“Catapult Mystery.”
Strange attacks on a villa. Big hue and cry for miscreants.
Woodford, Saturday.
Mysterious attacks made on a villa in Grove Road, Woodford, are puzzling the local police. The attacks are also causing considerable indignation and alarm among the people of the neighbourhood. Wellington Villa, occupied by Mr Thomas Herbert Gaskin, inventor of the Gaskin lifeboat, has been singled out for a series of extraordinary assaults by some person or persons apparently armed with a long-distance catapult.
The attacks commenced about a week ago, when stones, seemingly propelled from a spot a considerable distance away, rattled against the upper windows without doing any damage. The second attempt was of a more determined nature, and the third, commencing late on Thursday night, was continued into the small hours of yesterday morning, causing much damage.
The whole neighbourhood was roused, and fifty people, assisted by four policemen, searched the dsitrict for hours. Having got the range of the house, the attackers sent stone after stone through the bedroom windows, breaking plate glass three-eighths of an inch thick.
Mr Gaskin’s son was struck on the shoulder by a pebble, and the bedroom floors were soon littered with stones and broken glass.
The police and others who took up the search for the attacking party climbed on the roofs of adjacent houses and swarmed up neighbouring trees, in order to get good posts of observation, but no one could discover where the stones were coming from. The stones were smooth, and evidently carefully chosen for the purpose.
Mr Gaskin, who is an American, has lived at Wellington Villa for fourteen years. So far as he knows he has not an enemy in the world, and he can offer no solution to the mystery. If a catapult is being used it must be one of unusual power, for all the stones come in a straight line.
Sunday Post, 15th August 1920.
Stones Shower on Police.
Mysterious attack during burglar hunt.
Woodford, Essex, Saturday.
While searching for a supposed burglar, a strong muster of Woodford policemen, who form part of the J Division of the Metropolitan Force, were stoned, and close investigations have failed to reveal who stoned them, or where the stones came from.
The mystery is deepened by the fact that a similar incident took place at the same house about a year ago, excepting that on that occasion the police were not stoned, but a quantity of glass was smashed by a mysterious shower of flints.
At one o’clock yesterday morning an alarm was raised by Mr Gaskin, who told the police that his house in Grove road, Woodford, had been burglariously entered, that he was struck in it by a man who escaped through a window.
In view of the previous occurrence police whistles were freely sounded, and the house was speedily surrounded by officers. A search was being made when the stones showered about them and Mr Gaskin, who was assisting in the search. Where they came from, or how they were thrown is a mystery. It was suggested that aircraft might have been used, but there was no sound of aeroplanes.
Sunday Post, 15th July 1923.
“Ghost’s” Stony Prank?
Mysterious shower of missiles on police at Woodford.
Has Woodford a house haunted by a ghost who stones the police? This question was freely asked in Woodford yesterday, when it was learned that stones were showered on police searching for a supposed burglar.
When, at 1a.m., Mr Gaskin, the householder in Grove-road, gave the alarm, stating that he had been struck in the face by a burglar, police whistles were freely blown, as on a previous occasion a police search was interrupted by a mysterious shower of flints that smashed several windows. Although the house was speedily surrounded, no one was seen, but stones were showered on Mr Gaskin and the police.
Sunday Mirror, 15th July 1923.
(virtually the same is in the Daily Mirror the next day, under the heading ‘Stone-hurling ‘Ghost”)
Who throws the stones?
Mystery of Bombarded Villa.
The mystery of the bombarded house in Grove Road, South Woodford, London, E., is still baffling the local police and the men from Scotland Yard who were called on to help to solve it. The stone-throwing began on Monday night of last week, when the top windows of Wellington Villa in Grove Road received a shower of small stones.
Last Thursday three windows of the top rooms were smashed by a dozen or so stones. The police were called, and stationed themselves in the top rooms and in the roadway, but for an hour or more the stones kept coming through the windows.
On Friday night the police were in force in the house, in the road, on the roofs of the houses opposite, and up some neighbouring trees. At 10.30 stones flew through the windows of the upper rooms every few mintues but whence they came could not be discovered.
On Saturday the police, some 40 strong, were again on the alert, and again the stone-throwing was repeated. One of the watching policemen was struck. Since then there has been no repetition of the bombardment, but night by night the police are on special duty.
Wellington Villa has been occupied by Mr H. T. Gaskin for 14 years. He is a bedridden invalid, and so far as he knows he has offended nobody, and has no enemy. The stones apparently all come from one direction, and the police do not think they can have been hand thrown.
Edinburgh Evening News, 20th August 1920.