CAPSTICK

H

E was once a Liverpool. choirboy

who ran away to sea.

In recent

yours he has done more than any other man to maintain the sequence

almost uninterrupted triumphs by the world's most famous crime-fighting unit-Scotland Yard.

of

Record-holder of successful murder investigations at present in Detective' Chief Superintendent John Capstick. And this, is the story of his toughest. Rssignment.

Fle was sent to Carmarthenshiro_ perhaps the proudlest county in all Wales to solve a double murder mystery that had incensed the local folk more than anything in living memory.

in the

Valleys

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1955.

of Suspicion

by PERCY HOSKINS

the

penniless farmer would

And they told him; In this part of the country, CATTLE. Ronald Harries had transfer red his "uncle's" cattio to Cadno

This was the brutal, long- Arst conviction for murder in Tell me the things a young and premeditated, hammer-killing of court for 65 years. Amallholders John and Phoebe That night they dubbedi Harries, of Dertywyn, a lonely detective "Capstick, Whitehall" farm near Carinathen.

It was the finest compliment this burly, pay they could bowler-hatted policeman. way Farm, his father'a land at Pen-

This was the colloquial they spoke of their neighbours and friends--Reca tho Post; Harries James the Beach, or Derlwyn.

They were missing from the right of October 10, 1053, And revealed on-the-at inquiries no trace or clue of this respected, and thrifty old couple.

Grey-haired, astuto John Cap- stick and his assistant Detective- Inspector B Heddon---a war time colonel in the Army Special Investigation Branch nado their arst tour of the valleys of

The killer

RONALD HARRIED

A CAT-AND-MOUSE GAME.

suspicion on a drizzly November morning,

area

They found themselves in en

where

many people loyalists, but distrustful of Gov- ernment by Whitehall-regard every English official with mixture of distrust and con- tempt.

U

1

With the file they had cepted him. I was really #ceolade for all Whitehall.

ac-

Fun

The manner in which Capstick gained their irust is one of the greatest inside stories from that storehouse of secrets--Scol- land Yard.

FIRST he drew on his vast experience of murder.

tod

SECOND and this with Cap- stick was an automatic reflex netion-be sel the wheel of routine investigation In accelera- were motion Statements Through: people

were questioned time and again on the smallest thing that Capstick knew instinctively did not tit into the Jig-saw of his theories.

read

H

THE CATTLE

E had proved the value of methodical slogging in taking 46,235 fingerprints of the inhabi- tants of Blackburn to solve the June Dovancy murder in 1947. (Fingerprint 40,235 was that of Griffiths, the murderer.)

dine.

of Cadno Farm, the "Fari the Fox" as it means in English, is deep in the wild heart of

countryside. Carmarthen Capstick said: "Make a countryman. Tell me about the game and the wild life."

Je

THE GREAT CASES OF SCOTLAND YARD'S GREAT DETECTIVES.

the wecond week of this new series, meet Chief Superintendent John Capstick. The master detective, who is 51, came, to the Yard from Liverpool. He is married, has three sons, lives at Norwood, grown roses. Expert on underworld stang. In early days with Flying Squad specialised in daring leaps on to the running boards of smash-and grab carn.

Was

The Notorious

LOLA MONTEZ

T

10 have written this story in the 1850s when Lola Montez was in England would have been danger- oua; Lola horsewhipped writers

of means in the neighbourhood.of articles which did not meet with her What his intentions were one

can only, surmise.

approval: Once she threw a newspaper All this from the Capstick proprietor out of a window. He was her routine, Now it only remained husband at the time. for the plan to pay off.

The country-wise search (cam was ordered into Cado farm,

Crudno Farm, s head turned north towards a Beld of kale.

The story of Lola Montez, dancer' By the time the order given to search the kale Geld It was exactly one month after and adventuress, starts in the Irish town Capslek know these demning the dual disappearance. A sharp- of Limerick when Edward Gilbert and eyed sergeant of police noticed his wife, a withered patch of kale

facts:-

he said he had "gone

THE END.

bed."

name

that

former Miss Harries had tried, to forge a cheque written by his "uncle" poked a slick down...touched Oliver, who had Spanish altering, a nine to "900" to one of the bodies.

blood in her veins, had a had been on the roads near

They daughter in 1818. Pendine in his Land-Rover after

Minutes inter

John Capstick

tho child Marie was watching as the spaces laid called bare the moment of his greatest | Dolores Eliza Rosanna. triumph.

Mr Gilbert joined the No one in Carmarthen Will Army and died of cholera

the So TOW did Capstick know this quarrel with

HOW

fast fact? He had once hung Capstick has been given by in India in 1825. His widow phosphorous London's crooks whom he has (who had accompanied him a dripping in of paint from the bacit axle of fought for close on 25 years. to India) married a Captain Harries's Land-Rover to And They call him "Charlie Artful." Craigie a year later. Marie out his destination.

And above his desk in the was sent home to Captain And Capstick knew too that Murder Squad room at the Yard, Craigle's relatives in Scot-. Hurries hid lled about a after the execution of Ronald land. holiday in London for the old Harries on April 28, 1954, they folk; that Harries had taken the fixed a wooden plaque with the coveted cattle to Cadno.

carved advice:- Morcover, Harries was already "Softly, softly, catchee monkey."

(COPYRIGHT) playing up to another, woman,

And they told him: The buzzards live on dead things. Maybe they will give you a clue.

Superintendent Capstlek watched, wondering, the cruel- heated buzzard, hungry with the approach of whiter, that perched

ON

the telephone wires above

From Cyprus, Island In The Newspot

TEENAGE TERROR

RIDES

BY BICYCLE

SHE enslaved great men.... SHE was the cause of a duel.....SHE 'ruled' a kingdom ..SHE horsewhipped her critics......SHE threw her husband out of the window

offers.

The

Little knowing Lola's past ex- into polities. Monoy was distri- perience, the Viceroy and his buted by her enemies; the seeds friends tried to boo her from of discoutent were sown: the stage. The boos turned into

But it was the students who cheers when Lola promptly told brought about the end. the audience of the Viceroy's Liberal, students whom she dup

ported fought with the Consur- Many of the audience were re- vative students. Lola had the volutionaries; and the next university closed. That was the morning all the political unrest last straw. Revolution broke In Poland nearly exploded-be- out, her life was threatened, she cause of Lola. She was ordered was banished from the kingdom and the old king was forced to abdicate.

Marie Dolores, already showing signs of beauty to leave the country. the Spanish blood had given her raven black hair and the Trish blue eyes-was sent to Paris for part of her eduen tion and when her step- father's regiment returned Ahс finally joined her mother at Bath.

$

Lolu, unhurriedly and with a pistol in her hand, supervised After one attempt to return to the loading of her belongings on Bavaria (dressed as a boy) Lola fled to England and tried to re- to the coach for St Petersburg.

turn to the stage. The picce in There she was received by the which she proposed to appear,

gave her however, Czar Nicholas, who

Was more than the costly presents,

Lord Chamberlain could stomach By now Lolo Montez was far and it was withdrawn, more than a Spanish dancer- she was notorious. She went Lola's star was now on the back to Paris and lived in wane. At the age of 31 shu, luxury. Her dancing was still, married again. Her now hus- band was scarcely more than a boy (with a considerable fortune) and his aunt started proceedings

of

snobbery which Army life KENDALL

tells another of the world's strangest stories

Mrs Gilbert had, however, absorbed a great deal of the By DAVID BURK

in India engendered and And the one-time adventurous choirboy had proved it again

Nicosia, era. The killers are mobile.

A month ago an 18B-type law insisted on engaging her McDONALD when breaking down the seem-

THE echo of three pistol u because many of the streets (preventive internment without daughter to. a repulsive old Ingly foolproof alibi of Ian Hay

old-walled town are charge or trial) was decreed to man whose only claim to in the Therefore John Capstick Gordon, the R.A.F, cadet, who shots rips through barely 6ft, wide, bicycles replace detain suspect terrorists. Until had a double

fame was his knighthood, task in the killed Patricla Curren in Belfast

the dark,

narrow- sedans and limousines.

a sudden flurry of arrests, hardest of all pursuits. He had earlier in 1953.

Janed rabbit warren that. Is police drive up. The body the last couple of days, only 10 to find tho. Idiller, and

To avoid the marriage more:

Detectives look were held. conscious that his actions and

and Nicosia of John

removed. by night. Two

at bewilderod, tho Phoebe Harries, after Capstick his methods were open to

Governor Sir Robert Armitage Marie ran away with a hand- rubber recently

assumed powers to some captain. In 1837 she sharpest gerutiny he had to live examined all the bicycles fling flock of unsympathetic.

enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Imarried him under the name the part of the perfect Scotland the finger of suspicion pointed their machines round a necks that has

But they have only just been of "Rosa Anna Gilbert, Yard detective,

bayonet sharp at young Ronald

used for the first time-in an Harries, the "nephew" really

spinster." a distant relative of the dead

frelated mountain village. couple.

In the case

corner.

In the

street they have just left, a young post-office clerk and special constable So, crumples. and lies dead.

He mucceeded. Women dabbed their eyes the night he walked down the seven steps of 'Car-

farmer's son court with marthen's assize

Harries was n Ronald Harries, the double and an ambitious one, killer and covetous planner, con- to the people of Derlwyn, Cap- victed of murder. It

the stick said: "Make me a farmer, killing. The old Chicago pat

WHE

Nicosia has had its first street

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13

Tho

around,

the

the

in

home.

a

she

pomegranate.

سل

wild, he

on the grounds bigamy, as the final order for Lola's divorce

had never appeared," She filed with her new husband-by then a cornet in the Life Guards-to Spain, where she, is belloved to lave borne him two sơDE.

in 1833 her husband was re- not very good-but only one Alontez arrived in America. She por.ed arcwned off Lisbon, Lola One confesses to me: "What.

critic dared to say so, Out can we do? The killera are

came the horsewhip, and the appeared first of all as a dancer and then in melodramas with probably backe among the crowd.

critic was soon very sorry that titles like "Lola Montez in And half these people could de

No follow-up

She went to India with her he had "insulted" Lola when he Bavaria," EOKA anyway,"

the National' Organi-

husband and his regiment, but wrote: EOKA-the

And then she married again. the return

"There was about her some- journey to England sation for the Cyprus Struggle-

in 1842 was followed by a thing provoking and voluptuous This time I was to the proprietor wants

demonstra-divorce her husband accusing which drew you. Her skin was of a San Francisco newspaper. these sporadic group that terrorist church-backed laland WHAT has been the effect of

far from white, her wavy hair like tho It did not last long, and finally British

of having out of Cyprus, and tons of strength that are rarely ber Enesis-union with Greece.

of the woodbine, her Lola threw him out of a window. followed up, these - boomings innocent romance on the voyage tendrils

eyes tameless and

ber Although he lived ho not, un- Gyts Nightly terror reports come in from an empty barrel?

mouth like

budding naturally wanted nothing more from

towns and villages. Slogans

Marie then studied dramatic On the British community and

Add to that a to do with her, threatening "Death to traitors"

Despair, anxiety art, but she was not very good dashing figure, charming feet Sho returned to the theatre and demanding "Freedom from the Services:

about their at acting. She turned to dane and perfect grace. Unluckily, and sailed for Australia. Once British slavery" flower on roads about the future,

walls. and

personal safety, and about the lug-and showed promise. After as a dancer she had no

an there she objected strongly to island as a key

short visit Middle East a

to Spain Colony

In Paris sho fell in love-prob- article written about her by the The police, like the

defence point.

emerged

'Lola Montez ably cor กร that Government

pays them,

the first time with editor of a Melbourne paper. stay tight-lipped, and largely

On the Turks (100,000 in the Spanish Dancos, making her Dujarier, edlior of the Republl Out came the horsewhip. But

died Lola was getting a paper A draining of confid-debut at Her Majesty's Theatre

Presse. He inactive. It took them an hour island):

a bit past this duel over her on form ighting & start quelling a riot in which ence in the Administration they London, on June 3, 1843,

next time thousands of pounds of damage are eager to back and which

she picked up the supported their It was 1x7 a success-she was March 11, 1845. A trial followed of literary revenge.

the duel and famous men horsewhip was to thrash 'the' was done yet only 30 seconds" they believed

booed off the stage. Not because Alexandre Dumas was one owner of the theatre in which to clear that area with tear-gas interests. once they did start.

On

Greek - speaking her dancing was bad (it was not

she was appearing. The owner a wife, however, wrenched the But the answer to any ques- Cypriots (400,000 in the island): very good, however), but it is "ppeared as witnesses.

stid, because she had rejected

whip from her hand and tions on casualties, plans, hopes, Manifold.

her a taste of her own medicine detalls is always; Nothing to

Young EOKA thugs (the ages the advances of Lord Ranelagh, of those arrested and those I and he paid a gang of toughs to

That was the end of Australia have seen at work in riots range do the booing.

Lola.

She sailed back to mainly from 10 to 18) have been

But her greatest adventure was America. Her Health He obviously spread malicious

was falling NOURISHED by Government

friends had almost innetivity and vacillation.

stories about her ancestry, too, yet to come. Restless again, she and her

The old deserted her when suddenly sho papers of the time travelled to Germany. Only a tiny proportion of the for in the

King of Bavaria, Ludwig Carl met an old school friend from Britain when the I.B.A. Greek-speaking Cypriots favour there are otters from hush Augustus, was the next to full Montrose, Scotland,

an English. raid an Army camp there is terrorism, but they are SCARED ing that she was

But the damage was under her spell. Five daya after wife of a Dorist in New York, a meeting at Cabinet level to speak or net against it. And woman,

her first appearance on the stage From her friend she acquired Security, and detection plans are I am

at. Munich she was officially in str

views strongly religious immediate.

troduced at Court with the king's devoted the remaining years of words "Gentlemen, I present to her life to visiting unfortunates Sou

ou my best friend."

of her own sex in New York On March 7, 1847, she was asylums.

to

Nothing is said

IN

In

Cyprus, where for months bombs have been thrown, shots fired, police stations attacked,

A

the

convinced that it is not done.

the majority that favour Enosis.

In a mess

HERE

HR have been four deaths

Lola Montez lett for the Con- so far from EOKA bombstinent. On the strength of her considerable-she and guns. All four have been received bookings to dance in

beauty-now Cypriot Greeks. All polleemer.

can

naturalised by a special Royal decres, given the title of Buronne te Rosenthal and, later, Com tesso de Lansfeld. Her personal

And she income from the king's coffers-

1ΟΣ

The

then, the

"

and

Government bulidings blown up,

leaflets seditious

distributed, nothing happens, nothing is sald With a few exceptions.

Almost exactly year 180, surprised Cypriota

told Two-thirds of the island's Dresden and Berlin, wero to get a Constitution. 1,400-strong force is Greek-100 was an instant success.

was twenty thousand florins. He and after great suffering she There was immediate reaction percent loyal, I am assured. The composer Liszt fell deeply, also built her a splendid house died on January 17, 1861, vastly from the union-with-Greece organisation.

thes

хо

So

But I havò scen more than

it was described

bed as a pension

Paralysis suddenly struck her

this former Irish girl penitent, saying "My life has the islanders one hang back self-protectively in love with her and for a few: Scon

kingdom of been sacrificed to my passions." were warned that there was a when, if he really felt himself weeks they lived together. But was ruling the sedition law which could gaol offelally backed, he might have Lola did not stay with him long. bavarland, strangely enough,

In Greenwood Cemetery. 'New was ruling it well. The Ministry She left for Warsaw. or deport anyone attacking the acted. Who can blame them?

which had held power until her York

tablet marks Lola Colony's status.

The courts are in the same

was dismisan and `a Montez's graVO It There she captivated the old arrival

mentiona Today, a year later, there is sort of mess. Greek magistrates

nothing of kingdoms ruled. still no Constitution. And are scared to Hand out heavy Viceroy of Poland, who offered more liberal one introduced.

But many were working hard critics horsewhipped, wealthy despite ceaseless poditioned punishments to young terrorists, her jewels and a castle. Head-

The lovers, or Spanish Blood. The by pulpilt speeches of Engels for EOKA is vengeful. It is strong as usual, Lola retorted to reverse har fortunes leader Archbishop Makarios-not safer to stick to a fine and a that she could not love an old clergy hated her; the Austrians, inscription refers simply to

against her; and the Eliza Gilbert, aged 43, nan whood hair and tooth were schemed a single

aristocracy resented her intrusion

(COPYRIGHT) charged.

bas person

been warning.

(COPYRIGHT)

́MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN.

+

HE POINTS A GADGET AT THE BRICK |WALL--IT MAKES A BIG HOLEHE

STEPS IN-SUDDENLY--THE HOLE IS GONE.

STAND.TO ONE SIPE. I'M COMING THROUGH AGAIN; I FOUND MY SUITCASE,

not his own.

By Lee Fall and Phil Davis

WHAT KINDA GADGET IS THAT HOW DOES IT WORK

Oh-RATHER

WELL** GOODBYE:

WALL-SOLID AGAIN? | Hey--WAITA

·MIHUTE

CIANS

Laberg

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