Speaker 1: This is Awson Wells speaking from London. The Black Museum
Speaker 1: a repository of death. Yes, he and the grim Stone
Speaker 1: structure on the Thames which houses Scotland Yard. He's a
Speaker 1: warehouse of homicide where everyday objects a kitchen knife, a roller, skate,
Speaker 1: a violin string, all touched by murder. Here's a thirty
Speaker 1: two caliber bullet.
Speaker 2: It's a familiar object.
Speaker 3: Brass cartridge case, snow, leaden nose, not very pretty to.
Speaker 4: Look interesting this bullet, shargant Notice the back of the
Speaker 4: cartridge case.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, it's for a center fire weapon.
Speaker 5: The firing pin and the pistol must strike the center
Speaker 5: of the cartridge right.
Speaker 4: But the weapon in which we found this bullet was
Speaker 4: a rim fire The firing thin could strike only the
Speaker 4: edge of the cartridge. That little fact, Sergeant, saved at
Speaker 4: least one life. I'd say.
Speaker 1: Well today that sensor fire bullet can be seen in
Speaker 1: the Black Museum.
Speaker 6: From the annals of the Criminal Investigation Department of the
Speaker 6: London Police. We bring you the dramatic stories of the
Speaker 6: crimes recorded by the objects in Scotland Yards Gallery of Death,
Speaker 6: the Black Museum.
Speaker 1: Here we are Black Museum, Scotland Yards, museum, Museum of Murder, Allies, death,
Speaker 1: so orderly, so well kept, Row and row, a macab
Speaker 1: record of the violence of many generations.
Speaker 3: Each object in its place, each marked.
Speaker 1: Tagged carded with name and place and date. Each object
Speaker 1: in this room enjoyed in its life one supreme moment,
Speaker 1: when the eyes of the world were upon it, and
Speaker 1: it played its silent part in a case of murder. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I has a jeweled ring fit for a princess, but
Speaker 1: born of a mind like the gorger's dressed the jewel
Speaker 1: so and a tiny point locks out of fang, dripping death.
Speaker 1: Shake hands with your enemy shortly thereafter he dies. A bathtub, yes,
Speaker 1: a bathtub, white smooth, shining in the dimness. Once a
Speaker 1: man floated face down in the tub. He slipped or
Speaker 1: he had been pushed. Was the mark on his skull
Speaker 1: caused by striking his head as he slipped, or by
Speaker 1: a blunt weapon.
Speaker 2: In any case, he drowned.
Speaker 1: I see the thirty two caliber bullets even here, lying
Speaker 1: so quietly, so somble. It's it's ugly. This object was
Speaker 1: made for killing. As a matter of fact, he never
Speaker 1: did kill. That's the story. It began on a London Street.
Speaker 1: A dark sedan drove slowly into the stream of traffic.
Speaker 1: The three young men in it. One seems quite a
Speaker 1: bit younger than the other. Even so, the car continues
Speaker 1: to cruise above.
Speaker 4: You've got everything straight?
Speaker 7: Blood?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 2: Do you think I'm a goon?
Speaker 7: You just want to be sure?
Speaker 3: Kid? That's all?
Speaker 7: What did we tell you?
Speaker 2: I'll stay in the car till you wigwag.
Speaker 4: It's all cleared in our game with you.
Speaker 3: Hey, there's a chance to part the old.
Speaker 2: Bus step fenders now.
Speaker 8: I want nobody to ask for your license a turn
Speaker 8: like this?
Speaker 3: Many?
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, just.
Speaker 4: Kidding in, that's all.
Speaker 2: What's the matter you edgy?
Speaker 3: Hold his eyes?
Speaker 4: That's me, Yeah, I.
Speaker 8: Says what we're gonna get?
Speaker 2: What's it? Let's go.
Speaker 1: Two young men leave an automobile stroll up the street,
Speaker 1: hands and pockets, cigarettes dangling loosely from their mouths.
Speaker 3: They walk past the busy jewelry store.
Speaker 2: Pretty crowded.
Speaker 4: Maybe we ought to wait, could be no.
Speaker 3: Use taking chances.
Speaker 1: They stroll a few steps farther on and return start
Speaker 1: back right casual.
Speaker 7: Hey, what's the kid doing?
Speaker 2: The guy's going into the store.
Speaker 7: Come on, a coon must have thought we made a signal,
Speaker 7: got your gunbody else slow down?
Speaker 2: Now here we go. Rod, what's the idea you went back?
Speaker 2: Didn't you?
Speaker 3: Never mind? Just do it right?
Speaker 2: All right, everybody, this is a hold up. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: get that ball.
Speaker 8: Anybody he's guns are loaded.
Speaker 9: No, you're going to my store.
Speaker 4: Shut up?
Speaker 2: You quiet. Anybody talks. I'm giving awa run grip the
Speaker 2: junk on the counters.
Speaker 10: You're there, stand Phil.
Speaker 9: I'm button runs the car.
Speaker 2: Stop the engine. Many screams shot.
Speaker 9: Down that storm.
Speaker 2: Man, exact the truck, the double pump. We can't get
Speaker 2: the car out. He stuck behind that truck. Put a
Speaker 2: kid bad. I can't get the car out.
Speaker 9: I can't hold on. Keep movies stuff you stop, stop, job,
Speaker 9: the sees stop.
Speaker 7: Got my way, I got you, I got your Please.
Speaker 9: Now it's just a fire front, lady.
Speaker 1: A man laid dead on the sidewalk. The crowd knelled
Speaker 1: around him. The black sedan stayed in its place. Three
Speaker 1: young men disappeared in the teeming streets. Disappeared completely and utterly.
Speaker 1: A few hours later, in a quiet office and scarpenter,
Speaker 1: Inspector Bowers and detective Sergeant would looked at what they
Speaker 1: had not.
Speaker 4: Very much of anything.
Speaker 5: Every sergeant knows that descriptions which could be any of
Speaker 5: one hundred men and two bullets.
Speaker 4: Forty five bullets from the woodwork in the jewelry store,
Speaker 4: and the thirty two which killed that.
Speaker 2: Fellow with no guns to go with them.
Speaker 4: If those boys were smart at all, they've ditched the guns.
Speaker 2: Funny, you'd expect a lot more shooting in a thing
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 4: They were conserving ammunition. Oh well, I don't know. Circularize
Speaker 4: the descriptions and what there is of them. That's about
Speaker 4: all for the moment.
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, three men, youngish, white handkerchiefs.
Speaker 3: Over and that was all.
Speaker 1: And where do you start among eight million people searching
Speaker 1: for three youngish men who maybe miles.
Speaker 3: Away by now? Well, the answer is you don't start.
Speaker 3: You wait.
Speaker 1: You have patience, and sometimes your patience is rewarded, sometimes
Speaker 1: sooner than you expect.
Speaker 2: This is Wilson, expector he's the Cabby who called in
Speaker 2: this morning. How do you do Wilson? Thanks very much.
Speaker 2: Wilson may have something on the jewelry store killing. Well,
Speaker 2: let's hear it.
Speaker 10: Wilson will say, I never thought about it, and I've
Speaker 10: seen the papers. This morning, all about the hold up
Speaker 10: and that poor fellow got himself killed yesterday.
Speaker 2: Go on, Wilson, Wills, I was taking me.
Speaker 10: Came along Queensbury Road, you know, about a block from
Speaker 10: the place where it all happened. When a fellow with
Speaker 10: a white scene around his neck hops on the running
Speaker 10: board of affair, so I waves him off. Then I
Speaker 10: see him going to that big building in the brook building.
Speaker 10: I think it is a corner of Queensbury and Maidson.
Speaker 10: You're certain of this, Wilson, Oh, yes, sir. Anything else
Speaker 10: I'm not so sure of this, inspector, But I think
Speaker 10: I saw another fellow round in the building after the
Speaker 10: one what jumped onto my cat.
Speaker 4: Very good, Wilson, Well you may have been quite helpful.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 4: Thanks, get your head, sergeant. We're going exploring.
Speaker 1: The reward of patience, and sooner than expected, but only
Speaker 1: a bear and vague beginning. This kind of investigation takes
Speaker 1: long hours and hard work and endless, endless questions up
Speaker 1: and down the hallways of the large office building, in
Speaker 1: and out of business offices.
Speaker 5: Did you notice any commotion in the hall yesterday around
Speaker 5: three o'clock.
Speaker 4: Did a man with a white scarf around his neck.
Speaker 4: Take your elevator. Around three o'clock yesterday?
Speaker 5: Did you hear any running or anything like that? Around
Speaker 5: three o'clock yesterday?
Speaker 3: On and on upstairs, downstairs. Nothing? No one noticed anything,
Speaker 3: nothing irregular, no commotion. How does that is the part
Speaker 3: or notice anything?
Speaker 8: Two fellows, one of them at a raincoat. I think
Speaker 8: both of them had white rags around their collars. Sort
Speaker 8: of your shot of this, Oh, yesterday they seemed in
Speaker 8: a hurry, sort.
Speaker 2: Of Where did they go? Which office?
Speaker 8: You mean?
Speaker 2: That's right?
Speaker 3: Well, I wouldn't know, sir.
Speaker 8: We went up the stairs just as I was putting
Speaker 8: some empty waistcns on the service lift.
Speaker 4: Did you see them in again?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 3: You mention it?
Speaker 8: Yes, I did, well. On the third floor. It was
Speaker 8: I was taking my mop to the hall. One of
Speaker 8: them was sort of half sitting on the steer rail.
Speaker 8: The other fellow was looking out of the hall window
Speaker 8: that opens under Queensbree.
Speaker 4: Sir.
Speaker 8: They didn't have the white rags, but they were the
Speaker 8: same fellows. Anything else, no, sir, not that I remember. Oh,
Speaker 8: Pops Saunders might know something, inspector.
Speaker 4: Oh the Saunders. He drives a van.
Speaker 8: He's been making delivers to this place every afternoon for years.
Speaker 4: Thank you right, Well, let's go, sardon't Maybe mister Saunders
Speaker 4: does know something. We have your address.
Speaker 1: They reached the street outside just as a large, rather
Speaker 1: decrepit truck.
Speaker 3: Driven by an equally decrepit elderly man.
Speaker 5: Pulled up for the kurtst You pop, Saunders. Let's be
Speaker 5: who are you, sergeant would in Scotland yard. This is
Speaker 5: Inspector Barry's.
Speaker 7: Yes.
Speaker 2: Have I done something?
Speaker 4: No that you may have seen something that will help us? Yes, sir,
Speaker 4: were you here at this time yesterday?
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, I'm always here this time of day.
Speaker 4: Well did you notice anyone with a white scarf go
Speaker 4: into the building running? Perhaps?
Speaker 2: Oh? Those two?
Speaker 4: Yes, I did funny thing. They seemed in such a
Speaker 4: harry when I met a raincoat.
Speaker 2: They came out later. No scars, no raincoat.
Speaker 3: Now the search is on for a raincoat.
Speaker 1: Scarves, handkerchiefs can go into pockets, not raincoats. The Brook
Speaker 1: building swarms with police. Every nook and cranny is inspected.
Speaker 1: In the cellar in a dark corner.
Speaker 5: This must be an inspector. Every other raincoat in the
Speaker 5: buildings accounted for, not a mark on it.
Speaker 4: Nothing, Try ripping the lining side, and.
Speaker 5: Nothing, sir, except the manufacturer's top tag under the armpit.
Speaker 4: Much but a little at any rate.
Speaker 3: Check the manufacturer from there to the Jaba who bought.
Speaker 1: The lot in which that code was packed, from the
Speaker 1: Java to the retailer.
Speaker 4: It's times like this I thank Heaven for rationing. At
Speaker 4: least they have to keep a record of the clothing
Speaker 4: coupons and the names of everyone who buys anything.
Speaker 1: A thin, tenuous trail and a mountain of sales slips
Speaker 1: to go through, but nothing strikes a chord of memory,
Speaker 1: and then the sergeant thinks of something.
Speaker 5: Inspector, when they make out these records, don't they write
Speaker 5: the last names first?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right they do. Oh well, back over it again.
Speaker 4: Here, How about this Argent mac Stanley the other way,
Speaker 4: Stanley Mack.
Speaker 11: Remember that name, s Argent Stanley Mack. Not a usual name, Yes, sir,
Speaker 11: I do. Didn't he testify at a trial about two
Speaker 11: years ago? He did the trial of Jack Jordston. He
Speaker 11: was sent away for armed robbery, first offense, light sentence.
Speaker 11: Now georgetonn't ought to.
Speaker 4: Be out by now, all right, let's get his dossier
Speaker 4: over here, Sergeant and then invite him in for a talk.
Speaker 4: It may be interesting if nothing else.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Today that center fire bullet can be seen in the
Speaker 1: Black Museum. Who's a long chance? One man buys a raincoat.
Speaker 1: This man happens to be a witness at another man's trial.
Speaker 1: The defendant is sent to prison for armed robbery under
Speaker 1: circumstances similar to the case and investigation. The inspector in
Speaker 1: charge sends for the convicted man's dossier and finds.
Speaker 4: Well so Jack Jeordstone was released from prison six days
Speaker 4: before the Queen's be killing. Let's have the young man
Speaker 4: into the yarch, are we, Sergeant, you'll be able to
Speaker 4: find him easily enough, I think. If not, we can
Speaker 4: suspect the flight because of guilt, can't send a pickup
Speaker 4: order out for him.
Speaker 1: Jack Georgeton was found found quite easily in London.
Speaker 7: Look, you have nothing on me, inspector, and you know it.
Speaker 4: Maybe maybe not, Sergeant, show mister Georgeton the garment.
Speaker 2: It is Georgeton. You recognize it.
Speaker 4: There's a million raincoats like that, but not bought by
Speaker 4: Stanley mack.
Speaker 2: Uh that coat you know it?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I didn't have nothing against the rain last
Speaker 7: week when I got out, So Stan give me a coat.
Speaker 4: Oh where did you lose it? I didn't lose it.
Speaker 7: I never lost nothing except a little time recently.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we know about that. I'll figure you did keep
Speaker 4: a simple tongue in your head. Georgeton understand, okay, okay?
Speaker 4: I said, Well, now, since you didn't lose this raincoat,
Speaker 4: how is it that we found it?
Speaker 7: I uh, I'll loaned it to a fellow. How should
Speaker 7: I know what he did with it?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Who had it?
Speaker 7: I don't remember.
Speaker 4: Now you receive a raincoat as a gift against the raid.
Speaker 4: Within a matter of days, you'll learn it to someone,
Speaker 4: But you don't remember to who?
Speaker 7: That's right, I don't remember.
Speaker 2: You try him, sergeant, Yes, sir, speak up now? Who
Speaker 2: had that? Code?
Speaker 7: I don't remember?
Speaker 5: And maybe I can refresh your memory. My coat's hooked
Speaker 5: up with a murder? Who had it?
Speaker 7: I don't remember. I don't remember. Your friend, I don't remember.
Speaker 7: How could they make him remember? Finally they let him go.
Speaker 7: I think I hold him on.
Speaker 4: Inspector Bowers said, I want a tail on him, Sergeant,
Speaker 4: twenty four hours a day. We'll pick up his friends
Speaker 4: one by one and see where he leads us.
Speaker 3: One of those friends was a boy named Rodney Hamilton.
Speaker 4: Let me alone.
Speaker 2: I never did nothing. How old are you Hamilton? Seventeen?
Speaker 4: And you got no right.
Speaker 2: We happen to know that you've been away to a
Speaker 2: reform school.
Speaker 4: Hamilton. You were caught snatching ladies purses two years ago.
Speaker 3: So what I did me time?
Speaker 4: You don't keep very good company.
Speaker 2: Son.
Speaker 4: Georgeton has been out of prison about a week.
Speaker 3: And we like each other.
Speaker 4: I'll pick me.
Speaker 3: I'm friends.
Speaker 4: Where were you day before?
Speaker 2: Yesterday?
Speaker 4: About two thirty in the afternoon, I am in bed
Speaker 4: er sleeping late and I was sick, had a fever.
Speaker 4: We can check that, you know, go ahead check it.
Speaker 4: I was that.
Speaker 2: I am in bed all afternoon, no.
Speaker 4: Morning, and all night. I was sick. Yes, we know
Speaker 4: you said that before, now look here.
Speaker 3: But it didn't do any good.
Speaker 1: The boy was obviously afraid, but whether the police or.
Speaker 3: The many knew it was impossible to tell.
Speaker 1: Still, the patience of Scotland Yard was rewarded once again.
Speaker 1: Her report came in from detectives assigned to follow both
Speaker 1: Georgetown and Hamilton, and they've been present at a party
Speaker 1: in a bar given by a third young man named
Speaker 1: Mattie Canvas.
Speaker 2: Dot here on canvas, Inspector A thank you, sir.
Speaker 4: Nice lad stole a car when he was eleven. Convicted,
Speaker 4: assault with intent to rob convicted, jewel robbery, convicted armed
Speaker 4: robbery and assault. Nice. This little trio are three friends.
Speaker 2: Not exactly do you want Canvas brought in?
Speaker 4: Some peers do that? Oh wonder, Sergeant, Bring the other
Speaker 4: two along, but keep them separated. Don't let any one
Speaker 4: of them know that we have the other two.
Speaker 1: Nothing highly dramatic, mainly routine Scotland yard routine, recognizable as
Speaker 1: standard practiced by any policeman in any large city.
Speaker 3: Bring them in for questioning.
Speaker 1: It always helps to have a few facts, facts on
Speaker 1: which to base the questions. With this in mind and
Speaker 1: knowing their underworld, Inspector Bowers and Sergeant Wood repaired to
Speaker 1: that certain bar where Mattie Canvas held parties for its friends.
Speaker 4: Nothing much here, well they maybe keep your ears open
Speaker 4: another point of ail, please very right, Let.
Speaker 2: Me sit yourself, Miguel, sit yourself. Oh well down the headshide.
Speaker 1: Patience frequent the bar. Wait, keep your ears open, don't talk,
Speaker 1: just wait.
Speaker 3: Say lady you heah.
Speaker 4: They picked up natty.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and the other two to that kid, Well, I
Speaker 10: for one age. Sorry, here's a place a bad name.
Speaker 10: I mean, kids are out with guns in that pockets.
Speaker 10: Not right, Canvas ain't right? That's for sure. That said
Speaker 10: o' get bunked out of five thousand quids? Where the
Speaker 10: stuff gets mad? Where's the kid like that?
Speaker 2: They're rod? Oh, well, so it goes, I will say,
Speaker 2: not a couple of mines please, miss Oh, yeah, sure.
Speaker 6: There you are.
Speaker 2: Do you know a lad name Canvas?
Speaker 7: Me?
Speaker 2: I don't know nobody. How about a kid named Hamilton.
Speaker 2: Do you think I'll keep check of everybody comes in here?
Speaker 4: That would be difficult. I thought I heard you mentioned
Speaker 4: mister Canvas by name. So did my friend here?
Speaker 6: Any thought wrong?
Speaker 10: We don't encoarriage conversation with the other.
Speaker 4: No, I don't suppose you do have a drink on us.
Speaker 7: I'm not certain the iright drinks with cops, mister, More routine, ahead,
Speaker 7: more routine.
Speaker 3: The inspector and the sergeant aft. They left the buyer.
Speaker 1: They checked descriptions of the men seen at hold ups
Speaker 1: and robberies prior by some months to the tragedy in
Speaker 1: Queensboro Street. In one case, a description Talid with Nattie Kanvas.
Speaker 1: Mister Canvas was invited out of his cell and into
Speaker 1: the Inspector's office.
Speaker 4: All right, Canvas, you've been identified on the davior's job.
Speaker 4: You'll do a good long stretch for you. May as
Speaker 4: well tell us what you know about the Queensbury shooting.
Speaker 1: I don't know nothing.
Speaker 4: Turn King's evidence, Canvas, and you'll get off easily. Otherwise
Speaker 4: it's a hanging matter.
Speaker 2: You can't pin that one on me. I was miles away.
Speaker 2: I can prove it.
Speaker 4: I suppose I told you. The kid's been talking his
Speaker 4: head off.
Speaker 2: Rod talk not in your life. It's too scared. Some
Speaker 2: of your caddies never out.
Speaker 4: Oh right, Canvas, if that's the way you wanted, take
Speaker 4: him back, Sarteant. We'll give him plenty of time to think.
Speaker 3: No luck with Georgeton either, But the kid, there's a
Speaker 3: chance he'd break, just a chance. Inspector took it.
Speaker 4: Look, boy, your pals are saying that you held a
Speaker 4: gun that killed a fellow in the Queensberry hold up.
Speaker 4: I never had a gun. Maybe they're framing you, lad.
Speaker 4: After all, you're pretty young seventeen. You won't hang they
Speaker 4: will so naturally, they say, it was you.
Speaker 2: I didn't. I never touched the gun. Member says you
Speaker 2: did that. You had the thirty two all the time.
Speaker 4: I never did.
Speaker 2: They can't say it, they can't, but they do.
Speaker 5: Both of them told me it looks to us like
Speaker 5: they got together to put the job on you.
Speaker 4: Well, why shouldn't they. They might have to die.
Speaker 2: There were only two guns.
Speaker 12: They had them.
Speaker 2: You've got to believe that you gun.
Speaker 4: We don't have to believe anything except evidence.
Speaker 12: If you had the guns. If I told you where
Speaker 12: they were, I said it. I didn't mean to talk.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 2: I did keep talking. Lad.
Speaker 4: It's the only way to save your neck, my neck,
Speaker 4: if you held that gun and pull that trigger.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 12: We threw the guns away, both of them, the forty
Speaker 12: five many Adams, the two jackead We threw them in
Speaker 12: the river from the key at the Langshare Wolf. If
Speaker 12: you can find them, you'll see, heybe, there'll be fingerprints.
Speaker 2: You've gotta find them guns.
Speaker 12: You gotta.
Speaker 13: Ballistic reports, inspector. The forty five fire the bullet and
Speaker 13: in the woodwork. The thirty two killed the man in
Speaker 13: the street. And it's funny. Half the cartridges in the
Speaker 13: thirty two were rim fire. The other half was center fire.
Speaker 13: Those didn't go off. If they had, chances are there'd
Speaker 13: have been a lot more murder.
Speaker 1: And today, if you're interested, you can find that center
Speaker 1: fire bullet in a place of honor in the Black Museum.
Speaker 6: Orson Wells will be back with you in just a moment.
Speaker 1: It's an accepted fact in police work that eighty percent
Speaker 1: of the occupants of our prison either were talked there
Speaker 1: or talk themselves there.
Speaker 3: In this case, it.
Speaker 1: Was ancient police routine, plus the talking of young Rod Hamilton,
Speaker 1: which put Rod behind bars for the rest of his
Speaker 1: life and brought Georgeton and Canvas to the thirteen steps
Speaker 1: and the rope one morning at eight o'clock. There's a
Speaker 1: PostScript of this story. The use of a gun by
Speaker 1: an English criminal is rare, nor in England do the
Speaker 1: police go armed in their normal course of duty. The
Speaker 1: Hamilton case was one of the more obvious symptoms of
Speaker 1: a post war disease of violence. The death of Georgetown
Speaker 1: and Canvas was not without its effect on this disease.
Speaker 1: For days, weeks, and even months after their execution, pistols, guns, knives,
Speaker 1: many of them perhaps innocent wartime souvenirs. Others of more
Speaker 1: dubious origin were found by the police on rubbish sheeps,
Speaker 1: disused gardens on the mud banks of the River Thames.
Speaker 1: The criminal world of London had come to terms with
Speaker 1: their traditional enemies at Scotland Yard, and perhaps after all
Speaker 1: the innocent men had not.
Speaker 3: Died in vain.
Speaker 1: The bullet that killed him, a center fire bullet, remains
Speaker 1: in its customary place in the Black Museum.
Speaker 3: And now until we meet.
Speaker 1: Next time in the same place, I tell you another
Speaker 1: story about the Black Museum. I remain as always obedient
Speaker 1: for yours