THE TRUNK CRIME CONFESSION

Hokitika Guardian, 21 July 1927, Page 4

THE TRUNK CRIME CONFESSION

A TRAA7ELLER IN LEAD. LONDON, Juno 2. When the so-called trunk murder was first discovered and the murderer was still at large many people were engaged. like .Air George Birmingham, who wrote an article entitled “My Murder.” in telling the world how they could have carried out it crime of that kind without, giving away so many clues as the trunk murderer did in buying the trunk openly and walking off with it on his shoulder, taking it in a taxi to a railway cloak-room and then throwing the cloak-room ticket out of the taxi in which he drove away mini the station.

And. indeed .the unioniinalc John Robinson seemed to defy every title in the game for eluding discovery, for tie not only did the foolish things we have enumerated in trying to dispose ol the hotly of the murdered woman, hut he actually did the deed within sight of a police station ! Was it excess ot confidence or accident. The whole story is now known and students of the psychology of crime may study the confession Robinson has made and see Imw it fits in with their theories, of which there are now a-matiy.

Fashionably dressed women who crowded A Vest mi us ter Police Court listened to one ettf the most, astounding statements ever revealed during a murder trial.

In the dock stood John Robinson, a clerk, aged 3C>. accused of the murder of Airs Afinnic Alice Bonati, wile of a waiter, whose dismembered body was found in a triunlc at ('hating Cross station. At the conclusion of the sensational hearing Robinson was remanded lor a week.

There was an exciting legal duel ai the outset. It concerned the alleged statement of Robinson, in which he was stated to have said :

“I met the woman ai A'ictoria and took her to my office, and 1 want to 101 l you about it. 1 done il and cut her up.” AATton Air Wallace, who prosecuted feu* the Treasury, rose to open the case. Mr Lawrence Vine, coun.'el for Robinson, rose and saTTI : “1 understand that Mr AA’allaee proposes to refer to a document which has been described as a confession in this case, I have not had the advantage of seeing the document. 1 have npn ,;

but 1 am informed 1 cannot see it until it. is put in in evidence. “1 ask that this .alleged confession should not lie* road in court until I have had an opportunity of making my objectii ns. In these circumstances I ask you to rule that the contents oT this document should not be disclosed

Air Wallace: This is a voluntary statement made hv Robinson t > the police, taken down in writing, signed hv Robinson, and .slatting with the statement that it is voluntary. Air Vine was on his feet, instantly. ‘This voluntary statement,” he said, “was taken after Robinson had been in a waiting-room at Scotland A’nrd for half an hour with Dctoolivo-Sor-gcnl Clarke. It is obvious that something transpired between those two men which led to this 'voluntary’ statement being made. Tl anything happened there which is against the rules and is improper, f shall then .submit litis tlu> 'voluntary’ statement is inadmissible a.s evidence.

Ah' A'ine ((iiotcd authoritative rulings dealing with confession, “There is a cu-e. ’ be said, “which insists that if the •voluntary’ statement is induced by bolding out a favour, then, of < oursn the ‘voluntary’ statement is excluded.”

At length Air (Jill. 11 ie magistrate, announced tlie ruling t hat before a sLa lenient. could be rend in court it must be proved to ho voluntary, wneieon .Mr AVallaee said the best tiling to do was to call Sergeant Ci'arlso. Sergeant ( larke then entered the witness Imx.

!!(• said lit* tools Robinson into the "'aiting mom at Soot hind Yard at aliout ii.lo, and later Cliiol Inspector Cornish lonised in and said, ” I will see you, Roliinson, in connection with the statement you made on the evening of May If).”

•Mr N ine : When the Chief Inspector had gone away, was there any conversation between you and Robinson? Sergeant Clarke: Robinson asked one or two things—nolhing to do with the case. Shortly before 111 o’clock he said: Mil! you ask Mr Cornish to see lue, lor I want to tell him aii about it?” Mr Cornish was brought into the room, and there was also present Sergeant f loupe and myself. a ij /K(; (•:i) cm>xvkrsatio„\ . •Mr Nine then proceeded to jnif to the sergeant an account ol a conversation which it was alleged took pi'aee between him and Robinson. Mir Nine: I suggest you said to Robinson; ” Non are in a serious position?”—Nothing of the kind. sir. MM- N ino (continuing the alleged dialogue): ”1 do not believe you did it. NVas it an accident? NVe do not: think you could do a thing like that. Non ought to make a statement. Yon have seen the report of Dr Spilsburv. Now toll us all about it. I will he your lial if you will justify yourself. You will he aVI right: we will stand by you. I can tell you that (be womandied li-om heart failure.” Mr Wallace then briefly outlined the history of the finding of the body in the trunk at Charing Cross station. Ilm tracing of the woman’s identity through laundry marks as that of Mrs Minnie Bonati, the wife of Bianco Bonati. whom she left in fOI.M patitkttc moaxixg. Mfr Ciill, the magistrate. decided ’hat lie would hear a statement made hv Robinson at Xew Scotland Yard. Ihe reading ol this document was listened to in silence, that was only broken by low moans from the relatives ol the dead woman at the back of the court. The following is the statement:— ”1 wish to make a. voluntary statement. I am quite prepared for it to be taken down in writing, j am doing it with a full knowledge of the fart that it may he produced in evidence. ”1 left my office on May 4. and went to the post office at Victoria for some stamps.

! “As I left, a strange woman spoke to mo. She asked mo where I was going. I said: “I am going back to my offices to do some work.’ She suggested coming with me and I went to SO, Roehester-row. “She sat in my office while I wrote some letters. She said she was hard up and asked me for £l. I told her that she would not get it and that I had got nothing for her. She said: *\on must have some money having a place like this. 1 am going to have some before I leave here.”

“She became very abusive and said that she would create a scene. She flew into a temper and came towards the chair where I was sitting. I push-

ed her away. “I got oil' my chair and went and stood by the window. She bent down as if to pick something from the fireplace and came towards me. T hit her on the face with my right hand. I think 1 hit the left side of her lace, hut at this time I was also in a tem-

per. and I am net certain. BODY IX FIR.FI’LACF. ‘•she fell backward. She struck a chair in falling and it tell o'er. As she fell she s'.rt of sat down and tmlV ed over with her head in the fireplace. I left her there and came out. dosing the office door behind me. This would he between 5 and 5.3!) p.m.. nearer 5.30 p.m. “1 went home to 15, Queen s Hoad, Chamhenvel!, where I was then lodging. 1 returned eo my office about 10 o’clock the following morning. I was surprised to find that she was it ill there. She was dead. 1 was in a hopeless position then. 1 did not know what to do. “I sat down and thought it all out as to how best to dispose of the hodv. 1 decided to cut it up in pieces and cart it in parcels. 1 then went to a big shoo in Victoria Street and bought six sheets of brown paper and a hall of string, for which I paid Is <)d.

“I then went to a shop in the same street nearer Victoria Station, and bought a. chef’s knife. il is a big shop where they sell tools and cutlery. 1 then went hack to my office, and, ol cause, f did the job. that is. 1 cut off the legs and arms.