MURDER TRIAL DRAMA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

MURDER TRIAL DRAMA

Triumph for Scotland Yard

DETECTIVES TAKE A MILLION-TO-ONE CHANCE THAT 44 CAME OFF"

LONDON. Dec. 11 PLANS are being made to present a petition for the reprieve of Alfred Stratford, ■who was sentenced to death at the Old Bailey for the Shepherd's Bush crime, while his companion, Mary Ann i'lyniu received eight years' penal servitude. In the condemned cell Stratford is writing to the Home Secretary a personal plea for mercy. Mary Flynn, in prison, is showing the sumo courage as at the Old Bailey, when she did everything in her power to shield tho man slio loved so passionately. When Mr. Justice Macnnghten, at tho end of the trial, decided to commend Division-Detective-Inspector Bawlings, M.C., and other officers connected with him in the investigation, he paid a wejl-earned tribute to the ability of the inspector and his chief lieutenant, Detective-Inspector Deighton. At Scotland Yard the work of the officers is regarded as an example of perfect investigation. Robbery Motive

When the murder was first discovered on August 14, it seemed a simple, straightforward crime. In her flat in Boseford Gardens, Shepherd's Bush, lay the dead body, gagged and bound, of Mrs. Ada Fortschuuk, or Fortescue, a 66-year-old widow. Bobbery was obviously the motive for the murder. Then it was established that a man and a girl had lodged with the widow under the name of Mr. and Mrs. Williams and had disappeared. This couple immediately came under suspicion. But who were they? There was no clue to their identity.

That'gave Inspector Rawlings the first hint thjjt a long and patient investigation would be needed. But never did he 'imagine that 53 days of intensive inquiries would elapse before the couple, Alfred Stratford, 41-year-old unemployed labourer and war hero, and Mary Ann Flynn, 20, both of Quinn Buildings, Bethnal Green, would be under lock and key. Few people had seen the couple during their short stay in Shepherd's Bush, and then for only fleeting moments. The police could get only a vague description of them. Finger-prints

found in the dead woman's ransacked room had no counterparts in the files at Scotland Yard. There was, however, one thing that might be a clue —near the body was a tab from the inside of a woman's frock. It bore the Dame of a draper in King Street, Hammersmith. Detective-In-spector Huish, of Scotland Yard, questioned the assistant at the shop who had sold the dress. She remembered the sale, but could give no description of the customer. .

direction of Mr. Justice Macnaghten, Flynn was taken below to spare her the pain of seeing her lover sentenced to death. When she returned the Judge sentenced her to eight years' penal servitude.

"The jury have taken a merciful view of your conduct," he told her. "But for your assistance it is probable that Mrs. Fortescue would not have been killed. Yours is a crime closely akin to murder." Stratford's story in the witnessbox was that he and the girl Flynn rented a room in Mrs. Fortescue's flat and decided to rob her, as they were starving. He tied her up and took some money and left her, believing that she would soon release herself from her bonds. They were amazed when they read of her death.

As the detective was leaving the shop a kerb-side photographer took his picture. He mentioned the incident at headquarters. Inquiries were made, and it was found that four kerb-side photographers had been working in the area for some time filming passers-by. Could they by any chance have "snapped" the wanted couple? That was the question the detectives asked. It was a million-to-one chance, but it might come off. Cinema in Police Station Officers went to the offices of the photographic company and took possession of the thousands of pictures. Experts worked for days making these pictures .into a film. Cinema apparatus was installed in the police station at Hammersmith. There, day after day, neighbours of the murdered woman sat while the film was run through over and over again. Suddenly a cry rang out in the darkness, a woman had recognised the two vanished lodgers. The million-to-one chance had "come off."

"Have you the slightest doubt that this girl worships th? ground you walk on?" asked Mr. J. C. Jackson, K.C., defending. "I have no doubt of it whatever," replied Stratford. Mr. Jackson: "Have you any doubt that this girl would willingly have laid down her life to save you?" "No, sir," answered Stratford. "I Wanted to Shield Him"

Flynn, whS denied using any violence toward Mrs. Fortescue, was asked why she made her statement to the police. "It was because I was in love with Stratford," she said. "I wanted to shield him and take the blame."

Mr. Jackson: Had ho stuck to his original story, would you have sacrificed yourself for him? —I would willingly. He is the only man I have ever loved. Mr. Jackson, addressing the jury on Flynn's behalf, declared she had risked having the. rope about her neck when she made the statement. "Never mind her station in life," he went on. "There is just as true love among the lower strata of life as there is in the highest society, and 1 suggest that in that girl you have the very tiling which makes love true —that is self-sacrifice, the immolation of self on the altar of Keif-sacrifice. Her fault has been loving that man too much. She is surely not going to hang because she has ioved not wisely, but too well."

A block was made from the picture, and within a few hours the police printing presses were pouring out thousands of copies of the picture for distribution to every' police officer in the country. Hundreds of detectives were given copies, and all over London people were asked to help in the work of identifying the couple. /

Detectives at street corners, in cinema and theatre queues, in public houses and shops, asked the same question: "Do you know these people?" At last the tremendous inquiry bore fruit. A- man in the East End said: "Why, yes. That's Alf. Stratford." Developments followed quickly. Stratford was soon identified as a married man with five children, who had run away with Mary Flynn, a girl living in the same building as him in Bethnal Green. Their photographs and descriptions were circulated everywhere. Cordon of Detectives Meantime Stratford and Flynn were on the run, moving from one London district to another and staying in cheap boarding' houses. Landladies were appealed to by Scotland Yard. A poster describing the couple was issued with the words, "They may be with you now," in bold type. „

After the sentence Flynn went to Holloway Gaol in a taxicab. At the same time her lover left the Old Bailey for the condemned cell.

Then Mary Flynn made a false move. She wrote to her brother. The letter was intercepted by the police. Jt bore an "E.B" stamp, showing that it had been posted in Dalston. A map of the Dalston area was rushed to police headquarters, and the whole district carefully surveyed with a view to covering every possible approach to any station, tram, or bus stop. In the early hours of October 3 hundreds of detectives, some disguised as labourers, some as costermongers, and otliera as casual loungers, took up

I tho positions which had been so care- ! fully planned for them, j In the centre of this remarkable | cordon of police stood Inspector Baw- ; lings. He had satisfied himself that if I either Mary Flynn or Stratford emerged ! from their hiding place they must be i seen.

By an amazing coincidence it fell to tho inspector himself to make the arrest. He tapped a man on the shoulder in a crowd at a bus stop near Dalston Police Station. It was Stratford. A few minutes later Mary Flynn was also in custody and the great Shepherd's Bush murder hunt had ended. Science, coupled with the typical patient investigation of Scotland Yard, had triumphed. How the Couple Met

The story of the meeting of Stratford and Flynn is an amazing one. Stratford, a disabled ex-soldier, lived with his wife and five children in a tenement flat in Quinn's Building. Bethnal Green. The Flynns lived nearby. Mary Flynn was 17 when she met Stratford. Immediately they fell in love. Then misfortunes struck the Stratford family. Early this year a dearlvloved chilli died. This preyed on Stratford's mind to such an extent that he suggested an elopement. Mary Flynn agreed and the two went away together. For hours .they wandered together along the Embankment, through Hyde Park and the streets of the West End. Their money was soon finished and they returned home.

| Of their hardships during that time | they never talked; but Mary Flvnn's condition when * she returned home I showed that she must have starved. For a time it seemed that their romance had ended. But once again they left home. It was during this absence that Mrs. Fortescue was murdered for the paltry few pounds she possessed. Jt is a coincidence that Inspector Rawlings, the hunter, and Stratford; the hunted man, both earned decorations during the war. Mr. Rawlings received the Military Cross as an infantry officer. Stratford was decorated with the Distinguished Conduct Medal for the gallant way in which he unharnessed the two horses left alive out of a team and brought first the limber and then the gun of one of the batteries to safety under shell-fire. At the Old Bailey the drama of the Shepherd's Bush crime was played out. The jury found Stratford guilty of murder; FJynn not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter. On the i