The Loss of the Jane Vosper (35 page)

This seemed a good enough scheme to Cruttenden, but Hislop was not satisfied with it. He thought they should have a stronger hold on Keene. In the end it was decided that he, Hislop, should try to get him to play at Cruttenden’s flat. He would be dealt with in the time-honoured way. At first he would win, then when he was properly committed he would lose. His loss would be minimized and he would be told it did not matter, that there was plenty of time and that the luck would turn, all as per custom. Then Cruttenden would produce a maturing bill. He would be excessively sorry, but would explain that he was short of cash and therefore wanted his money to meet it. It would be terribly unfortunate, and he wouldn’t for anything it had happened, but there it was: he simply must have the money. He would have to have it, even if it meant going to the Waterer directors about it. Then, when Keene was properly worked up, there would be the suggestion of this safe and easy way of raising, not only what was due, but far more. Hislop was sure Keene would then fall.

This abominable plan was put into operation and worked better even than Hislop had foreseen. Keene, told only the minor scheme, agreed to do his part readily enough, and all looked promising.

By this time the actual details had been worked out. Henty started the ball by buying in an assumed name a completed set from Messrs Weaver Bannister. The nameplate was taken off this, and another, which had meanwhile been procured, was put on in its place. This last bore the name: ‘The Corona Engineering Works, Claygate, Surrey, England.’ This set was exhibited in the shed, which Cruttenden in the name of Rice had hired.

Cruttenden then persuaded the Soviet Embassy people to send a technical representative to the shed to examine the set. The representative was delighted with it, which was not to be wondered at, as it was a first-rate piece of work. Cruttenden made his explanation about the transitional condition of the Claygate firm, and put through the agreement that 350 more sets should be supplied and taken over, provided they were similar in all respects to the sample.

The next step was to provide the new cases, and here a terrible difficulty arose which for a time threatened to wreck the entire scheme. Cruttenden’s idea had been to buy timber and engage carpenters to make 350 cases identical to those of the Weaver Bannister Company. Drawings for these were to be supplied by Hislop, and they were to be filled with concrete to make the necessary weight. These dummy cases would then be exchanged for the real ones during the journey from the railway to the steamer, the electric runway enabling this to be done in the time available. The sets would then be unpacked, and after the nameplates had been changed, would be repacked in their original cases and sent to Russia.

This seemed a watertight scheme, and it all worked admirably up to the last item. But there it failed. It was found impossible to use the original Weaver Bannister cases for sending the sets to Russia, for the simple reason that the Weaver Bannister name was stencilled in black on two opposite sides and the paint could not be removed. The difficulty, of course, was recognized before it actually arose, but it was not seen till the partners had gone so far as to be committed to the scheme. The ideal solution would have been to have had loose-fitting concrete blocks made, and to have lifted the sets out of the Weaver Bannister cases and put in the concrete on the way to the docks. Thus the original cases would have gone aboard the
Jane
Vosper
.
But for this there was no time. As it was, they found the mere changing of the cases only just possible, and it would have been out of the question also to open them, remove the sets, pack the concrete blocks and close the lids.

What they eventually did was to have the Weaver Bannister cases altered. The lettering was confined to two boards on opposite faces, and while Cruttenden was changing the nameplates on the sets Henty knocked the four boards in question out of the cases and burnt them in the shed fireplace. From a different timber merchant new boards were bought, and from a more distant labour exchange fresh carpenters were employed, and the damaged cases were repaired. This, of course, was a very small job compared with making new ones. Henty then made all sure by stencilling the Claygate name where the old lettering had been.

The method of blowing up the ship was thought out with the greatest care. Gelignite and electric detonators were chosen as the most suitable explosives. These were also the easiest to obtain, and Henty spent some time searching the country for a quarry suitable for burglary. He decided on that at Llandelly, bringing Cruttenden a description of the place with photographs, taken early on a Sunday morning. Henty did not return to Llandelly, but Hislop assisted Cruttenden with the actual theft. Cruttenden drove the Ford van down, while Hislop travelled to and from Shrewsbury by train, joining Cruttenden in the suburbs.

The gelignite and detonators – three of the latter to each case to make absolutely sure of the job – were enclosed in concrete in the four special cases, which, of course, Cruttenden and Henty themselves filled. These cases were labelled to Buenos Aires to ensure that they should be put at the bottom of the consignment. In them were also placed some dry batteries, both to supply current to operate the detonators, and also for another purpose.

The timing of the explosions proved an almost insuperable difficulty, but at last Cruttenden solved the problem in a very simple manner. Four alarm clocks of good quality were purchased and were altered by Henty, who had some mechanical knowledge. He arranged a contact so that the alarm, instead of operating a bell, closed an electric circuit. This allowed current from the batteries to flow and operated two pieces of mechanism. The first was a tiny electric motor, which rewound the clock, switching itself off when the winding was complete, and setting itself to wind again next time the alarm trigger moved. The clocks would thus continue running as long as the batteries remained active.

But in addition to starting the motor, the alarm trigger operated a second electro magnet. This moved a wheel one tooth forward. On this wheel another contact was arranged so that when it was closed current from the batteries passed through the detonators, igniting the charge. Careful estimates showed that the explosions were required sixteen days after the crates were sealed. This meant that the contact on the wheel was fixed 32 teeth ahead, or, in other words, the alarm trigger would have to operate 32 times before the explosion took place. The clocks were accurately set, so that all four explosions should occur as nearly as possible at the same time. The filling of cement over the apparatus not only increased the effect of the explosion, but rendered inaudible the ticking of the clocks.

The crime was carried out strictly according to plan. From the conspirators’ point of view everything went exceedingly well. Hislop succeeded in convincing his chief that the best way of sending the sets was by the
Jane
Vosper
. Keene called at the Weaver Bannister works and, with the help of Hislop, obtained the order to transport the stuff from the railway to the docks. Cruttenden and Henty were taken on by Keene and were put on the vital job without suspicion being aroused. The dummy cases were stowed on the
Jane
Vosper
,
and the vessel sailed – all perfectly in order. Then the sets were unpacked, the Weaver Bannister nameplates were removed, and new ones bearing ‘The Corona Engineering Company, Claygate, Surrey, England’, were mounted in their place. The sets were packed in the altered cases, the lids being left off for the Soviet representative’s inspection. Finally the cases were dispatched to Russia, Cruttenden making arrangements to follow them so that the final test could be made in his presence. The tests were satisfactory and the money was paid in Leningrad as agreed. The notes were discovered when passing through the English customs, though not their amount; Cruttenden said it was £10,000. But nothing was done about it, as it was not illegal to bring money into England, and Cruttenden had his story pat. He had gone to Russia, he said, to buy timber, but the timber firm had tried to do him down and he had scored off them by clearing out of the country with his money intact while they were waiting for him to sign the iniquitous agreement.

Henty had learnt with something approaching horror of the police visits to Cruttenden’s house at Pinner. He consulted Hislop and Keene, and their first impulse was to warn Cruttenden not to return to the Country. But they thought that if they did so their share of the swag might be endangered. Indeed, from the first they had been up against the difficulty that Cruttenden might play them false and decamp with the entire £100,000. They had to chance it, however, as they could not have denounced Cruttenden without giving themselves away. But they were not going to take the further risk of letting Cruttenden remain abroad. Henty, therefore, met him on his return to warn him not to go to Pinner and to tell him their meeting had been transferred from there to his own house at Raynes Park.

One point gave Cruttenden a good deal of worry: Would the Soviet people, reading in the papers of the
Jane
Vosper
affair, not smell a rat and mention their suspicions to the Home Office?

Eventually he decided that there was little fear of this. The fact that the vessel was blown up by explosives in the Weaver Bannister crates might never become known, or, if it did, the public would scarcely hear it before the Board of Trade enquiry. But by the time that this took place Cruttenden intended that the sets should be delivered and that ‘Rice’ and ‘Henty’ should have ceased to exist. Incidentally, this did not work out quite as he had hoped. His calculations were correct, but he had not reckoned on a test being required at Leningrad, and this had dragged out till long after the enquiry was over. The Soviet people, however, had suspected nothing, not connecting the two affairs and not having the slightest idea that the Weaver Bannister sets had not sunk with the ship.

The scheme had worked out better than the conspirators could have hoped, but when it was nearly completed the luck changed and disaster befell them. Sutton, enquiring as to the journey of the cases, learned that a porter at the Haydon Square goods depot had seen a lorry loaded with cases entering the Rice Bros’ shed. Sutton believed that he was on to something serious and did not risk giving away his knowledge by calling immediately at the shed. Perhaps he was afraid for his life. Instead he rang up his friend in the local police force, asking if anything were known of Rice Bros. Also, and this was where he made his fatal mistake, he called on Hislop to ask him if he knew anything of Rice Bros. or of the cases being taken there.

Hislop, suddenly alive to the danger, held Sutton in conversation while he cast about in his mind for some way of meeting the situation. Finally he rang up Cruttenden, and they arranged that Hislop should entice Sutton to the shed, when Cruttenden would slip up behind him and kill him with a blow over the head. Cruttenden would afterwards bury the body in the shed. (French shrewdly suspected that in this Henty had assisted, but Henty denied it, saying that he did not know anything about the affair till afterwards, and French could not disprove his statement.)

This plan was carried out. Hislop returned to Sutton, whom he had left waiting in his office, and said that he considered the news serious and that he thought Sutton and he should go immediately to the shed and make enquiries. To his clerks Hislop said that he was going down to see a certain shipping manager. This, as a matter of fact, was true, as he had to pay a call on this man, though not necessarily at that time. Hislop by tricks at each end caused the times of his leaving his office, and of arriving at the shippers to be noted, so that he was able to put up a reasonable alibi, the deviation necessary to pass the shed not occupying more than three or four minutes.

He and his victim then went to Redliff Lane and knocked on the door of the shed. Cruttenden admitted them, closed the door behind them, murdered Sutton by striking him on the head, and, while Hislop hurried off to complete his alibi, buried the body. The final proof of this part of the crime was that the fingerprints found on the heels of Sutton’s shoes proved to be Cruttenden’s.

At the trial all four men paid heavily for their crimes. Cruttenden and Hislop were sentenced to death for the murder of Sutton, and Henty, whose complicity in this could not be proved, received fourteen years’ penal servitude. Keene, who was not considered to have been party to the more serious crime, got five years.

A financial settlement was made by agreement between the interested parties. The Soviet Government, who had acted in good faith throughout, now behaved handsomely. On the true facts being put before them, they offered to keep the sets and to pay Weaver Bannister £55 on each – that is, the difference between the Weaver Bannister price and the amount they had paid Cruttenden. This was naturally satisfactory to Messrs Weaver Bannister, who were thus adequately paid for their work, and made no claim against the Land and Sea Insurance Company. The South American agents agreed to accept another lot of sets, as soon as these could be made.

But loss fell on the other insurance companies, the Lloyd’s underwriters who had covered the
Jane
Vosper
and the firms which had insured the remainder of the cargo. All these, however, paid up without demur, and the matter was considered at an end.

French was profoundly thankful the case had reached a satisfactory termination, though he was not entirely satisfied that he had reached his conclusion as quickly as he ought to have done. However, Sir Mortimer Ellison appeared satisfied, and indeed actually went so far as to compliment French on his achievement. It was with a little glow at his heart, therefore, that he sat down once more at his desk to read up the dossier of a cat burglar who was badly wanted out Hampstead way.