but sufficient shadow that if he was seen the observer would not be able to recognise him easily later.
They also needed to have more than one exit so that if he was surprised he had a fair chance of being able to make his escape. It is safe to bet that he selected and recce’d more locations than he was likely to need and meticulously walked the different routes to and from them, measuring the time that it would take him to regain the sanctuary of 306 Mile End Road before the discovery of a body and the resulting hue and cry made the streets too dangerous. Francis though had one enormous advantage: his profession as a reporter gave him a good excuse to be out in the streets at all hours of the day and night. Almost certainly he was known to all the local policemen who would have been used to seeing him in the local police court most days and for him to have been found in the vicinity of a crime scene was the most natural thing in the world. He was simply doing his job.
The relationship between the police and the press during the events of 1888 was not a happy one. Senior officers, particularly the unpopular Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Charles Warren, were singled out for ridicule for their bungling inability to catch the right man and this made them defensive and antagonistic. Warren himself, like many senior police officers at the time, had been a regular soldier and had carved out a highly successful career in the Royal Engineers. He had spent a large part of his early military life in Africa and the Middle East and used his surveying and engineering skills to good effect in conducting the first modern excavation of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a feat for which he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society. A vertical shaft that he discovered and which was once thought to be part of the water supply of the city is known to this day as Warren’s Shaft. He also succeeded in uncovering what had happened to Edward Palmer’s ill-fated political expedition to the Sinai peninsula in 1882, discovering that Palmer and his two companions, who had been carrying a great deal of money to buy the allegiance of the local Bedouin tribesmen, had been robbed and brutally murdered. He succeeded in recovering their bodies, which were then shipped back to England,and in bringing the killers to justice. For this and other of his exploits he was knighted and it was probably the element of detection involved in the Palmer expedition that led to his being considered a suitable person to take charge of the Metropolitan Police 76 .
Soon after standing unsuccessfully for election to Parliament in the Liberal interest, Warren was invited to take the post of Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 1886. From the outset he did not hit it off with his immediate colleagues. He was ridiculed for designing for himself a ludicrously over-ornate dress uniform and, probably because of his Liberal sympathies, he never succeeded in gaining the support of Henry Matthews, the Tory Home Secretary. Very early on he clashed with James Monro, the Assistant Commissioner. Monro, who had a legal background, had been expecting to succeed to the role of Commissioner himself and was understandably peeved when Warren was appointed over his head. It led to continuous bickering between the two men which culminated eventually in both offering their resignations to Matthews.
The Home Secretary accepted Monro’s resignation but sweetened it by allowing him to retain control of the Special Branch and to report directly to him as part of the Home Office. In doing so he removed a highly efficient investigative tool from the control of the Metropolitan Police. In Monro’s place Robert Anderson, another lawyer, was made Assistant Commissioner and Superintendent Adolphus ‘Dolly’ Williamson was appointed Chief Constable in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department. All three men were in the confidence of Henry Matthews and they habitually met
They also needed to have more than one exit so that if he was surprised he had a fair chance of being able to make his escape. It is safe to bet that he selected and recce’d more locations than he was likely to need and meticulously walked the different routes to and from them, measuring the time that it would take him to regain the sanctuary of 306 Mile End Road before the discovery of a body and the resulting hue and cry made the streets too dangerous. Francis though had one enormous advantage: his profession as a reporter gave him a good excuse to be out in the streets at all hours of the day and night. Almost certainly he was known to all the local policemen who would have been used to seeing him in the local police court most days and for him to have been found in the vicinity of a crime scene was the most natural thing in the world. He was simply doing his job.
The relationship between the police and the press during the events of 1888 was not a happy one. Senior officers, particularly the unpopular Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Charles Warren, were singled out for ridicule for their bungling inability to catch the right man and this made them defensive and antagonistic. Warren himself, like many senior police officers at the time, had been a regular soldier and had carved out a highly successful career in the Royal Engineers. He had spent a large part of his early military life in Africa and the Middle East and used his surveying and engineering skills to good effect in conducting the first modern excavation of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a feat for which he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society. A vertical shaft that he discovered and which was once thought to be part of the water supply of the city is known to this day as Warren’s Shaft. He also succeeded in uncovering what had happened to Edward Palmer’s ill-fated political expedition to the Sinai peninsula in 1882, discovering that Palmer and his two companions, who had been carrying a great deal of money to buy the allegiance of the local Bedouin tribesmen, had been robbed and brutally murdered. He succeeded in recovering their bodies, which were then shipped back to England,and in bringing the killers to justice. For this and other of his exploits he was knighted and it was probably the element of detection involved in the Palmer expedition that led to his being considered a suitable person to take charge of the Metropolitan Police 76 .
Soon after standing unsuccessfully for election to Parliament in the Liberal interest, Warren was invited to take the post of Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 1886. From the outset he did not hit it off with his immediate colleagues. He was ridiculed for designing for himself a ludicrously over-ornate dress uniform and, probably because of his Liberal sympathies, he never succeeded in gaining the support of Henry Matthews, the Tory Home Secretary. Very early on he clashed with James Monro, the Assistant Commissioner. Monro, who had a legal background, had been expecting to succeed to the role of Commissioner himself and was understandably peeved when Warren was appointed over his head. It led to continuous bickering between the two men which culminated eventually in both offering their resignations to Matthews.
The Home Secretary accepted Monro’s resignation but sweetened it by allowing him to retain control of the Special Branch and to report directly to him as part of the Home Office. In doing so he removed a highly efficient investigative tool from the control of the Metropolitan Police. In Monro’s place Robert Anderson, another lawyer, was made Assistant Commissioner and Superintendent Adolphus ‘Dolly’ Williamson was appointed Chief Constable in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department. All three men were in the confidence of Henry Matthews and they habitually met
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