WILFUL MURDER.-d $200

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 77, 4 March 1882, Page 392

WILFUL MURDER.-d $200

REWARD.

MtritDEß. — Whereas a warrant lias been issued for the apprehension of John Williams, charged with having murdered Thomson Johnson, notice is hereby gh'en that a reward of £200 will be paid to any person who shall give such information as shall lead to the apprehension and conviction of the said John Williams. Description of Williams : — Height, sft. Bin. 5 figure, thin ; hair, dark ; large eyes ; probably cleanshaven. When last seen hud marks of scratches on the throat, and a wound on the side of his head, above the forehead. The above notice, circulated extensively about the country, led everybody who wanted £200 to keep an attentive look-out upon all persons whom they met having dark hair, clean-shaven faces, and standing sft. Bin. high. Tor men answering in any way to the foregoing description the times became trying, and many, from a consciousness that they resembled the siispected murderer, walked about with troubled countenances. It did not occur to the majority of the public to reflect that the true John Williams was probably concealed in some obscure lodging, and Avas not visible to anyone but his landlady. It was stated that John Williams had not much money, but if lie had once altered his appearance, he could have tramped safely and easily about the country, sleeping and being fed hi the union of a parish every night. These things Avere not remembered ; the anxiety to earn £200 led to the arrest of a good many people, and among these victims, was a thin dark-haired gentleman who had a scratch on his throat, a bump on his head, and Avhose linen Avas marked " J. W." This unfortunate man had, from the day when the murder Avas made public in the papers, evinced a strange uneasiness ; and no wonder, for his name Avas John Williams, and he was absent from home at the time when the murder was committed. He received information of the occurrence at Manchester ; and half an-hour afterwards he might have been seen on his knees in his bed-room, tearing up a number of papers which lie droAV from his box, and afterwards burned. Having thus done, he rang for a porter to carry up his things ; paid his bill, and left the hotel, saying he Avas going to Liverpool. On arriving at the railway station, he pasted on to his luggage some labels Avith the name " Arthur White." ISToav, up to this time the hue and cry after John Williams had not become general ; but in the course of the afternoon, as the murder came to be talked of, the manager of the hotel at Manchester recollected that the name of the young and dark -haired person Avho had gone away in the morning Avas Williams. The police were at once communicated Avith, and in the course of a few hours enough evidence was elicited to show that this fugitive must be beyond any doubt the man wanted. A waiter testified to having seen a bump on his brow ; a porter had been sent out to the chemists to buy him a lotion for some excoriations on his throat ; everybody agreed that the man was thin and clean-shaven. A detective Avas accordingly despatched to Liverpool. Meanwhile another detective, who remained behind, ascertained that Williams had not gone to Liverpool, but to Edinburgh. A porter had seen him enter the Scottish express, but had not noticed what Avas the name on his luggage. These particulars Avere telegraphed about the country, and published in all the newspapers, so that Williams, alias White, who had alighted from the express at Carlisle, ascertained that he Avas being hunted, and became frantic with terror . He was not the murderer ; he had committed no crime of any sort, and yet he had very special reasons for wishing not to have his private affairs investigated. What should he do ? He Avas half inclined to go to the police-station, explain that he had been chased under a misapprehension, confess his position, and trust to the good sense of the police to let him go free. Unfortunately he delayed too long in executing this purpose. The Edinburgh police, haying- been directed by telegraph to arrest Williams travelling from Manchester, had arrested somebody else sooner than apprehend nobody ; but on discovering their mistake, they had wired down the line to inquire whether any passenger with a ticket to Edinburgh had alighted at a station on the way ? Answer Avas returned that an Edinburgh ticket had been given up at Carlisle, and the superintendent at the latter city was immediately ordered to make a search in the hotels. But he had already been forestalled by one of the telegraph clerks. This man having been the first to read the message from Edinburgh, had seen his way to earning the £200, and had hastily despatched a note to his brother, a bank-clerk, saying : — " I learn that John Williams is in Carlisle. Go to the principal hotel, find out if any man, dark and thin, arrived yesterday. If so, ask to see him, and collar him. We'll go snacks tor the blood-money. Burn this." So it came to pass that Avhen the superintendent hastened to the hotel Avhere Williams Avas staying, he found a large and excited crowed blocking up the ap» proaches : — "What's up?" he asked, as he elboAved his Avay to the door. " Why they've got the murderer, Williams, and he's making a fight of it in the hall," replied half-a-dozen voices. " Confound it," exclaimed the superintendent, not because he wished the criminal to elude justice, but he had hoped to have the honour and credit of arresting him himself. He had avoided bringing a single constable Avith him, so that nobody might be able to claim a share in the capture.. The door of the hotel had been locked, and the superintendent found some difficulty in getting admittance. When at last he got in, he found that the people fighting in the hall were Harry ToAvler, the bank clerk, and Hans Kruckmann,a G-erman waiter. The latter, it seemed, had noticed Williams's appearance in the coffee-room at breakfast, and happening to be in the hall when the bank clerk came to ask for the list of stranr gcrs avlio had arrived overnight, he had instantly rushed up to . " Mr White's " room, so as to have "the merit of making the arrest" single-handed; In his hurry, however, he was seized in one of the passages by a young man, who, OAving to the partial obscurity, seemed to him to be the criminal, and clutching jhim by the sleeve had

hallooed, " Help, help ! I 'aye cot 'eem, de murderer: help, O my vriends!"- These cries set the whole hotel in an uproar, and gave the real Mr White time to decamp. Hearing the noise, and dreading to be lynched by an infuriated crowd, the hapless lean man with dark hair plunged down a back-staircase used only by the .servants, and darted out of the hotel by a small ■door leading into Hind-street. The Boots saw him go, and having heard the hullaballop in the hall, suspected who he was ; but tlie Boots -reasoned within himself, "If I catch hold of him here, they'll say that I only assisted the -other people, whereas if I follow the cove into -the town, dodge him about for an hour, and then nab him by myself, as if it were altogether a haccident, nobody will be able to say that I didn't do the trick all alone." So the far-seeing Boots -called out casually to a housemaid : "Mary, I'm just going into the town to buy some blacking," and catching up his jacket, he ran out in pursuit, :-as he blissfully hoped, of £200.

It was not the Boots' game to collar liis man :-too near the hotel, so he quietly let him go fifty yards ahead. The suspected murderer was not running, but walked fast, being scared, pale, and 'breathless. Every now and then he looked ■behind him ; but the Boots was following with an unconcerned air, sauntering on the opposite pavement with his hands in his pockets. Sudidenly the hunted man halted at the corner of a small, deserted street, and allowed his pursuer to • come up. Boots did not like this, for he would rather have captured his prey in a crowded thoroughfare ; however, he advanced, and looked ?the suspected murderer curiously in the face.

"Will you show me the way to the policestation, please," asked the latter, in agitation. " Hullo, this won't do," reflected Boots ; and ilie laid a hand on the speaker's cuff. "John Williams, I knows ycr," he said ; "'t ain't no 'Use trying to escape. We'll go to the station together." "Ah! you,- too, suspect me of "being the murderer, then," exclaimed the wretched man. ■ " Well, you're wrong ; but I was just going to the to explain. You needn't grip me so tight by the cuff." "Look here, John Williams, I'll act the man ■hj you, if you will act likewise by me," replied ißoots, impressively. "If you promise to tell 'em :at the station that it was me, and me only, that .nailed you, I won't hold your sleeve. You looks ■like a gentleman, and you wouldn't try to do a ;poor bloke out of his two hundred pounds." " I tell you I'm not the murderer, so you'll get nothing by catching me," answered the man. •" However, come along ; I see you're incredulous ; you shall say what you please, and I won't con*tradict yo\i." A few minutes later, Boots and John Williams stalked into the police-station together. There "was only a sergeant and a single constable on < duty, for several other policemen had been sent for to the hotel, to take into custody Harry . Towler, Hans Kruckmanu, and some others, <-who had been having a free fight on the subject • of John Williams, Towler having accused Kruckmann of abetting this malefactor's' escape, and JECruckmann retorting with blows, while the •young gentleman who had been arrested in mistake for John Williams joined in the scuffle. Presently the superintendent came down fuming ifrorn the hotel with all these disturbers of the ;peace, who Avere to be taken before a magistrate, ;and he learned that John Williams was already rsafe locked up in a cell. His face was a thing to .-see ; but the sergeant on duty gloried inwardly ;at his chief's discomfiture, for he had become r-aware by this tims that the superintendent had .gone to the hotel in the hops of arresting Williams alone, and he thought this proceeding -~a mean one.

" It's Jack Bloman, the Boots at the hotel, •who nabbed the chap quite premise us-like," remarked the sergeant maliciously. "It will be a mice piece of work he's done — getting them two hundred pounds, eh ?"

" We've got to make sure he has laid hold of T-tlie right man first," grumbled the superintentent, who felt as if he could have strangled the -sergeant, for these offers of blood-money promote ■fine feelings of cordiality amongst all those concerned in man-hunting.

John Williams had refused to give any account •of himself to the sergeant; but when the superintendent came, he asked to speak with him in private, and told .him the following story : — "My name is Arthur Mountpride. lam the son >of a rich London merchant. About a year ago I was foolish enough to marry a pretty barmaid, who, I afterwards discovered, was addicted to •drinking. It is she who scratched my throat as you see, and made this bump on my forehead. I have been leading a dog's life with her under ■■the name of John "Williams, but she suspects that !L have not told her my real name, and violently .assaulted me the other day in trying to snatch a letter out of my hand. If my father were to •discover that I was married to this woman, he ■would cut me off with a shilling. What am Ito •do ? lam the unhappiest creature alive."

The intelligent superintendent had been taking notes of these utterances. "Aml to understand, then," he said, slowly, " that you and this young "female committed the murder together ?" " What murder ? I have just been trying to -explain that lam not the John Williams you Tvant."

" How's that ?" was the puzzled rejoinder. "" your name is Williams ; your lean and dark ; your throat's scratched, and you say you're from London. How came you to be wandering about In the North ?"

" Well, to tell you the truth, I had resolved to leave my wif e. Living with her was intolerable. My purpose was to send her money, but never to see her again, and so keep her in ignorance of niy real name."

" And I suppose you did the murder so as to .get the money wanted ? Well, it's an ugly job ; but you're not bound to give me any particulars. You'll be taken up to London to-night."

Arthur Mountpride coiild only utter a moan of despair. Ifc had been his purpose to beg the superintendent not to let his real history appear m the papers ; but the intelligent officer had no idea •of conducting an enquiry with discretion. Arthur was taken up to London in handcuffs, and the fact that he was going there, and all that he had said about himself, was forthwith communicated to *fth' ' ■ ■ AS

the press. During four-and-twenty hours it was announced that the police had got hold of the real culpret, and every particular about the latter's birth, family, clandestine marriage, and flight from his wife, was sold forth to the million ; so that when the unhappy man was released with mumbled apologies for the mistake that had been made in arresting him, he found himself in the delightful predicament of having a rabid wife and an exasperated father to reckon with. The superintendent was hugely delighted to think that Jack Bloman, the Boots, had not got the £200 after all ; but Boots himself took the matter very ill. He came up to London (finding it impossible to remain in Carlisle, because of the jeering of his friends), and having ascertained Arthur Mountpride's address, one day called upon him to urge a claim for indemnity. " Beg pardon, sir, !" he said, touching his forelock ; " hope you've not forgot me, sir. It was a bad sort of trick you played me, sir, though, of course, you didn't mean it." " I don't understand you ; what do you want ?" asked Arthur, who had many troubles on his mind just then, and was in no humour for joking. " Well, sir, I think you ought to give me a trifle," replied Boots, seriously; "you see you were the cause of my losing two hundred pounds, and I'm sure you wouldn't like to think you'd robbed a poor man of such a sum as that." Jack Bloman's voice was modxilated into a gentle remonstrance as he said this, and he looked as though he truly thought Arthur had done him a wrong in not getting hanged for his sake. " You've no idea, sir, how we counted on that money, my young woman and I," added he, mournfully, as he saw Arthur fumbling in his pocket. "If you'd been the real John Williams, sir, we should have got married and set up in the small public line. Thank you, sir. Grood day, sir. We must hope I'll have better luck next time."