T
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1947.
STORIES OF SCOTLAND YARD
Double life of a
West End restaurateur
He was the 'hidden
'hidden hand' behind
a chain of pest cafés
HE recent sentences on Maltese gangsters who had been proying on street women in the West End of London brought to light some of the urisavoury secrets of the notorious "Square Mile."
This arca, which includes Soho and the back streets of Mayfair and Bloomsbury, is honeycombed with Bitle clubs, cafus and restaurants that form a front for a wide variety of despicable characters.
Biggest "clean-up" INDIGNANT demands,
more
well-meaning than well- informed, have been made that the hole area should be "clean- ed up."
It is little realised how thorough is the pollee surveil- lance of this area and how closely the police watch for the rare evidence which will lead to prosecutions and convictions.
by Ex-SUPT. T. B. THOMPSON
late of the 'Big Fivo"
mailers out of the country literally by the scruff of their necks.
So, the ambitious chef was Installed as a restaurateur.
When the loan became due The Goddard case ended in the signor was sympathetic. 1929. Ex-sergeant He must, of course, have his January
of money, and if the restaurant did George Goddard, formerly
was not pay, why not open the up- the Metropolitan Police, found guilty of corruption and stairs rooms for a few "girls"? conspiracy,
of course, but the Illegal, police could be squared.
With him were sentenced the
late Mrs Kate Meyrick, Lon- don's night club "queen," and Luigi Ribuff, an Italian restau- rant and club manager.
A sordid story of corruption told and Scotland Yard
was
was Instructed to act quickly.
Luigi Ribuffi was dealt with as soon as he came out of pri- son in February 1930.
It
We culled on him and told him that his presence in Britain The big "bosses" of the was no longer desirable. "Square Mile" are clever. While was suggested that he should It is easy to deal with their leave within a' month. That agents and dupes it is by no was all. He left for Paris on means easy to furnish proofs March 11. which will convince a court of the big men's guilt.
I took part in the biggest clean-up of Soho in police his- tory. We cleared scores of aliens out of the country in one sweep,
few
court
But there were cases. The police knowledge of facts was used by the authori-
tics for the issue of deportation orders, and in many instances we succeeded in bluffing and frightening known racketeers out of Britain for ever.
Thrown out>
time ago of WRITING some
the Home Secretary's also lute power of deportation, Sir Harold Scott. now Comm s sioner of the Metropolitan Police, said:
"It has been very sparingly used. Its most recent applica- tion has been against various aliens found to have been im plicated in the bribery and cor-. ruption of police officers which came to light during and after the Goddard case."
I can now tell the inside story of how the police went to work and ran some of the most notorious knife-men and black
Biggest shark
BUT we had bigger fish to eat
with than Ribuffi. One of the greatest sharks in Soho was a famous restaurateur.
His restaurant was fashion- able, the cooking was excellent, the cellar good, the service per- fect.
Society women who accepted bunches of violets from their smiling host as they were waved to their tables never knew that he was making hundreds of thousands of pounds out of the carnings of unfortunate women in one of the biggest organisa tions ever known in the West End.
He worked on a regular plan. He would visit all the small cafes and restaurants in which is fellow Italians were chefs.
Over a drink in the kitchen
In a short space of time the signor had acquired a chain of establishments in this way.
Or, rather, he had a lien on the profits of a number of such establishments, for there was
nothing on paper to show that he was connected with the run- ning of them.
If one of his dupes was raided and convicted the signor merely shrugged his shoulders.
In February 1930 we saw him out of London. We knew all about him, had done for years. Ife had been implicated in the Goddard case. Now we told ' him to go.
There
was no
deportation order, and at first he was in- clined to make a fuss. But he knew what we knew, and he went.
་
Some of them had such good un-
Juan Castanor
Mrs. Meyrick
We
dimculty, So, with much persunded him to come up into the street to talk to mo. I went up first, with a cold feeling down my sping I just as the knife-man followed. had time to signal for the van as he reached the street with Sergeant Beard.
The van swung round the corner and four of us flung Micheletti in- alde.
110 We took away his knife and
of 112. could not tackle the squad but he went raving mad.
He tore up the deportation order Into small pieces,
He was still swearing and cursing
when and shouting vengeance was put in the boat for Franco.
110
He came back DRAMATIC sequels followed those A few months deportations. Inter, Castaner returned to Britain.
I got on to his trail by having onu of his women friends followed.
While my men were trailing her round Kensington Gardens. I dodged round the other way and found 'Chalaner In the ten pavilion.
I dropped into the next chair and talked to him amlably, but I was not really happy unti my colleagues had arrived and we had removed his Jack-knite before arresting him.
Castoner was sentenced to two months' Imprisonment and deported ugain.
Sequel number two happened more than a year later, in Paris, when Each Castaner met Micheletti.
accused the other of betrayal to tha British police: each was certain that the other had been responsible for his deportation.
The vendetta ended in the Rue do Petrograd at midnight. They met, but Micheletti could pot get his knife into play. Castaner shot him dead.
That was the end of the "Terror of Soho" and Castaner was sentenced to eight years on Devil's Island.
Thieves' kitchen
this grim business of telling the We had our lighter moments in foreigners to get out.
Aliens in hiding
He was a business colleague of were comparatively THOSE two
Castaner, and he specialised in Janito casy "kills." But there were slashing as well as blackmall. tougher people to deal with.
He had organised at least two murders in Britain, but we could derground information services that not get the evidence to hang hira 1 remember some amusing times we had to take special precautions Micheletti, usually known as "the to catch them off their guard.
although he was Frenchman."
in spent in the backroom of an Italian fact Hungarian, was a big tough pastrycook, who had an unofficial, Aghter, and Castaner was dangerous but world-wide, agency for chefs in were in a corner, so I resolved to strong- the big Transatlantle liners,
arm them out of the country.
Street grab
fact that deportation orders'
Some allens had got wind of the being made against them and they disappeared into hiding..
Bo beat them I made a request that the orders should come straight to me. and I locked them in my safe until I was ready to pounce.
One day, in 1920, I received de- on orders against two of the
most dangerous men in London.
CASTANER'S place of business was a small hotel in Paddington. Ho lived in a flat. nearby.
Une morning I had a Flying Squad van with a crew of pickett-men-si-
ting
inside, cruising slowly along the One was a Spaniard, Juan Cas- road between the flat and the hotel. he would say to the chef. taner, who had been a dancing in- As Castaner left his home the van Why are you working in this structor and was reputed to have drew slowly alongside; two of my joint? A man of your skill taught King Alfonso of should be master of his own dante the tango. place".
When the chef replied that he lacked capital, the signor was ready to advance it generous and long-deferred re- payment terms.
on
Spain
That Ittle room was a Arst-class source of good spaghetti iformation.
and
in-
Then there was the time I raided a thieves' klichen kept by an Italian. We carted out scores of radios,
thousands and gramophones
pounds' worth of stolen property.
Much of the stuff was left in my office waiting for identification.
It included. one gramophone with
to men jumped out, grabbed him by a stirring march record which was the arms, had him Inside, frisked on the turntable when we hauled il him, and dumped him on the floor in. beforo he knew what had hit him..
We knew him as a white slaver and blackmailer and as a man very Casimir handy with a knife.
The second man was Micheletll, whose novelettish nick- name, "The Terror of Soho." was a
fair description of him.
Government's Passing The Buck
THAT the Hongkong War
T
Memorial Fund is not securing the necessary
amount to achieve its object
-BY-
“Candidus”
is, I am very much afraid, an ment amongst certain sections undeniable fact. It is not sure who carried on (some even lost prlaing. 書
their lives) and yet remain un- recognised.
In the first place, the very suggestion that the public
In any caso, it is bad that
I served him with the deportation order, and, after a little swearing, he settled down quietly..
I left a mergeant to see him on the bont at Dover and went off with
Beard pick Sergeant Jim Michelelu.
WE
On the trail
un
VE were soon on to his trail, and within a few hours, were wait- ing for him in a little basement club made) how many years will it in Liste-street,, Soho. last? If and when lt fizzles
The van was round the corner out out, what will Government do? at sight, out ready to dash up at These may be unpleasant ques-my whistle. tions, but far from being im-
Presently, Micheletul came down pertinent they are, decidedly stairs to the club. pertinent. Once again we feel ugly muud. that nauseating feeling of being Inarticulate.
should be directly responsible any deserving case should have any case, a memorial fund should
for the card and maintenance of
surely aim at creating a last-
, to plead its genuineness in order ing memory. It is indeed intended:
to perpetuate memory. Presumably. when the present generation-or those of it who succeed in securing seme salace or compensation for their Into the sacrifice hud passed oblivion of the forgatten, no sign or symbol will exist to remind future of the Iniquity of the nothing exists to honour those who died or Japanese Even dusty to remind there who live. Not even those responsible for organising but the total received to date is a tablet in the Cathedral.
those in reduced circumstances, to receive the aid to which it 'attributable to the war, is most certainly entitled. The
· wrong both ́ ́ in principle and very term "ald" is obnoxious. practice. The war has left many problems which should never have arisen, and which
do not reflect any credit upon I is true that there have been
some magnificent donations,
the
to
д
the Colony in the momentous not nearly sufficient to pay the All we see at the moment is a days shortly before the out debt which the Colony-I would pitiful appeal to
the populace break of hostilities.
boar the responsibility of Govern- even say, the British nation- ment and Government will give Essential services were creat- owes to those who served our dollar for dollar! ed-and it must be assumed cause. The Fund, as judged by that the degree of essentiality the present total subscribed,
GOVERNMENT should secure.
who was uniform and yet some cannot hope to cope with the G complete record of those services were paid, and othors demand upon it. What does are entitled to compensation, deter
mine the capital sun required to Ignored. Any man or woman Government propose to do about carry out its responsibility, and then
Passing the buck to the get on with the job, who undertook to aid the Colony it?
"Leave the public to erect a last- during the war, no matter in public is not only undignified. what essential service, should but a deliberate attempt to ing memorial to those who died for
us, and that could taite
no belter have been provided for. Such avoid responsibility.
from than a new school which would educate the orphans, and for all time. was not the case, and it is no. If the Fund Is to eat into its stand as a tribute to those who inade wonder that there exists in croftal (as It must be doing, the supreme sacrifice and a reminder to the living-Jest "In"future" "years Hongkong today bitter rosant- otherwise how can grants be they forget.
1
Whenever we were dispirited in the long inquiries we had to make before we finished the case, I would ask one of my men to play the march.
We listened to the cheerful' tune ot before tackling the next pleco evidence.
I remember that, in spite of all
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CIRCUS STAR
SCHOOLBOY
our work, we were nearly beaten in By way of showing how that case by a clever defence lawyer. Britain's Catholic Common-
Unfortunately for him, he ict slip
one remork to me which put me on wealth life interlinks in an int!- mate and everyday way, this my guard."
I made urgent representations to
is bringing to pro- my superiors to put their best legal season brains on to the job and we proved minence a Burmese boy, who, our case. The Italian was convicted doprived of his education by and later deported,
02-
It was a near thing-but it shows World War II, has been how dimcuit a West End clean-up cepted by an English school for
NEXT WEEK:
Hè was in un can be,
I did not wish to have a fight with him in that tiny root with only a fight of steep stairs as a way out.
The trapping of 'Flannelfoot'
“Oh, he feels sofa with his head buried
wants to be sure.
Just.
special training-and repays it by, becoming its "star."
This school, a very beautiful and modern one,. St Thomas More's, Frensham, set amid the lovely hills of Southern England, is unique of its kind in being the only one in the world to run a circus. It trains baya who, though normal, are for various reasons of accident or temperament, backward, in their studies, and part of Its method to quicken and interest such boys is to give them plenty of outdoor occupations with horses and dogs.
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Out of this the circus has grown, It was found that the boys develop ed initiative, self-reliance and quick- ness by devising and performing circus acts. This was encouraged. and now they have a whole "pro- gramme of acts" from the hauto ucple to trapeze, slack-wire and other displays. They are so pro- actant that at the end of each sum- mer term they give a week's' show.
This meant however, that there to which all the neighbouring villa was, e four-year gap in his educa- gers flock.
tion, and it was hard for such Bghter have to go
to
back ti junior This year their star is "Mikki," forms in an ordinary school. But the name by which the Burruese boys he, had become a Catholic it was wished to be known, Ele was al- 500n suggested
that the
Thomas Anding, school in Burma When the Moro School, was the one for hlm. Japanese Invaded the country, and He joined it, and the daring quali- though under military age, he john- ties that made, hima. Burmesta ed the British Army and fought all fighter have made him also a Drst- through the campaign, reaching class circus performer. Bo thone ho commissioned rank.
schoolboy and star.