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THE KILLING OF JOHN AUGER (part 2)

THE INITIAL INVESTIGATION was headed by Detective Superintendent Reginald Lester of the Norfolk County Criminal Investigation Dept, and after Mr Auger's grey Volkswagen truck, registration number HPW 327D had been found abandoned, and frogmen had searched the port area for the missing safe, the killing made headlines in the major national newspapers. 
 

JOHN AUGER'S VW TRUCK (top picture)

The safe was eventually found in a ditch beside Meadowgate Lane. The tragic irony, and a testament to the stupidity of the criminals, was that the safe had been virtually empty, while the thieves had ignored Auger's immensely valuable collection of porcelain

THE SAFE IS FOUND BESIDE MEADOWGATE LANE

WITHIN DAYS the investigation into Auger's death was moved 'upstairs'. None other than Detective Superintendent Wallace Virgo, of Scotland Yard, was brought in to spearhead the search for the killers. At this point in the investigation, there were over sixty officers involved in the search for the perpetrators. Days passed, as the police rounded up 'the usual suspects'. At first, based on the initial eyewitness accounts, police were looking for five men, and the search was beginning to focus on the Waterlees area of Wisbech. Two weeks after the death of Mr Auger, the police swooped.
David Warden, of Guild Road Wisbech, was arrested in a betting shop in Hill Street on March 23rd, and said, "I suppose somebody has squealed. I was there, but you will have a job to make this one stick" He is also alleged to have said,"You will look sorry if you've got the wrong Warden." and "Even if you are from the Yard, you won't prove anything. I was there....but there was nothing left behind and you know it."
Patrick Joseph  Collins had been arrested at his parents' home in Mosely, Birmingham. He said, "If only I could turn the clock back I would not have done what has been done. I will tell them about it when I get to Wisbech." When arrested, he had tried to hide under the bed, and was told he was being arrested for housebreaking. He said, "Thank God: I thought you had come about something else" He said he had been at Outwell, but denied doing "the thumping" The third man arrested was Barrie Paul Cooper, who lived with his schoolteacher mother at the School House, Sutton St Edmund.

ONE OF THE SUSPECTS IS DRIVEN AWAY BY POLICE

TO BE CONTINUED