STRANGE REVELATIONS BY A CONVICT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1163, 13 June 1884, Page 3

STRANGE REVELATIONS BY A CONVICT.

The legitimate curiosity of the law-abid ing subjects of the Qicea who want to know all about the miscreants that break into houses in quest of plunder has been recently to a remarkable extent gratified by the revelations of one Clarke, a convict undergoing a sentence of penal servitude at Pentonville.

‘•On the night of April 15,” says a London daily piper, summarising the circumstances, “ this man Clarke was brought up, in custody of a warder, at Greenwich Police Court to give evidence in which Joseph Copeland, a ticket-of-leave man, and Frede rick Bromley, alias Campany, who is also a convict ‘ doing time’ at Peat mville, were charged with being concerned toge.her in committing a burglary on the premises of a j weller at Forest Hill, and stealing there-ri-mn properly to the value of L6OO. There were other burglaries, also, for which Me-sra Gopriaud and Bromley were *in trouble.’ It appeared from i he statement of the prosecutor that Clarke and Bromley were some time since convicted of a robbery at a coffee tavern at Newbury. Parly in January last Clarke imparted to the prison authorities his anxiety to diselo e what he knew about the Forest Hid robl e y, and he was directed lo prepare a writt- n statement. The knowledge of his having done so, however, reiche-i—in what mannedit is not stated- ■ the cars of his fellow prisoner Bromley or Campany, who forthwith wrote to his father telling him that his (the convict’s) ' male’ had ‘roundel’ on or betrayed him, and directing him to do away with some housebreaking implements and other sus picious articles which ho had buried un ler a lime tree in his back garden. This tetter was intercepted by the authorities, and toe police procieded to search Bromley’s house, where, among other things, they found a cash box in which was a pawnbroker’s duplicate for a gold albert chain, which was identifie I by the Forest Hill jeweller as his property. Another letter written by Campany or Copeland, the ticket of leave man, fell into the hands of the police; and it will be remembered that when the police went to arrest this man, who was in bed in the upper room of a house in Westminster, the desperate fellow jumped out of a window, and, scaling wall after wall, was not captured until he had severely injured himself by falling un some railway metals. D wn to the time of his appearance on Tuesday before Mr Balguy he had been in hospital. The convict Clarke was then suffered to throw some additional light on the aff lie. According to his statement, he first made the acquaintance of Bromley alias Campany last November in a public house n ar a well known auction room in London, where he was offering for sa e part of a silver tea service. A man whom he knew as keeping a fish shop in Soho purchased ‘ the I hings’ for two or three and twenty shillings. Later in November he again met Bromley, who showed him a large quantity of gold and silver watches, and ofleied him 10 per cent, of the proceeds' if he would sell them. He went to two barbers, living in Seven Dials, taking Bromley with him, and they sold the gold ones for 15s and the silvet ones for 7s each. One of the barbers sent his wife with a parcel of watches to the gentleman who kent the fish shop in Soho, and she brought back Ll2. According to Ciarke he afterwards went to Forest Hill to see Bromley, who told him that .he had taken a twenty years’ lease of his house, an 1 that he had been enabled to do so from the fruits of burglaries in the neighbourhood. The chances of success of a projected burglary at Newbury wis then discussed by the precious pair. Bromley showed him a gold watch, and informed him that it had come, together with the other watches bought by the two barbers in Sevrn Dials and the gentleman who kept the fish shop in Soho, from the burglary at the jeweller’s at Forest Hill. Furthermore, he incidentally mentioned a ‘ mate ’ of his who kept a tobacconist’s shop close by, and was ‘doint ’ the neighbourhood for him—that is to say, findini! out what houses might most convene ntly he broken into. “ Ciarke and Brom'ey duly wended their way to Newbury, but their burglarious enterprise there was a failure and they were arresle 1. They were tried again at the Reading Assizes, and fortunately for society they were convicted and sentenced. What more the communicative convict had to say was of a general and somewhat of a rambling nature. Of course, in this instance, the French detective axiom Cherche le femme, has been once more vindicated, and there is a lady in the case. This is Miss

Louisa Campany, apparently Bromley’s sister, who is on y implicated to the extent that she is said to have pie Igcd some of the property, and who has been li' e ate I on bail. She is possibly quite innocent of any guilty cognisance of the Forest Hill‘job.’ The mention made of Miss Dan pany by the convict witness Clarke is brief" but touching. Ho-aw her at Bromley’s house at Forest Hill. Bromley was ‘ at work in an oven.’ Melting anything 1 Louisa was at work at a sewing machine. On another occasion, Clarke meeting BroraleyCampany in the Strand, Louisa came up weeping bitterly, * because she had been to pawn her brace' eta.’ With true fraternal feeling Bromley told her not to cry, and he would

get them out again. Hull, i.ouis', a r.liungii shorn of her In aoelets, was n n ( .coup nig 10 Mr Clarke), entirely, destitute of ; 0.,.’ temm'UtH.' She was wearing a necklace anl other jewellery. Clarke’s evidence must of course be taken for what it is worth. It is tainted,_ to begin with, by the man’s present position j it is the testimony, moreover, of a traitor and an informer; and wheifa convicted prisoner ‘rounds’ on hit accomplices he generally endeavours to ge as many of them into gaol as he can. Otherwise this weak-kneed rascal Clarke, who seems on the whole fitter to be a ‘ bonnet ’ than a burglar, has done some public service in showing us what the pri vate lives of burglars ami * fences ’ really are. It will not fail to be remarked that there is no trace whatever of Mr Fagin in any of these transactions. We seek in vain also for the wholesale receiver—the Jonathan Wild of modem times —who does bust ness on a grand scale, and ships to the Continent the stolen valuables which he purchases. . The largest capitalist in the case before us seems to have been the gentleman who kept the fish aho > in Soho, and for whom one of the Seven Ilia's barbers is said to have acted as middle-man. Perhaps the gentleman who keeps the fish shop knows where Mr Jonathan Wild (if he be in existence) lives, and where he does business. There must finally be mentioned another notable feature in the Forest Hill burglary. Only a solitary and insignificant item of the plunder seems to have been pledged. It is evidently not the pawnbrokers to whom the burglars resort for the purpose of turning their booty into cash.”