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was some more discussion of technical aspects of the lady’s fall from the parapet, and then we all walked back across the bridge, admiring the view in general and commenting on the beauty of the Thames and the fairness of the morning. Then Mr. Reece and his party drove off along the Embankment to the Yard, and we hurried off to start the day’s postmortems.
    The Canadian soldier, a private named McKinstry, appeared at the Old Bailey some two months later. He was a stocky, bespectacled, balding man who stood stolidly in the dock listening to the case put forward by the prosecution. This was that McKinstry had come up to London on fourteen days’ leave, and on arriving at Waterloo station had gone with a friend to a public house close by, the Wellington. Peggy Richards was also at the Wellington and remained there until closing time, in the company of several soldiers. At closing time she was seen outside the public house and a little later was noticed walking in the direction of Waterloo Bridge with a Canadian soldier.
    At midnight a watchman on the bridge heard a man and woman quarreling. He told a man who kept a store near the bridge; together they went out onto the bridge and there they found a Canadian soldier standing by the parapet. It was very dark, because of the blackout, so they helped the soldier off the bridge. Then they went back to see if they could find the woman. There was no woman to be seen, but by the parapet, where the soldier had been standing, they found a woman’s scarf.
    Between 12:30 and 1:00 a.m. McKinstry was in Waterloo station asking for a chit to sleep at the YMCA. He was noticed by a policeman to be in possession of a woman’s handbag containing the identity card of Peggy Richards. McKinstry explained he had been drinking with a woman all evening, and when they came out of the public house at closing time she hit him on the head with her handbag, and he caught hold of it, and then she ran off, leaving him with it.
    Next day McKinstry went to stay with friends outside London…
    Meanwhile the storekeeper by the bridge had been indulging in some of that amateur detection so dear to the Englishman’s heart. The discovery of the scarf on the bridge had given him a hunch, so at the first peep of daylight he was out on the bridge again, back to the spot where he had found the scarf, peering over the parapet. And below him he saw, lying on the mud, what he had half-hoped, half-feared to see: the body of a woman. He went straight off to dial 999.
    McKinstry was soon traced by the police and made a long statement to them, which was read to the Old Bailey jury. McKinstry in this statement said that he and his pal arrived at Waterloo and went to the Wellington, the pal saying, “What about some drinks and some women?” McKinstry said that was okay by him, so they had some drinks and bought some contraceptives a man was selling. McKinstry bought some drinks for Peggy Richards and suggested they should go out. They went into the street and he had her in a doorway. He paid her five pounds. (When questioned about this in the witness box he said, “I gave that good and hearty,” meaning that there had been no dispute about this financial transaction.)
    Then they went for a walk. The woman was running along beside him chewing the fat about something and he said, “Oh shut up, you goddamn bitch.” They went to Waterloo Bridge and sat on what he later agreed might have been a parapet—apparently at the time he thought it was a windowsill, or so he said. There he had her again…After they had finished, insisted McKinstry, she struck him on the head with her handbag, and ran off leaving him with it.
    The prosecution submitted that the end of this statement was false and that Peggy Richards had not hit McKinstry with her handbag and then run away, but that the two had had a violent quarrel by the bridge parapet, probably because she wanted a further sum of money from him, and that he had finally, in his