FAMOUS DETECTIVES ADVENTURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

FAMOUS DETECTIVES ADVENTURES.

I 1M I ~ ~ \ HOW AN ANARCHIST WAS CAUGHT, I Some dramatic stories of his detective tx | periences are related by Inspector Walsh' * who retired from Scotland Yard, London' j towards the, end of April, after twenty. i j nine years' service. \ ! Mr, Walsh narrates an incident which Z M I undoubtedly saved his- life and these Wn 'o -jew with him, including Superintends Melville. It was immediately after the i [Ravachol Anarchist outrages in Pari,, ?k .T----j proprietor of the Cafe Yertv, in Paris "' Iliad given evidence against Ravacbol, and 1 in consequence, his restaurant was b!o* n {up, and two customers were killed and the owner injured. Two men were suspect*) I Menmer and Francois and the English [police were notified that thev Kid escaped to England. Both were described as deZ rate men, an I Francois had especially ; been determined in his statements that h? : would not be captured alive. The French ; police had informed their English confrere? that lie was a slight man in face and nW<, iand gave the impression that he WM not ■strong. "Instead." said Mr. Walsh to a pre«« [representative, " lie was a perfect Samson, .one of the strongest men I ever put mv 'hands upon. We found out that lie *« j living in a street in Poplar, and four <,J us, including Mr. Melville and M. M e . jlutyre, went down there. We knew the ■house, but were not desirous ot approach. ;ing the house to let Francois know what jwe were about. As good luck would l have lit. the tenant of the house Francois and i his wife being lodgers—came out and I • (got chatting with him, finally gotnj, with him into the ■corner public-house, where i the others were. "There the landlord told us that Francois was a most peculiar man. Evert time a knock came to the door h« looked '-'I out of the window. He had taken the ; carpet off the stairs so that no one could go up quieth, and his .room door onh ':) opened about a foot. It was evident we were going to lave trouble, «ad in the end we planned that Mclutvre and I should Igo up the stairs, while the others held the | front and '-ear. Mclntvre said, chafmigly, i'Old chap, have another drink; »t may fee the last we shall have together,' and «■« I did, fortunately for me, have another | drink. A DESrEBATE STBUUCLE, "While we had delayed that little time ! Francois had ventured" out; he went off I with an oil-can. and though for a moment, jwe thought we bad lost him, it turned out I all right. Two of us took the top and two the bottom of the street, and let him pass. |Mr. Melville spoke to him in French when, he was near his door, calling him M. I Francois, and he replied at once. Then ' !we had him, but the struggle that followed was one of the worst I ever was in. "The four of us rolled in the gutter. It was a street with costers' stalls, and we. J knocked these over in our struggle, and I j : thought the man would get away through the sympathies of the crowd. We were at our wits end till we said, 'Don't meddle; he's Jack the Ripper,' for it was about ■„■'■'■ the time of those outrages. Well, then, we had no end of a job to save him from the crowd. He was the most muscular man I have ever arrested. Mennicr was | arrested by Mr. Melville single-handed at i Victoria Station, afterwards. He had a revolver in his possession. " Francois' room was a. sight to see. Ho V | told me in prison that he never meant to jbe arrested without costing twenty lives, and he bad planned it ail out. He had | stripped the carpet from the stairs and arranged the bottom step so that it creaked. His bed was brought to the door so that it could only open a foot and «- | kilf. In line with it was a table with a loaded revolver and fifteen cartridges all laid out ready. He said he would have shot us one by one jus we came up, jumped I 1 out of the window, and got away. He was a desperate man, and but for our short delay both Mclntvre and myself would have unquestionably-been shot," _.-/ "; ."■';- ~ ; In the twenty-nine years he had twain'/ the force Mr. Walsh, who is a native of I Mallow, County Cork, has seen great .changes. He was first attached to the eld Bow-street division, and was stationed in Seven Dials and Drury Lane. The whole •quarter was full .of " burglars, coiners, 'blackmailers, anc 1 racing thieves. • One ! notorious gang was called "The Forty •Thieves," and was composed, of young girls of from fourteen to eighteen, who enticed men in the Dials, where they could be leisurely robbed and, by means of their papers, afterwards bj? blackmailed. .•'.'. I y"' '''.'.