Cop Killer and Killer Cop

With special thanks to Michael Gatherar for this guest article.

Cop Killer.

About 8.30pm on Tuesday 26th March 1946, retired Detective Sergeant James Straiton 61 years, was at home with his wife, when his neighbour James Deekan called and said that he had returned home from and evening at the cinema and believed his house was in the process of being burgled. Mr. Straiton picked up his old police truncheon and went with Mr. Deekan to his house two doors away at 524 Edinburgh Road, Carntyne, Glasgow. The two men went into the house, and found two youths coming down the stairs, both youths were carrying pistols. Mr. Straiton launched himself at one of the youths striking him with the truncheon. During the ensuing struggle one of the youths fired a pistol at point blank range and Mr. Straiton was fatally injured. The youths made off firing more shots at Mr. Deekan and his wife. The youths were pursued by a bus driver and his conductor, who were taking a break nearby and had heard the shots.

James Straiton (see photo) a native of Perthshire had originally joined Lanarkshire Constabulary in 1903, transferring to Glasgow City Police in 1912. During his thirty years police service he received ten commendations for “good police work” and he retired in 1933. The Chief Constable said “he was a most conscientious and courageous police officer. “His action on the night of his death was prompted by a high sense of citizenship”. Mr. Straiton was a married man and had two sons and two daughters.

Detective Sergeant Straiton was obviously very well thought of by the criminal fraternity also, as this letter sent to a newspaper shows;-

I am writing this for my father. He was very moved by your article on Detective Sergeant James Straiton, victim of the Carntyne murder and the plight in which his widow is left.

He says to tell you Mr. Straiton was a very good man and although he “pinched” my father twice he never refused him a bob when he was broke.

He tells me to tell you to give enclosed to the Detective Sergeant’s widow, as he owes him that and more and there is nothing he wouldn’t do for him. For very plain reasons he wishes only to be known as - Con.

(The donation enclosed has been sent to Mrs. Straiton)

Enquiries at the scene revealed that the house had been entered by way of an upstairs window, reached by the intruder scaling a drain pipe and then letting his companion in through the kitchen window. Strangely the intruder had left his shoes outside the house presumably to assist him in his ascent.

Initially the “murder hunt” went cold but police had a breakthrough when a thumbprint of a well-known housebreaker was found at the scene of another burglary. Police quickly arrested nineteen years old John Caldwell, an army deserter from the Seaforth Highlanders, who had a string of previous convictions for theft and housebreaking. Following an identification parade at which he was picked out by Mr. Deekan, he was charged with the offence, but not before he had implicated his accomplice fifteen years old John Mushet.

On 25th June 1946 Caldwell’s trial began at Glasgow High Court, before Lord Justice Stevenson. He faced eight charges including, murder, firearms offences, and housebreaking. The case against John Mushet was dismissed on the grounds that he was “mentally retarded” (sic) and was sentenced to be detained at “His Majesty’s Pleasure”.

The trial lasted two days, the jury taking fifty minutes of deliberations to find Caldwell guilty of murder and the reckless discharge of firearms, they did however recommend mercy be shown because of his age. The trial judge Lord Stevenson, didn’t agree, and donning the black cap sentenced Caldwell to death.

A subsequent appeal and plea for a reprieve failed, and at 8am on Saturday 10th August 1946, within Barlinnie Prison, John Caldwell was dispatched to meet his maker by Thomas Pierrepoint, assisted by Steve Wade.

While Caldwell was “not at all sorry for Straiton or his family” the people of Glasgow and his fellow officers were, and a considerable amount of money was raised for his widow and family.

Killer Cop.

Police Constable 138D James Ronald Robertson (see photo), of Glasgow City Police, appeared to be the perfect family man; married to Janette known as “Netta” he was a devoted father to their two young children. The non-smoking, non- drinker Robertson did however have two weaknesses, women, and motor cars, and it was those two weaknesses that would send him to the gallows!

Robertson born in 1917 had been brought up in Clydebank, Glasgow, he joined Glasgow City Police in November 1945, and assigned to a beat in the tough and infamous Gorbals district of Glasgow. Robertson was thirty three years of age, 6’2” tall, and was known as “Big Ronnie”. Prior to joining the police he had worked at an engineering firm, and as an inspector of aeroplane engines at Rolls Royce.

On the night of Thursday 27th July 1950 PC Robertson was on night duty, he told his colleague PC Dugald Moffat that he was going to slip away for a while to see a “blonde”. PC Moffat later confirmed that this was a common occurrence for Roberson whom he knew returned to his beat about 1am. Unusually for the time PC Robertson had a motor car. He had discovered the car, a dark blue coloured Austin 16 abandoned on his beat. The vehicle had been stolen, and after keeping an “eye” on it for a couple of days, fitted stolen false registration plates on the vehicle and assumed ownership of it, driving his family around, and even using it for work, telling his colleagues he was looking after it for a relative.

Early in the morning of Friday 28th July 1950, a taxi driver noticed a “bundle” lying in the middle of Prospecthill Road in Glasgow; he found that it was the body of a woman, the apparent victim of a “hit and run” road traffic accident. The police were informed and PC William Kevan of the Traffic Department attended. The officer was immediately suspicious of the fact that no injuries were apparent on the lower half of the body, as would be expected in such a collision, the injuries being concentrated on the head and upper body, also there were multiple sets of tyre tracks rather than one set as in the case of a “hit and run”.

The victim was not carrying any identification, and it wasn’t until the next day that the victim was identified as Catherine McCluskey a 40-year-old single woman living in a Gorbals tenement flat with her two illegitimate children, both boys one aged five years and the other a baby of three months.

Her neighbour Mrs. Johnston had been looking after the two boys, and became concerned when Catherine failed to return home. She further told the investigating officers that she was looking after the children so that Catherine could go and meet the new man in her life, the father of her baby. She told detectives that the “new man” was a policeman named Robertson.

The police “gossip line” soon identified James Ronald Robertson who was known to be having marital difficulties, and was seeing another woman. PC Robertson was brought in and his car was seized. Forensic examination revealed that samples of the dead woman’s flesh, blood, hair and clothing were present on the underside of the vehicle. Post-mortem examination revealed that the victim’s jaw was broken in three places, her left ear had almost been torn off, and there were fractures to her nose, breast bone, pelvis and ribs. The pathologist believed that the victim had been struck on the head with a blunt instrument possibly a truncheon, and then run over a number of times.

PC Robertson, denied knowing Catherine McCluskey but then admitted that he was friendly with her having met her during the course of his duties. He denied that he was the father of her child, or that he had been having an affair with her. He claimed that on the night in question she had asked to see him, got into the car and asked to be taken to a town some distance away. Robertson refused, saying it would take him away from his beat for too long. When an argument ensued, Catherine became hysterical and got out of the car. Robertson drove away, but feeling uncomfortable that he had left her stranded, reversed back to where he had left her. Feeling a bump he realised that he had reversed into her. He claimed her clothing was entangled with the underside of the car, and so drove backwards and forwards a few times in order to free it. He then abandoned the car in a side street, and returned to his beat.

In view of the medical and forensic evidence, as well as some witness statements, Robertson was charged with three offences:

i) Murder.

ii) Stealing a motor vehicle.

iii) Garage-breaking (during which he had stolen items including the registration plates)

Upon being cautioned and charged he replied “That is entirely wrong”.

Following committal proceedings Robertson faced trial at Glasgow High Court before Lord Keith on 6th November 1950. Following a weeklong trial, the jury of eight men and seven women took just over an hour to find Robertson guilty of all charges. The Nemesis of the law had finally caught up with him, and donning the black cap, the judge sentenced him to death. The convicted man stood rigidly to attention, his eyes expressionless as the judge pronounced sentence.

Following a failed appeal and a rejected petition for a reprieve, at 8am on 16th December 1950, hangman Albert Pierrepoint sent him to his doom, again assisted by Steve Wade at Barlinnie Prison.

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