TRACKING THE CRIMINAL

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4734, 6 August 1924, Page 4

TRACKING THE CRIMINAL

IMPORTANCE OF SLENDER CLUES. HOW THEY HAVE HELPED. (By H. L. Adam, in the Daily News.) Several recent cases have instanced the slender clues by which the police sometimes discover criminals. The importance of the slender clue is wuch that the wonder is not that the police fail sometimes, but that they succeed so often. A few of theii triumphs in this ■ direction for triumphs they certainly were—are worth recalling to the capitous critic. Spine years ago an old woman was found murdered in a room at the back of her shop in Slough. She had been strangled after there had been a desperate struggle. Chief Inspetcor Elias Bower (he has since left Scotland Yard and now occupies a prominent position with the Docks Police) was placed in charge of the case. On the table in the room he found a small piece of paper, which had evidently been used to wrap up a number of coins, for on the paper were the impressions of the milled edges of the coins. Upon counting, them the inspector found there were 22 impressions, four of . them being narrower than the others. 1 From this he deduced that the. paper must have contained twenty pounds—eighteen sovereigns and four half-sovereigns. He also found on some of the finger-nails of the- dead woman traces which showed that she had clawed her assailant during the struggle. COIN MARKS. Starting from tliese two small clueis Bower in an astonishingly short space of ’time had ’got his Hand on the shouloer of the culprit. The man had formerly lived next door to the shop, and had become aware that the old weman was in the habit of carrying about a considerable amount of cash in a pocket under her skirt. He was seen in the neighbourhood just before the crime, and soon after left for London. But this evidence would have been insufficient had it not been for those t\\o small clueis, which fixed the cose against him. In his possession Mien he was arrested was found a new envelope containing eighteen sovereigns and four half-sovereigns. He had not even had time to spend any of it. On his face were, several horizontal scratches which he failed to account for. There wac never any doubt about his guilt.

Bower also caugbt a gang or warehouse thieves when there were absolutely no clues at** all. But he fancied he recognised the method of working of a certain gang (all criminal gangs have a method of their own, though often they are unconscious of it), and tills led him to a particular receiver, where, sure enough, he found the missing property. He then knew where to look for the culprits, and found them. A PIECE OF STRING. A small clue worked wonders in a baby-farming case some years ago.

The body of a young child was one day fished 1 out of the Thames, and it was clear that a murder had been committed, The body'was done up in paper fastened with ordinary windowblind cord. But in the latter were some peculiar knots known as a “fisherman's bend.’’ Suspicion fell upon a certain woman who had lived at Battersea but had since moved away. A search of the empty house led to the discovery of more window-blind cord identical with that found round the body of the child, hut what was more remarkable still was that the cord was found to be tied with just the same peculiar "ffeherinan’s bond” knots I

Sometimes the police owe everything to luck, and have a clue drop into .their hands as the reward of patience. This occurred in the case of Canham Read, who shot a young woman at Southend and then disappeared from his home in Stepney. For weeks he was being searched for, when one daj' he was foolish enough to send a letter through the post to his brother in London. The postal authorities annexed it and notified the police. The Letter was carefully opened and the contents noted. There was no address, but the writer instructed the recipient to get possession oi certain papers he would find at Stepney and bring them to him at “M.” The letter was .then resealed and allowed to continue on its journey. In the meantime the police put the brother’s house under surveillance, and when the latter left to carry out his commission they “shadowed” him until be obligingly led them to where the culprit was in hiding, which turned ou* to be Mitcham. He was duly convicted. FALSE CLUES. All clues are not gifts. The police have to be careful about them, as they are sometimes misleading. For instance, some years ago, during some industrial riots at Sheffield, a man threw a bomb into a house and killed the occupant. A woman, who happened to look out of her window opposite when the explosion occurred, plainly saw a man running from the scene of the explosion. She saw him catch his coat sleeve on a hook outside a butcher’s shop, tear himseltaway, and disappear. With the aid of the woman the nun was eventually apprehended. She had no difficulty in Identifying him. On examniing his coat the police found that a piece of the cloth had been torn away, and the , portion that was still adhering to the butcher’s in ok exactly matched and fitted the aperture. This seemed conclusive enough in all conscience, yet it was entirely misleading. What happened was this. The man chanced to .be on the spot when the outrage occurred. saw the man throw the bomb, and was running away for his own protection. I have quoted but a tow of the many cases where the nolice, have been successful. I repeat that it is not surprising that they fail occasionally when one takes into consideration the stiff problems with which they are sometimes faced.