The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1897-04-09
THEINSPECTOR'SL LOSS

Inspector Hookyer had served hi
twenty-five years in the detective force
and his colleagues were entertainIn.
him at little farewell dinner, in an
ticipation of his forthcoming retirement
The chairman having eulogized TIT
guest of the evening to an extent tina
brought blush to the face of that case
hardened officer, the inspector rose tt
reply, and at the finish he said:
"The chairman has said that never
let a man slip through my fingers aftel
/ had once got on his track, but l an
sorry to say he is wrong. l am bound
to acknowledge that once an offender
was too clever for me-"
'Tell US about it," arose spontaneous
ly from almost every throat, and In
spector Hookyer, in response to the re-
quest, gave the story.
ut was a good many years ago now
when l had intrusted to me case of a
young woman named Eliza Thick
broom, who had been found dead levi
IDENTIFY murdered by having her throat
cuO In some fields adjoining a canal
near a town in Lancashire. She had
been a domestic servant, and was of a
very retiring, staid disposition, and bore
an irreproachable character. Her
friends lived in quite another part of
the country, and her mistress had no
knowledge of her keeping company or
anything of that kind. For some time
1 had considerable difficulty in fixing
the crime or any reason for 1t upon
anyone, but at last, after a lot of in
quiry, | ascertained that she had been
out walking with man named Lam
prey, who lived near Stockport, in Che
shire, some thirty miles from where
Eliza Thickbroom resided.
st seemed that the girl had been in
the habit of spending her holiday, when
she had 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 fur
ther was known to implicate Lamprey
in the crime, but 1, of course, at once
took the train to Stockport and proceed
ed to hunt up Lamprey, and to make
IL.
Il knew nothing about him except his
naIse, abut from the local police and
cautious questions of one and another,
I ascertained that he had been a sailor
and was then 'steeplejack,' and one
Of the best climbers known
Jack I.amprey! 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 spire
remarkably tall and slender, and very
hard to mount. After the storm had
damaged the weather cock Jack climb
ed 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 as more Won
derful than his climbing the steeple, and
perhaps he was right. Well, bit by bit,
found little things which, when pieced
together, pointed Enthusiastically to Jack
Lamprey as the murderer. He had, un-
til recently, been seen frequently in and
about Stockport with the girl, but for
the last two or three months she had
not been observed in his company. He
had been jolly sort of fellow, but since
the girl had ceased her visits 1t had
been noticed that he had become
moody and silent, and he had taken to
drink good deal, although he had pre-
yiously been most abstemious man.
"He was away from his lodgings on
the night of the murder, and on his re-
turn early the next day he was travel
stained, as if he had walked long way.
His landlady remembered that he told
her he had fallen down in some chem
ical works where he had been on job,
and had stained his clothes, and she
reeollected Immediately after his ar
rival home he had busted himself brush
ing and sponging his garments.
There was sufficient to justify me in
obtaining a warrant; but he was aWay
on Job-no one knew where exactly,
except that it was somewhere near Liv-
erpool-and 1t was useless for me to
leave Stockport, where l had the best
chance Of catching him, on a wild goose
chase to Liverpool without better in
formation. My only course was to wait
and keep quiet till he came back, which
he was expected to do the following
day
Il took every precaution to prevent
anyone knowing that he was wanted
but some pal must have got to suspect
it and given him warning. The police
in Liverpool had been wired to, and had
kept watch of all trains in the direction
of Stockport, and toward evening of
the second day received the intimation
hot !,
had taken the train and was on his
way. Assisted by local detective who
knew the man, l watched every pas
senger out of the train on it's arrival at
but no Jack Lamprey alight-
ed, and. on inquiring of the guard, 1t
seemed pretty certain that he had got
out at Cheadle, a station a few miles
outside of Stockport.
1T was the beginning of winter and
night had set in, so that it was extreme
ly doubtful If we could follow the man,
b1t we. took train which was just GO
Ing out of the station. and in a few
we're at Cheadle. l there made
certain that my man had got out. He
had booked for Stockport and had given
up his ticket, but do all we could we
could get no trace Of him. He had left
the station Immediately on leaving the
train; no one knew him and we could
ind no one to tell us anything more. So,
hoping perhaps to pick up clew on the
-oad, we walked back to Stockport and
IN to the town where he lived, which
was few miles the other side, but our
ramp was in vain.
1--WE had left instructions at Stockport
'or Lamprey's lodgings to be watched,
put by some blunder a man had not
1een sent there for some time, and,