SENSATION AT TRIAL OF HAIGH

Chronicle (Levin), 19 July 1949, Page 5

SENSATION AT TRIAL OF HAIGH

f N .Z.P.A.—

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Dramatic Bid Made To Prove Insanity

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Received Tuesday, 10.45 a.m. LONDON, July 18. John George Haigh murdered five women and four men, drank their blood and dissolved Jheir bodies in acid at the bidding of a dream spirit. Defenee counsel, Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, said this at the l.ewes Assiz^s today in a dramatic- bid to prove that the {'upper 39-year-old company director was insane. "When the opportunity came to do these dreadful deeds, he felt he was carrying out not only his own desires, but a divinely-appointed course which had been set for him," counsel declared. * l

Haigh is charged with only one luurder — that of the wealthy 69- , ear-old widow, Mrs. O.ivia Dur- • nd-Deacon — but, in the most sen- ■ itional defenee plea in modern ■ iuninal history, counsel laid eight , Miier killings before the jury. | Haigh, he said, had confessed to ] ji.I oi* them. A detective-inspector i.ad admitted under cross-examin-u : liiii that the police had know- ; (ige of six of these, but had been rm.ble to confirm-the others. E.n'lier, in an amazing series of conie.ssions contamed in statea.f ni.s read at his trial, Haigh said •i iuid murdered Mrs. Deacon and ( :• h' other people from, most of vhoin he drank the blood and then fh-oosed of their bodies in acid bu'h.s. H ) ctators in the court listened oi bhound and horrified to the r -Ming of the statements. j in a statement alleged to have been made by him. and read by a no'ice witness, Haisrh described how be had shot Mrs. Deacon and said: "Then I fetched a drinking glass and made an incision, I think with a penknife, in the side of her neck a mi collected a glass of blood, which I drank." Haigh, it was also alleged, made .oo-ments confessing to the murfie:' of Donald McSwann, William Ib.nald McSwann and Amy Mc-S-ann in 1946, and Dr. Archibald H nderson and his wife, Rosalie Henderson. In this statement Huh'h said that he disposed of the boc'ies in acid baths. Tiro statement added: "In each e[ Ihe last four cases I had my ' " "S of blood as before." Haigh, in a further statement 3 - ad in Court, was alleged to have confpssed to three other murders. Ilaigh's defenee was one of insan;tv. s"id his leading counsel. Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, pleading that Haigh was paranoic, sufferers from which underwent "a complete and nermanent alteration of the enHre personalitv, which overwhelmorl their mental outlook. character nd conduct of the victim." R5r David said that the disorder ."ITrcting Haigh's reasoning was a iv- ro but well-known type of men•;E nberration. ADer hearing 30 witnesses. none '4' whom were cross-examined by •!ip defenee, the Court adjourned iintil lomorrow. EARLIER EVIDENCE , T!i». Attnnivy-Gpnpral, Sir TTartley m-(ks ononing tlio raso fnr tlie Tl said: "Tn Februarv of tliis vear : ■■■■.: l"id been living for 5ome time in n "ifi Kensington hotel, tlie two persons ' ' v. l"un von \vill be niainh' concerni in tliis ease. ••i'iistlv. tlierp is tlie prisoner, a mau • M.nvently without anv regnlar aource bn-ome who. at the material time. in ilebt, overrlrawn at the bank U> i-xtent of about £89 and being . -.-d for pavment of his hotel bill. s.-.-ondlv, Mrs Dnrand-Deaeon, a Igdv ''onifortable circumstaneos living ; • a ffnllv in the evening of her life. -■'n Februarv 18 — and T use now the . •n?!go of defeiulant — he inveigled " : Dnrand-Deaeon from the hotel and " as killed, her body being oartial1* solved in sulphurie, aeid. The fol- ■ "ng da.v defendant, nsing false ' ■ m's, was seeking to obtain the monev • >ii',nl('d bv tlie sale of that poor wo]>ersonal belonging. The ease is : ' • '1'b-d by eertain unpleasant, sordid • ! " von nauseating featuros but in '•u'iiy it is an exceedinglv simple ease :i earefully premediatated murder ' ' t gnin." s'r llartlev Shaweros? said he was n g'ling to pretend that the jury :g'it not liave read about the ease in j ' ' •• nowspapors as there had, indeed, ; n jimeh pnlllieitv about it di-serving of public taste and bnii-al to publie justice. He ■ -M the jurors to disregard onpletcdv anvthing they might have i> .ad about the ease. ll.aigh had deseribed himself as ari fiigineer and had some business asso- • oition with a eompanv called Hurstlea Pmdiu'ts of Crawlev whieh earried on . 'i-iness in liglit engineering. The eomanv possessed a small storeroom huildiug in Crawlev whieh Haigh used for exinMimental purposes. ^ir llartlev Rhaweross said: "The prisoner asserts in his statement that, having killed this unfortunate woman, : i* proeeeded to drinlc some of her idood. That statement may or may not be frue." Ilaigh had inquired about the ehances of being released from Broadmoor ••riniinal lnnatie as.vlum. The man, v.Iicu charged with murder, had to consiil"r how he eould first get himself into an asvhim. There was eertainly noi sign then of reason tottering on its | tlirone but rather an indieation of a] i-aret'ul premeditaation in prisoner's mind about the line he would take. Sir David Maxwell Fj'fe, for Haigh, announeed tliat at the proper time evi-.

denee would be led with the intention of showing that Haigh was insane and not responsible for ihe aet. "You will hear how, 011 Februarv 18, Haigh possessed himself of the storeroom keys in order to carry out ' the sinister purpose for whieh by that time he had most earefully prepared," said Sir llartlev. "Haigh and Mrs. DurandDeacon sat at adjoining tabJes at the Onslow Court llotel and not unnaturij.11 v a eertain friendship was struek up between them. On Februarv 13 Mrs. Durand-Deacon seems to have nientioned to prisoner the possibility of having some plastie finger nails manufactured. At. that time Haigh was in linaneial diffieulties, being overdrawn by £83 at . tlie bank and owing the hotei £49 and - being pressed for payment. At Craw- _ lev, Haigh saw a Mr. Jones and bor- 1 rowed £50 from him, using the monev to pav tlie hotel bill. But it really was a ease of borrowing from Peter to pav Paul. Jones was only in a posilion to lend tlie money for five days. That, you liuiy think, sealed Mrs. DurandDeaeon 's fate, if indeed it hadn't been sealed" before. Haigh thought there was 110 timq to lose in raising the neeessary money to repav Jones. He tohi Jones he knew someone interested in plastie finger nails and that he would bring tliat person to Crawlev*. Acifi Orderecl. "The sanie nioriung he arranged with a niau liamed Da.vies to bring down a earboy of sulphurie aeid. About that time Ilaigh had in his possession wliat has been described as a .kind of shop- ' ping list. It was a note of'things apparently he required for what he was about to do. There was a drum, sulphurie aeid, stirrup pump, gioves, apron and red paper, " Sir llartlev* added. "Ilaigh, 011 Februarv Ifi, ordered from a London store sulphurie aeid. • He purcliased on Februarv 17, a - 45gallon drum of the type normall}* usecl for stdring oil. He was earet'ul to obtain one specially iined and baked for holding corrosive eliemieals. Haigh later went to Crawlev to see Jones. ! He took tlie stirrup pump with him and asked Jones to remove the foot from tlie bottom of it. 'J'his would make it possible to insert the pump through the narrow neck of the earboy of aeid anci allovv the aeid to be puniped into the drum. "Ilaigh went to Crawlev* on Febru- j ary 18, savv Jones and went with himto the storeroom. Haigh kept the storeroom ke.vs. It was now three davs since Jones lent him. tlie £50 and he had two more days ly. whieh to repay Jones by the due dale. "But all was already prepared for carrying out the plan which prisoner had so earefully laid. The drum was there, also three carboys containmg something like 30 gallons of sulphurie acid, the stirrup pump, and gioves with which to protect himself. "That afternoon, Mrs. DurandDeacon, wearing a Persian lamb coat, was seen with Haigh at Crawley. She was never seen again. Later Haigh visited a Crawley restaurant. "In the meantime he induced Mrs. Durand-Deacon to the storeroom and there while she was looking at the rea paper for the artificial fingernails, he shot her through the head." Sir Hartley Shavveross said Haigh removcd her fur coat, emptied the valuables from her handbag, and stripped her of personal jewellery. He had tea at Crawley and afterwards returned to the storeroom, pushed Ihe body into the drum and filled it with sulphurie ac,id. Haigh returned to the Onslow Court Hotel, asked Mrs. Lane whether she had seen Mrs. Durand-Deacon. Belongings Sold. "I stress that because prisoner, knovving full well the terrible fate whieh had befallen Mrs. DurandDeaeon, was attempting in advanee to divert suspieion from himself by a display of aetive but altogether spurious interest in the whereabouts of the woman whose mortal remains he thought, mistakenly, were entirely destroyed. "Ilaigh at one shop sold the braeelet and vvatch which belonged to Mrs. Durand-Deacon, for £10 and at another shop negotiated for the sale of the rest of the jewellery. He also took Mrs. Durand-Deacon 's fur coat valued at about £50, "to a firm of cleaners at Redgate."