The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-06-29

ure of a pipe of tobacco ne destroyed
three OF the most important clews.
The length of the candle which he
had lighted would have indicated the
! time when the murder had been COM
mitted; the paper with which he had
| lighted his pipe, judging from the
charred remains, had been left there
by the murderer himself, and the po-
liceman had forgotten whether he had
found the window locked or unlocked
when he opened it TO let out the smell
of smoke. Furthermore. the keen nosed
detective who was put on the case
smelled the OdOr of the tobacco smoke,
and not knowing whence il originated.
spent lot of time in tracing IL down.
The fear that they are wasting time
over trifies or are being made the vic
tins of jokes often leads the police TO
err on the other side.
Some years ago one of the most cruel
murdeTeFs ever known almost escaped
because two policemen refused TO in
Vestigate charges of whose truth they
were in doubt. A man running along
behind a cab came up to two policemen
and gasped out that a murderer was
riding in the cab with the remains of
his victim.
Out of breath from his exertion and
too excited for a connected story. the
police officers were inclined to think
the man either crazy or drunk, ana
therefore turned a deaf ear TO his al
legations. If the pursuer had not per-
sisted in following the cab and hsd
not met later a less skeptical Of
f1cer, the remains of the murdered per-
son might have been placed in a safe
hiding place and the murderer have
gone undiscovered.
CT he
son sometimes, but more often they al
low a criminal to go free for fear of
| holding an innocent person.
Charlie Price, the noted English
criminal, used TO laugh over the num-
Der of times he had passed a Watchful
policeman with a CHEEKY good night"
without arousing his suspicion. Char
Hes frock coat and silk hat and his
apparent knowledge of the neighbOr-
| hood lulled 10 rest any suspicion that
the officer might have at seeing him out
! at such a strange hour.
One summer afternoon an exception
| ally well dressed stranger was seen 10
enter the front gate of a house in a
wealthy neighborhOOd. He walked to
the door and tried to open il with a
| key. AS he could not do so he went
around to a window and pushing il
open. climbed in through il. II was a
! suspicious proceeding. but as the man
was dressed in the height of fashion
| the officer on the beat thought that it
was the owner of the house who, hay
ing forgotten his key, had used the win
dow as his means Of entrance. He
watched the place for a while TO see if
anything out of the way might occur.
short time later, emerging from
the front door. the stranger stopped as
! if someone had spoken To him from
within. and saying: Yes, Bess. I have
my key this time" he lifted his hat and
walked slowly away. Some hours later
when the real owner of the house re-
turned, the policeman learned that his
first suspicious had been correct, for
the well dressed stranger had walked
away with the jewelry and everything
of value that he could lay his kid
glOVed hands upon.
Although the detectives of Paris are
known the world over for their excel
lent work the French officials of the
smaller cities sometimes make ludi-
cTous mistakes.
The police in a small seaport town Of
France were aroused TO action a short
time ago by a communication from
Headquarters A batch of six photo
graphs was inclOsed i'm the commune
cation. with instructions that the orig
inal of them was in hiding in their To-
cality and was urgently wanted OF
course. all of the six pictures were
those of one man, taken from different
points of view, according TO the Paris
system.
The Paris authorities were astounded
/ a few days later on receiving notice
! from the Jealous officers of the little
town that they had succeeded in land
/ ing five of the men and were sure To
capture the sixth desperate criminal