100 YEARS AGO: SENSATIONAL CLAIMS TO IRA ASSASSINATION BY SALFORD EMBEZZLER

What was described as  being as one of the most remarkable statements ever heard in a Salford Court was made by John James Casey, who gave an address in Cork who was charged with embezzling three sums of money totalling £4 and three shillings from his employers. Messrs R. Shaw and Co Ltd, paint manufacturers, New Bailey Street Salford, in July 1922.

The Salford Police Courts heard from Detective Inspector Mitchell who said that Casey had been employed as a traveller by Shaw and Co  of Salford from April 15th until he absconded on April 24, he was permitted to collect accounts on behalf of the firm, three amounts were taken by him and never payed to the firm, as the result of a police investigation he was found in Bristol.

Casey pleaded guilty but then asked if he could have a word with the Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr W. P. Atkin and then in a rather dramatic confession told him the following,

"I am very sorry for what I have done, I am absolutely sorry but there is a deep cause, for what i did, I should like to tell you what the cause was, it was practically a pistol to my head"

He stated that when war broke out he joined the British Army and was sent to Ireland, where he remained until 1916, one night going back the barracks he was captured by the IRA and was sentenced to death, but if he would help in the blowing up of the military barracks at Cork, he would be spared, when the day came he informed Lieutenant Sir John Maxwell and the plot was foiled.

After this he went to France but returned to England in 1920, where he was discharged from the Army in consequence of wounds he had received in combat, he then went back to Ireland and was recaptured by the IRA and was given "duties to perform", one of these was to give information on a certain British Army General whom he was acquainted with, on his return to England he moved to Manchester and given incendiary bombs and instructions to set fire to buildings in Salford which contained chemicals, which he refused...you smell a rat yet?

This fantastic story carried on and on, he claimed he was fined £100 by the IRA for not carrying out his duties! and was given time to pay...he only had £14 on him and so he joined Shaw and Co where he stole the money to pay the them. 

He returned to Dublin...like you would, and they asked him for his help in assassinating Sir Henry Wilson in London, and would you believe it, he wrote to Sir Henry Wilson and the Home Secretary to warn them of this threat.

Sir Henry Wilson was assassinated by the IRA on the doorsteps of his home In London in June 1922 by two gunmen who were caught at the scene and hung at Wandsworth prison in August that year, it's no great leap of the imagination to assume that Casey had read the account of the murder and wove his mesh of lies to include him and his vivid imagination.

Detective Inspector Marshall told the Court that they were prepared to accept his story about his military service but not the rest of his statement, and that he had told them he was a citizen of Ireland, America and England but they had reason to believe he was a Russian subject, and he was remanded in custody for two weeks whilst enquiries were to be carried out.

At the resumed hearing a different tale was told, Detective Inspector Mitchell said that Casey was born in Russian but had lived in England since he was six years of age and had served on a training ship in the band of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and rather being wounded he had spent more time before medical boards than anywhere else.

I had to laugh when Casey asked the Magistrate if he could withdraw all the statements he had made about the IRA and Ireland and that he had sent a letter to the Secretary of State asking the same!

The Magistrate called him a "Romancer and a dangerous man" and sent him to prison for three months for the embezzlement charges.

I can't understand why the police took any notice of this fantasist although he could certainly spin a story, and it would be interesting to see if Mr Casey ever returned to Cork a hotbed of Irish Republicanism at that period of time and the birth place of Michael Collins.

Photo: Sir Henry Wilson.