THE SLEUTHS OF LONDON

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1928, Page 9

THE SLEUTHS OF LONDON

Cornering the Killers... Scotland Yard at Work

An interestin'/ review of the murder trial in which two men were sentenced to death for the murder of Police-Constable Guttcridgc. written bn a New Zealander who is at present resident in London and who made a special study of the case. ■ T is necessary to live in London to realise and feel the great interest taken in the long-fought-out duel between the sleuths of London and the murderers of Police-Constable Gutteridgc. Rarely indeed has such interest been displayed; the whole country called aloud for vengeance; it was not the murder alone but the callous brutality in the manner of committing it which stirred public feeling as it is seldom stirred. The Manner of It On September 27, in the cold grey light of early morning, the constable •was found lying dead on the voad within 40 miles of London. He had not only been shot through the face and neck but, to add to the horror of the deed, a firearm, evidently held within a few inches of his face,, had been used literally to blow out. the eyes of the dead or dying man; even Chicago and its infamous “killers” could not beat the sheer brutality of it.

As it first appeared few doubted that the killer or killers would scon be laid by the heels. A motorcar from a nearby doctor’s house had been stolen and there seemed little doubt that when the constable, being suspicious, held up this car, he was shot down in his tracks and then had his eyes blown out. Now. a car cannot be hidden away in a suit-caso; many hundreds must see it (and th ..-.oie its occupants) as it passes on its way, and it was believed that some reliable clue would quickly be picked up. But, no, as it happened an extremely heavy fog lay over the land that cold morning; all that could be learnt was that several people had noticed a car, travelling at reckless speed to•ward London, appearing like a ghost from the enshrouding fog and instantly vanishing. What was decided, though, was that the '’murderer 01 murderers clearly had intimate Knowledge of the Brixton district, just south of the Thames for, in a cul-de-sac later on that morning the stolen car was found. Only those possessing intimate knowledge could, in such a dense fog as existed, run with sureness to so secluded a burrow. To that -nt only was the limit of the hunt narrowed. A Tiny Clue A spent cartridge case is generally looked upon as being about as noncommittal—and much less useful—as an empty bottle; to, the uninitiated a bunch of similar calibre cases all look alike; but not to the expert, and a litle useless and empty brass cartridge case found in the body of the car was the “king-pin” of the fabric round which Scotland Yard spun the many links of evidence, evidence so strong and conclusive, that, in weaving that net, the wonderful “Yard” wove also a hangman's rope.

In the Metropolis it may be accepted as a truism that, no matter what the crime, the “Yard” quickly can make a good guess who did it; the difficulty is collecting the evidence; and so it was in this case. By process of elimination —which meant rounding up many scores of London’s underworld —possibles were whittled down tosome half dozen criminals known to be capable of this crime; Browne, who is soon to pay the forfeit. [He has since been hanged.—Ed.

was one of them; but, strange to say, they could not find him. Although an old “lag,” he had always managed to so twist his features when before the camera that no satisfactory photograph of him existed; and without that assistance the problem, in a town so immense as London, was that of the needle in a bundle of itay. (It came out in evidence that, once while the hue and cry was on. he gave a lift back to town to a policeman, and chatted with him about, the murder.) All they knew was that he was not. to be found jin his old haunts; thus, blindfolded as it were and without the aid of a likeness published broadcast, the pursuit went silently on for months.

Greed the Betrayer If Browne could have held his hand he might ultimately have escaped to another country; but greed was one of the attributes of his most, unpleasant, character; not only would lie not destroy articles which conveyed damning evidence against him —just because they happened to be useful —but he still pursued his career of crime, principally stealing motors of various sorts and, being an expert mechanic, transforming them in his garage so cleverly as to make the original vehicle unrecognisable. Among rhe articles subsequently found in his workshop were certain instruments loft by Dr. Lovell in his car; these lie had transformed into useful tools. But Ihe crazy folly of it! The detectives were on the track of a stolen car, and by a lucky chance, owing to Browne, who was driving it, being held up in a neighbouring town for dangerous driving, at last got “tab” of the man and also the exact locality of his lair in London. Armed to the teeth, a squad secretly kept watch and presently, Browne in the stolen car ran into the trap.

But, it should be remembered, that up to this the only charge they had definitely against him was stealing that car; and that they charged him with as they arrested him. The Little Brats Cylinder

E’er months past the police had been examining hundreds of known and

registered revolvers, searching for one which they knew must have certain peculiarities; the empty cartridge case found in the car told them such a weapon existed. Browne probably did not know it, but expert gunsmiths did, that any peculiarities of the breeching, file marks, for instance, owing to the tremendous gas pressures exerted when the revolver exploded, embossed themselves on the base of the cartridge case; in a sense, every exploded cartridge case carries the weapon's “finger print.” Searching the stolen car, two revolvers were found (both loaded) and one of them carried in its breach the telltale marks so long sought for; the scent had become hot indeed. The Closing Net Mesh by mesh the net, surely closing, was spun and all round that central pivot of a little brass cylinder and the revolver which it fitted with such deadly accuracy; clearly that weapon was used in the car the night of the murder, and it was for Browne to clear himself of ownership at that time, for if he could not, then just as clearly he was in the car also. The greed and folly of the man to retain such damning evidence! Old-fashioned ammunition with which the revolver was loaded, and similar stuff found on him in his office, supplied another missing link. The empty shell inferred that it was that particular weapon which killed the constable, but inferred it only Here again experts proved to the satisfaction of the Judge and jury that the bullets found in, and others which had passed through the man’s body, could only have been fired from that particular type of cartridge case carrying, as it did, its particular brand or as it is called “mark.” Issues of ammunition often change from year to year, and every issue carries its own identifying stamping; this stamping proved the bullet and case to be of now old and rare type; and some of the bullets found corresponded to that type. The Tiger in the Net

For long Browne had been defiant, almost jeering; but as he felt the net closing, spun by the prosecution with such clear-cut legal acumen, his man-

nor changed greatly. It came out after the trial was over, when the papers published in full his past black record —not a word of this record, such is British justice, had been held .up against him during the trial —that he had endeavoured to hang himself while under detention; in fact, his accomplice, Kennedy, tried to end his life also, in his case with a poisoned sandwich; but it failed to reach him. In his, Browne’s, despairing endeavours to wriggle out of ownership of the revolver, he entered the wit-ness-box, under oath of course; but in his cross-examination his testimony was torn to shreds; the Judge’s summing up was coldly and logically merciless; it was the old saying, “Give a man rope enough and he will hang himself”; and Browne did it effectively. Out of his own mouth he had condemned himself. His Accomplice All through the horrid story it was believed two men were concerned in the murder; and so it proved. Browne had as assistant at his garage a brother “lag” named Kennedy, an acquaintance formed in the congenial atmosphere of Dartmoor prison; he is a man of some education, but otherwise a bungling drunken fellow. How Browne, a teetotaller and non-smoker, could have employed him as an accomplice no one can guess; his insobriety would always be a source of the greatest danger. He bolted instantly when his employer was arrested, but quickly the police traced him to Liverpool; it was given in evidence that he tried to shoot the arresting constable, but that his automatic failed to explode. Questioned he produced a written statement, the gist of which was that he was present at the shooting, and in the car. But he claimed that he had no part in it, that he did not even know that Browne was armed, far less than that lie would shoot; he had a share in stealing the car, he admitted, but nothing more. But that dramatic bit of evidence when the experts proved that not all of the bullets found were fired from the same weapon, beat him completely. British Justice Kennedy’s confession was accepted, but only so far as it affected himself it. was not admitted as being evidence against Browne unless Kennedy appeared as a sworn witness, Browne had to be convicted on evidence entirely apart from anything Kennedy might say against him, and this was repeated over and over again during the trial. Nevertheless. Browne’s counsel complained bitterly that he was working under the weight of a terrible incubus —as he called it —in Kennedy’s statement; no doubt he was, too. Kennedy dared not enter the witi ness-box and there face the ordeal of cross-examination and his statement I held to the end as being evidence only i against himself. Browne tried to shift, the ownership of the revolver, at the time of the shooting, on Kennedy, claiming that he acquired it subsequently from his mate. He had already given in his sworn evidence that he slept at home on the night of the murder. But he had “slipped” when the weapon was first produced from the carat, his gar l age; he had admitted ownership then and all his wriggling did not help him. The trained minds of counsel easily laid bare the falsity of their statement;/; the Judge's clear-cut and logI ical summing-up was also deadly in its j clarity of reasoning. Once more Scotland Yard hod won; ■ j both desperadoes are to hang. by J. T. DIXO'S