The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-20
THE INSPECTORS LOSS.

| tv.iive Years in the detective force and
his colleagues were entertaining him at Il
| farewell dinner, in anticipation of his
| forthcoming retirement, The chairman
| having euloGiaed the guest of the evening
| 10 an extent that brought Il blush to the
face OF that case-hardened officer, the in
| spector rose to reply, and ut the finish he
said:
'''rhc chairman has said that l never
let II man slip through my fingers after
had once got ON his track, but am sorry
TO say he is wrong. | am bound to ac
| knowledge that once an offender was too
| clever for me-
"Tell us about it, arose spontaneously
| from almost every throat: and Inspector
| liookyer, III response to the request, gave
the story.
"lt was II good many years ago now
| when had entrusted to me Il case of IL
young woman named Eliza Thckbroom,
who had been found dead evidently muir
dcred by having her throat cut) in some
| fields adjoining the canal near Il town in
Lancashire. She had been II domestic
| servant, and was of Il very retiring, staid
disposition, and bore an irreproachable
character. Her friends lived i'll quite
another part of the country, and her mis-
tress had no knowledge of her Keeping
company or anything of that kind. For
SOiuC tilic llittl CODSlueTuDlt UlIlCulCN Ill
fixing the crime or any reason for it upon
any one: but at last, after lot of inquiry,
! ascertained that she had been walking
out with II man named Lamprey, who
lived near Stockport i'm Cheshire some
thirty miles from where Eliza Thcllbr
resided.
1T seemed that the girl had been in
the habit of spending her holiday, when
she had Il day off, in going to Stockport,
where Lamprey met her, and that she
had become engaged to him. but that,
hearing something to his discredit, she
had refused to have anything more to do
with him, and, so far, nothing further
was known TO implicate Lamprcy in the
crime; but |, of course, mt once took train
to Stockport and proceeded to hunt up
Lamprey, and to make inquiries in the
town where he resided
Il knew nothing about him except his
name, but from the local police and eau
tious questions of one and another, as
ccrtained that he had been a sailor and
was then 'steeple jack, and one of the
best climbers known.
. Jack Lampreyn cried one man to
whom had spoken. 'Ah, he can climb :
for sure, can jack Why, he climbed to
the very top of yon steeple' (pointing to
the church hard by, which had Il spire re-
markably tall and slender, and very hard
to mount). After the storm had dam
aged the weather cock, Jack climbed up
and fixed it all alone for the parson and !
he refused to be paid for it,
The man seemed to look upon Lam
prey's refusing payment ms more wonder
full than his climbing the steeple, and per-
haps he as right Well, bit by bit. found |
little things which, when pieced together,
pointed Enthusiastically to Jack Lamprey
rs the murderer. He had, until recently,
been seen frequently in and about Stock |
port with the girl, but for the last two or
three months she had not been observed |
in his company. He had been found n !
jolly sort of fellow, but since the girl had |
ceased her visits it had been noticed that |
he had become moody and silent, and he !
had taken to drinking n good deal, al |
though he had previously been most |
abstemious man.
He was away from his lodgings on the !
night of the murder, and on his return
early the next day he was travel. stained,
as if he had walked long way His /
hndlady remembered that he told her he
had fallen down i'll some chemical works |
where lie had been on job and had |
stained his clothes, and she recolccted |
that Immediately after his arrival home |
he had busted himself brushing and |
sponging his garments.
There was sufficient TO Justify me in |
obtaining warrant; but he was away on |
5oD-no one knew where exactly, eX. |
cept that it was somewhere near Liver.
pool-and it was useless for me TO leave
Stockport where | had the best chance of !
catching him. on n wild goose chase to |
Liverpool without better information. |
My only course was to wait and keep
quiet till he came back, which he WAS eX- |
pected to do the following day.
- took every precaution to prevent any
one knowing that he was wanted, but
some pal must have got to suspect it
and gave him warning. The police in
Liverpool had been wired to, and had kept
watch of all trains in the direction of
Stockport, and toward the evening of the
second day received the intimation that
man resembling his description had
taken the train and was on his way AS
sisted by n local detective who knew the
man, | watched every passenger out of
the train on It's arrival ut Stockport, but
no Jack l.amprey alighted, and, on in
curing of the guard, it seemed pretty
certain that he had got out at Cheatlle, Il
station Il few miles outside of Stock port.
= 1t was the beginning of winter, and
night had set i'll, 80 that it was extremely
doubtful if we could follow the man. but
we took train which was Just going out
OF the station, and in few minutes were
mt Chcadlc. there made certain that my
man bad got out He had booked for
Stockport and had given up his ticket:
but 10 all we could we could get no trace
OF him He had lett the station mmcdi-
ately on leaving the train; no one knew
him, and we could find no one to tell us
anything more, So hoping perhaps to
pick up clew ON the road, we walked
l...1 l.