A Strange Coincidence.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3638, 14 October 1890, Page 2

A Strange Coincidence.

' A Jtoarfc&ljlo Murdor Trial. , The trite adage that truth *is stranger, than fiction has seldom ~ received a more : striking illustration i\ , than in a remarkable murder trial wliioh took place in London nearly GO years ago, The victim of the crinio was : an old: Irishwoman, Carolino Walsh, by name, who, after much persuasion, had' consented to live with a female friend named Elizabeth Itosa in Goodman's Fields, She arrived at the house on August IS), 1851, and from that dato disappeared entirely from pubiio view. On the night following, however, an oid woman, who gave tho namo o Caroline Welsh, and was also an Irishwoman, and whose description, as afterwards given, tallied almost exaotly with that of Carolino Walsh, was found in a destitute and dying condition in the. neighborhood of Goodman's Fields, and was conveyed to a hospital, where it was found that '. sheens suffering from a fracture o the hip joint;. Her injuries provod too much for hov reducod condition, and she died within a fow hours; and U ' was duly buried, ' ' • §t* In the meantime tho apprehensions of Carolino Walsh'si-elalivea had been excited by her mysterious disappearance, Mrs Ross, when question* said that her old friend had gone flf..'. on the very day of her disappearance and had never returned; and, on hoar.of the finding of Carolino' Welsh, she at once seized, upon 'it as the solution of the; mystery.. 'At first f : tight, so extraordinary was tho coincidence that her Btatement appoared '-.- plausible enough, but, on further- in-', ' yostigation, her tale obtained so little credence that she was arrestod on a charge of murder; Then a circumstantial account of the orimo was obtained from her little sonj who de- ; posed to witnessing tho suffocation of Walsh by his mother, to. seeing tho body.lying in the cellar on the morn- ; ing of the 20th, also to setting his mother leave the house on the even-, ing of tho same day, carrying some!- 1 thing heavy in a sack; ■' Still the coincidence between the disappearance of Walsh and the find- ("'■■. ing of Welsh, gave, a great deal of: trouble to tlie. piosecution, and though the sfcriotesfc enquiries revealed some trifling differences in personnel . botweon the two women, the'general similarity was so marked that it was olear unless additional 'evidenoeVas forthcoming to establish tho separate..,, identity.of the two,' Boss must get. : . the benefit of the doubt, and escape ~. the' punishment she so richly^?-.: served, At length 'it came 'to the reoolleotion of her old friends that Carolino Welsh had a very porfect set of front teeth, an unusual possession , at her age. Caroline Walsh, ,on tte," contrary, had lost all her inoisors, antT,, ' an examination of her head, the body having been exhumed for the purpose, revealed the fact that the loss was so many years back that the socket had been obliterated. It pas a crucial' test, and'decided the question'ot identity, and the fate of 8055,.,