During the early evening of Wednesday 10^th January 1968 Herbert George Karam, aged 56 stood in his brother’s bar – Casey’s Lounge on Queen Street – and took a large roll of banknotes from a box and put them in his pocket. Standing nearby two of his friends, Grenville ‘Peter’ Saltus and Ronald Young saw the indiscretion and Young remarked to Saltus that someday Karam would be robbed.  Saltus replied that he had been thinking of robbing him himself, and suggested that he and Young should do it together. They agreed to do just that and the two friends left the bar and broke into Karam’s apartment on King Street through a side window. A conspiracy was underway.

Helping themselves to some neckties and beer, they lay in wait for two and a half hours planning what they would do when Karam came home. Saltus suggested that Young should throw a blanket over the victim’s head while Saltus would hit him with a piece of pipe.  Meantime, they removed all the light bulbs in the apartment and continued the wait. Karam arrived home shortly after 10 p.m. and tried unsuccessfully to switch on the lights. He then went into his darkened bedroom where the two men were hiding, and they carried out their plan.

A blanket was thrown over Karam’s head and he was knocked to the floor. During a struggle on the floor both men beat him into submission with their fists. He became exhausted and lay still whilst Young went through his pockets.

The robbers left him on the floor bleeding from a head wound and fled with over US$2,500 and ₤295 in cash together with a wallet containing personal items. Karam was able to crawl to an adjoining apartment and summon help. He was rushed to the hospital.

At about 10.25 p.m. I was working the night CID duty shift with Pc Malcolm Hinds who was on loan to CID as a partner from Central uniform watch. We attended the scene of the robbery at ‘Galdwyn Apts’, King Street, Hamilton where we saw significant signs of a fight in Karam’s apartment.  I closed off the apartment and instructed a police guard that no-one was to enter. I informed Police Operations of my findings and requested forensic assistance immediately.

At 10.55 p.m. we went to K.E.M.H. where we saw that Karam had been badly beaten about his head, face and stomach. He was in a state of shock and unresponsive to questions.  There was apprehension that Karam might not survive the beating. Any questioning of Karam was impossible due to his state of shock. I detailed Pc Hinds to remain at the hospital and I returned to ‘Gladwyn’ to meet with scenes of crime officer Dc Calvin Christopher. I alerted Pc Hinds and the nursing staff to contact me immediately should there be any further deterioration in Karam’s condition. I considered the possibility of the need for a dying declaration.

On entering the secured apartment with Dc Christopher I saw that:-

• There was no immediate sign of a forced entry.
• Three light bulbs appeared to have been removed from a chandelier and placed upon a dice table nearby.
• Two empty Heineken beer bottles; one empty Tuborg beer bottle and one full and unopened Heineken beer bottle with a clean white handkerchief wrapped around it, - all lying on a dresser top.
• Two white handkerchiefs’ with twisted ends, consistent with having been used as face coverings – lying on a sofa near the scene of the struggle.
• An overturned wooden bench lying on top of a pair of gent’s spectacles
• A man’s broken wristwatch and a tie-pin lying on the floor together with patches of what appeared to be dried blood.
• A grey coloured army blanket on the floor in the area of the supposed struggle.

Dc Christopher continued working the crime scene throughout the night.

At 12.10 a.m.  D/Superintendent Frank Hammond attended the scene and with him I went to Apartment No.6 but we received no reply to our knocks.

Initially working alone, I commenced what turned out to be convoluted enquiries at the adjoining apartments inside one of which, No.6, whilst questioning the inhabitant, I saw in full view certain articles of obviously stolen property. Pc Hinds joined me from the hospital and an arrest was made and certain stolen property recovered – not connected with the case under investigation

Resulting from information received and believing that someone else was hidden in apartment No.6, I requested further personnel assistance. Pc Hinds and I were joined around 4.00 a.m. by Pc Ralph Sealy. I sent Pc Sealy to the rear of No.6 and heard him shouting to someone. I continued knocking on the front door and announced ‘Police, open up’. There was still no reply.

From inside the apartment I could hear the sound of someone moving about together with sounds consistent with furniture being moved around. I saw a dim light shining through a curtain. Someone or something was moving around inside the apartment. I continued knocking and after six minutes from the first knock a man who identified himself as Grenville Chesterfield Saltus opened the door and invited us in. I saw he was shaking and trembling. I asked why and he replied, “Just cops that’s all.”

I asked why he had not opened the door to us earlier than he did, he replied, “Why should I open the door to the likes of you.” He slumped down in a chair as if exhausted. He muttered that we should not disturb him and that we had nothing on him anyhow. I explained the nature of our enquiries and asked where he had been throughout the evening. He replied, “Drinking alone round and about.” Pc Hinds spoke to him and received the replies, “I came in alone” and “You are entitled to your opinion.”

I said to Saltus, “I am arresting you on suspicion of having committed a felony. You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so but what you say may be put into writing and given in evidence.”

Saltus said, “Search all you like Al Capone. If you find anything I’ve just got back.”

In company with Pc Hinds and Pc Sealy I made a cursory search of No.6 and took possession of certain articles of clothing and a tie rack from the wardrobe. I saw what appeared to be blood stains on the front of a dark blue leather jacket being worn by Saltus.

Continuing the enquiries later that same morning a detailed search was conducted of No.6 by CID officers led by D/Sgt Brinley Jones. Recovered from behind a wardrobe and a clothes dresser was cash and property belonging to Karem

Saltus was later charged and remanded in custody pending the arrest of his accomplice Ronald Young some days later. Both were charged with being concerned together in the armed robbery and both pleaded guilty in arraignments at the Easter Term of the Criminal Assizes.

Before sentencing the pair the Chief Justice, the Hon. Sir Myles Abbott, told them:

“You two men evidently worked out a successful plan, first to break into Mr. Karam’s house, then to lie in wait for him, and make a vicious attack on him; and a cowardly attack by two men on a man twice your age.  You are fortunate that he did not suffer further injuries than possibly you even expected.  He is not permanently injured but he might well have been. He might have been completely suffocated by the blanket and the blows you gave him with the pipe. This might have resulted in your being here on a very much more serious charge.”

He added that “it was a disgraceful piece of behaviour, particularly on the part of Saltus who I think was the ringleader in this conspiracy.”

In his sentencing the Chief Justice told Saltus that in addition to prison time he would get six strokes of the cane – “to teach you not to use personal violence.”

At a later Court of Appeal hearing the Appeal judges refused to reduce the sentences but they did set aside the additional punishment of six strokes of the cane in the case of Saltus. Chairman of the court, Sir Ronald Sinclair, said that the judges felt that corporal punishment should not be imposed in addition to long gaol terms. The punishment was never carried out.

Chairman of the court, Sir Ronald Sinclair, said that the judges felt that corporal punishment should not be imposed in addition to long gaol terms. “The sentences however are thoroughly deserved,” said Sir Ronald.

[The sentencing of Saltus to six strokes of the cane is believed to have been the last time such a sentence was handed down within the Bermuda jurisdiction.]

COMMISSIONER’S COMMENDATION:

Awarded to P.C. 112 G.F. Rose –

For intelligent appreciation and diligent enquiries in a brutal case of robbery with violence after a housebreaking by Grenville Chesterfield Saltus and Ronald McDonald Young

Saltus was sentenced to eighteen months and five years’ imprisonment concurrent, and six strokes of the cane. Young was sentenced to twelve months and three years’ concurrent.

Dated: 16th April 1968

Contributed by George Rose

February 1965

Victoria Road Police Station, Aston

For a beat constable in the 1960’s keeping a point with his patrol sergeant was an important aspect of beat duties.  These were the days when an officer walked his beat mostly alone and without a personal radio by which to summon help or learn of breaking information. If he didn’t make his point at the allotted time then his safety became a concern and a search for him might commence without delay.  This was especially so during the hours of darkness. All he possessed with which to summon help was his police issued pocket whistle.

Thus it was that shortly before 3.00 a.m. on a frosty morning in February 1965 I was making my way to a point at a public telephone box near the Aston Villa football ground.  I expected the beat sergeant, Gerry Hodge would be riding his Velocette (the noddy bike) and that we would not chat for long. He’d initial my pocket book and we’d part ways until the next appointed time when he would probably telephone me at the kiosk and expect me to assure him over the line that ‘all was correct’.

As I walked across a junction I glanced down a side road and some 50 yards away saw a Morris Minor van parked without lights at a careless angle to the sidewalk. The van was not known to me and had not been there some hours earlier when I had walked by on patrol. There was a dim light from a street gas lamp on the opposite side of the road.  Something wasn’t right with this picture and I was curious to know what.

Believing I could check out the van and still make the 3.00 a.m. point – if nothing was amiss, I made a wide approach to the van on the offside but couldn’t see inside. I opened the driver’s door and shone my torch inside the van. Three males were crammed along the two front seats.  No rear seats were present. The driver was bent over to his left with his hands beneath the dashboard.

I heard a passenger say “Copper” – as he opened his door. The driver was rising into an erect seated position and began easing himself across the seats away from me. One passenger was already out of the van and running as the middle passenger followed him out. From my side I grabbed the back of the driver’s collar and pulled him out onto the ground.  As he fell he grabbed both my legs and we were both on the ground.

He looked to be twice my age and he strongly resisted arrest. After lengthy struggles and a running chase we were both wrestling again on the ground.  Fortunately, he quickly became exhausted and I was able to   straddle him as he lay face-down on the roadway. After a long session of whistle blowing, I was pleased to see upstairs bedroom lights coming on in nearby houses. A number of householders warily approached the scene in their dressing gowns and slippers.  No household had a telephone in that street by which to call the emergency police number 999.  After dispatching his wife to the house to put on the teakettle, a 60-year-old in his slippers and pyjamas and with my overcoat across his shoulders hurried off to make my point with the sergeant. As it turned out, both the sergeant and the watch inspector Gerry Finch were at the kiosk awaiting my arrival. Driving their Austin A 40 they attended the scene and took over from there.

I was later fixed up at the Birmingham Accident & General Hospital for scrapes and bruises.  My helmet and torch had gone missing but the helmet was turned in the following day having been found on a nearby bombsite. The torch was never found. Tunic, trousers and boots needed replacement but I still have the trusted whistle to the present day. 

The van was full of stolen television sets and wireless equipment from the B/E of a television shop earlier that night in nearby Walsall.  I later learned that Regional Crime Squad officers had identified the other two thieves and had targeted this gang for ongoing enquiries.

In his covering report to the Chief Constable, Inspector Finch wrote:

‘This young policeman displayed considerable initiative in tackling these three men together with zeal of a high order in maintaining the chase and securing one of them, despite having injured his knee’.

The Watch Committee awarded the following commendation on 3^rd March 1965:

Highly Commended

“Discreet approach and persistent pursuit of men for taking and driving away motor vehicle”

 George Rose

Editors note  -   I served in the Staffordshire County Police from 1961 to 1964, and worked in Bilston Division, not too far away from Aston.  We had a series of blue posts or pillars on street corners for communicating with our Police Station.  These were about 6 feet high with a light on the top. We were all issued with a key which opened  the door of a small compartment  in which was an old fashioned black telephone connected directly to our Police Station.  We often used these to make our points at the appointed time.  The other side could be used by members of the public in an emergency.  All they had to do was open a small door and speak into a grille and the Station Constable on duty would respond.

Typical police pillar used in the Midlands (Photo kindly supplied by  Debbie Menzel)

Out of interest, after reading George's article about making points at a public telephone kiosk, I started checking the internet  but couldn't find any photos of this particular police post (see above), but some Forces used what was called a TARDIS box which was much larger and which you could enter to make calls, fill out reports, and presumably stay warm!  We would be interested in hearing about other rypes of police pillars or boxes used by any of our former colleagues who served in other Police Forces prior to or after serving in Bermuda.  

Fortunately I have an excellent contact in the Midlands,  Debbie Menzel, who served in the West Midlands Police and is now involved with the West Midlands Police Museum.  Debbie also happens to run her own website which is devoted to the Ryton-on-Dunsmore No 4 District Police Training Centre in which she has many hundreds  of photographs of those men and women who have passed through Ryton.    The Ryton website is private in that it is only open by invitation, but anyone who attended Ryton for training is more than welcome to join Debbie's group.  Anyone interested can email info@expobermuda.com