THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 23, 1939
TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE
-THE CONFESSION
HOAX®
BY GEORGE BARTON One foggy morning in May, 1932, a passerby in Baytree Road, Brixton, saw a man sprawling in the mud by the side of a shabby looking taxicab, A glance was sufficient to show that he was dead and a call was sent at once to the police.
No less a person than Superinten- dent Carlin of Scotland Yard rushed to the spot to make an examination while the evidence, if any, was still fresh. There was plenty of it, in fact almost too much to be true.
At the outset, it was certain the man had been murdered. There had been a struggle during which the victim had been shot in the back of the head. It did not take long to prove that the dead man was Jacob Dickey, the owner and driver of the taxicab. The motive was robbery. That was obvious from the way in which the pockets had been turned inside out.
Later it was to be shown that the poor fellow had been slain for a com- parative pittance-for two English pounds.
A human life remorselessly taken for ten dollars in American money! It is characteristic of the greatness of Scotland Yard that this stirred the police to the depths and that Superintendent Carlin and his aides started on the investigation with as much vigor and energy as if the victim had been the richest peer in the realm.
In a sense the evidence was ready made for in the mud around the body and the now driverless taxicab Car- lin found these articles:
A gold-headed walking stick. An electric flashlight. A pair of men's gloves A pistol.
Three shots had been
fred
from
the revolver which was still partly loaded. The post-mortem showed that the bullet which killed Dickey had been fired from this weapon. But the thing that intrigued Detec- tive Carlin more than anything else was the gold-headed walking stick. It was so conspicuous that it shriek- ed aloud for attention.
Within an hour after the discovery of the body all of the resources of Scotland Yard had been brought into play. From Charing Cross district it was reported that a man named Eddie Vivian-not unknown to the police had once sported such a cane. He was a dandy among the crooks. His house was immediately surround- ed and in the course of time Vivian, looking as bright and fresh and as happy as the flowers that bloom in the spring, came sauntering along.
But he carried no walking stick!' Taken to the police station for questioning he never once lost his jaunty and debonair manner. Never had a suspect been so affable, cour- teous and complaisant. He answered all questions freely and seemingly without any mental reservations. Suddenly, Carlin thrust the gold-.
10-10
Dumb Dora says the social ade vantage of ́ not having anything “up staire" is that one never has to soratch one's head-In -publlo,
|
She "Put the Finger" on the Murderer. headed walking stick in front of him, son's trousers had been torn exclaiming:
"Did
you ever see that before?"
All eyes were on Vivian; all ears waited for the expected denial. But it did not come. Instead, he replied belongs to quietly: "Yes, that stick
me."
and
CONTRABAND
CONTROL OPERATIONS
London, To-day.
The total contraband of 14,000 tons intercepted by
the British Contraband Con- trol during the week ended November 18 brings the total volume of goods detained during the first 11 weeks of war to 441,000 tons.
During the same week the Con- traband Committee considered 131 new cases of ships and 74 cases out- standing from the previous week.
The combined total included ships 50 of the following nationalities: Dutch, 30 British, 26 Norwegian, 23 Italian, 16 Swedish, 13 Greek, Darish, 9 Belgian, 8 United States and 5 Yugo-Slav.
12
During this period one, cargo was wholly seized and 114 cargoes were wholly released.
then mended with bluish thread. His stick hands and knees were cut and scrath
ed. In explanation Mason said this a robbery at had happened during Norbury three days before.
The Norbury police at once denied this. There had been no robbery in that place in a week and this con- He admitted the ownership of the fession hoax proved to be a boomer- gloves, was not sure about the elec-ang for Mason. Then was located a tric torch and he resolutely disclaim- woman who furnished a most im- ed ownership of the pistol. He said portant clue. She said that on the he had been at home all of the day night of the murder a man had jump-leased. and the night of the murder ofled over Dickey. No amount of questioning could make him change his story Further examination, however, caus- ed him to admit that he had pur- chased the weapon some days before for one Scottie Mason.
her back, fence and asked permission to go through her house into the street on the other side. Vivian and Mason were stood in line with four other men of the same size and build. The woman promptly pointed to Mason as the man who had jumped her fence.
In 20 cases part of the cargoes were seized and the remaining items re-
FORMAL CHECKING
The system under which advance copies of manifests of cargoes are received and considered prior to the ship's arrival at ports in this country resulted during the week under re- view in 31 cases being so dealt with the ships. concerned and in 20 of
released by the Committee, being subject mostly to formal checking of the original manifests on their arrival at control bases.
Placed in a cell he said he lived at the house of a woman named Hetty Hetty Colquhoun, who, in the mean- Colquhoun and that Scottie Mason, time, could not possibly have had any whom they both knew, had visit them communication with Vivian, told the just after his release from a Glasgow police a story which corroborated
On the jail.
that the what he had said. morning before
She added Dickey
Mason
back came murder, Scottle Mason an- when
without nounced that he was going out for a Vivian's stick and gloves his trousers
On November 21 there
were 90 were torn and his hands and knees little air, according to Vivian, and as
three ships in
contraband he left the house he picked up Vivian's scratched. At his request she sewed neutral
and stick
control bases in the United Kingdom, from their
trousers, using place up the torn gloves
strands from the blue fringe of the 50 of which had been there for less
than a week. British Wireless. table cloth in the dining room.
in the hall. That was all he knew, he declared.
The next day, so quickly do 'the English police work, Scottie Mason was brought to the station house. He ad- mitted nothing and denied everything. Carlin, who later said Mason had the most cruel eyes he had ever seen in a human being, was convinced that he was lying. He noticed that Ma-
SAUSAGE
some
Mason was tried at the Old Bailey, found guilty and sentenced to death. An agitation in his behalf afterward succeeded in having this reduced to life imprisonment.
Yard
It speaks well for Scotland that the case was fully solved in a little over forty-eight hours.
S.M.C.
AND MASHED RELATIONS AT THE POLE WITH JAPAN
The most luxurious Polar expedi- tion in history is about to start-com-
London, To-day.
statement a
in the
plete with all home comforts. Ad- Mr. R. A. Butler, Under- miral Byrd has completed his plans Secretary for Foreign Affairs, for penetrating the Antarctic with 125 made mon and £1,000,000 worth of equip- ment, and here la what he is taking House of Commons yesterday on present relations between the Shanghai Municipal
with him:—
Five aeroplanes,
Several ready-made houses,
Library of 1,000 books, 500 maga-Council and the Japanese au-
zines,
Five thousand cans of potatoes, al- ready mashed,
Sixty thousand pounds of beef and mutton,
Two tons of canned dried beans, Twenty-ave tons of flour, Five thousand pounds of eggs, and Lots of other good things to eat.
GIANT ARMY TANKS In fact, they'll be able to have sau- sage and mashed at the Pole.
And, of course, there are the dogs 160 of them. But even the dog sleds are equipped with radio,
An even newer touch is provided by three giant army tanks and an aeroplane-carrying snow plough.
In the warm, cosy tanks, Byrd and his comrades will be able to laugh at the ice obstructions. And if the snow gets in the way, the £30,000 snow plough, which is 19ft, wide rolling on 10ft. wheels, will push it away.
get If any snow plough's riders bored they can offtake in the aero- plane resting on its top.
Germany also has claims in the An-
the tarctic, but owing to
British
thorities.
Mr. Butler spoke in reply to a re- quest by Mr. A. C. Moreing (Conser- vative, Preston).
Mr. Butler recalled that the situation In the International Settlement itself remains unchanged, but the area of Hongkew had not yet been returned to the control of the Council.
WESTERN AREA
APPEAL
Y.M.C.A. FOR WELFARE WORK
London, To-day.
Her Majesty the Queen and Queen Mary have sent a first donation to a £100,000 appeal launched by the Y.W.C.A. for welfare work among women engaged in national service.
The appeal says that a great deal has to be done for the comfort of the thousands of women in the uniform- ed services alone and these numbers will soon be increased.-Reuter.
FORMER
CRIPPLE NOW PLAYS TENNIS
Vanquishes Rheumatism in Feet
Here is a story of a young man who had given up hope of taking part in active sports with his fellows again. He tells how he tried one remedy after another and how finally 4 former juf- ferer put him on the way to réco-
very:
"Two years ago I started with pains in the feet which gradually got worse. He added that the situation in the I tried 'everything under the sun but beyond the Settlement to no effect. Whilst waiting for treat- western area boundary had given rise to some an- ment one evening, another patient xiety, owing to the difference in opin- advised me to try Kruschen Salts, That the Chinese municipal was twelve months ago; the relief was ion between government, supported by the Japan- not sudden, but the pain and swelling gradually left my feet, and in six ese authorities, and the Municipal months I amazed my friends by taking Council, about the policing of extra-long walks into the country. This year Settlement roads. ·
I have played a good deal of tennis, a Negotiations were progressing for thing which I had begun to think I arriving at a modus vivendi.-Reuter, | should never do again.-C.W.
Reinhardt and her two daughters re- mained in order that the girls could go through with their examination at Birkenhead High School for Girls. Mother and daughters followed to
Berlin a fortnight later.
needle-
Most rheumatic pain and swelling is caused by an excess of urlo seld accu- mulating in the body. Kruschen will quickly dissolve away, the pointed crystals of uric acid wh the cause of all the trolibin also dush those dissolved or. out of your system.
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