قراءة كتاب Mysteries of Police and Crime
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
Mr. Williamson—Inspector Melville—Sir C. Howard Vincent—Dr. Anderson—Mr. Macnaghten—Mr. McWilliam and the Detectives of the City Police—A Country Detective’s Experiences—Allan Pinkerton’s first Essay in Detection—The Private Inquiry Agent and the Lengths to which he will go
Part IV.
CAPTAINS OF CRIME.
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
Richard Coster—Sheridan, the American Bank Thief—Jack Canter—The Frenchman Allmayer, a typical Nineteenth Century Swindler—Paraf—The Tammany Frauds—Burton, alias Count von Havard—Dr. Vivian, a bogus Millionaire Bridegroom—Mock Clergymen: Dr. Berrington: Dr. Keatinge—Harry Benson, a Prince of Swindlers: The Scotland Yard Detectives suborned: Benson’s Adventures after his Release: Commits Suicide in the Tombs Prison—Max Shinburn and his Feats
Criminal Women Worse than Criminal Men—Bell Star—Comtesse Sandor—Mother M——, the Famous Female Receiver of Stolen Goods—The “German Princess”—Jenny Diver—The Baroness de Menckwitz—Emily Lawrence—Louisa Miles—Mrs. Gordon-Baillie: Her Dashing Career: Becomes Mrs. Percival Frost: the Crofters’ Friend: Triumphal Visit to the Antipodes: Extensive Frauds on Tradesmen: Sentenced to Penal Servitude—A Viennese Impostor—Big Bertha, the “Confidence Queen”
Part I.
A GENERAL SURVEY OF CRIME AND ITS DETECTION.
Crime Distinguished from Law-breaking—The General Liability to Crime—Preventive Agencies—Plan of the Work—Different Types of Murders and Robberies—Crime Developed by Civilisation—The Police the Shield and Buckler of Society—Difficulty of Disappearing under Modern Conditions—The Press an Aid to the Police: the Cases of Courvoisier, Müller, and Lefroy—The Importance of Small Clues—“Man Measurement” and Finger-Prints—Strong Scents as Clues—Victims of Blind Chance: the Cases of Troppmann and Peace—Superstitions of Criminals—Dogs and other Animals as Adjuncts to the Police—Australian Blacks as Trackers: Instances of their Almost Superhuman Skill—How Criminals give themselves Away: the Murder of M. Delahache, the Stepney Murder, and other Instances—Cases in which there is Strong but not Sufficient Evidence: the Burdell and Various Other Murders: the Probable Identity of “Jack the Ripper”—Undiscovered Murders: the Rupprecht, Mary Rogers, Nathan, and other Cases: Similar Cases in India: the Burton Crescent Murder: the Murder of Lieutenant Roper—The Balance in Favour of the Police.
I.—THE CAUSES OF CRIME.
CRIME is the transgression by individuals of rules made by the community. Wrong-doing may be either intentional or accidental—a wilful revolt against law, or a lapse through ignorance of it. Both are punishable by all codes alike, but the latter is not necessarily a crime. To constitute a really criminal act the offence must be wilful, perverse, malicious; the offender then becomes the general enemy, to be combated by all good citizens, through their chosen defenders, the police. This warfare has existed from the earliest times; it is in constant progress around us to-day, and it will continue to be waged until the advent of that Millennium in which there is to be no more evil passion to agitate mankind.
TYPES OF MALE CRIMINALS.
(From Photographs preserved at the Black Museum, New Scotland Yard.)
It may be said that society itself creates the crimes that most beset it. If the good things of life were more evenly distributed, if everyone had his rights, if there were no injustice, no oppression, there would be no attempts to readjust an unequal balance by violent or flagitious means. There is some force in this, but it is very far from covering the whole ground, and it cannot excuse many forms of crime. Crime, indeed, is the birthmark of humanity, a fatal inheritance known to the theologians as original sin. Crime, then, must be constantly present in the community, and every son of Adam may, under certain conditions, be drawn into it. To paraphrase a great saying, some achieve crime, some have it thrust upon them; but most of us (we may make the statement without subscribing to all the doctrines of the criminal anthropologists) are born to crime. The assertion is as old as the hills; it was echoed in the fervent cry of pious John Bradford when he pointed to the man led out to execution, “There goes John Bradford but for the grace of God!”
Criminals are manufactured both by social cross-purposes and by the domestic neglect which fosters the first fatal predisposition. “Assuredly external factors and circumstances count for much in the causation of crime,” says
