“PERFECT BURGLAR”

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 September 1940, Page 2

“PERFECT BURGLAR”

ONE STEP BETRAYED HIM. At twenty, Donald Edward Davis lived in a Mayfair flat. He drove about in a 30 h.p. car. Property worth £BOOO to £lO,OOO came into his hands within four months. It was his skill that made him this income—his skill at planning and carrying Out “split second” robberies at country houses. While householders and guests were at dinner he would climb a ladder to upper windows, slip a ca'tch, and ransack the bedrooms. He never left a finger-print or any other clue. Scotland Yard for long suspected that the “perfect burglar” was a criminal of great experience. One little slip brought Davis to the Old Bailey, London, the other day. There he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for housebreaking and receiving. Two other men, William Fell, aged 66, and Harry Moscovitch, aged 32, who pleaded guilty to receiving some of the property stolen by Davis, were both sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Davis could steal but he could not dispose of the property, and that is where he made his mistake. He began to associate with Fell,\ a wellknown criminal, who was known to the police as having often' committed thefts from country houses. Fell was used to dispose of gold, and in his rooms the police found some jewellers’ scales and instruments for testing gold. Fell was watched closely by the police. On May 20 he was seen to leave some flats in Edgeware Road, London. Even then the police did not know that Davis was the burglar. He was questioned, and in his flat in Mayfair, occupied by Davis and Moscovitch, a quantity of jewellery was found —the proceeds of robberies. When Davis was arrested he admitted that he was the burglar. This well-dressed youth of 20, with nine prevous convictions, was placed in a boys’ prison at Feltham, awaiting his trial. He escaped, by sawing through some bars, but after a week at liberty, surrendered voluntarily.