An Ashton-under-Lyne correspondent telegraphs:—It is a well-known fact that Peace on more than one occasion plied his many vocations in Manchester and the neighbouring towns.
From inquiries made in Levenshulme it transpires that the notorious criminal resided in that suburb about four years ago.
He stayed there only four months, and after he left the local residents thought little more about him.
A day or two ago, however, a policeman took a photograph of Peace to the locality, and many tradesmen at once recognised the portrait as that of the man who had formerly lived among them, and for a time had been quite a favourite in the district.
He rented a small detached house called Olive-cottage, in Rushford-road Park, which he fairly well furnished.
He gave his name as Thompson, and he was accompanied by a woman supposed to have been Mrs. Peace.
He was never idle, and always had some project on foot. He was constantly painting his cottage, and took such trouble with the work that the neighbours took it for granted that he meant to remain there for some years.
He was very affable and obliging to everybody, and was, until he decamped without paying his accounts, a great favourite with the tradesmen.
To ladies he was especially polite and attentive, indeed almost too much so, for if he met a woman in a shop he would say “Good morning” in an agreeable tone, but usually accompanied his salutation by a wink at the shopman.
He obtained considerable notoriety by his skill in contorting his features and assuming the appearance of a cripple. Subsequently he was known to have been the “Burnage bogie,” an apparition that had scared many people in Burnage-lane, and made folks afraid to use the thoroughfare after nightfall.