ANONYMOUS LETTERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19502, 10 June 1925, Page 8

ANONYMOUS LETTERS.

HELP TO THE POLICE. HOW CRIME IS DETECTED. TRAPPED MOTOR BANDITS. There has lately been a marked increase in the number of anonymous letters received by Scotland Yard, giving information regarding men and women engaged in criminal activities in Great Britain. The “Yard,” naturally, keep secret the actual means by which they trace and arrest criminals, but tacts which have come to light recently at the Old Bailey and other courts show that the anonymous letter plays an important part in crime detection. In not a lew recent cases unsigned letters have led to the downfall of clever and dangerous criminals. Such communications, however startling or improbable may be their contents, are never ignored by the authorities. Not long ago an incident bearing on this point occurred, but wether it was a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the police, a practical joke, or the result of an alteration of plans on the part of the criminal against whom the information was laid, has never beer, satisfactorily explained. The police received an unsigned intimation that a certain home in a London suburb, occupied by a well-known lawyer-politician, was to be ‘‘burgled” by an armed motor bandit, who would be accompanied by a smartly dressed woman accomplice. ... .. , The police kept careful vigil, but waited in vain. No criminals but a large house less than a mile away was broken into. The letter was not necessarily a practical joke. The informant may have mistaken the house aimed at, or the letter might have been a deliberate attempt to divert the attention of the police from the real point of atNOTORXOUS FORGER. TRAPPED. The number of anonymous letters received by the police throws serious doub£ on the adage that there is honour among thieves. Simetimes, apparently for no reason at ail, information is sent that a certain man or woman is up to his or her old tricks. Such an intimation proved the first step in bringing to justice recently a motonous forger, who is now serving a sentence of three years’ penal servitude. He ; was a xna n who for some time had been going straight, and the police had refrained from interfering with him. After the anonymous letter was received, however, he was watched, and soon the police found that the information they had received was fully justified. His arrest red-handed followed as a matter of course* Jealous women and wives who have been, discarded often revenge themselves on their faithless men folk by “giving them away to the police. It was to an angry woman that an ex-convict, who escaped from Pentonville a year or two ago, owed his recapture. He had managed to climb the prison, wall and. get away. He was hunted night and day, but proved as elusive at a will o‘ th’ wisp. Unfortunately for himself he quarrelled with a woman friend, and though the anonymous letter could not be traced to her the authorities had their own. view as to its authorBhlP ' NORTH LOH’DON RAID. One of the most dramatic coups in which anonymous letters figured prominently was that effected by the JNorth London Police at Islington two ox. three months ago. Raids on parcel and laundry vans were being carried out in widely scattered areas of London by a gang of young men who used a Ford van. One day the police received an anonymous letter telling them it would be worth their while to watch the house of a woman who had been previously suspected of receiving stolen property. Hidden detectives saw a heavily laden van draw up to the house. A dash was made, ard after a sharp fight the gang, who had long defied attempts at capture, were overpowered and arrested. Inside the house was a fie, in which parcel wrappings were being burnt in feverish haste. Laundry baskets, with tell-tale initials, were scattered round the room, and there was ample evidence to justify a prosecution, ‘ When the gang appeared at the Old Bailey the judge described the woman as a very dangerous receiver, and imposed an exemplary term of imprisonment.