FRIENDS AND VILLAINS An Autobiography

Hardback. Foreword by Sir Colin Woods. The author joined the Surrey constabulary on Boxing Day 1925 and rose rapidly to the rank of Detective Superintendent within 15yrs. His wide-ranging pioneering interests embraced both police photography and the training of police dogs and he did much to build the Surrey CID, setting up a crime index and a photographic department, and establishing the acceptability of scientifically aided evidence in the Criminal Courts. The author's territory whilst serving in the Surrey Police was a mixture of the prosperous and the semi-rural. It was where Agatha Christie's abandoned car was found when the novelist staged her mystery disappearance. Here the Duchess of Windsor's jewels were stolen. The author assisted in the investigation of a sequence of serious crimes, including the double murder at Cutt Mill and the Wigwam murder at Hankley Common. Later, as Detective Superintendent, he was responsible for the investigation of all serious crimes in Surrey, among them, many well publicised murders such as the notorious Chalk Pit murder, the killing of Frederick Gosling at Chertsey, the case of the bigamous poisoner Radford, and the murder of the Ash Vale railway booking clerk. Illus. + Index. 192pp. 8vo. h/back. Lightly browned pp. o/w Vg+ in Vg+ dw.