To vary a modern proverb, an
ounce of fact is worth a ton of generalisation ; and so to illustrate
the inner workings of that grim and practical building, New Scotland
Yard, which lies between Whitehall and the Thames Embankment, let me
give you, in a manner never previously made public, the means by which I
brought into the dock at the Old Bailey, David Greenwood, who was
sentenced to death for the wilful murder of Nellie Trew, a sixteen-year-old
girl employed at Woolwich Arsenal, on Eltham Common in February, 1918.
The facts of the Eltham murder as they confronted the police were
briefly these.
Nellie Trew was a rather attractive,
well-built young girl who lived with her parents at Eltham near Woolwich,
and she was employed on clerical work at the Arsenal.
On the night of February 9th, 1918, she had gone to walk across Eltham
Common and she was never seen alive again. The discovery of her dead
body was made next morning, and the medical evidence showed that she had
been outraged and strangled. No person had seen anyone with her and
there was a total absence of any clues which would lead to the
identification of the likely murderer.
Investigations
as to the girl's habits, and any companions she had, brought the police
no nearer a solution to the mystery. But there had been two things found
on the ground beside the body and it was on the use to which I put those
two things that David Greenwood, a twenty-one year old discharged
soldier, who was then employed as a turner, was sentenced to death for
the crime.
The two articles were a badge of the
Leicestershire Regiment, and an ordinary coat button, to which was
attached a small piece of wire.
Assistance from
Scotland Yard had been applied for, and I went down to Woolwich to take
over the reins of the case, on which Inspector Brown, who has now
succeeded me on the Big Four on my retirement, worked with me.
I came on the scene of the crime four or five days after it had been
committed, and the first thing I did was to have photographs made of the
badge and the button. From this point onwards you are coming in nry
company, as it were, to follow every step I took in finding the unknown
murderer of the girl Trew.
I sent those photos
immediately to the Press, with the request that every paper in Britain
would publish them and ask their readers to come forward should they
identify either button or badge as belonging to anyone they knew.
Within a short time a telephone message came to me at the Yard from
Tottenham Court Road Police Station, saying that a man had called that
morning and had said that he had seen the photo in a newspaper.
He stated further that the badge had belonged to him, but that he had
sold it to a man on board a tram travelling between Wellhall and Eltham.
His statement had been taken down with his name and address but he had
not been detained.
I immediately asked Inspector
Brown to go to the factory where this man worked and to bring him to my
room at Scotland Yard, and within a couple of hours or so Inspector
Brown arrived and with him a tall, thin youth.
I was
seated at my desk and the door having been closed, the young man, who
was David Greenwood, came forward and stood in front of me. On my desk
lying quite openly were the badge and the button.
I
examined Greenwood's face closely and then my eyes ran over his clothing.
And I saw that his overcoat hung open and that there was not a single
button on it. Where buttons should have been threads were sticking out
except in one place ! That place was where the top button should have
been and instead of the tags of thread there was a large hole as if the
button which had been there had been very forcibly torn off.
I rose from my desk, picked up the button which had been found beside
the body of Nellie Trew, and walking over to Greenwood, I took his coat
and applied the button to the large hole at the top. It fitted, if one
can use the expression here, exactly I
I said nothing
and asked him no questions, but I told him to wait in another room and I
gave instructions that he should be closely guarded, although of course
he was not technically in custody.
Now I must digress
for a moment here to impress one thing on my readers. I can hear some of
you say that I had already got clear and ample proof that I had found
the murderer.
From the C.I.D. point of view, I had
nothing of the kind. To have charged Greenwood and put him up for the
murder with no more evidence than that would have meant for a certainty
that he would have been discharged.
For you must
remember that the burden of proof always lies on the Crown, and that,
especially where a man's life is at stake, there must not be a single
weak link in the chain of evidence, or it will inevitably break when it
comes to be submitted to a jury.
I shall have
occasion to show the difference between knowing a man to be guilty and
proving a man to be guilty very often in the course of these records of
my work.
To return then to Greenwood, I left him at
the Yard, and I went off with Inspector Brown to the factory in Newman
Street where Greenwood was employed. My first action was to interview
five or six of his fellow-workmen, and needless to say, I saw each of
them separately.
The works manager, let me say, was
one of the most helpful and intelligent men with whom I have ever had to
deal in the course of investigating a case, and I noticed that he
appreciated the gravity and importance of every detail of my questioning
of his employees.
He put his own room at my disposal,
and the workmen came in one by one to be examined by me.
Each of the half-dozen corroborated the statements of the others, and
the burden or gist of my examination was this I secured statements from
the men which proved beyond a shadow of doubt that on the day of the
murder on Eltham Common, David Greenwood had left the works to go home
wearing the Leicester Regiment badge in the button hole of the lapel of
his coat, that he had every button on his coat at that time, including
the top one which, however, differed from the others, inasmuch as it was
fixed with a small piece of wire instead of being sewn on like the
others.
You will appreciate the importance of my
establishing this, I am sure. Had I not been able to show that Greenwood
had the buttons on his coat just immediately before the murder, a clever
defending counsel could have shown or tried to show that Greenwood might
have been without those buttons for some considerable time before the
outrage on Eltham Common, and the suggestion to a jury would have been
that the badge and button might have fallen into the hands of some other
person, that person being the probable murderer.
And
now perhaps you are asking a question which I certainly put to myself at
the time. Why did David Greenwood go to Tottenham Court Road Police
Station and report to the police himself that he had been the owner of
that badge ?
I got the answer to that question at the
works. It appeared that when the photographs came out in the Press, one
of his fellow-workmen, who had seen them, said to Greenwood :
" I say, that badge in the photograph in the paper is the same as the
one you've been wearing.' '
Greenwood said that it
was nothing of the kind, and there was a heated argument between the two.
At length, however, the other man said to Greenwood firmly :
" You've got to go to the police station and tell them that it is your
badge that's in the photo. If you don't go, I'll take you there myself."
Greenwood saw then that it was useless for him to avoid going to the
police, and apparently determined to make the best of the damning
circumstances in which he was placed, he worked up the story of having
sold the badge to a man on a tram while on his way home to Woolwich from
work.
That was the tale he had told at Tottenham
Court Road. He had done something else, however. On his way to the
police station he had torn off all the other buttons from his overcoat,
with the idea, I suppose, that, if they were all off, the absence of the
top button would not be so easily remarked.
I was
able to prove this last resort of Greenwood by the fact that more than
one of the workmen could swear that on the morning of the day he had
gone to Tottenham Court Road Police Station, he had arrived at work with
all the buttons on his coat except the tell-tale one, and that it was
only after he returned to the factory that the threads were sticking out
from where the other buttons had been.
After I had
carried out my close examination of the various workmen, I found myself
alone in the room with Inspector Brown and the works manager. I turned
to him and said :
" You use wire in your works here,
I have noticed in passing through. Where do you get it from ? Any
special place ? "
" It's all specially made for us,"
he replied. " You see, we are engaged on aeroplane fitting work here,
and the wire we use is of a particular kind."
" Could
it be possible for you to identify your own wire ? " I asked him.
" Certainly," he answered.
" Do you really mean to
say that if I put down a number of pieces of wire that you could tell
exactly which was yours ? " I further put to him.
His
reply was again equally emphatic.
" Will you kindly
go out of the room for a moment/* I requested him, and he did so. I took
the small piece of wire which was attached to the button which had been
found lying on the ground of Eltham Common beside the body of Nellie
Trew, and which was now in my possession, and I laid it on the table in
front of me.
I got several other pieces of wire of
approximately the same size, picked up haphazard in the works when I had
come in quite unknown to anyone there. And I laid about half a dozen
pieces of wire on the table beside the first piece. Then I called in the
works manager.
" Now, first of all, before I go any
further, I must warn you of the gravity of what I am going to ask, and
impress on you what depends on the answer you may make. You quite
understand ? "
He was deadly pale with emotion, but
he replied quite firmly that he was fully aware of the import of the
matter, and I was convinced that he fully realised that to a great
extent the question of whether a man would stand on the gallows to hang
for murder depended upon him.
" Well, then, will you
tell me, please, which of those pieces of wire are yours ? "
He looked carefully at each piece of wire in turn, took them up and
examined them closely. Then he said decidedly :
"All
of them."
" Every piece ? Are you sure ? "
" I am perfectly sure."
Still, I wanted further
confirmation of the identification of the wire, and telling the works
manager to go into another room which adjoined the one I sat in, I sent
for the works foreman. To him I put the same questions, and I put him
through the same test as to the pieces of wire.
I got
exactly the same unequivocal answers from him as from the manager, and
at last I felt satisfied that beyond any possible doubt the wire which
was attached to the button beside Nellie Trew's body had come from the
aeroplane works in Newman Street where David Greenwood worked.
Then I left the works, and when Inspector Brown and I got outside he
asked me whither I was bound now.
" To Greenwood's
home," I replied, as I hailed a taxi and told the man to drive with all
possible speed to Wellhall, where Greenwood's parents lived. For I saw
now that there was only one possible loophole by which Greenwood might
possibly escape his just conviction. That was an attempt to establish an
alibi. And I was determined to secure my evidence on that point before
there could be any chance of the fabric of an alibi being woven.
I saw each one of Greenwood's relatives in turn. By one I was informed
that he had gone for a long time without any buttons on his coat, as he
had observed that being a thin youth he had thought he looked better
with his coat left open to make him look more squarely built.
This same person told me that he had gone out very late on the night of
the crime ; after supper, in fact, and at an hour which was obviously
later than the tune at which the medical evidence proved the death of
Nellie Trew to have taken place.
I was also informed
that Greenwood had gone out without his coat, in spite of the fact that
this member of his family had told him to put it on, as it was cold.
From another of his relatives I gleaned that it was by no means clear
that Greenwood had gone out without his coat, and the hour of his
leaving the house did not tally with the time given me by the other
member of the family.
Finally I left the house after
making a careful search among Greenwood's own things for bloodstains,
and I went off to interview still another one of his family who was at
his place of work.
Again there was a disagreement
about the time of David Greenwood's leaving home on the night of the
murder, and the net result of my inquiries went to show that it would be
practically impossible for Greenwood to establish that strongest of all
possible defences, an alibi.
Now let me be absolutely
frank with you on the score of evidence from the relatives of any man
charged with a crime, particularly that of murder where his life is at
stake. We detectives are none the less human because we are detectives,
and at all times in cases of this nature we realise that it is only
natural that the mother, sisters, and other relatives of the accused man,
should do all that they possibly can to try to establish his innocence.
It is not a case of their telling falsehoods. It is similar to what the
police find in simple cases of street accidents. Six different eye-witnesses'
statements are taken, and you have six different stories, all of them
equally truthful in the real sense of the word, but all showing that no
two people see a thing or an occurrence alike.
So
with the movements of a man who had committed a crime. And the really
strange thing would be if those to whom he is nearest and dearest should
not see the case in the manner which is most likely to prove that he is
innocent.
In the instance of David Greenwood, however,
I, as the representative of the law, was concerned with one thing only.
If Greenwood were the guilty man, then I had to bring him to justice and
show by irrefutable evidence that he certainly was the guilty man. On
the strength of the case which I had built up out of that badge and
button, I knew that he had indeed murdered Nellie Trew, and I saw that
there was no possible alibi which could be put up to show that he was
wrongly accused.
I returned to the Yard, and I sent
for Greenwood to come in to my room again. I said to him :
"It is open to you to give an account of your movements on Saturday (the
day of the crime). You can do so if you like, but it will be taken down
by Inspector Brown and may be used in evidence against you."
He replied : "I should like it taken down."
" Very
well," I said, " you can say whatever you like and Mr. Brown will write
it down."
Greenwood then made a statement. I shall
not reproduce it word for word, but it was to the effect that he was
never near the scene of the murder, and that although he had gone out
that evening he had not worn his overcoat. He said that he spent the
most of the evening at home, and then about ten o'clock he had gone out
to an eating house to get his supper. And that in effect was as far as
the statement went.
After making the statement,
during the recording of which I sat at my desk without saying a word,
Greenwood signed each page of it, and then, as he straightened himself
up after bending over to sign his name, he looked hard at my desk, on
which lay the badge and the button. His hand went out hesitatingly, and
he picked up the button and held it for a moment and regarded it in a
fixed manner. Then he spoke.
" If I say it is my
button, what will it mean ? "
" I cannot tell you," I
replied. He stared at the button for some time again, and then, almost
for the first time during my interview with him, he looked me directly
in the eyes. At last he muttered, " Well, I won't say it then/'
No more was said at that moment except that I told him that I should
detain him pending further inquiries, and I gave instructions that he
should be taken to Cannon Row Police Station and put in a cell there
Cannon Row is just adj acent to Scotland Yard. Later I went over to the
station, and I had Greenwood brought out of the cell he was in. I said
to him :
" David Greenwood, I shall charge you with
the wilful murder of Nellie Trew on the gth February on Eltham Common."
His naturally thin, wan face went a shade paler. His mouth opened in a
helpless manner, and he breathed out rather than said, " Yes." Then I
got him into a motor car and took him to Woolwich Police Station, where
he was formally charged. This time he did not even say " Yes."
The trial took place at the Old Bailey before Mr. Justice Atkin. Mr. (now
Sir) Travers Humphreys was the Crown counsel in the case, while Mr.
Slesser defended Greenwoods The evidence for the prosecution was built
up entirely on the various points I had unfolded one by one, and it was
what is called by the C.I.D. and lawyers circumstantial.
As I anticipated, the chief line of defence was an alibi, coupled with
the allegation that Greenwood had sold the badge to another man and that
it was not in his possession at the actual time of the murder.
But the evidence I supplied showed clearly that at the very least
Greenwood had worn the badge on the evening of the murder, and that for
the first time to the knowledge of his fellow-workmen, the top button of
his overcoat was missing on the Monday after the crime, and that in its
place there was a rent which must have been made by the button being
torn off.
I had reconstructed the murder in my own
mind. I could see Greenwood seize hold of Nellie Trew and throw her to
the ground. I could visualise the struggle which the 1 6-year-old girl
had made to defend herself on the lonely, bleak common, not a soul in
sight nor hearing to whom she could appeal for help.
Then as she lay on the ground, Greenwood, to quieten her and prevent her
from struggling, had seized her by the throat and had strangled her. And
in her death struggles, the girl had groped out frantically with her
hands, and in doing so she had caught at the top of Greenwood's overcoat,
and had pulled the badge out of his button hole, and had torn off the
top button of his coat.
One other plea in defence was
put forward. The defending counsel, cross-examining Dr. Spilsbury (now
Sir Bernard Spilsbury) the celebrated pathologist and Home Office
medical expert, tried to bring in the theory that a man who had been
discharged from the army suffering from disordered action of the heart
and fainting fits, as Greenwood had done, could not have caused the
injuries that Nellie Trew had suffered. Sir Bernard Spilsbury replied
that he could not say that such a man would not be able to do so.
The jury retired, and they were absent for nearly three hours. At the
end of that time they came into the box again, and the foreman announced
a verdict of " Guilty." But the foreman added that " in view of the
youth of the prisoner, his service to his country, and his previous good
character, they desired to recommend him to mercy."
Greenwood stood up in the dock, with every vestige of colour gone from
his face, to receive sentence. But his voice was firm enough as he spoke
in answer to the Judge's usual question as to whether he had anything to
say before sentence was passed upon him.
" I wish
your Lordship to take no notice of the recommendation (of the jury) as
rather than face the disgrace I would pay the full penalty of this crime."
And he declared his innocence again.
Justice Atkin
addressed him : " You have been found guilty of a most heinous crime.
You have taken your unfortunate victim's life, and for that crime there
is only one penalty. At the same time, I shall forward the
recommendation of the jury to the proper authorities where, I have no
doubt, it will receive every consideration. It is not right, however,
that you should anticipate that the course of the law will necessarily
be interfered with on account of that recommendation . ' '
Then the black cap was produced, and the Judge passed the dreaded
sentence.
Greenwood did not hang, After long
deliberation on the part of the Home Secretary his sentence was commuted
to one of penal servitude for life.
Reminiscences of an Ex-Detective - Francis
Carlin
