The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes (104 page)

29
. Evidence of James Rickards: this clearly refutes any suggestion of serious delay on the part of the police.

30
. But I am told that it is not the practice in Peasenhall to eat rabbit except between the months of October and February since their meat, when they are “struck”, produces intestinal disorders. At the trials Gardiner agreed that the rabbit was inedible and had to be buried.

31
. But, according to local tradition, Gardiner had a “pepper-and-salt” suit that was committed to the flames, together with his third shirt. Unfortunately Mr Stammers, who rejoiced in the local style of “Old Hardeye”, could not see what was burned that morning.

32
. This seems to be corroborated by Gardiner’s second letter to Rose.

33
. I find that his lordship told the jury that tried Chapman in March 1903, “This case is unique, not only from a medical point of view or a chemical point of view, but also unique from a legal and criminal point of view.” When trying Robert Wood of Camden Town in December 1907 he told the jury “You have been engaged in one of the most remarkable trials that is to be found in the annals of the Criminal Courts of England for many years-certainly the most remarkable in my time, which has not been a short one.” Such words certainly flattered the vanity of the jury and, it may be, the vanity of the man who uttered them.

34
. The theory is open to the objection that no person in his senses would seek to burn a body with one newspaper and a tiny bottle of paraffin, but presumably the intention was to incinerate the girl in her bed, for which purpose there was sufficient to
start
a fire. It is doubtful if Gardiner ever realized that his name was on the bottle, but in any case he may have lost his head when Rose screamed, for fear the Crisps should come down to investigate. In 1946, one Arthur Clegg threw a baby in the Thames after carefully removing all clothing to avoid identification: he forgot the existence of a tape round its wrist which had been attached in hospital to prevent confusion: the tape bore the words “Baby Clegg” and its grandfather paid for his negligence on the scaffold.

35
. Presumably a brother-in-law of the accused, whose wife’s maiden name was Cady, a point that has previously been missed and which was not taken at the trial.

36
. In fairness to Gardiner, it must be conceded that his other shirt was dirty and ostensibly of the previous week. In his summing up, the judge said cryptically, “The accused had had a clean shirt on that morning, and how, after a fortnight’s wear, that could be managed, I do not know.” Mrs Gardiner washed fortnightly.

37
. Speaking of Davis, Wild had earlier observed, “If ever you wish to minimize the importance of a man, you call him a lad: he is twenty.”

38
. B. Leeson:
Lost London
(Stanley Paul). Mr Leeson left Scotland Yard after being wounded in the Battle of Sidney Street.

39
. A reference to Hawthorne’s grim story,
The Scarlet Letter
.

40
.
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
by Patrick Hamilton (Constable, 1936).

41
.
The Trial of Robert Wood
, edited by Basil Hogarth (Notable Trials Series. William Hodge and Co. Ltd, Edinburg).

42
.
For Them That Trespass
by Ernest Raymond.

43
. The State inferred Rothstein was summoned to pay the overdue IOUs given in the high spade game described by Martin Bowe.