INDEXING CRIMINALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22256, 2 November 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

INDEXING CRIMINALS

DETECTIVE'S LIFE WORK KEEPER OF "BLACK MUSEUM" MAN WHO REMEMBERED FACES The man who knows the faces of more criminals than any man in the world. That is how one might describe Chief Inspector Ralph Rowe, who, after 36 years' service with the London Metropolitan Police —33 of which have been spent in the Criminal Record Office at Scotland Yard —retired at the end of September, writes Bernard O'Donoll in the Sunday Graphic. Head of the famous " C.R.0.," as it is called, Inspector Rowe has devoted nearly all his years of polico service to compiling the records of criminals all over the country; and, with a score of capable men under him, he has been successful in getting togother as complete a filing system as any that obtains anywhere in the world, thero being over half a million records filed —containing the descriptions, photographs, convictions, habits and fingerprints of all living criminals who have been through tho hands of the Metropolitan Police. During his career as a polico constable, when ho was stationed at Bow Street police station, there was no case of a sensational nature in which lie was engaged. And since his transfer to the Yard there have been few occasions on which he has had to appear before the public. Yet no criminal who has over been convicted in Britain remains unknown to > Inspector Rowe for very long, and it is said of him, by admiring fellow workers, that ho " never forgets a face. A pleasant-faced man, quiet and unobtrusive in his manner, Inspector Rowe is typical of the painstaking officer who compels success at the Yard. One has only to take a peep at the amazing collection of "records to realise the immensity of the work for which be has been responsible over many years. The card index system of tabulating criminals according to their methods,

[ for example. The man who resorts to violence in his exploits may be under the head: " Warehouse breaking with violence." The cat burglar under ''Burglary—climbing." Nearly fifty different headings there are for burglary alone, "Making servants' acquaintance " or " Burglary—through roof." And under these various headings cne will find the names of the criminals who specialise in this particular form of crime. Forgers, swindlers, confidence u :<'ksters are all tabulated thus, with Mib-headings to assist in the elimination. " Couples who work together " you may find in one section, " Women with red hair " in another, while the various guises they assume to carry out their crimes are carefully noted and cross-referenced to assist in their detection. Grim Exhibits Finger prints? In the bureau which deals with this part of the records you will find tho prints of all people convicted of serious crime in Britain since 1901. All duly filed and classified. And over each and all of these departments Inspector Rowe has had to keep a vigilant eye. In addition he has been keeper of the most gruesome and fascinating private museum in the world —the "Black Museum," housed in three communicating rooms in tho basement of the Yard. It fell to the lot of Inspector Rowe to catalogue the grim exhibits contained therein, giving a short history of each one. And an amazing collection it is. containing the relics of forgers, burglars, " con men and murderers. There, for example, is tho photographic reproduction of the letter, scrawled in red ink, and sent to a press agency, over the signature of " Jack the Ripper," announcing that he would cut off the ears of his next victim and send them to the police. Right next to this is a lock of hair belonging to Bella Elmore, the ill-fated wife of Crippen. Turn round quickly, and you will almost stumble into the bath in which Smith, of " Brides in the Bath " fame, drowned one of his victims, while cook's knife with which Patrick Mahon* dismembered the body of his unwanted sweetheart, Emily Kaye, is duly labelled nearby. Two black stocking masks, which were worn by the Statton Brothers, together with tho lead-weighted rope lengths which they used in the Deptford murder, may appear somewhat ordinary in comparison with a bundle of ropes suspended in one corner, each one of them bearing its label indicating that this one was the actual rope around the neck of Wainwright when ho was launched into eternity, while those two were the ropes which hanged Milsom and Fowler. Ladder Used by Charles Peace Not all the exhibits in this museum are of so gruesome a nature. There are all the artifices of tho crook, ancient and modern. Tho ladder used by Charles Peace, who long beforo telescopic ladders were thought of, had constructed an ingenious affair made of two-feet pieces of wood, cleverly bolted, so that it would fold up into a small bag. It extended to 16 feot, and had a strong hook to catch on a portico. Collections of skeleton keys, collapsible " jemmies," mingle with tho instruments used by forgers past and present, and cunningly devised tops and appliances used in gambling hells for tho fleecing of " lambs." Inspector Rowe was the keeper of all these things, and ns now exhibits came along, so it was his duty to place them in the museum, after writing no a complete history of the latest relic. No! Inspector Rone played no public part in the tracking down of this hrutal murderer or that plausible trickster. He never achieved the limelight which such spectacular feats bring about. To the general public he was an unknown quantity, but —behind the scones there is no man who has done more to outwit tho persistent crook than this modest, alert-looking man.