The Murder of Mrs Ann Battersbye

Whitehall, one-two-one-two. For the first time in its history, Scotland Yard opens its official files to bring you the true stories of some of its most baffling cases.

Research for Whitehall, one-two-one-two is from Percy Hoskins, Chief Crime Reporter of the London Daily Express. The stories for radio are written and directed by Willis Cooper. Here is Chief Superintendent John Davidson of Scotland Yard, custodian of the famous Black Museum.

The exhibit I have to show you today from our black museum files is neither more or less unusual than anything I have shown you. But like many other of these intrinsically unusual objects, it has acquired a certain interest because of its association.

Now you've seen thousands of these. It's a string of very colored plastic beads made by cutting plastic tubes of various colors into short lengths and stringing them together to form a woman's necklace. The string has been broken, but it's been retired, you see.

The man who tied it together is here beside me. He was in charge of the case number 69666. This is Detective Inspector Herbert Case of the CID. Herbert? This case is one of the few in which the press was able to be of considerable assistance to us.

Not I assure you by usurping the functions of the police. There are so many fictional newspaper men do so fictionally successfully, but by passing on to us was remarkable celerity, everything they discovered, and leaving the dirty work to us whose job that is. I applaud such pressmen as does every good policeman. On the 9th

of August last year, the Criminal Investigation Department of Nottingham received a Trump telephone call from London. The call was routed to me, the caller identified himself. Inspector case here, Mr. Marshfangs. Yes, sir. May I ask who you are, sir?