detained. . '-■A person is murdered, the police are called'inj"the work begins.'lf there is ■no. .tangible clue and the affair is in mystery, there follows a meeting of the Yard's "brains" to consider the reports-fromthe officers engaged on the case;'/''■'•£ !■:'"■■>.. .-.,- '■'"''." EVERYTHING CHECKED. Within a few minutes after the discovery of the body, detectives have been at work checking up everything possible about the victim, so that within an hour or two we have practically all we want; regarding his antecedents, habits, who stands to bene-fit-by. the death, any enemies, names, and addresses of relatives,' etc. So sometimes the "brains" of the Yard are able to hold their own "inquest" and make their plans before the public even know of the crime. Should,there be a really strong clue the1 murderer !4s as; good as caught, a k though perhaps he may not be actually apprehended for some days. If he is fleeing from justice newspapers give their aid,-and the whole country joins in :tn c'1 man-hunt^.'"But the really clever Work -of fixing the crime on the right person1 and the search: for clue's are never given the publicity they deserve. For instance, in one;recent .case, the victim was sruelly bludgeoned in his sitting-room. Apparently -there was nothing for us to work on. No relatives within a' hundred miles;; no enemies; and no yices beyond the small ope of cigarette smoking.: A drawer in his desk has presumably been tampered with; but beyond some cigarette stubs which littered the hearth the place was t-idy.v'i-r ',:;." . ■■-■:.;. v- ■" ■:■■"•*':. ■' '-. These cigarette ends were all of one brand, yet they were instrumental in finding and hanging the murderer; for a smart."young detective noticed that they" had been smoked by two people— phe a "dry,'.' smoker and the other a "wet"—arid extra "wet", at ,that. A number of stubs suggested a long and intimate sitting. There followed a :weedirig-out of the dead-man's: friends- ; until within tWo days ithe "wet" smoker was found. He ultimately.,"owned; up.^- '■:'-,■■■.', ''!' '■' r ; In', another case a woman; separated from' her; husband, wasf murdered in bed: Again there was no; apparent clue. We got in touch with herjhusband, who was living, at the ■ other' side of London. He couldn't help; us at all, and said he hadn't seen her-for a year or more. : ;';;■'; ;■. HAIRS ON A PILLOW: Then a young detective made' a thorough investigation, with a microscope of the pillow upon which the woman slept. He found three very short hairs with grey bases and-brown endsthat had.partly worked,their way.into the fabric of'the pillow-case; A valuable • find, as we Were able to prove that a certain kind of dye had been used. After further inquiries, the husband was found-to have grey hair," which; he died with this particular dye.-We were also able to/prove ;thit on the day of the murder" he had;been to a barber's and had his hair cut. Lucky? Most clues.are lucky—or unlucky, if-you look at them from the murderer's angle. As a means of finding, a [murderer the fingerprint method may not be of much use, as we can only compare the prints with those of criminals who have already passed through bur hands. However, if a man is arrested on suspicion, fingerprints .will ,; of ten'make assurance doubly sure: S ' In all these cases not-one'word of the preliminary work.of obtaining clues and following them up was breathed at the trials of the murderers;'indeed! our most, successful cases are'often looked upon by:the public as very simple and ordinary. ■. ~ • • V '-' .'■'; ■ I remember one murder'trial which gave the'man in the street .this impression,, yet the arrest was only made after weeks and weeks of-search for a man Who held a very decided view about a certain statesman.. The victim had'lived in a jerry-built house, and hjs next-door neighbour had overheard, through the thin' Wall dividing the two dwellings, some'shouting, in which a strange voice denounced; in very strong language, a member of the Cabinet.. . An hour later the- body of the mur-j dcred man was found, and the only clue was this denunciation of a famous man. overheard by chance. But some six weeks later a relative of the victim was traced, and. it was ascertained, that he had "a bee in his bonnet"—an intense dislike for the" Cabinet Minister whose name had Been overhesird. He eventually confessed.