THE TUNBRIDGE Conviction of the Cheerful Assassins. A CURIOUS STATE OF AFFAIRS. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESONDENT.) London, December 29.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 342, 13 February 1889, Page 3

THE TUNBRIDGE Conviction of the Cheerful Assassins. A CURIOUS STATE OF AFFAIRS. (F ROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESONDENT. ) London, December 29.

The mystery which puzzled and disturbed the little town of Tunbridge, and foiled the detective-police for more than three months and which would, in all probability, never have been discovered' but for a 'temporary spasm of remorse on the part of one of tteh c ' culprits, entered upon its final phase at Kent Assizes last Friday. The two lads or louts, Gower and Dobell, who surprised everyone so by, some weeks back, confessing to the (on their part) apparently motiveless murder of the respected manager of the Baltic Saw Mills, Mr Lawrence, were then put upon their trial and after the fullest evidence conclusively convicted. From the fir3b the hope that the precious pair might for pur- I poses of notoriety be romancing was of the , slenderost. Their terrible tale, with its appallingly cold-blooded details hung together too veil and too probable. The Btory of the murder itself is simple enough. What makes it almost unique amongst crimes are bho revelations of the desperate wickedness engendered apparently by halfimbecile vanity and desire of notoriety. "The victim Mr Lawrence," says the "Daily Telegraph," "was a respectable middle-aged man, married, and the father of a family, who was engaged as timekeeper ab the Baltic Saw Mills, Tunbiidge-wells. At these works the lad Gower was also employed, and in the course of six months he had been reported a great many times for being- late, and fined on each occasion. The fines, although in the aggregate they barely exceeded half-a- crown appear to have rankled in tho mind of Gower, who had a ' pal ' or mate in the person of Dobell, a young plumber, but who wa? not employed at the Baltic Mills. Gowor induced Dobell to join him in a plot to murder Lawrence. Between them the precious pair bought a revolver ; then they drew lots as to who should fire the pistol. The lot fell upon Dobell, to whom Lawrence had done no manner of wrong, and this hideous young ruffian, going to Lawrence's house between ten and eleven at night, enticed him out of doors and shot the poor man through the head. Lawrence was taken to the hospital and died next day. The police were unable to find the slightest clue to the perpetrator of the deed ; bub two months aftenyards a letter in a transparently disguised hand was sent to the editor of a Tunbridge-wells newspaper, in which the writer, who signed himself ' Another Whitechapel Murderer,' coolly avowed himself to be the assasbin of Lawrence, and minutely described the circumstances of the timekeeper's death. This letter was afterwards distinctly traced to Dobell ; but in the interim he and Gower had begun to attend tho meetings of the local Salvation Army. They joined in these exerci&es four nights out ot seven, and on the last occasion, when the prayer-meeting was over, Gower and Dobell took their seats ab a bable which apparently corresponds with the 'anxious seat' ab an American revival meeting. Ib is practically a &bool of repenbance, to which persons rssort who have anything on their minds, and who wish to disburden their consciences by making a general confession and so getting saved. Dobell and Gower both prayed heartily while they were on the ' anxious seat,' but the latter does not seem to have got enough salvation, for he called the next morning on the ' Captain ' who had conducted the service, and, after much halting and hesitating, confessed that lie and his ' mate ' Dobell had been at the bottom of the murder in the preceding July. 'We tossed up,' he explained, 'to see which of Us should do it, and tho lob fell upon my mate to do bhe deed.' When Gower confessed his guilb to the Salvation ' Captain,' he,seems to have been under the impression that the avowal need not go any further ; but the Salvation official, much to his credit, took another view of the mabber, and, atter communicating with hi? superior authorises, information was given to the police, and the young villains were arrested." The jury recommended the two young ruffians to mercy, but the judge practically said he should not support the suggestion. The behaviour of these two murderers in prison throws a curious light on bhe eflects produced by the Salvation Army's religious processes. From the first, not a word ot remorse for their crime, or sorrow for their victim's widow and children, has pa?sed the men's lips. They confessed in order to obtain a specific quid pro quo, and without any notion that the Salvation Army official would "peach" on them Had they believed so, I think we may fafely assume that not even tho prospect of " abounding grace " would have unsealed their lips. In all probability, morbid vanity and the hankering alter notoriety, which led to Gower and Dobell committing the crime, led to their confession nlso. We know the prestige that clings Lo a reformed sinner of the deepest dye in the Salvation Army. To Dobell and Gower the temptation to outshine "The Converted Burglar" and Co. must surely have seemed irresistible, especially if at the same time they could shift all feeling of wickedness, and obtain that mysterious qualification "?race." I don't for a moment suppose the gallows entered into their calculations. Having paid bhe price of prison for their , Salvation Army exercises, ib is not, perhaps, unnatural that tho two selfish scoundrels should cling desperately to the mysterious "grace "which they have got out of that body. Commonplace people, however, may possibly think their last state worse' than their first, since (and here I again 1 quoto from bhe"D.T."):— " No sooner had they made a clean breast of it, and had been arrested for the deed which one of them distinctly owned he had committed, than they seemed airily to regard the horrible crime as quibe a venial peccadillo, amply atoned for by fclie aboundih'g grace which .they had received through their connection with the 'Army.' Gower, in particular, while ho was awaiting trial, wi'ote from his cell to the ' Captain ' -who had been mainly instrumental in arresting him to say that he was not at all 'unhappy; that he was sure he would be Divinely assisted •through all his trials and temptations ; that the officers and warders and the chaplain were all very kind ; and that he was quite.certain that all his sins would be forgiven him. * Both me and my mate had. a very happy, journey. We kept our spirits up and did not got downhearted in the least. No sooner did we get into bhe cells than we began to whistlo prayers to God for preserving us thus far. But we soon gob stopped. Never mind, we can praise Him all the same.' This exceptionally cheerful assassin goes on to write that his cell is furnished with a Bible, a prayer-book, and a bound, volume of solos, and he remains ' yours truly, the happy gaol-bird, William Gower.' Is there, we ask, any precedent for such fatuity, such complacency under circumstances so awful? Tho 'happy gaol-bird ' seemed bo be utterly unaware that a cold-blooded murderer such as he

was must be an object, not of piby and kindness, but of loathing, and abhorrence ; but) the extraordinary state of grace into which he imagined 'that he had fallen led him entirely to forget the in nocent man whom he had barbarously slaughtered, and to think that, 'having got salvation ', and imprisonment to boot, all- he had to do was to whistle praises and turn over bound volumes of solos in certain hope of a happy hereafter. " While they were in T gaol Gower was visited b~y the wife of a ' Major ',in the Salvation Army, and to' this' female the lad confessed he had bought the revolver with which Lawrence had been shot. Dobell was to have paid half the purchase money, so that it was at Gofer's sole cost and charges that the murderous implement was obtained. • What induced you to buy it?' asked the c Major's ' wife. ' Oh,' the happy gaol-bird replied, 'to be like other men. Other fellows have them, so we thought we would like one.' " I am glad to learn this reply has made such an impression on several Government M.P.'s that they have resolved to pass a short Act prohibiting the sale of revolvers and other firearms to anybody and everybody. If this is done even Gower and ' Dobell will not have lived and been hanged wholly in vain. <