CHARLES PEACE’S END

Evening Star, Issue 20313, 23 October 1929, Page 12

CHARLES PEACE’S END

BETRAYED BY A WOMAH NEW VERSION RELATED To the present generation the archcriminal Charles Peace is a name vaguely associated with a senes or dariim burglaries, accompanied m 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 u neighbour at Sheffield. Peace had been arrested at dead ot night in the grounds of a mansion at Blackheath, and fired point-blank at a constable named Robinson, who narrowly escaped with his life. It is only

three years ago that Robinson died at Greenwich Infirmary. In his interesting book on ‘ London Rediscoveries and Some Others,’ published by John Lane, Sir Walter G. Bell, an unrivalled authority on London history, recapitu kites 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 it 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 scries 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. MR BELL’S NARRATIVE.

It has been assumed that tho presence of Robinson and other officers on the spot at the time the burglary was committed was tho result of In specter Bonney’s extreme foresight. Mr Bell, however, tells a different story, which, he says, he feels sure is the true one. It has come to his ears in a roundabout way, and is said to have been told to somebody by Robinson. This is the revised edition < f 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 p hand in it.

At the back of Mr Burness’s house at Blackheath was a quiet byway with a miniature avenue of small trees, which gave shelter, from the prying eyes of a superior officer, to constables who foregathered for a quiet smoke while on dutv. This is how Mr Bell’-; 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 bis lapse from strict duty. . . . To the same place came another con stable. . . . Then to their consternation came noon the scene Sergeant Brown with a bluff challenge, “Hullo! What are yon two men doing hc’-e at this hour?”

Possibly the sergeant, reading human nature, and a constable himself before promotion, could have supplied an answer to his own question. 'Robin son had to say something to explain bis presence, and his mind worked onickly. “T thought, sergeant T saw a li"ht moving in the window of that big bouse, and we have been watching for it.” A REMARK ABE OCCURRENE. The sergeant turned sharply in the direction indicated, and observed that he did not sec any light. To continue Mr 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 tho drawing room window, ft was the devil’s own luck. Here were three men collected—a sergeant and two constables—actually on the spot and ready for instantaneous work. They waited only long enough to make sure about the light. Robinson was sent over the wall int" the rear garden, the second constable vigilantly guarded against a running •"■scaup. and the sergeant at the front ran o, the door h-fil, the first alarm o’ which sent Peace jumping out of the window upon the lawn.

Then it was that Peace and Con stable Robinson 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, hut the officer threw himself upon the desperate burglar, who made a superhuman effort ito escape and actually broke away. Robinson chased him, and was twice fired at. Luckily the shots missed, and policeman and burglar were soon in a fierce struggle. THE JOURNEY TO SHEFFIELD. Peace drew a long knife and tried to stab Robinson, who got hold of flic revolver and subdued' his assailant with blows from the butt end. In the end Peace was convicted at the Old Bailey of the attempted murder of Robinson, and was sentenced by Mr Jusstice Hawkins to twenty years’ penal servitude. Inspector Bonney had been closely investigating Peace’s antecedents, and lie questioned a woman named Sue Bailey, with whom the burglar lived for some time. Peace was known at this time as Ward, and she volunteered the information, “If you are seeking Charles Peace look at John Ward, and you will find him.” The inspector visited Ward in his cell, and remarked in casual convei*sation: “ Well, Peace, you will soon be making a journey to Sheffield.” The convict turned white with fear, and gasped, “ Peace—Sheffield.” Real ising that the game was up he confessed to the inspector and was tried and convicted of the Sh«ffiMd murder, Wng executed at Leeds in 1879.