TT’s most notorious fowl-thief

THE year is 1882 and a man has stolen a fowl and runs through the streets of Port-of-Spain holding the chicken by its neck. Police are on the trail. It’s a huge drama unfolding and causes much public attention. The fowl-thief is arrested and dragged before the court and a magistrate sentences him  to six months hard labour. That was life then. Today police will quicker chase someone down for murder, but back then getting a criminal record was much easier and you could have been charged for offences which included: Being drunk and disorderly, vagrancy, riotous behaviour, unlawfully assembling to riot, being found in a public fete if you had a prior conviction, keeping swines in the city, and a host of larceny charges, from stealing a lone pumpkin, to larceny of a donkey.

Those were the colourful days of the late 1800’s and the faces of the criminals listed in the Police Register at the time can now be seen at the newly opened Police Museum at the old Police Headquarters, St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain. The pages of the Police Register are yellow with age but tell the hilarious stories of what crime was like in the 19th century. Many of the persons charged came from smaller Caribbean islands, others from Calcutta and Madras (India) and must have been a sorry bunch because under their occupation they were listed as “rogues’ or “vagabonds,” but in the main many were humble farmers. Enter William Springer in the year 1882. He’s ripe from Barbados, a blacksmith by profession, only 19, but some of his teeth from his lower jaw are already missing.

From 1882 to 1945 he  amasses 31 convictions and doing jail stretches three and six months at a time. The jail for him is a revolving door: Here are some of the charges Springer faced: Larceny for a donkey in 1882, for which he was jailed for six months hard labour, larceny of a goat, also another six-month stint, obscene language, fighting, loitering, drunk and disorderly (he served 21 days for this), fraudulently owning a  horse for which he was incarcerated for three months hard labour, larceny of a half bag of flour, which drew another jail term of six months, larceny of fowls, on two occasions, each confining him to jail for six months. On May 2, 1924, Springer even “breached the Sanitary Ordinance” and served seven days. This last charge leaves a lot to the imagination.

James Rock, also from Barbados stole potatoes, sugar cane, threw missiles, fought and served from 14 days to six months for his transgressions. In 1882, Alexander Bacon, who was born in France and whose occupation was listed as a planter assaulted someone and was jailed for six months. Thomas Bridgeman, came from Barbados, and with his only one good eye (he was blind in the other eye) decided to “expose his person” and he was sent to jail with hard labour for that, but no sooner was he released, he was back behind bars again for loitering and yet again being on someone’s premises for unlawful purposes. Dabee, a man from Calcutta on one day alone was charged with four instances of buggery— which was April 11, 1882 — he served two years.

Women also had their bad times, as in the case of 19-year-old Virginia Williams who served two months hard labour for “riotous behaviour” on May 19, 1882, and for stealing money in August of 1883, another three months. A man named “Parrahoo” was probably the most notorious fowl-thief that ever lived. He came from Calcutta and when he was not stealing cattle he was busy snatching fowls. He spent several six-month stints “inside” for his avaricious poultry appetite. Also from Calcutta was “Laloo” who on July 22, 1882 was found loitering and deemed a rogue and vagabond. He was jailed for 14 days with hard labour, and in August of the same year police arrested him for sleeping on a boat and Laloo was jailed for another 14 days — he served two two-month stretches for larceny of sugar cane. His country man, “Ramhall,” alias Louis Porter served six months for stealing a Panama hat, and on two other occasions he stole umbrellas and served three months in jail so he could cool down.

I could only guess that he took the Panama hat from the overseer and the umbrellas from the overseer’s wife. All the way from Madeira, Francis Alex Martin came to Trinidad and worked as a shoemaker, but then he decided to receive stolen goods and served three years — the year was 1883.  Today these crimes are petty, but then when a conviction was recorded against someone, they could not even attend a public party because if they were held by the police it meant serving more jail time — and facing the music in jail is not nice — anytime.