FAMOUS MYSTERIES.

NZ Truth, Issue 143, 14 March 1908, Page 7

FAMOUS MYSTERIES.

The Burton-Crescent Murder.

'(By Ladbroke Black.)

It is. a curious circumstance that two .of the most famous murder mysteries should have for their victims two women of the same name. My readers will recollect that some Weeks ago, I dealt with the extraordinary murder of a Mrs 'Samuel, of Bartholomewrroad, , Kentish-town, who was killed by\ three miscreants m broad, daylight m the year 1887. Th. victim of the. Burton-Crescent murder. was. also a Mrs. Samuel, who met her • death under circumstances quite, as mysterious, as those with which the Kentish-town tragedy was surrounded. The story . }s remarkable, not only for the mystery m which the gruesome, deed-is steeped, but also for one of the most curious police proceedings on tecord. Nowadays, the splendid body, of men who watch and guard the safety of the public make the proud boast that not m 99 cases out of a hundred do .ttiey prefer a charge of murder against a person which they subsequently failed to substantiate. But m the year 1878 things were . different. . In theiFßaste ° - :X ZZr

they arrested, within two days of the crime, a certain Mary Donovan, and the'toHowlng day formally charged h^r with the crime, without having collected any evidence against her thai; could vprove her guilt. They obtained a remand five times, and' a month- later had to admit that they were dMte unable to discover any proofs 'to support the grave accusation they had made. Mr Flowers-,.; the then magistrate of Bow-street, deemed it his duty m discharging Mary Donovan to mildly censure the police. They had no business, he told them, to have charged her' on the merely suspicious evidence that. they had collected; I think the rebuke was merited. The police seemed- to have considered their, suspicion of Mary .Donovan as good as proof, and hot to hive made any. serious inquiries before effecting her arrest. The story of this horrible, crime runs as follows :— Mrs Samuel was a widow of a diamond merchant, and m the year .of 1878 had just attained the good age of 75. Burton-crescent, where she resided, is adjacent to Euston-road, and the house she occupied was a substantial supecriorr-looking place, m keeping with her position and means. Report had it that' she Was very rich, and that she had managed to hoard

A. VERY CONSIDERABLE SUM

of money.' For some reason, which has never been explained, she took m a lodger. Possibly the house was too .large for her, and she found it lonely, for she then kept no regular servant on the premises. . For ten years she had 1 been faithfully served by a woman to whom she was greatly attached. This ser- , vant had left to be married' ; her name was Mary DonovanNot caring . to replace Mary, Mrs Samuel, who. .was an energetic, -bustling woinaiv capable even at .her advanced dee- of doing some of. the 1 housework, Employed the services of a little girl called Fanny White, who cam© m every day to wash up, to

sweep, and to attend to other small domestic duties'. Mary Donovan used to visit her old mistress very often, being always assured of a welcome. She washed occasionally for Mrs Samuel, and, as that, old lady was unable to bend her back very far, she used to come.at regular intervals to cut her toe-nails. Mary Donovan- had CERTAIN LITTLE ECCENTRIC i HABITS, which her old mistress, readily forgave. Not to mince words, she used to get drunk', and on several .. occasions appeared m that condition at Burton-crescent. On Tuesday, December 10, she called some time m the afternoon, the door being opened by the lodger, a foreigner, named Borschutzky, who made his living by playing m the orchestra at some theatre. A few minutes later she left the house, Mrs Sa-> muel explaining that "Mary was tight." On Wednesday, December 11, Mary called again. It was late m the afternoon. The little girl, Fanny? White, had already departed, and the lodger was thinking about setting off for his orchestral duties. By 7 o'clock Mary Donovan and Mrs Samuel were alone m the house. At 8 o'clock two women, a Mrs Elizabeth Barrat and a Mrs Shilleto, called to see Mrs Samuel with regard to the situation of housekeeper which they believed the old lady required filling. Finding that their services were not needed, they retired, being shown out by Mary Donovan. At midnight Mr Borschutzky returned, letting himself m with bis latchkey. It was his invariable custom to take supper at this house, the meal being laid m readiness for him m the parlor on the ground floor. To his surprise, and probably also to his annoyance, he found that no food was awaiting him , I i Wondering what the reason could I be, he went down into the kitchen to I discover from Mrs Samuel, if she were still out of bed, the reason of this oversight, and, if possible, to, have it remedied. *■>■ When he got down to the kitchen the first thing he saw was the body, of the unfortunate old lady

LYING IN A POOL OF BLOOD,

quite dead. He immediately rushed off to the house of her son hard by, and returned a few minutes later with that gentleman,, a policeman, and .a doctor, who. at once proceeded to make an examination of the corpse and they house. How Mrs Samuel had met her death was self-evident. She had been, literally beaten to death, her head and face being torn and bruised with horrible, brutal wounds. Behind a screen ' was found a piece of wood— an old hat-rack, fitted with pegs and pierced with long nails, which originally fastened it to the wa'.l. It had been split m two, but both sections were covered with blood and hair, the nails being encrusted with flesh. '. ' The old lady had not died without a struggle. She must have tried to protect herself with her hands, which were bruised and cut m a most disgusting manner. Both her eyes were discolored, and her face was blacken-

ed with dirt of some kind, as though it had been rubbed . over with dirty fingers. On a table hard by was a knife smeared with blood, though no wound was found upon the body which suggested that any sharp instrument had been used. There were tracks of blood across the kitchen door, and near the kit* chen stair ; the back door was also smeared, and the area window was found broken from the inside, and a quantity of the glass lying about bore THE SAME GRIM EVIDENCE of the murder. . . Tli6re was one strange and curious circumstance attaching to this tragic scene. The murderer had evidently made an attempt to clear up the bloodstains. The hat-rail with which the deed was committed had been partially washed, and near the corpse was found an old washing cloth with which the assassin had mopped up a portion of the blood on the floor, It was pretty clear that the murderer had soon given up this task, for the floor was only .half wiped, and the hat-rail half cleaned. Moreover, some water was found m the sink;, dyed crimson with blood, which , showed that this mysterious person had washed his hands after committing the deed and attempting TO CLEAR AWAY ITS EVIDENCE. It was found also that the pocket which Mrs Samuel wore, hanging loose; round L the front of her dress had been cut away, and the plain worn gold wedding-ring which she always wore had been wrenched , from her finger. , A • The only other things found to be missing from the house were a pair of new boots. Nothing else had beentaken, and, apparently, no attempt had been made to rifle the premises m the hope of securing the hoard which the old lady was supposed to have laid by. One would imagine that ;the<t»_mcy of the police Have been to trace, if possible, the boots and thej wedding-ring; While keeping any person they might suspect under observation. But this course they did fiot adopt. •*■■•■'■ ■•"' ' • They easily discovered that Mary, Donovan had been the . last person known to have been m the company of Mrs Samuel on the fatal night, and by a few quiet inquiries they learnt something of her doings subset quent to the murder. She resided ait rooms at 42 Lan-caster-street, Borough-road. Her landlady informed the authorities that she had not returned on the night of Wednesday, December 11. The landlady's 'daughter had sat up for her until after midnight. At 7.45 the next > morning she put m an appearance ; . HER CLOTHES ALL TUMBLED and disordered, her hair loose y and her face dirty. "I slept at a coffee house," she explained, as she entered the house with a bundle under her shawl and some wood on her arm: On this evidence the police considered they had , clear and positive proof that Mary Donovan had murdered Mrs Samuel. , On Friday, December 13, two police officers called at Lancaster-* street to effect her arrest. Mary Donovan did not appear at all upset when they made known the object of their visit, and volunteered a statement, which, read now, without prejudice, seeiits to bear the impress of truth. She had . just finished Mrs Samuel's toe-nails, she explained, When a man knocked at the door and asked to look at some apartments. It was then between 8 and 8.30. Mrs Samuel appeared to know this man, who looked, according to Mary's account, LIKE A PLASTERER OR PAPERHANGER. He was asked into the house, and the old servant was despatched^ to get something to eat for her supper. On her return the stranger was still there. Mrs Samuel had intended to give her some things for the wash, but told, her she would give them to her the; following day, and. that she needn't stay any longer. She accordingly came away, leaving the man m the house. The police officers received this narrative m cynical, silence, and when she had finished asked her what dress she had worn on that night. She retorted that it was the one she had on then. They immediately examined it, and found here and there certain, marked discolor ations. Mary Donovan explained that these were iron-mould. '-'I am confident it is blood, " retorted one oi the officers. On the bed was a black skirt, which they also examined, Donovan remarking, "You will find ' no blood on that." On her boots were also, found the . . , r

She 'Was promptly arrested and taken away m a cab, loudly exclaiming, "I am not afraid." On the way to the station the officers suspected^ that she was trying to tear some•fefcing from the Iront of her dress, and, on looking beneath' her shawl, they again saw more dark stains. The following day. Saturday, December 14, she was brought up before the magistrate and formally charged. Everyone was confident that she was' the murderess. The public shaf-, ed the opinion of the police. The press, regardless of the fact that the case was-' still • sub judice, and that, therefore, criticism of the accused iWas nos permissible, quite openly announced that they were satisfied that Mary Donovan had murt dered Mrs Samuel. At first everything went smoothly for the authorities. Prof. Redwood, to whom the woman's clothes were sent for examination, AFTER A MICROSCOPICAL INVESTIGATION ' extending over some weeks, averred that the dark marks on the, skirt were blood-stains, and that the blood was human blood. •Curiously enough, the same authority declared that there were no blood-stains on the skirt about which Mary Donovan had remarked to the two police officers, "You will find no blood on that." The net seemed to he closing quickly round' Mrs Samuel's old servant, and when it was discovered that a woman of the name of Donovan had pawned a gold wedding-ring on December 12, the case seemed established. The pawnbroker's assistant, who had managed the affair, was brought to the prison to identify the woman who. had, pawned the ring. He picked'

out. Mary Donovan from a number oi other women with that extraordinary certainty and accuracy which .is an invariable feature of such scenes. All this time Donovan stoutly protested, her innocence.- and preserved a 'quiet, stubborn demeanor m the box which was translated, so high did feeling run against her, AS PROOF OF HER GUILT. But the policfe. could not discover the stolen boots. ' High and low they searched, but searched in. vain. Areward of one pound was offered by the Criminal Investigation Department for "a pair of lady's lace-up felt boots, with black fur up the front and round the tops, nearly new, size sevens, rather wide soles, scarlet lining, patent toe-tip, and a. woman's "jean pocket," but without result. Though no answer of any kind was received to this advertisement, the police still retained their confidence; Then all of a sudden their case crumbled to nothing. '■.'•'' The pawnbroker's assistant who had identified Mary Donovan came to court and asked •to• be allowed to correct his evideiice. He had found that the Worn/An who had pawned the ring; was called Anne Donovan, and not Mary Donovan, and that, moreover,- Anne Donovan had come to claim the property. At the fifth heating before the Magistrate, Mr Poland, who prosecuted on behalf of. the Treasury, rose m his" place and declared tha%<he could -'CARRY THE CA^E N<) The policie had done everything they could to discover definite proof , of Mary Donovan's guilt, and had failed , absolutely. The woman was ; there* upon discharged.! : I think it is highly possible, that had the police accepted the state-, tnent of Maty Donovan, and.-tried t'p find the man .whom. she declared had called on Mrs Sajnuel on the .. fatal night, and looked like a plasterer be a papei^hangef, the irturdefer might have been caught. .v ; The fact that nobody ;-had v broken into the house, but that somebody had forced his way out of the house,! proved that the assassin must have, been, admitted by Mrs Samuel her- . self: Mrs Samuel was an . old lady who would neVef hate

ALLOWED A PERFECT STRAN- - ' " . v. ... 'GBR. .- . .: ..?. '

to enter the house, at a late hour of the night. Everything, . therefore, points' to Mary Donovan's statement being absolutely true, By the time. the police awoke' to this fact more than a month had elapsed. The detection of the criminal was hopeless. The usual reward of a. hundred pounds was offered by the Government, but no one knows to this day how the diamond merchant's widow of Burton-crescent met her death on the night of December 11, 1878.