HORRIBLE MURDER IN LONDON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4571, 13 November 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

HORRIBLE MURDER IN LONDON.

Papers to hand by the last mail brings details of the discovery of a crime in London, surpassing in its awful details anything found iu the romances of miters of sensational fiction. We do not as a rule give insertion in these columns to “ Horrible Murders,” but the present tale of fearfulness has found place and comment in every paper in England, and this need not be wondered at, as it is one of those events which will live long in criminal history. The story of the crime will be beat told by giving the evidence taken at the inquest, on Wednesday, September 15, which was as follows ; Alfred Philip Stokes, 34 Baker’s-row, Whitechapel, brushmaker, was the first witness called, and said : I have seen a person named Wainwright iu custody. I have known him for several years. He was a brush manufacturer. He lived at 215 Whitechapel-road. He was acquainted with many young women. I have often seen him with a young woman from Leytonstone, about sft. 2iu. inches in height, with hair of a brownish color; but I cannot say whether she went by the name of Lane. I saw him three weeks since with that young woman outside a publichouse, about a quarter before eight o’clock at night. The publichouse was in Baker’s-row. They were together. She came up to Wainwright, who was with me, and said, “I’ve come all the way from Leytonstone, and walked it, and had nothing to eat all day. I ■wish you would give me some money.” He said, “ I have not any.” She said, “ You might find me some.” He said, “ Stokes, lend me a shilling.” I said, “ I have not got one, sir.” I had one, but I would not lend it. Sbe begged of him, and he said, “ Here, take the last piece I have.” He gave her a piece of silver, but what it was I cannot tell. He said to me, “ She’s a nuisance. I ■wish I could get rid of her.” I said, “ Why don’t you tell her to keep away ?” He said, “ I cannot do that, for I knew her for a good many years. She used to do for our family, and the poor thing, is hard-up.” She went away, but before she went they whispered to each other. I heard her say, “ You will come?” and he said, “Yes.” Then she left. I can’t say how she wore her hair. She had on a dark-blue serge dress. She wore a black hat, I think there were two small flowers in it. It was very neat. She wore gloves, and : she had an umbrella with her. I cannot describe its color, but it looked dark. I did not see the handle. I have not seen her since, nor heal’d him speak of her. I used to see her before that two or three times a week. She was rather deaf. He said very often that she was a nuisance. She had been down to my place to ask it I knew where he was. I cannot tell you where she used to work. Wainwright and I used to work together. I never perceived any bad smell until last Wednesday. I was going upstairs in the house at Whitechapel at the time. The place is a brush factory, where we both worked. Some of the work girls came down when I was down stairs, and complained of a smell of burning, and said they believed Mr. Wainwright was burning something. He was on the first floor back. He was alone. There was a fire burning in the oven and under the grate. There was a great “ smother ” in the room, caused by the smoke. That was not necessary for his business. I said, “ There is a smother here.” He took no notice. He was standing by the doorway as if to prevent any one going iu. There was no door, and the smoke came into the passage and up the staircase. I went away to the other factory. I saw what seemed to me like a lot of rubbish piled up on the fire. I thought that what he was burning was paper. I did not notice at the time that it was like the burning of flesh. I was not there more than a moment. I then went back again, and saw him there a r, ain. He was there perhaps two hours and a half. The fire was still burning, and there seemed to be ashes. I said nothing to him about that, but told him that the men on the other side were waiting for something, and he promised to see about it. I went with him to the Bethnal Green station. I saw him again on Saturday. I went about half-past 4, and in the presence of Mr. Martin, at No. 78 New-road, Whitechapel, he asked me to carry a parcel for him. Wainwright said, “ I want you to carry a parcel.” I said, “All right, sir.” He said, “ Come in,” and I followed Mm. Where did he go ?—To the back of the premises, 215 Whitechapel-road. Is that near 78 ?—About 100 yards from it. He kept the place on as a warehouse. We arrived at the door, and he pulled a key from out of his pocket and unlocked the door—the outer door in the back way, the door leading to the warehouse. I followed him in, and he said to me, “ Stokes, if you go upstairs you will see a parcel lying at the top on the landing and I said, “ All right, sir.” He said; “ Bring it me down,” I went up stairs, but I saw no parcel there. I saw a dark blue silk umbrella, torn at the side. It was not tied round. I don’t think there was any handle on it. I came down again and said, “ There is no parcel there, sir.” He said, “ All right, Stokes, I have found them under the straw, where X placed them a fortnight ago.” He said, “ Here they are ; carry them outside the court for me.” There was plenty of straw there. He just moved them away from the straw, but I did not see where he took them from. I tried to lift them, but found that they were too heavy for me. I put them dowu a<uain, and looked on the floor and saw a small axe. I picked it up and said, “ What is this, sir !” He said, “ This is the axe, and there is the hammer and the shovel that I spoke about yesterday. I want yon to take them home with you and bring them back after dinner. Sell them to Mr. Martin. Be sure and say that they are yours. Ask him to buy them in my presence, and I will say that they arc useful to us, and will give you half of what they fetch, for they are no use to me. They will be very useful to us in the shop.” I said, “Yes, they will; hut what is this on the axe—on the blade of it ? It stinks.”

What did you see on the blade of it ? He replied to the effect that it was cat or dog excrement, and wiped it off with his hand, wrapped it up in a piece of newspaper, and placed it on the ground, close by the hammer and shovel. Then he said, “ Xow then, Stokes, come along.” I picked up both the parcels, complaining all the tune of the great smell which arose from them. He said, “ It is through their having been under the dirty straw for a fortnight. Wait a bit; I will see if there is any one in the court.” That was the circumstance that aroused my suspicions, and he went out into the court, looked about, and came back and said, “ All right ; I will lay old Johnson is looking about after ua, but I don’t see him—come on.” Johnson is a house decorator, I believe. I caught hold of the parcels, one in each hand. They were tied up in black American leather cloth, and bound round with rope. X earned them to the bottom of the court. He took one away from me—the lightest one. He smiled, and said, “They are heavy, ain’t they.” I said, “ Yea ; I shall have to have a rest, for the stench is so great. It is enough to give you the fever.” He said, “ All right; it will blow off soon.” I walked a little farther, and then he said, 11 1 shall be obliged to rest with one parcel.” He (Wainright) said, “Don't drop them, for God’s sake, or else you will break them.” I said, “ I shan’t break them, sir. I know how_ to handle them.” We carried the parcels as‘far as Whitechapel Church. I carried one, he carried the other. We both put them down, and he said, “ Stand here and mind them while I go and fetch a cab.” The cab rank is about three minutes’ walk from Whitechapel Church, and whilst he was gone I opened the largest parcel—the one I had been carrying. I looked inside and saw a human head. I made further search, aad saw a hand and an arm. It frightened me then ; I believe it made my hair stand up. I had the presence

of mind to close them up, and wait until he came back with a four-wheeler. He said, “ Help me on with them.*' I said, “ I can’t.” He said, “Why not, why not? Have the parcels come undone?” I said, “Oh no, sir.” He said, “ All right, help me in with them.” I did. They were placed crossways on the floor of the cab. He got in, and said to the cabman, “ Drive as fast as you can to the Commercial-road.” He said to me, “ X shall see you, Stokes, at seven o clock round at your house.” X said, “ All right, sir.” I followed behind the cab, and saw him stop outside a chemist’s shop in Commercialroad, near Greenfield-street, where a young woman was standing close by the publichouse. I saw them talk together for about a minute, and then they both caine back together, and got into the cab, She got in first. He said to the cabman. “ Dnve ou as fast as you can to the Borough, I followed behind. I was very close at the time, hiding in a door-way. with the collar of my coat turned up. The cabman drove on. I followed the cab towards the Borough. I asked two constables to stop the cab. They laughed at me, and said, “ You are mad.’ I ran on a*ain I nearly lost sight of it, but I followed itto the Borough, near the Hop Exchange. It had hardly stopped when I saw two constables standing nearly close by. I called their attention to the cab, and said, “ For God’s sake follow that man, for I am exhausted. Follow him, and see what he does with that parcel.” I said to the other policeman, “You watch the cab and I will watch and see what he (Wainwright) does.” Wainwright got out of the cab carrying the lightest parcel. The female stopped in the cab with the other parcel. Wainwright just got to the door of the Hen and Chickens when the policeman went up to him. I saw him in the hands of the police. X then went back to my employer, Mr. Martin. I thought Wainwright was in good hands, and I left him. The woman who got into the cab was not the woman who came to ask him for money. I knew her quite well. By the Jury : He stopped near the Hop and Malt Exchange. Witness was questioned by the jury, and it appeared that Wainwright stopped near the London and County Bank. By the Jury ; It is about three weeks ago. that I saw Wainwright speaking to the young woman who is now missing- I knew that his brother was formerly in possession of the Hen and Chickens. It is shut up now. I don’t know how Wainwright got the key of the

premises. Why did you not give Wainwright in charge at once when you first discovered the contents of the parcel ? Well, I knew that he was a proud man and a man of a daring spirit, and I thought if he had cut up, if he had a revolver in his pocket, he might shoot me. Did you ever see the two women in company together ? No. Do you think that the two women knew each other ? X dare say they did : they could not be off knowing one another. I know Alice Day was often watching him about. I don’t know ■whether the umbrella which I saw at the ■warehouse belonged to the missing young woman. Police-Constable Alfred Henry Turner, 48 M, said : On Saturday afternoon last, at four minutes past five, I was on duty in High-street, Borough, at the comer of St. Thomas-street, when the last witness (Stokes) came to me in an exhausted condition. He said to me, “ Policeman, for God’s sake go to that cab.” I saw a cab outside the Hop and Malt Exchange, in Sonthwark-street. It had scarcely stopped. Wainwright got out of the cab. He had a parcel in his right hand. He went by the Town Hall in the Borough to the Hen and Chickens, an empty house. I walked towards the cab and watched him, and saw him take a key out of his pocket, put the parcel down, unlock the padlock, and get into the Hen and Chickens. Just as I got to the cab another constable, 290 M, came up, and we saw a female on the off side of the back seat, and there was a parcel on the front seat wrapped in American cloth, tied up with large string. I said to her, “What are you waiting here for?” She made no answer. I said, “What have you got in this parcel ? ” She said, “ The idea of your interfering -with me, I am only waiting for my husband.” Prisoner Day ; X did not say anything. Witness continued: The prisoner Wainwright came up to the cab smoking a large cigar. He opened the door on the off side and took out the other parcel I said, “ What have you got there ?” He laughed, and said, “ All right policeman ; lam only going to a friend of mine.” Wainwright and I walked to the Hen and Chickens, he carrying the parcel in his left hand. When we got to the door the padlock was off. I said “Do you live here ?” and he said, “ Ho.” “ Well,” I said, “ have you got possession of this place ?” He said, “ I have, and you have not.” With that, I said, “ Well, go inside.” He said, “No ; perhaps you had better go in.” I said, “I want to see what’s in that parcel that you have just taken in.” He seemed reluctant to go in. And the other constable, who came up pushed him inside the door. The prisoner had still the parcel in his hand. I said, “How did you get possession of the place ? It used to belong to Mr. Lewis. “ Yes,” he said, “ and if you come with me now to Mr. Lewis he will settle the matter. Say nothing ; ask no questions, and there’s £SO each for you.” I said, as we walked down the shop, “ What did you do with the other parcel?” He said, “It is only on the first floor.” I said to 290 M, “Go up and see if yon can see it.” I had hold of the prisoner at the time. He had not gone five or six steps before I saw the parcel. On the same floor where we were standing was the entrance of a cellar. I said to the other constable, “ Take hold of this gentleman, and I will see what is in it.” He said, “ Don’t, for goodness sake ; don’t touch it.” I then lifted it up on an old counter standing in the shop. He again said, “Don't touch it. Let me go. I will give you £2OO, and produce the money in twenty minutes.” The stench was very bad. Mr. Benson ; Had you perceived that before ?

Witness—There -was a stench from the parcel that he was carrying. I pulled the doth off, and I saw the head with a little hair on. We then took both the parcels up, 290 M still holding the prisoner. Going back, we put him in the cab and brought him to the station, and the female prisoner said to Wainwright, “What have you done ? This is a fine thing for me.” At the station we untied the parcels in the yard, and we found them contain a human body—a female. X knew by the length of her hair. It was in a very decomposed state. The features were undiscernible. Was there anything remarkable about it ? The hair was clotted with blood, lime, and dirt. What have you done with the scissors? They were taken to St. Saviour's deadhouse, and they were seen by Mr. Larkins. Mr. Benson, addressing Wainwright, asked him if he had anything to say ? The prisoner : I have no questions to ask, but only to state that the statement is full of inaccuracies. The female prisoner said she had nothing to ask the witness. Inspector Fox, examined : I am inspector of the M division of the Metropolitan Police. On Saturday afternoon I received the prisoners at Stones’-End Police Station. I charged them for having in their possession the mutilated remains of a female supposed to have been murdered. Wainwright said : “ I am quite prepared to say how I got the parcels, and how they came into my possession, when I see my employer, Mr. Martin.” I went for Mr. Martin, and he arrived at the police station about 8 p.m., and he was put beside the prisoner Wainwright, and the latter then said: “Yesterday week, I think, a gentleman known to me for some time by meeting him at public houses, asked me if I wished to earn a pound or two. I said, ‘ Yes ; I am always willing to make money,’ or something to that effect. lie said, * X can put a sovereign or two in your way.’ I inquired how, and he said by taking two parcels over to the Borough. Isaid it was a big price for so small a job. He said, ‘ Take them over, and ask no questions, and here’s a couple of sovereigns for you.’ I said,

‘lf you make it £5 I will take them.* He then agreed to give me £3. He gave me the key, and told me to take them to the Hen and Chickens, an empty house in the Borough. He brought them (the two parcels) to me, put them* on the pavement, and brought them over. That is my account of the possession of them.* Mr. Benson : Had Wainwright seen Stoke then ? Inspector Fox : ISTo, he had not seen him. • Did the girl say anything ? Yes, sir ; Alice Day said : “ I met this gentleman (Mr. Wainwright) in the Commercialroad. He asked me to go with him to London Bridge. As I knew him, and had known him for some time, I consented, saying, I should have to be back at a quarter-past six, I know nothing whatever of the parcels containing the body. They were in the cab when I -went into it.” Did Wainwright say anything more, Mr. Martin ? Yes. Wainwright was searched at the police station, and amongst the other things taken from him was a quantity of keys. After the prisoner’s statement I accompanied Stokes to 215 Whitechapel-road. I opened the back door with a key which I had taken from the prisoner. The door being opened, I was admitted into an empty shop or warehouse. The flooring was hoards fixed upon joists and placed next the earth. I there saw a chopper wrapped injpaper (small axe produced), a spade, a hammer, and an open knife. I examined the axe, and found fleshy matter upon it, and also lime and dirt. I also found some of the flooring boards loose and the joists cut through, and under them was a newly-formed and open grave sft. long and 2ft. wide. The mound was mixed much with lime. There was more lime than earth. I dug out the dirt, and found some hair therein corresponding with that on the head. I also found a piece of rope looped, such as would be made to put round a neck. Immediately behind the back door, by which I entered, there is a flagged stone, and it is raised a step higher than the other part, and there I found a straw bed and pillow, both having the appearance of being much used. On the flags and around the bed was a great quantity of cinder ashes and rubbish. That was cleared away. I found on the flags a great many patches of what appeared to be blood. Wainwright asked no questions. Alice Day said: I have only to say that, so far as I am concerned, what he has stated s true.

By the Jury : The female prisoner was made acquainted with the contents of the parcel at the station before she made her statements. I obtained the knowledge that the parcels contained the portions of a body from the surgeon, who made an inspection of them. Mr. W. C. Stoker, solicitor, said he had been instructed by the brother of Wainwright, who formerly kept the Hen and Chickens, to watch the case for the accused, and in answer to his questions, The Inspector said that he took down the statements at the time they were made, but the accused were not asked to sign them. The mould in the grave, which appeared to be fresh, at the warehouse, 215 Whitechapelroad, consisted to a large extent of chloride of lime. By the Jury ; I found an umbrella, which was torn, on the floor above the warehouse. I found nothing in the shape of clothing. The Coroner, addressing the jury, said : I have had a communication made to me by Superintendent Garforth, stating that he has received a letter from the Home Office, who writes that it is the intention of the Treasury to take up the investigation of this matter. The Solicitor to the Treasury, Mr. Pollaud, has been instructed to prosecute in this case, and I have been desired to take such evidence only as will justify me to remand this inquiry. I have no doubt that on the next occasion of our meeting we shall have a more complete account of the examination of the contents of the parcels, and whether they relate to the whole of one or more bodies. An examination will no doubt be made to see if the indentations on the stones in the warehouse correspond with the axe, and also if the hair on the axe is a portion of that of the deceased. This latter point is of importance, and great care will no doubt be takeu in the comparison. Superintendent Garforth : It occurs to me that you might like to have the adjourned inquiry as soon as possible, and I would suggest the 21st. I think it very probable we shall have two or three remands before the magistrate, and that you will find it necessary to adjourn this investigation more than once. The friends of the young woman who has been missing from home for more than twelve months have some evidence they wish to bring forward, and they have but little doubt that the body found is that of the The Coroner : I understand that is the case. At all events, let the evidence be produced on the next occasion. A conversation took place between the coroner, the jury, and the police authorities, and the inquiry was ultimately adjourned. LATEST PAHTICULABS. The police employed in the investigation of this case have succeeded in obtaining further information. Before detailing the later evidence, it may be well to explain that a statement current on Tuesday, to the effect that the supposed missing woman had been importuning Wainwright for money within the last few weeks, is supposed to be incorrect. It is now ascertained beyond a doubt that the person seen was not the missing woman Harriet Lane, but a friend of hers, to whom the deceased entrusted the care of her two little children, and with whom she herself lodged. This woman’s name is Mrs. Wilmore, and she, with deceased’s two children, have been found living at Stratford, about four miles from London. She, together with a neighbour who well knew deceased, saw the mutilated body on Wednesday ; and though there is scarcely anything hut the skull and the skeleton put together, they gave it as their positive opinion, taking into consideration the siae of the body, it being that of a small person with thin hands, and also the color and the mode in which a portion of the auburn hair remained, that the mutilated parts were those of their missing friend Harriet Lane. Mrs. Wilmore then made a very important statement after viewing the body, which in every particular, excepting the name, bore out the statement made in reference to a woman about three weeks ago having waited on the prisoner, and importuned him for money. She then stated that Harriet Lane had been missing from her house since the 11th September, 1874. On that date the missing woman left her house about half-past four in the afternoon, saying she had an appointment to meet Wainwright, who was then maintaining her. Since that date Harriet Lane had not been seen. The two little children—ono two and a half years and the other nine months’ old—were then left on her hands, and Wainwright was applied to for support. He admitted the paternity, and consented to keep the children, and regularly kept up his payments of £2 ss. per month until June last, when ho failed, and she had constantly to go after him for money, which she says she often did in the fear of her life. Soon after Harriet Lane was missing, the prisoner stated to various people that he had ascertained she had gone off with another man named Fritz, with whom she had gone first to Brighton and afterwards to Paris. The father of the girl, who was formerly a milliner, has also expressed his conviction that the remains are those of his daughter. I iirougliout the whole of Wednesday, numbers of persons who had missed a friend, applied to see tlie body, which was on view in an oak coffin in the mortuary, with glass inserted in the coffin lid. One of the fresh pieces of evidence discovered on Wednesday by the detective was, that on the day before the murder, namely, on the 10th December, 1874, the prisoner bought a quantity of lime, which he had brought to the premises, and deposited near to where the grave is. The witness Stokes, to whoso cool presence ot mind the arrest is due, was followed by thousands of persons, and cheered through the streets.