The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-09-27
EYADING ARREST.
FugitiYes' Strange Devices to Avoid
Capture.

Cd in the case of desperate rogues !:
to get locked up for some trivial Of
fence. It is we'll known that the jails
are among the last places to be search
ed by the police for malefactor wht
is wanted" The records of the courts
TEEN with such cases. A man who is
being hunted by the police for some Sc
rious crime will throw brick through
a window or pretend to be drunk and
assault a constable merely in order to
secure just temporary sentence OF
about fourteen days imprisonment, at
the expiration of which period the ten
sion has been relieved 10 . co1~'9o~~-
Bile extent and the vigilance OF tho 90
lice relaxed. Another ingenious
scheme which has been practised with
success more than once is for the fugi-
tive to don the shabbiest clothes he
can obtain and take casual work as
sandwich man. In this capacity, aid
ed by an unkempt beard and a band
aged eye-which acts as blind" in
more senses than one-arrest has been
avoided for weeks. A strange and
somewhat grewsome device by which
a man charged with fraud succeeded
in once evading arrest and second
time in avoiding service of summons
was recently related at the West Ham
police court
On one occasion when wanted" the
man was understood to be at an un-
dertaker's shop, and the officers of the
law went there to apprehend him. But
he could not be found, though the
place was thoroughly searched. On
trestles in the shop was a coffin, in
which the police were informed there
lay body. In the presence of the
officers the coffin was screwed up and
taken away, as was intimated, to
public mortuary. A day or so later it |
was discovered that the supposed dead |
man in the coffin was no other than |
the fugitive criminal, whose friends !
had collaborated with him in this way
of evading arrest. On the second oc-
casion a judgment summons was to be I
Served. This time a woman at the :
house said that the defendant was very !
i'll and could not be seen. When the !
officer next called the blinds were all /
down and they were told that the man
had died that morning. Then CAME a
coffin, which was carried into the
house with all solemnity. The process
Servers accordingly went away with
their mission unfulflled. After each
of these adventures the culprit started
business in another part Of London;
but his career was short-ived and he
got his deserts.
The notorious Charles Peace was a
master in the art of disguise, and nu-
merous stories are told of how he
would repeatedly accost policemen and
inquire whether they had yet "got on
the track of that william Peace" The
most striking instance of vanished
men coming again to light to take
part in legal proceedings is that which
in a case where Daniel
O'Connell was defending man indict-
ed for murder. The case for the pro-
secution seemed as clear as possible,
and O'Connell contented himself with
fewer questions than were to have
been expected of so eminent a cross
examiner. When the case for the
crown had closed he announced that
be had but one witness to call, but that
witness was important to the case. He
was the murdered man, very much
alive. There was no doubling the
mans identity; everybody knew him.
The Judge, therefore, turned to the jury
and directed them to acquit the pris-
oner. To his amazement, however,
.ney returned verdict of "guilty."
Asked for an explanation, the foreman
observed that they had no doubt that q
he prisoner was innocent Of the mur- d
Ter. "But," he added, eve find him (
guilty of stealing my ould gray mare T
;hree weeks ago."
In France man may be tried and T.
sentenced to death by the assize court !
N his absence, the most recent in
stance being the uncaptured assailant :
If DR.. Herbert This process could be v
carried out in this country by proceed
ngs in ''Outlawry," which, although q
10 case has occurred since 1855, still 4
'emains as part of the criminal law .
md is recognized and regulated by the 4
crown Office Rules of 1906. "OutlaW-