LONDON.- The diary of a detective hunting Jack the Ripper and a poison-filled syringe intended for use by the notorious Kray twins are among items at a new crime exhibition in London.

"The Crime Museum Uncovered" show at the Museum of London comprises more than 600 exhibits, including champagne belonging to the Great Train robbers, objects handled by acid-bath murderer John Haigh and various tools used by a post-war Russian spy ring.

"By looking at all the artefacts, you understand the changing faces of evil," said Stephen Greenhalgh, deputy mayor for policing and crime in London.

The items tell the tale of crime in Britain over the last 140 years, and are arranged by theme, such as espionage or terrorism.

Included in the latter are a laptop recovered from the 2007 attack at Glasgow Airport and an unexploded Irish nationalist bomb found at Paddington station in 1884.

Also on show is a briefcase, recovered in 1968, containing an unused syringe of poison that London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray intended for use on a witness.

Visitors will also be able to see bottles of champagne and other personal effects found by police in 1963 in the cache of Ronnie Biggs and his gang, who robbed the London-Glasgow mail train in one of Britain's most famous crimes.

One of the most evocative pieces is a memoir containing handwritten notes by Donald Swanson, senior investigating officer on the Jack the Ripper investigation in the late 1880s.

Swanson names local hairdresser Aaron Kominski as the chief suspect in the infamous serial killer case, which remains unsolved to this day.

Other exhibits include masks used by the Stratton brothers, who became the first criminals to be convicted in Britain due to fingerprint evidence in 1905, and the death mask of Daniel Good, executed in 1842 for the murder of his wife.

"These objects are important for us, they are very educational," said Martin Hewitt, the assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police.

"Crime is about people interacting with people," he said. "One human being entering in contact with another human being and things happening."

The show opens on October 9 and runs until April 10 next year.

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