CRIPPEN’S NEMESIS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 866, 9 January 1930, Page 9

CRIPPEN’S NEMESIS

DETECTIVE’S DEATH RECALLS FAMOUS CRIMES AT “YARD” FOR 34 YEARS British Official Wireless RUGBY, Tuesday. The death has occurred of Mr. Frank Freest, who for many years was a famous British detective. Thirty-five years ago he arrested Jabez Balfour in Argentina and brought him to England, where he was sent to gaol for the Liberator frauds. Later Mr. Froest was responsible for bringing Crippen to justice for the murder of his wife. Crippen was identified on board the Atlantic liner Montrose. He was in company with Miss Le Neve, who was dressed in male attire. They were escaping to Canada and word was sent to Mr. Froest by wireless telegraphy. That was the first time wireless had been used to bring about the arrest of a criminal. When Mr. Frank Froest retired some years agro from Scotland Yard he had been Superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department for six years and his service totalled 34 years. He was the man who brought Jabez Balfour back to justice from South America; who accompanied the Jameson raiders from Madeira; who wrestled with armed murderers, and lived in a world of romance and adventure as unconcernedly as another man would work in a city office. Throughout the world of police and crime, in New York, Paris, Buenos Ayres, Capetown, and Melbourne, his name was known, and a terse cabled message from him often settled the fate of a fugitive who had had thousands of miles’ start of justice. “Frankie,” as his many friends called him, was as unlike the familiar figure of the detective of fiction as could be.