STRANGER THAN FICTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3, 8 May 1913, Page 7

STRANGER THAN FICTION.

i ' - | ALLEGED PERJURY AT INQUEST. A situation that would appeal to a i novelist—though perhaps his readers j would reject it as too far-fetched—-j arose in. a remarkable statement, at i the Westminster Coroner’s Court, when Mr S. Ingle by Oddie drew the I attention of the jury to an inquest I held on February 5 on an unknown j man, evidently of the tramp class, who I was found dead in the Cambridge en- ! closure at St. James’ Park on January 31. There was nothing on the | body to lead to identification, but eventually the man’s daughter (socalled) and his son and another daughter, a grand-daughter, and a friend identified the body as that of the father of the two daughters and son. Six witnesses—the so-called son, two daughters, grand-daughter, and friends—all swore positively at' the inquest to the identity 'of the unknown man as Henry Harman, and one witness identified the buckle of. a belt which was found on the dead body and swore that lie had given it to the man. The witness also pointed to a copper rivet in the belt and said ho himself had repaired the belt with the rivet. He further identified a tobacco pipe found on the body and said ho bad given it also to the man. The whole tiling, continued the Coroner, was so convincing that the jury returned a verdict, in accordance with the evidence, and the relatives, so-called, got the insurance money. They buried tho man, it was true, spent some of the money in dressing themselves out in black clothes, and dissipated the rest. Henry Harman, the “dead” man, had since appeared before him, proceeded the Coroner, and said he had been in prison. The evidence given by his daughter was wrong, ho stated. Harman stated that ho had never had a buckle belt in his life, that he did not know tbo man who identified the belt, and that ho had never given him a pipe. As a matter of fact, the “dead” man aL ways wore braces. “It is quite clear to my mind,” added the Coroner, “that this was a conspiracy to get hold of the insurance money.” Mr Oddie remarked that ho mentioned the case to the jury in order that tho police might take note of it. Ho had now entered the dead man as unknown, and lie asked that his description should ho circulated by tho polcie. They bad no photograph of the man, hut the interesting fact might be added that he was web-footed. Between the great toe and tbo second toe there was a membrane reaching to tho root of tho nail, and between the second and tin I’d toes there were similar membranes on both feet.