page_title: Alec Eist
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Alec Eist / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: The Green Man public house, Six Mile Bottom
context_page_description: Alexander Anthony Eist was a detective at Scotland Yard during the 1960s and 1970s. He is particularly notable for the many allegations of corruption made against him. These included complicity in jewel robberies and providing false alibis to criminals. He later provided testimony to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations regarding the assassination of Martin Luther King, whose killer — James Earl Ray — had been in his custody following Ray's escape to London in 1968.
  Eist served in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War, for which he was decorated. As a policeman, he was awarded the British Empire Medal for bravery in 1968, following his disarming of a man with a rifle. Despite the allegations of corruption that followed him for much of his career — and resulted in his being returned to uniform police duties before retirement and then facing a failed prosecution after it — Eist was never convicted of any such crimes. Throughout his career, Eist was awarded several decorations for conduct and bravery. Following his retirement, he ran the 'Green Man' pub in Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire.
context_section_description: One of Eist's last high-profile successes came in January 1975 when he was commended for "outstanding diligence and detective ability leading to the arrest and conviction of an active and violent gang of robbers". On this occasion, he was also commended at the Old Bailey and by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
  The arrival of Ernie Millen as Chief Superintendent of the Flying Squad led to procedural and philosophical changes: no longer could officers arrest stooges in place of their own informants, and the practice of arresting criminals in the act but letting ones' informants at the scene escape was also quashed. This was a new practice that, Kirby argues, must have caused "considerable unease" to officers such as Eist. The author Gordon Bowers describes Eist as being "under a cloud" over alleged corruption in the last years of his career, for which he was investigated by Detective Chief Inspector Alan Rattray, although no charges were brought. 
  Eist was returned to uniformed police duties in 1975, with responsibility for monitoring traffic wardens. Officers involved in Operation Countryman — the investigation into corruption within the Metropolitan Police instigated by Sir Robert Mark in 1978 — believed Eist to have received jewels from the Baker Street robbery, and in 1980 one of those arrested for the crime, Mickey Gervaise, named Eist as an accessory. 
  Over the course of Eist's 28-year career, he was awarded somewhere between 13 and 28 commendations. With Dudley now arrested and facing a murder trial, Eist was placed on 90-days' sick leave. Eist retired on 26 February 1976 on medical grounds rather than through criminal charges or accusations. Kirby describes his mental health as being, by then, "fragile". He opened a pub, the Green Man, in Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire, where he died on 27 Jan 1982.
  In 2002, three of Eist's medals — the BEM, his War Medal 1939–1945 and the Police Exemplary Service Medal — were auctioned in London. Estimated at between 492 and 655, they sold for 1966.
caption: The Green Man public house, Six Mile Bottom, as seen in 2016
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