MURDER TRIAL DRAMA.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 13092, 13 February 1937, Page 9

MURDER TRIAL DRAMA.

TRIUMPH FOR SCOTLAND YARD.

Mary Flynn, in prison, is showing tho same courage as at the Old Bailey, when slio did everything in her power to shield tho man she loved so passionately. When Mr Justice Mcnnghten, at the end of tho trial, decided to commend Division-"Detective-Inspector 0. Rawlings, M.C.. and other officers connected with him in the investigation, he paid a well-earned tribute to tho ability of the inspector and his chief lieutenant, Detective-Inspector Dcaghton. At .Scotland Yard the work of the officers is regarded as an exam pic of perfect investigation.

Robbery Motive

AY lion tlio murder -was first discovered on -August 14, it seemed a simple, straightforward crime. Tn her flat in Rose-ford Gardens, Shepherd’s Kush, lay tho dead body, gagged and bound, of Mrs Ada Fortschunk, or Forteseue, a 66-year-old widow. Robbery was obviously the. motive for the murder. Then it was established that a, man and a. girl had lodged with the widow under the name of Mr and Mrs Williams and had disappeared. This couple immediately camo under suspicion. Rut who were they P There was no clue r.o their identity.

How the Couple Met

That gave Inspector Rawlings the first hint that a long and patient investigation would bo needed. But ne'er did ho imagine that >53 days of intensive inquiries would elapse before tho couple, Alfred -Stratford. 41-year-old unemployed labourer and war hero, and Mary Ann Flynn, 20, both of Quinn Buildings, Bethnal Green, would be under lock and kev.

Few people had seen the couple during their short stay in Shepherd's Rush, and then For only fleeting moments. The police could get only a, vague dascription of them. Fingerprints found in the dead Woman’s ransacked room had no counterparts in the files at Scotland Yard.

There was, however, one thing that might bn a clue—-near the body was a tab from Die inside of the* woman’s frock. It, bore the name of a draper in Xing Street. Hammersmith. De-tective-Inspector Hnish, of Scotland Yard, questioned the assistant- at the shop who had sold the dross. She/ remembered the sale, hut could give no description of the customer. As the detective was leaving the shop a. kerb-sido photographer tqok his picture. He mentioned the incident at headquarters. Inquiries were made, and it was found that four kerb-side photographers had been working in the area for some time filming passers-by. Could they by any chance have “snapped” the wanted couple? ’flint was the question tho detectives asked. .Tt was a mil-lion-to-ono chance, hut it might come off.

Cinema in Police Station. Officers wnt to the offices of the photographic company and took possession of the thousands of pictures. Experts worked for days making these pictures into a film. Cinema, apparatus was installed in the police station at Hammersmith. There, day after day, neighbours of tho murdered woman sat while the film was run through over and over again. Suddenly a cry rang out in the darkness, a woman had recognised tho two vanished lodgers. The mil-lion-to-one chance had “come off.” A block was made from the picture, and within a few hours the police printing presses were pouring out thousands of copies of the picture for distribution to every police officer in tho country. Hundreds of detectives were given copies, and all over London people wore asked to help in tho work of identifying tho couple.

Detectives at street corners, in cinema and theatre queues ,in public houses and shops, asked the same questions: “Do you know those people!?” At last the tremendous inquiry bore fruit. A man in the East End said: “Why, yes. That’s Alf. Stratford.”

Developments followed quickly. Stratford was soon identified as a married man with five children, who had run away with Mary Flynn, a o-irl living in the same building as him in Bethnal Green. Their photographs and descriptions were circulated everywhere.

„ Cordon of Detectives. .Meantime .Stratford and Flynn 1 wer « on the run,' moving from one London district to another and staying in. cheap boarding houses. Landladies ‘were appealed to by Scotland Yard. A poster describing the, couple -was ispued with the words, “They may ho .with you now,” in bold type. Then Mary Flynn made a false move. She wrote to her brother. The letter was intercepted by the police, it. bora an “F.B” stamp, showing that it had been posted in Dalston. A map of the Dalston area was rushed to police headquarters, and the whole district carefully surveyed

DETECTIVES TAKE A MILLION-TO-ONE CHANCE THAT “CAME OFF.”

pLANS were being made in London early in December to present a petition for the reprieve of Alfred Stratford, who was sentenced to death at the Old Baile- for the Shepherd’s Bush crime, while his companion, Mary Ann. Flynn, received eight years’ penal servitude. In the condemned cell Stratford is writing to the Home Secretary a personal plea for mercy.

with a view to covering every possible approach to any station, tram or bus stop. In tho early hours ot October 3 hundreds of detectives, some disguised as labourers, some as costermongers, and others as casual loungers, took up the positions which had been so carefully planned for them. In the centre of this remarkable cordon of police stood Inspector Rawlings. He had satisfied himself that if either Mary Flynn or Stratford emerged from their hiding place they must ho seen. By an amazing coincidence it fell to the inspector himself to make,- the arrest. He tapped a man on tho shoulder. in a crowd at a bus stop near Ralston Police Station. It was Stratford. A few minutes later Alary Flynn was also in custody and the great Shepherd’s Bush murder hunthad ended. Science, coupled with the typical patient investigation of Scotland Yard, had triumphed.

The story of the meeting of Stratford and Flynn is an amazing one. Stratford, a disabled ex-soldier, lived with his wife and five children in a tenement flat in Quinn’s Building. Betlmal Green. The Flynns lived nearby. Mary Flynn was 17 when she met Stratford. Immediately they fell in love.

Then misfortunes struck the Stratford family. Early this year v. dear-ly-loved child died. This preyed on Stratford’s mind to such an extent that lie suggested an elopement. Mary Flynn agreed and the two went away together. For hours they wandered together along the .Embankment, through Hyde Park and the streets of the West End. Their money was soon finished and they returned home.

Of their hardships during that time they never talked, blit Mary Flynn’s condition when she returned home showed that she. must have starved. For a time it seemed that their romance bad ended. But once again they left home. It was during this absence that. Mrs Forte sen o was murdered for the paltry few pounds she possessed. It is a coincidence that Inspector Rawlings, tho hunter, and Stratford, the hunted man, both earned decorations during tho war.

Mr Rawlings received the Military Cross as an infantry officer. Stratford was decorated with the Distinguished Conduct Medal for the gallant way in which ho unharnessed the two horses left alive out of a team and brought first the limber and then tho gun of one of the batteries to safcitv under shell-fire.

At the Old Bailey the drama of the Shepard’s Bush crime, was played out. Tiie .jury found Stratford guilty of murder; Flynn not-guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter. On the direction of Air Justice Mcnagliten, Flynn was taken below to spare her tho pain of seeing her lover sentenced to death. When she returned the Judge sentenced her to eight years’ penal .servitude.

“The jury have taken a merciful view of your conduct,” bo told her. “But for your assistance it is probable that Mrs Fortcseno would not havo been lolled. Yours is a crime closely akin to murder.” Stratford’s- evidence was, that he and the girl Flynn rented a room in Mrs Fortescue’s fiat and decided to rob her, as they wero starving. Ho tied her up and took some money and left her, believing that she would soon releaso herself from her bonds. They wore amazed when they read of her death.

“Have you tho slightest doubt that this girl worships the ground you walk on?” asked Mr J. C. Jackson, K. 0., defending. “I have no doubt of it whatever,” replied Stratford. Mr Jackson: “Have you any doubt that this girl would willingly have laid down her life to save you ?” “No, sir,” answered Stratford.

“l Wanted to Shield Him.” Flynn, who denied using any violence toward Mrs Fortescue, was asked why she made her statement to the police. “It was because I was in love with Stratford,” she said. “I wanted to shield him and take the blame.” Mr Jackson : Had ho stuck to. his original story, would you have sacrificed yourself for him ?—I would willingly. He is the only man I have ever loved.

Mr Jackson, addressing the jury on Flynn’s behalf, declared she had risked having the rope about her neck when she made the statement. “Never mind her station in life,” hr* went on. “There is just as true love among the lower strata of life as there is in the highest society, and I suggest that in that girl you have the very thing which makes love true—that is self-sacrifice, the . immolation of self on the altar of self-sacrifice.’ Her fault has been loving that man