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Willox the Detective

By David Grewar, Aberdeen Journal Notes and Queries…

The innkeeper at Spittal of Glenshee had suffered from a long series of petty thefts. All attempts to find the delinquent having failed, mine host at last sent for the renowned detective. In due course the functionary arrived, and for a time seemed to devote no attention to the matter in hand. Nevertheless we may be sure that by deft questions and investigations he was busily employed, and had ultimately come to the conclusion that the thief was connected with the establishment. At last he declared his intention of pointing out the thief, and with this end in view, issued somewhat peculiar instructions. First he had the barn cleared, and from the rafters suspended a pot that had been in daily use, to a height of about four feet from the floor. The farmyard cock was then captured and conveyed to the barn. Next all the windows of the edifice were closed. Into the barn he ordered the innkeeper to assemble the whole of his household and staff, taking care that none be omitted. These preparations being completed, Willox took the cock, and, placing him in the pot, put on the lid, thereupon making some mystical signs. He then closed the door, thus placing the interior of the building in total darkness. He then addresses the assemblage in terms something like the following:- ‘As you all know, a series of thefts has been committed here, which it is now my intention to terminate by finding out the thief and having him punished. You are doubtless aware that I possess powers granted to few, and these you have just seen me exercise by enchanting the bird confined in that vessel. One by one you must place your hand on that pot, walking round it in a direction contrary to that taken by the sun, nor removing your hand until the circuit is completed, and as sure as the cock crew when Peter denied his Master, so will he again crow when the thief’s hand touches the pot.’ The ordeal then began. One by one the assemblage walked round the pot in dread silence, but each and all completed the circuit without the clarion of chanticleer being heard. Willox expressed disappointment, and, muttering something about ‘another test,’ proceeded to open the door and windows, thus flooding the barn with light. He then ordered the people to hold up their hands. This they did, and the red-robed magician walked from top to bottom of the line, turned back, and, stopping before a certain individual, said – ‘You are the thief!’ The man at once confessed, and promised to make restitution in order that worse evil might not befall him.

How did Willox locate the thief? He did so simply by playing upon the credulity of the people. He was well aware of their firm belief in the supernatural and in his own power, and knew that none had the slightest doubt but that the cock would crow when the thief’s hand touched the pot. This Willox knew from the cramped position the bird was into be in the last degree improbable, and he also suspected that the thief, in order to avoid detection, would walk round the pot without allowing his hand to touch it, which he could easily do in the darkness without being detected, and which, indeed, had been the sole purpose for the excluding of the light. Then, as the pot was in daily use, every one that touched it carried off part of the soot with which it was covered. Thus, when Willox put the people through the last part of the ceremony, he easily detected the thief from the fact that his hands were clean, while those of all the others were grimy – a simple but clever plan of detection!

By David Grewar, Aberdeen Journal Notes and Queries, vol. III (1910), pp.204-5

Background

Red coat
Willox made a point of always being seen ‘on duty’ in his red tailcoat with, according to one account, its buttons of solid gold.