MAN WHO SAW THE “RIPPER”

Hokitika Guardian, 25 July 1929, Page 7

MAN WHO SAW THE “RIPPER”

EX-CHIEF INSPECTOR’S MEMORIES.

While Mr Tom Divall, ex-Chief Inspector of. the C.I.D. at Scotland Yard, makes no startling disclosures in his book, “Scoundrels, Scallywags, and Some Honest Men,” what he has to tell us of his past experiences is full of interest. The first case of murder with which he had to deal when in the Whitechapel division, was that of a police constable, Thompson, who was stabbed to death.

“Thompson Is believed to be the only constable who ever saw 1 Jack the Kipper.’ Some time previous to his end he was one dark night going down a turning off the main street when lie saw a man, with a bag in ,his hand, a little distance .aliead under a lamp. He ran after him, but fell over something on the ground ; turning his bull’seye lamp on it to see what it was, he was shocked to find the mutilated body of a female. The sight so upset him that he wandered about in a dazed state. “ AVhen he came to himself again, he told those around him that he was sure he would never die a natural death. Little did we then think he had so surely predicted his own doom.” BURGLARS HATE NOISE. The ex-Chief Inspector is specially emphatic , in warning people “ against sleeping with their bedroom doors open.” “ Many times I have been asked which it is better to do—fasten the door of the sleeping apartment or leave it open. For several reasons T reply without any hesitation: ‘Fasten it securely ’! In the case of a burglai 1 entering an unfastened room, what chance would a sleeping person have with him? None at all, for the intruder could grasp him by the throat and strangle him in a few seconds, long before he could recover his senses from their' sleepy state. “ It must be remembered that a thief enters a place for the purpose of getting all the valuables and be does not care a rap whom he assaults or injures as long as he succeeds in his object and is able to make his escape. “ Burglars hate a noise, especially if it can be beard outside the house; so a person has only to smash a windowpane or throw a piece of crockery on a pavement, and the would-be thief will make off as fast as his legs can carry him. Falling glass on a road or path makes a tremendous row at nicrlK. which is almost certain to be heard bv someone, who will gome to the rescue.”

For sleepers on the ground floor .“ the best way is to screw the bottom opening of the window to . the frame, and anyone 'desiring to get,in can only do'so by the top one, the opening of j which in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred niust disturb the sleeper.” EFFECT OF A FLOGGING. ’ The author is quite, convinced of the .deterrent- effect' of flogging on brutal criminals. A “big, burly scoundrel,” who had cruelly assaulted a poor working woman, was convicted and sentenced to receive 20- lashes with the cat: “ I saw this same man on the completion of his sentence, and he told me that the pain he had endured from the flogging would keep him from committing another assault.” One violent criminal Mr Divall forced down after a desperate struggle, when he - pleaded for mercy and said that “ the drink was the cause,” and ■' hat if given a chance he would reform. The author “let him go after severely dressing him down,” and he did turn over a new leaf and become an honest man, who was grateful to Iris old foe in the detective force.