MISTAKES MADE BY CARELESS CRIMINALS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7422, 7 June 1902, Page 2

MISTAKES MADE BY CARELESS CRIMINALS.

However carefully « criminal may -work out his plans, it of ten happens tthstyhe makes a slight error which -will probably end in his undoing; indeed, gome of the moat complex mysteries on record have been unravelled' by an insignificant mistake. . It was nothing short of sheer latdcess ■which led to the capture of William Walter, the man who originated 1 the process of forging with chemicals. Walter was an accomplished chemist, and for a long time carried on a series of wholesale forgeries with the aitt of anhydrous prussio acid. But one day he chanced' to exhaust his supply of this particular chemical, and rather than send for any more he used the ordinary prussic acid. Not till he found himself, under arrest did he realise that the latter acid, unlike tie former, had discoloured the paper, which resulted in <a sentence of twenty years' hard labour. In 1891 society was startled by the theft of Major Hargreaves's jewels at Torquay, and aa accusation, brought by the victim against his guest, Miss Ethel Elliott, ended in that lady instituting an action for slander. For a long time tae> crime remained unsolved, till ultimately Miss Elliott's signer ture on the back of a bank-note led 1 to her arrest, when, the clover scheme sha had worked out was revealed. It appeared that sh« had sold the jewels to a West End ' jeweller for £550, receiving a cheque which she cashed for gohi. Had she been oon- ' tent with the gold she would have undoubtedly escaped, bu^ she foolishly chong- ' ed it again for notes, endorsed one of them, and presented it at Messrs Maple's—^ a trifling error which resulted in her imprisonment. j One of the greatest mistakes a criminal can make is to fall in love, and Cupid played the part of Sherlock Holmes in the case of the man who stole the Duchess of Sutherland's jewels some time ago, better known, perhaps, as Harry the Valet. The police were completely baffled until the tluel fell in love with a young lady to' , whom 'ha was unable to account for his ' doings on the occasion in question. -Her doubts were aroused, and, instead! of acting as his protector, she obtained the truth from, him piece by piece and then promptly hand«d him over to justice. Mrs Maybrick owed' her conviction entirely to a small oversight. Although it was mid-winter sha continued to purchase large numbers of fly-papers from aj certain chemist, who naturally became suspicious, seeing that files are conspicuous by their absepoa in winter. As soon as arsenical poisoning was declared to be the cause of her husband's death t therefore, the chemist's evidence led to criminal proceedings against her and a life sentence. Some years ago a man. named Marshall and his family were all brutally murdered at Uibridge, and there was* absolutely no clue to tb* identity of the assassin. When the police made closer investigations, however, they discovered that Marshall's seemed much too large for him and were evidently not his own, a supposition upheld by the evidence of his frienda. As a matter of fact, the assassin, thinking to hide his identity, changed trousers with his victim before leaving the premises, a stupid blunder, for a piece of the garment he had left behind enabled Inspector Dunham to run him to earth in twenty-four hours, whereas he would otherwise have probably escaped. Even more trivial was the mistake which cost Stephen Lan£bridge fifteen years of liberty. He was a butler in the service of a wealthy gentleman in the South, of England, and in his spare time he took to, copying his master's signature. One day,' when funds were low, he forged a cheque, and others followed, but the culprit could not be traced. Noi one suspected Langbridge until he sent a cheque in an envelope to an accomplice, ana in sealing it he pressed the hot wax with ibis thumb. The envelope fell into the (hands of the f poHce, and the imprint upon the wax rejilted in his arrest, whereupon, completely cowed, he confessed his crime. Mrs Dyer, the Reading murderess, perished through having indiscreetly used an - envelope when paokingi a victim's body, tihis envelope furnishing the most powerful evidence brought against h«r; and Patch, who shot Mr Blight through the window [when that gentleman was sitting alone in j

his room, sealed his doom by thoughtlessly holding up. his left hand when called upon to hold up (his right at the trial. The police had ascertained that tihe crime could only have been perpetrated by a left-handed man, and, although 'Patch argued that he was right-handed and the evidence against him was meagre, he committed (himself irrevocably by this trifling blunder. •