MURDER by injection of plague bacteria in 1930s India sounds more like fantasy than non-fiction.
But the killing of Amarendra Chandra Pandey in a crowded Calcutta railway station did take place, and the case was solved by the man who went on to become the first chief officer of the States of Jersey Police, Henry Le Brocq.
American author Dan Morrison – a former New York crime reporter and currently deputy world editor at USA Today – first visited Jersey in 2019 to research the life of the then deputy police commissioner in charge of Calcutta’s detective department. The author has returned to the Island to speak about his book on the subject, The Prince and the Poisoner, and to gain further insights into Mr Le Brocq’s remarkable life.
It transpires, however, that injecting victims with toxic substances is not quite as unlikely as you might think.
“This appears to be the last of a brief wave of germ murders that appeared in the US and in Europe among the gilded class in the early teens and twenties. It’s a period of great discovery and new experimentation in microbiology and the birth of the field of immunology,” Mr Morrison explained.
In what he describes as a “wild west atmosphere” among researchers – some professional scientists and others intelligent amateurs – getting hold of bacteria that could be used as a weapon was straightforward. “You, a Joe-nobody in the field of science, could simply place an order for some cholera bacteria for a laboratory if you wished to have some. The result was a number of entertaining and sometimes very lurid murder cases in cities like Chicago, New York and St Louis,” he said.
The case of Amarendra Chandra Pandey – murdered for financial gain by his playboy half-brother Benoyendra – made headlines across the globe in 1933 and was to be investigated by the young Henry Le Brocq, who had come to India the previous decade as an assistant superintendent in the Indian police service.
Mr Morrison explained: “If you were in the administrative or colonial service your day to day interaction with Indians would be with clerks, or if you were an officer in the British Indian army you would be directing Indian soldiers but with policing you are in among the population and this is where he flourished as a very upright and ethical officer in the service.”
Henry Le Brocq was involved not simply in directing the inquiry but in a dramatic decision to apprehend the perpetrator on a train to Bombay, the interviewing of key witnesses and giving evidence at the trial where he was commended by the High Court and the trial judge. He later wrote an account of the case as a memoir held in the British Library.
“What I found I was dealing with with Henry Le Brocq was a classic model of decency, a model of what the British Empire would see itself as. He had none of the negatives and all of the positives. He just seems like a very admirable guy – somebody you’d like to hang out with. He is a great character to have in a book like this. His commentary on the case, at critical points, helps drive it,” he said.
Mr Morrison’s return to Jersey – with the opportunity to appear at the Jersey Museum, Jersey Archive and Jersey Library where he was signing copies of his book about “the crazy murder case” – has given him the opportunity to learn more about Henry Le Brocq’s native island where he took up his post as first chief officer of the States of Jersey Police in 1952.
The Prince and the Poisoner is published in hardback by The History Press, priced £20. Copies are available from the Jersey Museum bookshop.
