Free Silent Witnesses by Nigel McCrery Page A

trench coats and hats. He suspected at once that they were detectives and that they were waiting for him. Being careful to ensure he wasn’t followed, he returned home and collected his wife before catching the midnight train to Liverpool.
    However, Kennedy could not evade the police for long. At 11:40 PM on Wednesday, January 25, he noticed several men in the street outside his lodgings. Realizing by the way they were dressed that they were probably detectives, he made a run for it. He left in such a hurry that he didn’t have time to put on a shirt or to fasten his trousers or shoes. He did not go unnoticed. DS Bill Mattinson, who had arrested him on several occasions and knew him well, approached him. Kennedy pulled a pistol from his pocket and shouted at Mattinson, “Stand back,Bill—or I’ll shoot you!” True to his words, he then pulled the trigger, but fortunately for Mattinson the gun failed to go off. (It was later discovered that he had left the safety on.) Mattinson then grabbed Kennedy’s gun arm in one hand and punched him hard with the other, calling for assistance as he did so. Three of his colleagues soon arrived, and they were able to disarm and restrain Kennedy.
    By the following day, Kennedy was back in London and under arrest in New Scotland Yard. While he was there, Detective Inspector Berrett interviewed him about the murder of PC Gutteridge. Kennedy asked if he could have a few moments to consider his situation. When Berrett agreed he then asked if he could speak to his wife. Berrett once again agreed. After a short conversation he offered to make a statement. In it, he implicated Browne in the murder of PC Gutteridge.
    The ballistics expert Robert Churchill examined the weapons recovered from Browne and was able to prove, by the use of the comparison microscope, that the empty cartridge case retrieved from the vehicle had been fired from the Webley revolver found in Browne’s possession when he was arrested. Browne’s only possible defense against this evidence was that he had obtained the gun from Kennedy after the murder had occurred.
    The trial opened at the Old Bailey on April 23, 1928, before Mr. Justice Avery. Browne maintained his innocence of any involvement in the crime, claiming he was at home in bed that night. Evidence was heard from over forty prosecution witnesses, including four ballistic experts. The trial was notable for the forensic evidence given by Robert Churchill; through the use of photographs, Churchill proved to the court thatthe markings on the cartridge case matched those on the revolver, thus proving that the gun found in Browne’s car was the murder weapon. Both men were eventually found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. They were executed on May 31, 1928.
    George Gutteridge is buried in Warley Cemetery. The inscription on his headstone reads:
    In proud memory of George William Gutteridge, Police Constable, Essex Constabulary, who met his death in the performance of his duty on September 27th 1927.
    The bullets and Webley revolver used to kill George Gutteridge are in the Essex Police Museum, while other exhibits relating to Browne and Kennedy are in the Black Museum at Scotland Yard. The road where Gutteridge was murdered has been altered since 1927, and a short stretch of it, now marked by a memorial stone, has been renamed Gutteridge Lane in his memory.
    Gunpowder was probably discovered in China in the ninth century, but not until the middle of the tenth century is there any visual evidence of a weapon using gunpowder. A picture that includes “fire-lances” was painted on a tenth-century banner from Dunhuang in western China (see Plate 4 ). It depicts demons attacking with these fire-lances. In essence a fire-lance was a gunpowder-filled tube attached to the end of a long pole, used as a sort of crude flamethrower. The Chinese also discovered that shrapnel rammed tightly down the barrel would fly out along with the