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
An attempt to set up an _alibi_ failed, and the prisoner, having been
found guilty by the jury, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment.
On his release, feeling that he was disgraced, he left the country to
take up a situation at the Cape of Good Hope.
Soon afterwards the keepers whose evidence had convicted the wrong man
met the real culprit in the streets of the county town. He was in
custody for theft, and was being escorted to the courts. His name was
Hammond. The keepers followed, and after a longer look were more than
ever satisfied of the mistake they had made, and they very rightly gave
information in the proper quarter. Then a witness came forward who, on
the night of the trespass, had seen and spoken with this man Hammond,
when he had said he was going into the woods for a shot. Hammond
himself, knowing he could not be tried for an offence for which another
had suffered, now voluntarily confessed the poaching. Great sympathy
was shown towards the innocent victim, and the gentleman whose game had
been killed offered to befriend him. But the young man had already made
for himself a position at the Cape of Good Hope, and would not leave the
colony, where indeed he eventually amassed a fortune. On his return to
Scotland, many years later, he was presented with a licence to shoot for
the rest of his days over the estates he was supposed to have poached.
KARL FRANZ.
We now come to the famous Kingswood Rectory case. On the 11th of June,
1861, Kingswood Rectory, in Surrey, was broken into, in the absence of
the family, and the caretaker murdered. The unfortunate woman was found
in her nightdress. She was tied with cords, and had been choked by a
sock used as a gag and stuffed halfway down her throat. There had been
no robbery; the house had been entered by a window in the basement, but
nothing was missing from it, although the whole place had been
ransacked. Trace enough was discovered to establish the identity of one
at least of the murderers. A packet of papers was found lying on the
floor of the room, and it had evidently dropped from the pocket of one
of the men.
This packet contained six documents: a passport made out in the name of
Karl Franz, of Schandau, in Saxony; a certificate of birth, and another
of baptism, both in the name of Franz; a begging letter with no address,
but signed Krohn; and a letter from Madame Titiens, the great singer, in
reply to an appeal for help. Besides these, there was a sheet of paper
on which were inscribed the addresses of many prominent personages; part
of the stock-in-trade of a begging-letter writer. All these papers
plainly implied that one of the criminal intruders into Kingswood
Rectory was a German. Moreover, within the last few days several German
tramps had been seen in the neighbourhood of Kingswood, one of whom
exactly answered to the description on the passport.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account