CONSTABLE GUTTERIDGE MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3814, 5 July 1928, Page 1

CONSTABLE GUTTERIDGE MURDER.

FURTHER SIDELIGHTS INTO BROWNE’S LIFE.

In our last issue we dealt with the early part of Browne's life up to the time he was sentenced to imprisonment for fraud. We now give further details of the conduct of Constable Gutteridge’s murderer while in prison. Thwarted in his counterfeit enterprise, Browne diverted his skill to the manufacture of skeleton and master keys. Somehow he managed to secure impressions of the official keys and it was not long before he had made a score or so of duplicates. These he distributed to other prisoners. For himself Browne made master keys which gave him access to almost every part of the famous Isle of Wight gaol, and allowed him to enter the prison grounds at will if he could overcome one difficulty. This was to open his cell door from the inside as the keyhole was on the outside. Some locks he found remained on the half-lock when the doors were pushed to and the occupants of the cells could pull them open. To guard against any oyersight the warders had instructions to give the handle a twist and send the bolt home. If this were done it would be impossible to open the door without a key and then this would have to be inserted from outside. There was' also a slot on the doors which showed a little white disc to indicate that the convict was safely housed for the night but Browne’s keen observation showed that if he took a pin out of the handle a half-turn would register full lock. In order to prevent his door being pushed open when on half-lock, Browne inserted a button in the jamb. To lock the door -after wandering about in the fresh air, Browne wound a piece of wire around the handle and on re-entering his cell, pulled the wire, The officials had no inkling that Browne was able to gain his liberty ,-at will but this he did about a dozen times. i K

About this time Browne commenced making a key which he claimed would provide the “Open Sesame” to any house without leaving a scratch on the lock. While working on this, his latest invention, a fellow convict “blew the gaff” and Browne was placed in elos.e confinement. A number of the keys were then found but the most important Browne managed to secret on his person. There is little doubt that it was his. intention to ultimately bring about a revolt in the gaol. It was owing to this suspicion that he whs sent to Dartmoor. There he served every day of his sentence and was released on the last day of March, 1927. “Before I leave this place,” he once told the governor, “I will ‘crack’ your house.” Twentyfour hours after his release the governor' lost quite a. lot of household ! treasures. It was at Dartmoor that ! Browne met Kennedy, his partner j in the murder of the unfortunate i Constable. Directly Browne came j out of his four years’ sentence, he j (ravelled to London and took over i a little garage where he resumed “operations” in stolen ears. As soon as Kennedy was released lie took him into partnership. Browne was the workman and the other merely the tool. The pair accomplished many desperate jobs together. They raided the railway station at Eynsham, overpowered the porter, bound and gagged him, ripped the safe from tlie door, where' it was bolted to the.beams, and drove off with it. How many crimes were actually committed by Browne in the months before and after the murder of Guttei'idge will never be known.

* The Cambridge Independent says: The most dastardly act which has come under our notice for some time was perpetrated on Tuesday night or early on Wednesday morning. When the workmen engaged in painting the high level bridge at Cambridge were preparing to commence work yesterday morning a little girl pointed out,to them rhat. : ,both the thick ropes which hold the plank staging upon which they work many feet below the bridge, were almost severed. It was quite obvious that the ropes, which are an inch thick, had been deliberately cut with a“very sharp knife. Had either of the~workmen attempted to descend the rope to the platform below to start work, without knowledge of the ropes being almost severed, it would most assuredly have meant death to them. We are informed that this is the second occasion upon which the ropes have been similarly cut.