DEEMING'S CONFESSION

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3093, 12 May 1892, Page 2

DEEMING'S CONFESSION

(DY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH,—COPYRIGHT) Melbourne, May 10. Deeming repeats the story of the Rainhill murders as given at the inquest by his first wife's sister. Miss Rounsefell has visited him privately, and Deeming gave her sketches of two tombstones in a South African cemetery, between which he said £11,000 worth of gold was buried. He received the decision of the Exe • cutive, fixing his execution for Monday, the 2iJrtl instant, as the best news they could bring him. In the course of frequent conversations with the gaol chaplain, Deeming has for the first time deliberately confessed to the murder of his last wife, Emily Mather. His account, though mixed up with statements that are evidently falsehood and pure invention, is in the main a credible story. He says he made four attempts. The first took place in London shortly after his marriage. He was awakened nightly by a visitation from his mother's spirit commanding him to kill his wife. For some time he resisted these promptings, but the impulse at length became so strong that he crept quietly out of bed and seized a chair with the intention of dashing out his wife's brains. She woke, however, at the critical moment, and seeing his intention jumped to other side of tho bed in time to escape the attack.

He managed by some means to explain away his conduct, and the couple lived happily together until their arrival in Melbourne. Then, while staying at the Federal Coffee Palace, he was moved once more by the same impulse. It became so strong that he awoke his wife one night and implored her to leave him and go away, else he would murder her. She threw her arms around his neck and told him she would rather die than leave him. The murderous fit on this occasion lasted only about balf-an-hour. On December 18th he took the house in Andrew street, Windsor, and stopped there three nights, LSth, 19th and 20th. On the night of the 19th, yielding to tbe same murderous impulse, lie attempted to cut her throat, and she was only saved by awaking suddenly. On the following night he awoke at two in the morning and found his •wife sitting up in bed peeling apples With a largo clasp knife. He wrenched the knife from her nud cut her throat. When the murder was done he was seized with an uncontrollable fear of the dead body, and rushed out of the h»use. Deeming alleged that he paid a man £10 to bury the body, and could not account for having purchased the cement and tools beforehand. A knife answering the description of that he said he used was found among the murderer's effects. Deeming is engaged in writing a history of his life, and states that he intends to make a full confession of the Rainhill and Windsor murders. He has assigned all his property to Mr Lyle, his counsel, foi the purpose [of paying the expenses attending his ! defence.