The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-01-06
THE STEEPLE JACK.

The S.IEEPLE JACK.
Inspector Hookyer had served his rs
years on the detective force, and his col
leagues were entertaining him at little
farewell dinner In anticipation of his forth
coming retirement The chairman having
eulogized the guest of the evening to an
extent that brought blush to the face OF
that case hardened official, the inspector
rose to reply, and at the finish he said:
"The chairman has said that never let
man slip through my fingers after had
once got on his track, but am sorry he is
wrong. am bound to acknowledge that
once an offender was too clever for me"
"Tell us about 1t, I" arose spontaneously
from almost every throat, and Inspector
Hookyer in response to the request gave
the story.
at was q good many years ago now
when had intrusted to me o case OF
young woman named Eliza Thickbroom,
who had been found dead, evidently muir
dered by having her throat cut, In some
fields adjoining the canal near town in
Lancashire. She had been domestic
servant and was of very retiring, staid
disposition and bore an irreproachable
character Her friends lived In quite an
other part Of the country, and her mistress
had no knowledge of her keeping company
or anything of that kind. For some time
had considerable difficulty in fixing the
crime or any reason for 1t upon any one;
but at last, after o lot Of inquiry, l ascer-
tanned that she had been walking out with
q man named Lamprey, who lived near
Stockport in Cheshire, some 80 miles from
where Eliza Thickbroom resided.
at 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 fur nothing further was known to
implicate Lamprey In the crime; but l, OF
course, OF once took train to Stockport and
proceeded to hunt up Lamprey and to
make inquiries In the town where he re-
sided
II knew nothing about him except his
name, but from the local police and cau-
tlous questions of one and another ascer-
tanned that he had been sailor and was
then 'steeplo jack and ono Of the best
climbers known,
"'Jack Lamprey!' cried one man to
whom l had spoken All, he can climb,
for sure can Jackl Why, he climbed up
to the very top Of yon steeple, pointing to
the church hard by, which had q spire re-
markably tall and slender and very hard
to mount. After the storm had damaged
To- pli haI M nd y
it all alone for the parson, and he refused
to BIO paid for it,.
1.-THE man seemed to look upon LAM
prey's refusing payment as more wonder
full than his climbing the steeple, and per-
baps he was right. Well, bit by bit, I
found little things which, when pieced to-
gether, pointed Enthusiastically to Jack
Lamprey as the murderer. He had until
recently been seen frequently in and about
Stockport with the girl, but for the last
two or three months she had not been OBJ
served in his company. He had been
jolly sort of fellow, but since the girl had
ceased her visits it had been noticed that
hc had become moody and silent, and he
had taken to drink good deal, although
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 a long way. His land
lady remembered that he told her he had
fallen down in some chemical works where
he had been on job and had stained his
clothes, and she recollected that immedi-
ately after his arrival home he had busted
Ii npl hi,t
ments.
"There was sufficient to Justify mo in
obtaining u warrant, but he was away on
job--no one knew where exactly, except
that it was somewhere near Liverpool-and
Ii was useless for me to leave Stockport,
where haG tho best chance of catching
him, on wild goose chase to Liverpool
without better information. My only
course was to wait and keep quiet till he
came back, which he was expected to do
the following day
~ took every precaution to prevent any
one knowing that he was wanted, hut
some pal must have got to suspect it and
given him warning. The police in Liver
pool 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 its arrival at Stockport, but no
Jack Lamprey alighted, and on inquiring
Of the guard 1t seemed pretty certain that
he had got out at Cheadle, q station few
miles outside Stockport.
ut was the beginning Of winter and
night had set in, so that 1t was extremely
doubtful II we could follow the man, but
we took a train which was just going out
of the station, and In few minutes were
at Cheadle. there mado 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 find no one to tell us any,
thing more. So, hoping perhaps to pick
up olew on the road, we walked back to
Stockport and on to the town where he
lived, which was q few miles the other
side, but our tramp was in vain.
1--WE had left instructions at Stockport
for Lamprey's lodgings to be watched, but
by some blunder man had not been sent
there for some time, and, much to my an
ger and disgust, when arrived at his
house found that he had been there, just
for five minutes, his landlady said, and
had left again with bag of clothes.
II was nightly savage, you may guess
both with myself md with the police of