 Chapter 9 of Survivors Tales of Famous Crimes. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Anne Boullet. Survivors Tales of Famous Crimes, edited by Walter Wood. Chapter 9 The South End Murder. Just before Christmas, 1894, James Cannon Reed was hanged at Chelmsford Jail for the murder of a young woman named Florence Dennis at South End. Reed was a married man with a large family and occupied a respectable position in life, and these circumstances, among others, gave special interest to the crime. Reed was a striking example of the dangerous man who led a double life and lured so many women to destruction. He had become entangled with a married woman, and through her had made the acquaintance of her sister, Florence Dennis. This girl, very shortly expecting to become a mother, was taken by Reed to a lonely spot and murdered. He fled, but was subsequently arrested, tried and condemned. The case being one of circumstantial evidence, great importance was attached to the identification of Reed as the murderer, and vital testimony on this point was given by Mr. Robert Douthwaite, who was at that time carrying on his business as an umbrella manufacturer at Priddlewell. Mr. Douthwaite's story of the mystery is told herewith. A mid-summer Sunday evening and a few minutes after ten o'clock, the day is over, and I have been down to the shore and have walked back towards my home at Priddlewell. I am now going back in memory for more than twenty years, and that means many inevitable changes. We are on the spot where I first saw Reed and his victim, not knowing or suspecting in the least who they were, or what was soon to happen when I observed them approaching me on the country highway. Twenty-one years ago this locality was quaint and rural. There were hedges and meadows and cornfields, where terraces of houses are standing now, but I can still point out the places where I saw the pair walk briskly on towards me, arm in arm, and where, a few hours later, the body of a murdered expected mother was discovered in a ditch or little brook. Are they a courting couple? Not exactly. Married? Evidently not. Talking politics? Well, no. Something serious on hand? Yes, it looks like that. They pass me exactly here, so far as I can remember, though at that time this neighborhood was quite contrived. The man's face is lowered and invisible, but there is something about him and his companion which makes me turn, observingly. I look round and watch them as they continue their walk for a distance of about forty yards. I can see them quite clearly, and I notice that the man wheels the woman round to the right, and that they go through some railings into a field. I do not quite know what it is that impels me to keep a sort of watch upon them, but I do so, and stroll to an adjacent gate to continue observation until the couple disappear down a slope that leads to a small brook in the hollow. That is all for the present. I go home and to bed, and for the time being the matter is forgotten. On the afternoon of the next day, from my shop, I saw a few of my neighbors intently watching something lower down the street. I step across to them to inquire as to the object of their curiosity, and soon heard that it was the dead body of a young woman on a stretcher. I went over to the spread eagle inn, where the body had been taken, and asked where it had been found. The information I received shocked me and strengthened a suspicion which had come into my mind. My feelings must have betrayed me, for within half an hour a policeman came into my shop to see me. As a result of that visit, I gave to the police, at their request, a description of the clothing of the young woman I had seen walking with the man. And this description proved to be so accurate that when I saw the actual clothing, I had no difficulty whatever in identifying it as having been worn by the girl I had seen on the previous evening. An inquest was held at the spread eagle, and the fact was soon established that the girl had been murdered by the firing of a shot at her head, and that death must have been instantaneous. A glove had been found on the bank of the brook by a local minister, Mr. Chandler. And the body itself had been discovered by a boy named Rush. At an early stage, the name Reed became associated with the mystery, and when I was called at the inquest, a photograph of him was produced. But I declined to identify any photograph, and on that account, the coroner declared that my evidence was valueless. At the suggestion of the police inspector, however, he allowed me to give evidence, and I stated that although I did not see the man's face, I thought I could identify him in person. Subsequently, when Reed had been arrested, I was able to carry out my identification in a remarkable manner. We can deal with the general facts later. Meanwhile, I may say that Reed had been taken into custody at Mitchum on suspicion by Detective Martin and brought to Southend, where I was called upon to identify him. I felt the responsibility of the task, which was not an easy one. Here was the life of a young man at stake, for Reed was only in the early thirties, and I had met him at ten o'clock on a midsummer night without seeing his face. But I had no misgiving as to the result of my test. We selected a room in the police station yard, and there I waited with a police officer. I was told that a number of men would be brought along past the room, and was asked to have a notebook and a pencil ready for use, and to number the men one, two, three, and so on as they passed down the yard. My instruction being that if I identified any one man, I was to put a cross to the number. Six men passed the room and went down the yard, all duly numbered in my notebook. After they had passed the door of the room, the police officer and I stepped to the doorway and had a back view only of each man. I heard the footfall on the hard floor of number seven approaching me, and at once recognized it. For to my own surprise, the tramp of number seven's feet had been registered on my brain, but this peculiar fact was not brought out in evidence. I had accomplished what I had undertaken to do, which was that, while I would not swear that the man in custody was the one I had seen with the woman, I would pick him out without seeing his face from a thousand men arranged in any way they thought fit. This statement became fairly common knowledge at the time, and a writer in the now dead London Echo, who signed himself as an ex detective of 25 years standing, characterized my confidence as ridiculous, but I knew better than he did, and I forgave him. After the investigations by the coroner's jury and before the magistrates, Reid was sent for trial, which took place at Chelmsford and lasted four days. A terrible story was unfolded by the crown, represented by the Solicitor General, Sir Frank Lockwood, QC, Mr. Gill and Mr. Guy Stevenson, the prisoner being defended by Mr. Cawke, QC, and Mr. Warburton. There were two charges against Reid, the first that of stealing £160 from his employers, the London and India Joint Docks Committee, and the second that of the willful murder of Florence Dennis. To the charge of theft, Reid at once pleaded guilty, but that, though it concerned the main charge, was a mere trifle compared with the trial for his life, which began as soon as he had pleaded guilty to the lesser offence. It is not easy to compress such a long story into short compass, yet it is not hard to give an outline of the main facts, which were these. The girl with whom I saw Reid walking was Florence Dennis, and she was only 23 years old. In a few weeks she would have become a mother, owing to Reid's conduct. At the very moment when I saw them, the man, as the evidence showed, had murder in his heart. It was all planned, and apparently had been carefully rehearsed. He had in his pocket a loaded revolver. He must have had previous knowledge of the scene of the crime, and of this occluded bush-covered brook. He had taken, as he supposed, all possible precautions against discovery and identification. Yet I myself, a mere casual Sunday evening stroller and a total stranger, was to become a strong link in the evidence that condemned him. After I so carefully noticed them, the pair walked down to the hedge and threw the meadow. Then it was that the murderer stealthily withdrew his weapon from its hiding place, quickly put the muzzle to the poor girl's temple, and pulled the trigger, killing her instantly. Dreadful is the picture that comes into the imagination. The desecration of the glorious and peaceful Sunday evening, the deliberate ferocity of the man, his mad determination to try and hide the traces of his crime, by forcing the corpse through the hedge and into the deep ditch. He carried out his principal purpose, but there fell upon the path, the tell-tale glove, which led to the discovery of the body, doubled up, showing the frenzy force with which it had been pushed or thrown through the hedge. The body of the murdered girl was brought away, and it seemed as if the mystery of the crime might never be unraveled, but Florence Dennis had a married sister named Mrs. Eris, and with this woman, Dread had been for a long time conducting an illicit intercourse. It was through Mrs. Eris that he got to know the younger sister. With him for a long time also, he kept up a clandestine and immoral acquaintance. Florence Dennis had been living at Shuberiness and in the South End District, and Dread had been corresponding with and visiting her. This Mrs. Eris knew, so that when Florence disappeared from her temporary home at Lee, she telegraphed to Dread, who by that time had resumed his work at the Royal Albert Dock, though he had arrived late at the office. Dread replied that he did not know the meaning of the extraordinary message, and that he had not seen and did not know anything of Florence. But he evidently realized that the hunt for the murderer had begun and that his life was in peril. To the credit of Mrs. Eris, it should be stated that, however much she had gone astray, she sank everything in her determination to bring her sister's murderer to justice. The police were communicated with, but it was not until July 7th that Dread was arrested in a little house at Mitchum. The murder had been committed on June 25th. His arrest brought to light another of his amours, for he was maintaining at Mitchum a young woman named Captain, whom he had casually met at Glaucister Road Station, and afterwards associated with her while still conducting his intrigues with Mrs. Eris and her sister. When the detective reached the Mitchum Cottage, Miss Captain herself came to the door, but there was Dread in the background, though he had done his best to disguise himself. The detective asked him if he was Dread and he denied the identity, but he was told that he would be arrested on the charge of murder and was taken into custody. A considerable sum of money was found hidden in the house, part of the proceeds of the 160 pounds which he had stolen from the office, when he knew that the hue and cry had started. In addition to the money, there was found in Dread's possession a report of the inquest on the murdered woman, giving the jury's verdict of murder by some person or persons unknown. It is a significant fact that this Mitchum address was not known to Mrs. Eris, and doubtless, when Dread fled to it for hiding, he thought that he was pretty safe. In addition to this, he had shaved and done his best to alter his appearance, amongst other things, changing his suit. When I first saw him, he was wearing a dark suit, but when he was arrested he was wearing a gray one. He was given the chance of donning the dark suit, but declined, for reasons well known to himself. In spite of this, I had no difficulty in identifying him when that point arose, because he had a gait and bearing that were unmistakable. The trial itself, which took place in November, had many painful elements, because it involved the calling as witnesses against him, among others, of the prisoner's brother and young daughter. The brother's testimony was important, because it related to the revolver with which undoubtedly the murder was committed. This unhappy man, he afterwards committed suicide, had been in a situation, but had been discharged for misconduct, and he had bought a revolver with the object, apparently, of taking his life and so putting an end to his troubles, but he had not carried out his purpose, and his brother, the prisoner, had got possession of the weapon and kept it at his house in Jamaica Road. One of the points of the daughter's evidence was that this revolver was kept in the house by her father, who had taken it from his brother with the object, doubtless, of preventing him from using it against himself. The brother figured largely in the case, and indeed he seems to have been considerably involved, for he was a party to deep duplicity so far as one or two of the unhappy women were concerned. There was in the case a good deal of secret correspondence into which one cannot go, and in this the brother was involved. He allowed himself to figure under a false name to further the accused man's evil ends. During four long days, the sordid story of a man's debauchery and woman's frailty was unfolded in the Assize Court, and bit by bit the link of evidence was forged against the man in the dock, who seemed as calm and unconcerned as anyone in the court. At last the forging was complete, the crown had done its work. What would the prisoner's counsel do? What did they do? Nothing. No witnesses were called for the prisoner, so the whole decision depended on what had been stated on behalf of the prosecution. When I was called upon at the Assizes to give evidence, I was playing a game of drafts with Reed's brother, whom I had close opportunities of observing. I was able also to get some knowledge of the accused man from his sister, a very pleasant and clever woman, who told me how greatly during the previous three years he had fallen off in his conduct. I gathered then that he was becoming something of the moral degenerate that he proved to be when standing his trial at the Assizes. After a long and most patient hearing, the jury were only 30 minutes in finding their verdict. They retired and came back into the court with a verdict of guilty. How well I remember that last scene. Just in front of me there was standing the husband of the woman who, like himself, had been so cruelly wronged, and it is not too much to say that he exalted in the verdict. On the other hand, one had to consider the wife and family of the doomed man in the dock and tried to realize what it all meant to them and their future. Reed was asked in the usual manner if he had anything to say why the sentence of death should not be passed upon him. Quite calmly, confronting the judge and speaking deliberately, he declared that he was innocent. He said that he had not seen the murdered girl for two years and that he had never handled a revolver in his life. And at the time of the murder, he was 50 miles from South End, an amazing declaration and view of the evidence given. But no protest availed him, no word of his was credited, and the judge, in cold, calm tones, sentenced him to be hanged. And the judgment of the law was carried out at Springfield Prison, Chelmsford, on December 5, 1894. Reed seems to have died as he had lived, cool, collected and calm, and lying to the last, for to the very end he declared that he knew nothing of the murder. In conclusion, I should like to say that at the time of this thing happening, I had not, nor have I had since, any fixed opinions about the crime. My duty as a citizen, though not pleasant, was easy and simple. I very carefully identified the prisoner, giving him every fair chance to save himself. That was my duty to the state, and I performed it. My experience in this case, was that the people who consider that they have the only right to express opinions, and of course, know all about the matter, are those who have not heard a word of the evidence, legally given, and do not hesitate to put fancy before fact. The realization of this state of things has been a lifelong lesson to me. End of Chapter 9, The South End Murder. On May 21 and 22, 1896, at the Central Criminal Court, before Mr. Justice Hawkins, a woman aged 57 years, described as a nurse, was tried for the willful murder of two infants, named Doris Marmon and Henry Simmons. This woman was the notorious Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, the baby farmer, who carried on her dreadful trade at Reading and elsewhere. She was condemned and was hanged in Newgate Prison on June 10, 1896. Her conviction was largely due to the efforts of ex-Detective Inspector J.B. Anderson, who was at that time a member of the detective branch of the Reading Borough Police. Inspector Anderson retired from the force in 1914, after more than 33 years' service, a fine record. In recognition of his very able work in connection with the Dyer case, Mr. Anderson was specially thanked by the Watch Committee of the Reading Corporation, and he and Sergeant James, who was associated with him, received checks, while later other presence were made to the Inspector, whose story of the famous crime is told herewith. Early in the spring of 1896, a barge was coming up the river between Renet's mouth and the Caversham Lock, about 400 yards from the Great Western Railway Station at Reading. As the craft proceeded slowly, the bargeman saw a brown paper parcel on the side, just above the water. At that particular place, the greater part of the river bank is a public recreation ground, and there is also Mr. Huntley and Palmer's Cricket Club Ground, and a field belonging to the same firm, so that the parcel was on a quite open area. At the side of the river is the towing path, which is very much used by pedestrians. Just at this point also, there was a shallow space about four feet wide between the towing path and the deep water, and it was on this shallow space that the parcel, which had apparently been thrown by someone from the towing path, was lying. The bargeman put his punt hook out and caught hold of the parcel. As he did so, the wet paper tore, and he saw that a tiny baby's leg was sticking out. The parcel was at once drawn to the bank, and the police were promptly acquainted with its discovery. Police Constable Barnett, he retired in 1915, was on duty in the district at the time, and the parcel was given to him. He took it to the police station on his back in a sack. I had entered the station just before Barnett arrived, and I accompanied him to the mortuary with the dead body of the baby. The parcel was unpacked with great care, and it was seen that the contents had been wrapped up in many sheets of paper, napkins, and other things. It seemed as if the parcel would give no clue to lead to anyone's identity, but the very last sheet of paper, that nearest to the body, bore the name and address of Mrs. Harding, 20 Wiggetts Road, Caversham, and a Midland Railway label with the address, Temple Mead Station, Bristol. When the last sheet of paper had been removed, there was revealed the corpse of the little child, a girl, with a piece of tape tied tightly round its neck, with the knot under the left ear showing the case at once to be one of murder. I still have the tape with other pieces like it used for the same purpose, and I keep as a relic to the addressed paper and label, which did so much in solving the mystery and bringing the murderess to justice. I may say here that the parcel had been undoubtedly thrown from the towing-path in the expectation that it would fall into the deep channel, but it had dropped on the shallow patch, and being in the water, it had not been easy or possible to reach it so as to cast it farther out. I set to work at once to make inquiries, and on the evening of the day on which the parcel was found, I learned that a Mrs. Harding had lived at 20 Piggots Road, for there was no Wigots Road at Caversham, but that she had removed to some address in the neighborhood of Oxford Road, Reading. I discovered that there had been a Mrs. Harding in that locality where she had lived with her daughter and son-in-law, a young man named Arthur Ernest Palmer, but that they had left and were supposed to have gone to London. These somewhat fruitless inquiries, as they might seem to be, are only part of the day's work of a detective, and I was by no means discouraged. I continued my investigations and found that Mrs. Harding had been living at 45 Kensington Road, Reading, and now I made what proved to be an important discovery, for I ascertained that the woman had been seen leaving Kensington Road, carrying a carpet bag on the morning of the day after that on which the little body was found in the parcel by the barge man. I was able to learn a good deal about the movements of Mrs. Harding at Caversham, and to find out that she had been in the habit of adopting children. It was necessary to proceed with great care and caution, and to take special steps to learn what had been done, and with this end in view I took into my confidence a young woman whom I instructed to call at the House of Mrs. Harding with the purpose of getting acquainted with her movements. I posted up the young woman with the bogie excuse that she had been recommended to Mrs. Harding by a friend in London whose name she was not allowed to mention, with the object of arranging that Mrs. Harding should adopt a baby and that the necessary arrangements should be made for the infant's removal. The young woman went to the House and was told that Mrs. Harding had not returned, but in her stead she saw an old lady of about seventy who was known as Granny Smith. I shall have something to say about Granny later on. Granny Smith was told that the young woman had come from London to see Mrs. Harding and that she was disappointed because she had not met her. If you will arrange to see Mrs. Harding," said Granny, I'll have her sent for, and an appointment was made for two days afterwards because Mrs. Harding would be absent for that period of time. So far so good. At the time agreed upon, the young woman returned to Kensington Road and met Mrs. Harding, who was at once anxious to know who had recommended her. This inquiry was satisfactorily answered, and after some discussion it was agreed that Mrs. Harding should adopt a baby and receive with it the sum of one hundred pounds. It was made clear to Mrs. Harding that the mother of the infant would not wish her name and address to be given. What time shall it be brought? the young woman asked. You had better come to-morrow evening after dark, was Mrs. Harding's answer. At the appointed time, Sergeant James, who is now a retired inspector, and myself were waiting in the new inn, Oxford Road, for developments, and in due course we were at the door of Mrs. Harding's house. Now it was that Mrs. Harding revealed her real identity, for when we called and made ourselves known and began to inquire as to the parcel which had been found on the towing path bearing the name and address of Mrs. Harding, she said that her name was Mrs. Dyer and not Harding. With regard to the parcel she could offer no explanation, except that no doubt she had put it into the dustbin in the usual way with other rubbish. We began to make a close examination of the place, and in a cupboard under the stairs we found a very important clue, a quantity of baby's clothing, and we noticed a most unpleasant odor as if some decomposing substance had been kept there. Doubtless, as subsequent events showed, the body of a little child had been concealed in this cupboard for some days before being taken out and disposed of. As the result of these inquiries, Mrs. Dyer was arrested and taken to the Reading Police Station, where, as soon as she got the opportunity to do so, she tried to strangle herself with her bootlaces, but the attempt did not succeed. After being brought before the magistrates, Mrs. Dyer was remanded. Meanwhile, I went to London and traced the daughter and son-in-law to 76th Mayo Road, Willisdon, while Sergeant James returned to Mrs. Dyer's house and interviewed Granny Smith again. He noticed that there was in the house a little lad named Thornton and a girl about twelve years old, children who had been taken charge of by Mrs. Dyer in the course of her business. Further search by him brought to light the vaccination papers of a child who had been born at Hammersmith, but it was clear that the child had not been vaccinated because the papers had not been sent in. The child referred to was a little girl, and the body which had been taken from the parcel was that of a little girl. But as the ages of the children were not the same, it was reasonable to suppose that there had been more than one case of murder. The polymers had become seriously involved, and the Chief Constable sent me and Sergeant James to London on the following day to arrest them. But I decided before doing so to trace the origin of the child which had been born at Hammersmith. Inquiry at the registrar's showed that the birth had taken place at a midwife's house, where the mother had been received for the Echouchement. We discovered that the mother, who was a single woman, had handed the child over to Mrs. Harding in reply to an advertisement which Mrs. Harding had inserted in a newspaper. When the child was fetched by Mrs. Harding, she was accompanied by a young man with auburn hair and mustache, who carried the baby's clothing and feeding bottle. The description given of the young man corresponded with that which had been furnished of Palmer. In the company of a London officer, Sergeant Bartley, we went to Mayo Road again, and there saw Mr. and Mrs. Palmer. The man denied all knowledge of the affair, but we had the mother of the child with us, and she immediately identified him as the man who had come with Mrs. Harding to take it away. For the purposes of our case, we treated the child which had been found at Reading as the child in question, and I accordingly arrested Palmer and charged him with being an accomplice of Mrs. Harding, or, as she was now, improperly known, Mrs. Dyer. On the way to the police station, Mrs. Palmer, who was a young woman in the early twenties, walked with me, and I pointed out to her the seriousness of her position. She then volunteered the statement that on the evening of the day after the body of the child was found at Reading, her mother came to her house, bringing with her a baby. The Palmers were occupying only two rooms in Mayo Road, a sitting-room and a bedroom, and the sitting-room was given over to Mrs. Dyer. Mrs. Palmer put her own child to bed, and on returning to the sitting-room she found that the child which her mother had brought with her had been placed on the floor, under the couch, and that Mrs. Dyer was sleeping on the couch. On the following day they went together to Paddington Station, whereby, by appointment, they met a woman under the clock and received from her another baby, which they took to Mayo Road. On that night, she, Mrs. Palmer, was putting her own child to bed, her mother being again left in the sitting-room, with the baby that had been received at Paddington. Mrs. Palmer further said that again Mrs. Dyer slept on the couch, and the baby was placed under it on the floor. The next evening, the Palmers accompanied Mrs. Dyer to Paddington Station, the man helping his mother-in-law to carry a carpet bag, as they saw Mrs. Dyer safely into the 915 train for Reading having the bag with her. That bag, which was subsequently found in the river, contained the murdered bodies of the two infants, who on two successive nights had been placed on the floor of the sitting-room under the couch, on which Mrs. Dyer slept. Each had been murdered in the same way, by tying a piece of tape around the neck and so producing strangulation. Mrs. Palmer was taken to Westburn Park Police Station, and Palmer was conveyed to Reading, where he was charged as an accomplice and remanded. Further search at Mrs. Dyer's house brought to light numerous letters from mothers who had entrusted their little children to her, and these inquiries concerned, amongst others, a little boy named Henry Simmons and a little girl of the name of Doris Marmon. We were enabled to trace the parents of these two infants. No trace of the carpet bag having been found on the railway, it was assumed that the bag had been thrown into the river. Dragging operations were undertaken and resulted in the finding of the bag with the bodies in it, and these were afterwards the subject of the charge which ended in Mrs. Dyer's execution. Little by little the case was completed. Palmer himself was discharged because there was not enough evidence to establish his complicity in the matter, and his wife, though committed for trial on the coroner's inquisition on the charge of murder in respect of another child, was acquitted at the Berkshire Assizes, the grand jury on the judge's direction, having returned no true bill against her. This narrowed down the case to Mrs. Dyer, who was committed for trial at the central criminal court for the murder of Doris Marmon and Henry Simmons. By that time, of course, the whole of the case was completed. It had been a long and laborious matter, but little by little the woman's movements had been traced, and her guilt established. One of the most important points that had been proved was that Mrs. Dyer was seen by a warder at Reading Prison coming from the direction of the river Thames about ten minutes to eleven o'clock on the night when she had been seen off by the 9.15 train from Paddington. And as this train was due at Reading soon after ten o'clock, it was very suggestive to us that she had come off that train and had gone straight down to the river and thrown the bag in, after which she went home and was returning from her errand when the warder saw her. To get back to Granny Smith, we discovered that Mrs. Dyer had lived at Bristol where she had adopted a number of children. The Bristol police had had a considerable amount of correspondence in relation to her, and it was found that amongst the children who had been adopted was the illegitimate child of a woman who afterwards married the father. After the wedding, the parents became anxious about their child and wanted possession of it. But the child had disappeared and Mrs. Dyer became so harassed because of the urgent nature of the inquiries that she feigned madness and went to an asylum and afterwards to the workhouse. It was while she was in the latter institution that she met Granny Smith, and subsequently when she left she got Granny out of the workhouse and took her to Reading where the two women lived together. This was one of the many important circumstances which showed the deliberate nature of the dreadful trade that Mrs. Dyer had carried on for a long time. She had lived at several addresses, never staying long at any one of them because people were constantly writing and making inquiries about children. And to avoid discovery Mrs. Dyer disappeared and as a rule was lost sight of. Eventually she reached Reading the last of her scenes of operations. During the progress of the inquiries we had received an enormous number of letters from persons all over the country who had entrusted children to the woman's care. They were mostly servants who wrote, but in many instances no trace of the children could be found. No fewer than seven little bodies were found in the river at Reading, but only two could be properly identified and it was for the murder of these that Mrs. Dyer was found guilty and paid the penalty. The jury were only five minutes in arriving at their verdict. Mrs. Dyer's trial began just after the Muswell Hill murderers, Fowler and Milsom, had been condemned. I had been in court and had gone out. In my absence the two men were found guilty and there occurred that famous fight in the dock between them. But when I got back into the court the whole of the exciting scene was over. The Muswell Hill murderers and another man named Seaman were hanged together on the 9th of June and on the following morning Mrs. Dyer was executed. About four years after Mrs. Dyer's execution digging operations were carried on in the garden of a house in which she had lived at Bristol and human remains were found. Further excavations were made and these resulted in the discovery of the remains of about four children's bodies. Inquests were held, but nothing definite could be established, though there was no doubt as to what had taken place and the inquests were adjourned. I do not know the exact number of murders which this woman had committed on the helpless infants who had been given into her care. In every case with cash payment in a lump sum because she refused to take weekly or monthly amounts. But it was very large and there was proof enough to show that she had carried on her dreadful trade in a wholesale fashion. All the seven bodies which were found had tape tied round the neck in the same manner with a knot under the left ear and all seemed to be the work of the same person. It was significant too that when in Reading Prison Mrs. Dyer made the attempt to strangle herself with her bootlaces they were tied in exactly the same manner as the tape had been fastened with which the murdered children had been strangled. The extent of the baby farming operations was indicated by the immense number of children's garments which were found. A great quantity of these had been pledged with various pawnbrokers at Reading and many were identified by persons who had entrusted their children to Mrs. Dyer's care, but no trace of the children was ever found. There was a significant sequel to the trial and execution of Mrs. Dyer. More than two years afterwards, Palmer and his wife, who were living at an address in Oxfordshire, were charged at the Devon Quarter's sessions at Exeter with abandoning an infant girl three weeks old in a railway carriage at Newton Abbot. It was proved that an advertisement had appeared in a Plymouth newspaper offering to adopt a child and that, in answer to it, a woman who lived at Devonport arranged for her baby to be adopted by the two prisoners, who were paid fourteen pounds. When Mrs. Palmer got the baby and the money she left Plymouth by train and changed carriages at Newton Abbot. She put the baby under the seat of the carriage which was shunted and there the poor little mite, suffering greatly, remained until the next morning when its whales were heard by some shunters and it was rescued. The child had been stripped of all its clothing and was wrapped up in brown paper. The prisoners were found guilty and, most deservedly, each of them was sent to two years hard labour. End of Chapter 10 The Reading Baby Farmer Chapter 11 Of Survivors Tales of Famous Crimes This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Bill Mosley. Survivors Tales of Famous Crimes Edited by Walter Wood Chapter 11 The Mystery of Yarmouth Beach Chapter 11 The Mystery of Yarmouth Beach Mr. Justice Wills, in writing of the Yarmouth Beach Murder Case, described it as remarkable as showing how a small clue may lead not only to the identification of the culprit, but also to the detection of his motive and to the complete circumstantial proof of his crime. The body of a woman was discovered on the beach at Yarmouth. There was not the slightest doubt that she had been brutally murdered, for a mohair boot lace was tied tightly round the neck and had caused strangulation. The woman was a stranger to Yarmouth, and the only clue to her identity was a laundry mark, the number 599, on some of her linen. Eventually the murderer was arrested, tried, found guilty, and hanged. Photographic evidence was a very important feature of the trial, and Mr. Frank H. Sayers, artist and photographer of Yarmouth, was one of the principal witnesses in this respect. This is Mr. Sayers' story. Early on Sunday morning, September 23, 1900, I had been bathing in the sea, and had returned to my studio when I was told that it was being watched by detectives, both in front and behind. I had not the slightest idea that anything had happened, and it was not until the detectives saw me and asked me if I would go to the mortuary to photograph a corpse, that I learned that the body of a woman had been found on the beach, and that there was not the slightest doubt that she had been murdered. It is strange that I had not heard of the murder, for the body had been found at 6 o'clock, and in returning from the sea I had passed very near the place where it was discovered. Intense excitement had been created, but that was only the beginning of an excitement which spread throughout the country, and was scarcely equaled by any other crime committed during a very long period. The murder was so mysterious, the method of it was so exceptional, and there seemed so little possibility of ever capturing the murderer, that every necessary element was provided for an absorbing mystery. I had been often called upon to do strange photographic work, but I had never undertaken anything of this sort, and I may say now that the whole affair completely knocked the nerve out of me, and haunted me like a nightmare for many months. I told the police that I would do as they wished me to do, and accordingly I went to the mortuary and took photographs of the body. It was perfectly clear that the murder had been done. The face was disfigured, as if a heavy blow had been struck, and there was sand in the mouth and on the body. But most important of all, a mohair boot lace was tied around the neck, so tightly that it was almost buried in the flesh. The merriest examination showed that the woman herself could not possibly have tied the lace, and that it must have been done by someone else. Another significant circumstance was that the knot was a reef knot, which will not slip, and which is made as a rule, only by those who have some knowledge of the sea and ships. What the tying of the lace really meant will be understood when I say that the woman's neck measured nearly 10 inches round, while the lace was only a little more than 8 inches. Very great force and skill must have been used to get such a small length of lace into such a position. Once the reef knot was tied, there was no possibility of it slipping or becoming loose. The body was that of a young and not unattractive woman, well dressed, and with four or five rings on the fingers. I learned that when she was found, she was lying on her back on the South Beach, not actually on the sand, but on the coarse merrum grass which grows near the sea. Her hair was loose and disordered, and her hands, with the fingers tightly clenched, were by her side. Such struggling as there was must have been short and fierce. The mystery of the woman was as deep as the mystery of the crown. No one knew who she really was or where she came from. All that was known of her was that she called herself a widow, that her name was Mrs. Hood, that she was a visitor to Yarmouth, and that she had with her a little girl about two years old. She gave her own age as 27 years. She had been lodging with some people named Rudrum in one of the rows for which Yarmouth is famous. No one came forward to claim or identify the body, which in due course was buried at Yarmouth as that of a practically unknown woman. The only thing which seemed likely to afford a clue to her identity was a law remark, the number 599. But for a long time nothing definite came to light, and at the end of about six weeks the coroner's jury were forced to return a verdict of murder by some person. A known. Meanwhile I had become acquainted with pretty nearly all there was to know about the woman, and that was just enough to make one long to know more. She had come to Yarmouth with her baby on September 15th and gone to her lodgings. A few days after her arrival a letter addressed to Mrs. Hood was received by her. It was written on bluish gray note paper and the envelope bore the Woolwich postmark. You will see how that letter which seemed an unimportant trifle helped to prove the identity of the murder, but for the time being nothing could be made of it. Another trifle which became important was a photograph of the woman and her baby taken on the beach. One of the familiar cheap type which is so common at some seaside places, but of its kind a very good thing. This photograph was discovered in the woman's room and showed that she was wearing a long old fashioned chain. She was wearing this chain and a silver watch when she left her lodgings for the last time, but they were not on the body. Not a trace of them could be discovered. Mrs. Rudrum saw the woman near the town hall after she had left her lodgings and she spoke to her. At that time the woman appeared to be waiting for someone. I necessarily became very closely acquainted with the circumstances of the case. And I saw that so far as identifying the dead woman went, nearly everything would depend on the laundry mark. The police took up this clue with great thoroughness and after exhaustive inquiries they found that such a mark came from a laundry at Bexley Heath and that the number had been used for the linen of a woman named Bennett who lived at Bexley Heath, a woman who had a baby. This customer of the name of Bennett proved to be the woman in the photograph which had been taken on the beach and the woman whose body I had photographed at the mortuary. Matters now began to move briskly and the case became more absorbing than ever owing to the arrest of a young man named Herbert John Bennett who was employed at Woolwich Arsenal. He was arrested on the charge of murdering the woman who was his wife. In answer to the charge he said that he had never been to Yarmouth but that assertion proved to be only one of a long series of reckless lies. Bennett was living in lodgings and these were carefully searched. A great step towards the solution of the beach mystery was the finding of a long chain and a watch in a portmanteau. These were identified as the chain and watch which were worn by Mrs. Bennett on the night of the murder. I had the chain in my possession for some time and took a photograph of it on a black background. In addition to this discovery it was found that Bennett had previously written to Yarmouth and had used the same sort of bluish-gray note paper which he employed when writing to Mrs. Hood for he was the writer of the letter bearing the Woolwich postmark. There was at last after many weeks patient investigation following up one clue after another often enough a clue of the slightest something tangible to work on and there was gradually unfolded a most remarkable and cruel case of murder. Bit by bit the links of the chain of evidence against the prisoner were forged until at last something like 40 witnesses had been got together to attend the trial at the central criminal court. In the ordinary way the trial should have taken place at the Norwich Assises but local feeling on the matter was so strong that it was considered desirable to hear the case in London and there the trial began towards the end of February 1901 before the Lord Chief Justice Lord Alverston. The trial lasted for six days. Day after day that awful business went on and the dreadful court, the atmosphere of which seemed positively poisonous, especially to a man living at the seaside, was packed by people who seemed to go just as they would have gone to a theatre. Cues were formed outside so that when anyone left the court the vacant place was taken instantly. I was sick and tired of the thing long before the end came and as I have told you the whole sorry business possessed me like a nightmare. The story which was gradually unfolded showed that Bennett married the woman when she was only 17 years old, she being about two years his senior. He had been taking music lessons from her. The marriage took place at a London registry office and was I believe a secret one. Bennett began badly and went on badly. He was soon ill-treating and threatening his wife and began to lead a double wife. In position he was nothing at all important, his occupation ranging from grocer's assistant to laborer. He was I believe a laborer at the arsenal when he was arrested. Yet he had considerable ability in some directions and managed to get hold of money by selling such things as sewing machines on commission. He cashed a check at Westgate once for more than 200 pounds, but how he got the check I cannot say. For some time after the marriage the two lived with Mrs. Bennett's grandmother and on the old lady's death the chain and watch passed to the prisoner's wife. After the child was born Bennett and his wife in the name of Hood, why they assumed a false name I don't know, went to South Africa. But after being there only a few days they returned to England where he continued to ill use and threaten the woman. They parted and she went to live at Bexley Heath while he had lodgings at Woolwich where he was working and where he passed as a single man. Though he sometimes visited his wife at Bexley Heath. Posing as a single man Bennett became acquainted with a young woman named Alice Meadows who was one of the witnesses and whose evidence showed how deliberately he had lied in many ways. He arranged to go to Yarmouth with her and wrote to Mrs. Rudrum asking for rooms for the August bank holiday, but she replied that she had no accommodation vacant. Bennett and the girl however went to Yarmouth traveling for his class and staying at a hotel where they occupied separate rooms. Proof of this visit showed that he was acquainted with Yarmouth despite his assertion that he had never been to the place. Afterwards he and the girl went to Ireland where they stayed a fortnight during which time Bennett spent money freely. The girl had not the least idea that Bennett was married. This fact she did not learn till he was arrested and she became engaged to him. He gave her a ring and on the understanding that the wedding was to come off at an early date she left her situation as a parlor mate. She was then employed at Bayswater. There was now a very strong motive for Bennett to get rid of his wife and he deliberately set to work to carry out his purpose. He planned and plotted with cool cunning, but with it all he made one or two of those fatal mistakes which have sent to the gallows so many murderers who might not otherwise have been discovered. The deadliest piece of evidence against him, in my opinion, was the chain and a great deal of the case for the crown depended upon proving that the chain found in Bennett's portmanteau and that which the photograph showed the woman to be wearing were one and the same. The main facts of this extraordinary crime were proved beyond all doubt. The prisoner having sent his wife to Yarmouth went there himself on Saturday, September 22 and doubtless when his wife was seen outside the town hall. She was waiting for him, that building being very near the station at which he would arrive. Bennett joined her for they were seen in a public house on the quay. Afterwards at about eleven o'clock a man and a woman who were seated in a hollow on the south beach observed another man and woman seat or lay themselves on the ground. Shortly afterwards the couple in the hollow heard cries of mercy, mercy and groans after which there was silence. There is not the slightest doubt that these cries were uttered when the murder was being committed and that it was Bennett who was strangling the woman. The actual circumstances attending the crime were evidenced by the appearance of the body when found. Circumstances which cannot be detailed but which went to prove the brutal character of the man who did the deed. Having maltreated and strangled the woman he hurried off and at about midnight reached the hotel where he had previously stayed. He was out of breath and greatly excited and said that he must catch the first train to London next morning. He spent the night at the hotel and left Yarmouth on the Sunday morning by a train which started at about seven o'clock. So the murderer was still actually in the town when the terrible discovery had been made on the beach. Almost as soon as Bennett got back to London he met Alice Meadows in Hyde Park and later on he gave her things which had belonged to his wife. He urged the girl to marry him and was doing this when he knew that all England was horrified and disturbed by the brutal and mysterious crime on Yarmouth Beach. Indeed the very day before he was arrested Alice Meadows sister said in his and her presence that it was strange that the Yarmouth murderer had never been heard of. This incident serves to show what a source of general conversation the beach murder mystery had become. Little did the two women realize that they were actually in the presence of the perpetrator of the crime. But to return to the trial I was one of the earliest witnesses to be called. Before I entered the box I was not of course allowed in court. But after I had given my evidence I was at liberty to remain and I did following the case point by point and watching the prisoner carefully. He knew perfectly well how much depended on the testimony regarding the chain and when I was in the box he looked at me malignantly. But my mind was quiet at rest and I steadily returned to his gaze. Great difficulty attended the explanation of certain technical points to those who knew nothing of photography. I had not the slightest doubt in my own mind that the chain shown in the photograph and that which was found in Bennett's possession were the same. Yet I was so greatly upset by the warning that a human life might depend on what I was saying that I might almost have wavered. A great deal was made of the fact that some parts of the chain were blurred and it was difficult to explain to the non-technical mind that the blurring was due to the movement caused by the breathing of the sitter during the exposure which in this case was about three seconds. There was however part of the chain in the lap and this being still was provable as being the chain found in the prisoner's bag apart from the fact that the chain had been broken and fastened with a piece of cotton. Nothing had been left to chance and in order that I might be better able to illustrate my meaning and prove my point I had to take the chain and photograph it while it was placed round girls' necks and was hanging down so that it would show how the blurring occurred and by way of more fully indicating the effect of movement, electric light was used. The prisoner was most ably defended by Mr. Marshall Hall and two other clever barristers and in spite of the deadly case which the crown presented against him there were some people who believed that the jury would return a verdict of not guilty. On one occasion when I left the court I heard a man say, he'll get off. It's a million to one against it I answered impulsively. I noticed that what I said was overheard by a man and a woman who were near me and seemed to be terribly distressed and well they might be for they were the prisoner's parents. I was of course in absolute ignorance of this fact but I have often deeply regretted that an involuntary remark of mine should have caused them pain. I never had the slightest doubt as to the result of the trial and I do not see how Bennett could have had any hope of an acquittal but nothing could be told from his demeanor. From first to last he never flinched and never showed any emotion which was quite in keeping with his character as revealed at the trial. He was thoroughly bad from start to finish and I do not suppose there was any disinterested outside person who was not relieved and thankful when the jury, after consulting for about 35 minutes, found him guilty. Bennett was apparently unmoved even at this dreadful stage and when he was asked if he had anything to say why he should not be sentenced to death he replied in that calm grave voice of his and quite firmly I say that I am not guilty sir. The Lord Chief Justice did not say much after he had assumed the black cap but he made it clear to the condemn man that he could not hope for mercy. I remember the Lord Chief Justice saying I will only say that after a career for which not much could be said you deliberately planned the death of this poor woman. In sending the murderer to the gallows his Lordship had to order that the execution should be carried out at Norwich prison as the murder had been committed in Norfolk. So Bennett was taken to the old cathedral city traveling along the line which he had used as a man with a planned murder in his mind and as a murderer hurrying away from the scene of his brutal crime. He had not shown mercy and he did not get it for he was duly hanged. He was buried of course in the prison yard so he is lying not many miles away from the cemetery where his wife was buried as a practically unknown woman. I do not know that Bennett made any confession but that was not necessary in view of the strength of the circumstantial evidence against him. And there were other things not generally known which removed any trace of doubt that might have lingered in the minds of anyone who was concerned in the case. The scene of the murder is more than a mile away from the railway station where Bennett took train after committing the crime but the actual spot has been altered so much that you could not recognize it. There is no longer the rough merrim grass on the sandy ground for that particular part of the South Beach has been turned into a delightful public garden. What of the reef knot and the baby? Well, as to the reef knot I believe Bennett had served in the marines in which case he would doubtless know how to tie one. As for the baby, she was adopted by the good and real friends who always come forward in a time of trouble. End of Chapter 11 The Mystery of Yarmouth Beach Recording by Bill Mosley Preilsburg, Texas U.S.A. Chapter 12 of Survivors' Tales of Famous Crimes This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Adam Marsatich, August 2010 Alexandria, Virginia Survivors' Tales of Famous Crimes Edited by Walter Wood Chapter 12 An Unsolved Mystery The Ardlemont Riddle For ten days the Lord Justice Clerk and a jury were occupied at Edinburgh in trying to unravel what was known as the Ardlemont Mystery, but their efforts failed, and the mystery remains unsolved and as impenetrable as ever. An army tutor named Alfred John Mosin was tried on the double charge of attempting to murder and of murdering a young militia officer named Windsor Dudley Cecil Hamburg at Ardlemont, Argelshire, where Hamburg had taken a mansion for the shooting season. The trial began on December 12, 1893 and finished on December 22 when the jury returned the Scottish verdict of Not Proven. A remarkable and mysterious figure in the case was a man named Scott, an alleged accomplice of Monson. Scott disappeared, and when the trial began he was called upon to present himself. Failing to do so, the judge passed upon him the sentence of outlawry. The story of the trial is particularly interesting because it is told from the narrative of Mrs. W. H. Keane, whom, in Pimlico, Scott, or Davis, as he called himself, lived for two years. More than twenty years ago, my husband and I occupied the house in Sutherland Street, Pimlico, part of which we let. The drawing-room floor was occupied by a family who called themselves Davis. Father, mother, and son. The son was about thirty years of age, thin, and five feet eight or nine inches in height. He had a long, clean-shaven face, with a shallow complexion, dark blue eyes, and dark hair. Altogether he was one of the nicest men you could meet. He lived with me for about two years, and I understood that he and his father were engaged in book-making, though it was given out that their actual occupation was picture-dealing. I say that the name was Davis, but apparently business was done in the name of Sweeney because, often enough, letters and telegrams came to the house addressed to Sweeney, and these were, by arrangement and instructions, delivered to the Davises. There was a daughter, but she does not come into the story, and there was another brother named George, who went by the name of Sweeney, and was a hall-porter at the Westminster Palace Hotel. The Davises had been called with me for the long time I have named, and I had never any reason to suspect that anything was wrong, certainly not with Ted, as young Davis was called, but on the morning of September 5th, 1893, Mrs. Davis came down to me crying bitterly. I said, What's the matter, Mrs. Davis? Oh, Mrs. Keen, she answered, Ted's gone away, and we shall have to give up the rooms. Don't worry, I said. He'll soon come back again. But I soon found that there was cause indeed for tears and trouble, and that Ted Davis had completely vanished. I learned that Mr. Wiggins, who had my top rooms, had carried Ted's boxes downstairs and put them in a little spring cart early in the morning. I was upset and puzzled, but never suspected that anything was seriously wrong until one night about a fortnight after Ted Davis had disappeared. A mysterious man came to see me and asked if I could tell him where Davis had gone. I said, No, for I had not the least idea in the world. Then the visitor asked if he could see me privately, and when he had entered the house, he began to talk about a matter that was then arousing intense public interest, the Ardlemont mystery. To my amazement, he told me that Ted Davis was wanted in connection with that strange affair. Then I knew that my mysterious visitor was a detective from Scotland Yard. He asked me what I thought about the case, and if I considered it likely that Davis was mixed up in it. Never, I declared, he has been in my house for two years and has always behaved as a perfect gentleman. Then the detective told me the extraordinary story of Ardlemont, the newspapers had been full of it, but I am afraid I was too busy to read the newspapers, and therefore did not know the circumstances until the detective acquainted me with them. I was to become familiar enough with them later on. The detective told me that Mr. Monson and Mr. Hamburg had gone out in a boat in Ardlemont Bay to fish. Davis, who was known as Scott, staying ashore, and that Monson had tried to drown Mr. Hamburg by drawing a plug and letting the boat fill with water. He told me too that next day, August 10th, it was, the three men left Ardlemont House to shoot two of them, Mr. Monson and Mr. Hamburg, each carrying a gun. The detective said that Mr. Hamburg had been shot dead in a wood near the house, and it was supposed that he had been murdered by Monson and Davis. Monson had been arrested, and Davis, as I shall call him, was wanted, but he had disappeared, and not a trace of him could be found. That was a story which was told me by the detective from Scotland Yard. I was quite frightened, I can assure you, especially when the detective told me that my house had been watched for some time. But nothing had been seen of either the going of Ted Davis or his parents, for by this time the father and mother also had left. They must have known that the police were on the watch and that their son was wanted. And I saw then that there was good reason for the terrible distress which Mrs. Davis showed when she came and told me that they would have to give up the drawing room floor. I soon learned that my husband and myself would have to be associated with the case much as we disliked being concerned with it. But the police explained that our evidence was necessary and that we had no option in the matter. So in due course a party of witnesses set out from London for Edinburgh, where Mr. Monson was to be tried, and I, for one, sat in court for ten full days and listened to the wonderful and patient attempts to unravel this terrible mystery which remains a mystery still. They were very long and trying days so that we were always thankful when we could get away to look round Edinburgh or rest quietly at the Temperance Hotel where we were staying. It was not until the sixth day of the trial that my husband and I were called. By that time more than fifty witnesses had given evidence for the prosecution. The story which was slowly told was very remarkable and, naturally enough, I was deeply interested in it as I knew so well one of the men who had become so singularly associated with it and had completely disappeared. The police searched for him friend and foe alike did their best to get at him and advertisements were put in the principal newspapers but Ted Davis never turned up. He had vanished. That was all that was known. I knew nothing about Mr. Monson personally but once I had seen Mr. Hamburg he was then talking with Davis in the street near my house. I did not know who he was but my husband explained his identity. I will tell you the story as it was built up in court. No speeches were made in the beginning. The tale was told gradually by the witnesses and when everything had been put before the jury counseled delivered their addresses and the Lord Justice Clerk summed up. The trial was remarkable because of the appearance of a large number of witnesses of a class who are not as a rule associated with murder trials and because of the revelations of many sordid details relating to a number of good class people. Mr. Cecil Hambrough was little more than a boy. He was the son of Major Hambrough a retired military officer and it was intended that he also should go into the army his mother hoping that he would join the guards. It was through an ex-army officer Mr. Brerys Ford L. Tottenham who had been a lieutenant in the 10th Hussars that Mr. Hambrough met Mr. Monson. That was in 1900 when Mr. Hambrough was only 17 years old. Mr. Tottenham was a financial agent and he had had dealings with the major. Mr. Monson also became acquainted with the major and the result was that it was arranged that Mr. Monson should have charge of young Mr. Hambrough as a tutor and train him until he passed into the army. It was arranged that Mr. Monson was to be paid 300 pounds a year for his services. The major was in serious financial straits and Mr. Monson made efforts to get him out of them but trouble arose between the two men and in consequence of the unpleasantness the major did all he could to get his son away from Mr. Monson's care. Mr. Monson at that time was living at Rizzley Hall near Ripley Yorkshire but these efforts were failures and Mr. Hambrough continued to live at Rizzley Hall with his tutor. There is no doubt that he was thoroughly enjoying life that he had plenty of money and that he had no wish to go and live with his father who was in rooms and in constant financial embarrassment. The major had got through a good deal of money but there was a large sum which could not be touched and to which Mr. Hambrough was entitled when he came of age. Mr. Monson himself was undoubtedly in a very bad financial state and, as a matter of fact, in 1892 he was declared a bankrupt. He seems to have set to work steadily to try and raise money on Mr. Hambrough's expectations but he failed. A great deal was said one way and another during the trial about financial matters and some curious things were revealed. It was largely the object of the prosecution to prove, of course, that the prisoner would benefit greatly by Mr. Hambrough's death but so far as the prisoner was concerned his counsel did his best to show that so far from Mr. Monson benefitting by Mr. Hambrough's death such a thing would be a real calamity to him because it would stop his source of income. Having failed in the direction named Mr. Monson made successful efforts to lease the shooting at Ardlemont for Mr. Hambrough. A lease was prepared and entered into by which Mr. Hambrough became the temporary tenant of Ardlemont House and there the young man went with Mr. and Mrs. Monson and their children. By that time Mr. Hambrough had become a lieutenant in the West Yorkshire Militia and it was expected that he would enter the regular army. As soon as Mr. Hambrough was comfortably in possession of Ardlemont House steps were taken to ensure him and two policies for ten thousand pounds each were taken out on his life and Mr. Hambrough promptly took steps for the payment of these large sums of money to Mrs. Monson in case anything happened to himself. It was at about this time entirely unknown to myself, of course, that Davis appeared at Ardlemont. He was taken to the House by Mr. Monson who introduced him as Scott explaining that he was an engineer who was going to inspect the boilers of a yacht which had been bought by Mr. Monson for Mr. Hambrough. Davis, as Scott, immediately became a member of the family party. He arrived at Ardlemont on August 8th and from that time events moved swiftly towards their tragic close. On the following night they started out on a fishing expedition in Ardlemont Bay. They had secured the use of a small ordinary fishing vessel with Annette and Mr. Monson and Mr. Hambrough went out in her but Davis remained ashore. What actually happened in the boat will not, I suppose, ever be known, but it was declared that Monson deliberately tried to bring about the boat by drawing a plug and letting her fill with water and in that way drowned Mr. Hambrough who could not swim though he himself could. At any rate the two men returned to Ardlemont House at midnight and it was then seen that they were drenched. The story told was that the boat had upset but that luckily both the occupants had escaped. It was a result of that sail in Ardlemont Bay that Mr. Monson was charged with attempted murder but a heavier and far more serious charge was to be made that of murder itself arising from the strange happenings of the following day. Soon after six o'clock on the morning of the tenth the party at Ardlemont House had begun what would, in any case, have been a long day. Mrs. Monson and the governess and the children went off to Glasgow for the day and soon afterwards the three men went out to shoot guns being carried by Mr. Monson and Mr. Hambrough but not by Davis. They were seen walking away from the house and passed out of sight and went into the wood to all appearances carrying out a little shooting expedition in just the ordinary way. Some time passed and then the household was thrown into a state of terrible commotion for Mr. Monson and Davis returned and Mr. Monson told the butler that Mr. Hambrough had been killed. The butler hurried away and tried to find the body but he could not do so. Then Mr. Monson went with him and they came across poor Mr. Hambrough lying on the top of a dyke to which he had been lifted from a ditch. A rug was got, help was summoned, and the dead man was carried to the house and a doctor sent for. Mr. Monson was badly upset and was crying but he did not seem to trouble much about the body. The story he told was that Mr. Hambrough had shot himself. The matter was summoned. He had to come some distance for Ardlemont is a lonely place and as a result of the information that was given to him he conducted that the affair was an accident but a few days later he was satisfied that the death was not brought about in the manner he had been led to suppose. Judging from the stories that were told in court by witnesses there used to have been a terrible and distressing time at Ardlemont House after Mr. Hambrough's body had been found and taken in. Davis was not long present and soon after the doctor appeared he left the district. The dead lads parents were telegraphed for and they went to Ardlemont and not long afterwards the body was taken all the way to Ventnor in the Isle of Wight for burial. Monson going with it and attending the funeral after which he returned to Ardlemont. It seems as if the matter was now at an end and that it would soon be forgotten. But inspectors came from the insurance company and I suppose that very large sums are not paid without inquiry when only a single premium was paid and when the death is of a very suspicious nature. Well inquiries were made and they were continued in many quarters with the result that Mr. Monson was taken into custody on a charge of having murdered Mr. Hambrough. Mr. Hambrough's body was exhumed and photographs were taken of the wound at the back of the head and the doctors prepared minute details of the fatal injury. There was a great hue and cry for Davis and extraordinary efforts were made to find him but not a trace of him could be discovered and so the charge against Monson only could be proceeded with. These trials are wonderful affairs to the ordinary mind and it would be hard to find one more wonderful than this Ardlemont case because of the efforts on the one side that death was caused by murder and on the other side to prove that it was due to accident or suicide. There was not a circumstance however small connected with the affair which was not noted and made use of and some astonishing details were given of the marks made by pellets at the spot where the body was found and of the condition of the ground in the neighborhood every detail was given of the condition of the skull and the injuries that had been received, ghastly evidence that one would much rather not have listened to but in these cases justice alone has to be considered and so everything must be gone into and nothing shirked. I remember that evidence was given of experiments that had been carried out with guns and corpses with the object of learning the effects of gunshot wounds on the head. There were also many experiments on newly killed horses animal skins and models of men's heads and so far as I remember some of these experiments were conducted with the guns that were in the possession of Mr. Monson and Mr. Hambrough when the tragedy happened. When all the witnesses had been called I remember that one of the last things stated was that a firm had been retained for the defense by the prisoner's mother the honorable Mrs. Monson the solicitor general made a long speech which lasted nearly the whole of the ninth day I do not remember most of it all I know but it is a reasonable point in the case and naturally to be dead against the accused man I was most interested in what the solicitor general had to say about Davis he told the jury that from Ardlemont Davis had been traced to London and that on August 15th or 16th he vanished and he also said that Monson had deliberately misled people for the real character and whereabouts of Davis then there was another long speech for the prisoner by Mr. Comrie Thompson who made a great point of the fact that if Mr. Monson had killed Mr. Hambrough he would have done away with the only fixed income he had because the bounty of Mr. Tottenham on which they were living was dependent on the young officer's life Mr. Thompson pointed out that Mr. Monson Davis and Mr. Hambrough were the only three persons who knew what happened in the wood at Ardlemont he told the jury that Davis was a sick man a dying man a bookmaker yes but one of the quietest most amiable and gentlest of men he certainly was of great knowledge of him Mr. Thompson scoffed at the idea that Mr. Monson should have lured on such a man as Davis to be a witness either to an attempt at murder or murder itself and he declared that it was the greatest calamity in the world that Davis was not able to enter the witness box so there was nothing for it one man being dead one unable to speak because he was a prisoner and the third having vanished but to rely on circumstantial evidence the Lord Justice Clerk also told the jury that the evidence was purely circumstantial but he made it clear that he did not see any good ground for supposing that Davis had gone to Ardlemont as a party to a murder plot and he told the jury that it had not been made out that Davis had disappeared at the instance of the prisoner the case had to be considered quite apart from the disappearance of Davis the most terrible time of all came when the jury retired it was bad enough for those who were waiting in court after all those weary some days how much more dreadful must it have been for the man the jury life was at stake and whose fate depended on the utterance of a single word the jury were absent for about an hour and a quarter then they slowly return into court and the awful suspense was ended they returned a verdict of not proven on both charges Monson was a free man again and he briskly left the dock in which he had been so long a prisoner and so closely guarded and disappeared some months after the trial a curious thing happened in Edinburgh for Davis himself who had been proclaimed an outlaw appeared in a music hall as an assistant I believe to a conjurer he had evidently taken to that sort of business as a means of making a living I do not pretend to know what legal formalities had to be gone through by him to set himself entirely free so to speak but as a matter of fact he took steps to clear himself from the sentence which had been passed upon him with the result that the punishment of outlawry was recalled as they put it which means, I suppose that the sentence was quashed no steps were taken to bring him to trial for the offence which had been preferred against him when the famous mystery became public property and I take it that this meant that so far as he was concerned the affair was at an end that is the story of the Ardlemont mystery so far as the general public know it and pretty nearly all there was to learn came out in that long trial at Edinburgh but there is one very interesting fact which the general public does not know and with which very few people have become acquainted it is this that during all the time the hue and cry was raised after Davis when frantic efforts were being made to discover his whereabouts and when not a trace of him could be discovered he was hiding in the east end of London he told my husband that he was in the east end all the time and never left it if Davis had come out of hiding and left London I do not think he could have escaped capture he never came back to our house again and I do not know what happened to him I liked him very much and it grieved me when I knew that he was mixed up in this awful mystery End of Chapter 12 An Unsolved Mystery The Ardlemont Riddle Chapter 13 of Survivors Tales of Famous Crimes this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Ashley Jane Survivors Tales of Famous Crimes edited by Walter Wood Chapter 13 The New Castle Train Murder Murders in English railway trains have been and are exceptional occurrences so that when one is committed it arouses extraordinary interest especially if the murderer remains undiscovered or is found only after considerable trouble and delay Six years ago an uncommonly deliberate murder was committed in a train on a north-eastern railway The story is here told from the narrative of Mr. J. Jameson who was professionally associated with the trial from start to finish There is a train which leaves New Castle every morning at 10.27 for Alnmouth just under 35 miles away to the north It is a slow train and stops at all the stations until Alnmouth is reached at 3 minutes past noon That train has been running for a long time and it left the central station as usual on the morning of Friday March 18, 1910 It went off in an ordinary way and there was nothing whatsoever to distinguish its departure from the going of the train at any other time Yet the 10.27 of March 18 was to be the scene of a singularly deliberate and callous murder a crime which was brought home to the perpetrator by the forging of a number of links of evidence which separately might seem slight and unsubstantial but which were put together formed a chain of unbreakable strength The New Castle train murder is an outstanding instance of the deadly nature of circumstantial evidence and we shall see how, step by step an unknown murderer was traced, brought to trial, convicted and hanged The train reached Alnmouth Station up to time and was being examined in the customary manner when the foreman Porter Charlton made a terrible discovery in the third compartment of the first coach behind the engine he saw three streams of blood oozing across the floor and at under the seat facing the engine was the body of a man lying face downward The body was lying under the seat from end to end and had been pushed right under it Charlton did not move the body but called the station master the guard and the porter The local policeman was sent for and the body was removed to a waiting room taken to a siding I was on the platform at the time and saw the body discovered and removed and I was from that time connected with the case until the end It was soon seen that the murder had been committed for the dead man had been shot in five places in the head two bullets were still embedded in the head and it was found that one of these was nickel-capped and the other lead and that they were of different caliber leading to the conclusion that two revolvers had been used No traces of the weapons themselves were found though there were signs of a struggle A pair of broken spectacles was found and a soft-felt hat was picked up from the carriage floor The murdered man was found to be John Innis Nisbet a colliery cashier living in Newcastle and there had been stolen from him a black-letter bag containing 379S6D in money, mostly gold and silver Nisbet was employed by the owners of the Stopswood colliery near Warrington about 24 miles from Newcastle He was a married man 44 years of age of slight build and of an inoffensive disposition not the sort of man to make enemies who would be likely to murder him It was his custom to travel on alternate Fridays by the 1027 to Warrington carrying money from a Newcastle bank for the payment of the minor's wages Sometimes he carried as much as a thousand pounds but owing to a cold strike he had with him at the time of the murder only the some mentioned yet it was a very considerable amount of money Nisbet was a trusted and old servant of the colliery company which promptly offered a reward of one hundred pounds for the discovery of the murderer That discovery seemed likely to be an uncommonly difficult and baffling undertaking because the murderer had completely escaped without leaving anything to identify him The announcement of the crime is deliberate nature, it's deep mystery and the fact that it was committed in a railway train aroused amazing interest throughout the country as well as locally and instant steps were taken to try and trace the murder to its source In little more than an hour the news had been received by the Newcastle police and the inquiries would be made The public interest was extraordinarily keen as it was bound to be the view of the fact that they were so closely involved the question of the safety of the travelling public Let us see for the moment what Nisbet had been doing and what had happened to him on that last fatal journey on a line which he knew so well and on which he was so well known It was his duty on that day to go to Lloyd's bank at Newcastle to get a check cast for the wages He went to the bank taking with him a black leather bag with a lock attached At the bank he received gold and three canvas bags silver and paper bags and copper and brown paper parcels One of the bags was marked Lampton number one Lampton's bank having been amalgamated with Lloyd's It is important to bear this point in mind With the minus wages in the bag Nisbet went to the central station where he was seen by a commercial traveller in the company of another man The two were going towards number five platform from which the train started The traveller knew both men quite well and saw them clearly It happened also that a local artist Mr. Wilson Hepple saw a man whom he did not know but who was Nisbet go with the man whom he knew quite well and walked towards a third class compartment close to the engine Mr. Hepple saw the pair at the door of the compartment and noticed that one of them put his hand on the door Mr. Hepple then walked away and when he turned round he evidently entered the train There was other evidence of Nisbet having been seen in the company of a man at the station and it was clear that when the train started these two passengers were alone in the compartment near the engine A particularly remarkable thing happened at Heaton Station which is two stations from Newcastle Nisbet lived quite close to Heaton Station and it was his wife's custom to meet him at the station every fortnight as he passed through to Wydrington for the purpose of having a little talk with him Nisbet usually travelled in the rear of the train but on this occasion she found that he was near the engine and he put his head out of the window to attract her notice The compartment was quite close to a tunnel and a shadow fell on the seat of the carriage but in spite of the shadow Mrs. Nisbet saw that another man was in the compartment a man who never moved and had his collar turned up He was at the far end of the compartment and the profile was all that Mrs. Nisbet saw of the immovable figure That brief sight became an incident of dramatic importance at a later stage Wydrington was a station at which Nisbet should have elighted but he did not do so and it was not until Almuth was reached that his murdered body was found The body was alone and the murderer had completely vanished It was soon quite clear that the murder had been committed on a run between Stannington and Morpeth who occupies about six minutes and is the longest at the 1027 makes Nisbet had been seen at Stannington by two colliery clerks who knew him They spoke to him and noticed that in the compartment was another man That was the last time Nisbet was seen alive by anyone except the murderer When the train reached Morpeth the compartment was empty or seemed to be for a man opened the door and saw that there was no one inside but for some reason he did not enter the compartment but travelled in another Further inquiries showed that when the train reached Morpeth a man left it and tended 2.5D to the ticket collector that amount being the fare between Stannington and Morpeth Such description as the collector could give of the appearance of the man who had paid the 2.5D and left the train corresponded with the description of the man who was seen by several persons in the company of Nisbet and the train All these descriptions pointed to the conclusion that the man in whose company Nisbet had been last seen was John Alexander Dickman who lived at 1 Lily Avenue, Jesmond Dickman was a married man with two children and had lived in Newcastle all his life He had occupied various posts and had undoubted ability but for some time he had made his living on the tarf It became the duty of an inspector to call on Dickman and accordingly on Monday afternoon following the Friday of the murder the officer went to his house and rang the bell Dickman himself answered the ring and came to the door He was wearing slippers and looked comfortable and perfectly calm A young Mr. Dickman, said the inspector Yes, replied Dickman quietly John Alexander Dickman, the inspector asked and he said again Yes Then the officer told him his name and rank and that the Northumberland County Police had been informed that he was in Nisbet's company on the Friday morning and that he had learned that he was an acquaintance of the murdered man He said that the matter had been communicated by the county police to the city police and that they were getting statements about the murder The officer remarked that it was a terrible crime and Dickman agreed and they continued quite an attempt general conversation for some little time just like two disinterested persons discussing the affair that was claiming the attention of everybody The county police, said the inspector would like to know if you can throw any light on the affair Then Dickman made a statement which was of the greatest importance He said he had known Nisbet for many years and that he saw him on Friday morning and added I booked at the ticket window with him and went by the same train but I did not see him after the train left I would have told the police if I had thought it would do any good Will you come to the detective office and see Superintendent Weddle and make a statement?" said the officer and Dickman promptly answered certainly They then went back into the room in which he had been sitting and he took off his slippers and put on his boots and they were talking together still in just an ordinary manner When he was ready they returned to the door and they were about to leave the house his wife came I shan't belong, I should be back to the tea said Dickman to his wife and they went away together Dickman was quite free not handcuffs or secured in any way They walked along the streets chatting freely together about anything that came up Dickman had been in the coal trade and one of the things talked about was coal When they reached the detective office Dickman after a few minutes was introduced to Superintendent Weddle saying This is Mr. Dickman and he will give you a statement respecting what he knows about the train murder on Friday Dickman quite readily said that he would do so and he voluntarily made a statement The inspector did not know Dickman personally but had made inquiries in consequence of information which had been telephoned by the county police and it was not until he revealed the fact that he had travelled by the same train as Nisbit at the time of the murder that he felt sure he was talking with the man who had been described Dickman's statement was to the effect that he took a return ticket for Stannington and that Nisbit whom he knew was in the booking hall at the same time Dickman bought a sporting newspaper at the book stall then went to the refreshment room and afterwards took a seat in a third class compartment near the end of the train He believed that people entered and left the compartment at different stations on the journey but he had no clear recollection of this happening He did not notice the train passing Stannington and so he went on to Morpeth got out and handed his ticket with the excess fare 2.5D to the collector He left Morpeth station and went to Stannington by the main road being taken ill on the way he had returned to Morpeth to catch the 1.12pm train but missed it He then left the station and spoke with the man after which he returned to the station and went back to Newcastle to the 1.12pm slow train He said the journey to Stannington was made to see a Mr. Hull at Dovcott in connection with the new sinking operation there and added that he had been unwell since a Friday but was out on Saturday afternoon and evening That was a statement which was made voluntarily by Dickman in the presence of the superintendent and others It was written down and handed to Dickman who read it carefully and said that it was quite correct In consequence of that statement, Dickman was detained and put up for identification and his identity having been established to the satisfaction of the police he was arrested by the superintendent and after being cautioned he was charged with the murder of Nisbet Dickman quite collectively said I don't understand the proceedings It is observed for me to deny the charge because it is observed to make it I only say I absolutely deny it Dickman had said that he would be home to tea but he never went home again After being charged Dickman was taken away by the county police and next morning Tuesday he was brought up at Gosforth Police Court just outside the city and remanded Subsequently he was brought up at the Moot Hall and Newcastle Ware more than three months later he was indicated on the capital charge During that long interval many links were forged in the chain of evidence The identification had been established and in the search that was made of Dickman immediately after he was formally charged by the superintendent there is found upon him the sum of £17 9S 11D in money 15 sovereigns being in gold in one of Lambton's small bank bags and the murdered man had carried some of his money in one of these bags The discovery of such a sum in Dickman's possession was significant because inquire has shown that though he lived in a pretty good house in a good district it was very hard up In a search which was made of Dickman's house there were found a life preserver some pawn tickets and two pass books relating to the accounts which Dickman had had at two banks A thorough search was made but no trace of a revolver was seen nor was the weapon with which the murder was committed ever been found I say weapon because I may remark here that there is reason to believe that only one revolver was used and that paper was wrapped round the smaller bullets to make them fit The profile view which Mrs. Nesbit had seen of the man who was in the compartment with her husband at Eaton station enabled her to recognise Dickman in a very remarkable manner Just after she had given her evidence before the magistrate she fainted and had to be taken from witness-box fainted because on looking at Dickman in a dog she had got a profile view of him and told her to swear that he was the man who was in her husband's company just before the murder when the compartment was standing in the shadow of the tunnel that was most important help improving the identification on which conviction must rest Another important discovery was that of the missing money bag which was found on June 9th at Isabella Pit That pit lies between Stannington and Morpeth and it had got into disuse because of the accumulation of water On June 9th the colliery manager went down early in the morning to examine the air-shaft and in doing so he found a leather bag with some coppers in it There were also a considerable number of coppers lying around the spot at which the bag was found On the following day other coppers were found making a total of 19S3D This bag was proved to be the one in which Nesbit was carrying money at the time of the murder A large hole had been cut in one side of it leaving the lock still secure The colliery manager was able to say that Dickman knew of the existence of the Isabella Pit and of the collection of water in it and that he knew Dickman personally as nine years previously they had been fellow workmen Dickman at one time had been secretary of a small land-scale colliery at Morpethmore Land-sale collieries being so called because they sell the coal at the pit-head so that he knew the district well. All these and other facts were proved when at the Newcastle summer sizes before Lord Coleridge Dickman was tried for the murder of Nesbit The trial began on Monday, July 4 and lasted for three days The case for the crown was presented by Mr. E. Tindall Atkinson KC and Mr. C. Lowenthal while Mr. Mitchell Innes KC and Lord William Percy for the prosecution it was shown that Dickman was in want of money and it was suggested that robbery was the motive of his crime it was also suggested that when he left Morpeth station and tended the two-and-a-half D excess fare he had stolen the bag of money hidden under his overcoat and that he cut the bag open took from it the gold and silver and threw the bag and the coppers down Isabella Pit which had an iron grating over the mouth and the grating could be raised and the bars were wide enough to admit the passage of a fair-sized article it was shown that Dickman's story that he had gone to Dovcott on March 18 to keep an appointment with Mr. Hogue was forced Mr. Hogue had no appointment with him and did not know that he was coming it was shown too that a fortnight before the murder was committed Dickman made the journey which he undertook on the 18th and it was suggested that he did so with the object as soon as the case for the prosecution was closed evidence for the defence was given, given by Dickman himself who stepped from the dock and entered the witness-box he had been calm and collected from the start and he was apparently unmoved even now when more than ever he was in peril of his life he answered the questions of Lord William Percy quietly one thing he said was that he had an account at Lambton's bank and that possibly the bag which was got from that bank the cross-examination was, of course the deadly part of the period in the witness-box but still Dickman never flinched he particularly sought to discredit the evidence of Mr. Hepple which was so fatal to him by suggesting that Mr. Hepple's faculties had failed and that he had made a complete mistake though the fact was that the two men had known each other for many years and that on the 18th Mr. Hepple was only about eighteen feet away from your station Mr. Hepple received the greater part of the £100 reward Dickman was the only witness called on his own behalf he had stood the terrible test amazingly well and so calm was he at the finish that when his counsel said that is all I ask you he said alluding to two overcoats which had been produced shall I take these coats or leave them leave them answered counsel quietly to return to the dock Mr. Tindall Atkinson addressed the jury for the crown and Mr. Mitchell Innes made an earnest appeal for the prisoner suggesting that two murderers killed Nisbet and that therefore the whole of the case for the crown failed after that addressed the court adjourned and on the third day Lord Coleridge summed up in a wonderfully clear manner just before one o'clock the jury retired to consider their verdict rather more than two-and-a-half hours they re-entered the court with a verdict of guilty delivered in a tense and dreadful silence even then Dickman protested that he was entirely innocent and that he had nothing to do with the crime a man who was just behind Dickman when the judge passed sentence of death stated that he well remembered that the veins behind the prisoner's ears seemed to swell and stand out in an extraordinary manner showing that though outwardly calm he was simply affected by the appalling position in which he found himself he remembered too the judge saying in your hungry lust for gold you had no pity upon the victim whom you slew and that when sentence had been passed Dickman once more declared in a firm voice audible throughout the court that he was innocent the condemned man unsuccessfully appealed and on the morning of August 10th he was hanged in new castle jail executed the chaplain of the prison sat up late with him and on the morning of the execution it is stated that he said Dickman will you die with a lie on your lips I will say nothing replied Dickman no trace of the revolver with which the murder was committed has been found nor has most of the stolen money but there are few who doubt that after the murder Dickman made his way to some woods near Morpeth cut the bag open the gold and silver and that he hid part at least of the plunder at the time of the trial and after Dickman's conviction there was a strong feeling in some quarters that he had been condemned on insufficient evidence but as a matter of fact the evidence though circumstantial was such as to leave no shadow of doubt as to the accused man's guilt in the mind of his judges either in new castle or London then as to any suggestion of past treatment or fairness in any way by the police let it be remembered that when Dickman was called upon at his house he was scarcely in the position of being even suspected but the matter became different indeed when he confessed that he had seen the murdered man at the station and travelled by the same train that voluntary revelation was of the greatest importance and formed one of the strongest links in the chain of evidence which sent John Alexander End of Chapter 13 The New Castle Train Murder Recording by Ashley Jane