TRACED BY TOY LANTERN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11267, 22 December 1914, Page 1

TRACED BY TOY LANTERN.

FAMOUS DETECTIVE TALES OF CRIIXAL LIFE.

It- is mostly through the pages of romance that the average man gets his ideas of the ways of criminals and their natural enemies the pouce. But these fictions are at best 6oinewhat coiouriess when compared with tho reality which attends the personal narrative of those who have spent their lives in the practice- of crime or the suppression of it. Where, for instanco, is there introduced in fiction a myisfcery at once more baffling. and fascinating than that which surrounded, and stiil surrounds, tho notorious Jack the itipper P It would be difficult to say. So also would the fiction reader find it hard to, discover any imagined detective "character" whose career furnishes as vivid a chronicle of adventure as that of Sir Melviile Macnaghten, who some time ago retired from his post at Scotland Yard as Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department, in the course of his career Sir Melville has, naturally, accumulated matter for a vast store of reminiscences, and ■ although, as he says, he kept no diary, he cherishes memories of many a thrilling encounter with the criminal pests of his day. One case in which he took an active part concerned the Muswell Jdili tragedy, when Mil!som and Fowler murdered old Mr Smith. The victim,' who lived the life of a recluse, had i retired for the night, but was await-! t'Tied by some strange noise below stairs.! On descending to investigate he wasj confronted by Millsom and Fowler, who: had entered the house • intent on rob- j bing it, and was at once attacked by! them. Ths murder was discovered next •naming, but it was not until some, time liad elapsed that the perpetrators ; were ' aid by the heels. Then it was .only by the merest chance—a- chance furnished by nothing more than "a child's tov lantern—that the efforts .of the 'jiVice were crowned with success. The-'-'Titern had belonged to a nenhew of M llsorn's, and it was the discovery that'j '.he wick had been made out of a piece! of. tartan stuff, wlrch Mrs M'llsom was! working into. a frock for her little i ■laughter, that led to tho criminals' nn-: 'oing. Millsom . .everttiH'y turned! Onsen's evidence, and .wi A h his.accom-' •''ice pnid the penalty of his crome on| the scaftVd.' ' TOSED AS," DR. NEIL." j

Another notorious desperado with! ■vs-hom Sir Melville came into contact was Neil Cream. In his interesting book, "Days of My Life/' which Mr Wdward Arnold Irs ju t published, Sir Melville describes Cream as the sort' of maniac for whom the gallows and not the asylum is the best place. In America . Cream committed at ler.st Mrree murders, being sentenced to ■:l-a.th for the third. This sentence was, however, committed to a sentence of ten years' penal serviture, a clemency on the part of the American authorities for wh'cli,. s"ys Sir Mo!-' r'lle, at least half a dozen English women paid with their lives. Cream arrived in London after his release on"' October 1, IS9I, and on the 13th of the same month he murdered his first, victim. Ellen Donworth. Posing as! ."Dr Neil," Cream raide the acquaint-! :mce of h's intended victims, and induced them to take pills containing, strychnine. He afterwards wrote toj certain prominent people, charging] them with the murders, and demand-! ing huge sums of money to hush up' the matter. The water-mark upon the! o-per which Cream used brought aboutj his arrest, and on November 15, 1892, j he was executed. In his reference to! Neil Cream, Sir Melville disposes of the statement that on the scaffold Cream exclaimed, " I am Jack the y_ averring that "during <he> whole period covered by 'the Ripper's crimes Neil Cream w?.s in prison on the other side of the Atlantic." The Crippen case is sti'l fresh fn th© public mind. The various dramatic ohases of the case are nevertheless dealt with in some detail by Sir Melvii'e, who concludes a fascinating chapter with the remark that what seemed to him the most puzzling feature of the who?e case was now the skull and bones fo the murdered women were disposed of. The real truth, he thinks, will never be known. But it was ascertained th n t about a week after the murder Dr Crippen went over to Deppe by the night boat. Did he> drop a dirty clothes-bag (or something of the sort) over the s ; de of tho vessel? "I think." says Sir Melville. "1 shon'd have done so had I been In his position." With regard to the class of criminals whose speciality is the assassinating of rulers and persons of high Sir Melville tells of the startling result of the inevitable alarms which arise during the occasion of State ceremonials. One of the most dramatic of these occurred at the opening of the Imperial Institute by Queen Victoria in 1893. An nkrmiug telegram from a perfectly well meaning and individual reached tho Yard just halfj an hour before the procession was to | leave Buckingham Palace. It was to the following effect:—"For God's sake stop procession. Heard plot to assassinate her Majesty in Underground train last night.' It was not a very pleasant document for a chief constable to have to deal with, says Sir Melville, but of course there was only ono course open, and that was to put it away in one's pocket and risk the chances. When the sender of the telegram was interviewed in the nfternoon, his explanation was that, while- travelling by the Underground, the evening before, he had found himself in a'third-j class compartment with some " Anarch-J ists disguised as English workmen,-'! and had heard one say to another, J '•'lf the sun shines to-morrow there! will bo haymaking," or words to thatj effect. lie construed this simple phrase' as boding r.o good to her Majesty, and the more he turned about on his sleep-' le-.'s conch the worse mischief it seemed to foretell. The morning found him pale and haggard. His fears got the bettor of his and fio sentj tho telecmnv.