The jewel thief who used lodgings in Hartlepool as his hideaway

And his downfall was a box of American chocolates.

Graeme Harper’s latest tale, prepared for the Hartlepool Mail, takes us back to the very late 1800s and the early years of the 1900s.

“An empty box of American chocolates led to the conviction of a notorious London criminal at loose in the North East.

“In 1895, precocious teenage jockey Herbert Grimshaw was the toast of the horse racing world. He had ridden his first winner the previous year at the age of just 15 and a year later had notched notable victories in valuable races such as the Manchester Midland Counties Handicap and the Liverpool Autumn Cup.

“The high point came in the 1895 running of the prestigious November Handicap where he rode the long shot Ivor to a famous victory.

“But Herbert Grimshaw’s time at the top proved to be short-lived and he quickly embarked on an alternate career.

“He became one of the country’s most notorious jewel thieves and in 1924 he was on the run in Hartlepool.

“Grimshaw was born in March 1879 in Bolton, the son of a brilliant jockey.

“After his early promise in the saddle faded, Grimshaw Junior worked in Austria and Germany before setting himself up a professional tipster in 1905. By his own admission, somewhere along the way he fell in with a ‘bad crowd.’

“Known to Scotland Yard as ‘an aristocrat of the criminal world,’ Grimshaw’s most famous case came in July 1909 in what was known as the Café Monico robbery, in which he stole £40,000 worth of jewels and banknotes.

“He took it all from a Parisian dealer called Frederick Goldschmidt by snatching the bag containing the swag from Mr Goldschmidt as he went to the lavatory. For this he was sentenced to three years penal servitude.

“The stolen items were never traced.

“By the time of the Café Monico heist Grimshaw already had five convictions and was described in court as an ‘expert hotel robber and associate of international jewel thieves’.

“Grimshaw’s modus operandi was to dress as a high society figure and frequent fashionable West End hotels London in order to target the rich and their property. When the First World War broke out, he was serving a seven-year term preventative detention but was released to join the Army, which he served with distinction for two and a half years. However, it wasn’t long before the ex-jockey was back to his old ways

“In October 1923, Grimshaw appeared in court in Middlesbrough under the name’ Robert Jones’ charged with receiving stolen goods after an American tourist had her handbag containing £50 worth of jewellery stolen shortly after arriving the Corporation Hotel.

“Police had quickly suspected Grimshaw, and his accomplice, to be responsible and discovered that the pair had lodgings in Hartlepool .By the time police arrived to speak to them the men had left.

“However, the presence of two empty American boxes of chocolates of the same brand missing from their victim’s bag suggested that the police had the right men.

“Still one step ahead, Grimshaw and his accomplice fled to Hartlepool train station where they boarded a service to Manchester.

“Detectives gave chase by car but a burst tyre at Leeds put a stop to their pursuit. However, a telegraph sent to their Manchester police counterparts alerted them to the situation. The pair were arrested as they got off the train.

“In court, Grimshaw impressed onlookers by conducting his own defence and ended with an eloquent speech in which he explained that his racing career had finally ended at the age of 32 when he could no longer maintain the weight required of him. His pleas did not help him, and he broke into tears as the judge sentenced him to 21 months’ imprisonment.

“Grimshaw’s career in crime was not finished and he committed further offences up until 1943 in when he found honest work as a nightwatchman.

“However, In August 1950 at the age of 78 he appeared in court one final time on charge of receiving stolen goods after the theft of a large amount of cloth from a train.

“The presiding judge felt sympathy for the frail figure in front of him and handed down a conditional discharge. Whilst in court Grimshaw said that his main downfall was that he’d spent £100,000 on gambling over the years.

“He died a year later in North London.”

Our thanks go once more to Graeme for a great read. Why not catch up with some of his previous contributions.

There’s the tale of the 1800s Hartlepool murder mystery which may not have been a murder after all.

Or how about the story of the Hartlepool family which was struck by notorious bad luck after making the horrific discovery of a mummified figure in cave.

From then onwards, the family seemed cursed and numerous examples of misfortune befell them: not just illness but financial hardship, accidents, and general bad luck.

He also gave us the story of the Greatham woman who was killed for allegedly being a witch.

Villagers were trying to find who had been responsible for the deaths of some horses. They found a live pigeon and took turns sticking pins into its heart until it was dead. Then, after roasting it, the first person to pass by would be the guilty party.

Of course, the accused woman did not stand a chance because she was the next door neighbour of the farmer whose horses had died.