Criminal Life: Reminiscences of Forty-Two Years as a Police Officer
| Published date | 01 April 1976 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7604900227 |
| Date | 01 April 1976 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Following the introductory chapters in our last issue, we continue
the autobiography of Superintendent J. Bent of the Lancashire
Constabulary, first published in 1891.
CRIMINAL
LIFE:
REMINISCENCES
OF
FORTY-TWO YEARS AS A POLICE
OFFICER
BY
SUPERINTENDENT
BENT
CHAPTER
I
Desperate struggle with an escaped convict
In August, 1860, when I was stationed at Newton Heath as a
sergeant, I received information that a convict named Jack Robin-
son, alias
"Lord
Raglan", had escaped from Dartmoor Gaol, where
he was undergoing a sentence of twenty years' penal servitude. He
was a notorious thief, who had been tried for murder, but the
evidence not being sufficient, his conviction was for robbery only,
the
watch of the murdered man having been found in his posses-
sion. Robinson's mother kept a small beerhouse down Culcheth
Brow, Newton Heath, and as I had been told that he had been
seen in the neighbourhood with a five-chambered revolver ready
charged, and had sworn that if any policeman went near him, with
a view to his recapture, he would shoot him dead, I at once con-
cluded that he would be found at his former home. I then resolved
to attempt his arrest, and was not dissuaded by the fact that I was
advised by my friends not to go near him, as I was not likely to
come away alive.
Consequently, Iadhered to my resolution to try what I could
do, and about two o'clock in the morning after I had received
the intelligence I met one of my constables - the only one I could
find, as it happened - and acquainted him with the position of
143
April
1976
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