"THE WORLD OF CRIME."

NZ Truth, Issue 114, 24 August 1907, Page 6

"THE WORLD OF CRIME."

ROBERT WOODHOUSE AND THE DETECTIVE TALE. Who -Stole the Tramway Board's Boo^k?

A Curious Case at Christchurch.

That a good deal of moral leprosy is spread throughout the community per medium of the pernicious, cheap, nasty, and blood-curdling literature printed m England and America is undeniable. These loolrs not only taint the minds cf juvenility and imbue m them tin desire to go forth and commit deeds cf derriii'g do ; but they taint the receptive minds of adults also. A hook callad "The World of Crime" was alleged m the Christchurch Supreme Court to have practically incited a young fellow named Robert Henry Woo'dhousc, a cleric m the Tramway, Board's office, to commit a serious crime. It was a gold grab. The yarn goes that he met car-cleaner Sherwin on the street one night, and they commenced to do a pitch about books.. Woodhouse mentioned the detective story be had been perusing, and then said that it would be a very easy matter to take money from the Tramway Board's safe. He then proceeded to explain the modus operand! to Sherwin. It was to switch the light out m the corridor, then whip into the secretary's room, and as soon as the Receiver ran out to sec about the light, to take the money out of the small safe m the Receiver's room. Then get back to the secretary's r o om and is soon as the Receiver went back into his office again to whip out the front door. *H wouldn't do to leave any finger-prints, said the cautious amateur .robber,, so it would be advisable to wear gloves and also' goloshes. He thought it could be successfully carried out, and he would never be suspected. If the money was found on him they couldn't prove that he hadn't been putting it by all alono;. In response to this, Sherwin, who is a tall- young chap with big ears, said to Woodhouse that if anything went wrong mr n the Tramway office he would Lmw who to put it down to. He didn't at the time take tho matter seriously,, and poopoohed i'o idea of Woodhouse GETTING AWAY WITH THE BOODLE. Curiously enough, just afterwards someone stole. £122 6s 7d, a nice little: haul, and there was a power of trouble m that office. Everyone, more or levss, was kinder suspicion— m-emibprs of the office staff, that is— and things, were unpleasant. But when the ahove yarn was narrated by the carcleaner, who is on the night shift. Woodhouse, was docked. He is only 20, has been some years with the tram peoples is well dressed (lie spent more on togs than anyone m the office), and when m the dock wore a big -overcoat, a pair of gloves, and an •' occasional smile. Crown Prosecutor Stringer, X.C.. told the jury the story of the crime. The circs were somewhat peculiar. Woodhouse first started! graft oh a ' quid a week, as clerk ; now he was receiving £135 a year. He worked m Hl3 public office,' where there were a number of other clerks, including one Sladen, who had the paying of some of the men on the construction work every week. He received a cheque for this purpose, castied it, and counted the money due to each man into 'envelopes, which he' placed on a tray m his drawer, and he' paid the 1 men as they came m. If they weren't all paid, and that was generally the case, Sladen's duty was to lock the money up m the strong-room until next morning. On the 21st June last he drew from, the hank £133 7s 7d, of which £144 were soys, and ,a dozen half soys. He forgot to put the money m the safe on leaving, and it was left m the drawer. Only three or four men had be3n paid. The accused sat opposite to Sladen and would know what was m the drawer. At any rate, next morning the gonce was gone, and a sorry clerk Bad to explain to Secretary Thompson that it had just disappeared, and receive a good rating for his negligence. The dogs of war were at once' let loose, and 'Tecs. J. Kennedy and E. Eade took days to make up their minds about the business. IT WAS A PUBLIC OFFICE, nd so many • people haid moved about m it that it was difficult to trace the tarnation th^ef. The authorities thought .that Sladen wouldn't (although it was possible) be likely to steal the money for which he was responsible. In th 3 result, Woodhouse had to stand the racket, and his answers to t|uesti<ons put by the 'Tecs, were considered so unsatisfactory by them as to lead him to cell No. 1 on the left. On the evening that Sladen left the office without putting the golden dross m the safe there were only two left behind— the accused and Chief Cleric Jarman. Accused may have known that the money was still there. Jarman went to the lavatory, leaving accused to lock the safe. That done, the. two left together. It was afterwards discovered, though, that although he had no occasion to do so, accused returned again that night at 8 o'clock, and his • excuse for doing so was that he had forgotten his bicycle, and wanted it to ride down to work m the morning. As he only lived between five or ten minutes walk from the 'office this might appear trivial. The 'Tecs, asked him for some particulars about various things, and he then signed a .statement detailing his income, his expenses, the cost of a couple of trips, the bringing of his sister from Queensland., and keeping her m Christchurch. Despite all that he had , succeeded m saving £73. The police were- anxious to lttiow where so much gonce was stored, and Woodhouse replied that it was m the box at home. He lived with his aunt, and that both she and three other female relatives knew that he had the money. But Tec. Kennedy discovered that they weren't possessed of any such knowledge, and laughed at the idea of the thing. On being told about the result of Kennedy's ouest, x Woodhouse (who had been Kept at- the station playing chess or ■■something Ihv Tec. Iv.ide) (--claimed, "Oh. I have the box on me now." and he produced a jujube box containing

£73, all . sovereigns, sayin~ that he had forgotten that he had it with him. As this oof was thought to be part of THE PROCEEDS OF, THE ROBBERY, his • nibs was arrested. A lot of evidence was called for the prosecution, and, m cross-ex-amination by barrister Donnelly,, who, with barrister Cassidy appeared for "the prisoner, it was elicited that the Tecs, cross-questioned! a lot of people about the tramway office, and there was mention of finger-marks, which, however, were of no avail, as too many people had been poking their dirty digits all over the desk to see if the cash could have disappeared between the varnish and the boarding. But they gave a sort of dramatic performance with a gent named Short ; Eade actually examined his fingers, but he explained m the /box that this was dpne as .a blind so as to put the real culprit, who was supposed to be m the next room, of! his guard. Short protested like hell, aiid asked the pair to go and search his house, which they did, but "only m a makeshift way" as Kennedy put it. The^ didn't tell Short it was only kid stakes, "but he knows it now," quoth Kennedy. Probably he does ; but a long time happened before he acquired the much-desired knowledge. . The defence sought to show that long before the robbery, Woodhouse had any amount of money, including a great many sovereigns. "William Hume, storeman for TurnbuH and 1 Jones, who was formerly m the employment of the Tramway Board, was once asked by Woodhouse to mark off links at Linwood for a lady's hockey club. He did so, and on beiner paid half a sovereign for the work; Woodhouse nulled out a ; handful -of gold to find the necessary coin. THEY WERE ALL SOYS. So he hauled out some more goldi, and came across what he wanted, and handed it over. Another witness, Thomas Russell, foreman of the permanent way of the Tramway Board at present, said that m March last Woodhouse acted as naymaster, not Sladen. When he was putting his money m his purse, Woo'tahouse remarked, "I have more money than you," and he i>ut his hand m his pocket and drew out a handful of gold and silver. Russell told Woodhouse that he was foolish to carry money about m that fashion. Russell happened to have £23 m his own pocket— all collected that day. Conductor James Kennedy toid that Woodhouse paid him once and he produced a sovereign which he .had received the previous pay day, saying it didn't look quite 'genuine. One side of it was all right, hut the other seemed as though it had formed part of a brooch. Woodhouse looked at the coin, drew out a lot of gold of his own, and said, "Will one of these suit you?" jThe coin handed back proved to be genuine* enough. . Edwin Short, driver m charge of the "emergency turnout," also gave, evidence. He put a slightly different complexion on the 'Tec's, yarn as to their interview with him. A few days after the money was reported lost, Kennedy and Eade saw him, and he was told that it looked a very' black thing for him. What was more, his finger-prints were on the drawer where the money was taken from. Short replied that they were making it a bit .too stronir. whereupon Eade took hold of his fist and had a squint at it. Kennedy remarked that they didn't want\ to make any fuss about it, but Short GREW A BIT INDIGNANT, and told the pair to . go and search his house, which they did. "Was there any suggestion about it being merely a dummy business ?"" asked Mr ' Cassidy. "No," replied the witness, smiling. His Honor : "If it was, it was very well done, eh ?" "Yes." In summing up, his Honor did not attach much importance to the evidence based on the detective yarn Woodhouse had read. The jury didn't take long to decide, and it returned Woodhouse "Not guilty." So he gets back his oof (less lawyer's exes.) but loses his billet.