The Case of Sydney Wolfe

Whitehall 1212. taken out of context, the exhibits in the Black Museum seem often far removed from the

murder cases in which they played, most important part, either as cues or as actual weapons that cause someone's death. Now these things here are examples. You would think that a set of false teeth, an upper plate to be exact, and a small bottle, which once contained about two drums of petrol, you would think that such a collection of items would have very little

connection. But I assure you you'd be wrong. They both had something to do with a woman's death they murdered. She'd ever dream that these familiar things would one day encompass her death, nor could she have known they would be the death of her son whom she loved. But But they are here in the Black Museum today.

They've done their part in committing a crime, and then in punishing it. Chief Inspector Leslie Cameron Underhill had a great deal to do with Case No. 914-9. He will tell you more about it. I don't suppose one could say that a man has been hanged in England in a long time at least because he ran away leaving an unpaid hotel bill.

And it is certainly a fact that an unpaid hotel bill was a contributing factor in this man's death. No, he was not hanged because he deforted the hotel, but it is true that he might have escaped or he paid it.

I was called to Margate by authority of the cheap constable of Kent who had asked for the CID's help on the 1st of November. Inspector Charles Hatcher of the Margate Police told me what was happening.