THE RAINHILL AND WINDSOR MURDERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2349, 28 April 1892, Page 4

THE RAINHILL AND WINDSOR MURDERS.

Mei .bourne, April 22. The application made by counsel to-day on behalf of Deeming for a lengthy postponement of the trial was refused, and the trial begins on Thursday. April 24. Edward Deeming lias retained Mr Wilson Wallis to appear on behalf, of his brother at Bow street. Affidavits are being prepared to show hereditary insanity in the family, and the lawyer hopes to collect sufficient evidence of Deeining’s insanity ay to mitigate the sentence. London, March 19. On Saturday last telegrams from your side of the world announced the discovery of a horrible murder in Melbourne, and the arrest of a man Williams as the perpetrator of the crime. It was stated that the woman who was the victim was the wife of the murderer, and had arrived with him some few months ago from Liverpool. This set Scotland Yard at work here, detectives were sent to Liverpool, or rather the village of Rainhill, nine miles away, where Williams is supposed to have lived, and the result has been the unearthing of a most diabolical crime. The Melbourne victim has been identified as a Miss Mather, the daughter of an old and respected Rainhill resident, fn July last, it appears that Mr A. O. Williams arrived in Rainhill and put up at a local hostelry, describing himself as an “ inspector of regiments.” Mrs Mather, who kept a stationer’s shop, was entrusted with the letting of a house known as Dinham Villa, and this house Williams agreed to take. During the negotiations he became acquainted with Miss Mather. A day or two after Mr Williams arrived, a lady, accompanied by two children, came upon the scene, and visited him on one or two occasions, taking lunch and tea at his residence. Then the woman and children suddenly disappeared, and Williams explained that the woman was his sister, and stated that she had gone to meet her husband at Port ■Said. Williams, who appeared to have plenty of money, went to the villa for a few days, but returned to the hotel, where he remained for a few days prior to leaving for London. He was away a fortnight, and then he came back dressed in regimentals and very flush of money. He entertained some of the residents of Rainhill at dinner, and announced that he was about to marry Miss Mather, a statement which caused some surprise. The wedding took place about 8 o’clock one morning in September last at Rainhill parish church; the bride and bridegroom left immediately afterwards for London en route to India and Australia. Letters were received by Mrs Mather from various places, describing the journey, and stating that the couple were very happy. These letters, however, ceased, and then last Saturday came the telegram announcing the discovery of the body in Melbourne. The police at Scotland Yard communicated with the police at Widnes, in which division Rainhill is situated, and enquiries led to the above facts being ascertained, and also to the disclosure that during his stay at Rainhill Williams mid cemented the floor of tne kitchen at the villa, which has remained empty ever since his departure from England. Williams had commenced the cementing himself, but got a local plasterer to complete it. THE GHASTLY DISCOVERY. Suspicion was at once aroused that some horrible mystery was hidden beneath this cemented floor, and the police decided to take up the flags and cement. Before they had been at work a quarter of an hour a sickening smell emanated from the hole they had made in the floor, and those present were at once convinced that they were about to come upon buried remains. It was evident that a deep hole had been dug in the kitchen floor, and that several barrels of cement iiad been used, This had formed into a mass, solid and hard like concrete, and the work of excavating it was painfully slow. As the men proceeded the sickening graveyard smell became horribly intensified. After half-an-hour’s digging, when the earth mid cement had been excavated for a depth of about a foot, a confirmatory discovery was inado. The corner of a white damask tablecloth, and what appeared to be a woman’s apron or shawl were disclosed to view. The stench had now become so overpowering that the constables were compelled to cease work for a time and go to the door for fresh air. When the work was recommenced not many minutes had elapsed before the police were able to take out the bodies of tho two children, Both were lying face downwards with their iitt]o bodies simple covered with nightshirts, their legs beiny perfectly bare. “ The first body taken out was that of a boy about five years of age. The deceased wore a striped print shirt, and his head was wrapped in what appeared to be a piece of old linen, When the body was taken up the stench, which had previously been almost intolerable, became infinitely worse. Every window in the house had to be thrown open. The bodyj|of the first child discovered was immediately taken upstairs into one of the bedrooms. When the head-wrap was removed, it was discovered that not only was there a fearful wound pn the head,but that the throat had been cut and the head almost severed from the body. The remains were fearfully decomposed at the extermities of the arms and legs. The body of a fair-haired girl about seven year of age was next brought out, her throat also being terribly cut. After these two bodies had been removed, the police began to excavate to get; out the j-uly of a woman, which, it was apparent was deeply embedded in cement. Slowly the work proceeded; but ultimately one foot was uncovered; it was encased in a soft house shoe. Great difficulty was 1 found in extricating the body, it being so firmly fixed in the cement. It was seen that the woman liad a rope around her neck, and that the ends had been cut sharply off as if she had been hanged and cut down. A policeman tugged at the rope but it gave way, and the digging operations commenced again, the body being ultimately removed. While the men were at work digging round this body they made the unexpected discovery of ;tl;e body of a baby girl lying near the woman’s feet, and soon afterwards a fourth child—-a girl of about 10— was found lying beside the woman. The * woman’s body was wrapped in an eidgr ; down quilt, and tied tightly round with I

rope. She was fully dressed, with the exception of a boot and stocking missing from one foot. Her clothes were of fine quality. She had on a print morning dress. Her throat, like those of the children, was cut. She was of a very dark complexion, and had short black hair, suggestive of her being a half-caste. On her left hand were a wedding ring and a keeper. All the bodies were in an advanced stage of decomposition, and the work of removing them was completed only after v.ry great difficulty. The burial of the bodies had evidently been carried out in a very systematic and complete manner. A deep hole had been dug, and the bodies of the woman and two children placed in it, and cement poured upon them. The elder children were then placed in the hole and cemented over in a similar inanrer. Such is the ghastly crime just exposed at Rainhill. The affair has created immense excitement here in London, and is only exceeded in its ghastly loathsomeness and diabolical ingenuity, by those Whitechapel horrors which occurred a few months back, when the “ Jack the Ripper ” scare held the attention of all England. The corpse of the woman found has been identified as that of Mrs Deeming, of Birkenhead. She was the. wife of Williams, whose real name was Deeming, and had been in Australia with him. The four children were those of the couple. The bodies were identified by brothers of the soi-disant Williams, Air Albert and Mr Walter Deeming, who appear to have explained that their brother was a civil engineer, and of a roving disposition. The murdered woman was prior to her marriage in 1881 a Miss Jones, the daughter of a Flintshire farmer. The impression that she was a foreigner seems to be accounted for by the fact that her hair, as now seen in the ghastly chamber, is jet black, a hue very rare in natives of this island—indeed, her friends say she was very dark in colour, which, with her somewhat peculiar features, gave her very much the look of a foreigner. A sister, it seems, was married to Mr Albert Deeming. In July last the murdered woman and her children visited Rainhill for the purpose of joining husband and father at Dinham Villa. The man evidently had a powerful influence over her, when she resigned herself in Rainhill to hide in her house like a hermit in a cell while he sported freely through the village. She went to Dinham Villa under the shadow of night, and thenceforward for the short span of further existence permitted to her seemed to shun the open air and gaze of her neighbours. It has been practically established that the murders were committed on a Sunday, the 2nd of August. There is a theory, as yet very vague, that Williams had an accomplice in the crime. the invest. The inquest was opened yesterday before Mr Brighthouse. The interest in the case throughout the country was manifested by the large attendance of press representatives. The room at the hotel is reported to be pervaded by a powerful odour of decomposed bodies, the smell said to be coining from the clothes of the policemen and others who have been going in and out Dinham Villa. The names of the deceased were called over by the coroner’s clei’k as follows Mr« Marie Deeming, aged 39, and her four children—Bertha, aged nine; Marie, seven; Sydney Francis, five; and Martha Lila, aged between 18 months and two years. Some of the jury objected strongly to having to perform the duty of viewing the bodies, and it was only after taking some precautions against infection that the jury ventured upstairs. The spectacle was horrible to behold. The bodies were in a high state of decomposition, and a very cursoryglance sufficed for inspection. Airs Deeming’s features were the best preserved of the lot. Nearest the mother was placed the coffin of the youngest child, with the following touching inscription ;—“ Jesus Christ called a Little Child, Matilda Deeming, aged two years, unto Him,” THE EVIDENCE OF DEEMING’S BROTHER. A HORRiBLE DREAM. Albert Deeming, 55 Canning street, Birkenhead, a fitter by trade, was the first witness called. He said he was the brother-in-law of the deceased woman, and he testified as to having identified the bodies yesterday ; but when asked by the coroner to verify his identification to-day by means of photographs, the witness fairly broke down, and sobbed for some moments. The woman was the wife of his brother, Frederick Bayley Deeming, and the children were also his. His brother was orgiually a seaman, but for many years past he had been knocking about in various parts of the world. When asked to identify a portrait of his brother Frederick, the witness said he had no doubt it nas his brother, and again he burst out crying. Witness’ wife was a sister of the deceased woman. He last saw her and her children alive in July last, when they left his house, where they had stayed for two years, to go to Rainhill. His brother Frederick took them aw !, y. Witness understood they were to remain a few days at Rainhill, and then go to California or Australia. A few days after they had gone his sister-in-law called at his house, but ho was not then at home. Witness saw his brother about a fortnight after his wife and family left to go to Rainhill. He was ifi.cn dressed in military uniform, “ and at "that tirap,” cried the witness, with a'burst of hysterical sobbing, “ my sister-in-law and the children were murdered —I dreamt it. Seven months ago I know what I was going to see yesterday at the villa.” A juryman : What do you mean by that/

Witness : I saw it all in my dreams,

Continuing, witness said when his brother came to Birkenhead, dressed in the uniform and wearing medals to which lie had no right, he ordered a quantity of silver plate after his wife and children left to go to Rainhill. His brother called at witness’ house altogether three times. Ho then said, when questioned about his family, that they were at Brighton. Witness’ wife asked after the little girl Alarm, and if thp other children were well, and he replied that they wore quite well. Witness’ wife said she would like to see little Alarie, and she would like her to stay with them, and Frederick replied : “ You wi 1 have quite enough of us all before long.” Frederick’s wife had close on £IOO just before sl;o left witness’ house, but the

money was taken away by her husband a few days before they went to Barnhill. ; When witness asked his brother why he ! was dressed in uniform, he said he was going on an exploring expedition for the Argentine Republic. Witness had only had one letter and one telegram from Frederick for 11 years. So far as witness knew the four deceased children com- . prised the whole of Frederick’s family, i He was not married before he married ; the deceased woman. Walter Deeming, 04 Priory street, Birkenhead, a litter, and a brother of the last witness, generally gave corroborative evidence. When the woman and children left Birkenhead he thought they had gone abroad. Last time he saw his brother Frederick was when he was on trial at Hull in 1890 for some jewellery theft. His brother Frederick and his wife would live together for three months at a time and they then seemed happy. Frederick was arrested in Monte Video for the Hull theft and brought home by the police. EXTRAORDINARY REPORTS. A Liverpool correspondent says it transpired that a letter from a lady who was on board the vessel with Williams and his wife on the voyage to Australia has been received by Mrs Mather. It is to the effect that the murdered woman made the writer her confidante, and told her that her husband had turned out a villain and had treated her most brutally, that he showed his true character even during the honeymoon in London. So piteous was her experience during the voyage that she had determined to separate from him and return to England. Accordingly assistance was procured by the writer, and she took out her passage to come back to England from Melbourne, but her husband would not allow her to escape his watchfulness, and though she got ou board the steamer bound for England he followed her and forced her to go back ashore with him. The last letter she wrote home was at Christmas, on board ship, when she said they were going to Hongkong; but since then the Mathers have received two letters from Williams himself, saying that he and his wife were getting on extremely well. The box which Williams addressed to Mrs Holds was found at Friay goods station, Plymouth, to-day. It has been lying there since August. The box contained, among other things, three pairs of ladies’ boots, one pair being stamped ; s scarlet dressing-gown, with gold braid at the bottom ; black lace bonnet, with bird on each side, silk parasol, white handle; a bag, marked apparently “F. M. Deeming ” ; and a number of articles of wearing apparel. There were some spots of blood on the nightdress and on one of the petticoats, but to this circumstance the police do not apparently attach any importance. Correspondent O.D. Times.