THE RAINHILL AND WINDSOR MURDERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2334, 24 March 1892, Page 4

THE RAINHILL AND WINDSOR MURDERS.

London, March 20. Deeming had cards printed on which he styled himself Manager of the New Novitgelacht Goldmine at Klerksodop, in South Africa. His possession of large sums of money is accounted for by the discovery that while in Africa two years ago he swindled a Transvaal bank out of £ 4OOO. For this crime he was wanted. as well as for swindling a geutleman in Bedford out of large sums in connection with mining companies. It iB reported that at Antwerp he had a Gladstone bag full of sovereigns. Crowds are visiting Rainhill. The detectives have secured a portrait of Miss Mather, who, it has been ascertained sailed with her husband for Melbourne. Deeming's brothers are prostrated with shame and grief, but general sympathy is felt for them. Further crimes are alleged against the murderer, and most absurd and wild rumours are prevalent. March 21. Iu 1888, Deeming, with the aid of an accomplice, swindled the jewellers of Johannesberg out of £3OOO worth of goods. While he was there two mysterious murders were committed. The curate of Rainhill announced from the pulpit to-day that Miss Mather, a week previous to her wedding, censured him for casting doubts on Deeming's bona fides. It has been discovered that after the murder of his wife and children Deeming showed his friends a blood-stained knife which he alleged had saved him from the Kaffirs. There were serious disorders and fighting at Rainhill to-day, the crowds which thronged the place having differences of opinion as to how Deeming would best be punished. It is believed that among Deeming's luggage discovered at Plymouth is the clothing of another of his victims. A Hartlepool merchant, who was best man at Deeming's wedding at Beverley, declared that the latter swindled him, as well as several other tradesmen in Antwerp. Deeming tried to marry a girl in Liverpool in July, and presented her with much jewellery, and he regularly attended worship. While in Rainhill he desired Mrs Mather to sell her little property, it is believed with the object of securing Miss Mather's share at once. He stated that he was a nephew of Sir Wilfred Lawson, by whom he was educated, and that he had taken many school prizes in Australia. After his wife left the Cape, Deeming and an accomplice obtained £6OO in Durban for gold commission, and next he secured the confidence of Messrs Grice and Insell, who introduced him to a Johannesburg banker from whom he borrowed £SOOO. In connection with the latter he gave Capetown references, and these were answered by an accomplice. Deeming made good the bank's advance. Deeming defrauded Mr Courtney, of Capetown, out of a large quantity of jewellery, and returned to England shadowed by a detective for Transvaal and for the police at Birkeahead, Stockton-on-Tees,London, and Pembroke. Finding that he was dogged, Deeming doubled back to Australia, taking passage by the s.s. Jumna. Another detective boarded the vessel at Thursday Island, but Deeming managed to evade him and slipped away at Brisbane. He was next heard of at Port Said, and then at Birkenhead and Beverley. Deeming and Emily (Miss Mather) stayed at Hastings in October, where he was in the habit of flaunting a hundredguinea chronometer. Crowds of sightseers are still at Rainhill. On September 14th, Deeming wrote to the father of his first wife, stating that he would bring his wife to see him shortly, and urged Mr James to send him his gold watch to get it repaired. This, however, James, fortunately for himself, did not do. .Deeming left the church in the middle of ttie service on the Sunday after he had murdared his wife and children. While posing as Lawson, an Australian millionaire, he was the guest of several merchants in West Hartlepool for some weeks. All the letters received by the Mathers from Australia were full of expressions of happiness. Blood-stained bedding and shirts have been discovered in the hotel at Rainhill, where they are supposed to have been left by the murderer. Deeming is believed to have passed under the names of Wilson, Cleves, and Webster, as well as numerous other aliases. The Mathers identify the articles found in the possession of Williams when arrested as answering to the description of some that their daughter's husband took away with him. Adelaide, March 21. A man passing by the name of Ward arrived here from Sydney in January, 1888, and left for South Africa in a sailing vessel. The steward and others have identified him as Williams. The third child mentioned in London telegrams was born on this voyage. Two fellow passengers allege they were robbed of all their money by Williams. Perth, March 22. During the voyage here Swanson (Williams) asked permission of a fellowpassenger to pay his addresses to the latter's niece, but the request was-refused. Detective Cowsey, of the Victorian police, accompanied by Hirschfeldt, who was a fellow passenger with Williams in the Kaiser Wilhelm, has arrived here. A number of prisoners, including Williams, were paraded, and Hirschfeldt picked our, the accused. Swanson has secured the services of a solicitor of well-known ability in criminal proceedings, and it is believed every legal technicality will be ; raised with the view of preventing the , prisoner being handed over to the Victorian police. The case comes on to-day. Among Swanson's effects is a marriage certificate in the names of Albert Williams and Emily Mathers. A knife closely resembling a dissecting knife was also found. Swanson eats, smokes, and sleeps well, and appears to be perfectly happy. He protests lie is not the Windsor murderer, although he "believes that his wife was murdered at Windsor, and says that in consequence of her conduct with anothor man he quarrelled with her at the Federal Coffee

Palace, Melbourne, and had never seen her since. Williams' search for a wife, according to the calculations of the police, began eight days after the murder of his wife—that is to say, on the 2nd January. Williams, who was then residing at the Cathedral Hotel, under the name of Duncan, wrote the following extraordinary epistle to a matrimonial agent:— " Cathedral Hotel, Melbourne, January 2nd, 1892. Matrimonial.—The undersigned, at the above address, wishes to meet with a young lady with the above intentions. She must be good-looking, aged 18 or 20, and know something of house-keeping. Myself, I am 32 years, and engineer by trade. T have £360 in the bank, and am about to enter into a good appointment. I am a sober, steady man, and just from England, and have fourteen years' testimonials from one master. Please enclose photo, of lady. Yours, &c, F. Duncan." A letter acknowledging the receipt, and advising Mr Duncan that there were several goodlooking ladies with the above inteutions, age 18 or 20, who knew something of house-keeking, on the books of the office, was sent to him, and to this he wrote saying that he would call at the agency on the following Saturday. The promised visit was never paid. The part played by Miss Kate Rounsville in the tragic story of the murder of Mrs Emily Williams and the pursuit of her murderer is a most romantic one. Miss Rounsville had been house-keeping for her brother, a storekeeper in Broken Hill, and in consequence of the unsuitability of the hot climate to her health she determined to go for a change to Bathurst, where her sister resides. She says : know him, or Barron Swanson, as I know him, for the first time on board the s.s. Adelaide just after we left Melbourne on the 12th January. In the evening, when I was almost alone on the deck, a gentleman came up and said, ' Are you ill I Can I fetch you anything V I told him that I was not ill, and that I needed nothing. He pressed me with his offers of assistance, but I declined them all, and after a short conversation he left me. Next day he met mo on deck, and was again solicitous about my health, and desirous of doing me a favor in some way or other. Later on he asked me if 1 played whist, and when I told him I did he went away and got a couple of gentlemen, who, with us two, made up a game. We played for a while, and afterwards had a few words of conversation. Next day, the 14th, we reached Sydney, and on the way up the harbor he lent me a powerful pair of marine glasses, which enabled me to see the full beauty of the harbor scenery. As we were Hearing the pier I went up to him and said, ' Well, Mr Swanson, I shall say good-bye to you now. Thank you for your kindness to me on board; I may not have an opportunity later on, because of the rusli there is bound to be made for the luggage.' He said, ' Oh, don't say good-bye yet, Miss Rounsville; let me help you with your luggage to your hotel or the train.' 1 said, ' Very well, though I am afraid you are troubling yourself too much.' He said,' Not at all.' He said he would go to Bathurst with me, as he had determined to go some distance further along the same line. ' You know,' he continued, ' 1 am an engineer. I have just come to the colony, and am desirous of getting employment as soon as possible.' Then he proposed that I should marry him. I thought he was joking, and said ' No, I could not think of it. I don't know much about you, and cannot say I like even what I do know.' When the ship arrived we were too late to catch the morning train to Bathurst, so I had before me a late night train journey or a night in Sydney. Mr Swanson took my luggage and his own to the raisway station parcel office, and then we dined at the Wentworth Hotel. After dinner he suggested that we should go to Coogee, and I consented. When we got to Coogee, and were seated on the rocks, he renewed the subject of marriage. He told me I was young and attractive, and had quite fascinated him. I told him I could not think of marrying a stranger whom I had only known several days. He persisted, and, in order to quieb him, I said ' Well, I am going to live with my sister. Wait until I see her, and ask her opinion on the subject.' That satisfied him, and during the rest of the day, .which we spent at the aquarium, he asked me if I would wear a ring as a keepsake, and to remind me of him. I had previously refused to accept a ring from him as a present, but, seeing now that he was in earnest about his proposition of marriage, I consented to take the ring. The one he gave me was set with diamonds and sapphires. When we reached Bathurst he saw me safely to my sister's place, and then went and booked a room at Burley's Royal Hotel. Next day I had a long chat with him, and so had my sister, and after he had gone my sister said to me, ' If you are going to settle down I don't see any objection to you marrying Mr Swanson. He looks like a respectable man, and should be able to give you a comfortable home.' Next day he took me for a drive again, and in more earnest tones than he had yet used he implored rue to be his wife. At last I was so worn down by his persevering nature that I consented to marry him. It was then agreed he should go to Western Australia for employment. On the 18th he went to Sydney to make arrangements for his passage. While there he wrote me a letter full of loving messages and assurances of a happy future, and sent me also a silver-mounted riding whip, with the remark, ' I remember you said you would probably have some riding exercise, so I send you my whip.' Before he left lie gave me two other rings, a large five-stone diamond ring and a boat-shaped diamond ring, and also an opal brooch set in gold. He told me that he had a | let of clothes which, had belonged to his dead sister, and if I liked I might have them. I told him that I could not wear the clothes of a dead woman, even if I could overcome my objection, which I did not think possible, to taking gifts of clothing from any man not my husband. Well, he left Sydney by train on the 21st of January, and arrived in Melbourne next morning. He wrote to me from Melbourne, and I got another letter from Adelaide, one from Freemantle, and another from the Shamrock Hotel, Perth, under the date February oth. In this letter he told me he had got work with the Fraser's Mining Company, Southern

IMilgarn goldfield. He asked me to join him at once, as I had agreed to do before \ho left Bathurst. He asked me to reply by telegram, for which he paid. I excmsed myself on the score of illness, and in answer to a further telegram urging mo to go I declined on account of unpreparedness. Then he sent me £2O through the Commercial Bank, Sydney, for my travellling expenses, and prayed me to go over to him as soon as I oossibly could, I got my trosseau ready, and then on Thursday last,in answer to a wire from him 'Come at once, or the rain will set in and travelling will be impossible,' I answered,' Coming by the R.M.S Oceana.' I left Bathurst the same day, arriving in Melbourne at a quarter to ten o'clock on the night of Friday. On the journey over I read of the murder for the first time. When I arrived in Melbourne I was met by a friend, who took me and my luggage to the Federal Coffee Palace. There I found awaiting a telegram from my sister. ' For God's sake, go no further.' I showed it to my friend, and he wired asking to know the reason. Naturally 1 was much distressed, and was unable to sit down or rest. I therefore asked my friend to walk with me down the crowded streets that I might get some little distraction from my thoughts. Presently we noticed a crowd in front of a newspaper office, and, inquiring the reason, were informed that Williams the murderer had been arrested. I felt strangely moved, and I asked my companion to buy a paper. He did so and read ' Williams, alias Swanson, arrested at Southern Cross.' I knew then the meaning of the telegram from my sister, and, overcome with a nameless terror, I fainted. When I recovered I was at the Federal Coffee Palace, and Detectives Cowsey and Considine were there to question me. At first they seemed to believe that I was in some way connected with the crime, but I had little difficulty in satisfying them of my utter ignorance of it. The jewellery, which was, I now am told, the jewellery of the poor dead woman, I handed over immediately, and it makes me shudder now to think I have worn it, and as a love gift." —Miss Rounsville's letters or telegrams from Williams or Swanson were those of the most ardent lover, frequent and fulsome. He addressed her 'My dear Topsy,' as a rule, with 'My dear Kitty ' occasionally, and invariably wound up,' Your own Barron.'—Abridged from the Press. The Wellington Press says there are two ladies in that city who bear the name of Williams, and whose husbands are cloth hawkers. Both are young and and good looking, and both describe their husbands as of a roving disposition. One of them accompanied her husband to America and Africa. One of them heard from her husband on the 7th instant, when he was at Adelaide. Both are •in dread that their husband may turn out to be the accused.