Paddington' Pollaky, Private Detective

by Bryan Kesselman

  After the trial Kenealy was disbarred as a result of his abusive interrogations of some of the witnesses. The claimant was released in 1884, and in 1895 admitted that he was Arthur Orton, but then withdrew his admission. It seems remarkable that Pollaky was asked to advertise for this information, as a member of the family had already hired Jonathan Whicher, now working as a private investigator, to investigate the origins of the claimant. Whicher’s reward was £2,000; according to the book about the case by Kenealy’s son, he was astute and unscrupulous and had employed ‘derelicts from Wapping, and a number of other needy East-enders’ to spy on the claimant’s family.

  The Illustrated Photographer – Friday, 29 May 1868

  Photography is the best detective! The Viennese Neue Freie Presse [New Free Press] relates the following respecting the capture of an Englishman, named Grey, who by means of forged cheques on the Union Bank of London, swindled the house [of] Rosenbaum of a large amount of money. Through accident, the said banker, Mr Rosenbaum, became possessed of a photograph of the fugitive, and gave the same to the police inspector Breitenfield, at Vienna, who remitted it to Mr Pollaky, an Austrian detective resident in London, who caused the necessary inquiries to be made in London, as it was supposed Grey made direct for England with his booty. Last week it happened, however, that Mr Pollaky, on his way to Vienna, passed through Hamburg, and there visited the theatre, and during the entr’acte passed his time by inspecting the audience, when to his great surprise and no less satisfaction, he discovered in one of the visitors the most striking resemblance to the photo sent to him some months ago from Vienna. Of course this man was at once closely watched, and a telegram dispatched to Vienna; upon which the firm dispatched their cashier, who recognised the swindler, although a great change in his appearance had taken place since his debut at Vienna.

  The news item goes on to report that Grey was arrested and sent to Vienna to be dealt with, and also that he was in fact French not English. A not uncommon type of case for the international detective that Pollaky was, this report is nevertheless interesting for pointing out that Pollaky was a theatre-goer, and this is something which will be considered in Chapter 12. A similar item appears in the Nashville Union and Dispatch of 14 June with the added information that ‘Grey, whose real name is Freyer, is a Frenchman, and the head of the band, which has operated for many years at Odessa, St. Petersburg, Munich, and other places’.

  The following two items tell another tale unfortunately still relevant today. This case had, at least, a happy ending. Not all cases of kidnapping are resolved as satisfactorily as this, although the kidnapped child had been kept away from his parents for a very long time:

  The Times – Tuesday, 15 September 1868

  HIDDEN, and Kept by Two Ladies from his Parents, a Boy, nine years of age, &c. – The ADVERTISEMENT which has appeared under the above heading in The Times for the last three days, and in which a reward of £20 was offered for the recovery of the said long-lost child, is herewith WITHDRAWN, the boy having been found, poorly clad, at a modest watering place within 40 miles of London, and restored by Mr Pollaky himself to the bereaved mother after a separation of several years. Mr Pollaky begs to return publicly his sincere thanks to that section of his numerous correspondents on this subject who, actuated by humane motives alone, volunteered their services and information. – Private Inquiry office, 13, Paddington-green.

  Lloyds Weekly London Newspaper – Sunday, 20 September 1868

  THE LOST CHILD. – The quiet watering-place of Southend was thrown into a good deal of commotion on Saturday by the following circumstance: – An advertisement had appeared during the last few days, offering a reward of twenty pounds for the recovery of a child who had been removed from his parents for a considerable time, and his whereabouts could not be discovered. The matter, it appeared, was placed in the hand of the well-known Mr Pollaky. It appears that information was received that the missing child was at Southend, and thither Mr Pollaky proceeded, accompanied by the mother. Inquiries had been made which resulted in steps being taken to watch the post-office, which is opposite the ‘Royal hotel’, and about eleven o’clock a boy, about nine years old, was seen to go to the post-office, and he was recognised by the lady who accompanied Mr Pollaky as the lost child. He was at once laid hold of, and handed to the lady, and placed in a carriage that was in readiness and driven off much to the surprise of the bystanders. What further steps will be taken in the matter remains to be seen, as the long-lost child is at present safe in the charge of its parents, who, it is said, are person of considerable position.

  As a result of the last sentence, we can probably assume that in this case Pollaky received a proper fee for his services – after all, this was his profession.

  The Lomax Affair – Part 2

  The Lomax case was deemed interesting enough for details to be published as far away as Australia. The Lomaxes had been considered quite respectable. Lomax was a journalist, and visitors to their home included Police Superintendent Saunders and his wife, who were given roses from the garden by their hosts. They had three children of whom Agnes was the eldest. Lomax took great exception to his wife’s conviction, and seems in some measure to have held Pollaky responsible. The following report speaks for itself:

  Daily News – Monday, 26 October 1868

  [Marylebone Police Court]

  John Gordon Lomax was summoned for using abusive and threatening language to Ignatius Paul Pollaky, and there was also a cross summons against Pollaky for abusive words towards Lomax.

  Mr Lewis, jun., appeared for Mr Pollaky, and Mr Wilding for Mr Lomax.

  The summons against Mr Lomax having been first taken out, Mr Pollaky appeared as first complainant.

  Mr Lewis said – I am afraid, from the well-known character of the man, that unless some stringent measures are adopted some serious consequences will arise. Mr Pollaky has been engaged for a number of years as a private inquiry officer, and is well-known to the public. It appears that he is also a non-paid officer of the Society for the Suppression of Vice and for the Protection of Young Women. It seems that defendant’s [Lomax] wife or mistress, whichever she may be, was charged with violently assaulting a child at Margate. My client, in his capacity of an officer of the society, had to make inquiries into the case. She was sent to trial and convicted, and sentenced to twelve months’ hard labour. Ever since the defendant has been in the habit of assailing Mr Pollaky with most gross and filthy language as he goes about. In addition to this he has sent a number of letters containing most abominable language and holding out threats. One I have here, commencing, ‘Now, my cock, I have started and intend to go in against you and all the provincial and London press, and do not intend to leave you until all matters are finished.’ This is the sort of language he makes use of towards my client. I may inform you, sir, that since the affair at Margate the defendant has been convicted and sentenced to 14 days. The offence that we now complain of took place in the street. Now what we want is that he be bound over in some large amount of bail to prevent him committing any violence upon Mr Pollaky.

  Mr Pollaky’s evidence was then taken. It bore out the statement of his counsel as to letters having been received, and threatening language used. He expressed his belief that his life was not safe while Lomax remained at large.

  The defendant denied having sent the letters complained of, and stated on his oath that they were not in his handwriting. He also swore that he had never used threats toward Pollaky, against whom he brought a counter charge of being abusive.

  Mr Mansfield said the case ought not to have been brought into court. He believed there was no danger of a breach of the peace and dismissed both summonses.

  That Lomax was deeply upset by the events cannot be doubted; there were tragic consequences. On Saturday 16 May 1868, the Leeds Times reported that, while in prison, Adelaide Lomax had given birth to a child which had died there. Of Adelaide, continued the report, ‘she has become insane, and has recently been removed to a
lunatic asylum’.

  The fact remains that Pollaky said he felt he was in danger. In Chapter 13 we will see how this kind of fear seemed to worry him in his old age, long after he had retired. However respectable Lomax had been considered to be, the rude and abusive language he used paints an unsavoury picture of a man used to making threats.

  By 1870, John Gordon Lomax and Adelaide were together again and living in West London where he described himself as a ‘Gentleman’. Records show that they had a son in July of that year. That made a total of three children in their household, for there is no sign of Agnes.

  In reading news from so many years ago, one can not help but reflect how little society has changed. So many of the same problems still exist in one form or another today, and this despite the work carried out by people who would change things for the better. Pollaky was such a one. What could his motive have been? A desire to do good for its own sake? A need to improve his own standing in the eyes of authority? A need for publicity to further his career? By mid- 1868 he had four living children – three were girls – did this give him a need to show protectiveness not just for his own family, but for any who were potentially vulnerable? Or had his younger days in Hungary affected his character so as to make him sensitive to the evils of the world?

  Public figures, then as now, often had fun made of them. Nowadays we have Private Eye. One of the satirical journals of the late 1860s was the Tomahawk:

  The Tomahawk: A Saturday Journal of Satire – Saturday, 14 November 1868

  POLLACK’S CHRISTMAS ANNUAL

  POLLAKY, the Benefactor of Mysterious Mankind, is evidently under the impression that he is not so well known as he deserves to be. He is consequently publishing in the daily papers condensed romances, which will make hum-drum prosers shudder, and suggest whole plots to the mind of a Boucicault or a Byron. One day we have the startling incident of an elderly nobleman of the British type, with projecting teeth and fair whiskers, running off with a young French lady of engaging exterior: another day brings us intelligence of a heart-rending occurrence on the Rhine, a young lady who plunges into the river from the deck of a steamer – we are left in suspense as to whether she is picked up or remains with the Loreley. What an admirable idea this would be for obtaining stories for a Christmas Annual. Advertise for parties who witnessed such and such fancy circumstances, and immediately you would receive dozens of letters from individuals who imagined they had been witnesses to the acts described. For instance, we insert the following advertisement:

  SWALLOWS. – Any lady or gentleman who was present at the Charing-cross Terminus, when a Spanish-looking volunteer, of Herculean mould, swallowed a small black and tan carpet-bag, will be rendering great service to the heartbroken advertisers by forwarding his or her name to Rollicky, Colney-Hatch.

  Two days after, a shoal of letters arrives from persons of both sexes who have been witnesses to different acts of deglutition at various railway stations in London. Though, of course, not one has any reference to the absolute fact of a volunteer swallowing a carpet-bag, all detail something more or less curious; and, putting the ideas together, would, in the hands of experienced writers, make very good sensation.

  After this hint, if Pollaky brings out an Annual, he will be expected to leave a copy at our office, with the half of any profits in the sale thereof; and should he supply Mr Dion Reade or Mr Charles Boucicault with the ingredients of an original drama, perhaps he will let us know at his earliest convenience.

  The Tomahawk was founded by Arthur William à Beckett in London in 1867 and ran until 1870. It was frequently very scathing in its burlesque of political and other public figures, far more so than Fun. In November 1868 its price was threepence. In 1869, the year after this article appeared, novelist Charles Reade (1814–84), together with Irish playwright Dion Boucicault (1820–90), their first names having been cleverly(!) exchanged by the Tomahawk writer, wrote a novel called Foul Play, a story about a clergyman transported to Australia for a crime he did not commit. This was dramatised by novelist Marcus Clarke (1846–81) with the title Foul Play or The Wreck of the Prosperine. The novel itself has an anonymous detective as a character, but in the play, the detective is given a name – Alexander Ignatius Paul Pollaky Wolouski. Dion Boucicault, like Pollaky, gets a mention in the Colonel’s song in W.S. Gilbert’s lyric: ‘The pathos of Paddy, as rendered by Boucicault’ (See Appendix 2). Colney-Hatch, given as the address for Rollicky, was famous for its lunatic asylum.

  1869

  The Tomahawk, with its usual cutting humour, suggests Pollaky as a replacement for the late Sir Richard Mayne as Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, saying of Pollaky:

  The Tomahawk: A Saturday Journal of Satire – Saturday, 9 January 1869

  This gentleman thinks that he is now sufficiently well known – thanks to the large sums he has expended in sensational advertisements – to entitle him to the confidence and respect of the community. He would undertake to conduct his business on reasonable terms.

  The South Eastern Gazette – Monday, 15 February 1869

  Taunton Courier – 17 February 1869

  EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE AGAINST A CLERGYMAN. – At Worcester, on Friday, a clergyman, the Rev. J. Merest, appeared to a summons at the instance of Mr Workman, of London charging him with having, on the 5th October last, sent a letter to him demanding money with menaces. [...] Evidence was then given to identify the defendant’s handwriting with the letter in question; and the testimony of Detective Bates, from Pollaky’s private inquiry office, and other witnesses was given.

  Merest was committed for trial. Bates was evidently one of Pollaky’s agents. Mysterious men who flit in and out of the records but with little information about them.

  The Times – Wednesday, 23 June 1869

  FLED from their HOMES, on Thursday, the 17th inst., with the supposed intention of proceeding to Rome, for the purpose of conversion, TWO YOUNG LADIES, both under 19 years of age – one, 5 feet 3 inches in height, slender built, chestnut-brown hair, finely chiselled features, and mole on left cheek; the other, 5 ft. 5in., pale complexion, dark eyes and hair, and inclined to ‘embonpoint’. Both dressed in dark clothes, and having little or no luggage. A REWARD of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS will be given for information as to their whereabouts, provided such information is furnished within 10 days from this 22nd day of June, 1869. – I.POLLAKY, Private Inquiry-office, 13, Paddington-green, W.

  Public Ledger, Memphis, Tennessee – Wednesday Evening, 23 June 1869

  Royalty. – Any one giving information which shall lead to the discovery of the writer of an anonymous letter, signed ‘Royalty,’ and addressed to a lady, Saturday last, 15th inst, shall receive a reward of £50, on application to Mr Pollaky, Private Inquiry Office, 13 Paddington Green.

  The Times – Saturday, 7August 1869

  ‘SIROCCO.’ – Mistaken kindness! Have you forgotten the cavern? – Pollaky, Paddington-green.

  The Times – Friday, 24 September 1869

  MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED from his home, on the afternoon of the 22nd April, the only child of a wealthy citizen of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, a lad named FRIEDRICH MAXIMILIAN FREIEISEN, 15 years of age, middle stature, strong built, full face, ruddy complexion, thick light hair, and light eyebrows; has a large swelling on the left hip. Was dressed in black coat and vest, black necktie, dark speckled trousers, and small hat. Up to his disappearance he bore a most exemplary character. Information to be given to Mr Pollaky, Private Inquiry Office, 13 Paddington-green.

  On 3 January 1870, at the Reading Quarter Sessions, Elizabeth Barry was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment for Child Stealing. Even those in Pollaky’s employ might be less than pure, as this item shows:

  Shields Gazette and Daily Telegraph – Saturday, 23 October 1869

  THE RECENT ABDUCTION OF A CHILD.

  Mr Pollaky, who keeps a private inquiry office, says that Elizabeth Barry, the abductionist, was in his service for a month, as cook, but it was not through him that she
got a character, as his wife declined to see any lady in her behalf.

  1870

  The Times – Friday, 7 January 1870

  HALFPENNY KITE. – Trauernde Mutter sucht ihr Kind. – POLLAKY. Private Inquiry-office, 13, Paddington-green, W.

  [Trauernde Mutter sucht ihr Kind = Sorrowing mother searches for her child.]

  The Courier, Brisbane – Monday, 17 January 1870

  MYSTERIOUSLY disappeared from her home, near Wilton-crescent, London, Friday, 15th instant, a young lady, twenty years of age, middle stature, glossy dark-brown hair, coffee-colored [sic] brown eyes, small mouth, and good teeth; was last seen (in plaid poplin walking dress and black hat with raven feather) at Victoria Station, carrying small red ‘necessaire’; supposed no other luggage. Information to Mr Pollaky, Private Inquiry Office, 13 Paddington-green, London. – Advertisement in the Times.

  The Times – Tuesday, 8 March 1870

  SECULAR (Rome). – Nos. 50, 52, 53 safe – 51, 52 ominous fingermarks! 51, struggled nobly. – POLLAKY, 13, Paddington-green.

  The Times – Monday, 28 March 1870

  G (Paris). – Like a gentleman with whom however I claim no acquaintance, I am not so black as painted. In the case alluded to, I have not done half that is imputed to me, but a man in my position must learn to bear unmerited criticism. – Pollaky, Paddington-green.

  County Observer and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser – Saturday, 18 June 1870

  POLLAKY, the great private detective, whose ‘private inquiry office’ is as well-known to the reader of the Times as the hatch-match and dispatch column, has gone to Oxford on business connected with the recent outrage in Christchurch. It was to have been hoped that the matter would have been allowed to drop. The offence of the undergraduates was not nearly so bad as at first supposed, and in the majority of instances the sentences pronounced by the authorities of the college were sufficiently severe.