On the evening of 6December 1886, ArthurFoster left the Queen’sTheatre, Manchester with

a pocketful of gold and a bejewelledlady on his arm. He hailed a hansomcab and as the couple settled into thecarriage, a shadowy figure slipped inbeside them. Unaware he had beentailed throughout the day, Foster washorrified to see the unmistakable,bearded face of Detective Chief

Inspector Jerome Caminada. Knownas the Birmingham Forger, ArthurFoster was wanted by the police for aserious fraud and, once again,Detective Caminada had caught hisman.

In 1886, the year before the débutappearance of Sherlock Holmes in AStudy in Scarlet, Detective Caminadawas at the top of his game. He hadbeen policing the crime-infestedstreets of Manchester for more than

two decades; he had proved himselfto be one of the city’s finest detectivesand the nemesis of the nefariouscriminals that plagued its darkunderworld. In the years followingthe arrest of the Birmingham Forger,he became renowned throughout thecountry as he tackled a ruthless careercriminal, tracked Fenians abroad andat home, and captured an escapedpolitical prisoner. In 1889, at theheight of his dazzling career, hewould face his most baffling case yet:‘The Manchester Cab Mystery’.However, although he was oftencompared to his fictional counterpart,Caminada’s own story could not havebeen more different.

Humble beginningsJerome Caminada was born toimmigrant parents on 15 March 1844in Deansgate, Manchester, oppositethe site of the infamous PeterlooMassacre. The decennial censuseschart a precarious childhood in someof the worst quarters of the city. Thefamily of Jerome’s father, Francis,who was a cabinetmaker, hadoriginated from Lombardy, Italy.When they arrived in Manchester inthe early 1800s, the cotton industrywas burgeoning beyond expectation

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Angela Buckley investigates the hidden story ofDetective Jerome Caminada, a real-life Victoriansuper sleuth

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and the city wasundergoingunprecedented changeas thousands ofmanual workerspoured in to findemployment in thefactories and mills.Like many othersaround them, theCaminadas sufferedgrinding povertyand the ever-constant threat ofdisease.

When Jerome wasjust three years oldhis father died andby the time he was

14 he had also lostfour young brothers

and a sister, in thedirest ofcircumstances. Soonafterwards he was

forced to move intothe heart of the city’s

slums with his mother andsurviving siblings. In the sordidstreets of this notorious rookeryCaminada gained an intimateknowledge of the thieves andcrooks who lived in the closedcourts and labyrinthine alleyways,and this ‘apprenticeship’ servedhim well when he joined theManchester City Police Force in1868.

Police Constable Caminada wasattached to A Division, in his ownneighbourhood, and during his firstweek he was ridiculed, insulted andeven assaulted, and soon realizedthat ‘a policeman’s life was not a bed

of roses.’ However, the youngofficer showed such aptitude fordetective work that after justthree years of service, he waspromoted to the rank of sergeantand transferred to the detectivedepartment. His career infighting crime had begun inearnest.

Detective JeromeKnown as ‘Detective Jerome’ bythe criminal fraternity, becausethey struggled to pronounce hisforeign surname, Caminadatackled all manner of shadycharacters and iniquitouswrongdoers during his earlycareer. Beginning withracecourse duties, he soonbecame adept at spottingpickpockets and con artists.Often employing a disguise, hewould shadow suspectsthrough the crowds, beforepouncing on them at anopportune moment to securetheir arrest. His high-profileinvestigations included quackdoctors, fake heir hunters and theparticipants of a cross-dressing ball.During the course of his work heinfiltrated illegal beer houses,gambling dens and houses of illrepute as he exposed crime andapprehended the perpetrators.Details of his exploits were regularlyreported in the local press and thedetective constantly made theheadlines.

Detective Caminada even had hisown ‘Professor Moriarty’: BobHorridge was a violent burglar,who would stop at nothing to

preserve his freedom. WhenCaminada arrested the thief for thefirst time as a police constable,Horridge vowed that he would killhim. Their rivalry would last for 20years. In 1887, after Horridge shottwo policemen during a robbery,the detective vowed to end hisreign of terror once and for all,which led to a dangerousconfrontation between the twoadversaries. With Horridge finallybehind bars for good, DetectiveCaminada’s career rose tounprecedented heights.

On 26 February 1889, papermanufacturer John Fletcher hailed acab from the steps of ManchesterCathedral, in the company of ayoung man. Later that evening, thebusinessman was found dead in thehansom and his companion haddisappeared. This mysterious deathwas placed in the capable hands ofDetective Caminada and within therecord time of just three weeks, hededuced that Fletcher had beenpoisoned, tracked down the culpritand brought him to justice. Thisastonishing case bore all thehallmarks of Arthur Conan Doyle

Social HistoryThe Real Sherlock Holmes

JEROME CAMINADA, aged 14, lived two doors away from this worker’s dwelling in the slumsof Manchester.

A DARING and violent thief, Bob Horridgewas Detective Caminada’s most deadly rival.

and catapulted Jerome Caminadainto national fame as the Victorianpublic avidly followed the twistsand turns of the story in thenewspapers. However, despite thesuccess in his professional life,Caminada faced considerablechallenges at home.

In 1881, at the age of 37, JeromeCaminada had married AmeliaWainhouse, the daughter of an Irishribbon weaver. Despite also comingfrom humble roots, the Wainhousefamily had fared better than theCaminadas and Amelia had enjoyeda more stable childhood. Jerome andAmelia set up their first home in OldTrafford, a leafy suburb, not far fromthe city centre. They had fivechildren, but sadly the first threedied in infancy. Despite thesepersonal tragedies, DetectiveCaminada continued to worktirelessly to clean up the streets andmake Manchester a safer place. Bythe time of the Manchester CabMystery he had been promoted tothe position of detective chiefinspector and there were even moreexciting adventures to come.

Undercover missionsAfter his rise to local and evennational fame, Detective Caminadaundertook a number of importantassignments and faced some of themost threatening situations in hisdaily work, including the deadlygangs of ‘scuttlers’ (street fighters),bands of anarchists and Irishnationalists. At the height of theFenian dynamite campaign,Caminada tracked suspectsthroughout Britain and to othercountries such as France, Ireland and

America. Back home, he tackledseductive swindlers, sophisticatedconfidence tricksters and even childmurderers.

Towards the end of his career,Detective Caminada wrote hismemoirs, sharing previouslyunpublished details of his work. Inthe second volume of Twenty-FiveYears of Detective Life, he revealedthat for almost three decades he hadbeen involved in covert missions forthe British Government: ‘Suspiciouspersons have been shadowed fromthe time they entered this city untilthey left it … persons with whomthey were in communication havebeen watched, the doings of thesecret societies with which they wereconnected have been unearthed, andeven the cipher in which their lettersand documents were written hasbeen solved.’

Detective Superintendent JeromeCaminada retired in 1899, after 31years’ service. The Evening Telegraphdescribed him as ‘one of the mostnoted detectives of the country, aman of whom Manchester has beenpardonably proud.’ Dubbing him ‘aterror to evil doers’, the articlecelebrated his achievements: ‘Hiscareer has been one of the mostremarkable and brilliant in policeannals. Probably no man livingknows more about crime andcriminals, their habits and habitats,their cunning and duplicity.’

After retirement, JeromeCaminada’s active life continuedunabated as he set up his ownprivate inquiry agency and served asa city councillor. In 1911 he wasinjured in a coach accident while onholiday in North Wales, from which

he never fully recovered and on 10March 1914, five days before his 70thbirthday, he died peacefully at hishome in Moss Side. At his funeralservice his long-standing colleague,Judge Parry, praised his sterlingqualities and unorthodox methods:‘He was a man of resource, energy,and initiative, and he never stultifiedhimself by a petty adherence tooffice regulations. He was theGaribaldi of detectives.’ He alsodescribed Caminada’s kindness,sense of justice and loyalty; allqualities that had stemmed from thechallenging experiences of thedetective’s early life in the slums.

A century after his death, I havepieced together DetectiveCaminada’s extraordinary story.With his own memoirs as a startingpoint, I used contemporarynewspaper accounts of his cases toadd further details. Family historyrecords, such as the censuses anddeath certificates, helped to build apicture of the detective’s private life,which he omitted from his ownpublications. The archives at theGreater Manchester Police Museumand the Greater Manchester CountyRecord Office also providedinvaluable source material. Turningdetective myself, I have thoroughlyenjoyed investigating JeromeCaminada’s legendary career. Hewas a true Victorian super sleuthand a real-life Sherlock Holmes. �

ANGELA BUCKLEY writes on a range of subjectsincluding crime, poverty and the plight of theworking classes in Victorian England.You can readmore about her work at victorian.supersleuth.comor follow her on Twitter @amebuckley

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The Real Sherlock Holmes:The Hidden Story ofJerome Caminada, byAngela Buckley, ispublished on 31 Marchby Pen & Sword Books.

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Social HistoryThe Real Sherlock Holmes

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DETECTIVE CAMINADAworked in the detectivedepartment at ManchesterTown Hall for 30 years.

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