Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life

Published in 1895, real tales of crime and criminals in Victorian Manchester by a detective whose reputation inspired Conan Doyle.

Jerome Caminada (Author)

9781108054775, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 August 2012

472 pages, 24 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.7 cm, 0.6 kg

An inspiration behind Sherlock Holmes, Jerome Caminada (1844–1914) was probably the most well-known detective in late Victorian England. Living in Manchester his whole life, he grew up in Deansgate, notorious for its brothels and beerhouses. He joined the police in 1868 and later became Manchester's first detective superintendent. Known for his unorthodox, eccentric methods, he regularly donned disguises and once hid inside a grand piano in order to catch a thief. Despite being responsible for imprisoning over 1,000 criminals, Caminada was perhaps progressive in his belief that punishment 'strengthens evil propensities, prevents repentance and renders reform impossible'. Peopled with characters such as 'Cabbage Ann', 'Bodger' and 'One Armed Kitty', this autobiography, first published in 1895, paints an extremely vivid picture of a seedy, dilapidated and dangerous Victorian city and its criminal underworld.

1. Introduction
2. A beginner in uniform
3. Little Alf
4. How I trapped four card-sharpers
5. Quackery exposed
6. Oh what a surprise!
7. A female begging impostor's boast
8. My baptism of base coiners
9. Next-of-kin frauds
10. A swindler walking into the trap
11. How thieves are made
12. 'Diamond Sam' and his confederates
13. How I punished a wife-beater
14. Registry office swindles
15. A 'ghost' in a piano case
16. A fight with a burglar
17. Racecourse thieves
18. Street bullies
19. Street cadgers
20. The reverend quack
21. Bogus railway bonds
22. American bank thieves in England
23. The Jew, the barrister and the solicitor's clerk
24. The country bumpkin and his £200
25. Lottery frauds on horse races
26. Selling state secrets
27. Picture pirates
28. Bank note forgers
29. Bogus charitable institutions
30. The confidence trick
31. Ringing the changes
32. An armed burglar
33. Bogus securities
34. Diamond cut diamond
35. How I tracked two incendiaries
36. A scene in court
37. Emigration extraordinary
38. Medical conspiracy
39. Insurance frauds
40. Manchester anarchists at work
41. An eloquent plea for short sentences
42. Life insurance frauds
43. Long firm frauds
44. The arrest of Mr William O'Brien, M.P., in Manchester
45. First offenders' act
46. Flogging
47. Ticket-of-leave question
48. A sham heiress
49. A queer customer
50. 'Flying Gibb'
51. Frauds on unemployed girls
52. A bad case of arson
53. Trafficking in pension papers
54. A clever forger
55. 'Smashers', or base coin 'pitchers' or tenderers
56. Gambling hells
57. Prosecution of the Ellesmere and Prince of Wales clubs.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]