Why ‘Eagle Eye’ was the scourge of Melbourne’s criminal world

A pocketbook of old mugshots was Detective “Eagle Eye” Reginald Henderson’s secret to nabbing hundreds of wanted criminals.

Detective Reginald Henderson (centre) appearing as himself in a 1970 episode of hit TV police show Homicide.

A night out at the theatre with his wife exemplifies why police detective Reginald Henderson was affectionately nicknamed “Eagle Eye” and “The Falcon of the Force”.

A hypnotist on stage called up on stage an audience member, who the detective instantly recognised as a man wanted for fraud.

The detective slipped back to police headquarters for assistance, and when the fraudster came off stage, he was arrested.

Detective Senior-Constable Henderson is the subject of the latest episode of the In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, available today.

His extraordinary ability to recognise faces in a crowd purely from photographs led to an astonishing arrest record.

A new book by former police officer Newton Reynolds says the detective filled a pocketbook with photos of 200 wanted criminals and carried it with him everywhere.

Newly trained Constable Henderson in October 1932.

Detective Henderson studying his book of photos of wanted criminals.

“He had an amazing observation skill where he would look in a crowd and pick out faces from his photos and make an arrest,” Mr Reynolds says.

“People just thought it was absolutely amazing. They always said he must have had some kind of photographic memory, but he always disputed that and said it was just part of his job.

“Even the chief commissioner, Mr (Mick) Miller, said where other people used to read the paper on the toilet, he used to look at photos on the toilet.”

The Falcon on the lookout at the races, immaculate as ever.

Detective Senior-Constable Reginald Henderson.

Mr Reynolds says Detective Henderson made more than 3000 arrests, most in the last 25 years of his career.

“That’s a lot of arrests, but the astonishing thing is probably not another detective in the world before or since … has had 354 arrests just purely from photo identification, from people that he hadn’t seen before, that he only recognised from his photos.

“And some of them were (photographed) 20 years previous or 15 years previous, and that’s when people started to call him Hawk Eye or Eagle Eye or The Falcon.”

Henderson, at back, keeps a close eye on US President Lyndon B. Johnson during his visit in 1966.

Detective Henderson (left) and Detective Senior Constable Tulloch (third from left) with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s US Secret Service officers, at Government House in 1966.

Detective Henderson (back) guarding Prince Philip in Melbourne in 1956.

Mr Reynolds says Detective Henderson helped introduce the facial identikit process to Victoria Police, and once appeared on TV hit Homicide playing himself, the identikit expert called in to help search for a killer.

Henderson also worked as a personal bodyguard for several touring VIPs including the Queen, the Queen Mother and US president Lyndon B Johnson.

A football cigarette card photo of Henderson, who played 28 games for Richmond.

1937 Richmong Tigers: Reg Henderson, (back row second from left), Jack 'Captain Blood' Dyer (back row second from right), and Jack ‘Skinny' Titus (third from left in centre row).

He was also a VFL footballer, who played with the Tigers when Jack “Captain Blood” Dyer was captain.

Henderson is the Name is available at copshop.com.au, with all proceeds going to the Blue Ribbon Foundation.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW WITH NEWTON REYNOLDS IN THE IN BLACK AND WHITE PODCAST ON ITUNES, SPOTIFY OR WEB.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.