FAMOUS CRIMES AND CRIMINALS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 July 1924, Page 11

FAMOUS CRIMES AND CRIMINALS.

A CHAMBER. OE HORRORS. la a re:cut hook called “Tbo Romance of .Uadame Tu.ssn ml ’.s’ ’ Mc. John Theodore Tussaud has someth in-. 5 to s ay itl'.ouc “the inic of Horrors.'’ The room in which the models of men and women of i'l-iepnte were placed as part of the exhibition which Ala dame r l ussaud permanently established in Baker Street, London, was at first called the “Dead Hoorn,” though by some it was designated the “Black Room” on account of its sombre aspect. It was left for “Air. Punch’’ to christen this part of the wax collection the •'Chamber of Horrors,’’ the name by which it has ever since been known. Mr. Tussaud writes : In citing the old aphorism that society itself creates the crimes that must beset it, we shall in no way be tempted to regard the popularity of the Chamber of Horrors as due to any desire on the part of the people to visit the place with the object of gazing upon the result of their own handiwork. An inquiry into the motives that induce the public to visit this gloomy chamber scarcely comes within the scope of this work. Rut that a very large number do visit the place in the course of each year, and that they cannot be deemed to belong to any particular class, but represent, without distinction, all classes of society, ive may, of our own certain knowledge, aver without the slightest hesitation. Were we, however, if only from an abstract point of view, to venture an opinion on the vexed question as to why so many have a leaning towards the seamy and sinister side of life, we should he disposed to consider that, apart from the allurement of the abnormal and the inclination to indulge a. morbid curiosity, perhaps the chief influence serving to stimulate the mind of the public when a great crime lias been perpetrated is a genuine concern that a serious outrage has been made on society, constituting a veritable menace to its security

This in part 'explains what is often criticised, the prominence in the press given to accounts of notorious crimes and criminals. It also explains why a section of the reading public find perennial interest in the records of famous trials and in the careers of all kinds of criminals. Recent issues of the latter class included “Studies in Australian Crime,” by J. D. Fitzgerald (first and second series), and “Famous Crime and Criminals,” by ,C. L. McClr.er Stevens. Air. Fitzgerald, who is a barrister at law and a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, was Solicitor-General and Minister for Justice in the Holman Ministry of New South Wales, in which capacity he had opportunities of studying crime at first hand. He remarks: “My interest in the subject was aroused during a study of prison reform and an investigation of the prison systems of Europe and Ceylon, made in 1892, in the course of which I visited the principal gaols of London, Paris. Berlin, and Colombo. Aloreover, while Minister of Justice in New South Wales, I had uiider review many cases of reprieved murderers undergoing life sentences, and had opportunities of seeing some of them. Among these was a desperate South Sea Island pirate, who had killed the captain and mate oj; a schooner —which he afterwards cast away—and plotted to kill the captain and officers of the vessel which rescued him.”

Discussing tlie subject generally, Mr. Fitzgerald says : These narratives and discussions of notable Australian cr.mes are based on a belief that there is something not merely interesting, but instructive to the general reader in the doings of criminals, while a study of their motives and surroundings should be useful to the lawyer, the physician, the criminologist, and the statesman. Alexandre Dumas’s series of essays on historical crimes are famous in literature; and the late Air. H. B Irving —a gifted man too soon lost to literature and the stage —gave us several fascinating studies, It is of interest to note that in his category of criminals Dumas includes Alary Queen of Scots; and Irving in his, Judge Jeffrey. Dumas, who classified Alary Queen of Scots (over whom many tear s have been wasted) as a murderess, would have placed the German Emperor in the same category. Considering the character of the studies that follow, I note that they are composed (unconsciously) on the lines of Dumas rather than those of Irving. The former are primarily studies of the crime; the latter of the criminal. In the one, of course, there is necessarily some discussion of the criminal, and in the other, of equal necessity, some account of the crime. But Irving portrayed the psychology of criminal man; Dumas dealt with the dramatic side of each crime described. His crimnals were mere characters in the drama, but

the drama, was hi.s main objective. Thus Mi 1 . Fitzgerald's two volumes contain a number of episodes in the romance of crime. They are not, as the author points out, mere stories of criminal happenings. ' “They are dramatic in nature, anj a. s drama, must deal with an analysis of the character of the criminals, and of those fateful men who are born to bo victims.’’ Moreover, “that criminals arc interesting personalities will not be denied, and they interest many who would hardly care to acknowledge it openly.” One of the most extraordinary of the criminal cases enlarged upon at length by Mr. Fitzgerald is that of Henry Louis Bertrand, a Sydney dentist, convicted of the murder of Henry Kinder in 1860. Bertrand wa s in love with Mrs. Kinder. The Kinders originally came from London, but before settling in Sydney they were for a time in New Zealand, Kinder being employed in the Onion Bank and afterwards in the Bank of New Zealand. Another man who figured in the trial was Francis Arthur Jackson, a New Zealand'squatter and an old lover of Mrs. Kinder’s. At Bertrand’s first trial the jury failed to agree, and they were discharged. Tried a second time Bertrand was convicted ami sentenced to death, but Jewish influence intervened and the sentence was commuted to life with hard labour and three years in irons. Bertrand served 28 years in prison, being released in 1801. He fs believed to lie still alive and living in London, Other crimes narrated by Mr. Fitzgerald in bis first volume inelude the Claremont Cold Escort murder, in which Cold Commissioner Thomas Grif. tin. in charge of the escort, was convicted of the murder of the two constables under h : s command. OrifFin. who was an Irishman, and had served with distinction in the Crimean war. emigrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in 1866 or 1867. He joined th* 4 New South Wales polieo force, which at that time had jurisdiction

oror Queensland, and lie gained rapid promotion. Griffin, who physically was a fine specimen of manhood, was hanged for his crime. The lure of gold was also the incentive to the Meronish murder, when Hallgian, a gold-buyer, was killed by Palmer, Williams, Archibald, and J aylor. The other crimes narrated in the first_ volume are “The Parramatta River Murders,” “The Gatton Traged.v, and the I.W.W. crimes, known the “The Tottenham Murder,” and the Murder of the Greek, Pappageorgi.” Of these I.W.W*. crimes Air. Fitzgerald remarks that they “show a strange mixture of altruistic ideas for social amelioration with deeds of brutal murder.” “The cunning ones preach,” he says, “while the dupes translate their doctrines into action and suffer the penalties.”

Air. Fitzgerald’s second volume rontains a detailed account of the notorious Deeming case; when the discovery of the body of a woman, embedded in Portland cement, under the hearthstone of a room in a house situated in U incisor, a suburb of Alelbourne, led to the unearthing of a series of repulsive crimes which shocked the civilised world. A companion criminal to Deeming was Frank Butler. “Here, too,” writes Mr. Fitzgerald, “we find a set scheme for the preparation and execution of the crime. Deeming specialised in the sudden blow, the sharp throat-slashing, and the burial, in cement; Butler's speciality was the hiring of hi.s victims on prospecting expeditions to a lonely spot, persuading them to dig holes in* a search for gold, and then shooting them from behind and burying them in the hole which they themselves had dug. The however, were widely different. With Deeming the master motive was probably lust: with Butler it was certainly gain.” This second volume includes accounts of the baby-farming cases for which the Makins, in New South Wales, and Airs. Knorr, in Victoria, went to the scaffold. The trial of the Keiiiiiths for the murder of Police-constable Doyle and Dahlke, a. station manager in the Carnarvon Range of Queensland in 1902; and of Grand and Jones, the burglarmurderers, conclude the volume. Both volumes give evidence of careful firsthand research, and they show considerable dramatic power. The narratives me more fascinating than the most highly-spiced and sensational novel. Once again the old adage i s exemplified that truth is stranger than fiction.