SHERLOCK HOLMES IN PETTICOATS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 282, 25 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHERLOCK HOLMES IN PETTICOATS

THE MOST FAMOUS WOMAN* DF.TF.CTIVK [X T!!E WORLD. Recently a London writer had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Mary J{. Hoi-' land, the best-known woman detective of two continents—possibly the most famous female detector of crime in the world. She is —irrespective of sex—among the foremost living authorities 011 the thumb-print system of identification, and has just declared, when crossexamined by all attorney during a murder trial, that the possibilities of two thumb-prints being identical averaged one in (10,000,000. Mrs. Holland has her own private collection of thumb-prints and photographs of noted law-breakers I which number close upon 15,00®, the ! majority of which she has gathered first I hand.

Mrs. Holland showed her own special little apparatus for taking a thumbprint. The entire outfit consists only of a small copper roller, an inked pad, and a sheet of white paper. "M. Bertillon himself gave me instruction in his unique method of thief-catch-ing," said Mrs. Holland, "but it was some time before I was able to put the knowledge' I thus gained to practical use. However, soon after I had returned to Chicago, a terrible murder was committed in an automobile. I was then employed by the Chicago police and was sent by them to look into the case. The first thing I did was to carefully examine the automobile. I went over the machine with a strong magnifying glass, and to my intense joy I discovered the imprint of the murderer's hand. I was' also successful in proving that a double crime had been committed through the i discovery on the automobile of two dis- J tinct shades of blood. This was one of my first big cases, and I succeeded in handling it so well that I was constantly employed on important police mysteries afterwards.

"Referring to these thumb impressions," continued Mrs. Holland, "I always endeavor, if possible, to take these myself. Usually a prisoner is a little nyerse to submitting to this form of identification, though if he is innocent it is all in his favor. One prisoner, whose guilt was absolutely proved, endeavored to evade identification by mutilating his thumb, but he might have saved himself the trouble, for when the wound heals • the marks of the thumb remain exactly as before. It is absolutely impossible to change their appearance."

Mrs. Holland has tracked down murderers and other criminals in every capital of Europe, and she is known to the police in every civilised country of the globe. She has been retained on cases in London, Paris, Madrid, Africa, Australia and India, She possesses a wonderful collection of interesting souvenirs connected with some of the greatest crimes committed during the last fifteen years. She hopes one day to open a museum, for she possesses many things that are of distinct value to detectives who are new to the profession. When engaged in her work, Mrs. Holland is as keen as ever Sherlock Holmes was, and she will never give up a case until she. or someone else, has run the quarry to earth. She has spent months on a case which the police have given up as hopeless, and has rtached success in the end. On many occasions she has worked twenty-four hours at a stretch and then only slept for an hour. But aside from her detective work she has literary talents, and, with her husband, "Phil" Holland, edits "The Detective," the official police magazine of America. She, is also something of an inventor, having originated a new helmet for detectives which contains a small store of articles useful to the sleuth who is tracking n, criminal.