Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction. Vol. 27, No. 1, September 17, 1927
- Автор: Valentine, Corley H. W.
- Год: 1927
- Язык: английский
- Год: The Red Star News Company
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction. Vol. 27, No. 1, September 17, 1927». Краткое содержание книги:
He attracted little attention as a child, in fact, and was so well behaved that he never merited — at least to the knowledge of his father, chastisement.
Seek as we may for an explanation of that into which he grew, we shall not find it in his home conditions.
The boy was both admired and loved by his relatives, who liked his cleverness and shrewdness and also approved of his way of living, for as soon as William was through school he took up his residence with the old folks and showed little interest in girls.
He attended to business, was civil and fair spoken, and had a certain brusque directness of manner and speech which the honest and hardy Scots liked. The town trusted young Brodie and counted him a substantial citizen, worthy to follow in the footsteps of his family.
“Born Bad”
In February of 1763 William Brodie, the younger, was well established at home, a freeman of his native city, practically in charge of his father’s business and having a great deal to say about all the details of his parents’ house, where his wishes were scrupulously met.
He introduced some modem ideas into the business and the home, kept up a little better appearance than his father had, and succeeded in getting into the society of a good many of the aristocratic families.
In addition, he won the right to come and go as he pleased, in a way which was not common; for his father trusted him and saw, he thought, that the boy would slowly forge his way socially, and add to his patrimony, until such time as he could take to wife some girl of a higher station, with a tidy little sum of her own and with important connections. Meanwhile, a few quiet wild oats would not matter.
This is the way of the world, more or less, to this day, and at the period which we are now considering Scotland’s lads were apt to take that attitude toward marriage.
The older Brodie, therefore, asked no questions when young William was absent for a night. He always came home sober, he was never seen roistering anywhere.
He told his parents that he gambled somewhat and that he went with other young bloods to see cockfights — then a popular “sport” — but the ideals of conduct for refined young gentlemen were as elastic then as now, and Brodie the elder believed his son to be a model young man.
So did his mother, for that matter, and therein is proof of his cleverness, for mothers are harder to fool than fathers, despite the fact that they often lack the material evidence and information which fathers have.
Young William was, indeed, one of those youngsters who are “born bad,” it would seem. In after years it came out that there had been a good many unsavory incidents in his school days, but always — at least for a long time — he was too clever for everybody.
It is a sure thing that the town of Edinburgh suspected nothing: at least, none of its upper layers of society did. In 1781 William became deacon of his father’s guild, and as such he entered the proud ranks of the city council.
For a year, in the course of this part of his career, he was Trades Councillor. In 1782 his father died, honored, “full of years,” and delighting in the thought that he left behind him a worthy representative,
William was, of course, the heir, and practically the sole heir, the other surviving children being only two and receiving little. Brodie went right on gathering up business and positions, but he really did seem to have a much harder time than his father in meeting his financial obligations.
An Epidemic of Crime
He made light of this, always seemed to have cash on his person and was never stingy, but in 1788 his creditors made a little stir.
They wanted a statement from him and they got it. He said that he could meet everything and in a short time he did, so his credit was greater than ever.
Edinburgh, meanwhile, from about August, 1768, onward, had become a very precarious place in which to live and do business. Robberies got to be the order of the day. Houses were mysteriously opened without breaking a window or a door.
The secret back doors of banks were unlocked, despite the fact that the one and only key might be reposing in the pocket of the proper custodian. When the burglars, seeming to know just when whole households would be away, got in, they knew right where to look for the hidden savings.
The police force, to be sure, was totally inadequate. “The watch” were worthy old gentlemen of the town, too old for active employment, who wobbled about on their decrepit legs and looked as imposing as they could.
They occasionally caught an inept young thief, or a stupid oaf, but they never came within even suspicion distance of the perpetrators of these large and persistent robberies.
The curious thing was that, along with these almost daily lootings of houses, stores and institutions, street holdups and robberies became less and less and several rather well-known gangs of ruffians mysteriously left town after being manhandled in an obscure street fight.
Solid in the Underworld
The truth was that “Deacon” Brodie was probably as close to the “master mind criminal” as we will ever get. That is to say, he had a certain talent for organization and a personality which must have been baffling, although assertive, as we shall see as soon as we take the lid off of the respectable life which he continued to lead for so long.
And while we cannot be sure, any more than the town of Edinburgh was at the time, whether Brodie was always either the perpetrator or the instigator of the extraordinary era of robbery there, which extended for over eighteen years, it is interesting to record that when his activities were cramped by a hangman’s noose, the town suddenly went back to a normal percentage of housebreakings and street holdups and that mysterious entries by means of mysterious and unknown keys ceased to take place.
Well, then, we have the picture of Brodie keeping bachelor hall in his father’s house, decorously attending Town Council meetings, working hard, taking his young men from one house to another, to fit keys, to repair windows and doors, to fix sagging floors — and generally to be the Mr. Fixit of the place.
Among other jobs, Deacon Brodie repaired the framework and crosspiece of the hanging apparatus, and several times adjusted the rope for some poor wretch.
With grave face he appears — well dressed and calm and many a mother looks at him and sighs, for he has been the town bachelor for so many years that all hope of winning him has been given up by dames of every degree.
Bearing this in mind, let us retrace this story to the date of February 9, 1763, with old Brodie still alive and young Brodie quietly slipping into the life of the old people, and of the town.
At that very time, the young man had succeeded in making himself “solid” in the underworld of Edinburgh!
There is little doubt that he already had evil companions before he was through his eighteenth year, and that his influence on them was even then sufficient to keep their mouths sealed as to his friendship with them.
He had already become familiar with vice while still seemingly too bashful to talk to girls of his own station in life. All this is not so astounding, but that which is most so, is that for so many, many years he succeeded in completely veiling this.
Brodie’s Double Life
Charles Peace, the infamous little English criminal, did, indeed, lead a double life for many years, but he was never subjected to the scrutiny of close companions of the utmost integrity.