MURDER OF MISS BARROW

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 217, 12 March 1912, Page 5

MURDER OF MISS BARROW

THE SEDDONS ON TRIAL. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, March 10.' Mr. Rufus Isaacs, K.C., had not concluded the cross-examination of Seddon when the court adjourned. Seddon admitted that he and his wife cashed: £156 -worth of Miss Barrow's bank notes, sometimes writing false names and addresses on the back.

On September 14 of last year Miss Barrow, an eccentric woman of 49, died in the house of Frederick Seddon, district superintendent for the London and Manchester Assurance Company, where she had been lodging at 12s a week since July, 1910. Death was certified as due to acute enteritis; but subsequently exhuihation was ordered. The story outlined by the prosecution in the Police Court, and supported by witnesses at the various hearings, is as follows: Miss Barrow formerly lived with a Mr. and Mrs. Gaunt; and Cook, an enginedriver, , Mrs. Grant's brother, remembers that she had then in a cash-box bags containing £420 in gold. She had also '£2oo in a savings bank, £I6OO in India stock, bringing in £52 a year; and leases, with 18 or 19 years to run, of a publichouse and barber's shop, bringing in £.120 a year net. The Grants died, and in 1910 Miss Barrow moved from the house of relatives named Vonderrah to the Seddons, Cook and his wife going with her, to live there rent free in return for Mrs. Cook teaching her cookery and housekeeping. Cook saw the bags again at this time. In a fortnight she quarrelled with the Cooks; Seddon is alleged to have framed the quarrel, and the Cooks had to go, protesting that Seddon was after Miss Barrow's money. Presently she transferred her leasehold property and stock to Seddon, apparently without taking independent advice. In return he was to pay her £l6O a year for life. Seddon, whose average earnings were £5 15s a week, and whose only property was £6 a year from municipal stock, got over £ISOO in cash for Miss Barrow's India stock, and invested it in house property yielding £2OO a year. In -Tuni Miss Barrow drew all her Savings Bank monej', but it. lias not been traced. On September 7 she fell ill. On the evening of September 11 Seddon alleges she made a will, leaving all her belongings to Ernest Grant, the nine-year-old j son of the Grants, who lived with her, and his sister Hilda, and appointing Seddon sole executor. Mrs. Seddon and Seddons father are the witnesses to this will. On the night of the 13th the boy Grant called the Seddons to Miss Barrow, who was very restless, and that night she died. Grant was sent off to Southend, and did not hear of the death for a fortnight. Seddon told an undertaker that he had found only £4 10s of Miss Barrow's money, and arranged with him to bury her for £4. The body was removed to a mortuary, and even the Seddon's servant knew nothing of the funeral. Miss Barrow was buried in a common grave, which held five other coffins, though there was room in her family vault elsewhere. The Vonderrahs, living only 400 yards from the Seddons, were not told of the death, and only learned of it later because their son missed little. Grant • from school and enquiries were then made. Seddon then produced a copy of the alleged will. On the evening of September 14 two assistant insurance superintendents saw oeddon counting out large sums of gold a " d "' ithi " th ® ' lex t few days he bought £IBO worth of shares. The post-mortem showed that Miss Barrow died of arsenical poisoning.