SHOCKING RAILWAY MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 52, 2 March 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

SHOCKING RAILWAY MURDER.

TWO PASSENGERS SHOT BY A THIRD.

ONE MAN KILLED AND ROBBED. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, January IS. Since the murder of Miss Camp on the S. Western Railway some years ago we have had no horror so brutal and mysterious as that disclosed at Vauxhall Station yesterday afternoon. The train concerned was an express from Southampton to London, and nothing- unusual occurred on the journey till it stopped for the collection of tickets at Vauxhall. Then shrill cries of "Murder" and "Police" in a feminine voice were heard proceeding from a third-class compartment, and at the same time a man rushed hurriedly from the same carriage, and ran down the stairs leading from No. 2 platform to the hall below. The exclamations from the woman who had raised the alarm attracted the attention of the officials, and some of these started off In hot pursuit, whilst others went to the compartment, where they were startled to find a middleaged man lying on the seat in a huddled condition, and evidently dead, a small wound over the left eye showing that he had been shot. The woman herself was bleeding from a wound in the left cheek, and as well as she coutd she explained that the fugitive had shot her companion and attempted her own life.

FLIGHT AND CAPTURE. Tn the meantime the escaping passenger had run out of the station, and. dashing between the traffic which is always heavy at this point, had made his way in the direction of what used to be old Vauxhall Bridge. Finding that he had run into something like a cul-de-sac he doubled back and sought refuge in the works of the gas company near by. The pursuers were close behind, and as soon as they arrived the gates were closed and a search made for the man. Two labourers in the employ of the gas company found him hiding behind one of the furnaces, and in a very short space of time he was handed over to the police, and taken to Smedleystreet. ' By this time the body of the dead man had been removed from the compartment, and medical assistance obtained fbr the woman. She was removed as quickly as possible to St. Thomas' Hospital, where she still remains, an operation for the removal of the bullet being carried out last night.

The train on which the murder occurred was the twenty minutes past eleven express from Southampton Docks. When it left the latter station Mrs Rhoda King-. of Exmoor Road, Southampton, was the sole occupant of a third-class lavatory compartment. She had been on a visit to a sick daughter, and was on her w r ay to London, expecting to be met at Vauxhall by her son. When Winchester was reached she was joined by a gentleman, also on his way to town, and at Eastleigh the company in the compartment was increased by the entry of a young man.

After leaving Eastleigh the train was not timed" to stop until reaching Basingstoke at twenty-five minutes past twelve, and thence there was a clear run for more than an hour to Vauxhall. MRS KING'S TERRIBLE TALE.

Nothing appears to have excited the attention of the officials at Basingstoke, and the train proceeded on its way. What happened during the remainder of the journey cannot be told in full until Mrs King is in a condition to relate her story: but from the statement she made to the police the ride must have been one of the most awful that ever fell to the lot of a timid woman. She said that during the run to Vauxhail the man who joined the train at Eastleigh asked his male fellowpassenger for money, and on being refused produced a revolver, shooting him through the temple just over the left eye. A second shot, whether fired at) Mrs King or not, wounded her in the left cheek. Horrified at what she had witnessed Mrs King went on her knees and begged the assailant to have mercy upon her. Having ransacked the pockets of his victim the murderer turned to Mrs King and suggested that he should place the revolver in the dead man's hands and say that he (the deceased) had shot himself. He further, so the story goes, offered her a sovereign If she would promise to support his statements and say nothing as to wha. had occurred. This is thought to have taken place when the train was passing near Surbiton, and from this place there is a run of about twenty-five minutes to Vauxhall. There was a communication cord outside the carriage, but Mrs King's condition of mind no doubt prevented her from using this means of making her position known. In some of the later carriages the alarm bell is inside the carriage. THE MURDEKED MAN. Inquiries were at once set on foot as to the identity of the victim. His name is William Pearson, and his age about fifty. He resided in Christchurch Road, Winchester. One of his cards bearing this address is said to have been found on the person of the man now in custody. A message was received rrom Mr Mears, of Winchester, the father-in-law of Mr Pearson.

He announced he had communicated the sad intelligence to the widow. He was sending some one to London for the purpose of identifi,cation. An inquiry was also made by a brother at W T oking. The body is lying at the mortuary in Highstreet, Lambeth, awaiting a coroner's inquest. PRISONER ASKS FOR FOOD.

The person least concerned so far as appearances went was the man who was arrested. His name, as given to the police, is George Henry Hill; his age is stated to be tweney-three, and his occupation that of a groom. He gave an aadress in Birmingham, and appears to have been in the Royal Marine Artillery for a time. When taken to the Smedley-street station his chief anxiety was to procure something to eat, and his demeanour throughout has been of the most callous character. Late in the afternoon, after inquiry had been made, he was formally charged before Inspector Collins, in the presence of Chief-Inspector Gooderich and Inspector Scott, representing the Southwestern Company's police. He made no answer to the charge, in connection with •which he was brought up at the Westminster Police Court this morning. He is nearly Cft in height, and very stoutly built.