The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-12-06
Detectives
nAm-Y - IN MELNLY


Some of the best detective work has
been dome by men who have lived
among the roguee thry have tried to|
secure and who boy winning their cone
ndcuce have brought them to Justice
or this species of work. which Us exc
trcmgIy dangerous but which is th,
only means by which the executive
branch of the law can fight criminals
fnrir are numberlcss instances one
comes to mind however which has been
embalmed I'm literature by the pen of
n great writer when he was writing an
account of the London Detective police |
There had been some heavy robberies
~ silks and other valuable goods from
the docks which were disposed OF in
some Of the best shops at the West end
of the city The point to get at was
when the actual transfer Of goods was
made. After much work upon the case
the place of transfer was located, ana
then the detective work came in. A de-
tectye officer disguised as a butcher
out of work, took a room in the small
public house where the transfer Of
goods was made. and stayed there for
several weeks. He professed to be from
IT, country, and utterly ignorant OF
London, was taken about by some of
the people and shown the sights, and
at length became so familiar an object
that at last he used to be present when
the thieves, who were dock officials, and
the receivers, who were West end
tradesmen, made their transfer of goods
and cash. Every such transaction was
followed by jolly supper, and the dis
guised butcher out of work, used to take
his share.
OF course the end of it was that the
signal was given and one night the
whole gang was captured red handed.
The various people connected with the
thefts received sentences of penal SER
vitude, and property of great value was
protected from the depradations of a
gang of rogues. But there could have
been no successful solution of the affair
save through the detective work of the
pseudo butcher. 1t would be easy to
multiply cases from the files of the
newspaper. In dealing with criminals
it is a case of fight fire with fire.
The Circuit Cour, yesterday read an
extract from a decision of the Nebraska
Supreme court upon detective work
which was intended as a warning to
Jurors about taking detective evidence.
Whether the Nebraska case was exact
ly parallel to the case before the cir
cult court here, the Star cannot say. 1t
may or may not have been. But it is
plain to any one who will pause to
think, that the obtaining of evidence
against certain criminals can only be
obtained by detective means, and to
throw down such evidence, before even
ii has been given, is to say the least of
it giving the criminal a very great ad-
vantage.
The case before the court was one of
those miserable Illicit liquor selling
cases which are the nuisance of our
courts here. There is a great deal of
illicit liquor selling, and it is undoubt-
eddy crying evil. 1t should be put
down, but it can only be put an end to
when it can be shown that the men
actually made a sale of liquor. If a
police officer stalked in in uniform no
liquor would be sold. If some we'll
known face about the police came up
TO buy liquor it would be refused The
only way to obtain evidence is by en-
ploying some unknown party to pur-
chase the liquor. If such evidence is I.
be thrown down, the police had better
give up trying to break up Illicit liquor
selling.