TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AT SCOTLAND YARD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 81, 1 May 1909, Page 3

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AT SCOTLAND YARD.

INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A FAMOUS DETECTIVE.

Chief IX'teclive-lnspoclor JScott, oi Scotland Varilj, who has just retired utter thirty years' criminal-tracking, has had an exciting life. For more than a quarter oi » century his name lias been feared by every class of misdoer, and he has been responsible, perhaps, for the meting out of more pvnul servitude to desperate elinr'aelers than any other man hi the Criminal Investigation Department. The liiiit case in which Mr. Scott distinguished himself was one iu which the characters were known as the "Brixton Forgery (Jung." A clever set of swindlers, mule and female, were manufacturing and passing into circulation thousands of pounds in counterfeit coin. For months they eluded the effort* of a snnill army of detectives. By (logged ivnd persistent enquiry, however, Scott got on their track anil eventually succeeded in bringing them to justice. The sentences averaged seven years' penal servitude apiece. Soon after this the detective ran another gang to earth. They were known as "Phil Last's" gang, and they received sentences which aggregated to thirty-six years. Detective Scott was one oi the many officers engaged upon the "Kipper" murders, and in connection with these he tells an extraordinary story. He was making certain enquiries one day, and quite by chance stared at a man near by. The man evidently did not believe in the axiom that "a cat may look at a king," for, turning abruptly'on the detective, he said, "D'yuu take me for Jack the Ripper?" Scott's suspicions were immediately aroused. "No," he said; "but who are you!" The man failed to give a satisfactory account of himself, mid he was taken to the station. Certain investigations were made, and it was found that the fellow 'was wanted on several charges, and he ultimately got seven years! ; "UffiD TBMI , LE"-BItiAMIST. Another sensational arrest that Scott made was the capture of Kunciinan, better known (twelve years ago) as "Lord Temple." Thia swindler married an I American—a wealthy woman—left her,' came to England, forged a cable to her, and married another woman in this country, posing as "Lord Temple.'! Seott brought his little game to a close, and he was sentenced to a long term of penal servitude. Air. Scott also assisted in the greatest police coup, su far as burglars are concerned, that has been brought off for many years. London had been startled by a "series of audacious robberies and burglaries, and for months the perpetrators escaped detection. Scott, with others, commenced making enquiries. For weeks they labored, and eventually got a clue which put them on the scent.

NINE BURGLARS CAUGHT AT ONCE. The detective knew where to catch each separately, but was anxious to "land them ai) in a hunch." One night they congregated together in a publichouse in the East End, and the police did not lose the opportunity. Scott and hi 6 men raided the place, and a desperate struggle ensued; but the oificers got their .birds safely to the policestation. Over two hundred charges were brought against them, and the stolen property included everything imaginable - money, watches, diamond rings, bracelets, clocks, silver: i n fact, there was hardly an article of any value which is to be found in a house that they had not taken a t some time or another Tj le total period of penal servitude doled out to this daring gang was over sixty years. ° " "

TWO MURDERS IN ONE NIGHT ihero 16 one night in Mr. Scott's life Wil.uV ever remember, it was teinbly foggy, and just after ten o'clock a message came to Wandsworth, where Lek«l f' i !' 51 ' t ' l '' t<,r ' tllat il lua n knocked at a house and when thu door. «as opened by a woman he shot her dead. Ihe whole district was surrounded bj police and the murderer was caught before daybreak. Hardly C the report of the crime come in *ZI Edit) lurk had murdered her child, and the detectives had perforce to divide tneir attention between the two. MANY MCUDER CASES. Many murder case* fell to the lot of Mr. Scott. He arrested Mrs. Hewetson, the baby-murderer; William Tiilin, the central figure (afterwards hanged) of the Thames Dillon tragedy; Brown, who kicked his wife to death; and a score of others. lie was nearly murdered hiiusell on one occasion by a man named German, and narrowly escaped death on another at the hands of a desperate gang of roughs, who .set a huge dog on to him.—Tit Bits. J