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First published in 2004 Copyright © text Beverley MacDonald 2004 Copyright © illustrations Andrew Weldon 2004 Series design copyright © Ruth Grüner All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen & Unwin 83 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 Email:
[email protected] Web: www.allenandunwin.com National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: MacDonald, Beverley. It’s true! Crime doesn’t pay. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 1 74114 275 X. 1. Criminal investigation – History – Juvenile literature. 2. Criminology – History – Juvenile literature. I. Weldon, Andrew, 1971– . II. Title. 364 Series, cover and text design by Ruth Grüner Cover photograph: Photodisc Collection/Getty Images Set in 12.5pt Minion by Ruth Grüner Printed by McPherson’s Printing Group 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Teaching notes for the It’s True! series are available on the website: www.itstrue.com.au
CONTENTS WHY CRIME?
1 HISTORY’S FIRST THIEF? 1
2 GUILTY OR INNOCENT? 4
3 BEFORE THERE WERE POLICE 8
4 WRITERS INVENT DETECTIVES 21
5 IDENTITY PARADE 30
6 MAGGOTS AND BLOODSTAINS 46
7 RIGHT OR LEFT? 54
8 CAUGHT IN COURT 64
9 JUSTICE GONE WRONG 69
10 DOES CRIME EVER PAY? 76 Crime dictionary 86 Futher investigations 87 Index 88
WHY CRIME? Like many writers, I’m interested in just about everything. I like to know how things work and how people think. I want to know why things happened, how they happened and what happened next. In some ways it’s what detectives do – piecing together a story from the clues. I believe what criminals do is wrong, but understanding how criminals think and how police detectives catch them is fascinating all the same. And judging by all the popular TV shows about crime-fighters and forensic scientists, I’m not the only one. I hope you enjoy these stories.
1 H ISTORY ’ S FIRST T HIEF ? Crime has always been with us. Perhaps it began something like this . . . A long long time ago, a Stone Age man looked at his friend’s fine new stone axe and thought, ‘I’d like that.’ He may have offered his friend a string of beads in exchange for the axe, and his friend refused. Maybe he had nothing to offer. But he wanted that axe. 1
He needed that axe. He couldn’t live without that axe. What should he do? He came up with a new idea. He decided the easiest way to get what he wanted was to steal it. And so he did. He became history’s very first thief. We know there was crime in ancient times because people made up laws about what was wrong, and how wrongdoers should be punished. If there hadn’t been any crime they wouldn’t have needed to. Nearly 4000 years ago in