A CHAMBER OF HORRORS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2283, 12 July 1880, Page 2

A CHAMBER OF HORRORS.

Bv A VISITOE. Among the many curious sights of London to which the general public is not admitted, is the “Black Museum,” as it is technically called, adjoining the head quarters of the Detective Police at Scotland Yard. In this room —a veritable chamber of horrors are stored a multiplicity of articles,commonplace enough in themselves, but to which a peculiar interest attached once on account of their connection with crimes that have, from time to time, horrified the public. In their glass cases and around their walls may bo found the records of many dark mysteries which have been gradually unravelled by the skill and intelligence of the Loudon detectives, of whom there arc some 100 at present located in the great metropolis. Here in this case is the axe with which the ilev. Henry Watson, of Brixton, murdered his wife, and here lying coiled up beside the weapon is the hank of new rope with which (he murderer corded up the box containing the body of his victim.

The next case recalls to mind another tearful tragedy, that which took place in the Whitechapel road some three or four years ago, ami than which no darker can he recalled in the annals of crime. There is the chopper and the spade used by the notorious Wainwright, and beside them arc to be found scraps of the dress of the ill-fated Harriet Lane, and pieces of her hair. Hanging on the walls arc a formidable array of bludgeons and “life preservers,” that could, if they were able to speak, tell many a tale of dark nights and lonely roads. This long black gown of clerical cut was once worn by a consulting magician, who occupied lodgings in a shady street oil; the Marylebone road, and who advertised in the cheap newspapers that he was prepared to cast horoscopes, tell fortunes, reveal secrets, and give the most reliable advice on love and marriage.” That dusty bundle of letters were received from scores of “ clients,” anxious to peep into futurity. The business must have been fairly remunerative if one may judge from that little memorandum book, from which it appears (hat the “professor” frequently saw from DO to 100 clients a day. Not so bad this at os a visit, which was the advertised charge. That richly bound volume, containing the hieroglyphics, was the magician’s “ Book of Fate,” in which he read the secrets of the future. That long slick with the gold tip was his magic hand. The downfall of the mysterious one arose from the visit of a detective, who after paying 5s to learn his fate was cruel enough to take the wizard into custody, and he was subsequently sent to goal for three mouths. This is a very ordinary looking knife of the kind usually employed by butchers, and yet that knife too has a history, for with it Walter Coppin stabbed his his wife. Coppin was a retired butcher, and having determined to murder his wife he went to the shop of a butcher living opposite to where he lived and borrowed this knife, llcturuing home he went to his wife’s room, and stuck the unfortunate woman exactly as he would have stuck a sheep. Coppin was hanged for the murder, and the tradesman from whom the knife was borrowed very naturally declined to take it back, and so it was deposited here. This little collection of neat wooden and leathern boxes contained the stockintrade, of the late Charles Peace, who seems to have been a most particular man about the selection of his housebreaking and other implements. Each one of these tools is of the best manufacture and of. carefully finished

workmanship. This man if had only boon honest might have been an eminent mechanician. The very police themselves regard him as a genius, and so undoubtedly he was. Well, we have seen enough and will therefore thank our guide and be off—stay, tins case is devoted to the notorious Mrs Waters, the “ Baby Banner,’’ and here are certain relics of her infamous trade. That enormous bundle of letters—many of them written on superfine note-paper, crested and monogramed—would throw, if published, a great deal of light on certain aristocratic scandals of which the outside world knows nothing !