FAMOUS MYSTERIES.

NZ Truth, Issue 141, 29 February 1908, Page 7

FAMOUS MYSTERIES.

Who Murdered Sarah Roberts?

f 1 '(By, Ladbroke' Black.) Is. a letter m. the -handwriting of a murderer "of any real assistance to the police m bringing a- criminal to justice ? • .-•'..- --. I- propound this question because there f seems to be a. general inclination on the part of the public to attach far greater importance to handwriting clues than experience, shows they merit. , This weakness seems to be shared liy.; the police.' Again and again it has happened that a murderer has been allowed to escape through the authorities wasting all their energies m. an attempt to track the writer of a certain; document, instead of endeaVouring to unearth Mother clues. The murder of Mrs Revillei the fcutjeher's wife, at Slough, , which I narrated the other week, affords an illustration., of my contention. To begin with, it is. very hard to distinguish any person's handwriting when an attempt has been made to disguise it.: Experts there are who I Aft£ >REJ^RED TO SWEAR . that §upl i and iych;"a. Paper .was wrilr ien by suoh and such a. person, but few juries, have been found to convict on this sort, of evidence alone.. In the case of the murder of Sarah UTane r Roberts at Manchester, I think I' am doing the. police an injustice by saying that had they .not restricted fheir investigate ■to the one clue which they pot ;sed, there might £ave.;been. a chan ol discovering tine murderer, ;,:..,• " ... .', " : ;., As i| is, the v qase; remains an unfathomable mystery, and no one has been able to give a satisfactory suggestion" as- to how the ghastly crime can: ptfssifoly have been committed. j A YOUNG. BUXOM SERVANT ■i „»«•« GIRL if eighteen ,is: alone, on the ground poor of a* house m Manchester. Her mistress is upstairs, an" invalid. • At 6.25 the mistress hears a knock it the door. The servant goes to ppen it, and someone is admitted

who accompanies the servant to the kitchen. For five minutes the mistress detects no sound.; then, suddenly, there is a scream. She rushes downstairs, summons her neighbors, and discovers the servant girl dying on the kitchen floor. T,hat, briefly, is all that is known of the death of Sarah Jane Roberts. For the benefit of- my readers I will narrate the full circumstances of THIS EXTRAORDINARY CRIME. Mr Richard Greenwood was a well-to-do business man,. living m the year 1880 at Westbourne-grove, Harpurhey, Manchester. His house was a semi-detached one, standing m a lonely thoroughfare, his neighbors being a Mr Cadman, a Unitarian minister, his wife and family. Mr Greenwood lived alone with his wife, who was a confirmed invalid, and his one servant — Sarah- Jane Roberts, a fine-looking girl of eighteen. Jane, as her mistress called her, hailed from Wales, bore an excellent character., and was much beloved by :her master and mistress^ m whose employ she had been for about ten months at the time that this TRAGIC NARRATIVE COM- : n MENCES. • Like . a good many homely north: country people, Mr a<nd Mrs Greenwood frequently sat m the liitehen, and on these occasions, treated Jane almost as a member of the family. So much did both of them become attached to her that s Mrs Greenwood informed her one day that her husband had made provision for her m his will, so that she would not have to. seek a new situation if he were to die before she did. Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that Jane found the place.; very 'much to her liking, and avowed her intention of staying, indefinitely. ' There seemed to be ; only one blot upon the pleasant tenor of her life. Like the good-looking girl she was,

it was inevitable that she should attract" MEMBERS OF THE OPPOSIT-:' SEX. She had two young men. r;o she wrote to her sister-in-law, a Mrs Roberts Robertg, who resided m Manchester. One of them was m a good situation, and earning three pounds a week. She does not seem to have returned their affection ; and, indeed, appears to have regarded theirs attentions with something akin to aversion. She deliberately destroyed all the letters she received from them, and went abroad as little as possible, probably to avoid meeting them. On Monday, January 5, 1880, her sister-in-law came to see her, m order to complete arrangements lor the marriage of another sister at Halifax. Mrs Roberts was wearing clothes . very similar to those m which Jane was similarly attired when walking' abroad. , t As she neared the house, two men suddenly sprang out of the darkness. She turned quickly , so that they saw her face. Finding, evidently, that they had made a mistake, the , TWO MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS rushed away into the nigM. On the following evening, Mrs Roberts made another visit to Jane, and on this occasion noticed a young man hanging about the house. He made off, however, on her n • i>earance- '.-'•■ ' ' ■•■■■" '• ' ■■■ Wednesday, January 7, the day doomed to end a ghastly tragedy, opened for the Greenwood family m the ordinary way. At mid-day, Mr Cooper, Mjr Greenwood's partner, called. ;' As Jane opened the door to him he noticed lying on the ground a letter, without a ; stamp, evidently pushed under the floor by someone, and not posted m the ordinary way. "Hullo, Jane, here's a love-letter for you," he remarked, stooping to pick the letter up, and handing it to the -girl. She looked at the address, and then replied, quietly: . "Oh, no ; it's for Mr Greenwood.'' Mr Cooper was shown up into the room m which Mrs Greenwood was confined,.. while Jane went to fetch her master from the back garden, whefre , . . : HE WAS ENGAGED IN DIGGING. Dropping the spade, Mr Greenwood followed the girl into the kitchen, where" she handed him the letter without any remark. Before going' upstairs he read it through, and its contents puzzled him not a little. He had some landed property m the 'district, , and from time to time overtures had been .made- to him to sell or let portions of it, but he had refused to accept thes£. proposals for business reasons. The letter had reference to" this portion of his property, and ran as follows :— January 7, 1880. Mr Greenwood. ' I want -to take the land near the coal-yard, behind tie . druggist's shop, Queens-road. I will pay either monthly, quarterly,, or yearly, and will pay m advance, and will meet you to-night from five to six o'clock at the "Three Tuns,'' corner of Churnet-street, and will tell you all particulars. I don't kaiow your address or I would have posted it.-— Yours, etc., Oldham-road. W. WILSON. Mr Greenwood carried this letter with him upstairs, and, handing it to his partner, asked him his opinion of its contents. Mr Cooper read it out aloud for the benefit of Mrs Greenwood, and that lady was very warm In urging her husband to keep the appointment, and if the terms offered were good enough, to accept them. Mr Greenwood did not at once make up his mind. He was not ■particularly anxious, to part with the piece of land m question. He considered it would spoil his property, but ultimately decided that no harm would be done 1 by hearing, what THE MYSTERIOUS "W. WILSON" had to propose, ■ ' Accordingly, at 5.40 that eveniae, he left the house and made his wav to the Three Tuns. On inquiiimg of the waiter, he was surprised to learn that nobody of the name of Wilson had called there or made any inquiries for him. Like any v other man would have been, under the circumstances, he was inclined to be angry at the - failure ol his correspondent to keep the appointihent. He determined, none the less, ' to wait . a little m case he should turn up. Until 16.20 he hung about the vicinity of the Three Tuns ; then, his patience giving way, he decided to return borne, after leaving a message with the landlord. "If anyone 'comes that wants to see Greenwood," he told him-, "they will have to come to Westbourne-grove. I live there.'* IN NO PLEASED FRAME OF MIND . . he 1 made his way back to his home. When, at 6.40, he got there, he discovered that a ghastly tragedy . had taken place. ' During) her husband's absence, Mrs Greenwood had been left alone m her room upstairs. She sat with her door ppen, so that she could hear everything that went on m the house. At 6.25 there was a knock at the front door. She heard Jane come out of the kitchen and cross the lobby to the door. Then, a second later, her ear caught sounds of footsteps again crossing the lobby— the footsteps of Jane, and the. footsteps of somebody else, who walked very lightly, like a woman. The ddor that separated the lobby from the kitchen closed. For five minutes no sound reached the ears of Mrs Greenwood. Then, suddenly a piercing scream rent the air. It was such a blood-curdling scream that, summoning up all her strength, Mrs Greenwood stap«:ered out ' to the banistors. ; "What's tbe matter, Jape 1" she called. Tho only answer' was ANOTHER TERRIFYING SCREAM and then dead silence. Not another sound was to be heard m the house. Under the impression that Jane was m a fit, or that her clothes had caught on fire, Mrs Greenwood hurried down to the front door, ami, opening it, cried out, "Murder! Murder !" m the hope that t-his sensatioi'a' cry would bring someone to her assistance. Next qoor, Mrs Cadman was busy m the kitchen with her servant, Ann^ ?::iow. She had only returned a* C.25, and was making preparations lot supper.

! AI. ""0 she had been, startled by .a j pierc. tc "scream, which she described as being like that o! a woman m pain. Imagining that something had happened to her (i^'i^hter, Dora, who was playing m hhj back yard, she rushed out. t< hiding all was well, she returned again. Hardly had she done so, when a second piercing scream struck upon h6r ears. This time there was no ] mistaking that THE PITEOUS CRY CAME from the Greenwood's house. Accompanied by her servant, she ran out of her front' door to fmd Mrs Greenwood on the step m a greart state of consternation. "There's something wrong m my kitchen," she cried. • J Getting a light, Mrs Cadman boldly approached the lobby door and opened it. The kitchen was brilliantly lighted by the gas, and the three women saw Jane lying on her. breast across the floor, her feet under the dresser, and her head towards the Window. Stoc-ping dawn, Mrs Cadman was horrified to find that blood was : trickling from her head. From the motion of her shoulders she saw she was still breathing. A Mr Allen, who lived by, was immediately sent for, and, with his as- ; £*Lstance^ the poor jsrl was turned .' over on her back. Within five .mm;- -; utes she died,, before medical - assistance, could be obtained,' without^ever uttering a word. • • ■ •■ ■■■"■''■ Sh& had been murdered ; of that there .was no doubt. ; - FOUR GR FIVE GHASTLY WOUNDS were found on hear head and brow, made by some blunt instrument. But who and Where Was the murderer ? | There was np signs of any struggle. Everything was m its place. The fire burnt cheerfully ; the gas was alight ; everything was neat and j tidy ; not a bit of furniture had been J disarranged. _'„." " J In an escritoire m an adjoining! room Mr Greenwood had left a con- i siderable sum of money. Not a penny of this had been, taken, and, on further investigation, it- was found J that not a thing . was missing from .1 the house. Robbery had clearly not been the motive of the criminal. Could the person who entered the house at 6.25, and who obviously had committed the deed, have been a jealous lover ? But Jane, as I have already stated, was averse to young men, and was not likely to have brought anyone of j her -admirers into the house. More- 1 over, Mrs Greenwood was positive | tha-t the footsteps of th-e visitor ] which she had heard • WERE THOSE OF A WOMAN. > It was pretty . cleair that the crime had been carefully arranged, and thai; the letter which Mr Greenwood had received was a decoy, sent for the express purpose of ensuring his absence from home whole' the deed was being done. v " This letter was tte only clue that the police possessed, and the mystery which surrounded the case was intensified by the following strange, facts ' No Weapon was found m the house | or m the precincts '•* though the whole tragedy occupied but five minutes. Mrs Greenwood heard nobody J leave the house by the front door; Mrs Ca'dman, whose kitchen overlooked the back entrance of : the Greenwoods' house, was equally . positive that no one left by the back door. : No one had seen any per son. loiter ins m the neighborhood. Under these circumstances, the police seemed to consider that, the bestv tiling they oould do was to ■ centre.., their attention by trying, to find "W. ' Wilson, Oldham-road,". j WHO WROTE THE DECOY I LETTER. Lithograph copies of the paper were j circulated, and a large number of communications poured m upon the police, some of them containing specimens of handwriting which, were thought to beat a striking resemblance to the document m question. Every day for a month the police investigated the doings of various persons. A man called Haild, who, it was alleged, had made a • false declaration m order to obtain a free emigration passage to Australia, was arrested at Plymouth on a charge of perjury, and it was generally assumed would be ultimately: charged '., with a grayer offence. But Haildlsv examination before the Magistrates satisfied . them, that he was not guilty of per jury i ' and the police were 'convinced that they had no grounds whatever for preferrifrg a charge - against him of haying taken the life of Sarah Jane Roberts. One other step the authorities took, a rather . curious one, which T simply record for the interest of my reader;?. Before, the poor prl's burial a photograph was taken of her eyes, m the hope that the OUTLINE OF THE MURDERER or thi with which the niurder was cbmmitted might be found oh tbe retina. A large amount of correspondence .m , the .papers from scientific people destroyed any lingering hope that "the authorities might have had-vp| discovering any -thing by this eccentric means. ; r . The tragedy ■ was made the excuse for a number of extraordinary letters to the-papfrs-^one fr^m; a.man who said he knew wKo the; murderer was, but declined to give evidence lest his own past, shouid be raked jip, and an-^ other from the man said he was the murderer himself.' The veracity of the Writers was, never put to the test, for the, police; failed to discover their identities:; ' . \ .•'..