At the conclusion of a book, readers often want to know, when referring to characters in the various chapters, ‘Whatever happened to him?’ – I know I do.
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Charles Stockley Collins, who featured in the Stratton brothers case, was promoted to superintendent in 1908 to head the Fingerprint Department. After his retirement, he wrote two books on the detection of fingerprints.
Following the Stratton case, Fred Fox was permitted to head a small team of officers to detect counterfeit coiners anywhere in the Metropolitan Police Area. It was not a runaway success and nothing like it was repeated until the formation of the Flying Squad in 1919. Fox retired on 20 January 1907, having served 33 years in the Force.
Sir Melville Macnaughton retired from the Met in 1913 and died aged sixty-eight in 1921. He was much admired; his successor said, ‘He knew the official career of every one of his 700 men and his qualifications and abilities.’
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Chief Inspector Salisbury, who arrested ‘The Monocle Man’, had his career cut short after 23 years’ service, when he was medically discharged due to bronchitis; he died in 1955.
Fred Cherrill retired in 1953 having solved more cases through fingerprint detection than any other officer. He died aged seventy-two in 1964.
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In the Ransom case, Fred Smeed – more officially known as Francis Herbert Smeed – was promoted to superintendent and later became Chief Constable of Newport, Monmouthshire and was appointed OBE. He was described by one of his junior officers as being ‘a truly sound and helpful man’.
Bert Tansill never married. He rose to the rank of detective chief inspector, was a well respected murder investigator and died aged eighty-one, after almost 33 years of retirement.
Beveridge spent the war years with the Flying Squad, investigating several more high-profile murders, and was promoted to detective chief superintendent, becoming one of ‘The Big Five’, having control of the Met’s No. 2 District. He was appointed MBE and retired, having been commended by the Commissioner on thirty-eight occasions, after over 35 years’ service. He died in 1977.
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Before and after the Heys murder case, Greeno solved many baffling murders, rose to the rank of detective chief superintendent and, as one of ‘The Big Five’, headed the Met’s No. 1 District. He retired in 1959, having served over 38½ years, collecting eighty-six commissioner’s commendations and an MBE. Sadly, his retirement was short-lived; he died seven years later.
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John Ball was promoted to superintendent and, after several more successful murder investigations, retired in Fulham, where he’d always lived, to enjoy the less exhausting pursuit of playing bowls.
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Wilfred Daws only got a small mention in the Griffiths chapter, but a little more should be disclosed about him because he was what was known as ‘a character’, a type which the Metropolitan Police have since seen fit to ruthlessly eradicate. Like Capstick, he prided himself on his immaculate attire and was one of the few detectives to wear spats over his shoes. Nicknamed ‘Flaps’ because of his protruding ears, he was a model witness in court; his voice was quiet and well-modulated, but when roused, it took very little for the volume to rise by several decibels, and his language was described as being able ‘to make a Billingsgate porter blush’. But he was a highly efficient Flying Squad officer and would go on to successfully investigate several baffling murder cases. One such was the murder of a prostitute, a case where, without exception, all of the female witnesses were also prostitutes. This was so unusual that it received a large amount of publicity, and ‘Flaps’ was photographed leaving the Old Bailey in the company of a woman; the picture was published in a newspaper the following day with the caption, ‘Chief Inspector Daws leaving the court with one of the witnesses’. It turned out that the lady in question was a CID typist, who was duly awarded an exceedingly large sum in compensation.
Prior to retirement, Daws was promoted to the rank of superintendent.
* * *
Ernie Millen shot up the promotional ladder, serving three postings with the Flying Squad, on the last occasion as its chief. Known as ‘Hooter’, either because of his imperious nose or for his habit of bellowing orders down the corridors at the Yard, he was promoted to the rank of deputy assistant commissioner. He retired one month short of 35 years’ service, was appointed CBE and died, aged seventy-six, in 1988.
Jack Capstick finished his distinguished career as Detective Chief Superintendent of No. 4 Area; he was still investigating murders when he retired. The death of June Anne Devaney continued to haunt him. When he retired after 32 years’ service – astonishingly without being mentioned in the Honours List – he had just ten years left to continue his devotion to playing bowls and cultivating roses.When he died aged sixty-four in 1968, he had not lived long enough to collect his state pension.
* * *
Following the Bodkin Adams case, Bert Hannam was promoted to detective chief superintendent and retired from the Met’s No. 3 Area on 27 July 1959. He went to his grave on 24 February 1983 convinced that Adams could have been successfully prosecuted for fourteen murders.
The Chief Constable, Richard Walker OBE, QPM, continued in his role until 1967, when the force amalgamated with another.
Detective Inspector Brynley Pugh died shortly after the trial, in early middle-age.
Charlie Hewett had a glittering career, rising to the rank of detective superintendent before retiring on 12 May 1968, having served 30 years and 18 days. But following Adams’ death, rumours surged up again, now that there was no further chance of libel proceedings, and Charlie Hewett was in the forefront of them. Not only did he think that Adams was guilty, he believed that twenty-five murders could have been laid at his door and that he could have been successfully prosecuted for all of them. He also believed that Mrs Sharpe held the key to the case; not only that, but she was due to be questioned again by him and Hannam but died before they could do so – and Hewett thought it a possibility that Adams, knowing this, had ‘speeded her on her way’. Hewett died aged eighty-eight of a massive stroke in 2003.
* * *
After ‘The Body in the Trunk’ case, Dave Dilley was promoted to the rank of commander, was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal and remained in C11 until his retirement in 1976; he died nine years later. It’s interesting to note that when he first went to C11 as a detective inspector in 1964 he had never been a senior investigating officer in a murder enquiry; yet the way he investigated the Coleman murder was exemplary. Allegations of serious misconduct were later made about him by serving officers, although none was ever proved. Not that Geoff Parratt will hear a bad word said about him. ‘I thought he was great’, he told me. ‘He was very thorough and a great investigator; I learnt so much from him.’
Obviously, it rubbed off. Parratt reached the rank of detective superintendent and headed one of the Met’s AMITs (Area Major Investigation Teams) before retiring in 1991. ‘That Geoff Parratt’s so bloody lucky’, sourly complained one of his contemporaries (who was no slouch at murder investigations himself), but it was more than that. Former Detective Sergeant Tony Yeoman was Parratt’s bag-carrier for about four years. ‘During that time, he investigated 85 murders’, he told me. ‘Only two were unsolved.’
A success record like that requires a little more than luck.
* * *
Following the Bassaine case, Ginger Hensley retired in 1975 after 30 years service. Two years later, he died of cancer, fighting it, as Jack Slipper of the Flying Squad described, ‘with a courage that brought tears to your eyes’.
Bernie Davis rose through the ranks to become a detective chief superintendent and retired from the Metropolitan Police’s 4 Area in 1989. He spends his days gardening at his home on the south coast.
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Maurice Marshall eventually recovered from his strenuous exhumation exertions in Acapulco and retired in 1984. Living in Buckinghamshire, he goes sailing and for over 20 years was the popular president of the ReCIDivists’ Luncheon Club.
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From the potpourri of cases, Graham Seaby retired in 1994 and Ken Davies in 1986; he plays golf and gardens.
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Following the Cartland case, Professor Cameron died in 2003, Ron Page retired, then died in 2009 and John Troon was promoted to detective superintendent as a murder investigator, retiring in 1990 from SO1 – the renamed C1. He spends his days shooting in what he describes to me as ‘Poldark Country’.