Walter Dew's Retirement

CHIEF INSPECTOR DEW.

RETIREMENT AFTER 29 YEARS' WAR AGAINST CRIME.


Chief Inspector Dew, the man who raced across the ocean to capture Crippen, the principal detective figure in the important criminal cases of the past twenty-five years, is to retire from Scotland Yard on December 5 (says the Daily Express of November 9th).
"I have had nearly twenty-nine years of it, and that's enough for a young man," he said yesterday. "But I feel far too young to give up work altogether, and after my retirement I shall start as a private enquiry agent. I am not resigning in consequence of any attacks that were made on me in certain quarters at the beginning of the Crippen case."
Chief Inspector Dew is only forty-seven years old. He was barely nineteen when he joined the Metropolitan Police Force, where he won early promotion.
He was one of the detectives investigating the series of Jack the Ripper crimes, and it was for his energy in this work that he was given the rank of detective sergeant. He rose rapidly, and became inspector at Bow street, which led to his gaining the post of chief inspector four years ago in succession to Mr. Froest.
His career has been one long, adventurous criminal hunt, and it is noteworthy that though he had to deal with many dangerous men, he never carried a revolver until the hunt after Crippen, and has only used handcuffs about three times.
Among the people he arrested recently are: --
Miss Robinson and Miss Hamilton, witnesses in the Druce case.
"Harry the Valet," the expert jewel thief who stole £20,000 worth of jewels from the Duchess of Sutherland.
Conrad Harms, the bank swindler.
Dr. Crippen.
These are the only more striking cases, but there have been hundreds of minor arrests, and latterly Mr. Dew, entrusted with some special enquiries for the War Office with regard to stolen cartridges, ran the thief to earth.
All the important investigations came his way; he frequently had to leave for the Continent at a moment's notice to secure the arrest of some international swindler.
He has often said that, while that it is imagined that detection of crime is now made easier by the use of telegrams and improved locomotion, the truth is that the work is far more difficult today.
Criminals are better educated than they used to be, the means of escape are much easier, and there are so many ways by which a wanted man may cover up his tracks.
Formerly it was only necessary to scour a country for a criminal - today the detective must search the world.

Source: Hawera And Normanby Star, Volume LX, 24 December 1910, Page 2

INSPECTOR DEW RETIRES.
DETECTIVE WHO ARRESTED CRIPPEN.

Chief-Inspector Dew, of Scotland Yard, whose name has been before the public so prominently in connection with the Crippen trial and many other important criminal cases, has (says the "Daily Chronicle" of November 7) tendered his resignation, and will retire in about a month's time, after over 28 years' service in the force.
Inspector Dew intended to retire some time ago, but as the Crippen case had been placed in his hands, he stayed at Scotland Yard to see its conclusion.
Inspector Dew first came into prominence at the time of the "Jack the Ripper" crimes. For his services in relation to those cases he was promoted to the rank of detective-sergeant. Since that time rapid progress had marked his career, until he came to one of the foremost positions in the service. After some years as inspector at Bow-street he was four years ago appointed a chief inspector in succession to Mr. Frank Froest.
Chief-Inspector Dew has cleared up several difficult murder cases and exposed many huge frauds. One of his triumphs was to secure the conviction of a clever swindler named Nicholson, who obtained thousands of pounds by a clever advertising method in connection with the solving of easy puzzles.
When the Druce case was in progress in 1908 Mr. Dew arrested at Sisters-avenue, Lavender Hill, Miss Robinson, the Australian witness, on a charge of perjury. Miss Robinson, the daughter of an ex-policeman, swore that she was an Australian, and that she was formerly a maid in the service of the fifth Duke of Portland at Welbeck, and that she knew, both from the duke and the late Charles Dickens, that Druce was an assumed name of the duke.
Before her arrest Miss Robinson had created some sensation by offering a hundred pounds reward for the recovery of a mythical diary which she said had been stolen from her to prevent her giving evidence in the case. Inspector Dew arrested her on the collapse of the Druce prosecution, and secured her conviction on the perjury charge at Old Bailey.
While he was at Hammersmith Inspector Dew broke into a flat in Fulham-road and arrested "Harry the Valet," one of the most expert jewel thieves in the country, who stole the Duchess of Sutherland's jewels, worth 20,000 pounds, from the saloon carriage at the Gare du Nord.
In June of last year he obtained a long term of penal servitude for Conrad Harms, alias Henry Clifford, the clever swindler, who drew 4,700 pounds from Parrs Bank at Notting Hill after a forged note of credit had been sent there from one of the London branches of a well-known foreign bank. This Harms had cleverly forged in America and sent on in advance. With one of the 100 pound notes, the proceeds of the fraud, a purchased a watch in the Strand, and, later, as the watch did not keep proper time, he took it back to the tradesman to have it adjusted. In the meantime the note had found its way to the Bank of England, and the inquiries which followed led to the watchmaker communicating with the police.
Inspector Dew's share in the Crippen case is too well known to need recapitulating.

Source: Barrier Miner, Wednesday 14 December 1910, page 7