MAN WITH MANY FACES.
CHARLES PEACE AND HIS ELASTIC JAW. After Jack Sheppard aiid Dick Turpin, the dishonour of being Britain's greatest criminal falls on that notorious thief and murderer, , Charles Peace. All the romantic nonsense that has caused so many mythical virtues to be ascrihed to him are dispelled for ever by the recently published "Trials of Charles Peace" (Wm Ilodge and Co., Ltd). Peace was a nian of many parts. As a boy he helped his father as a tamer of wild animals in a circus. A few years later he was employed as a tinsmith in works near Sheffield, and it was while there that he received an injury to his leg which gave him his famous limp. The samc accident robbed him of a finger of his left hand, and when, later on, he took to crime, he adopted a false lower arm to hide what would have been a dangerously obvious means of identification. Hc declared that this accident caused him to hate honest labour, and was the direct cause of his adopting burglary as a profession. To take attention from his "night work," Peace pursued a variety of daytime caliings. He was at times a carver, gildcr, and frame maker; a cleaner and repairer of watches. a hawker of small wares (it was in this capacity that he tramped the country making love to scrvant girls and thus gaining useful information regarding possible "cribs") ; a musician, singer and entertainer. At fairs and in public houses he performed as "The Great Ethopain Musician." He was also a skilled performer on a home-made one.stringed fiddle, and later on collected a fine set of i valuable violins, the spoils of many i j nocturnal adventures. j | Ile combined with his extreme ] depravity a professed' desire to lead | •a Christian life, at times carrying | his hypocrisy to surprising limits. j Once he assisted as a teacher at a Sunday school. His truc regard for -religion is revealed in his own statement of his faith. Ile said: "I believe in God, and I believe in the Devil, but I don't fear cither!" A police description of Peafce at 'the age of forty-four read: "He is thin and slightly built, five feet four or five inches high, nearly white hair, beard and whiskers; walks Avith his legs wide apart; speaks as though his tongue was to large for his mouth, and/is a great hoaster." At different periods j he was known variously as George i Parker, Alexander Mann, Panga- \ nini, John Ward and Thompson. j Peace's greatest assct for escap- ; ing detection was an immense low- j er jaw which he could manipulate • at will. By merely distorting his - chin, he could disguise himself even j from his intimate friends and rela- 1 tions. Often he went thus disguisecl 1 to Scotland Yard to read the notices ] offering a reward for his apprehen- , sion, and daringly put himself in \ the way of the police, for whose . cfficiency he had scant respect. s When ,in 1877, Peace, outwardly j respeetable was living at Peckham i under the name of Thompson, he collaborated with a neighhour in an invention for raising sunlcen vessels by air and gas. He had at this time, shaved his beard, dyed his hair, stained his face with wainui \ 'juice, and wore spectacles which, ! together with his elastic jaw, form- j 'ed a disguise which the police could ; hardly be blamed for failing to ; penetrate. ? ; But the truth is that Peace was j I nothing but a successful criminal of ' i the worst type, or as the editor of : his trials writes: "Almost a monkey j I of a man. Cunning and criiel, abso- . lutely selfish. In short, an unre- > strained savage.'' '* 5 " '
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North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17169, 28 March 1927, Page 6
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625MAN WITH MANY FACES. North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17169, 28 March 1927, Page 6
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