Today in the Pace case: 15 May 1928

Tuesday, 15 May 1928: 11th sitting of the coroner’s inquest, in Coleford.

After brief testimony from police superintendant J. Shelswell and a recalled Alice Sayes, the main event of this sitting is testimony by Beatrice Pace herself, who denies giving poison to her late husband. At the end of her testimony, she breaks down.

As reported by the Dean Forest Guardian: ‘the policewoman handed her some smelling salts as she began to sob and bury her face in her hands.’ (18 May 1928, p. 7) The inquest is adjourned for a week.

It is anticipated that a verdict will be reached at the next session.

Today in the Pace case: 14 May 1928

Monday, 14 May 1928: 10th sitting of the coroner’s inquest, in Coleford.

Other than brief testimony from a former quarry co-worker of Harry’s, Ralph Dowle, the medical testimony continues. Ellis is recalled, and extensive evidence is given by Professor Isaac Walker Hall of Bristol University (who had analysed the organs and blood sent to him after Harry’s post-mortem) and Sir William Willcox, a renowned forensic expert and medical advisor to the Home Office.

Edward Aston, a retired insurance agent, testifies about the life insurance policy he sold to the Paces.

Today in the Pace case: 10 May 1928

Thursday, 10 May 1928: 9th sitting of the coroner’s inquest, in Coleford.

Drs Du Pré and Nanda are recalled to clarify certain matters. Chief Inspector George Cornish of Scotland Yard describes his investigations and the circumstances that led to Beatrice’s 11 and 14 March statements to the detectives.

The statements themselves are given to the inquest jury to read. Rowland Ellis, the analyst for Gloucester and Gloucestershire demonstrates how the sulphur can be removed from sheep dip to produce a colourless (and largely flavourless) arsenic-rich liquid: this is important, as no sulphur but much arsenic was found in Harry’s organs and blood.

All subsequent proceedings focus on sheep dip as the likely source of the arsenic that killed Harry Pace.

Today in the Pace case: 9 May 1928

Wednesday, 9 May 1928: 8th sitting of the coroner’s inquest.

Having heard a great deal of what could be called ‘circumstantial evidence’ in previous sittings, the coroner’s inquest finally turns to medical and forensic testimony. Key witnesses here are Dr William Du Pré (the Pace family’s doctor), Dr Ram Nath Nanda (who had been brought in by Harry’s kin to give a second opinion about his illness the preceding autumn), Dr Norman Mather (who had treated Harry while he had been in the Gloucester Royal Infirmary the preceding autumn), and Dr Charles Carson (who conducted the post-mortem examination of Harry Pace on 14 January).

Brief testimony is also given by Henry Smith, an expert on sheep dipping.

Today in the Pace case: 3 May 1928

Thursday, 3 May 1928: 7th sitting of the coroner’s inquest, in Coleford.

Testimony is given by Alice Sayes (one of Beatrice Pace’s closest friends) and her husband Leslie. Both of them firmly deny the rumours circulating that Leslie Sayes was having an affair with Beatrice Pace (who also denied such claims).

This issue, however, was a focus of this part of the testimony. (Inquests had wide discretion and were not restrained by the rules of evidence that governed trial procedure.)

Leslie, Beatrice’s nine-year-old son, also testifies. Dorothy Pace, who had originally given testimony on 18 April, is recalled to clarify some statements she made then. Trevor Wellington, Beatrice’s solicitor, criticises the police’s treatment of Dorothy during questioning. Elizabeth Porter, Harry’s mother, is briefly recalled.

New review of new book on detective history

One of the central aspects of my work on the Pace case was the effort by Scotland Yard detectives (led by Chief Inspector George Cornish) to solve the mystery of Harry Pace's death.

The Pace matter, as I show in the book, proved a particularly difficult one, and the detectives were ultimately unsuccessful.

However, researching the history of the case required also considering many aspects of police history more generally, something that I've also followed up on in a series of recent (and forthcoming) publications on the broader context of inter-war policing (and police scandals).

In this vein, my review essay on a fascinating new book by Haia Shpayer-Makov on the history of police detectives -- both in fact and in fiction -- has just been published at Reviews in History.

It starts like this:

‘A detective’, wrote a crime-fiction reviewer in 1932, ‘should have something of the god about him’:

It was the divine, aloof, condescending quality in the old great ones of Poe, Gaboriau, Wilkie Collins and Sherlock Holmes that made their adventures so glamorously irresistible. A writer of detective stories might have a style as brilliant as Poe’s, as consummately competent as Collins’s, as pompously absurd as Doyle’s – it did not matter: what mattered was whether he gave us a detective whom we could worship.(1)

Even the most ardent fan of crime fiction might think ‘worship’ an overstatement; nonetheless, by the time those words were written, detectives had indeed become among the most popular figures of modern literature. In the decades since that ‘golden age’ of crime fiction, police detectives have often even managed to hold their own against their previously more celebrated private counterparts, whether in print, on television or at the cinema. As The Ascent of the Detective makes clear, such trends are remarkable in view of the suspicion that greeted real-life police detectives in their early years and their frequent literary belittlement.

Detectives have become a familiar and popular part of both real and fictional police work.

As Shpayer-Makov's book shows, that was not always the case.

Today in the Pace case: 2 May 1928

Wednesday, 2 May 1928: 6th sitting of the coroner’s inquest, in Coleford.

Testimony is given by George Mountjoy (Harry Pace’s executor), Harry Winter (a fellow patient with Harry when he had been hospitalised the previous year), Harold Jones (aka, Harold Cole, a labourer who sometimes helped the Pace’s with their sheep), Frank Blatch (a chemist in Coleford who sold Beatrice Pace two packets of Sheep dip in July 1927), and Sarah Ann Meek (a charwoman who had long been on friendly terms with Beatrice and Harry Pace).

High praise

Just a quick reminder, as it seems somehow newly relevant: Harvard professor Steven Pinker, who last week landed in third place on Prospect magazine's 'World Thinkers' list, referred to The Most Remarkable Woman in England on Twitter as 'A fascinating real-life murder story.' (3 October 2012).

High praise indeed.

For those interested in a much, much (much!) broader analysis of violence than my own book's individual case study, Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature is well worth your time.

(For a few more details, see a post at my other blog.)

Today in the Pace case: 26 April 1928

Thursday, 26 April 1928: 5th sitting of the coroner’s inquest, in Coleford.

Testimony from acquaintances of the Paces continues, with two fellow patients who had known Harry while he had been hospitalised the previous year, Arthur Smith and Edwin Morgan, describing Harry’s state of mind while he was ill.

The main testimony is provided by Inspector Alan Bent of the local constabulary. Beatrice’s first police statement (given to Bent on 15 February) is read aloud.

Further comments are given by Rosa Kear (an ‘uncertified midwife’ and neighbour of Beatrice and Harry) and Matthew Hoare, who bought some lambs from the Paces the preceding August.

Today in the Pace case: 19 April 1928

Thursday, 19 April 1928: 4th sitting of the coroner’s inquest, in Coleford.

Testimony is given by a variety of friends and acquaintances of Beatrice and Harry: Albert Jones, Reginald Martin, Charles Fletcher and Fred Thorne.

Today in the Pace case: 18 April 1928

Wednesday, 18 April 1928: 3rd sitting of the coroner’s inquest, in Coleford.

The inquest hears testimony from Gertude Pace (Leonard Pace’s wife), who – like other family members – is very critical of Beatrice.

(From left) Leslie, Dorothy, Selwyn, Beatrice and Doris Pace

Two of Beatrice’s children give evidence: her eldest daughter, seventeen-year-old Dorothy, and her middle daughter, Doris, eleven.

Today in the Pace case: 12 April 1928

Thursday, 12 April 1928: 2nd sitting of the coroner’s inquest, in Coleford.

A newspaper photograph of Harry's brother, Elton Pace

Testimony is given by Elton Pace (Harry’s brother), Sergeant Charlie Hamblin (of the Coleford police) as well as by Leah Pritchard and Flossie Pace (two of Harry’s sisters).

Just as at the sitting on 29 March, Harry’s relatives paint a negative portrait of Beatrice, suggesting she was uncaring toward her late husband and that she may have been unfaithful.

As the Dean Forest Guardian later put it, ‘They were all, more or less, on bad terms with Mrs. Pace, questioning her conduct generally and criticising her attitude toward the deceased. They had heard ... that he had suffered from arsenical poisoning, but declined to make any direct accusations against anyone.’ (27 April 1928, p. 5)

Today in the Pace case: 29 March 1928

Thursday, 29 March 1928: The coroner’s inquest into Harry Pace’s death – adjourned since 16 January – finally resumes. Testimony is given by Leonard Pace (Harry’s brother) and Elizabeth Porter (Harry’s mother).

The inquest is then adjourned until 12 April.

Today in the Pace case: 17 March 1928

Saturday, 17 March 1928: the Scotland Yard detectives, Cornish and Campion, return to London. Cornish submits a forty-nine page report to his superiors on their investigations. He states that the case was‘about as complicated, contradictory and mysterious as it is possible for any case to be.’

A passage from Chief Inspector Cornish's report to his superiors on the Pace case
(The National Archives, MEPO 3/1638/5a, p. 39)

Nonetheless, he concludes that Beatrice murdered Harry by deliberately putting arsenic (derived from sheep dip) into his food.

Today in the Pace case: 14 March 1928

Wednesday, 14 March 1928: Beatrice goes to Coleford and meets again with the detectives. She makes her third, and final, official statement to the police.