Evening star., 1923-06-24
Newspaper Experience With Notorious Anarchists

ings which were held in tie early
days of flying. 1t was celebrated
by fancy fetes. open-air carnivals,
diversions. The most respectable
town in England, inhabited mostly
by retired colonels. we1i-to-do spin
sters, and invalids, seemed to take
leave Of its senses in wild out
burst OF frivolity. Even the mayor
was to be seen in the broad glare
of sunshine. wearing a false nose.
Into that atmosphere of false noses
and fancy frocks came kilograms to
several newspaper correspondents
from their editors
Scotland Yard believes Crippen at
Bournemouth. Please get busy
That was the tenor of the telegram
sent to me, and I saw by the pink
envelopes received by friends at table
in the Grand Hotel one night that
they had received similar messages
One by one they stole out, looking
nightly secretive-in search for
Crippen, who, by that time was near
ing Halifax
WITH friend named Harold Ash
w ton, a well-known crime
sleuth," 1 went into the hall, and
after a slight discussion decided that
IL Crippen was in Bournemouth it
was not our job to find him. We
were for the time, experts in aviation.
and couldn't be put off by foolish
murders
AS we went upstairs, Ashton put
his head over the banisters, and then
uttered an exclamation.
Scotland Yard
Looking over the stair rail-, saw
pair of boots, belonging to a man
sitting in the hall. True enough,
they had come from Scotland Yard,
according to the tradition which en-
ables any detective to be recognized
at a glance by any criminal. One of
those detectives had teen sent down
On the false rumor, and probably
hoped to find DR.. Crippen and Ethel
le Neve disguised as Pierrot and
Columbfne on the pier
Ashton and 1 decided 20 have a
game with the man. We wrote a
not in block letters. as follows:
Are you looking for DIR. Crippen ?
II SO, bewaren
BY small bribe. we hired a boy
to deliver it to the detective, and
then depart quickly.
The effect was obviously discon-
certain to the man, for he locke
most uneasy, and then hurried out
of the hotel. Doubtless he could not
| understand how anybody in Bourne
mouth could know of his mission.
Ashton and / followed him, and he
| was Immediately aware that he was
| being shadowed. He went into a
public house and ordered a glass of
beer which he did not drink. Ash
ton and I did the same, and were
quick on his heels when he slipped
out by side door. We kept up this
game for quite a time, until we tired
OF 1t, and to this day the detective
must wonder who shadowed him so
closely in Bournemouth, and for what
fell purpose.
Curiously, by the absurd chances
of journalistic life, / became mixed
UP in the Crippen case, not only by
| having to describe the trial, but by
/ having to write the. life story OF
Ethel lie Neve. That girl, who had
! been Crippen's typist, was a pretty
and attractive little creature, and in
spite of her fight with him in boy S
clothes, the police were satisfied. tina
| she was entirely innocent of the
murder. Anyhow, she was not
| charged, and upon her liberation she
was Immediately captured at a price
by the Daily Chronicle, which saw
that her narrative would make an
enormous sensation. They provided
her with a furnished fiat, under an as
sumed name, and for weeks the Daily
Chronicle Office was swarming with
her sisters family, while Office boys
| fetched the milk for the baby, and
subeditors paid the outstanding debts
Of the brother-in-Iaw, in order that
T Ethel lie Neve might reserve her tale
exclusively TO the nice, kind paper.
| Such is the dignity of modern journal
ism, desperate for scoop
= x
EDDY and / were again associated
L. in the extraction of Ethel le
Neve's tale. Eddy, as a young bar
rister, now we'll known and prosper