BIG CLUES THAT HAVE FAILED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11403, 21 April 1899, Page 7

BIG CLUES THAT HAVE FAILED.

LUCK SEEMS TO FAVOUR CARELESS •■*■ CRIMINALS.

. Everyone has heard of the "Black Museum " at Scotland Yard. Here, as most people are aware, is to be seen a varied collection of criminal relics —jemmies, revolvers, burglars' masks,, etc. Many of these have 'constituted valuable clues in. important cases. There is, for instance, the little tin lantern that hung Milsom and Fowler; the chisel that convicted Orrock of the murder of Police-constable Cole, and many other equally interesting pieces of evidence. . \VhaVis not on exhibition, however, is the similar collection of clues that have failed. These are preserved, and carefully labelled and catalogued. But, as they reflect neither honour nor glory on the Detective department, they are kept religiously in the background. Here, for instance, is the identical pestle ..with which Miss Camp was murdered .while ■riding in a London and South-Western railway carriage some little time back. A broken diamond stud recalls the strange robbery at Hatton Garden on September 13, 1894, when Herr Spyzer, an Antwerp diamond.merchant, '■mond.merchant, was decoyed into a bogus 'office, attacked by three men, chloroformed, and ■ then robbed of gems valued at £20,000. This latter clue was at one time considered a really valuable one, for there is , ljttle doubt that the stud did actually belong to one of the thieves; but nothing came of it in the- end. and-it remains to this'day in the hands of the police, a mute witness that {here are mysteries whose elucidation baffles even the best detective skill in the world. It is passing strange to light upon a Christmas card r.\ this weird museum.' It is but a common tiling, costing probably no more than a couple of pence. Nevertheless,' it possessed at one time an extraordinary value in the eyes of the police ; for this tiny bit of. bloodstaind pasteboard was " found on the body of a woman named Hai ■ riet Busvvell, who was murdered on Christmas Eve, 1878, at her house in Great C'ornm street, and on it was scrawled by some unknown" miscreant what probably constitutes the most gruesome Christmas greeting on record: "From your despairing and broken-heai-ted Harry. Beware. This is the last Christmas card you.will ever receive." And the writer kept his word. Who "Hurry" was, or why he executed so,fearsome a vengeance or. poor Harriet Busweli, none ever knew. The card constituted a clue. But it Tailed. A .fragment of ti woman's cuff and a broken sleeve-link are reminiscent of the '.once notorious Stoke Nc.wington mystry. They were found clennlied in the right hand of poor Mr Tower, who was murdered and

thrown into the reservoir one dark night "" in the winier of 1884. Near by, covered with dust nnd cobwebs, are sundry pieces of twisted metal and fragments of shattered woodwork, relies of the terrible explosions which took place at .A I derogate street Station in March, 1897. Half the detectives in Europe have puzzled thnir brains over these bits of wreckage—for it was thought the outrage might liuvj been the work of some foreign Anarchist; and the late Colonel Majemlie made more than a dozen minute examinations of them. But to no purpose! The collection is especially rich in knives. Here is the long stiletto-like blade, obviously of foreign design and manufacture, which was found, -in the summer of 1880. transfixed in the heart of a >oung and beautiful woman in the cellar of a house in Harley street. There, with dark dried clots of what once was wet blood still

staining the rough wooden handle, is the. big butcher's knife used by the Hoxtuu murderer on Mrs Squires and her daughter. (Jlosc to it is' the tiny peiu'l-handled knife ■with which, if the police theory is correct, an unknown boy was hacked to death on Hackney Marshes a few years back. All valued clues once! Vet some of these mule witnesses have come very near catchim,' (and hanging) their one-time "owners: There is, for instance, a pistol which was traced, after months, of arduous work and patient inquiry, to a cerium high-born murderer who .shall bo namele-ss. That the clue failed in this case was due, not to the detectives, but to the criminal himself, who committed suicide a ; few hours before the arrival of.the warrant j for his arrest. Another piece of evidence that came near to furnishing a solution to one of the most mysterious crimes of the century is a child's rattle. It was found near the body of poor little Gcorgina Moore, and was naturally supposed to have had an important bearing on that revolting crime. But its ownership was traced a fraction of an hour too late. Twenty minutes or so before the detectives called at the suspect's house for an explanation, that astute individual disappeared. x\ peculiar interest attaches itself to an ordinary seaman's clasp knife, which rests apart from its fellows on a small wooden pedestal, in that it came precious near to hanging the wrong man. It was found on the person of James Sadler, arrested for the murder of Frances Coles. This unfortunate woman, it will be remembered, was discovered, in. the early morning of Feb.ru nry 13; 1891, under aii archway in Orman street. Wliitechapel. with her'throat cut from ear to ear. Nearly everyone jumped to the conclusion that it was another "Rip- j per murder, and there was consequently j. no little excitement when'Sadler was ar-| rested and charged with the crime. Time j after time the unlucky man was brought ; up and remanded"; but at length it was \ clearly shown that the knife, upon which | everything turned, was not in his possession j on the day of the murder., . I Many of the pieces of evidence, although ! insignificant enough in themselves, would | have proved amply sufficient to have fixed \ the Manic on the guilty person if only the ■ identity of that individual could have been : ascertained. A fragment of a man's trou-' ser-lcg, for example, found in the room of j an officer murdered at Brompton Barracks. \ Chatham, some years back, undoubtedly i belonged to the assassin; but •although

dozens of suspects were shadowed, tho owner of the incriminating bit of cloth' Was never discovered. : Similarly with the dried and withered fragment of apple found beside the body of lioso Millet, or Davis,, who was strangled at Poplar by some unknown miscreant in' December, 188 G. Only a few minutes prior to the lime! Ihe • murder must have been committed, a mysterious stranger was seen in her company'eating apples .out of'.n paper bag. Now, it was proved that tho deceased woman'detested-nil kinds of fruit. Evidently, then, that piece of half-eaten apple formed the connecting link between crime and criminal. A slight clue! But even ones have brought men toithe gallows ere now.' This particular one, however, failed, and (ho bit of iminiviificd fruit reposes side by side with a plaster cast which .shows how it looked when it was first found, objects both for the curious to gaze upon. But undoubtedly the ghastliest relic in this ghastly museum is a human finger preserved in spirits of wine. Deeply indented in its semi-mummified substance are three teeth-murks, and it is noticeable that the point of severance is not clean-cut, but torn "and jagged. As a matter of fact, indeed, it is not cut from the hand of its original owner, but was bitten off by an unfortunate girl who was murdered in Soho some five-and-twenty years ago by strangulation. The assassin made his escape, but left the greater portion of one c/f his forefingers clenched, betweeiv the fixed teeth, of his unhappy victim : and for weeks afterwards all the police in London were on the 'look-out for a man with one of his hands in-bandages. He eluded them all, however; and that is why the missing portion of his anatomy is retained in this dusty garret, instead of "gracing" Scotland Yard's collection of criminal relics.'