Why England Has 1% Number of Murders as United States, Jan. 24, 1923

53 Murders in England to 9,500 in United States

Greensboro, Jan. 24—Sir Basil Thompson, K.C.B., regarded as the original Sherlock Holmes, the world’s greatest detective, the most noted criminologist in the world, during the world war at the head of the British secret service department and now head of Scotland Yard, England’s great police and detective agency, lecturing here Monday night, revealed some startling facts, comparing British and American crime figures. Last year in the United States there were 9, 500 murders, in England 63. Of the 63 all but eight were cleared up and the newspapers of England are demanding why they were not.

In one penitentiary in Illinois there are as many prisoners as in all the prisons in Canada.

He attributed the much greater amount of crime in the United States than in England to delays in meting out punishment and to under-policing.

From the front page of The Reidsville Review, January 24, 1923. The headline says England has 53 murders, and the article says 63 murders per year. Whichever it is, England had less than 1% the number of murders than the United States.