THE MURDER OF A TRAELLING SALESMAN.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 378, 16 October 1868, Page 2

THE MURDER OF A TRAELLING SALESMAN.

The following account of the discovery of a murder, after a considerable lapse of time, appears in the London Times. It forms another instance of the untiring perseverance with which the police in England follow up the tracks of great criminals.—On Saturdayafternoon, at the police-office, Wellington, near Shrewsbury, two men, named George Harris and Richard Hart, were brought up in custody, charged with the wilful murder of Barnatt Zusman on the 15th of November, 1867. The particulars of this remarkable crime, with which the prisoners are, after so great a lapse of time, charged, are briefly as follows: —On the 15th of November, in last year, Barnatt Zusman, a travelling salesman in the service of Mr Cohen, watch manufacturer, Birmingham, left the Rose and Crown Inn, Ironbridge, where he had been staying for some days, with avowed intention of going to Dawley and Horsehay. He left at 10 o'clock in the morning, and took with him a case containing watches and jewellery of the estimated value of £420. He had ordered dinner to be ready for him at 3 o'clock, but he did not return that night or on any subsequent day. As no clue to his whearebouts could be obtained, his employer arrived at the conclusion that he had absconded with the valuable property intrusted to him for sale, and the police being communicated with, Zusman was advertised in the Police Gazette and similar publications. Exactly a fortnight after his disappearnce a gentleman was out shooting at Strichley, when his attention was drawn by his dog to a ditch in the field through which he was passing, and, partly buried in the mud, he found the murdered body of Zusman. At the time of the discovery of the body an impression prevailed that the unfortunate man had been killed by a blow on his head, but at the post-mortem examination taken for the coroner's inquest it was proved that he had been shot apparently by a person from behind. The pockets of the deceased were cut away, and the box in which he had carried his samples was found hidden in the hedge at a short distance from the body, here it had been placed after being opened and its contents abstracted. An inquest was opened and several times adjourned, but no evidence was forth coming sufficiently definite to justify an arrest, and on the the Bth of January a verdict of " wilful murder against some persons or person" was recorded, and on the result of the inquiry being communicated to the HomeoS.ce a reward of £IOO was offered for the discovery of the murderer. But

though the enquiry was then cloa d, so far as the coroner's inquest was concerned, the police have been quietly following up a clue of which they became possessed in the course of their first investigation. The case was placed in the hands of Superintendent Baxter, of Church Suretton, an active and intelligent officer, who took up his residence near the scene of the murder, and kept a watchful eye upon the several parties on whom suspicion alighted on the discovery of the murder being first made. The circle narrowed till Baxter's attention was fixed upon a man named Harries, who lived at '■ Dawley„and followed the occupatiou of a chain manufacturer. Harris is a person ef respectable connections an 1, till recently, occupied a good position in tbe district, his father, who died a little more than two years ago, having left him property worth £4,000 and a business which brought him about £4OO a year. The young man, however, got into bad society, and contracted a close intimacy with a gang of wellTcnown poachers who infest the neighbourhood, and at the time of the murder, though he stillkept on the works, had succeeded in driving away nearly all •the business bis father had commanded. According to his own evidence, given •at the adjourned inquest held on the 4th of December, Harris had dealings with the murdered man, and had seen and spoken to him on the morning of his death. He had, he stated, bought a watch from him for £27 125., paying in small sums on account, and promising paymant of the balance by instalments. It was as certained by the police that Harries had, on the following day, gone over to Shrewsbury, and there pawned the watch for £B. A few days after the inquest, and nearly a month after the murder, the police obtained a "warrant to search' Harries' house, but they found nothing that tended to connect him with the crime, and their suspicions were apparently withdrawn. On Wednesday week Superintendent Baxter received certain information ■which took him over to Dawley again, and in the course of last week he obtained evidence which led him, at a late hour on Friday night, to arrest George Harries without waiting for a formal warrant. Of the precise character of the evidence in the possession of the police information is, for obvious reasons, at present withheld, but it is understood to be very conclusive. The arrest of the other prisoner has taken the public hy surprise, is his name has not been previously mentioned in connection with the mui der ; but he is well known in the Dawley district as au incorrigible poacher , and as such has been several times convicted.