GREATEST DETECTIVE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 19 August 1929, Page 9

GREATEST DETECTIVE.

A REGRETTED RETIREMENT. CHIEF CONSTABLE WENSLEY. When -Chief Constable Frederick Wensley retired last month from his l position as head of the Criminal, Investigation Department (the 0,1. D.) of the London Metropolitan Polios, the, public lost the services of one of the -most brJil.ia.nt detecives of modern time®. My Wensley had completed 42 years’ service with’ the Metropolitan Police Force —a brilliant record which is probably unparalleled in tire history of the police forces of the world. Everyone in the force regrets his departure. for he is held in affectionate esteem not only by the officers who come into daily contact with him. but also bv the voting men in the service, whom ’be has always been ready to help with, his sage counsel and advice. It is* not surprising that, according to a recent cable message, Chicago was reported to have engaged him to assist in setting its notice system in order.

“JACK THE RIPPER,” Forty-two years lago Frederick Wensley came up from Somerset to join the Metropolitan Polio?, and received his “baptism of fire” in the East End, shelter of scounddels of afli kinds, including the infamous Jack the Ripper. He joined the force in 1887, and the Ripper murders occurred in the following year.

It is difficult for modern Londoners, blessed with well-lighted streets and a, pall hie organisation of lust-class efficiency, to realise the conditions undie,r which in those days crime flourished and spread like a fungus in the dark. The streets were ill-lighted and illpatrolled; a, con stab?’s beat covered several square miles ; crime detection a,S a science was rudimentary. It was little wonder the Ripper murders threw the whole district of Whitechapel into a panic. Through these narrow, dark thoroughfares Wenslev walked his beat for the two years before he graduated iijto the detective, senric©. His personal reputation grew rapidly, and his fearlessness was respected even bv thieves, burglia.rs and coiners, who were his ‘‘clientele.” He was. among them at all times of the day and night, alone, uniatnued. but ever watchful.

I SIDNEY STREET BATTLE. His personal bravery has always distinguished him. He a nested St imie Morrison —be was a detective inspector then—in the cool, all most casual way of a man whose everyday business is the arrest of dangerous persons. Sfinie Morrison was wanted for the murder of Leo Baron. The detective walked into a restaurant where Morrison was dining, and casually remarked, “I want you when you’ve finished your meal.” Fifteen minutes later the two men walked towards Commercial Street Police Station chatting as if the murkier charge was the least thing in their minds. . i Thar tv rears ago in the East End Wensley took part in a fierce fight with a murderer brought to bay on the roof of a house, and brought off an arrest after his man had jumped the piaivement below. He was the Divisional Detective Inspector at Whitechapel when be located “Peter the Painter” and the Sldnyv Street, assassins. lie carried one of Iris wounded men to shelter under the hn.il of bullets which started the famous siege during which 'the Scots Guards and a. battery of artillery were- called out. E-oe this act-o-f gallantrv he received the King’s Medal.

MURDERERS TRACKED DOWN. Coming to Scotland 1 Yard as -a chief inspector, Wensley handled every big murder cia.se which came along. One of his bast- cases was the murder of Mine. Gerard by Luis Yoisin, the French butcher. A laundry mark and the words “Blodiig Belgium” were the two clues which brought this mystery to a. .successful eolation. Then he bracked down Frederick Keeling tor the murder of Miss Emilv Harding -at Tottenham, and a, few months later was engaged oh the east? of the- mystery house in Regent’s Parky where Ma'.tby. the tailor, had been living for weeks behind barricaded -Gcoes’. along in the house with tie body of a- woman bo- rad killed). Wens’rv- was- i-espomnWe for the con vietion of Armstrong, the poisoner; and Superintendent Gar rett c/ Bournemouth, has acknowledged that it was d>v- to tb"- assistance from Wensley lb at. ho was able to fix the re*rxmsibilitv for the inuuk" of Miss Irene W ilkins on Them a,s Alla wa.v. FROM TTTS OFFICE CHAIR.

Many other examples fo-uld he given to illustrate what the late Sir Richard Muir said of Wei is lev —“the greatest detective- -of all time.” At 64 years of age Wensley retains ail the astuteness

which brought- him fame. Slow of speech, alert of mind and swift of action, he has solved many a perplexing problem from, his armchair. Many a man has walked into Scotland Yard with a “water-tight- aliibi, sir,” only to find it shattered after a few minutes with Wensley.

It i s said that in recent years Wensliev lias caught more criminals from that room which overlooks the Thames than the whole of the Flying Squad. On many a- morning when one of liis chief inspectors has been investigating a murder in the country he has directed, the course' of justice from Scotland Yard. A flaw in one of the statements before him —a.question to a suspect, based on it—and the mystery was a mystery no longer. This happened in the Field and Gray case ; it also helped t.;> firing Norman Thorne, the Crowborough murderer, to justice. Wensley was a good friend to many a, criminal;, and encouraged numbers of them to forsake dishonest ways and become respectable citizens. His retirement had nothing whatever to do with recent happenings in the force —lie could have gone on for another five years if he had wished to—'but, as he said, “I fe?il 1 want a rest, and besides, my wife would like to see something of me occasionally.” And when it is realised that fa*mg the investigation of the Cutterbriage murder case and other similar ci rnies Wenslev has been at- the Yard lay r-.tc-r day for" 18 hours of a. stretch, it- is easy to believe him.