MYSTERY FIRES.

Shannon News, 14 March 1924, Page 4

MYSTERY FIRES.

SOLVED BY SCOTIiAND YARD. AMAZING DISCLOSURES. THREE MEN IN THE DOCK. All London -was amazed at the.sen. sational disclosures that have accompanied the trial for conspiracy and arson <of James Stolerman; Joseph Engelstein and Julius Brust, who for a week occupied the dock at the Old Bailey. _. For three years the London Fire Brigade and the. Salvage Corps have been perturbed by a long series of fires which occurred with unfailing regularity, * week after week, at the premise's of foreign Jews in'the East End; The circumstances 5 of these outbreaks were such that' although the authorities felt certain they were intentionally caused, there was no evidence to prove this was so. In case after case official' statements disclosed that the causes of the fires were unknown. Insurance companies were no less worried.! Clafms were made and paid but with an ill-grace, and in many cases for hundreds of pounds less than the sums demanded. Insurance premiums on premises similat in type to' buildings already destroyed were raised by as much'as two guineas per cent, but to no avail.. Fires with "unknown" causes continued at the rate of two a week. _ Early this year Scotland Yard was asked to take the matter up, and the even tenor of the lives of Mr. Stoier. man, Mr. Englestein and Mr. Brust became from that time onwards gradually more and more disturbed. "RESPECTABLE FIREBUGS." When Detective-Inspector Kirchner first began, as a result, of the investigations in the slums of the East End, to suspect that Englestein and Brust knew more than most people did about the origin of the mysterious fires, even he accustomed to the criminal world as'he was, could scarcely believe that he was on the right scent. Englestein and Brust were, to all appearances, highly-respectable men 'in a substantial way of business. Engelstein 'was managing director of the Cygnet Cabinet Company' in Columbia Road, Shoreditch: Brust was, the owner of a similar large factory in Tudor Lane, of the same district. Both lived in affluent, though unostentatious comfort in- large surburban houses some way removed from their places of business. Botn men were devoted to their families, and, apparently, led normal, respectable, and industrial lives. - ' „ But when, in spite of his preconceived ideas of their honesty Mr Kirchner began to - delve a little into the private lives of these two gentlemen, in oTde* that he might •. or substantiate certain whispers he had heard, he became less and less convinced that they were as respectable as they seemed'. , , , Engelstein, he discovered, had had two fires at his place of business, each of which was "disastrous," and followed by heavy compensation. He had also been unlucky enough to have had burglars twice visit his home m two years, on each occasion getting away with a very considerable amount-of fully-protected valuables. Brust also had recently suffered from . a very heavy.fife in his factory; and further investigations showed that it had not been his first one. _ A TRAVELLER" IN ARSON.

After a great deal of difficult and careful work, for which he was afterwards congratulated by Sir Ernest Wild, Recorder of the Old Bailey, Detective KirchneV managed to come into touch in a disreputable hotel m the East End, with a man who turned out to be no less than a "traveller" em. ployed by Engelstein to increase his custom.' , Detective Kirchner posed as a wool manufacturer from the North of England, and complained that trade was bad The traveller suggested a fire. When the detective demurred, saying it was too risky, the traveller said that his principal, Engelstein, would guarantee to arrange either a fire or y a burglary, without risk, for £SO down x>r for a certain' percentage of the profits. But try as he would, Detective Kirchner could not get the matter further than this. He knew the men he wanted now, but he found it impossible to pin them down. Fires still continued in the East End ™t\* " causes "unknown," and .still it was impossible for Engelstein or Brust to be implicat-ed on sufficient evidence to convince a jury. THE FINAL ACT. But the inevitable slip was bound to 'occur, and there was not long to W On May 18 a sudden and disastrous Are occurred in, the premises of Messrs. Stolerman Bros, of Columba Road, Stolerman, an associate of Engelstein and Brust, had already come under suspicion, and as the Sun Insurance Company, with whom his premises had been insured had already indicated that after the expiry of his present policy the following month they would refuse to renew it, the circumstances of the outbreak were especially open to question. The fire, which began at 8 o clock in the evening with a loud explosion, followed by sheets of flame, was im. mediately reported to the brigade near by, who arrived in record time; soon enough in fact to put out the fire before the building had been completely destroyed, and to find m the basement the remains of a zinc-lmed box that had apparently contained petrol, and, by a, curious stroke'of luck, several petrol-soaked shavings that'had not become ignited. But even before the brigade had arrived passers-by had seen, immediately following the first explosion three "burning men" rushing from the building, their clothes alight, and disappearing. Where they managed to get to nobody knows. But the curious fact that Engelstein, Brust and Stolerman (whp were afterwards positively ,

identified by Various witnesses) were all suffering from burns on the following morning, when called upon by DetectiVe Kirchner, supplied the final link in a chain of evidence that might still, but for the unlucky and prema. ture' spreading of petrol vapour on a warm evening,, have remained incomplete. ". ■