The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-13 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY' CAPTURE

By means of the Wakefield police, the perpetra-
tor of a most daring burglary, which took place in
London in December, has been captured, with the
greater part of the proceeds in his possession. On
Wednesday evening week a person named John
Adams attempted to change a £5 note for beer at the
Wakefield Arms Hotel. Mr. Macdonnold obtained
possession of the note, and he was of opinion that
it was a forged one, but on further examination at
the police-office it was found to be good.. Adams
said he had found the note at Hull. This statement
(his character not being of the best) the police gave
no credit to, and Mr. Macdonnold, Inspector Frost,
and Constable Perkin visited the house of his mo-
ther, in Cain's-yard, Westgate. Search was made,
but at first with no result, except the finding of a
large quantity of clothing, blankets, quilting, and
other articles—all new, and of the best quality—
which, though found in their presence, the mother
and family denied all knowledge of. The finding of
these articles stimulated the police to renew their
search, and eventually Inspector Frost found
in an old box a gold watch, and on a more care-
ful examination, from a hole which he unripped,
out fell a roll of notes—four £5 and five £lO
bank-notes. Mrs. Adams was at once taken up on
the charge of receiving stolen goods. From inqui-
ries made by the police it was found that many
notes had been ,changed both at Wakefield and
Leeds, and information was given to the London
police. On Friday the mother and son were brought
before the magistrates and remanded. In the
meantime word was received from the London police
that the notes and gold watch had been taken from
the house of a gentleman in Harrow-on•the-Hill,
near Loudon, in December last. The amount known
to have been taken was £125 and a gold watch, but
the amount the Wakefield police have traced leads
to the belie: that more was taken. The circum-
stances connected with the robbery are very strange.
The gentleman is named St. Leger, and on the day
of the robbery he went out to dine, leaving his
servants—of whom there were several—in the house,
as also a very fierce watch dog, which is let loose
during the evening in the house. On his return
home he found the notes and gold watch had dis-
appeared, and he immediately charged the servants
with the theft. They each and all declared their
innocence, and also persisted in saying that they
had never left the house during his absence. A
detective, however, was employed, and he succeeded
in elucidating that the servants, with one exception,
a housemaid, who was left with the dog to take
care of the house, had been away during the night.
The detective was still of opinion that it would be
impossible for any person to enter the house with
the dog in it, and ultimately the housemaid con-
fessed that she had been to a publichouse and had
taken the dog with her, and it was during that
time that the robbery must have been committed.
Mr. St. Leger on this dismissed the whole of his
servants, and up to the capture of Adams by our
police not the slightest trace has been found as to
the robbery or the notes which were stolen. Of
these only one has passed to the Bank of England,
where payment had been stopped, and that was
traced to a Mr. Brady, clothier, of Leeds. On Sun-
day last Detective Smith arrived, and on Monday
conveyed the prisoner John Adams to London.
Before leaving the prisoner acknowledge that he
had committed the burglary. He is a Wakefield
man, and last Dec. he left his work at Mr. Shepherd's
industrial school, inducing two other persons to leave
with him. They tramped it to London by way of
Manchester, arriving in London in a very destitute
condition. After the robbery had been committed
the prisoner said he was very nearly being robbed
himself in St. Giles's out of the proceeds, only
waking from sleep just in time to catch a fellow
walking off with his trousers containing the money.
The prisoner had also one or two almost romantic
escapes from being taken into custody. He is to
be brought up on Wednesday next at one of the
London police courts.