INDEXING CRIMINALS

Evening Star, Issue 22193, 22 November 1935, Page 18

INDEXING CRIMINALS

1 - DETECTIVE’S LIFE WORK MAN WHO REMEMBERED FACES. The man who knows the faces of more criminals than any man in the world. That is how one might describe Chief Inspector Ralph Rowe, who, after 36 years’ . service with tho London Metropolitan Police—33 of which have been spent in the Criminal Record .Office at Scotland Yard—retired at tho end of - September, writes Bernard O’Donnell in the ‘ Sunday Graphic.’ Hoad of tho famous “ C.0.R.,” as it is culled, Inspector Rowe has devoted nearly all his years of police service to compiling the records of criminals all over the country; a net, with a score of capable men under him, he has been successful in getting together as complete a filing system as any that obtains anywhere, in the world, there being over half a million records filed—containing the descriptions, photographs, convictions, habits, and fingerprints of all living criminals who have been through the hands of the Metropolitan Police. During his career as a police constable, when he was stationed at Bow Street police station, there was no case of a sensational nature in which he was engaged. And - since his transfer to the Yard there have been few occasions on which he has had to appear before the public. Y r et no criminal who has ever been convicted in Britain remains unknown to Inspector Rowe for very long, and it is said of him, by admiring fellow workers, that he “never forgets a face.” A pleasant-faced man, quiet and unobtrusive in his manner, Inspector Rowe is typical of the painstaking officer who compels success at the Yard. One has only to take a peep at the amazing collection of “ records ” to realise the immensity of the work for which he has been responsible over many years. ' Tho card index system of tabulating criminals according to their methods, for example, the man who resorts to violence in his exploits may ho under the head: “Warehouse breaking with violence.” Tho cat burglar under “ Burglary—climbing.” Nearly fifty different headings there arc for burglary alone, “ Making servants’ acquaintance ” or “ Burglary—through roof.” And under these various headings one will find the names of the criminals who specialise in this particular form of crime. Forgers, swindlers, confidence tricksters are ’ all tabulated thus, with the sub-headings to assist ■ in the elimination. “Couples who work together ” you may find in one section, .“ Women with red hair ” in another, while the various guises they assume to carry out thoir crimes arc carefully noted and cross-refer-enced to assist in their detection. GRIM EXHIBITS. Finger prints? Tn the bureau which deals with this part of the records you

will find the prints of all people convicted of serious crime in Britain since 1901. All duly filed and classified. And over each and all of these departments Inspector Howe has had to keep a vigilant eye. In addition he has been keeper of the most gruesome and fascinating private museum in the world —the “ Black Museum,” housed in three communicating rooms in the basement of the Yard. It fell to the lot of Inspector Rowe to catalogue tho_ grim exhibits contained therein, giving a short history of each one. _ And an amazing collection it is, containing the relics of forgers, burglars, “ con ” men, and murderers. There, for example, is the photographic reproduction of the letter, scrawled in red ink, and_ sent to a. Press agency, over the signature of “ Jack the Ripper,” announcing that be would cut ’off the ears of his next victim and send them to the police. Right next to this is a lock of hair belonging to Bella Elmore, the ill ; fated wife of Crippon. Turn round quickly, and you will almost stumble into the bath in which Smith, of “ Brides in the Bath ” fame, drowned one of bis victims, while the cook’s knife with which Patrick Mahon dismembered the body of his unwanted sweetheart, Emily Kaye, is duly labelled nearby. Two black stocking masks, which were worn by tho Stratton Brothers, together with tho lead-weighted rope lengths which they used in the Deptford murder, may ar somewhat ordinary in comparison with a bundle of ropes suspended in one corner, each one of them bearing its label indicating that this one was the actual rope around the neck of Wainwright when ho was launched into eternity, while those two were the ropes which hanged Milsom and Fowler. LADDER USED BY CHARLES i-EACE. Not all tho exhibits in this museum are of so gruesome a nature. There are all the artifices of the crook, ancient and modern. The ladder used by Charles Peace, who long before telescopic ladders were thought of, had constructed an ingenious affair made of two-feet pieces of wood, cleverly bolted, so that it would fold up into a small bag. It extended to 16 feet, and had a strong hook to catch on a portico. Collections of skeleton keys, collaosihlo “jemmies,” mingle with the instruments used by forgers past and present, and cunningly devised tops and appliances used in gambling hells for the fleecing of “ lambs.” Inspector Rowe was tho keeper of all these things, and as now exhibits came along, so it was his duty to place them in the museum, after writing up a complete history of the latest relic.

No! Inspector Rowe play-d no public; part in the tracking clown of this brutal murderer or that plausable trickster. He never achieved the limelight which such ectacular feats bring about. To the general public lie was an unknown quantity, but—behind the scenes there is no man who has done more to outwit, the persistent crook than this modest, alert-looking man.