Vanishing Cream did not help him vanish

SHOPBREAKING CHARGE - YOUNG MAN ACCUSED AT GRANTHAM - ALLEGED CONFESSION OF GUILT

Saturday March 11th 1939

There are many attempts to reduce the time taken for investigations to occur in modern policing. As crime gets more complex, it takes longer for officers to investigate. Consider the mobile phone - the modern devices have more storage than computers less than a decade ago.

Yet, as this case shows, it was possible to have pretty swift justice back in 1939 - particularly if, as it seems, there were people prepared to give information to the Police.

Miss Sarah Johnson owned a hairdressers at number 7 Wharf Road, Grantham, having secured the address at 1pm on a Thursday afternoon. She was woken by Police at 2.45am on Friday morning, and found her hairdressers in a state of some disrepair; 3s was missing from the till, a tube of "Vanishing Cream" had been stolen, as well as a bar of soap.

Detective Bramhall visited the scene at 06.30am on Friday morning, and discovered that entry had been gained by removing the putty from an external window to the premises. The till had been ransacked, display cabinets rifled through and a load of face powder spilled on the floor. Acting on "information received", he placed a call to nearby Newark Police, where 23 year old Reginald Frankland of Rastrick, Yorkshire, was detained. The detective traveled to Newark and interviewed Frankland, who said,

"Yes, an old crippled chap with a stick gave me away", and admitted he was responsible for the break in. He had a tube of cream, the vanishing ointment and the bar of soap in his clothing.

Appearing at the magistrates, he said that he had committed the crime in order to help support his mother. He also asked for bail, but commented, "I would like bail, but I have no one to help me out". He was remanded into custody.

There were no clues as to quite how a young man from Yorkshire came to burgle a hairdressers in Grantham so ineptly, though the article makes it clear that the young chap had stolen the vanishing cream because he "thought it was shaving cream". Despite having burgled a hairdressers, it would appear that Reginald wasn't the sharpest pair of scissors in the town.

IN OTHER NEWS: NOISY PLANES AT GRANTHAM - AIR VICE-MARSHALL MAKES EXPLANATION

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