The Roaring Twenties and organised crime

Nearly 100 years ago, a village police officer was murdered in Essex. He was a conscientious officer and a well-known family man. The shooting led to a nationwide manhunt. The resultant trial featured one of the first female barristers. 

The case led to the introduction of the free 999 emergency phone service. There had been a delay in getting help to the officer as the operator would not put a call through. A campaign for better communication in rural areas also led to the AA and RAC issuing keys to the police so that they could use their call boxes. 

This is an excellent and well-researched study of a horrific crime. The manhunt was based mainly on old-fashioned legwork. A thousand people were interviewed as part of the investigation. The officers had fingerprint evidence available, but this was long before the advent of DNA and modern science. The relatively new science of ballistics, which featured in the trial, was derived from the Egyptian police service in Cairo. 

The Roaring Twenties was the age of the motor car. But as demand grew, so did organised crime. At the heart of this story is a stolen Morris Cowley motor. 

PC Gutteridge is not forgotten. A road is named after him and there is also a church memorial to him. 

David Pickup