The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard: Behind the Scenes at Scotland Yard [Hardcover]

Dr Crippen poisoned his wife, filleted her and stored her headless remains in his cellar. While making his escape to Montreal, the captain of the passenger ship recognised him from Wanted posters and used a new telegraph system to inform the police. Scotland Yard detectives boarded a faster ship and arrested Crippen as he was disembarking in Canada.

PC William Atkinson and PC William Alcock, the first and second police constables attested, were both dismissed for drunkenness on the streets on 29th September 1829, the first day that patrols began.

This is the kind of information that makes this book unique. The authors, true crime writer Martin Fido and historical researcher Keith Skinner, break new ground with this meticulously detailed study illustrated with previously unpublished images from the Metropolitan Police Museum archives alongside over five hundred entries ranging from A Division to Z Wagon.

The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard traces the evolution of the service since it was founded by Sir Robert Peel in 1829 to the present day, detailing the methods and equipment used over the years, as well as tackling issues of policy, racism and corruption in the modern force.

Produced with the full co-operation of the Metropolitan Police and including a foreword by its Commissioner Sir Paul Condon, we feel that this is an invaluable reference book, offering unprecedented insight into both the force itself and the social, cultural and technological development of Britain in the twentieth century. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Martin Fido was previously a literary historian, specializing in the Victorian novel and its background. For 20 years he taught in universities from Oxford to the West Indies before becoming a freelance writer and historian in 1983.

Keith Skinner started his professional life as an actor working in film, theatre and television. He has twice been a member of the National Theatre Company, under the directorship of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Peter Hall.

Famous covert unit of four Flying Squad officers, formed in 1945 and disbanded in 1949. The Ghost Squad was a purely intelligence-gathering unit, suggested by Chief Constable Percy Worth, developed by Assistant Commissioner C Sir Ronald Howe and put under the command of Detective Inspector John Charlie 'Artful' Capstick to collect information to combat the ramifying black market created by wartime and postwar rationing. The officers were required to cultivate criminal contacts and pass information received from them to colleagues who would conduct investigations and make arrests.

The Ghost Squad were rarely seen to be involved in overt law enforcement, and drove dirty and battered cars as a camouflage. Their worth was proved immediately, and in the three years and nine months of their existence, their work led to 769 arrests, the solution of 1506 cases, and the recovery of £253,896 worth of stolen property. Detective Sergeant (later Detective Superintendent) John Gosling was the only officer to stay with the squad from start to finish: its members were changed from time to time to prevent criminals from recognizing them.

The disbandment of the Squad at the height of its success was something of a puzzle to Gosling, and villains have been quick to pretend that they had successfully corrupted its members. In fact, the Ghost Squad members were returned to Divisional duties at the time when manpower shortage was straining the police force to the uttermost, and Commissioner Sir Harold Scott was using every means at his disposal to deploy officers economically. In his own book on Scotland Yard, written after his retirement, Scott praised the Ghost Squad's work, and remarked that other officers were still using the same methods.