There were several reasons for the willingness of the populace to get involved in a crime. In the first place, an organized police force was still relatively new; London’s Metropolitan Police was the best in England, but it was only twenty-five years old, and people did not yet believe that crime was “something for the police to take care of.” Second, firearms were rare, and remain so to the present day in England; there was little likelihood of a bystander stopping a charge by pursuing a thief. And finally, the majority of criminals were children, often extremely young children, and adults were not hesitant to go after them.
In any case, an adept thief took great care to conduct his business undetected, for if any alarm was raised, the chances were that he would be caught. For this very reason thieves often worked in gangs, with several members acting as “stalls” to create confusion in any alarm. Criminals of the day also utilized the fracas— as a staged event— to cover illegal activities, and this maneuver was known as a “jolly gaff.”
A good jolly gaff required careful planning and timing, for it was, as the name implied, a form of theatre. On the morning of January 9, 1855, Pierce looked around the cavernous, echoing interior of the London Bridge Station and saw that all his players were in position.
Pierce himself would perform the most crucial role, that of the “beefer.” He was dressed as a traveler, as was Miss Miriam alongside him. She would be the “plant.”
A few yards distant was the “culprit,” a chavy nine years old, scruffy and noticeably (should anyone care to observe it, too noticeably) out of place among the crowd of first-class passengers. Pierce had himself selected the chavy from among a dozen children in the Holy Land; the criterion was speed, pure and simple.
Farther away still was the “crusher,” Barlow, wearing a constable’s uniform with the hat pulled down to conceal the white scar across his forehead. Barlow would permit the child to elude him as the gaff progressed.
Finally, not far from the steps to the railway dispatcher’s office was the whole point of the ploy: Agar, dressed out of twig— disguised— in his finest gentleman’s clothing.
As it came time for the London & Greenwich eleven-o’clock train to depart, Pierce scratched his neck with his left hand. Immediately, the child came up and brushed rather abruptly against Miss Miriam’s right side, rustling her purple velvet dress. Miss Miriam cried, “I’ve been robbed, John!”
Pierce raised his beef: “Stop, thief!” he shouted, and raced after the bolting chavy. “Stop, thief!”
Startled bystanders immediately grabbed at the youngster, but he was quick and slippery, and soon tore free of the crowd and ran toward the back of the station.
There Barlow in his policeman’s uniform came forward menacingly. Agar, as a civic-spirited gentleman, also joined in the pursuit. The child was trapped; his only escape lay in a desperate scramble up the stairs leading to the railway office, and he ran hard, with Barlow, Agar, and Pierce fast on his heels.
The little boy’s instructions had been explicit: he was to get up the stairs, into the offce, past the desks of the clerks, and back to a high rear window opening out onto the roof of the station. He was to break this window in an apparent attempt to escape. Then ,Barlow would apprehend him. But he was to struggle valiantly until Barlow cuffed him; this was his signal that the gaff had ended.
The child burst into the South Eastern Railway office, startling the clerks. Pierce dashed in immediately afterward: “Stop him, he’s a thief!” Pierce shouted and, in his own pursuit, knocked over one of the clerks. The child was scrambling for the window. Then Barlow, the constable, came in.
“I’ll handle this,” Barlow said, in an authoritative and tough voice, but he clumsily knocked one of the desks over and sent papers flying.
“Catch him! Catch him!” Agar called, entering the offices.
By now the child was scrambling up onto the station dispatcher’s desk, going toward a narrow high window; he cracked the glass with his small fist, cutting himself. The station dispatcher kept saying “Oh, dear, oh, dear,” over and over.