FAMOUS PEARL ROBBERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19009, 3 November 1923, Page 15

FAMOUS PEARL ROBBERS

SIR BASIL THOMPSON’S ELSE. THE INNOCENT POLICEMAN. Those familiar with the daring Mas Mayer pearl robbery, as it was called, in the spring of 1913, will be interested in the story which Sir Basil Thomson, former Chief of Criminal Investigation Department at Scot' laau Yard, fells concerning their recovery in the October number of The Cosmopolitan, an American publication. It will be remembered that the pearl necklace, valued at over £IOO,OOO, was stolen from the sealed package in which it was despatched from tne Paris establishment of Max Meyer to the London establishment of the same same, and in its place was substituted pmall bits of coal of the same weight as the pearls. The package was sealed in eight places, and there was nothing to indicate that any of them had been tampered with. It was not until the most exhaustive inquiries had been made bv the Paris police, who, as a result, were convinced that the jewels could not have disappeared while they were in charge of the French postal employees, that the matter was placed in the hands of Scotland Yard. ' Sir Basil Thomson, in recounting his part in the recovery of the pearls, tells how he first directed his attention to Hatton garden, being convinced that the pearls would eventually fall into the hands of the police. “If they were diamonds,” argued Sir Basil, “they would have .been re-cut, wdulfi, have become unrecognisable, and would soon reappear in rings and bracelets. But pearls cannot bo altered in that way.’* Matched i pearls such as those in the stolen necklace would be known to every jeweller of repute in Western Europe. Sir Basil’s first move Was to discover, from his dentist, the most quick setting, material that he knew, and a* a result of his experiments with a special plaster of Paris he discovered that within; four minutes he could make a mould and reproduce the seal upon the packet so perfectly that no member of his staff could detect the difference. “It was important only because it kept us on the right trade by assuring us that the package could have been opened and resealed without making more than a few minutes’ difference in the time of its delivery. As a matter of fact, tho resealing had not been, done in the way that I imagined.” A daily watch was kept upon Hatton garden, and eventually the police suspicions were narrowed down to four men—Lockett, Gold, Grizzard, and Marks —but at nb time could the quartet be induced to come together. The men were followed with a constant change of detectives and a great number of different disguises were used,? but apparently there was none which could deceive them. Finally, a disguise was decided upon which enabled a detective to approach two of the men in the street , overhear their: conversation, and learn their plans, as a result of which all four were arrested ail the Oxford street tube station. /The next day the man who cut the seal used to imitate that stamped on the package • waa found,at Hammersmith, and he recognised Grizzard as the man for whom, ho executed tho order. It was then possible to born-! plete the story of the crime, and Sir Basil proceeds to do so much in the manner of Sherlock Holmes and his collaborator.' ' TALKS WITH THE POSTMAN; “Grizzard had been the one to plan it. He knew that several times a week the London establishment of Max Meyer received shipments by mail from their Paris shop, and that usually these packages contamed diamonds, grizzard began by cultivating the acquaintance of the postman; The postman was a man of no great intelligence; he did his work without interest la it, and when it was over he went, to a certain bar where he spent the greater park of his evenings. Grizzard became friendly with the postman at this bar. Later, be several times met him on the street .while the postman was delivering his packages And stopped to talk with him. Sometimes, in doing this, ho took from the postman’s bag one of the packages, looked at it. and at once returned it to the bag. Finally in thia way ho came upon a package addressed to Max Meyer. He took a quick imprint of the seal on a bit of wax hidden in big hand. Tho wax impression was taken to the obscure engrayer, who unsuspiciously engraved a seal to correspond with it Now Grizzard approached the postman mom openly. , ' “ ‘ Would you like,” he asked, ‘to mak* £100?’ . “ ‘ £lool’ the postman exclaimed. Ik seemed a great sum to him. “ ‘You can do it easily. All you have to do is, the next time you have a package for Meyer and’l meet you on th# street, hand me' the package, go on and deliver some of your other mail, come back the same way, and you will find me waiting with the package where you left aw, and you can deliver it at Meyer’s.’ *- “The postman reflected. It did not seem a very serious matter to leave a package in the hands of one of his friends, receive it back in a few minutes, and then deliver it. ‘You won’t make a fool of men* he questioned, T mean, you’ll surely be there and £iv© the package back ?’ _ “ ‘ You have my word,’ said Grizzard. “After that each day Grizzard wailed for the postman on the street. Finally, one day, tho postbag contained a package for Max Meyer. The postman handed it to Grizzard; Grizzard dashed around the-cor-ner. and up to Marks’s, shop. There Marla and Gold were waiting. They quickly broke the seals, shook out the necklace, put into the box some bits of coal of the same weight; then they replaced the wrappings, brought the broken seals together, melted the wax with a hot poker, impressed the melted wax again with the Mever seal, and Grizzard hastened out again.” SECRETED IN A MATCH-BOX. ( Sir Basil proceed to tell of the search made at the houses of the four men, of the discarding of the pearls by the wife of Lockett, who, in order to save her husband, secreted them in a match-box, and evading the police, dropped the box into the-<gut-ter. “Perhaps,” says Sir Basil, “.her woman’s love of jewels kept her from disposing of them so that they could never be recovered. More likely, however, she simply got rid of them in the quickest way for fear that if she were not home when the police arrived her absence would be inquired into. As it was, she got home bo little before the arrival of the police that she had_ not removed her hat.” It is rather interesting to think of a fortune of £116,000 lying in the gutter for the first-comer to pick up. • “The first-comer happened to be a.plumber’s helper. He was on his way back tof the shop to get some tools. He had filled his pipe but could not light it because ha had no match. He saw the box, touched it with his toe to discover whether it seemed full or empty, found it heavy, picked it up and shook out into his hand some of the ‘beads.’ He thought them imitation pearls. Still, as the newspapers had been full of some lost pearls, and the police station was not out of his he stepped in there with them. The district superintendent at the police station also believed them to be imitations, but sent them, on to Scotland Yard. I, on receiving them, did not believe them real, but sent for'Mr Mover in order to consult an expert.” . Explaining the disguise which derived the men while they were under observation, Sir Basil says: “You have read Poe‘B story, ‘The Purloined Letter’? The letter was concealed by sticking it openly in the most conspicuous place in the apartment The searchers, who ransacked the place for it, did not examine ,it because they could not imagine that, with the fate of its possessor depending on his keeping it from them, he would leave it where they were sure to see it. We used tße same method. We disguised one of our detectives as « policeman. A detective is a policeman disguised as a civilian. Remember that'these thieves knew police methods as well> as we did. They knew that no uniformed policeman would be assigned to watch them, or would even be acquainted with their connection with the case. - As Grizzard dedelivered his message to Marks, they saw) a uniformed policeman standing near them. It never entered their heads that we would have dressed one of our detectives in Bf police uniform in order to spy on them.”