7 SEPTEMBER 1934, Page 30

LOST LONDON

By Ex-Det. Sergeant B. Leeson

The crimes and sensational exploits of gangsters in American cities occupy an unpleasant amount of attention today. But few realize that London narrowly escaped a similar menace in the 'nineties. In Lost London. The Memoirs of an East End Detective (Stanley Paul, 15s.), Ex-Det. Sergeant B. Leeson points out how much we owe to the quiet and unceasing efforts of the Metropolitan police. He tells us of' the Blind Beggars Gang, the Bessarabians, the Odessians and other ' formidable organizations of which the very names have been forgotten. The gangs worked at public sales rooms, race meetings, railway stations and football grounds. During the rush at turnstiles they selected their victims at will, removing watches and chains, money, tie pins. A protest from a victim was a signal for a ferocious melee which actually gave them further opportunities for their nefarious work. Mr. Leeson was known as "the man who was shot at Sidney Street" and he gives us a lengthy first-hand account of the sensational siege of the Anarchists. He tells us that Peter the Painter did not perish in the flames of the besieged house ; for, some months later while on a convalescent trip to Australia, he actually met the illusive anarchist in the booking hall of the central station at Sydney.