Big Five (Scotland Yard)

Last updated

The Big Five was a nickname given to five Superintendents in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, from about 1906 onwards. The first five to be appointed were: Charles John Arrow, Paul Crane, Walter Dew, Frederick Fox and Frank Frost. These men and their successors, with their subordinate inspectors, were regularly to be seen working on high profile murder cases through the British Isles. [1] [2] [3] By the 1970s, the term was dropping from currency. [4]

While the crime reporters of British newspapers were the first to use the epithet The Big Five, [5] the team's activities became a popular trope with writers of crime fiction, including Edgar Wallace. [6] As well as inspiring conventional detective fiction, "The Big Five" suggests the title for The Big Six , a children's novel in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series about group of young detectives. [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

Detective fiction Subgenre of crime and mystery fiction

Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—either professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.

Crime fiction Genre of fiction focusing on crime

Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a serious crime, generally a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction, courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre.

Arthur Ransome English author and journalist (1884–1967)

Arthur Michell Ransome was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. The books remain popular and Swallows and Amazons is the basis for a tourist industry around Windermere and Coniston Water, the two lakes Ransome adapted as his fictional North Country lake.

Metropolitan Police English territorial police force

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police, is the territorial police force responsible for the prevention of crime and law enforcement in Greater London. In addition, the Met Police is also responsible for some specialised matters throughout the United Kingdom; these responsibilities include co-ordinating and leading national counter-terrorism measures and the personal safety of specific individuals, such as the Monarch and other members of the Royal Family, members of the Government, and other officials.

The police procedural, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on either a private detective, an amateur investigator or the characters who are the targets of investigations. While many police procedurals conceal the criminal's identity until the crime is solved in the narrative climax, others reveal the perpetrator's identity to the audience early in the narrative, making it an inverted detective story. Whatever the plot style, the defining element of a police procedural is the attempt to accurately depict the profession of law enforcement, including such police-related topics as forensic science, autopsies, gathering evidence, search warrants, interrogation and adherence to legal restrictions and procedure.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch. The name derives from the CID of the Metropolitan Police, formed on 8 April 1878 by C. E. Howard Vincent as a re-formation of its Detective Branch. British colonial police forces all over the world adopted the terminology developed in the UK in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and later the police forces of those countries often retained it after independence. English-language media often use "CID" as a translation to refer to comparable organisations in other countries.

<i>Five Little Pigs</i> 1942 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie

Five Little Pigs is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in May 1942 under the title of Murder in Retrospect and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1943 although some sources state that publication occurred in November 1942. The UK first edition carries a copyright date of 1942 and retailed at eight shillings while the US edition was priced at $2.00.

An inverted detective story, also known as a "howcatchem", is a murder mystery fiction structure in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The story then describes the detective's attempt to solve the mystery. There may also be subsidiary puzzles, such as why the crime was committed, and they are explained or resolved during the story. This format is the opposite of the more typical "whodunit", where all of the details of the perpetrator of the crime are not revealed until the story's climax. The first such story was R. Austin Freeman's The Case of Oskar Brodski published in Pearson's Magazine in 1912.

Divisional detective inspector (DDI), also known as first class detective inspector, was a rank in the Criminal Investigation Department of London's Metropolitan Police, equivalent to sub-divisional inspector in the uniformed branch. It was senior to the rank of detective inspector and junior to the rank of detective chief inspector.

<i>The Big Six</i>

The Big Six is the ninth book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, published in 1940. The book returns Dick and Dorothea Callum, known as the Ds, to the Norfolk Broads where they renew their friendship with the members of the Coot Club. This book is more of a detective story as the Ds and Coot Club try to unravel a mystery that threatens the Death and Glories' freedom to sail the river. Dorothea names the group of amateur detectives "The Big Six", an allusion to the "Big Five" group of murder detectives at Scotland Yard.

The Messina Brothers were five brothers who led a criminal organisation in London from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Frederick Wensley

Frederick Porter Wensley served as a British police officer from 1888 until 1929, reaching the rank of chief constable of the Scotland Yard Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Serving in Whitechapel for part of his career, he was involved in street patrols during the investigation of the Jack the Ripper murders, details of which he would later publish in his memoirs in 1931. He was one of the 'Big Four', a nickname given to the four Superintendents in charge of the Metropolitan Police CID, with his murder investigations regularly published in the press. The leading prosecuting barrister Sir Richard Muir referred to him as "the greatest detective of all time".

The Paedophile Unit is a branch of the Metropolitan Police Service's Child Abuse Investigation Command, based at Scotland Yard in London, England. It operates against the manufacture and distribution of child pornography, online child grooming, and "predatory paedophiles online", and organised crime associated with these.

<i>The Playbirds</i> 1978 British film

The Playbirds is a 1978 British sexploitation film, made by Irish-born director Willy Roe and starring 1970s pin-up Mary Millington alongside Glynn Edwards, Suzy Mandel and Windsor Davies. It was the official follow-up to Come Play with Me, one of the most successful of the British sex comedies of the 1970s, which also starred Millington.

Henry Moore was a British policeman from Northamptonshire. He joined the London Metropolitan Police Service on 26 April 1869, was promoted to Sergeant on 29 August 1872, and became an Inspector on 25 August 1878. On 30 April 1888, he joined the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard.

Chief inspector is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police (CIP).

Jack Whicher

Detective Inspector Jonathan "Jack" Whicher was an English police detective. He was one of the original eight members of London's newly formed Detective Branch, which was established at Scotland Yard in 1842. During his career, Whicher earned a reputation among the finest in Europe.

Kriminalpolizei, often abbreviated as Kripo, is the German name for a criminal investigation department. This article deals with the agency during the Nazi era.

Fictional detectives From television

Fictional detectives are characters in detective fiction. These individuals have long been a staple of detective mystery crime fiction, particularly in detective novels and short stories. Much of early detective fiction was written during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction" (1920s–1930s). These detectives include amateurs, private investigators and professional policemen. They are often popularized as individual characters rather than parts of the fictional work in which they appear. Stories involving individual detectives are well-suited to dramatic presentation, resulting in many popular theatre, television, and film characters.

Alexander Anthony Eist BEM was a detective at Scotland Yard during the 1960s and 1970s. He is particularly notable for the many allegations of corruption made against him. These included complicity in jewel robberies and providing false alibis to criminals. He later provided testimony to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations regarding the assassination of Martin Luther King, whose killer — James Earl Ray — had been in his custody following Ray's escape to London in 1968.

References

  1. Gordon, R. Michael (2018). Murder files from Scotland Yard and the Black Museum. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 5. ISBN   9781476672540.
  2. Prothero, Margaret Wafhilda. The History of the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard from Earliest Times Until To-day. Herbert Jenkins Ltd. p. 145. OCLC   1070411464. These five Superintendents are known to the public as the 'Big Five', a name given to them by the Press
  3. Shpayer-Makov, Haia, ed. (2021). The making of the modern police, 1780-1914. The development of detective policing. Vol. 6. London: Pickering and Chatto. p. 259. ISBN   9781000559774.
  4. Mark, Robert (Spring 1975). "New Scotland Yard". Cornhill Magazine . Vol. 180. p. 279.
  5. Campbell, Duncan (4 September 2009). "The man in the mac: a life in crime reporting". the Guardian . Retrieved 1 June 2022. 'Send for the Yard' and for one of the 'Big Five' – the quintet of detective superintendents who led the major investigations
  6. Woodhall, Edwin (1931). Secrets of Scotland Yard. London: John Lane. p. 120. OCLC   504875175.
  7. Hunt, Peter (1992). Approaching Arthur Ransome. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 79. ISBN   9780224032889.
  8. Ransome, Arthur (1940). The Big Six. London: Jonathan Cape. p. "Title". 'It's the Big Five really. […] They are the greatest detectives in the world. They sit in […] Scotland Yard and solve one mystery after another.' […] said Dorothea.