Mysteries of Police and Crime, Vol. 1 (of 3)Griffiths, Arthur
History
Mysteries of Police and Crime, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Griffiths, Arthur
Crime; Police
"This lady's? She has no child. I have been with her now for six months,
and she has asked me repeatedly to get her one--anywhere, in Cairo, at
the Foundling in Malta, here in London."
"Who are you, then?" both inquired, astonished beyond measure.
And "Bartlett," having completed his mission, quietly informed the lady,
whom he had been watching, and the next-of-kin, who was really his
employer, that he was the detective engaged to unravel the case.
With such men as this on the side of law and justice, long-continued
fraud, however astutely prepared, becomes almost impossible. The private
inquiry agent is generally equal to any emergency.
PART IV.
CAPTAINS OF CRIME.
CHAPTER XIV.
SOME FAMOUS SWINDLERS.
Recurrence of Criminal Types--Heredity and Congenital Instinct--The
Jukes and Other Families of Criminals--John Hatfield--Anthelme
Collet's Amazing Career of Fraud--The Story of Pierre Cognard:
Count Pontis de St. Hélène: Recognised by an Old Convict Comrade:
Sent to the Galleys for Life--Major Semple: His many Vicissitudes
in Foreign Armies: Thief and Begging-Letter Writer: Transported to
Botany Bay.
The regular recurrence of certain crimes and the reappearance of
particular types of criminals have been often remarked by those who deal
with judicial records; the fact is established by general experience,
and is capable of abundant proof. It is to be explained in part by
heredity. The child follows the father, and on a stronger influence than
that of mere imitativeness; and these transmitted tendencies to crime
can be illustrated by many well-authenticated cases, where whole
families have been criminals generation after generation. There is the
famous, or infamous, family of the Jukes, a prolific race of criminals,
starting from a vagabond father and five of his disreputable daughters.
The Jukes descendants in less than a hundred years numbered twelve
hundred individuals, all of them more or less evincing the criminal
taint. These facts have been brought out by the patient investigation of
Mr. Dugdale, an American scientist. An old case is recorded of a
Yorkshire family, the Dunhills, the head of which, Snowdon Dunhill,
spread terror through the East Riding as the chief of a band of
burglars. This Snowdon Dunhill was convicted in 1813 of robbing a
granary, and sentenced to seven years' transportation. He returned from
the Antipodes to earn a second sentence of exile, and his son was at the
same time sentenced to transportation. One of his sisters, Rose Dunhill,
was twice imprisoned for larceny; another, Sarah, had been repeatedly
convicted of picking pockets, and was finally sent across the water for
seven years. It may be incidentally stated, as showing the contamination
of evil, that nearly all who came into association with the Dunhills
felt the baneful influence of the family. Dunhill's wife was
transported; so were Rose Dunhill's two husbands and Sarah's three.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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