SENSATIONAL CRIMES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3821, 21 July 1928, Page 4

SENSATIONAL CRIMES.

MANY CASES RECALLED. DEATH OF A PLEADER. Mi-. A. C. Fox-Davies, who died in London lately, was not only famous as an authority on British landed gentry and the greatest expert in the lapd on heraldry, hut he also won fame as counsel for the defence in many sensational murder cases. One of his greatest achievements at the Bar was to secure the acquittal of a half-caste, Thomas Clanwarning, who was charged with the murder of the keeper of a general shop in Cambridge, Miss Lawn. In that case Mr. Fox-Davies was able to prove an alibi. Another case in which he appeared for the defence became known as the Brixton taxicab murder. Chief Inspector Berrett, who was responsible for the capture of Browne and Kennedy, convicted of the murder of Police-Constable Gutteridge, arrested Mason, who was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was, however, respited. Possibly the greatest of Mr. Fox-Davies’ cases, however, /'concerned the murder of Miss Irene Wjilkins, a Streatham woman, who was lured to Bournemouth by a decoy telegram. A chauffeur, Thomas Allway, was arrested and charged. He denied his guilt and endeavpured to prove that his master’s car had been garaged during tlfc whole period which covered the woman’s visit to the town.

One aspect of the case which attracted attention was the fact that the local police declined to call in the aid of Scotland Yard, and in his address at Winchester Assize Mr. Fox-Davies suggested that the detectives of Bournemouth had blundered owing to their inexperience in dealing with “serious crime.”

Mr. Fox-Davies made a long and eloquent speech in the course of which he reviewed many eases in which prisoners at first found guilty were afterwards proved to be innocent.

Another of Mr. Fox-Davies’ cases which passed into criminal history was known as the treacleplaster mystery. A cashier employed by a Southwark firm was sent to the bank to cash a cheque for wages. On his way back he was attacked by four men, a piece of brown paper covered with treacle was clapped over his face, and £4OO was taken from him. The four men made their way through a tunnel, padlocked it at the other end, and got away.

Acting on identification by photograph—which Mr. Fox-Dayies always contended was “a perfectly iniquitous system”-—the police arrested four men.

When Mr. Fox-Davies was asked to defend the accused he was offered an emerald ring, valued at £6O, for his services. He was told frankly that the ring was a part of the proceeds of a burglary at Bristol. “Of course,” said the barrister in relating the story, “I could not possibly accept the ring in these circumstances.”

But Mr. Fox-Davies agreed to defend, and at the first trial he so managed to suggest doubt that the jury disagreed. The prisoners, who were all known to the police, were put back, and at the second trial before Mr. Justice . Avory, were found guilty and sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude. Mr. Fox-Davies was a man of great charm, a clever linguist,, and a ready speaker. Just before his death he declared his intention of writing the life stories of notorious crooks. Formerly he was the editor of Dod’s Peerage, and Burke’s Landed Gentry, and was editor at the time of his death, of Armorial Families.