Kansas Physician Confirms Howard Report

[Mayerling]

Terriss' murder

First an interesting minor point - the play being shown that Terris was appearing in at the time he was murdered was "Secret Service", a play written by William Gillette, who would also write the play "Sherlock Holmes" and would eventually be associated in his generation with his own portrayal of that detective.

Secondly, it was later widely suspected that Richard Archer Prince benefitted from the prejudices of society that were affecting the judiciary of the time. Prince was sentenced to Broadmoor, where he would remain until his death in the 1930s. The fact was, although his being paranoid and eccentric was established they really did not prove his killing of Terriss was due to a mental condition - he was acting with seeming premeditation.

The first one to put his finger on Prince's "luck" in getting his sentence was Sir Henry Irving, the first actor to be knighted (in 1895). Irving had a glimmer of how far the acting profession was regarded by the public in 1895 when he got knighted - the day of his knighthood was the same date that Oscar Wilde was sentenced to prison. Irving thought it was planned that way, as a kind of bone thrown out to the acting profession when one of it's leading figures was so disgraced. When he heard of the arrest of Prince for Terriss' murder two years later, Irving predicted Prince (despite his fully apparent guilt and motive) would not be condemned to death, because (as Irving put it) Terriss was an actor, not anything else. Prince did not have a bad time of it in Broadmoor. He was the head of the inmate's orchestra (it was totally out of control, everyone playing their instruments with any tune or manner they desired). But he enjoyed his rank as conductor. Prince really never was punished much for the cold blooded murder he committed.

3) The Podmore mentioned is Frederick Podmore, a leading member of the Society of Psychic Research.

[TradeName]

Thanks for posting the chapter from Baring-Gould's book, Jeff.

This discussion has reminded me of this account of the murder of actor William Terriss and a dream his understudy had the night before. (I found this because there was a mention of Terriss in The Autobiography of Jack the Ripper.)

Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Volume 14 (1898-1899), Pages 309-316

Coincidences
by Alice Johnson

Appendix II
Examinations of a Premonitroy Case

Mr. Lane's Dream of the Death of Mr. Terriss

This is a case which has attained some notoriety on account of its association with the well-known actor, William Terriss. Mr. Frederick Lane, his "under-study," dreamt the night before the murder that he saw Mr. Terriss lying unconscious in a certain part of the Adelphi Theatre where he actually saw him the following evening. The narrative shows that Mr. Lane had apparently no reason for expecting the event. But it is also clear that the premonition might be explained as a clairvoyant or telepathic perception of the result of the intentions of the unfortunate man who committed the murder.

The preliminary statements were obtained by Mr. Podmore, who writes on January 4th, 1898:—-

I enclose accounts of a dream of Terriss's death.

(I.) By Mr. Lane, the dreamer.

(2.) By Miss Haygate, the first person to whom the dream was told.

(3.) By Mr. Carter Bligh, one of several to whom the dream was told at the theatre, in the early afternoon of the 16th: Terriss was stabbed at 7.20 on the 16th.

Mr. Lane and Miss Haygate were understudies for Terriss and Miss Millwaid respectively.

Miss Haygate is a connection by marriage of a friend of mine, Mr. Ronald Hepburn. Mrs. Hepburn was dining with the D-----'s on the evening of the 16th when Miss Haygate came in and told them of the murder and of the dream which she had heard a few hours before.

Mrs. Hepburn told me this the next day, and arranged a meeting for me on the 18th.

The accounts are as follow:

1. From Mr. Frederick Lane.

Adelphi Theatre, December 20th, 1897.

In the early morning of the 16th December, 1897, I dreamt that I saw the late Mr. Terriss lying in a state of delirium or unconsciousness on the stairs leading to the dressing rooms in the Adelphi Theatre. He was surrounded by people engaged at the theatre, amongst whom were Miss Millward and one of the footmen who attend the curtain, both of whom I actually saw a few hours later at the death scene. His chest was bare and clothes torn aside. Everybody who was around him was trying to do something for his good. This dream was in the shape of a picture. I saw it like a tableau on which the curtain would rise and fall. I immediately after dreamt that we did not open at the Adelphi Theatre that evening. I was in my dressing room in the dream, but this latter part was somewhat incoherent. The next morning on going down to the theatre for rehearsal, the first member of the Company I met was Miss Olive Haygate, to whom I mentioned this dream. On arriving at the theatre I also mentioned it to several other members of the Company, including Messrs. Creagh Henry, Buxton, Carter Bligh, etc. This dream, though it made such an impression upon me as to cause me to relate it to my fellow artists, did not give me the idea of any coming disaster. I may state that I have dreamt formerly of deaths of relatives, and other matters which have impressed me, but the dreams have never impressed me sufficiently to make me repeat them the following morning, and have never been verified. My dream of the present occasion was the most vivid I have ever experienced; in fact, life-like, and exactly represented the scene as I saw it at night.

Frederick Lane.

Mr. Podmore appends the following note:—-

January 4th, 1898. At a meeting on the 20th December Mr. Lane gave me first a vivâ voce account of his experience, and then wrote it down, as above. He explained that he was in the neighbourhood of the theatre when Mr. Terriss was stabbed on the evening of Thursday the 16th December, 1897, and ran to the Charing Cross Hospital for a doctor. On his return he looked in at the private entrance, and saw Mr. Terriss lying on the stairs as in the dream.

F.P.

2. From Miss Haygate.

Adelphi Theatre, December 18th, 1897.

On Thursday morning about twelve o'clock I went into Rule's, Maiden Lane, and there found Mr. Lane with Mr. Wade. In the course of conversation after Mr. Wade had left, Mr. Lane said that he had had a curious dream the night before, the effects of which he still felt. It was to this effect: he had seen Terriss on the stairs, inside the Maiden Lane door (the spot where Terriss died), and that he was surrounded by a crowd of people, and that he was raving, but he (Mr. Lane) couldn't exactly tell what was the matter. I remember laughing about this, and then we went to rehearsal.

0live Haygate.

3. From Mr. Carter Bligh.

Adelphi Theatre, W.C., January 4th, 1898.

Dear Sir,—- ... I have much pleasure in being able to state that Mr. Fred Lane, on the morning of the 16th ult., at rehearsal at the Adelphi Theatre, told me among others in a jocular and chaffing way (not believing in it for an instant), how he probably would be called upon to play Captain Thomas, that night, as he had dreamt that something serious had happened to Terriss. I forget now, and therefore do not attempt to repeat, the exact words Mr. Lane used as to the reason (in the dream) why Mr. Terriss would not appear that night, but I have a distinct recollection of him saying that he (Terriss) could not do so, because of his having dreamt that something had happened. It was all passed over very lightly in the same spirit in which it was given, i.e., in the spirit of unbelieving banter. . . .

H. Carter Bligh.

In reply to further inquiries, Mr. Podmore received the following letter from Mr. S. Creagh Henry:—-

5, Milborne Grove, The Boltons, S.W., January 20th.

Dear Sir,—-With reference to your letter concerning Mr. Lane's dream, he mentioned it to me at rehearsal during the morning of the day which proved fatal to poor Terriss. The description he gave me was that he saw Mr. Terriss on the staircase (upon the landing where he died) surrounded by several people who were supporting him in what appeared to be a fit.

Something serious seemed to have happened, and no performance took place that evening,—-another fact which was verified. As far as I recollect this was all Mr. Lane mentioned.—-I remain, yours faithfully,

S. Oreagh Henry.

Mr. Terriss, whose real name was William Charles James Lewin, was murdered by a man named Richard Archer Prince (Archer being apparently his family name and Prince his professional name), an actor out of employment, who was afterwards proved to be insane at the time.

The value of this case as evidence of supernormal perception of a future event of course depends primarily on whether Mr. Lane had any reason for anxiety on Mr. Terriss's behalf. The account of the murder given in the Times of the next day shows that Archer was known by some persons to have a grudge against Mr. Terriss, but it seems clear that very little attention was paid to this and that no one had any suspicion of the length to which he was prepared to go. And the evidence given later seems to show that this account exaggerated the suspicious incidents, in accordance with the common and natural tendency to imagine, after an event, that one has noticed some indications of it, if one did not actually expect the thing itself. The evidence further shows that, though Archer had expressed hostility to Terriss, he seems to have avoided doing so to persons in any way connected with the Adelphi Theatre; also that there were several other persons besides Terriss whom he had a grudge against, on account of their fancied ill-usage of him. Mr. Lane did not know him, except perhaps by sight, and had only heard of him as previously connected with the theatre and that he had the night before asked for Terriss. To this very common incident he could hardly be supposed to attach any importance.

I do not think, therefore, that anxiety about Terriss could have had any share in causing the dream; but it seems desirable to give the evidence for and against this view, and I therefore quote the account in the Times of Friday, December 17th, and give an abstract of all the evidence given in the Times reports of the inquest, the examination before the magistrate, and the trial, which seems to me to have any bearing on the point. (See Times of December 18th, 20th, 21st, and 30th, 1897, and January 14th, 1898).

The evidence shows further the close correspondence of the events of the death with Mr. Lane's dream.

From the Times of Friday, December 17th, 1897.

Last evening, Mr. William Terriss, one of the most popular actors on the London stage, was assassinated at the private entrance to the Adelphi Theatre in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. He had spent the afternoon with some friends, and had gone home to dinner at about 5 o'clock. Subsequently, he proceeded as usual to the theatre, where he was taking the chief part in Secret Service, and on reaching the private entrance he was suddenly attacked by a man between 30 and 40 years of age, who stabbed him in the region of the heart and again in the back. The weapon employed is described as a long, thin-bladed knife. Mr. Terriss at once fell to the ground, exclaiming: "He has stabbed me, arrest him." The assassin, after a struggle, was captured, and straightway conveyed to Bow Street Police-station. Mr. Terriss, meanwhile, was carried inside the theatre and medical aid was at once summoned from Charing Cross Hospital and obtained. It was not possible, however, to convey him further than the foot of the stairs leading to his dressing-room, and here, after lying in a state of semi-consciousness for about a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, he died. . . .

The assassin is known by the name of William Archer, or William Archer Flint. Some years ago he was employed as a supernumerary at the Adelphi, one of the pieces in which he appeared being In the Ranks. It is understood that he had frequently applied to Mr. Terriss and other members of the company for help, and a great deal had been done for him by them. Recently, however, he had become so importunate in his demands that Mr. Terriss refused to do anything more for him, but referred him to the Actors' Benevolent Fund, from which association he received a grant. For several nights past, Archer had been noticed hanging about the private entrance to the theatre, and on Wednesday night, it is reported, he made an enquiry of the stage-door keeper as to Mr. Terriss's whereabouts. He is said to have been known in the theatre as "Mad Archer," but the stage-door keeper and others last night expressed a doubt as to whether he is insane. ... In reply to the charge of murder, he is reported to have said: "He has done me out of the Benevolent Fund this morning, and I am out of it for life."

Mr. Frederick Lane, who "understudies" Mr. Terriss in the part of Captain Thorne, had a peculiar story to tell. He said:—-

"I dreamt about this very thing last night, and when I came to the theatre this morning for the rehearsal, I told all the 'boys' about it. I dreamt I saw Mr. Terriss lying in the landing, surrounded by a crowd, and that he was raving. I seemed to see it all and then it all seemed to fade away. It was a horrible dream, and I could not tell what it meant. I tried to forget it during the day, but to-night again, when I came to the theatre, I was going down Bedford Street, when something seemed to say, 'Do not go there.' I then went round to Maiden Lane, and there I saw this villain. I had heard of him as being an old super, and I knew he was asking for Mr. Terriss last night. His appearance struck me as peculiar. He wore a big cloak and a slouch hat. I, however, do not know him, and he said nothing to me. I walked on, and then a few minutes afterwards I heard a great noise and found that he had stabbed Mr. Terriss. I rushed back and saw Mr. Terriss taken indoors. If it had not been for the police, I believe the man would have been lynched. He was a fellow of average height, had a dark moustache and a somewhat foreign appearance. I can suggest no motive whatever for the crime. The man may possibly have been refused money. I cannot tell, though; and it is at any rate certain he had no reason to go to such an awful extreme. Mr. Terriss was the kindest of men, and we loved him both on and off the stage. He was, indeed, 'one of the best.'"

Another member of the Adelphi company further corroborated the statements previously made in reference to the personality of Mr. Terriss's assailant, mentioning that at the theatre he was generally known as "Mad Archer." When seen by Mr. Nicholls on the previous evening and told that he could not see Mr. Terriss, he is stated to have gone away murmuring "Not yet." . . . Archer is alleged to have nursed a grievance against Mr. Terriss even before he left the employ of the Adelphi, and is reported to have more than once stood in the wings and made sarcastic remarks at the expense of the deceased actor. One of his remarks is quoted as an instance of this: "Fools often succeed in life where men of genius fail."

Abstract Of Evidence Given In "times'" Reports.

Mr. J. H. Graves said that he spent Thursday afternoon with Mr. Terriss and at about 7 o'clock drove with him to Adelphi Theatre—-driving to corner of Maiden Lane, Strand, where they both alighted and walked to the private entrance a few yards up the lane. This entrance was only used by Mr. Terriss and one or two others. As he was putting his key into the lock, the prisoner rushed forward from across the lane and stabbed him. Mr. Terriss fell and Mr. Graves seized the prisoner and gave him in charge to a constable, whom he accompanied to Bow Street. He went back to the theatre and found Mr. Terriss lying at the foot of the stairs a few paces from the door, attended by a doctor and several others. He died a few minutes later.

The prisoner said to him that Mr. Terriss had kept him out of employment for ten years, and he had either to die in the streets or take his revenge on him. The truth was that Mr. Terriss had often helped him and had recommended him to the Actors' Benevolent Fund, from which he had got help many times. He had called at the office of the fund on that day, and had been told that the Committee could not meet then to reconsider his case. He had for some time been almost a weekly applicant there.

Sub-Divisional-Inspector William French was at Bow Street when the prisoner was brought in and returned with Mr. Graves to Adelphi Theatre, entered private door in Maiden Lane, and found Mr. Terriss lying in the passage. He was unconscious and remained so until his death. Three doctors were present, and Miss Millward was supporting his head. She asked him if he knew her. He made no reply to her, but shouted out several times: "Get away, get away."

Mr. Bragg, Police-Constable, who arrested the prisoner, said the latter had been asked by Graves on the way to Bow Street why he did it, and he answered: "In revenge. He has blackmailed me for ten years. I gave him due warning. I should either have had to die in the streets or have my revenge."

Inspector Wood, before whom he was brought at Bow Street, said he gave same answer to him. To Inspector Croxton he said that his sister was in league with Terriss in blackmailing him.

At the trial, Mr. Gill, the Counsel for the Crown, said there could be no question but that the prisoner had some years ago conceived a violent hatred for Mr. Terriss, and would appear to be under the impression that Mr. Terriss was in some way preventing him from getting on in his profession. That was shown by statements made at different times to persons to whom he complained that Mr. Terriss was preventing him from getting employment and was blackmailing him. As far as could be ascertained that was a complete delusion on his part; Mr. Terriss had, on the contrary, assisted him to obtain charitable relief and employment. The point at which the evidence commenced was in October last, when the prisoner came into contact with Mr. Croydon, a theatrical manager at Newcastle. About the end of October he came to London and purchased a knife (probably the one with which the murder was committed). It was during the period between this time and the murder that he was getting assistance from the Actors' Benevolent Fund. On .November 9th he obtained a letter of recommendation to them from Terriss, on the strength of which he received various small sums from the fund.

After being arrested, prisoner said to the Inspector about the knife, "That is what I stabbed him with. He had due warning, and if he is dead, he knows what he has to expect."

It was clear that he was acting with the greatest deliberation and that, cherishing a feeling of hatred against Mr. Terriss, he was uttering threats as to what he proposed to do. During the time he was in London at the end of October, he was obviously contemplating the crime, because they found him purchasing the knife and uttering the threats against Mr. Terriss.

Mr. R. Croydon, theatrical manager, had engaged the prisoner in October last to take a part in his company at Newcastle. The prisoner told him he had only left the Adelphi through one man, and might have starved but for the Actors' Benevolent Fund, and that he would be even with this man some day. He did not learn his part and behaved very strangely, and consequently was discharged next day. He said he had then two enemies, and on being asked who the other was, said it was Terriss. Mrs. Croydon said "You are mad;" and he replied, "Yes, and the world will ring with my madness." He then left and they had not seen him again.

Mr. Denton, theatrical manager, of Maiden Lane, said he had known the prisoner for some time, and had then lost sight of him till October or November last, when he called nearly every day at his office for employment. He tried to get him employment and offered him a week's engagement, which he would not accept. On the afternoon of December 16th, prisoner called to ask if he had got him any employment and he said he had not. Cross-examined, said the prisoner did not appear to have any particular animosity against Mr. Terriss; was peculiar, and could easily be put into a temper by chaff—-he seemed to think he ought to play more important parts than were given him.

Mr. Colson, Secretary to the Actors' Benevolent Fund, said that help had been given to the prisoner on the recommendation of Terriss in his letter of November 9th. He read seven letters from the prisoner to the managers of the Fund asking for help, saying that he was in great trouble, on account of having lost an engagement "through no fault of my own," but not complaining of any one otherwise than in that phrase, and expressing great gratitude for what they had done for him.

Mrs. Darby, his landlady, had seen the knife in his room upon more than one occasion before the murder, but she never saw him use it for anything. She had seen marks on it as if it had been used for cutting bread. She knew he was in trouble for want of money, as he could not pay his rent.

G. Lorberg, cutler, Brompton Road, said in October he had knives for sale similar to one produced, price 9d., and one evening in October, a tall, shabbily-dressed man bought one. (Evidence at police-court made it almost certain that this was the knife with which the murder was committed.)

Mr. Thomas Terriss, son of the deceased, said he never knew him to be threatened at all, did not know he had an enemy in the world. "He had not to his knowledge ever seen the man who was charged with his murder until he saw him at Bow Street on Friday morning, when he found he was not a man whom he had previously known as 'Mad Archie.'"

Henry Spratt, stage door keeper to the Adelphi, said he first saw the prisoner about two months ago, when he brought a letter for Mr. Terriss to the stage door and waited for an answer. Half an hour later a message came down, "All right." A few nights after this Mr. Terriss spoke to witness about messages. Witness saw the prisoner about half a dozen times after this. He would wait outside the door for half an hour or so and then go away without saying anything, except on December 15th, which was the last time witness saw him, when he asked if Mr. Terriss came out that way, meaning by the stage door. Witness replied that he did, which was not the fact; but he said it in consequence of what Mr. Terriss had said to him, in order to keep the man away from the private entrance in Maiden Lane. Cross-examined, said it was not an uncommon thing for persons who had been employed at the theatre to wait about the stage door, nor was it an uncommon thing for persons to come there and enquire in regard to others.

W. Alger, dresser to Mr. Terriss, said that he did not know the prisoner. On the night of December 15th he saw the prisoner at about 8.30 watching the people coming out of the stage door, but did not speak to him.

The Defence was directed towards proving insanity. Evidence was given that the prisoner had had many delusions of persecution, thought his mother and others had put poison into his food; that Mr. Arthur, the "theatre-master" at Dundee, "blackmailed" him. He had also worked as a labourer and thought his fellow workmen and others had tried to keep him out of work, had violent fits of passion, thought his brother was in league with Mr. Arthur in blackmailing him and had attacked his brother several times, once with a knife and poker. Two of his brothers had been insane.

R. Beveridge, attendant at the Dundee Theatre, gave evidence of his thinking himself a great actor and badly used in general. Once he wanted to "go for" an actor named Stewart, and when Beveridge turned him out, prisoner pulled out a revolver from his pocket and threatened him.

A. Husband, foreman at Wallace Foundry, in Dundee, said prisoner worked there in 1896 (in the intervals of his being employed as an actor), and said Mr. Terriss blackmailed him. He showed him a letter from Terriss saying that he should be glad to hear of his getting an engagement, and that he might give his name as a reference. The prisoner had asked Mr. Terriss for a character, and he thought that letter not sufficient, and called it blackmailing. He said the same thing about Mr. Elliston, who, he said, was in league with Mr. Terriss.

Mr. Elliston, theatrical manager, who had employed prisoner, said since prisoner had left him, he had received a number of letters and postcards from him stating that he had not given him a reference, that he had blackmailed him and tried to prevent his getting employment, which was not true.

Dr. Bastian gave opinion that he was insane, and his mind saturated with delusions of persecution. He did not attach any importance to purchase of knife; did not think prisoner contemplated doing the murder a month before he did it. If he had premeditated it, he might have been insane all the same, but he did not believe he had. Did not believe prisoner went to theatre with intention of committing the act, but that he wanted to speak to Mr. Terriss, and as Mr. Terriss did not speak to him, he struck him, having the knife in his hand.

Two other medical experts gave very decided opinions as to his insanity, but said nothing as to whether the act was premeditated or not.

The verdict given was to the effect that the prisoner was guilty of wilful murder—-that he knew what he was doing and to whom he was doing it, but, on the medical evidence, that he was not responsible for his actions.

---end

[Mayerling]

In John Roland's book, "A Century of Murder" (New York: Roy Publishers, 1950), Chapter 1 is about the "James and William Lightfoot (1840)" (p. 12 - 22) but it basically repeats the same information of the other sources (especially Baring-Gould), and discusses the dream story. Rowland does comment about it, but apparently did not know that the Society of Psychic Research had discussed the dream.


Jeff

[Mayerling]

A Curious Coincidence between Norway and a story relator

Due to the importance to the Society of Psychic Research (in rejecting the story regarding Edmund Norway's dream on the "Orient" the same day (or thereabouts) that his brother Nevill/Nevell was murdered by the Lightfoots) of his researches, I looked up Sir William Molesworth in the Wikipedia. Incredibly this gentleman had an important political career.

Sir William Molesworth was the 8th Baronet of Pencarrow, and succeeded to the title in 1823. He was a Whig and a supporter of the 1832 Reform Act. That year he was the M.P. for East Cornwall, a seat he held until 1837. From 1837 to 1841 he was the M.P. for Leeds. This was at the time of the murder of Mr. Norway. Defeated in the Tory sweep of 1841, Molesworth became High Sheriff of Cornwall that year. In 1845 he returned to Parliament as M.P. for Southwark. In 1853 he first reached Cabinet rank as First commissioner of Works (1853 - 1855). In April 1855 he reached his high point, as Secretary of State for the Colonies in the Lord Aberdeen coalition. Unfortunately he died in October 1855 while still in that post. His son succeeded to the title. Apparently he did not shake things up too much. When Queen Victoria, noting that Molesworth had been a Whig supporter of the 1832 reforms, voiced concern of how he might shake things up in the Cabinet, Lord Palmerston reassured her that men like Molesworth, once they achieve office, tend to quiet down. He had done so, and that was why he was advanced as he was.

As he served as High Sheriff of his county for awhile, one can imagine he did have opportunity to look into that matter of Edmund Norway's dream and how true it was. Perhaps he even made a small report of his findings. Note too that his holding the Sheriff's position actually occurred only two years after the murder occurred.

Now comes the interesting part. I mentioned Molesworth died in harness, still Colonial Secretary in the Aberline coalition (by the way, that was the same idiotic government that dragged Britain into the Crimean War). When he died in October 1855 he was succeeded in the post of Colonial Secretary by Mr. Henry Labouchere (1798 -1869). This gentleman had no sons, but his heir (to his weathy estate) was his namesake, the Henry Labouchere who was a Liberal M.P. and the publisher of "Truth". This latter Labouchere was the one who mentioned the story about the Norway Murder Case of 1840 in his newspaper "Truth", and one wonders how he originally heard of it.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Thanks, Jeff.

Some cold water from the Society for Psychical Research:

Phantasms of the Living, Volume 1 (London: Trubner & Co., 1886), Page 161
by Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, Frank Podmore

First-hand evidence, where the witness cannot be cross-questioned, is at once invalidated by any doubt as to the case that may have been felt by persons who were more immediately cognisant of it. The well-known Norway story is an instance. In Early Years and Late Reflections, by Clement Carlyon, M.D., there is a signed account by Mr. Edmund Norway of a vision of his brother's murder that he had while in command of the Orient, on a voyage from Manilla to Cadiz. Mr. Arthur S. Norway, son of the murdered man and nephew of Mr. Edmund Norway, tells us that the account was taken down by Dr. Carlyon from his uncle, at the latter's house; he himself also has heard it from his uncle's own lips. It describes with some detail how in a vision, on the night of February 8th, 1840, Mr. Edmund Norway saw his brother set upon and killed by two assailants at a particular spot on the road between St. Columb and Wadebridge: and how he immediately mentioned the vision to the second officer, Mr. Henry Wren. The brother was actually murdered by two men at that spot, on that night, and the details—-as given in the confession of one of the murderers, William Lightfoot—-agree with those of the vision. But Mr. Arthur Norway further tells us that another of his uncles and the late Sir William Molesworth "investigated the dream at the time. Both were clever men, and they were at that time searching deeply and experimenting in mesmerism—be that they were well fitted to form an opinion. They arrived at the conclusion that the dream was imagined." Mr. Arthur Norway has also heard Mr. Wren speak of the voyage, but without any allusion to the dream. This is just a case, therefore, where we may justly suspect that detail and precision have been retrospectively introduced into the percipient s experience.

It almost goes without saying, in a case like this, that sooner or later we shall be told that the vision was inscribed in the ship's log; and Mr. Dale Owen duly tells us so. Mr. Arthur Norway expressly contradicts the fact.

---end

I have to admit I don't know what to think of the denial by the Society of Psychical Research. That group, despite their best intentions for giving a scientific basis for psychic and occult phenomenon, was so frequently fooled it is hard to take serious a case they denounce as a fraud.

Why did Edmund Norway insist that he had this experience if his other siblings claimed he couldn't have? Where are the papers of Sir William Molesworth showing his investigation into the alleged dream of Edmund Norway? The Society seems to be taking the word of various people to a point that is far beyond their actual value - unless something in their records exists that is more meaty about this.

Also it crosses my mind that Arthur Norway ( the son of Nevill or Nevell - the spelling seems to vary) may not have been close to his uncle Edmund. If you remember Baring-Gould states that the murder victim left his family in straightened circumstances (by the way, how did that happen - he was a wealthy timber merchant with a house with a stable and servants!). A collection is taken that gets them 3,500 pounds. Did Edmund fail to contribute to it perhaps?

By the way, why was Edmund writing a letter to his brother? - something is missing in the account - where did he intend to post the letter so that Nevill would get it before Edmund came home (possibly St. Helena, or maybe the Azores or Gibraltar)?

Another reason for Arthur to be sore about Uncle Edmund comes to mind too - Edmund apparently loved telling this sad psychic story, and every time he did (within the hearing of Arthur and other family members) it reminded them that Nevill had been murdered by the Lightfoots on February 8, 1840. That was hardly a way to win popularity within one's family (I have fortunately never had a close family member or friend killed violently like the Norways did, but from my experience at the Crime Victims Board families and friends of homicide victims need closure - not reopening due to some fool who loves to recite an interesting personal anecdote!).

Altogether a curious and odd tale. I wonder if the Society for Psychic Research would have believed it more if another current murder (that Edmund would have been unaware of) had been the subject of the dream. I believe Courvoisier's killing of Lord William Russell was in January or February of 1840, and had that been the subject of the dream the Norway family would have been shocked, but would not have been annoyed by it.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

From Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould's Book

The following is the chapter that I mentioned:

"The Murder of Nevill Norway"

"Mr. Nevill Norway was a timber and general merchant residing at Wadebridge. he was the second son of William Norway, of Court Place, Egloshayle, who died in 1819, and Nevil was baptized at Eloshayle Church on November 5th, 1801.

In the course of his business he travelled about the country and especially attended markets, and he went to one at Bodmin on the 8th of February, on horseback.

About 4 o'clock in the afternoon he was transacting some little affair in the market-place, and had his purse in his hand, opened it and turned out some gold and silver, and from the sum picked out what he wanted and paid the man with whom he was doing business. Standing close by and watching him was a young man named William Lightfoot, who lived at Burlorn, in Egloshayle, and whom he knew well enough by sight.

Mr. Norway did not leave Bodmin till shortly before ten o'clock, and he had got about nine miles to ride before he would reach his house. The road was lonely and led past the Dunmeer Woods and that of Pencarrow.

He was riding a grey horse, and he had a companion, who proceeded with him along the road for three miles and then took his leave and branched off in another direction.

[p. 117]

A farmer returning from market somewhat later to Wadebridge saw a grey horse in the road, saddled and bridled, but without a rider. He tried at first to overtake it, but the horse struck into a gallop and he gave up the chase; his curiosity was, however, excited, and upon meeting some men on the road, and making inquiry, they told him they thought the grey horse that had just gone by them belonged to Mr. Norway. This induced him to call at the house of that gentleman, and he found the grey steed standing at the stable gate. The servants were called out, and spots of blood were found upon the saddle. A surgeon was immediately summoned, and two of the domestics sallied forth on the Bodmin road, in quest of their master. The search was not successful that night, but later, one of the searchers perceiving something white in the little stream of water that runs besides the highway and enters the river Allen at Pendavey Bridge, they examined it, and found the body of their unfortunate master, lying on his back in the stream, with his feet towards the road, and what they had seen glimmering in the uncertain light saw his shirt frill. He was quite dead.

The body was at once placed on the horse and conveyed home, where the surgeon, named Tickell, proceeded to examine it. He found that the deceased had received injuries about the face and head, produced by heavy and repeated blows from some blunt instrument, which had undoubtedly been the cause of death. A wound was discovered under the chin, into which it appeared as if some powder had been carried; and the bones of the nose, the forehead, the left side of the head and the back of the skull were frightfully fractured.

An immediate examination of the spot ensured when the body had been found, and on the left-hand side of

[p. 118 - the picture of Mr. Nevill Norway appears at this point between 118 and 119]

the road was seen a pool of blood, from which in the rivulet opposite was a track produced by the drawing of a heavy body across the way, and footsteps were observed as of more than one person in the mud, and it was further noticed that the boots of those there impressed must have been heavy. There had apparently been a desperate scuffle before Mr. Norway had been killed.

There was further evidence. Two sets of footmarks could be traced of men pacing up and down behind a hedge in an orchard attached to an uninhabited house hard by; apparently men on the watch for their intended victim.

At a short distance from the pool of blood was found the hammer of a pistol that had been but recently broken off.

Upon the pockets of the deceased being examined, it became obvious that robbery had been the object of the attack made upon him, for his purse and a tablet and bunch of keys had been carried off.

Every exertion was made to discover the perpetrators of the crime, and large rewards were offered for evidence that should tend to point them out. Jackson, a constable from London, was sent for, and mainly by his exertions the murderers were tracked down. A man named Harris, a shoemaker, deposed that he had seen the two brothers, James and William Lightfoot, of Burlorn, in Egloshayle, loitering about the deserted cottage late at night after the Bodmin fair; and a man named Ayres, who lived next door to James Lightfoot, stated that he had heard his neighbor enter his cottage at a very late hour on the night in question, and say something to his wife and child, upon which they began to weep. What he had said he could not hear, thought the partition between the cottages was thin.

[119]

This led to an examination of the house of James Lightfoot on February 14th, when a pistol was found without a lock, concealed in a hole in a beam that ran across the ceiling. As the manner of Lightfoot was suspicious, he was taken into custody.

On the 17th his brother William was arrested in consequence of a remark to a man named Vercoe that he was in it as well as James. he was examined before a magistrate and made the following confession: -
"I went to Bodmin last Saturday week, the 8th instant, and on returning I met my brother James at the head of Dunmeer Hill. It was just come dimlike. My brother had been to Burlorn, Egloshayle, to buy potatoes. Something had been said about meeting; but I was not certain about that. My brother was not in Bodmin on that day. Mr. Vercoe overtook us between Mount Charles Turnpike Gate at the top of Dunmeer Hill and a place called Lane End. We came on the turnpike road all the way till we came to the house near the spot where the murder was committed. We did not go into the house, but hid ourselves in a field. My brother knocked Mr. Norway down; he snapped a pistol at him twice, and it did not go off. Then he knocked him down with the pistol. He was struck whilst on horseback. It was on the turnpike road between Pencarrow Mill and the directing-post toward Wadebridge. I cannot say at what time of the night it was. We left the body in the water on the left side of the road coming to Wadebridge. We took money in a purse, but I do not know how much it was. It was a brownish purse. There were some papers which my brother took and pitched away in a field on the left-hand side of the road, into some browse or furze. The purse was bid by me in my garden, and afterwards I threw it over Pendavey Bridge. My brother drew

[p. 120]

the body across the road to the water. We did not know whom we stopped till when my brother snapped the pistol at him. Mr. Norway said, 'I know what you are about. I see you.' We went home across the fields. We were not disturbed by any one. The pistol belonged to my brother. I don't know whether it was soiled in blood; I never saw it afterwards; and I do not know what became of it. I don't know whether it was soiled with blood. I did not see any blood on my brother's clothes. We returned together, crossing the river at Pendavey Bridge and the Treraren fields to Burlorn village. My brother then went to his house and I to mine. I think it was handy about eleven o'clock. I saw my brother again on the Sunday morning. He came to my house. There was nobody there but my own family. He said, 'Dear me, Mr. Norway was killed.' I did not make reply."

The prisoner upon this was remanded to Bodmin gaol, where his brother was already confined, and on the way he pointed out the furze bush in which the tablet and the keys of the deceased were found. James Lightfoot, in the meantime, had also made a confession, in which he threw the guilt of the murder upon his brother William.

This latter, when in prison, admitted that his confession had not been altogether true. He and his brother had met by appointment, with full purpose to rob the Rev. W. Molesworth, of S. Breock, returning from Bodmin market, and when James had snapped his pistol twice at Mr. Norway, he, William, had struck him with a stick on the back of his head and felled him from his horse, whereupon James had battered his head and face with a pistol.

The two wretched men were tried at Bodmin on March 30th, 1840, before Mr. Justice Coltman, and the

[p.121]

jury returned a verdict of "Guilty"; they were accordingly both sentenced to death, and received the sentence with great stolidity.

Up to this time the brothers had been allowed an opportunity for communication, and the discrepancy in their stories distinctly enough showed that the object of each was to screen himself and to secure the conviction of the other.

After the passing of the sentence on them, they were conveyed to the same cell, and were now, for the first time, allowed to approach each other. They had scarcely met before, in the most hardened manner, they broke out into mutual recrimination, using the most horrible and abusive language of each other, and not content with this, they flew at each other's throat, so that the gaolers were obliged to interfere and separate them, and confine them in separate apartments.

On April 7th their families were admitted to bid them farewell, and the scene was most distressing. On Monday morning, April 13th, they were both executed, and it was said that upwards of ten thousand persons had assembled to witness their end.

As Mr. Norway's family was left in most straitened circumstances, a collection was made for them in Cornwall, and the sum of 3500 pounds was raised on their behalf.

William Lightfoot was aged thirty-six and James thirty-three when hanged at Bodmin.

There is a monument to the memory of Mr. Norway in Egloshayle Church.

In the CORNWALL GAZETTE, 17th April, 1840, the portraits of the murderers were given. Mention is made of the tragedy in C. Carlyon's "Early Years", 1843. He gives the following story. At the time of the murder, Edmund Norway, the brother of Nevill, was in command of a merchant vessel, the "Orient", on hisvoyage from Manilla to Cadiz. He wrote on the same day as the murder: -
"About 7.30 p.m. the island of S. Helena, N.N.W., distant about seven miles, shortened sail and rounded to, with the ship's head to the eastward; at eight; set the watch and went below -- wrote a letter to my brother Nevell Norway. About twenty minutes or a quarter before ten o'clock went to bed -- fell asleep, and dreamt I saw two men attack my brother and murder him. One caught the horse by the bridle and snapped a pistol twice, but I heard no report; he then struck him a blow, and he fell off the horse. They struck several blows, and dragged him by the shoulders across the road and left him. In my dream there was a house on the left-hand side of the road. At five o'clock I was called, and went on deck to take charge of the ship. I told the second officer, Mr. Henry Wren, that I had had a dreadful dream, and dreamt that my brother Nevell was murdered by two men on the road from S. Columb to Wadebridge; but I was sure it could not be there, as the house there would have been on the right-hand side of the road, but it must have been somewhere else. He replied, 'Don't think anything about it; you West-country people are superstitious; you will make yourself miserable the remainder of the passage. He then left the general ofders and went below. It was one continued dream from the time I fell asleep until I was called, at five o'clock in the morning."
"Edmund Norway,
"Chief Officer, Ship "Orient""

There are some difficulties about this account. It is

[p.123]

dated, as may be seen, February 8th, but it must have been written on February 9th, after Mr. Norway had the dream, and the date must refer to the letter written to his brother and to the dream, and not to the time when the account was penned.

From the Cape of Good Hope to S. Helena the course would be N.N. W., and with a fair wind the ship would cover about eighty or ninety miles in eight hours. So that at noon of the day February 8th she would be about one hundred miles S.S.E. of S. Helena, i.e. in about 5' W. longitude, as nearly as possible. The ship's clock would then be set and they would keep that time for letter-writing purposes, meals, ship routine, etc.

Ship, long. - - - - 5 degrees 0 ' 0" W
Bodmin " - - - - 4 deg. 40' 0" W
Difference - - 20' 0"

This difference would be twenty minutes of longitude and the difference in time between the two places one degree apart is four minutes. Reduce this to seconds:--

4 x 60 x 20
= 80 sec., i.e. 1 min. 20 sec.
60

Therefore, if the murder was committed, say, at 10h. 30m. p.m., Bodmin time, the time on the ship's clock would be 10h. 28 m. 40s. p.m. An inconsiderable difference.

The log-bood of Edmund Norway is said to be still in existence.

One very remarkable point deserves notice. In his dream Mr. Edmund Nowray saw the house on the right hand of the road, and as he remembered, on waking, that the cottage was on the left hand, he consoled himself with the thought that if the dream was incorrect in one

[p.124]

point it might be in the whole. But he was unaware that during his absence from England the road from Bodmin to Wadebridge had been altered, and that it had been carried so that the position of the house was precisely as he saw it in his dream, and the reverse of what he had remembered it to be.

Another point to be mentioned is that one of the murderers wore on that occasion a coat which Mr. Norway had given him a few weeks before, out of charity.

Both brothers protested that they had not purposed the murder of Mr. Norway but of the Rev. Mr. Molesworth, parson of S. Breock, who they supposed was returning with tithe in his pocket. This, however, did not agree with the evidence that William Lightfoot had watched him counting his money at Bodmin, and then had made off.

On the occasion of the discovery of the murder, Sir William Molesworth sent his bloodhounds to track the murderers, but because they ran in a direction opposed to that which the constables supposed was the right one they were recalled. The hounds were right, the constables wrong.

[p.125]

[Mayerling]

Norway Murder

Good research job TradeName. Because it is nearly 2:30 A.M. here in NYC I will not do what I will do tomorrow night - I intend to copy out the full chapter in Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould's book, "Cornish Characters and Strange Events" (London, John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd., 1908, 1915) regarding Nevil Norway's murder (p. 117 - 125) which contains what you put down and some additional information. The book also has a picture of the unfortunate victim, Mr. Norway.

I still would like to know if Nevil Shute (as he is Nevil Shute Norway) is a descendant or relative of the murder victim.

Jeff

[TradeName]

Thanks, Jeff. Here are some accounts of the Norway murder.

Early Years and Late Reflections, Volume 2 (London: Whittacker & Co., 1856), Pages 289-293
by Clement Carlyon

On the evening of the 8th of February, 1840, Mr. Nevell Norway, a Cornish gentleman, was cruelly murdered, by two brothers of the name of Lightfoot, on his way from Bodmin to Wadebridge, the place of his residence.

At that time, his brother, Mr. Edmund Norway, was in the command of a merchant vessel, the "Orient," on her voyage from Manilla to Cadiz; and the following is his own account of a dream which he had on the night when his brother was murdered:—-

"Ship 'Orient,' from Manilla to Cadiz,
"February 8,1840.

"About 7. 30 P.m. the island of St. Helena N.N.W. distant about seven miles, shortened sail and rounded to, with the ship's head to the eastward; at eight, set the watch and went below—-wrote a letter to my brother, Nevell Norway. About twenty minutes or a quarter before ten o'clock went to bed-—fell asleep, and dreamt I saw two men attack my brother and murder him. One caught the horse by the bridle, and snapped a pistol twice, but I heard no report; he then struck him a blow, and he fell off the horse. They struck him several blows, and dragged him by the shoulders across the road and left him. In my dream, there was a house on the left hand side of the road. At four o'clock I was called, and went on deck to take charge of the ship. I told the second officer, Mr. Henry Wren, that I had had a dreadful dream, and dreamt that my brother Nevell was murdered by two men, on the road from St. Columb to Wadebridge; but I was sure it could not be there, as the house there would have been on the right hand side of the road, but it must have been somewhere else. He replied, 'Don't think anything about it; you west-country people are so superstitious; you will make yourself miserable the remainder of the passage.' He then left the general orders and went below. It was one continued dream from the time I fell asleep until I was called, at four o'clock in the morning.

"Edmund Norway,
"Chief Officer, ship 'Orient.'"

So much for the dream—-now for the confession of William Lightfoot, one of the assassins, who was executed, together with his brother, at Bodmin, on Monday, April 13, 1840:—-

"I went to Bodmin last Saturday week, the 8th instant (February 8, 1840), and in returning, I met my brother James, at the head of Dunmeer Hill. It was dim like. We came on the turnpike road all the way till we came to the house near the spot where the murder was committed. We did not go into the house, but hid ourselves in a field. My brother knocked Mr. Norway down; he snapped a pistol at him twice, and it did not go off. He then knocked him down with the pistol. I was there along with him. Mr. Norway was struck while on horseback. It was on the turnpike road, between Pencarrow Mill and the directing-post towards Wadebridge. I cannot say at what time of the night it was. We left the body in the water, on the left side of the road coming to Wadebridge. We took some money in a purse, but I did not know how much. My brother drew the body across the road to the watering."

At the trial, Mr. Abraham Hambly deposed that he left Bodmin ten minutes before ten, and was overtaken by Mr. Norway about a quarter of a mile out of Bodmin. They rode together for about two miles from Bodmin, where their roads separated.

Mr. John Hick, a farmer of St. Minver, left Bodmin at a quarter past ten, on the Wadebridge road. When he got to within a mile of Wadebridge, he saw Mr. Norway's horse galloping on before him, without a rider. The clock struck eleven just before he entered Wadebridge.

Thomas Gregory, Mr. Norway's wagoner, was called by Mr. Hick about eleven o'clock, and, going to the stable, found his master's horse standing at the gate. Two spots of fresh blood were on the saddle. He took the pony and rode out on the road. Edward Cavell went with him. They came to a place called North Hill. There is a lone cottage there, by the right hand side of the road going to Bodmin, which is unoccupied. On the Wadebridge side of the cottage, there is a small orchard belonging to it, and near the orchard, a little stream of water coming down into the road. They found the body of Mr. Norway in the water.

The evidence of the surgeon, Mr. Tickell, showed that the head was dreadfully beaten and fractured.

It will be seen, that Mr. Edmund Norway, in relating his dream the following morning to his shipmate, observed, that the murder could not have been committed on the St. Columb road, because the house in going from thence to Wadebridge is on the right hand, whereas the house was in his dream (and in reality is) on the left. Now, this circumstance, however apparently trivial, tends somewhat to enhance the interest of the dream, without in the least impugning its fidelity; for such fissures are characteristic of these sensorial impressions, which are altogether involuntary, and bear a much nearer relation to the productions of the Daguerreotype than to those of the portrait painter, whose lines are at his own command.

I asked Mr. Edmund Norway whether, supposing that he had not written a letter to his brother, Mr. N. Norway, on the evening of the 8th of February, and had nevertheless dreamt the dream in question, the impression made by it would have been such as to have prevented his writing to him subsequently. To which he replied, that it might not have had that effect, but he could not say with any precision whether it would or not.

At all events, the dream must be considered remarkable, from its unquestionable authenticity, and its perfect coincidence in time and circumstances with a most horrible murder.

----end

Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World (London: Trubner, 1860), Pages 120-124
by Robert Dale Owen



Some cold water from the Society for Psychical Research:

Phantasms of the Living, Volume 1 (London: Trubner & Co., 1886), Page 161
by Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, Frank Podmore

First-hand evidence, where the witness cannot be cross-questioned, is at once invalidated by any doubt as to the case that may have been felt by persons who were more immediately cognisant of it. The well-known Norway story is an instance. In Early Years and Late Reflections, by Clement Carlyon, M.D., there is a signed account by Mr. Edmund Norway of a vision of his brother's murder that he had while in command of the Orient, on a voyage from Manilla to Cadiz. Mr. Arthur S. Norway, son of the murdered man and nephew of Mr. Edmund Norway, tells us that the account was taken down by Dr. Carlyon from his uncle, at the latter's house; he himself also has heard it from his uncle's own lips. It describes with some detail how in a vision, on the night of February 8th, 1840, Mr. Edmund Norway saw his brother set upon and killed by two assailants at a particular spot on the road between St. Columb and Wadebridge: and how he immediately mentioned the vision to the second officer, Mr. Henry Wren. The brother was actually murdered by two men at that spot, on that night, and the details—-as given in the confession of one of the murderers, William Lightfoot—-agree with those of the vision. But Mr. Arthur Norway further tells us that another of his uncles and the late Sir William Molesworth "investigated the dream at the time. Both were clever men, and they were at that time searching deeply and experimenting in mesmerism—be that they were well fitted to form an opinion. They arrived at the conclusion that the dream was imagined." Mr. Arthur Norway has also heard Mr. Wren speak of the voyage, but without any allusion to the dream. This is just a case, therefore, where we may justly suspect that detail and precision have been retrospectively introduced into the percipient s experience.

It almost goes without saying, in a case like this, that sooner or later we shall be told that the vision was inscribed in the ship's log; and Mr. Dale Owen duly tells us so. Mr. Arthur Norway expressly contradicts the fact.

---end

This account mentions the bloodhounds but says they were of no use.

Chambers's Journal, Volume 85, August 8, 1908, Pages 561-563

The Dream of Edmund Norway
by S. Baring-Gould

Edmund Noway, Captain of the merchant-vessel Orient on her voyage from Manila to Cadiz, wrote in the log, which is still extant:

'SHIP Orient, Feb. 8, 1840.

'About seven-thirty P.M. the island of St Helena N.N.W., distant about seven miles; shortened sail, and rounded to, with the ship's head to the eastward ; at eight set watch and went below, with a letter to my brother, Nevill Norway. About twenty minutes or a quarter before ten o'clock went to bed, fell asleep, and dreamt I saw two men attack my brother and murder him. One caught the horse by the bridle and snapped a pistol twice ; but I heard no report. He then struck him a blow, and he fell off the horse. They struck him several blows, and dragged him by the shoulders across the road and left him. In my dream there was a house on the left-hand side of the road. At five o'clock I was called, and went on deck to take charge of the ship. I told the second officer, Mr Henry Wren, that I had had a dreadful dream, and dreamt that my brother Nevill was murdered by two men on the road from St Columb to Wadebridge; but I was sure it could not be there, as the house there would have been on the right-hand side of the road, but it must have been somewhere else. He replied, "Don't think anything about it. You West Country people are superstitious; you will make yourself miserable the remainder of the passage." He then left the general orders, and went below. It was one continued dream from the time I fell asleep until I was called, which was five o'clock in the morning.

Edmund Norway,
Chief Officer, Ship Orient.'

After this, in the log-book, follow the several entries of the rest of the voyage.

From the Cape of Good Hope to St Helena the course would be N.N.W., and with a fair wind the ship would cover about eighty or ninety miles in eight hours. So that at the noon of the day 8th February she would be about a hundred miles S.S.E. of St Helena—that is, in about five degrees west longitude, as nearly as possible. The ship's clock would then be set, and they would keep that time for letter-writing purposes, meals, shiproutine, &c.

Ship, long..........5° 0' 0" W.

Bodmin, long......4° 40' 0" W.

........................0° 20' 0" W.

The difference would be twenty minutes of longitude, and the difference between the two places, where were Edmund Norway and his brother Nevill Norway one degree apart, would be four minutes. Reduce this to seconds : 4X60X20÷60 = 80 seconds-—that is, one minute twenty seconds. Therefore, if the murder as dreamt had taken place it must have occurred at 10:30 P.m.

Now, concerning this entry in the log-book, there can exist no doubt whatever.

Mr Nevill Norway, a timber and general merchant, residing at Wadebridge, was at Bodmin, in Cornwall, on the 8th February 1840, on horseback. About four o'clock in the afternoon he was transacting some business in the market-place, and had his purse in his hand, and opened it, and turned out some gold and silver, and from the silver picked out the sum that he required and paid the man with whom he was transacting business. Standing close by, and watching him, was a young man named William Lightfoot, who lived at Burlorn in Egloshayle, and whom he knew well enough at sight, and to whom, in charity, he had given the coat this fellow then wore.

Mr Norway did not leave Bodmin till shortly before ten o'clock, and he had got about six miles' ride before him ere he reached home. The road was lonely, and led past the Dunmeer woods. He was riding a gray horse, and he had with him a companion, who accompanied him along the road for three miles, and then took his leave and branched off in another direction.

A farmer returning from market somewhat later to Wadebridge saw a gray horse on the road, saddled and bridled, but without a rider. He tried at first to overtake it; but the horse struck into a gallop, and he gave up the chase. His curiosity was, however, excited, and upon his meeting some men on the road and making inquiry, they told him that they thought that the gray horse that had gone by them belonged to Mr Norway. This induced him to call at the house of that gentleman, and he found the gray steed standing at the stable-door. The servants were called out, and spots of blood were found upon the saddle. A surgeon was immediately summoned, and two of the domestics sallied forth on the Bodmin road in quest of their master. They made their way for about two miles, when one of them perceived something white in the little stream of water that runs beside the highway and enters the river Allen at Pendavy Bridge. They examined it, and found the body of their unfortunate master, lying on his back in the stream, with his feet towards the road ; and what they had seen glimmering in the uncertain light was his shirt-frill. He was quite dead.

The body was at once placed on the horse and conveyed home, when the surgeon, named Tickell, proceeded to examine it. He found that the deceased had received injuries about the face and head, produced by heavy and repeated blows from some blunt instrument, which had undoubtedly been the cause of his death. A wound was discovered under the chin, into which it appeared as if some powder had been carried; and the bones of the nose, the forehead, the left side of the head, and the back of the skull were frightfully fractured.

An immediate examination of the spot where the body had been found ensued, and on the lefthand side of the road was seen a pool of blood, from which to the rivulet opposite was a track produced by the drawing of a heavy body across the way, and footsteps were observed as of more than one person in the mud; and it was further noticed that the boots that made the impress must have been heavy. There had apparently been a desperate scuffle before Mr Norway had been killed. There was further evidence. Two sets of footprints of men could be traced as if pacing up and down behind a hedge, in an orchard attached to an uninhabited house hard by; as it appeared, those of men on the watch for their intended victim. At a short distance from the pool of blood was found the hammer of a pistol that had been but recently broken off. Upon the pockets of the deceased being examined it became evident that robbery had been the object of the attack made upon him, for his purse and a tablet and bunch of keys had been carried off.

Every exertion was made to discover the perpetrators of the crime. Sir William Molesworth of Pencarrow sent his bloodhounds to track the murderers; but as they ran in a direction opposed to that which the superior wisdom of the searchers supposed they ought to have taken, they were called off.

Jackson, a constable from London, was sent for, and mainly by his exertions the murderers were tracked down. A man named Harris, a shoemaker, deposed that he had seen the two brothers James and William Lightfoot, of Burlorn in Egloshayle, loitering about the deserted cottage late at night after the Bodmin fair; and a man named Ayres, who lived next door to James Lightfoot, stated that he had heard him enter his cottage at a very late hour on the night of the murder, and say something to his wife and child, whereupon they began to weep. What he had said Ayres could not tell, though the partition between the cottages was thin.

This led to the examination of the house of James Lightfoot on 14th February, when a pistol was found, without a lock, concealed in a hole in a beam that ran across the ceiling. As the manner of Lightfoot was suspicious, he was taken into custody. On the 17th his brother William was arrested in consequence of a remark he made to a man named Vercoe, that he was in it as well as James. He was examined before a magistrate, and made the following confession:

'I went to Bodmin last Saturday week, the 8th instant, and in returning I met my brother James just at the head of the Dunmeer Hill. It was just come dim-like. My brother had been to Egloshayle, Burlorn, to buy potatoes. Something had been said about meeting; but I was not certain about that. My brother was not in Bodmin on that day. Mr Vercoe overtook us between Mount Charles turnpike gate at the top of Dunmeer Hill and a place called Lane-end. We came on the turnpike road all the way till we came to the house near the spot where the murder was committed. We did not go into the house, but hid ourselves in a field. My brother knocked Mr Norway down; he snapped a pistol at him first, but it did not go off. Then he knocked him down with the pistol. He was struck whilst on horseback. It was on the turnpike road between Pencarrow Mill and the directing-post towards Wadebridge. I cannot say at what time of the night it was. We left the body in the water on the left side of the road coming from Wadebridge. We took money in the purse, but I do not know how much it was. It was a brownish purse. There were some pipers which my brother took and pitched away in a field, on the left side of the road, into some browse or furze. The purse was hid by me in my garden, and afterwards I threw it over the Pendavy Bridge. My brother drew the body across the road to the water. We did not know whom we stopped till, when my brother snapped the pistol at him, Mr Norway said, "I know what you are about. I see you." We went home across the fields. We were not disturbed by any one. The pistol belonged to my brother. I don't know whether it was broken. I never saw it afterwards, and I do not know what became of it. I don't know whether it was soiled with blood. I did not see any blood on my brother's clothes. We returned together, crossing the river at Pendavy Bridge. My brother then went to his home, and I to mine. I think it was nearly about eleven o'clock.'

The prisoner upon this was remanded to Bodmin Jail, where his brother was already confined. Eventually the two wretched men were tried at Bodmin on 30th March 1840, and were sentenced to death, and both were executed on 13th April.

Now, the curious feature of the story is this : that Edmund Norway thought that there must have been nothing in his dream because in it he saw the ruined cottage on the right-hand side of the road, and as he remembered the highway it ought to have been on the left hand. But he was not aware that since he had left the neighbourhood the road had been remade, and had been carried to the side of the cottage, leaving it on the right hand.

This is a well-authenticated and most curious story of a dream, and I do not see how it can be accounted for by thought-waves.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

---end

An earlier account with no dream and no bloodhounds.

he Chronicles of Crime; or, The New Newgate Calendar (London: 1841), Pages 551-556
by Camden Pelham (pseud.)

James Lightfoot and William Lightfoot

[Mayerling]

[QUOTE=TradeName;350138]

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Occasions like these bring home to us what a vast number of fools there are amongst us—-creatures who live to parade their folly, and who believe it is wisdom. Mr. A. writes solemnly to explain how some self-obvious fact has occurred to him. Mr. B. makes some utterly absurd suggestion. Mr. C. improves the occasion by communicating to the world at large a few platitudes that he has culled from a copy-book; and they all actually sign their real names to these lucubrations ! I can imagine the dull, solemn, pretentious authors of these letters. I can see them pestering all their acquaintances with allusions to their effusions, and being seriously regarded by their wives, their daughters, and their housemaids as almost as important factors in the atrocities as the murderer himself.

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That there should be a plentiful supply of scribbling asses is not surprising. What astonishes me, however, is that the newspapers should publish their letters. Surely, if the epistolary is deemed the most telling mode of getting copy out of the horrors, some smart young man in the office might be turned on to throw off a series of communications from “constant readers,” “fathers,” “ratepayers,” &c., &c., with some glimmer of common-sense in them.

----------------------------------



----------------------------------



Captain Norway was murdered on the turnpike road between Bodmin and Wadebridge one night, nearly fifty years ago. Next morning two bloodhounds belonging to Sir William Molesworth were brought from Pencarrow to the scene of the murder, and they followed on the scent of the murderers to the estuary of the River Camel, where they were checked by the high tide. The tide had been low when the murderers waded across. The dogs were ferried over the river and recovered the scent, which they stuck to, until it brought them and the constables to a cottage in which were found two brothers named Lightfoot. These men were tried for the murder at Bodmin Assizes, and duly hung.

-----------------------------------





Sir Charles Dilke's announcement that he is now able to look forward to a return to public life at an earlier date than he until lately contemplated is very welcome intelligence. For my part, I have never been able to understand what has kept him so long out of public life. The famous verdict in the Crawford case was scarcely a week old, before nine out of every ten educated men of all parties had come clearly to the conclusion that a more astounding and incomprehensible miscarriage of justice had never taken place. What may be the precise value of the fresh evidence which Sir Charles's friends have now collected I am not in a position to state. But the truth is there is not much need of fresh evidence. The lady's story was illogical and inconsistent; whilst good evidence in confirmation of it seemed to me to be wanting. At most it was word against word.

-----------------------------------

It would be curious if Sir Charles Dilke's return to public life should coincide with what I myself should regard as an almost equally great miscarriage of justice—-viz., the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and ultimate execution of Mr. Stead, of the Pall Mall Gazette, for the Whitechapel murders. Yet this very possibly may be an event difficult to avoid, if public opinion continues to run in its present groove, and persists in imputing to the Whitechapel fiend a philanthropic motive. Even I (who am almost as well assured of Mr. Stead's innocence as of my own), while the identification of the lost victim was still in doubt, could not always restrain a shudder of apprehension lest possibly she might turn out to be Eliza Armstrong, No doubt there is a superficial resemblance between Eliza's famous case and these Whitechapel cases. But really it is only superficial. “Purity of motive,” “desire to amend the criminal law,” may very possibly have been factors present in both instances.

October 18, 1888, Page 672

A very interesting fact has come to my knowledge respecting the telegram which the Whitechapel murderer, or some one personating him, sent to Sir Charles Warren last week. This telegram was not handed in at a post-office in the usual way, but was stamped and deposited in a letter-box, whence it was taken in the ordinary course when the box was cleared to the nearest telegraph office and dispatched. Now, it is not everyone, even among the educated classes, who is aware that a telegram can be sent in this manner. Among working men, or among the Jewish or foreign population at the East-end, I should not expect to find one man in a thousand who knows it. On the other hand, it does not look likely that a mere practical joker would have recourse to such a roundabout procedure. To my mind this is one more indication that the Whitechapel assassin is more likely to belong to “the classes” than “the masses.”

--------------------------






A really great deal of meaty material from "Truth". Interesting that Labouchere attacks anyone with the temerity of writing a letter giving an opinion of any sort he thinks is stupid to the newspapers (which he feels is 100% of them). He is free to vent opinions on the case - but then he is a wise and wealthy (??) and honest (???) newspaper editor and member of Parliament. He was a Liberal - hence his support of Sir Charles Dilke and his fall from influence due to the Crawford Divorce Case, of 1884-85. He also was a fan of William Stead, hence his support here for the "Maiden Tribute of Babylon" Case in which Stead got a few months in prison for buying a young girl (Stead was trying to prove a point about white slavery in London - it was easily accomplished). However he also supported Stead in his support of the anti-homosexual law that would plague that group in England until the 1960s.

The references to Parnell and Egan were referring to the Parnell Commission looking into the "Parnellism and Crime" articles in the Times of London, and the eventual proof that the letters involved were forgeries by Richard Pigott (1889).

Interesting too is (when talking about how the careful use of bloodhounds in crimes) Labouchere touches upon the death of Mr. Nevil Norway on February 8, 1840 in Cornwall, England. The reason that murder is interesting is (of all things) a weird supernatural aspect that Labouchere doesn't mention - that runs counter to his attack on spiritualists supposedly getting odd messages from the dead prostitutes. Mr. Norway's brother, Captain Edward Norway, was on board his ship off St. Helena (in the same longitude, I believe as the murder site was) when the killing occurred. The Captain was sleeping and dreamed that his brother was killed by two men. He woke up and an account of it written down by another ship officer, and when he got home it was discovered that his dream occurred exactly at the same time as the murder did. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would discuss this killing in his book, "On the Edge of the Unknown" in 1930.

I am not sure of this but the author of "On the Beach", and "A Town Named Alice" was Nevil Shute, but that is his pen name. His full name was Nevil Shute Norway, and perhaps (I say perhaps) he was a relative.

Jeff

[TradeName]

Some musings on the Whitechapel murders from Labouchere's Truth:

Truth, Volume 24, 1888, link

October 4, 1888, Pages 581-582

It is full time that Sir Charles Warren should go. He may be the right man somewhere, but it is not assuredly as chief of the Metropolitan Police. It is an open secret that Mr. Mathews was personally opposed to breaking up the meetings in Trafalgar-square, as he perceived that they were dying a natural death, and that Sir Charles Warren only got his way by appealing to Lord Salisbury. Sir Charles got whatever reputation he has by organising savage countries, and he appears to have deemed London a barbarian capital which it was his mission to keep down vi et armis. He has done his best to convert the Police Force into a military body, and he has worried his men with drills, regarding it as a matter of minor importance that individuals should be murdered with impunity. He entertains very strong religious views, and he has sought to inculcate these views upon his subordinates. Promotion is believed in the Force to be dependent upon the fervour with which each policeman embraces these views. This, of course, engenders hypocrisy, for many very poor policemen are quite sharp enough to tread the road which Sir Charles tells them leads to salvation in the next world, and which they believe leads to promotion in this world. Mr. Monro was a very able head of the detective force. He enjoyed the confidence of Mr. Mathews, but not of Sir Charles, and he was sacrificed. Thanks to the follies that have been committed, and that are still being committed, the Force is utterly disorganised. This cannot be allowed to continue, and if Sir Charles Warren does not resign he must be shelved.

But, although the police have been demoralised, disorganised, and rendered inefficient to cope with anything beyond a public meeting, owing to the follies and vagaries of Sir Charles Warren, I do not join in the abuse that is lavished on them by the newspapers for not having hindered the Whitechapel murders or laid hands on their perpetrator. From the choice that he makes of his victims, they become his partners in the endeavour to escape the notice of the police, and even if this were not so, it would be a very difficult thing to catch him by any pre-arranged plan, for London at night has a vast number of nooks and crannies which cannot all be under the eye of the police, even if their number were increased tenfold. Detection will take place (if it does take place) either by the murderer being caught red-handed whilst perpetrating a murder, or by the suspicions of neighbours of the villain being awakened, for he must live somewhere. This is why the utmost publicity should be given to all indications, and why it is right that a large reward for discovery should be offered. The suggestions made by correspondents in the newspapers have been so silly that I am loath to add to their number; still, I think that it might be well that the police who are on the look-out should wear india-rubber over-shoes. This they have done in New York during the night-time for the last thirty years. What strikes me as the most remarkable feature connected with the murders is that the murderer sticks to one locality. Whether a lunatic or simply a miscreant, his object is to kill for killing's sake. Why, then, should he increase the risks that he runs by always selecting the very place where his former murders have put people specially on their guard against him? It may be said that he knows the locality better than any other, but this explanation hardly holds water, for in a week or two he might make himself equally well acquainted with some other part.

-------------------------------

The epidemic of false "confessions" which is usually consequent upon the commission of any unussually atrocious crime seems to have set in in the case of these Whitechapel murders. The man Fitzgerald who "confessed" to the crimes, was found to be a morbid liar, and was consequently discharged. People of this kind give a great deal of trouble, and hinder the police, and they ought to be punished for so doing. It is quite conceivable that many a criminal gets some pal to give himself up in order that he may have the more time for escape. The “pal,” of course, risks nothing. This is an additional reason for making a false confession a punishable offence, and I will wager that were a few. Fitzgeralds sentenced to a month's hard labour for their freaks, the false confession nuisance would speedily be abated.

-------------------------------

Of all the ludicrous theories of the murders, the theory of the Coroner is assuredly the most grotesque. I am glad to see that the medical opinion of Sir Risdon Bennett coincides with this conclusion, to which my purely lay mind instantaneously sprung when I read the astounding summing-up. I don’t know whether there is any way of getting rid of a Comic Coroner. But if any machinery does exist for the purpose, it ought, without a moment's delay, to be put in force. Unless this excellent man can be retired summarily and quickly, he will probably, in a day or two, ventilate a theory that there is a “demand,” a “market” for, say, “hob-nailed livers,” and then gentlemen who have been to pleasant parties overnight, and who know that their morning faces show it, will be afraid to walk across Pall Mall to their club for their devilled kidney or red herring. They will tremble at every rough-looking customer they meet, feeling sure that he is in search of a “hob-nailed liver” to be preserved in glycerine and issued with each number of some temperance publication.

---------------------------------

Heaven forbid that I should, without good reason, say a word which might hurt the feelings of an esteemed contemporary. Still, there are moments when plain speaking is a public duty, and I cannot help suggesting that at the present moment the police authorities in charge of the East-end mystery might do worse than pay a visit to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph and try and find out what he knows about it. At any rate, it is a very curious coincidence that this good gentleman should on Saturday morning have closed the “Marriage” controversy, which has provided him with two or three columns of matter per diem for months past, and then have had two brand-new, unprecedentedly-horrible murders ready to fill up half-a-dozen columns on Monday. Of course, it may be a mere coincidence. I hope it is.

October 11, 1888, Pages 630-631

"It is an ill wind," &c., and the Whitechapel horrors have proved a perfect godsend to the daily papers, occuring, as they have done, during the dead sesaon. But what a fearful amount of trash has been written about them! No sooner was a letter signed "Jack the Ripper" published, than hundreds of ghastly jokers at once addressed similar letters to the authorities, whilst "constant readers" wrote to their favourite organs to prove that the writer of the silly letter must have been the murderer.

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Occasions like these bring home to us what a vast number of fools there are amongst us—-creatures who live to parade their folly, and who believe it is wisdom. Mr. A. writes solemnly to explain how some self-obvious fact has occurred to him. Mr. B. makes some utterly absurd suggestion. Mr. C. improves the occasion by communicating to the world at large a few platitudes that he has culled from a copy-book; and they all actually sign their real names to these lucubrations ! I can imagine the dull, solemn, pretentious authors of these letters. I can see them pestering all their acquaintances with allusions to their effusions, and being seriously regarded by their wives, their daughters, and their housemaids as almost as important factors in the atrocities as the murderer himself.

----------------------------------

That there should be a plentiful supply of scribbling asses is not surprising. What astonishes me, however, is that the newspapers should publish their letters. Surely, if the epistolary is deemed the most telling mode of getting copy out of the horrors, some smart young man in the office might be turned on to throw off a series of communications from “constant readers,” “fathers,” “ratepayers,” &c., &c., with some glimmer of common-sense in them.

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Naturally, the spiritualists have come to the fore, and we are asked, to believe that the spirits of the victims have been visiting the “parlours” in which professional mediums sit awaiting dupes. No sooner was it stated that the murderer had on a black coat than the spirits also announced the fact. Spiritualism is the most debasing and contemptible form ever assumed by superstition. There has never been one single case of “spirit communication” which has stood the test of independent investigation. If the spirits of the victims really do hold communication with mediums, why don’t they describe in plain language the appearance of the man who murdered them, and give particulars of all that took place previous to the murder? This might be of some use.

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On the doctrine of probabilities, it is long odds against the murderer having written the "Jack the Ripper" letters. He may have, and so may thousands of others. But there is a coincidence in repsect to these letters to which attention has not yet been drawn. The handwriting is remarkably like that of the forgeries which the Times published, and which they ascribed to Mr. Parnell and to Mr. Egan. I do not go so far as to suggest that the Times forger is the Whitechapel murderer, although this, of course, is possible; but it may be that the forger takes pride in his work, and wishes to keep his hand in.

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The following story, which appears in a West-country paper, is worth reproducing at the present moment. I see the best authorities consider that, from lack of practice and training, the bloodhound's keenness of scent has so degenerated that he is no longer of any practical value as a man-hunter. I should think, however, that it is well worth the consideration of our active and intelligent police authorities whether it might not pay to cultivate the dog's powers again, and keep him for such emergencies as the present. There is a difference, of course, between country roads and London streets; but, where every other method is at fault, I should certainly say, give the dogs a chance:--

Captain Norway was murdered on the turnpike road between Bodmin and Wadebridge one night, nearly fifty years ago. Next morning two bloodhounds belonging to Sir William Molesworth were brought from Pencarrow to the scene of the murder, and they followed on the scent of the murderers to the estuary of the River Camel, where they were checked by the high tide. The tide had been low when the murderers waded across. The dogs were ferried over the river and recovered the scent, which they stuck to, until it brought them and the constables to a cottage in which were found two brothers named Lightfoot. These men were tried for the murder at Bodmin Assizes, and duly hung.

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Telegraph clerks, I am aware, are expected to regard themselves as mere machines for the reception and transmission of messages, and to have neither minds nor memory for the contents of the messages entrusted to them. They certainly act up to this idea very well, and I suppose it is for the public interest that they should. When, however, as happened in Commercial-road last week, an individual walks into a telegraph-office and hands in what purports to be a telegram from the Whitechapel murderer to Sir Charles Warren, I certainly think that the intelligent operators might have allowed themselves to look at the message as something different from an invitation to dinner or an order for coals. I do not for a moment suppose that the man who handed in this telegram was the Whitechapel murderer, but he was, at least, one of those practical jokers who are much in need of a lesson just now, and it is a pity that Post Office red-tapeism prevented his being stopped and handed over to the police.

Page 633

Sir Charles Dilke's announcement that he is now able to look forward to a return to public life at an earlier date than he until lately contemplated is very welcome intelligence. For my part, I have never been able to understand what has kept him so long out of public life. The famous verdict in the Crawford case was scarcely a week old, before nine out of every ten educated men of all parties had come clearly to the conclusion that a more astounding and incomprehensible miscarriage of justice had never taken place. What may be the precise value of the fresh evidence which Sir Charles's friends have now collected I am not in a position to state. But the truth is there is not much need of fresh evidence. The lady's story was illogical and inconsistent; whilst good evidence in confirmation of it seemed to me to be wanting. At most it was word against word.

-----------------------------------

It would be curious if Sir Charles Dilke's return to public life should coincide with what I myself should regard as an almost equally great miscarriage of justice—-viz., the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and ultimate execution of Mr. Stead, of the Pall Mall Gazette, for the Whitechapel murders. Yet this very possibly may be an event difficult to avoid, if public opinion continues to run in its present groove, and persists in imputing to the Whitechapel fiend a philanthropic motive. Even I (who am almost as well assured of Mr. Stead's innocence as of my own), while the identification of the lost victim was still in doubt, could not always restrain a shudder of apprehension lest possibly she might turn out to be Eliza Armstrong, No doubt there is a superficial resemblance between Eliza's famous case and these Whitechapel cases. But really it is only superficial. “Purity of motive,” “desire to amend the criminal law,” may very possibly have been factors present in both instances.

October 18, 1888, Page 672

A very interesting fact has come to my knowledge respecting the telegram which the Whitechapel murderer, or some one personating him, sent to Sir Charles Warren last week. This telegram was not handed in at a post-office in the usual way, but was stamped and deposited in a letter-box, whence it was taken in the ordinary course when the box was cleared to the nearest telegraph office and dispatched. Now, it is not everyone, even among the educated classes, who is aware that a telegram can be sent in this manner. Among working men, or among the Jewish or foreign population at the East-end, I should not expect to find one man in a thousand who knows it. On the other hand, it does not look likely that a mere practical joker would have recourse to such a roundabout procedure. To my mind this is one more indication that the Whitechapel assassin is more likely to belong to “the classes” than “the masses.”

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The bloodhound cry, like most other cries which originally had a grain of sense in them, is being carried too far. Before we determine to rely exclusively upon bloodhounds for the detection of murderers, I would suggest the following experiment:—-Let a sheep be tethered in the middle of a field over night. In the morning let a butcher entering the field from the east go up to that sheep and kill it, and, leaving the carcass on the ground, depart due north. Then half-an-hour afterwards let a policeman (a respectable married man, but with no family, that thus the susceptibilities of Northumberland-street may be unruffled), acting upon “information received,” enter the field from the west, and find the slaughtered sheep, and depart due south. Now comes the bloodhound upon the scene, and obviously there are five courses open to the intelligent animal:—-1. He may elect to follow backwards the track of the butcher entering the field, for obviously the foot of a butcher smells just the same, whether you begin to smell it at the toe or the heel. 2. He may go the way the butcher went when leaving the field. 3. He may go on the reverse track of the entering policeman. Or (4) on the line taken by the retreating constable. 5. He may lie down on the top of that sheep and eat as much mutton as he can. If the dog is hungry this last is undoubtedly the course which he will adopt. If, on the other hand, he is not hungry, but intelligent (and also, like Balaam's ass, inspired), he will distinguish, not merely between the tracks of the butcher and policeman, but also between the two tracks of the butcher, and, following the right one, will find that worthy in his favourite public-house. Then murder will cease upon the earth, for no criminal would be so mad as to court certain detection, and the golden age will return. In the meantime, it is, of course, obvious that the bloodhounds should be supplied to Sir James Hannen and Justices Day and Smith to enable them to find out who forged the “Parnell letters.”

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ae1HAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA672#v=onepage&q&f=false

November 15, 1888, Pages 859-860

Exit Jonah! And now he is free to write as many articles as he likes in denunciation of public meetings and in praise of himself. Mr. Matthews was, I believe, opposed to the action of the police against the Trafalgar-square meetings, last year, for he rightly thought that if he left them severely alone, they would soon come to an end. But Jonah thought otherwise, and appealed to Lord Salisbury, who sided with him against the Home Office. Mr. Monro was an exceptionally able head of the Criminal Investigation Department: and naturally he objected to a hot-headed, bungling soldier disorganising the department, and he resigned. But Mr. Matthews continued to consult Mr. Monro in regard to reorganisation, which must have been gall and wormwood to the soldier. So he has been pitched overboard, and none too soon. I do not regard him as responsible for the Whitechapel murderer not having been discovered. But obviously the chances of his being discovered, and thus hindered from committing further atrocities, was minimised by Sir Charles Warren being permitted to meddle in the detective department, and to muddle everything.

I should fancy myself that Mr. Munro would make an excellent head of the police, but if he be not selected I do hope that we shall have a man who has given proof of his fitness for the performance of the duties required. Such a man might be found amongst the Chief Constables of the counties and of the boroughs.

[...]

-----------------------

Trashy, very trashy, are the confidences which various inhabitants of the locality where the recent murders have taken place vouchsafe to newspaper reporters. In most cases they are lies; in the few that are not absolutely untrue, they are exaggerated and worthless. An "inhabitant" able to impart information becomes an important personage, besides getting numerous tips. "Inhabitants" who have known the vixtim for years have variously described her as short and tall, fair and dark; whilst as for the murderer, if "inhabitants" are to be credited, he has vainly sought to be arrested by indiscreet acts and observations.

------------------------


It is unprofitable work theorising about the murderer; but, while everybody is offering the police suggestions, there is one consideration which should not be lost sight of. That is the possibility—-in my opinion, almost a probability—-that the man makes the acquaintance of his victims long before he commits the crime, disarms any suspicions they might entertain, and waits for, or possibly arranges with the women themselves, the opportunity for the crime. There are one or two circumstances about the last butchery which strongly suggest this conclusion. So there were about the Mitre-square case. I should not be surprised to learn that in each of those instances the murderer was well known to the woman before the crime, or that—-in the Mitre-square case, at any rate—-the poor creature was waiting by appointment in the spot where she was butchered.

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What I would, therefore, press on the police is that they should direct their attention less to mysterious strangers with black bags, and sinister individuals who frighten girls in dark corners, than to the habitual and consequently trusted associates of women of this class. The streets are sure to breed all sorts of myths at times like this, First, it was a mysterious monster with a leather apron. Now, it is a respectable gentleman with a black bag. I must say the black bag strikes me as difficult to swallow. The Whitechapel assassin, whoever he is, understands the conditions of secrecy. I can't, therefore, quite believe in his promenading Whitechapel in the dead of night ear-marked to all beholders by a black bag—and a black bag the opening of which must mean certain detection!

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Of course, we have the usual crop of self-advertisers, who rush to the front when one of these murders takes place, with theories and suggestions. Mr. Forbes Winslow calls attention to the fact that he has patented the idea that the murderer is a lunatic, generally lucid, when he forgets what he had done when insane, but occasionally mad. This may be the fact, but, of course, it cannot be known until the man is discovered, unless we are to lay down, as a law of universal application, that whenever a series of murders, accompanied by outrages, is committed, the perpetrator must be mad. That he killed a woman this time in a room looks, however, as though he had not forgotten his former exploits, and was fully aware of the precautions that had been taken to prevent their renewal.

November 22, 1888, Page 903

There really appear to be no bounds to the aberrations and fantasticalities of the Anglican clergy of the present day. I heard last week of a reverend parson in a western diocese who had astounded his congregation by exhorting them, before he commenced his sermon, to pray fervently for the early discovery of the Whitechapel murderer! It is ordered in the Rubric that “nothing shall be proclaimed or published in the church, during the time of divine service, but by the minister; nor by him anything but what is prescribed by the rules of this book (the Prayer Book), or enjoined by the Queen, or by the Ordinary of the place.” I am quite sure that neither Queen nor Ordinary has “enjoined” country clergymen to twaddle in this strange way to their unfortunate hearers about these sensational murders; but there are too many “ministers” who are only too ready to drag in their own muddling opinions upon any current topic, however unseemly or irrelevant. One usually finds that such irregularities occur during the sermon, when the preacher is practically beyond control.

[TradeName]

The claim in the sketch of Granville Cooke by "Chevron" that Cooke had once shown an assistant "a box which he said contained enough germs of a malignant character to kill half London" calls to mind a short story by H. G. Wells called "The Stolen Bacillus."


The Stolen Bacillus: And Other Incidents (London: Macmillan, 1904), link
by Herbert George Wells


An account of the inquest on the deaths of Cooke and Foster.

The Bathurst Times (NSW : 1909 - 1925), Tuesday 16 June 1925, Page 1

House of Death
MYSTERY OF TWO DEAD MEN.

New light on the mystery, of- two dead men in a cottage attached to Cooke's School of Anatomy, Handel-street, Bloomsbury. (Eng.), was shed at the inquest recently.

Dr. Fairlie, who made a post-mortem examination, said there was a caked amorphous powder on the lips and chin of John Selwyn Foster, one of the victims.

A police witness stated that there were two cups of water in the death chamber, one containing some dirty soda water and the other a greasy substance. In a glass was some clear liquid like water.

Mrs. Bertha Cook, widow of Granville Cooke, said that she received a letter-—a long, rambling letter-—which she could not understand, a few days before the1 tragedy. It did not contain any suggestion about taking his life. He had never mentioned Foster to her.

Continuing, she said her husband was not always careful with regard to gas, and on many occasions she had found it turned on.

The Coroner: Was his sense of sine)] good?-—As far as I know, he had no sense of smell. Some years ago he had some trouble with his nose, and was operated on for it.

Replying to Inspector Grosse, Mrs. Cooke said her husband often turned on the gas witsout lighting it.

Police Constable Walter Amos said he found Foster lying on his back on the floor and Cooke was in a stooping position in a corner.

The Coroner: Did you see anything to suggest any struggle?-—None what ever.

Foster was only half-dressed. There was "some white frothy stuff" round his mouth.

There was a cup on the window sill, and it contained some dirty soda water. Another cup near by contained a greasy sort of substance and a glass "some clear sort of liquid like water."

ESTATE REVERSION SOLD.

Mrs. Emily Foster, of Crown-place, Scarborough, the mother of the dead man, said her son could have obtained money by selling his reversionary interest in his father's estate,
which she found he had done.

The Coroner: Was his mental condition quite good?—-I cannot say as to that. He had loss of memory aboat three years ago.

Mrs. Foster added that her son wrote to her about money, and she told him she could do nothing more for him. She understood that he wrote to the family solicitor, acquainting him with the fact that he was disposing of the reversionary rights.

Was he a young man who took life rather casually?—-Yes, rather. He was a very dutiful boy in the home, but when he got away he seemed to forget it. He was easily led by others.

Mrs. Foster added that her son was not insured, and, as far as she knew, he left no will.

Dr. W. Fairlie, the Divisional Police Surgeon, said there was nothing to indicate a struggle.

He was not yet completely satisfied as to the cause of Foster's death, though he had carried out a post-mortem examination.

There was a ctfked amorphous powder adherent to the lips and1 chin, but there was no odor of poison or evidence of corrosion. Ho thought that death was due to carbon monoxide (gas) poison, but in view of the powdered condition of the mouth 'there might have been some other factor bearing on it.

Before expressing a definite opinion he would like to have the result of an analysis. Cooke smelt strongly of gas. A post-mortem examination showed positively that death was duo to carbon monoxide poisoning.

[TradeName]

A curious addendum to the story of Cooke's School of Anatomy. Don't know that this piece is 100% accurate on all points.

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), Saturday, 13 June 1925, Page 14

AT DR, COOKE'S SCHOOL

(By Chevron.)

Doctor Thomas Cooke was a great authority on anatomy. He was considered by many the best in England, and on founding the Cooke School, as he did in 1870, even well-known doctors turned to him for some additional instruction. As a result of his great knowledge and his method of imparting it he eventually came to have something like three hundred students, and no doubt was in a great way financially. But he died suddenly in 1899 when lecturing, and when it was found that there was not another to take his place, the School declined. From 1899 to now is, say, a quarter of a century, and much can happen in that time. As thintgs stood at the opening of the year the Cooke School was more or less of a memory, but the place was there, or at least enough of it to provide a stage for the scene to conclude things.

In this way we get to Granville Harley Egerton Cooke, son of the gentleman just mentioned, and a French "Countess." And at the same time as we do this we get to an entireley [sic] different person. Dr. G. H. E. Cooke, as he called himself, and may have been, was an anatomist, too, and revelled in certain of the Cooke relics, as portions of the human body, and many of them, preserved by what means only science could say. But the one portion of the human body he liked best would not be of such at all, but only the pocket of a living one, and that pocket the one containing the money. And to get this Dr. G. H. E. Cooke would go to rather extreme lengths, and sometimes did. Some times it was by copying the signature of the man owning the pocket, as on two occasions he did it well enough to get five years with each, but not necessarily to serve them in full. Then he was an inventor, was for ever inventing, but whether the inventions were of any use or not cannot be said. Apparently they were not, as it is not on record that he ever made any money out of them. And again he was a poet, and good enough in this capacity to turn out rhymes to bring solace to the afflicted. His masterpiece was his composition in aid of St. Donstain's Hostel for the Blind, which appears to have won the admiration of Queen Alexandra, and her approval, and brought a cheque. With the assistance of the Royal commendation, Dr. G. H. E. Cooke sold this poem here and there to some advantage, but the Blind got nothing--the Doctor took it all, and did eighteen months in gaol as a consequence. To complete, he was a man of moods. The nicest fellow in the world when it suited him, he could turn himself into a fury on the least provocation. He once engaged an assistant, and it was his pleasure to show him all the parts of the human body he had preserved, and then a box which he said contained enough germs of a malignant character to kill half London, and so 3,500,000 persons. And then, still owing him his wages, he took up something or other to throw at his head, and the assistant wisely forgot his wages and left. We say wisely became he did not know at the time that Dr. G. H. E. Cooke had once been flogged in gaol for a violent assault.

A great friend of the Doctor's was Mr. John Selwyn Foster. Mr. Foster was fond of hut one thing--gamnbling, and when his relatives failed him he went in for thieving, takintg whatever he could get. He gambled for his pleasure, and marched the country up and down for the money for it between his terms of imprisonment, and it would seem that he was at Dr. G. Hf. E. Cooke's for the last time in connection vith a little business. He had expectations from his mother, and was willing to hypothecate them, and whatever the consideration the doctor managed to get from him. a power of attorney of such all-convincing character, and apparently with something in it to make it irrevocable, that it came to pass that it was the doctor who had the expectations, and not Mr. Foster at all.

This is why, when the last English mail left, the police were wondering just how Mr. Foster died, as when they found himn at the School of Anatomy he vas stretched on the floor, and two hings seemed certain--that he had taken something, and in the process of dying had tumbled out of bed and dragged the bedclothes with him. It was of no use appealing to Dr. G. H. E. Cooke. Certainly that gentleman was there, but he was doubled up in a strangely unanatomical position, and when examined was seen to be like, the other, and that is dead. And the manner of his death provided a further mystery, as while the gas was turned on all round it was not enough for harm, as a jet was burning, and the doctor had not inured himself by any other means. The one peculiar thing about him was the colour of his face--it was more or less [????]. The riddle of the two dead men at the Cooke School of Anatomy is yet another of those things that occur from time to time in a great city.

---end

Three stories in one column about the finding of the bodies and the background of Cooke and Foster.

Northern Advocate, 3 April 1925, Page 5

DEEP MYSTERY




A school listing for Granville Cooke and his brother.

Merchant Taylors' School Register, 1871-1900 (London: 1907), Page 247
by London (England). Merchant Taylors' School

Cooke, Granville Hawley Egerton, b. 18 Jan. 1872, s. of
Thomas and Comtesse, Surgeon, Woburn Place.
Left 1888.

Cooke. Francis Gerrard Hamilton, h. 19 April 1875, s. of the same.
Left 1891.

---end

An article raising questions about the ownership ofr Granville Cooke's tire patents, and a response.

The Statist: A Journal of Practical Finance and Trade, Volume 38, December 5, 1896, Page 868

TWICE SOLD.

The prospectus of the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company, Limited, which invites subscription of its capital of £130,000, states that the Company is formed to acquire (1) "the goodwill and business of the Cooke Detachable Tyre Company, Limited"; (2) the inventions of G. H. E. Cooke and Thos. Cooke for improvements, &c.; and (3) "a license granted to the Cooke Detachable Tyre Company, Limited, to use the Welch-Dunlop patents for the purpose of manufacturing and selling their tyre. This license also covers all foreign countries where the Welch-Dunlop rights exist." The Non-Collapsible Company is also to acquire (4) the invention of Thomas Duffell Bell for improved means for closing punctures; (5) the goodwill and business of the Automatic Puncture-Closing Band Company, Limited, and (6) the undertaking and assets, free from all liabilities, of the Midland India Rubber Company, Birmingham. The purchase price has been fixed by the Automatic Puncture Company, which appears to be boMi buyer and seller, and is selling at a profit, at £110,000. And the prospectus goes on to state that the orders received "include one from the Scott's Standard Tyre Company for 20,000 non-collapsible tubes."

But the prospectus of the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company, Limited, does not refer to the fact, to which we invite the especial attention of the directors, that the prospectus, dated May 1896, of Scott's Standard Pneumatic Tyre Company, Limited, stated that in addition to the business of Robert Scott, Limited, the Standard Tyre Company, Limited, and the Speed Tyre Company, Limited, the new Scott's Standard Pneumatic Tyre Company, Limited, "will likewise acquire the assignable license granted to Cooke's Detachable Tyre Company, Limited, subject to that Company's arrangements with the Midland India Rubber Company, and the valuable patent rights in the Cooke Tyre for Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, Belgium and Austro-Hungary." Now what does this mean! If the Cooke's Detachable Tyre Company, by a contract dated May 14,1896, quoted in the prospectus of the Scott's Standard Company, sold the assignable license and the patent rights for Great Britain, Ireland and elsewhere to the Scott's Standard Tyre Company, how can the license which covers all foreign countries be now again sold to the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company? In a supplementary agreement entered into by the directors of the Scott's Standard Company and the promoter, Mr. Cormick, on October 5 last, when the capital subscribed was £25,341, instead of the £190,000 offered, it was expressly provided that Mr. Cormick, instead of £90,000 in cash as part of his purchase price of £200,000, should be paid at once £11,000 in cash, further £4,000 in cash on the transfer of the Cooke Tyre undertaking, and the remainder of his purchase money in shares, subject to an abatement of £250 for certain patents which had lapsed. This seems clearly to indicate that up to a few weeks ago it was considered that the Cooke Tyre undertaking was to be transferred to the Scott's Standard Company in accordance with the contract of May 14, 1896. The sum of £4,000 kept in hand until completion of the transfer appears also to show that the Cooke's Tyre undertaking was at least of equal importance with any of the other three, for of the nominal capital of £3,000 of the original Standard Company, Limited (registered November 5, 1894), only £351 had been subscribed up to February 17, 1896; and Robert Scott, Limited (registered February 26, 1896), with a nominal capital of £3,000, was agreed to be wound up voluntarily on June 26. The other Company, the Speed Tyre Company, Limited (registered November 7, 1895), with a nominal capital of £5,000, to buy from Jones and Dring the business of Taylor and Co., of Saffron Hill, had up to January 14 last allotted £3,007, of which Jones and Dring held £3,000, as "agreed to be considered as fully paid up." If the Cooke's Tyre undertaking Ls not worth more than the £4,000 held in reserve, it seems to have, at any rate, represented fully one-fourth of the assets which were to be acquired by the Scott's Standard Tyre Company for £200,000 upon the basis of an estimated gross profit of £63,960 from orders certified to be in hand on May 15 last for 162,002 tyres and 21,000 tyre-covers. Yet the prospectus of the Non-Collapsible Tube Company, Limited, which estimates a profit of £52,876 from orders in hand for 100,000 tyres and 100,000 bands or tubes, states that "the orders above referred to include one from the Scott's Standard Tyre Company for 20,000 non-collapsible tubes."

It seems to us to be now of urgent importance that the directors of the Scott's Standard Company and the directors of the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company should explain distinctly to which Company, if to either, the undertaking of the Cooke's Detachable Tyre has reallv been sold. Although only £25,341, instead of£190,0(0, were subscribed by the public to the Scott's Standard Company, the shareholders are more than 250 in number, the majority of whom seem to be persons of snail means, who could ill afford to lose their little investment of £100, or £50, or even £25. The applicants, if sny, for ehares in the Non-Collapsible Company will probably be of the same class. The Companies Acts, as at present interpreted, afford to such persons little or no protection. They can rarely be brought together for their own protection, and are thus often left until too latj altogether in ignorance of the real state of affairs with the adventures in which they have been induced to risk their money. In the case of the Scott's Standard and NonCollapsible Tyre Companies it is to be hoped that the required explanations will be immediately forthcoming.

The tangle of this perplexing series of companies is as remarkable as the exceedingly small substratum of capital which hitherto the vendor companies have possessed. Thus, Cooke's Detachable Tyre Company was registered on January 3, 1893, with a nominal capital of £2,000, to buy the Cooke patent for £1,000, and the purchase price was afterwards reduced to £rt00. Up to January 13 last £800 of the capital had been paid up and £1,200 issued, as "agreed to be considered as paid up." The shareholder were Thomas Cooke, of 40 Brunswick Square, surgeon, £150; Mrs. Aglae Helene Edine Cooke, £971: J. R. Starley, £250; Edward Allday, Edgbaston, £75; Raoul de Manin, £75; Edward Knight, Brunswick Square, £100, and Gustave de Manin, £200. The Automatic Puncture Closing Band Company was not registered until October 6 last, and the agreement provides that the capital of the Company shall not exceed £1,000, which was the price to be paid to Mr. Thos. Duffell Bell if he prepared forthwith a complete specification of his invention and if and when he obtained Letters Patent thereof.


December 12, 1896, Page 906

We have received the following communication from the secretary of the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company, Limited, in response to our suggestion last week of an explanation:—-

"The Scott Company entered into an agreement in May last for the purchase of the Cooke license and patents—-for protective purposes only—-proceedings being threatened by the Dunlop Company in relation to the Scott license. The directors of the Scott Company, believing that their rights under the Scott license were unassailable, in October last agreed to transfer for a very large sum of money the benefit of the Cooke license and patents to the Non-Collapsible Company, and the purchase has this day [December 10] been completed.

"The Cooke license and patents are now, therefore, the absolute property of the Non-Collapsible Company, which, however, has no connection with the Scott Company. The situation, then, is: The Scott Company retains Us Scott rights, and, not longer requiring the Cooke rights, it has sold them to my Company. The order given by the Scott Company for 20,000 inner Non-Collapsible tubes formed no part of the bargain for the sale of the license and patents."

---end

An American patent granted to Granville Cooke.

Publication number US535978 A
Publication type Grant
Publication date Mar 19, 1895
Filing date Dec 11, 1894
Inventors Granville H. E. Cooke
Export Citation BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
Referenced by (2), Classifications (1)

One of Cooke's criminal convictions.

GRANVILLE HAWLEY EGERTON COOKE, Deception > fraud, 25th April 1898.

Reference Number: t18980425-332
Offence: Deception > fraud
Verdict: Guilty > pleaded guilty
Punishment: Imprisonment > hard labour
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332. GRANVILLE HAWLEY EGERTON COOKE (26) , Unlawfully obtaining from Caroline Galloway and others postal orders for £5 5s. and other sums, by false pretences. Other Counts.—For obtaining credit by false pretences, having been convicted at this Court on July 12th, 1896.

MESSRS. BODKIN, BIRON, and PERCIVAL CLARKE Prosecuted, and MR. RANDOLPH Defended.

The prisoner withdrew his plea, and PLEADED GUILTY to the Counts for obtaining credit by false pretences, upon which the JURY found him GUILTY .*—He received a good character since his conviction at this Court.— Twelve Months' Hard Labour;

---end

A case in which Cooke was a victim and a prosecution witness, but the defendant testified that Cooke was part of a scheme to get quick information about the results of a horse race and then place a bet with a bookie.

ARTHUR SMYTHE, Deception > fraud, 8th March 1910.

Reference Number: t19100308-39
Offence: Deception > fraud
Verdict: Guilty > no_subcategory
Punishment: Imprisonment > no_subcategory
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SMYTHE, Arthur (48, billiard instructor), was indicted for that he did unlawfully conspire, combine, confederate and agree with certain persons giving the names W. Johnson, George Vane and J. Lees respectively by divers false pretences and subtle devices to obtain from Granville Hawley Egerton Cooke certain of his moneys with intent to cheat and defraud him thereof, and in pursuance of such conspiracy did unlawfully by false pretences obtain from the said Granville Hawley Egerton Cooke divers sums of money to the amount of £120 with intent to defraud, between January 18 and 25, 1910, in the City of London; and with a man giving the name of McGwin by divers false pretences and subtle devices to obtain from William Londesborough Towers certain of his moneys with intent to cheat and defraud him thereof, and in pursuance of such conspiracy did unlawfully by false pretences obtain from the said William Londesborough Towers divers sums of money and valuable securities to the amount of £500 and upwards with intent to defraud between April 27 and May 12, 1904; unlawfully by false pretences obtaining from the said Granville Hawley Egerton Cooke the sum of £15 on January 18, 1910, the sum of £50 on January 21, 1910, the sum of £25 on January 22, 1910, and the sum of £25 on January 25, 1910, and from the said William Londesborough Towers certain valuable securities, to wit, a banker's cheque for £100 on April 27, 1904, a banker's cheque for £50 on April 29, 1904, a banker's cheque for £20 on May 4, 1904, a banker's cheque for £128 2s. 6d. on May 10, 1904, and a banker's cheque for £150 on May 12, 1904, and from William Henry Thwaites 30s. on December 11, 1909, in each case with intent to defraud.

[...]

Verdict, Guilty.

Sentence, Four months' imprisonment, second division.

[TradeName]

Thanks for the summary, Jeff.

The 1874 "systematic investment" advertisements mentioned above seem to have been inspired by the "discretionary investment" ads run in 1871 by the firm of Walter and Balliee of Glasgow.

This book quotes from these 1871 ads:

A History of Advertising (London: Chatto and Windus, 1875), Pages 332-343
by Henry Sampson

The book has a summary of Walter's career.

Kingsclere (1896), link
Author: Porter, John, b. 1838; Webber, Byron
Subject: Horse-racing -- Great Britain; Horses
Publisher: London : Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly

Pages 322-323

It is due to the late Dr. Shorthouse [editor of the Sporting Times] to state that he
was the first to publicly prick the Kingsclere Discretionary
Investment bubble and to place the blower in the pillory
—-that, too, when journals which were paid large sums for
advertising Walter's nefarious scheme were investing
him with undeserved respectability by means of favourable
'opinions of the press.' In a reply to a letter which Mr.
Walter wrote 'to clear myself from the stigmas cast upon
me,' Dr. Shorthouse not only exhibited the swindler and
his fraudulent undertaking in their true light, but defied
him to take proceedings. He said, 'Mr. Walter's letter
was accompanied by one from a solicitor who demanded
an apology for a "scurrilous, slanderous, and libellous
attack, which had injured that gentleman in his good name
and character, and also in his business ;" and demanding
an "apology which shall be deemed by Mr. Walter sufficient,"
or in default threatening all sorts of pains and
penalties. We tell Mr. Walter frankly and most decisively
that he will get no apology from us. He may take his
case into any court he pleases, criminal or civil-—and the
former is delicately hinted at-—and we shall be happy to
meet him there ; and if he brings his decoy duck, Mr.
Beaumont, of Poultney Street, Bath, with him, we shall
be all the more pleased. We are especially desirous to
see that individual. Mr. Walter advertises a letter he
alleges he received from Mr. Beaumont, testifying to Mr.
Walter's "discretionary system," and we wrote to Mr. Beaumont
at the address given. Our letter was returned
through the dead letter office, endorsed "not known." '
There was no action.

His frauds exposed as 'Walter and Balliee,' Walter
continued his nefarious operations as 'Holland and Raine,'
'Wills and May,' 'Norton and Glover,' and under other
aliases. In August 1871, William Walter, of 6 Myrtle
Terrace, Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith, was brought
before Sir Thomas Henry, on a warrant obtained by the
Treasury, charged with keeping a betting office, and fined
100l., or in default 'six months.' He said he thought he
should be able to pay the fine. We then hear of him
decamping from La Marche, 'after winning a race valued
1,300 fr. and several thousands of francs in bets, with his
horses, not forgetting, however, to collect all moneys due
to him, but taking good care not to pass near Chantilly, to
settle the debts he had incurred there.' Even at that time
he was carrying on the old Discretionary Investment game
in Scotland under new aliases. In May 1875, at the
Central Criminal Court, an application was made to Mr.
Justice Archibald to admit to bail until next sessions the
two prisoners, William Henry Walter and Edward [Edwin?] Murray,
charged with conspiring together, with others not in
custody, to obtain large sums of money from persons
residing abroad by means of alleged assurances against
Turf losses. Bail was granted, Walter 4,000l., his own
recognisances and two sureties of 1,000l. each or four of
500l each ; Murray 500l., his own recognisances of 300l.
and two sureties of 100l each. On June 9, at the next
ensuing sessions, the two prisoners were called upon but
failed to appear. Their recognisances were estreated, and
a Bench warrant granted for their apprehension. After
evading the police for no less than five years, Walter was
arrested on another charge, under the name of Lewis, and
tried by Mr. Justice Denman. He was described as
William Henry Walter, 'labourer,' well dressed, and 29
years of age, and was charged with forging, altering, and
uttering a cheque for 905l., with forging and uttering other
cheques for smaller sums, and money orders. Mr. Justice
Denman, in passing sentence, addressed the prisoner at
great length, and stated that the facts disclosed a deliberate
and long-continued system of accomplished and wholesale
fraud. Walter was sentenced to penal servitude for a term
of twenty years.

---end

The case where Walter jumped bail is the case involving the Turf Scandal figures Kurr and Benson.

HARRY BENSON, WILLIAM KURR, CHARLES BALE, FREDERICK KURR, EDWIN MURRAY, Deception > forgery, 9th April 1877.

Reference Number: t18770409-391
Offence: Deception > forgery
Verdict: Guilty > with recommendation; Guilty > with recommendation
Punishment: Imprisonment > penal servitude; Imprisonment > penal servitude; Imprisonment > no_subcategory; Miscellaneous > no_subcategory

391. HARRY BENSON (29), alias Yonge, alias Brooks, alias Morton, dx ; WILLIAM KURR (25), alias Gifford; CHARLES BALE (30), alias Jackson, alias Gregory; FREDERICK KURR (23), alias Collings, alias Alfred Montgomery ; and EDWIN MURRAY (32), alias Wells, alias Monroe , were indicted for feloniously forging a warrant or order for the payment of 10,000l., with intent to defraud. Second Count—for uttering the same with the like intent.

MR. SOLICITOR-GENERAL. with MESSRS. BOWEN and MCCONNELL, conducted the Prosecution; MR. WILLIS, Q.C., with MR. HORACE AVORY, appeared for Benson; MR. SERGEANT PARRY, with MR. J. P. GRAIN, for William Kurr; MR. STRAIGHT for Bale, MR. BESLEY for Frederick Kurr, and MR. MONTAGU WILLIAMS for Murray.

[...]

BENSON, WILLIAM KURR, BALE, and FREDERICK KURR— GUILTY on the forgery counts.

MURRAY— GUILTY as accessory after the fact.

Benson also PLEADED GUILTY to having been previously convicted at this Court in July, 1872.

The prosecutrix recommended the prisoners to mercy.

BENSON— Fifteen Years' Penal Servitude.

WILLIAM KURR, BALE, and FREDERICK KURR— Ten Years' Penal Servitude; MURRAY— Eighteen Months' Imprisonment.

The costs of the prosecution, after being taxed, to be paid by the prisoners.


---end

In this case, and in the trail of the detectives, Walter is referred to as "Walters."

A notice of Walter's 1880 arrest.

Truth, Volume 7, February 19, 1880, Page 324

Walters, who absconded from his bail four years ago
when charged with a Turf fraud, has now been arrested on
a charge of forgery under another name. It was a matter
of notoriety, at the time of the trial of Druscovitch and
Meiklejohn at the Old Bailey, that Walters could often be
seen parading Fleet-street, and it was believed that the police
had good reasons for not arresting him. I hope that the
matter will be inquired into, and that, if any collusion can be
proved against the police, there will be a rigid prosecution.

---end

WILLIAM HENRY WALTER, Deception > fraud, Deception > forgery, 22nd March 1880.

Reference Number: t18800322-317
Offences: Deception > fraud; Deception > forgery
Verdicts: Guilty > pleaded guilty; Guilty > pleaded guilty
Punishments: Imprisonment > penal servitude

317. WILLIAM HENRY WALTER (29) PLEADED GUILTY to feloniously uttering an order for the payment of 905l. with intent to defraud.

He also PLEADED GUILTY to uttering two other orders for 40l. and 90l. 10s. also to forging and uttering four other orders for 10l., 9l. 16s. 10d., 10l. and 9l. 16s.— Twenty Years Penal Servitude

---end

I don't know if Lloyd and Nicholson ads, which featured an endorsement from C. H. Montague Clarke, were connected to Walter or were from someone acting in imitation of Walter.

[Mayerling]

The trial of Druscovitch, Meikeljohn, Palmer, etc. was the infamous 1877 "Trial of the Detectives" that left Scotland Yard with a black eye for many years (Nat Druscovitch, Meikeljohn, and William Palmer (not the "Doctor from Rugeley" hanged in 1856) were leading detectives - Druscovitch was the Yard's big linguist, speaking six or seven languages, and sent on foreign trips for the Yard to the continent). They had been taking bribes from William Kurr and his partner (and the brains of the operation, con-man Harry Benson) covering up for Benson's scheme that defrauded foreign gamblers, including the French Countess de Goncourt. This was called the de Goncourt/"Turf Fraud" Scandal.

After spending seven years (rather than fourteen) in a British prison because he was cooperating - like Kurr - in testifying at the 1877 trial, Benson was released, and left to the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere. He continued his con games, and was arrested in New York City for one, but was going to be extradited to Mexico for fraudulently collecting money for the "tour" of Madame Adelina Patti (Benson said he was her agent). Not wishing to spend years in a Mexican prison (which was worse than an American or British one), Benson flung himself over a balustrade at the New York Tombs prison and killed himself in 1888.

Jeff

[TradeName]

Returning to Charles Montague Clarke, who brought suit against a Hackney tobacconist for reporting him to Scotland Yard as a JtR suspect, and who was later convicted in the literary fraud case, here are excerpts from an 1874 advertisement which features a testimonial letter purportedly from Clarke. Clarke, apparently, was excited to invest his money by letting some guys, "Lloyd and Nicholson," bet it on horse races.


Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin, Ireland), Friday, April 17, 1874

[Advertisement:]

OPTIONAL
SYSTEMATIC INVESTMENTS

THE ONLY SUCCESSFUL METHOD OF BACKING HORSES

[...]

Loss of Deposit Stake guarnteed against, winning literally
being a certainty.

OPTIONAL SYSTEMATIC INVESTMENTS,
Devised and promoted by
Messrs. LLOYD and NICHOLSON
Proprietors of the North British Turf Commission Agency,
and of the Private Racing Advice Guide:
(Members of the London West-End and City Clubs,
Newmarket and Doncaster Subscription Rooms,
&c., &c.)
Actual and responsible Proprietors and Conductors

CHIEF OFFICES
23 Jamaica-street, Glasgow
N.B.

BANKERS
The Bank of Scotland
and its Branches

[..]

LEADING FEATURES
1.--Absolute and guaranteed security of capital invested.
2.--Weekly Rendition of amount won during the week,
less only 5 per cent. commission.
3.--Return of capital invested, free of all deductions, at
24 hours notice.
4.--Winnings remitted to Investors on the Monday following
the Race Meeting at which the "The Optional Systematic
Investments" have been in operation.

OBJECTS
Established with a view of providing a safe and profitable
medium for realising money by Investments on the Turf
without the possibility of a loss being entailed by the
Investor, thereby rendering the "Optional Systematic Turf
Investments" the most successful class of Turf sepculations
extant. During their fourteen years' experience the
Proprietors have specially studied to reduce Turf Investments,
by systematic speculation, to a certainly of winning without
the chance of a loss arising, and so thoroughly have they
revised, improved, and matured the working of "The
Optional Systematic Investments" (of which they are the originators)
that if before they had not attained the height of
perfection, they have done so now and in the ensuing season
they can safely promise to positively excel the brilliant
successes of 1873.

DEPOSIT AMOUNTS
Received for investment in this infallible and unerringly
success method of Turf Speculation:-
£5, £10, £25, £50, £100, or £500.
5 PER CENT. COMMISSION DEDUCTED FROM ALL WINNINGS

[...]

EXTRACTS FROM TESTIMONIALS

[...]

FROM C. H. MONTAGUE CLARKE, A.M., LL.D.
13 Paternoster-row, London,
13th March, 1874

GENTLEMEN--Please invest the enclosed amount by means
of your "Optional Systematic Investment" at the Bristol
Meeting held next week. I was not aware that you would
have commenced operations at Aylesbury, or would have
forwarded enclosed earlier.

Once more thanking you for the careful attention you have
shown to my interests in the past, expressing my high
appreciation of your upright and legitimate dealing and hoping
the same success may this season attend my investments as
did last,

Believe me to remain,
Yours truly,
C.H. MONTAGUE CLARKE A.M., LL.D.

[...]

---end

On the same page there is another ad in a similar vein from a rival firm called "Adamson and Read." At the 1877 Scotland Yard Turf Scandal trial in 1877 prosecution witness William Kurr testified that he was "Adamson."

JOHN MEIKLEJOHN, NATHANIEL DRUSCOVICH, WILLIAM PALMER, GEORGE CLARKE, EDWARD FROGATT, Miscellaneous > perverting justice, 22nd October 1877.

Reference Number: t18771022-805
Offence: Miscellaneous > perverting justice
Verdict: Guilty > no_subcategory; Guilty > with recommendation; Not Guilty > unknown
Punishment: Imprisonment > no_subcategory

805. JOHN MEIKLEJOHN (38), NATHANIEL DRUSCOVICH (37), WILLIAM PALMER (43), GEORGE CLARKE (60), and EDWARD FROGATT (35), were indicted for Unlawfully conspiring with William Kurr, Harry Benson, and others to obstruct, defeat, and pervert the due course of public justice. Other counts varying the manner of stating the charge.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, THE SOLICITOR GENERAL, MR. GORST, Q.C., MR. COWIE, and MR. BOWEN conducted the Prosecution.

MR. MONTAGU WILLIAMS , with MR. WALTER BALLANTINE, appeared for Meiklejohn; MR. STRAIGHT for Druscovitch; MR. BESLEY, with MR. J. P. GRAIN, for Palmer; MR. EDWARD CLARKE, with MR. CHARLES MATHEWSM, for Clarke; and MR. COLLINS, Q.C., with MR. HORACE AVORY and MR. HENRY KISCH for Froggatt.

[...]

WILLIAM KURR . [...]in the month of June, 1874, I paid Meiklejohn 200l. in all; 100l. was sent by post, and the other I took to him—-the first 100l. was sent on the 13th. and the other I gave him on the 17th—-that was for giving me information while I was in Glasgow, where I had opened a spurious betting agency in the name of Adamson—-it was called "The Discretionary Investment Society"—-Meiklejohn was to let me know when they received any complaints at Scotland Yard—-that society lasted about three months[.]


[...]

MEIKLEJOHN, DRUSCOVICH, PALMER, and FROGGATT— GUILTY . Druscovich and Palmer were strongly recommended to mercy by the Jury on account of their long service. — Two Years' Imprisonment each.

CLARKE— NOT GUILTY .

Before Robert Malcolm Kerr, Esq.

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The 1874 ad says the Adamson firm was called "Adamson's Systematic Investments," not the "Discretionary Investment Society."