by Dick Kirby
CHAPTER 5
A Very Dodgy Clergyman
The Revd Basil Andrews, described variously as ‘a clerk in holy orders’, ‘an unlicensed parson’ and ‘a sponger’, was the despair of several bookmakers. It was not only Andrews’ history of debts and borrowings which had never been repaid; it was also said that for the sum of £300 he had introduced a seventy-twoyear-old man to a girl of sixteen, who Andrews claimed was his niece and who, at the age of twenty-one, stood to inherit £100,000. It was further suggested that he had carried out a bogus marriage, again for £300 (although when this was later put to him in court, he cried, ‘Good gracious! Whoever heard of such a thing?’); and when the scrounging from his fellow clergymen began to spiral out of control, his bishop had admonished him regarding his behaviour. He had fiercely repudiated these and other unkind accusations, and his declaration of innocence, published in the Daily Sketch, read as follows:
I am fully aware that cowardly people who dare not come forward into the light of day are suggesting that I am a fraudulent witness and that I hoodwinked Mr Comer’s legal advisors.
I would recall to you that when I gave my evidence last week, I gave it on my solemn oath, and I need not remind you that I am a Clerk in Holy Orders, also.
I therefore wish to affirm in the most solemn terms that what I said in the witness box was the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I wish to deny that I have committed perjury.
I wish to deny that I have any hope of material gain from having come forward as a witness. I did so only in the interests of truth, and I am willing to tell the police that, if they come to me.
Any financial difficulties due to my change of address and my harmless flutters in the sporting world are only temporary, due to my age and inexperience.
Those who are dunning me will soon be repaid if they have patience – some debts have been repaid, already.
My innocent walk in Frith Street that day has made me finish up in a nest of trouble, with enemies in an underworld I never dreamed existed.
I am a man of peace, as well, I hope, as one of God’s humblest servants and workers.
I would like to bring about a reconciliation between the parties in strife who seem to have forgotten that, by what they have done, they are debasing the sacred Brotherhood of Man.
Andrews was now summoned to No. 1 District Headquarters for a distinctly uncomfortable interview.
*
Even though he had just celebrated his fifty-fifth birthday and was now in his thirty-fourth year of service, Detective Chief Superintendent Ted Greeno was still one of the Yard’s most successful detectives. He had served for eleven years on the Flying Squad, was an astute murder investigator and knew the underworld inside out. Any criminal who challenged his authority would be taken on, whether in a pub, a racetrack or the street, and knocked flying. Greeno’s informants were numerous and his success was not only measured by the fact that he had been commended by the commissioner on no less than eighty-six occasions and appointed MBE; it was also endorsed by Billy Hill, who acknowledged that Greeno was ‘one of the Yard’s best thief catchers’.
Greeno had been appointed as one of ‘The Big Five’ at No. 1 District Headquarters on 3 January 1955. No chair-bound warrior he; within one month of his appointment, as soon as he heard that the safe at Martin’s Bank in St James had been blown and £20,621 stolen, he knew immediately who was responsible. Greeno was out from behind his desk, grabbed hold of Bert Sparks and went to work. It resulted in the conviction, three months later, of twentynine-year-old Howard Henry Lewis, who was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment; and since forty-three-year-old Alfie Fraser was the proud possessor of seventeen previous convictions, it meant that he was more than eligible for his sentence of ten years’ preventative detention.
Now Greeno conferred with the Deputy Commissioner, Sir Ronald Howe KBE, CVO, MC and the Assistant Commissioner (Crime), Sir Richard Jackson CBE, who handed him a number of anonymous notes, one of which had been sent to ‘Khaki’ Roberts, Dimes’ counsel, who passed it on to the Yard.
It led to some rather pertinent questions being directed at the Revd Andrews, who now told Greeno that on 13 September – midway between Spot’s and Dimes’ committal and the commencement of their trials – he was approached by a Peter Macdonough at the Cumberland Hotel. He was asked if he wished to earn £25; in order to do so, said Macdonough, he would have to say untruthfully that he was in Frith Street at the time of the fight and give an equally dishonest account of what he had seen. This Andrews readily agreed to do, and the two men went into a lounge in the hotel, where four persons were seated; two of them were Spot’s two close associates, Morris Goldstein and Bernard Schack. Macdonough, Andrews told Greeno, introduced him to the gathering as ‘the clergyman who’s willing to give evidence on Spot’s behalf’, and not only was great enthusiasm displayed by those present but Schack kept repeating, ‘We’re saved, we’re saved!’ The following day, Andrews was picked up from his address and driven to Hyde Park Mansions, where he met Rita Comer and told her he would do whatever he could to set her husband free. Of course, Andrews had never met Jack Spot, who was then in custody, so when Goldstein, Macdonough and Schack briefed him on what he had to say, Dimes, allegedly the aggressor, was described as ‘the dark man’ holding the knife. Goldstein emphasized that Andrews must familiarize himself with the surroundings of Frith Street, and Rita Comer promised him £25 before he gave evidence and £25 afterwards. The next day, 15 September, Andrews was again driven to Spot’s flat; the same people from the previous day were present, plus the car driver, there was another rehearsal, in great detail, of the fictitious story Andrews was to tell and Spot’s appearance was described to him.
Andrews and Macdonough went to the offices of Spot’s legal representatives, Peters & Peters in Wimpole Street, where they saw solicitor Bernard Abraham Perkoff; in the waiting room were three men, including Goldstein and Schack. When Andrews told his story to Perkoff, Goldstein was present, constantly interrupting and assisting with the story, and the next day Andrews signed his statement.
On Sunday, 18 September, Andrews visited the area of the fruit shop and studied the surrounding territory; the trial commenced the following day.
After the wicked old perjurer had given his evidence and Spot was acquitted, Andrews was taken in a taxi, first to Perkoff’s office, then to Hyde Park Mansions, where he was shown a magnum of champagne, then back to Perkoff’s office. Finally, Macdonough took Andrews back to his flat in a taxi and gave him £25; on 24 September (the day after Spot’s acquittal) he received a further £25.
This presented Greeno with the blueprint for a prosecution. Now, as well as the absolute need for independent corroboration, he needed to discover what anybody else had to say. This was essential, because anything said by that duplicitous old cadger Andrews required stringent verification.
*
Sparks, together with Detective Inspector Shepherd, saw Macdonough, who made a statement saying he had first met ‘Father Andrews’ in April 1954 and rented him a flat. Then – ‘just by chance’ – he had met Andrews again on 10 September, when he had told Macdonough that he had ‘seen the dreadful fight in Soho’; later, again ‘by chance’, he had met Andrews outside the Cumberland Hotel, when once more the lapsed clergyman told him about witnessing the fight. And that was all. He had not, he stated, seen Andrews again until after the trial.
He changed his tune a little later, however, when he told Sparks, ‘If it comes to a charge, we’ll show Andrews up as such an old villain that no one will believe what he says. I’ll give him “Father Andrews”, the old turncoat.’
By now, the word was on the streets that Andrews had spoken to the police, and on 6 October Jack Spot and Rita caught the Irish Mail from Euston and sailed on the Cambria for Dun Laoghaire. They took a taxi to Dublin and joined their two children, who a week previously had travelled to Pierce House, a block of council flats in Townsend Street, Dublin, where they were being looked after by
relatives.
After consultation with the Director of Public Prosecutions, warrants alleging conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice were granted by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Sir Laurence Dunne. On 20 October, Goldstein was arrested at his home in Gore Road, Hackney and he asked, ‘How many others have been nicked? They say you can’t do Jackie again.’ Later (and referring to Andrews) Goldstein said, ‘Cut the dressing. He must have told you who was at the flat but you’ve only got his word. No one will take any notice of him and Glinski’s schtum.’
The next day, Rita Spot was arrested in Dublin by Inspector Shepherd and Woman Detective Sergeant Shirley Becke (later Commander Becke OBE, OStJ, QPM), and after the warrant had been read to her, she replied, ‘Conspiracy? How many am I supposed to have conspired with?’ On the flight back, she said, ‘I suppose this means the Old Bailey all over again with me this time, instead of Jack, but Moisha and the others said the old parson would give evidence for a few quid. I’d like to know who told you that he was at the flat.’
Although this was later disputed in court, Mrs Becke was not given a particularly hard time during cross-examination because (a) it was not then the done thing to question the word of a woman police officer and (b) because the defence counsel may have been aware that the previous year she had married the Revd Becke MBE, a gentleman undoubtedly more saintly than his counterpart, the Revd Andrews.
Rita Comer, Morris Goldstein and Peter Macdonough all appeared at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court on 21 October where Sparks sought and was granted a remand in custody, fearing that if granted bail, the prisoners would abscond or interfere with witnesses. Mr M. J. Hart-Leverton for Goldstein asked Sparks if it was true that apart from a £5 fine for a conviction for assault, twenty years ago, his client was a man ‘without any record’?
Sparks rather cleverly replied, ‘I am not fully conversant with the complete record at the moment. I would rather not speak of that. He is not a man of unblemished character.’
When Neville Coleman for Rita Comer asked Sparks if he had had any trouble tracing her, he replied, ‘Not this morning’.
This left Schack and Glinski, the man referred to by Goldstein.
Coincidentally, whilst Greeno was in conference with the senior members of Scotland Yard, Christopher Glinski was arrested at his home at 46 Kendal Street, Paddington on an entirely separate matter; he was accused of being concerned in a conspiracy with two other men to obtain goods by fraud. Having appeared at Marylebone Magistrates’ Court, he was released on bail and promptly changed his address to one at Burwood Place.
On 7 October Glinski was spoken to by Detective Chief Inspector Mannings and was told he would be put up for identification in connection with the conspiracy investigation, whereupon he replied, ‘Will you send for my solicitor?’
Mannings did so, and whilst they were waiting, he noticed a newspaper clipping which referred to Spot’s trial. He picked it up to read it and Glinski remarked, ‘That won’t prove I committed perjury’, adding ambiguously, ‘Everyone knows what you’re after.’
He was later seen by Sparks, who told him, ‘I’ve had you brought here as I suspect you were concerned with Mrs Comer, Moisha and Sonny [Bernard Schack] and the Revd Andrews and others in conspiring to give false evidence at the Comer trial.’
Glinski replied, ‘Look, the trial is over. We’ve had advice. Now, you can do nothing about it. I never talked about the evidence of the parson and nobody can prove I did. Hubby Distleman was at Comer’s flat and he must have been talking about me. I’ll do him. It must be him because he’s the only one who knows about me going to Comer’s flat. Moisha won’t squeal. I shall still beat you. I shall refuse to be put up.’
When his solicitor arrived, Glinski refused to take part in an identification parade. That being the case, the only other way of dealing with the matter was confrontation by the witness.
The matter of identification was an important consideration. On 20 September, the second day of the trial, a Mrs Barbara Maureen Smyth of Coppice Walk, Three Bridges, Sussex, arrived in a car to visit her father, who lived at Hyde Park Mansions, and started unloading luggage at about 9.40 am. She saw a number of characters, including Glinski, who were about to depart for the Old Bailey. Since Glinski had denied ever going to Hyde Park Mansions during his testimony at Spot’s trial, if Mrs Smyth identified him as being there, this was crucial evidence. And when Mrs Smyth walked into the charge room, she did identify him, without a moment’s hesitation.
Glinski was arrested by Sparks on 27 October in Bryanston Street, Marble Arch on a warrant alleging that he had committed perjury at Spot’s trial. ‘So what?’ replied Glinski. ‘Mr Beach, my solicitor, has told me to say nothing. I want him.’ When charged, he replied, ‘What I said at the Old Bailey was the truth.’
Bernard Schack, described as ‘a donkey greaser’ (yes, really!), was arrested on 1 November and joined the other three in the dock at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court the following day to face the conspiracy charge. Glinski, on the other hand, had been remanded to the Guildhall Justice Rooms regarding the perjury charge. With hindsight, it might have been better to have further charged Glinski with conspiracy as well and for all the defendants to jointly stand trial; but although consideration was probably given to this course of action, for some reason it did not happen.
Committal proceedings commenced at Bow Street with Reggie Seaton appearing, as always, for the prosecution and informing the court, ‘The main evidence in the present case emanates from the man, Andrews. He is, in fact, a self-confessed perjurer. He gave evidence as desired and has since admitted he was a perjurer and that what he said was a pack of lies.’
He further told the magistrate that in this case it was desirable in the interests of justice that Andrews should go into the witness box, since he was, of course, an accomplice and naturally it was most desirable to get corroboration, so far as was possible, of what Andrews had said. Seaton then set out the facts of the case and called Andrews to the witness box.
In a quavering voice, the octogenarian scrounger described meeting Macdonough at the Cumberland Hotel. ‘He asked me in a kind way if I would like to make some money’, he told the Magistrate, adding, ‘I told him, of course I would.’
Andrews described the meetings and his attempts to familiarize himself with the scene of the fight. ‘How were you to deal with the cross-examination?’ asked Seaton.
‘I was to tell all the lies I could possibly manufacture’, replied Andrews, before adding, ‘of which I am now thoroughly ashamed.’
‘Did you give evidence at the trial on oath?’ asked Seaton.
‘Yes’.
‘Was that evidence true?’
‘No, it was not true. It was a lot of lies.’
Robert Edward Swan, the security officer at the Cumberland Hotel, stated that Andrews was a frequent visitor and that he had last seen him there with Macdonough on 15 September; and Mrs Smyth gave evidence that when she had visited her father at Hyde Park Mansions on 20 September, she had seen Rita Comer emerge from the flats and be joined by Schack, and saw Goldstein in the driving seat of a car. She also saw a man in clerical attire whom she identified in court as Andrews. That was quite enough corroboration for one day, and the four prisoners were remanded in custody until 8 November. On that date, Perkoff, Spot’s solicitor, gave evidence that Andrews had called at his office on 15 September and made a statement into a recording machine for it to be typed later. Goldstein then arrived – he and Andrews had never met before, said Perkoff – and he did interrupt but not, said Perkoff, ‘with regards to the facts’. He suggested that Andrews should attend the Old Bailey at the commencement of Spot’s trial, but Goldstein pointed out that he might have to wait several days before giving evidence which could lead to him being intimidated by friends of Dimes.
‘In view of what I had been told from time to time about Dimes and his friends’, said Perkoff, ‘I thought it would be a good idea for the Revd Andrews to attend my offi
ce until he was wanted.’
And when Perkoff was asked by Neville Coleman, acting for Rita Comer, if despite his extensive experience in criminal cases he was completely deceived by Andrews, Spot’s solicitor agreed that he was. It sounded almost believable.
The four prisoners were committed in custody to stand their trial at the Old Bailey on 28 November.
Meanwhile, committal proceedings for Glinski commenced at the Guildhall on 4 November with Reggie Seaton prosecuting and solicitor Norman Beach appearing for his client. Setting out the case, Seaton told the magistrate, Alderman C.J. Harman, that Glinski had given evidence on oath that he had witnessed the fight in Frith Street, that Dimes was the aggressor, that he did not know Spot, or where he lived, or the whereabouts of Hyde Park Mansions, which he never visited – all of which was untrue.
After Andrews had given evidence, he was asked by Beach why he had given false evidence in the trial and he piteously replied, ‘Because I was very poor and I was offered money.’
But when Beach asked where he had stayed the previous night, Andrews said, ‘Do I have to tell?’
When the Clerk of the Court asked if there was any reason why he should not, Andrews replied, ‘I am told if I am seen by some of the gang, I shall have my throat cut’, and added, ‘I don’t want that to happen if I can avoid it.’
Perhaps unwisely, Beach blithely retorted, ‘There’s no need to worry about having your throat cut’, since it implied that if that eventuality arose, he might be able to control the situation.
This was the perfect opportunity for Reggie Seaton to get to his feet and say, ‘Yes, there is!’ adding, ‘There are reasons why he is an anxious man.’