Robber’s Arrest Due to a Rat

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 111, 1 August 1927, Page 9

Robber’s Arrest Due to a Rat

Recollections of a Noted Detective A button, a* soft felt hat, a trick of writing, a small piece of wire have all figured as clues which have brought criminals to justice, according to Mr. Francis Carlin, a former superintendent at Scotland Yard, whose recollections of his career as a detective are published. Descriptions circulated In the Press have frequently resulted in the arrest of law-breakers. The movements of a rat led to putting into the dock a gang of four men who had committed a daring jewel robbery at the Berkeley Hotel, Piccadilly, W. It was typical of the trivial incidents which have thrown light on apparently baffling crimes. In pursuit of the rat a waiter lifted the top from a radiator and discovered a number of stolen coins. They were marked and replaced, and the spot was watched until the thief came to retrieve his spoil. Among the notorious crimes in which Mr. Carlin was engaged were the Eltham Common murder, the Brixton taxicab murder, and the murder of Eric Tombe. The methods by which these and many other mysteries were solved are described in detail. These narratives are as thrilling as any detective story; the sleuth of real life is in many cases a great deal more ingenious, and considerably more expedite, than the detective of fiction. Value of Records The book throws a flood of light on the inner workings of Scotland Yard and the extraordinary value of its Criminal Records Office: At Scotland Yard, in addition to the finger-print, photographic and anthropometric sections of the registry, there are kept volumes on the classification of crimes. On consulting one of those books I may find that John Smith is given to committing his burglaries between the hours of 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.; that he specialises in jewellery and leaves silver plate alone, and that he leaves the place as tidy as when he entered. Bill Jones, on the other hand, breaks in through a ground-floor window by filing bars and using a jemmy; he goes for solid silver, very heavy, and when he has finished the rooms look as if there had been an earthquake. The decectiye at once relates the crime he is investigating to recorded examples of technique, and often finds a clue to the perpetrator. Murder is an entirely different matter. Not once in a hundred times do Scotland Yard’s files provide a case. UNINTELLIGENT CRIMINALS Mr. Carlin has a low opinion of criminal intelligence: The criminal may be clever. I am not, I hope, splitting hairs in terms if I point out that intelligence pre-sup-poses reasoning power and understanding. It is in those two qualities that most criminals are deficient. The master criminal class forms a very small proportion of the underworld. For the average wrongdoer crime as a business is one of the worst paying professions on eardh. The percentage of men and women, in Mr. Carlin’s opinion, who are making even a living income out of crime is'infinitely smallel than in honest walks of life.

Steamer Sold For Debt. —At Melbourne, the Victorian Practice Court ordered the sale of the American ship Aneiura for debt. —A. and N.Z. Administration of Ceylon. —Secretary of State for Colonies has appointed a special commission under the chairmanship of Lord Donoughmore to visit Ceylon and report on the working of the existing constitution, and on any difficulties of administration which may have arisen in that connection, and make recommendations accordingly. It is intended that the commission should visit Ceylon towards the end of the present year.—British Official Wireless.