WE COULD NOT have written a book like this without a great deal of help from many people, but our thanks go first and foremost to Paul Bickley, the curator of the Crime Museum, who has given unstintingly of his time, advice and judgement to help this book emerge. Lindsay Siviter, a diligent historian, as well as a volunteer at the Crime Museum, has also greatly assisted us with research and corrections.
We are grateful to other Metropolitan Police staff, including Barry Nicholson and DC Mat Wake; and Neil Paterson, Phillip Barnes-Warden and Simon Littlejohn from the Heritage Centre. Kyri Georgiou, Faye Robinson and Donald Poyser have helped with the process of the agreement to reproduce images in the book. There have been other people who have provided information and their expertise to confirm details of the stories behind some of the cases like Zeb Micic, Stuart Douglas, Maurice Garvie, Tim Richardson, A.J. Griffiths-Jones and Carol Ann Lee, but not least Dick Kirby, whose own research into some of the cases mentioned here has resulted in excellent books, as quoted in our bibliography. Jackie Kiely, Julia Hoffbrand, and Zey Kussan, hard at work preparing ‘The Crime Museum Uncovered’ exhibition at the Museum of London, have also given valuable assistance to clarify details of some cases of mutual interest. Ken Butler did invaluable research on the William Hartley collection. We would also like to acknowledge the work, help and advice from Joan Lock, Stewart Evans, Kevin Coombes, Sandy Kaye, Stewart McLaughlin, Honorary Curator, Wandsworth Prison Museum, Adam Wood, Linda Moss, Coral Atkins, Alan White, Bruce Robinson, Monty Marwood, Mike Bennett, Peter Lovesey and Clive Dawson.
We appreciate the enormous support from Cate Ludlow and Sophie Bradshaw from The History Press, without whose faith this project could not have taken place, and their colleagues Juanita Hall and Naomi Reynolds. The layout was designed by Jemma Cox and the images prepared by Martin Latham, whose excellent work is there for all to see. Our endlessly patient literary agent Robert Smith has always been at our side in times of need.
The assistance of others has helped us, we hope, to keep our mistakes to a minimum, but we take full responsibility for any errors we have made.
All images in the book have been reproduced by kind permission of the Metropolitan Police Service apart from those on pp. 392 and 397, which are the authors’ own.
We hope, above all, that this book will shine an interesting and fascinating light on previously little-known aspects of the world of Scotland Yard and its excellent detectives.