THE MURDERER SULLIVAN IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4237, 19 October 1874, Page 3

THE MURDERER SULLIVAN IN ENGLAND.

(From the Otago Daily Times, October 16.) By the San Francisco mail, full information has been received regarding the passage home, and the doings in London, of the notorious Sullivan of Maungatapu celebrity. Sullivan left Auckland in the Hindostan, for London, under the assumed name of Clarke. He wore a flaxen wig and moustache, but, notwithstanding his disguise, he was recognised. On tho second day after his departure from Auckland, Sullivan was recognised by onS of the passengers, a medical gentleman, and also by a lady passenger. The lady had a photograph of the Maungatapu murderers—Sullivan, Levy, Burgess, and Kelly—and was confident that the man on hoard was no other than Sullivan. The disguise of the flaxen wig and moustache was perceived, and its detection confirmed the belief of those who recognised him. When it became known that Sullivan was on board, a feeling of fear and insecurity prevailed, and then was great excitement. The passengers strongly urged the captain to incarcerate him for the voyage. When charged by the captain with being Sullivan, the Maungatapu murderer, he became quite indignant, denied that he was, and threatened to bring an action on his lauding in England for defamation of character against the parties who had made free -with what he was pleased to term his “ good name.” The passengers were not satisfied with these protestations, regarding them as a piece of bounce, and.. roitoi’AtoJ t,bpir.-voqv.oot to tiie captain to have Sullivan imprisoned. We do not know if the captain actually promised to take him into custody, but he proceeded to take steps for imprisoning him. On this becoming known to Sullivan, he boldly went to the captain and told him that if he arrested him, he did so at his own peril, denied that he was the man the passengers represented him to be, and that if ho arrested him, he (Sullivan) should bring a charge against him on his arrival in London for doing so. Sullivan was also recognised by a sailor on board, but this circumstance was not known till at the close of the voyage. This sailor had been imprisoned in Dunedin gaol for some weeks for deserting his vessel at Port Chalmers. On account of either threats or promises from Sullivan, he said nothing about the identification until after Sullivan had landed in London. Several times during the voyage the passengers and crew were almost in a state of mutiny at Sullivan being at large, they having no doubt on the point that he was the Nelson murderer. However, though not placed under arrest, a rigid surveillance was kept over him, and the captain seems to have done all he could consistently with not exposing himself to an action at law. On arrival at Penzance, Cornwall, where the pilot boat intercepts homeward-hound vessels, a number of passengers left the vessel by train for London, staying in that city till the arrival of the Hindostan in the docks with their luggage. Sullivan wanted to be landed at Penzance—saying that he should he allowed to do as the other passengers had done. The captain refused. Sullivan demanded as a right to be landed, saying that he was a free subject, and threatened the captain with prosecution for illegally detaining him. The captain, no doubt stung by the way in which he had been talked to by the passengers on the voyage, was determined not to let Sullivan land till the detectives had seen him. Accordingly he told him that his (Sullivan’s) destination was London not Penzance, and that he could leave the ship when he arrived at hia destination and not before. A telegram was sent from Penzance to London. The result of the telegram was that on the arrival of the vessel at Gravesend several persons known to the detectives from Scotland Yard were iu attendance, and on arrival in the East India Docks other detectives appeared on the scene. Sullivan was wary, and would not give the police an excuse for arresting him, and seems to have landed with some money in his pocket. So much for the voyage. As to his doings after landing, the following facts are from a source which is strictly reliable :—The detectives, knowing the man they had to deal with, deputed a female spy specially to watch him. Suspicious as an old gaol-bird like Sullivan might be expected to be, this seems to have thrown him off his guard. The female accosted him after he had left the vessel and was passing through the docks, and entered into conversation with him. The conversation resulted in her offering to conduct him to lodgings, she remarking that observing him to be a stranger she would help him in this way. Sullivan accepted her offer. After he took lodgings, and during the afternoon, he went out to view the metropolis. The detectives followed him wherever he went. Observing that he was dogged he took other lodgings, but the detectives also watched him to those. He shifted about to various parts of London, the police always keeping a sharp eye on him. Prior to the San Francisco mail leaving he was lodging at a coffee-house kept by a female. Ho had informed members of the Detective Force that be intended marrying and settling down. That he had some such intention was to be seen from the fact that he and the proprietress of the coffee-house, whenever they took their walks abroad, always went in company. He has been seen with her at the Crystal Palace, the British Museum, Aldershot, and the Houses of Parliament on the days they were open to public inspection. One of the passengers recognised him, in company with the female referred to, in one of the stalls at no less a place than the Italian Opera. The passenger who saw him informed the police who the man was, and had his mind satisfied by learning that Sullivan was being watched at the time. Sullivan has expressed his intention to leave for the United States, seeming to be uncomfortable under the rigid surveillance of the London Detective Force. Evidently he thinks England too hot for him.