Two men were seen fighting with each other in a south London suburb on the evening of 9th May 1923. Shots were fired and one of the men fell to the ground near a taxi. The other man ran away. The man had been fatally wounded and was soon dead. He was later identified as Jacob Dickey, the driver of the taxi.

Police found several items near to the body. There was the murder weapon, a jemmy and a walking-stick with gold mount. The police decided that the stick was recognisable so a photograph of the stick was published. As they had hoped they soon received information that led them to interview Eddie Vivian.

Vivian was a convicted criminal who lived with his prostitute girlfriend in a flat in Pimlico. He admitted ownership of the stick but told police that on the day of the killing he had been home ill with food poisoning.

Perhaps realising the seriousness of the situation he freely told the police that he had planned, along with 'Scottie' Mason, to burgle a house but had been too ill to venture out. Mason had borrowed the stick and left the flat on his own. He had returned later that evening in an agitated state and told them that he had shot a taxi driver.

Mason, a 22-year-old Canadian deserter from the Great War, denied Vivian's account. He said that the illness was a ruse to fool Vivian's girlfriend and the pair of them went out and it was Vivian who had fought with Dickey and shot him. Mason was arrested and charged with murder.

At his trial Vivian appeared for the prosecution and recounted his story. Mason was found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to one of life imprisonment and he was released in 1937. He died during the Second World War while serving in the Merchant Navy.

Murder-UK.com