(CONFIDENTIAL memorandum by Superintendent Arnold Pike, C.I.D. to Assistant Commissioner E. Lucas, C.B., etc., C.I.D., dated Monday, December 10th.)
Have not sent you any word since Friday but have now to report that a scheme which I worked out on Friday has already been justified with results which I think may get us somewhere.
On Friday morning, as you were officially notified, there was another ‘Butcher’ outrage, a small child named Millicent Brade being murdered in broad daylight outside the big shop here. On Friday evening I thought of the above-mentioned scheme which, in brief, was as follows:
In anticipation of the ‘Butcher’ letter which, it seemed fairly certain, would follow this crime or precede the next, to take cinematographic pictures of all persons posting letters at all boxes. Result hoped for (as you already know, the post collections are made so that it can be told what box a letter came out of) to narrow down the field of enquiry by concentrating upon all people posting letters during the time the ‘Butcher’ letter must have been posted. (N.B. I thought it highly improbable that the ‘Butcher’ would repeat the trick of slipping in his letter with those of someone else, as he did in The Market once before. He is too clever to do this and therefore, I reasoned, would be most likely to post his next epistle himself.)
I should at once inform you that as soon as I thought of the cinematograph scheme I made the decision not to inform anyone down here in regard to it. I told Curtis and Blaine, of course, but I instructed them not to mention the matter. I have even kept the Chief Constable in the dark. I am sure you will appreciate that the situation here, as far as I am concerned, was one of complete ignorance. Anyone—anyone at all—might be the ‘Butcher.’ As my previous report shewed it was even more likely that the ‘Butcher’ should be one with whom I come into frequent contact than one of the more ordinary residents.
I hope you will approve of my secrecy. If I am to continue working on this case, I do hope that this will be preserved. I am determined from now on to keep this secrecy even in regard to any other steps which I may take.
Am glad to report that the cinematograph scheme had immediate and satisfactory result. On Saturday morning, while I was at a meeting with the Chief Constable and others, the postmaster sent up three identical ‘Butcher’ letters which had been found in the second collection. I got away from the meeting as soon as I could and immediately went to interview the postmaster (see note at foot of this letter). He informed me that the letters had been found in the Inniless Road pillar box. I cautioned him to keep quiet and immediately proceeded to Inniless Road (see separate report to follow as to how the cinematograph men were posted), took the film from the operator there and sent it by Curtis into Batley for private development. Later I collected the Postmaster (Myers), Curtis and Blaine, together with the Inniless Road operator, his camera and a projector and proceeded to Batley to a room for which I had arranged—under an alias—in which we could shew the film. When the film was ready, we ran it through and Myers was able, fortunately, to tell us who each of the twelve persons posting letters between the eight o’clock collection and the ten o’clock collection was.
You will appreciate that one of these twelve persons must have posted the ‘Butcher’ letters and that, therefore, one of these twelve persons is, in all probability (see argument above) the ‘Butcher’ himself. In other words, we have reduced our ‘suspect-list’ from approximately five thousand to twelve.
I give a table in which I have set out the names of the twelve persons, their particulars, etc., and, most important, three columns shewing, first, whether they could properly account for the letters posted, second, whether subsequent enquiries proved them to have really indubitable alibis for the times of all the ‘Butcher’ murders, and third, the reason they posted their letters in the Inniless Road pillar box:
The first question arising out of this table is, of course, the ability of all the twelve persons to account for the letters posted (i.e. to state to whom the letters were addressed and what the letters contained). The fact that they were all able to account for the letters did not worry me. I expected it because—as I fore-shadowed in my last report—I thought the ‘Butcher,’ when posting a letter (in a disguised handwriting and on special paper, etc.), would be clever enough to post at the same time—in case he was asked—a genuine letter written on his paper in his own handwriting.
The next question is the large one of narrowing the field of twelve ‘possibles.’ I did this by examining the answers which I have classified under the sixth heading in the table. Analysis of the entries under this heading shows four entirely satisfactory persons—Claud Nickells, Mrs Tildesley-Marshall, Mrs Wills and Philip Matthews; two partially satisfactory persons—Emily Potts and James Stelch; two persons whose statements have not yet been checked (but whom, I should add, seem to be almost certainly speaking the truth), Muriel Rowland and Harry Fornby; and four persons whose statements are unsatisfactory in themselves or uncheckable or both—Ursula Finch, Montague Flushing, Sydney Jeffson and Rockwall.
Nickells, Tildesley-Marshall, Wills and Matthews I am accordingly leaving out of consideration. Their statements have been carefully checked and there is no doubt that they could not have been, upon any of the occasions, anywhere near the scenes of the outrages.
In regard to the next two classes of partially cleared and checkable but unchecked—Potts and Stelch, Rowland and Fornby—I am having these people kept under surveyance until such times as their statements are completely checked up or not. For this purpose I shall use some of the extra men I applied to you for over the telephone yesterday and who I met at Batley this morning. (I have sent D. O. Handley back as I am afraid he is not quite the type for the job, being too noticeably a Police Officer. I should like to get Richards if I can).
In regard to the last class—Finch, Flushing, Jeffson and Rockwall—I have put these under special watch, which I hope will be carried out skilfully enough for them not to notice it. There is, of course, the fact that the ‘Butcher,’ who must be one of these twelve, and, in my opinion, one of these last four, must be aware, by reason of the questioning, etc., that we are getting close to him. But any danger which this might have lead to of the ‘Butcher’ ‘drawing in his horns’ is neutralised by the fact that he had already decided to do this vide his last letter, copy of which was sent to you the day before yesterday.
I also propose to have carried out, as soon as practicable, a search of the houses of the four in the last class. In order to do this, if possible, without the knowledge of the persons, I am proposing to hold interviews with these persons, either at my rooms here or at the Police Station, in which I shall probably apologise for any inconvenience which the recent questioning, etc., may have caused them. I hope that such interviews, if I carry them out properly, will serve the double purpose of keeping the suspect away while the search of his house is being carried out and also lull him (for one of them, in my opinion, in all probability is the ‘Butcher’) into a false sense of security and possibly decoy him into making a step which would enable us to arrest him.
Following the unfortunate arrests of Reade, Spring and Godly, all of whom had to be released following the Brade murder, I am bearing in mind your instructions that no other arrests shall be made until there is ample evidence or unless the safety of the public seems to call for it urgently.
I hope progress is satisfactory: I consider it so myself. I have every hope that we are at last nearing some definite conclusion. I hope, also, that my policy of keeping from everyone down here, including the local Police, all the recent steps I have taken (as reported above) and any future steps whatsoever until the arrest of the ‘Butcher,’ will be approved and respected, and that anyone from Headquarters will let even the Chief Constable have any inkling. (Some justification for this policy will be found on looking at the list of the four main suspects).
From now I will send you memoranda daily, of course telephoning any urgent or important developments.
(Signed) ARNOLD PIKE
P.S.—In regard to the Postmaster Myers, whom I had, over the pillar box scheme, to take into my confidence, I should report that I have persuaded Myers to remain out of Holmdale until such time as I recall him. He is at present staying in rooms which I found for him, in Penders Cross, a little village outside Batley. I have taken the responsibility of informing him that his expenses will be paid and also that some adequate honorarium will be paid to him at the end of the business. He seems trustworthy (of course before I took him into my confidence I found out that he had adequate alibis for all the outrage dates) but I didn’t want him going back, after seeing the films, to Holmdale, and possibly being unable to keep what he knows to himself.
A.P.