SEVERED FINGER CLUE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14235, 4 December 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

SEVERED FINGER CLUE.

STARTLING FIND IN LONDON

STREET.

MAN WITH MAIMED HAND ' ARRESTED.

Lv the strange annals of crime few more curious incidents could be found than that of a man proved to' be a criminal by the evidence of a finger cut from his hand, and left three weeks before in another .part of London.

On September 16 a constable patrolling St. John's-street, Clerkenwell, was startled to find a man's finger, with a ring still circling it, impaled on a spike at the top of a

gateway.

The discovery afforded grounds for much conjecture. Interest in the mystery was intensified a hundredfold when, the maimed relic of humanity having been taken to Scotland Yard, the finger-print experts began to experiment with it. Eventually they made the astonishing announcement that it belonged to the right hand of a notorious malefactor, an ex-convict known as William Mitchell.

This man's whereabouts could not be ascertained for a time. The grim mystery was elucidated at last in the most accidental and surprising way.

On the evening of Friday, October 8, De-tective-Sergeant Beard saw four men moving about suspiciously in the crowds waiting for trams at the Elephant and Castle. With help he managed to arrest two of them. The men were taken to the police-station.

They professed to be total strangers to each other, and the younger of the pair, a young fellow of 25, Avh6 gave the name of Harry May, and said he was a "tipster," remarked with some indignation, " How could I pick pockets with a hand like this." At the same time he held up a heavilybandaged aim. Later on, he and his companion, calling himself James Herbert Walton, tailor, were remanded at Lambeth Police Court.

The pair were again put into the dock, and. in addition to the original accusation of attempting to pick pockets, charged under the Prevention of Crimes Act, both being subject to the provisions of that statute. Then only did it come to light that the man calling himself May was actually Mitchell.

This fact was established when during the first remand Detective-Inspector Eustace, following the ordinary routine, sent the suspect's finger-prints to headquarters, and the astonishing reply came back, " This man has identical prints with those of the man who lost his ringer at Glerkenwell."

Not even then quite satisfied, the officers tackled May, and the prisoner at once admitted the truth of the identity, saying that the finger was torn from his hand while he was getting over the gate.

Detective Whitmnre recited the criminal career of the two. Walton, whose real name is Godfrey, was only filtrated from prison on license in April last, his convictions including three months at Worshipstreet Police Court, for stealing money, in 1899 : at the North London Sessions, twelve months, for stealing a watch, in 1900 ; three months, at Worship-street Police Court, for being a suspected person, in 1902 ; 12 months, at Bristol, for stealing a purse, in 1902 ; one month, for watch-snatching, at Glasgow, in 1904; sixty days, at Glasgow, under the Prevention of Crimes Act, in 1905 a similar sentence, at Glasgow, for loitering, in 1906; three years, at Glasgow* for larceny, in 1907; besides three summary convictions as a rogue and vagabond.

May. as Mitchell, first came under the notice of the police in March, 1903, when he was sentenced to seven. days' imprisonment at Lambeth Police Court for stealing from a shop. His other convictions, included four • months,, for stealing boots, in 1905 nine months' hard labour, for,stealing a bicycle, in 1906; three months' hard labour, for stealing a necklet, in, 1908 ; ojnd, in the same year, six months for being found in a public place for the purpose of committing a felony. Mr. Cecil Chapman ordered the prisoners to twelve months' hard labour each.

May left the dock protesting that he was an innocent man.