FAMOUS CRIMES

Hokitika Guardian, 13 June 1927, Page 1

FAMOUS CRIMES

SIR RICHARD MUIR’S MEMOIRS LONDON, April 14.

Memoirs compiled from the papers of the late Sir Richard Muir, well know as one of the leading counsel to the Treasury, and published to-day—“ Sir Richard Muir.” By S. T. Falstead and Lady Muir. (Lane, J Bs.)— are of intense interest from the light which they throw upon the inner history of famous crimes.

One of the most LafFling cases with which they deal is that of the murderer Steine Morrison, who was sentenced to death for murdering a “fence” named Boron.

Muir held the view corroborated by the police, that two men were present at the time Leon Heron was done to deal h, and that in all probability Morrison did not actually strike the fatal blow. He had been identified by a cabman as having driven from Tvennington in company with another man. So Morrison may have been speakthe truth, when he vehemently protested that lie had not killed Boron.

Morrison, in fact, had been an accessory before and after the murder, “and therefore was liable to the death penally.'’ He was reprieved, hut Muir himself had no doubt, in his own mind that Morrison sought to have been hanged, lie had no patience whatever with the innumerable stories which were floating about concerning Morrison's alleged innocence. TRUE’S INSANITY PLEA.

As for Ronald True, who escaped execution oil' the plea of insanity. Muir was convinced that the man was sane. His view on the plea o'f insanity in murder trials was that the testimony of experts required great care in aceeping. If one took enough trouble it would he possible to get a specialist to sav that almost any man accused of

Muir was convinced that True’s conduct during the proceedings was a clever nose from beginning to end. In the Crippcn case Muir was extremely dissatisfied with the manner in which the police officers lnul carried out their work. He strongly criticised them for not arresting Crippcn before he made hi escape, pointing out that the suspicious circumstances which revealed themselves from the beginning of the time when Mrs. Crippcn disappearance was first reported necessitated infinitely stronger action than was actually taken.

Crippcn convicted himself in the wit-ness-box.

Although he in his way was an able man possessed of iron nerve. Muir wore him down until towards the end cross-examining his answers became wild and his guilt apparent. Rut there remains a mystery in the ease. When Dr Crippcn was executed, Muir remarked that “full justice has not yet been done.” What precisely he meant lias never been revealed. WHITAKER, WRIGHT DRAMA.

Among the criminals Muir defended was the financier Whitaker Wright, who was tried in the Chancery Courts and committed suicide when lie was found guilty of fraud. He went to the lavatory and swallowed cyanide of potassium :

“ When he returned to the room (a consultation room in the courts). Sir George Lewis handed him a cigar and also a lighted match. Tie took the match, and. as he did so. Sir George could not help noticing that his hand was shaking violently. He seated himself by the fire mid said something which his three companions could not understand. Suddenly a pronounced change came over his demeanour.” He rose, swayed, and collapsed in his chair: in a few minutes he was dead. “ When the body came to lie searched there was discovered upon it not only another tabloid of cyanide of potassium but also a six-eb a inhered revolver fully loaded and fully cocked." Some curious particulars are given of the late Joseph Grizard. who. like Conan Doyle’s “ Professor Moriarty,” spent his life organising crimes in London.

“Anyone more unlike a master crook it would he impossible to find. Ho possessed rather a fine lace, with nothing in it to toll the world of the evil, intriguing brain that had been responsible for some of the most amazing coups in tho whole history of crime. Muir prosecuted him in 1922 when he was charged with receiving the proceeds of an ingeniously planned fraud upon a firm of London jewel dealers.” A GREAT DETECTIVE. Among London detectives “ Muir had all the admiration in the world for the famous Frederick Wensley, who is now Chiel Constable at Scotland Yard. He looked upon Wensley as one of the greatest detectives of all time. and. as some of our notorious criminals can testify. Wensley and Muir working in combination were about the most formidable couple any evil-minded person could encounter.

Like many other able men, Muir refused to admit tho word “ Impossible ” to his vocabulary.