Famous Crime Mysteries Recalled

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 307, 28 December 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

Famous Crime Mysteries Recalled

Feats Of Detection and Deduction.

MYSTERY OF ONTARIO SWAMP — BODY OF YOUNG EMIGRANT FOUND BY WOODSMEN — OBVIOUS MURDER BY SHOTS IN HEAD — CANADIAN DETECTIVES INVESTIGATION — VALUABLE DETAILS FROM SCOTLAND YARD — SUSPICIONS OF BRUTAL MURDER.

(By LEOXAKD R. GBIBBLE. —All Bights Reserved.)

Not far from the township of Brantford, in south-eastern Ontario, is a stretch of •wide swampland known as Blenheim Swamp. Forty years ago. this swamp was the refuge of law-breakers. On either side ran a railway track, winding toward Lake Ontario, and in the centre was a great j)it known locally as the Devil's Hole. Altogether the swamp was an unhealthy place, generally shunned by settlers in that part of the province, and perhaps it -was not unnatural that a number of legends had grown up about it. Parts of it were said to be haunted by the spirits of people who had been done to death in its dreary wastes.

The nearest settlement, some miles from the edge of the swamp, was Princeton, the inhabitants of which were mainly woodsmen and lumbermen and thenfamilies.

On February 22, 1890, two woodsmen from Princeton, proceeding along the edge of Blenheim Swamp, discovered the frozen body of a young man.

That the young man had been murdered was obvious at first glance. Two bullet holes were clearly revealed in the back of the head. Further, from the singed condition of the hair round the wounds it was plain that the man, a stranger to the men from Princeton, had been shot at close quarters.

The body was taken into Princeton and the case handed over to the police. Aii examination revealed that the murdered man was about 21 years of age. His clothes were well made and English in cut. His murderer had been careful to destroy anything in the nature of a clue. Acmoney or papers were found in the dead man's pockets, the tailor's tab had been cut from his jacket; even the laundry marks had been torn from the cuffs of his shirt and from his underwear. The inquest verdict was the usual one of murder bv some person or persons unknown. Officially the case was then left in the hands of the police—that is, in the hands of Superintendent Murrav, the chief of the Criminal Investigation department of Ontario. Murray had earned a name for never leleasing his pressure on a case while there remained a sporting chance of capturing the criminal. _

Shortiy after the inquest the body had been buried, but in view of what Mr. Bircliall had told him, Murray ordered an immediate exhumation. Birchall, calm, unruffled, revealing merely an interest in the fact of identity and not in the crime, accompanied the detective to the place where the exhumed body had been taken.

As Murray removed the sheet covering the remains he watched Birchall closely. He noticed that as soon as the covering was removed the man assimilated a sudden horror. He started back with a sharp cry to meet Murray's searching gaze. For a moment the glances of the two men clashed, but the next instant Birchall's eyes had dropped and. he was muttering excitedly that there was no doubt about the body being that of the engaging young man lie'had chatted with on the boat.

Murray asked Birchall the young man's name.

The Englishman appeared to ponder, and Murray, watching him closely, noted that his appearance of horror had gone; the man was once more the unruffled stranger who had called at the detective's office with a request. After several minutes' cogitation Birchall said he could not recall the name immediately, but that he thought it began with a B, like his own, and that was as much as Murray could get from him then. Later Murray tried out a little tries that proved successful. He called upon Birchall and his wife, who had put up at a hotel in Princeton, and questioned them further about the man they had become friendly with on the boat. Suddenly the detective asked Birchall to try again to recall the dead man's name, and casually he reminded him that as they knew the initials—F. O. B— this should not be reallv hard. Whereupon Birchall turned to his wife and asked her if she knew what "Fred's" initials were. Mrs. Birchall shook her head. No, she had no But Murray had. Birchall had professed not to know the dead man's surname—except that it began witli a B—and yet he had been on sufficiently close terms with him to call him Fred! Suspicions Aroused. Murray learned that the Birchalls were travelling on to Hamilton, on the western rim of Lake Ontario. It was their intention—at least, Birchall himself had hinted

Complete Lack of Clues. Murray was particularly attracted by the possibilities of the problem he had been set chiefly on account of the complete lack of clues. The argument lie led forth was the old one that no man can commit a murder without leaving some trace of his connection with the crime. Somewhere, at some time, somehow, the murderer was known to be connected with the man he had murdered; and the murdered man in this case was a youngster of about 21, good-looking, and apparently not long out from the Old Country. Murray cultivated • the interest of the large number of Canadian and American newspaper men who flocked out to-the Blenheim district to secure first-hand news of the crime. He pointed, out to them that this was not a case of a man being attacked by a desperate footpad, robbed, and left for dead. The man whose body had been found in the swamp was from all appearances, the victim of a cleverly planned crime, executed with an eye to detail and to the removal of any trace by which murderer or victim could be identified. Then, when the reporters had congregated in Eastwood, the nearest railway station to that part of the swamp .where the body had been found, Murray began his investigation in real earnest. Accompanied by his assistants, he moved out to the place of the crime and thoroughly examined every inch . of the found surrounding the bushes in which the boa> h£ of "ne thing Murray soon became certain, that the murderer had been heading for the Devil's Hole, and this fact presupposed a knowledge ot tne swamp on the part of the criminal It was on the path leading to the deep pit that Murray came upon his first clue, an amber and silver cigarette holder on which were engraved the initials J). U, !>■ But the clue itself gave rise to a question that was all-important. Had the cigarette holder belonged to the victim pr the murderer? There was no means-of teUra? and Murray had to cast farther afield tor information. He got into touch with the various shipping agencies of New Yorfc and Quebec and requested them to go through their lists of passengers and see if any of them had those initials. At tne same time Canadian and American newspapers published detailed descriptions of the dead man. Exhumation Ordered. On the third day after Murray had launched his campaign for information a stranger arrived in Princeton. He gave his name as John R. Birehall, an Enghsnman, and he was accompanied by his pretty wife. The newcomer sought out Murray anu .old him that he had only recently landed iom England, and that on the voyage, out le had spent quite a number of hours in the company of a young man who from f'ne descriptions he had read in the newspapers might well be the man who hart been murdered in Blenheim Swamp. Mr. Birehall explained that he and his - <fe were staying in Buffalo, in the .'V tee, and that, having several idle clays >.i his hands, he had come to Princeton to see if the murdered man really was his feliow-nassenger from England.

as much—to travel on from Hamilton to Niagara Falls. This gave Murray something to think about. He was, in the first place, far from satisfied in his own mind regarding the seeming ingenuousness of the couple, for he was convinced that they were not all they purported to be, and it occurred to him that once at Niagara the United States border was only a short way off. If they wanted to disappear they could do so quite easily, either by a steamer down the Niagai-a River and the Welland Canal or by train direct to Buffalo, iu northern New York, where they had been staying.

So Murray took the precaution of sending a wire to the police at Hamilton, requesting that the Birchalls be kept under surveillance and enjoining them to prevent the man and woman from returning to the States. That matter settled, Murray took up the case where he had left it. Inquiries were made at Eastwood and Princeton, and in the latter place Murray had the satisfaction of hearing one or two persons say that they had an idea they had seen Birehall before at some time. Upon questioning these people further Murray learned from them that Birehall looked very much like a Lord Somerset who had visited the district about two years before and who had stayed for a while at a place some miles out called Woodstock. But nothing had been heard of Lord Somerset since his visit.

Murray returned to his temporary quarters at Eastwood more perplexed than ever. Birehall had identified the murdered man, yet could not recall his name If Birehall were at all involved rh the mystery, then his coming forward and identifying the body was a smart move and a bold one. But if Birehall were not involved, then the one chance he, Murray, had of arriving at the true solution was by startins right at the beginning of the affair. But where was that beginning? Emigrant from England. Birehall had admitted that the murdered man had come out on the same boat with him from England. Very well, here was a case where Scotland Yard's splendid organisation should prove helpful. Murray cabled the English police. He mentioned Birehall, gave a description of the murdered, man and requested Scotland Yard to press their inquiry with all speed. Scotland Yard's reply cable was lengthy, and it was full of information.

In the first place, it confirmed that a Mr. and Mrs.- John Keginald Birehall were travelling in Canada and the United States. As to Birehall himself, the Yard cable stated that he was an Oxford man, believed to have private means,- and came of good family. But, the cable continued, the Birchalls were understood to be combining pleasure with profit.' Before leaving England Birehall had advertised for two or three young gentlemen of means who desired to learn to become gentlemen farmers. He was known to have left for Canada two young men, who had paid premiums to him, and who were to learr. the rudiments of farming upon a farm Birehall owned in southern Ontario. The two young men were a Mr. Polly and a Mr. E. C. Benwell.

F. C. Benwell—that, then, was the name of the murdered man, the man Birchall had identified, but whose name he could not remember!

Murray's next step was to got in touch with BenwelPs people in England. In due course a reply came from Ben well's parents. It stated their son had gone to Canada with a Mr. J. K. Birchall. Their son had paid i premium of ,£SOO to Mr. Birchall, and in return he was to be taught as much as he wished to learn about farming in Canada. Robbery Believed the Motive. • Murray was sure now that Birchall had shot Benwell out there in the swamp, and the motive was £500. But what about the other young man, Pelly? Had Birchall murdered him, too? Soon Murray was preparing another list of inquiries. Pelly was to be sought through that part of the province, and the hunt was to proceed even as far as New York, in the hope that the young man's trail could be picked up.

And while he waited for further news the untiring veteran of the Ontario C.I.D. commenced a fresh search for information in the locality of the swamp itself. For, he argued, Birchall must have left some trace behind him. It was quite likely that he and his victim were both seen, although at the moment nobody recalled the incident, or even if someone did he had not thought to connect it with the grim tragedy that had been enacted in that dreary wasteland.

Murray's next definite step forward might be considered his establishing the fact that Birchall owned no land in Canada. Barely had he learned that much, however, when the result of a check-up at the hotel in Buffalo at which the Birchalls had stayed was reported. The husband and wife, he was informed, had registered at the hotel on February 1(5, that is, six days before the two woodsmen from Ontario made their discovery in the swamp.

Murray next received news that a girl living at Eastwood, the small country station on the Grand Trunk line, that ran north of the swamp, had reported having seen two strangers walking in the direction of the swamp early on the morning of February 10.

The Canadian detective made haste to interview this new witness. She was a girl of 15 years of age and told her story with a great deal of hesitation. But Murrav took pains with her, and eventually 'learned enough to assure himself that the two men she had seen were Birchall and young Bcnwell. The gin was certain neither of the two men hail seen her, and she told Murray that the younger one of the two—Bcnwell—had been in a very happy mood at the time. He had been laughing and joking in merry fashion with his companion, and the older man had been smiling as though at the other's witticisms. Both, she told Murray were well dressed, and she was certain that she had seen neither of them before However, an hour later she had caught sight of the older man returning from the swamp alone. Further, from the scanty description she cave of the clothes the two men were wearing. Murray was able to confirm that the men were undoubtedly Birchall and the man he later shot in the back of the A fresh idea occurred to the detective at'this stage. When lie had first searched the scene of the crime he had been struck with the thought that the murderer had intended dragging his victim to the deep pit known as the Devil's Hole, and he had wondered at that, for it had immediately suggested to him that the mutderer was' not unfamiliar with the district. Yet Birchall. according to all accounts, was an Englishman, a stranger, fresh out 01 the Old Country. How then, could he know of the Blenheim Swamp and the Devil's Hole? (To be continued.)