LATE-NIGHT HONEY TRAP
GLASGOW CRIME STORIES War hero was lured to his death and murdered for a few pennies
FORMER soldier and First World War veteran Henry Senior was looking forward to a night out on the town.
He was 35 years of age, single, recently discharged from the army and had money to spend.
About 7pm on February 3, 1920, he left his home in Govanhill on the Southside of Glasgow with the intention of spending that Tuesday evening in the city centre.
He lived with his mother who fretted over the fact that he seemed to be taking a lot of money out with him.
She had watched Senior fit £10 into his coat pocket (the equivalent of £500 today), a temptation to any thief. Even worth killing for.
At the end of the day Senior, who now worked as a stonecutter, took £2 with him. More than enough for what he was looking for.
Senior said goodbye to his brother and headed out the door and got a tram into town.
Later that evening as he walked down Hope Street towards Argyle Street, Senior was approached by Helen White, a 20-year-old prostitute.
They chatted for a few minutes and then decided to go to Queen’s Park in Mount Florida, a popular spot for late night meetings between members of the opposite sex.
In 1920 most single men lived with their parents and bachelor flats were unheard of. Any secret liaisons were usually in the open air and at night.
Two young men, James Rollins and Albert Fraser, watched as Senior was being picked up.
They were two pimps who had previously arranged with White to lure them a client who they could then mug.
Senior and White boarded a tram in Glassford Street for Queen’s Park.
Rollins and Fraser, who had been following, boarded the same tram, keeping a close eye on the couple.
Suspecting nothing, Senior took White into the park, went through a fence bordering the railway line, and lay down on the grass.
They had been there for no more than a minute when Rollins and Fraser appeared. Fraser pointed a revolver at a shocked Senior, while Rollins then told White to disappear.
Senior, who had served in the First World War, was determined to stand his ground and not give up without a fight.
But he had little chance against two desperate and powerfully built men who were determined to rob him.
Rollins flung his arm round Senior’s neck, at the same time placing a leg against his back and forcing him backwards.
While he was in that helpless position Fraser battered him repeatedly about the face and head with the butt of the revolver. Without uttering a sound Senior fell to the ground unconscious.
White, who had witnessed the whole attack from a distance, screamed at the two men to go easy on their victim.
But Rollins and Fraser ignored her pleas and she fled in terror realising that the situation had got seriously out of hand.
Senior was dead, and the murderers took all that he had left of his £2 which was six shillings (around £15). They also took his overcoat and removed his boots.
After sharing the money they dragged Senior’s body and dumped it under some bushes.
Rollins and Fraser then left the park, Rollins carrying the overcoat and Fraser with a boot sticking out from each of his coat pockets. In Langside Road they boarded a tram back into the city centre.
The day after the murder two schoolboys found Senior’s battered body in the bushes and informed the police.
Detective Inspectors Andrew Keith and Louis Noble were put in charge of the murder investigation.
But the two detectives couldn’t identify the victim as he had no coat, no wallet and no shoes.
All the police could do was release a description to the local newspapers.
Senior’s frantic mother and brother read it on the Thursday and feared the worst.
His sibling identified the body at the city mortuary and described the victim’s missing possessions.
By this time the murderers and their two women accomplices had pawned the boots and the overcoat.
For the boots they got 17 shillings and six pence (around £40) and for the overcoat eight shillings and six pence (£20).
The two detectives circulated the description of Senior’s coat and shoes to the wider public and there was an immediate response.
A tram conductor told the police that two men had boarded his tram near Queen’s Park, that one had a pair of boots in his pockets, and that both had left the tram near Gordon Street in the city centre.
He remembered both men and gave the police a detailed description of their appearance.
Meanwhile, detectives were questioning every man known to associate with prostitutes and every prostitute who might know the identity of the murderers.
It was from one of the many questioned that the police got their next lead.
He told them that two men named Rollins and Fraser were living off the immoral earnings of prostitutes – pimping in other words. He also gave the officers an accurate description of them that matched the one given by the tram conductor. But where were they?
The same informant told the detectives that he had once heard Fraser say that if he ever had to hide from the police it would be a cave on the Northern Irish coast near Belfast.
On February 7, four days after the murder, Keith and Noble headed for Belfast.
That evening, the two detectives were walking along the town’s Albertbridge Road when they spot
ted the two suspects. They denied knowing anything about the murder but were taken to the local police station for questioning.
Once there, their clothing was examined for bloodstains.
Keith noticed that Rollins’s jacket appeared to have been washed.
When he slit open the seams of the sleeves he found signs of blood.
He also found in a pocket a piece of paper with an address in Lord Street, Belfast. Both men were then detained.
The detectives went to the address in Lord Street which was occupied by a family, also called Rollins. While there he found White and another woman accomplice that night, Elizabeth Stewart.
Both women told the detectives the whole story of the plot to lure Senior and admitted they had been hiding out in a cave outside Belfast.
Rollins and Fraser were taken back to Glasgow and charged with murder.
Following their return, the two women were charged with being accomplices in the crime, but were later released with White becoming the main witness for the prosecution.
She had also provided police with the pawn tickets for the stolen coat and boots, which they had found in a pawn shop in Maryhill.
Rollins and Fraser were tried at the High Court in Glasgow on May 4, 1920.
White told the court that on the night of the murder she went with Fraser into the city, where she met Rollins in Hope Street.
After talking for a while, the two accused told her to get a man and that they would follow them.
After describing the attack on Senior by Rollins and Fraser, White collapsed in the witness box and had to be carried from the court.
The ended found death.
White’s evidence was the most important. She told how she, Stewart and the two suspects had carried out a string of “honey trap” robberies, with the women acting as bait.
They were convincing witnesses.
He stood his ground and did not give up without a fight
trial lasted two days and with both men being guilty and sentenced to
It took the jury a mere 20 minutes to find Rollins and Fraser guilty.
The judge, Lord Justice Sands, then donned the black cap, before pronouncing the death sentence.
The date for Rollins and Fraser’s execution was set for May 26, 1920, at Duke Street Prison.
That morning a large crowd gathered outside the jail in Glasgow’s East End.
A strong contingent of police was on duty from 7am in case of any trouble.
The story of how a war hero had been lured to his death and murdered for a few shillings had shocked the city.
But there was no demonstration. Shortly after 8am a notice appeared on the door of the prison that the executions had been carried out.
At this point the crowd quietly dispersed.
It was the last double execution to take place in the Duke Street Prison.
Meantime, all over Scotland, men and women were avoiding public parks, particularly at night.