LONDON POLICE BEGIN A BLACK BOOK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 26

LONDON POLICE BEGIN A BLACK BOOK

Detectives have started work on their own special directory of London society —but it is ''a black list, not a blue book, writes Sam Brewer from London to the "Chicago Tribune." In it will be listed all the black sheep suspected of living on the fringe of the law, if not outside of it, but who have not yet been caught. More than one person who is familiarly seen in the bars and night clubs of London's fashionable West End has no visible means of support but manages to live on the best the city affords. Police want to know how it is done. One phase of the directory will be devoted to persons known to have passed bad cheques on occasion and to those who run up bills without paying them. It is along the lines of lists already kept by credit associations. More important will be the list of those they suspected of infringements of law though not caught. It will list the men and women about town who frequent expensive bars and restaurants, dance and drink in night clubs, dress well and drive cars, and yet have not enough legitimate income, so far as the police can discover, to cover their spending.

is done,

There are many of them in the West End. Attention was drawn sharply to them last winter when four playboys, all of well-known families, all graduates of well-known and expensive schools and all familiar fiEures in the town's night life, attacked a jeweller and nearly killed him attempting to steal a fortune in diamonds.

They were convicted and sentenced,

two of them getting the dread cat-o'-nine-tails as well as prison* sentences.

Police believe there are scores of blackmailers, drug traffickers, swindlers, and others who escape punishment time after time because their victims are ashamed to complain to the police.

One of their less harmful but annoying activities is to run up bills they do not intend to pay, then persuade merchants or restaurant owners not to prosecute by calling attention to. well-known friends and relatives they can persuade to attract customers or keep them away depending on the merchant's leniency or severity.

Many a well-known young man can afford to appear in expensive places because he knows the right' people, and the restaurateurs give him credit, or discounts, in the hope that he will help to bring them trade.

Few known criminals can circulate in the West End, because the police watch them too closely. But there are many the police suspect.

The new black book is to be a record of the activities of people they suspect may some dayvbe found out as criminals. When one of the people on the list is found to have been near the scene of a crime, that may give the police a useful lead for their investigations.

There are cases of presentable young men vaguely known in many places in the West End without anybody knowing exactly how they live. Sometimes money or jewellery will disappear from a night club table or a handbag left there while they are present..

To avoid scandal and because they are not sure of their ground, the victims seldom report to the police, and if they do they do not dare to naake a formal accusation.