BUTTON MURDERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 280, 26 November 1938, Page 8

BUTTON MURDERS

By Alan Brock

A BUTTON found on the floor of a shop at Portslade, Sussex, played an important part in establishing the guilt of Albert Probert and Frederick William Parker, who were hanged at Wandsworth prison on May 5, 1934, for the murder of Joseph Bedford in the previous November. The 80-year-old dealer in second-hand ..oods was seen by a passing police constable staggering about his locked shop with blood streaming from his face and head. He was removed to hospital, where lie died.

Chief Inspector Askew, while examining the scene of the murder, found a button on the floor behind the counter. To it thread and material were still attached. Inquiries in the neighbourhood brought to light the fact that two men, who, it was evident, were very hard up, had taken lodgings on November 7 in the neighbourhood of Bedford s shop. One of them was endeavouring to sell an old vacuum cleaner, and had been recommended to offer it to the old man. 'Their movements were followed, and it was found that on the evening of November 13, the day of the murder, they had arrived at Worthing, where they bought themselves news suits and shirts. While in the shop, one of the pair, Parker, pointed out to his companion, Probert, that a button was missing from his overcoat. The outfitter obligingly provided one of similar pattern, which lie sewed on for his customer. It is perhaps unnecessary to add that the button, material and thread found by Chief Inspector Askew corresponded exactly with the others on Probert's overcoat. On being questioned by the police, Parker at once admitted to being present at the time of the murder and to holding up the old man with an empty pistol, but, as is frequently the case in two-handed murders, laid the blame for the actual killing on Probert. In support of his contention there was the fact that, while human blood was found on Probert's clothes, those of Parker bore no such traces. Probert's reply to this was that he had never even been inside the shop, and that if Parker said he had, he was lying. In his evidence at the trial, he attempted to explain the bloodstains, on his clothing and the presence of a button from his coat cm the shop floor by putting forward the improbable story that on the day of the murder, for sumo unexplained reason, they had exchanged clothes before they parted at one o'clock in the afternoon. Their execution was witnessed bv a representative of the Press, who was present by permission of the Sheriff of Sussex, one of the two remaining districts in Knghind where such a course is permitted. Head in a Parcel Part of the evidence against Henry Wainwright was provided by the presence of buttons of a certain pattern iu the temporary grave he had dug for his victim, Harriet Lane, under the'floor of his brush factory in the W T hiteeliapel Road. The woman had been Wainwright's mistress, and, as is often the ease in such circumstances, had become a nuisance to him. In September, 1874, she left her lodgings in Mile End with the avowed intention of going to live with the brushmaker at 215 Whiteehapel Road. Her friends never saw her alive again, and, becoming uneasy on her account, a sister went to inquire from Wainwright what had become of her. He told her that Harriet had gone off to the Continent with a Mr. Freake, and later backed his assertions by production of a letter and a telegram from Paris saying that she was wall and in comfortable circumstances. Actually the messages were written by Wainwright's brother, Thomas, wso was subsequently charged as an accessory after the fact, and received a sentence of seven years* penal servitude for his part in the murder.

A year later Wainwright, who had been drinking heavily, and in consequence neglecting his business, became bankrupt, and had to give up possession of the factory building. Before doing so, he asked a labourer named Stokes to help him to remove two parcel® of bristles which were lying corded and wrapped in American cloth on the floor of the workshop. Between them, they conveyed the packages, which Stokes noticed had a strong and highly unpleasant smell to the corner of the"road, at which point Wainwright went off to fetch a cab.

While lie was gone, Stokes' curiosity overcame him to the extent of examining the contents of one of the parcels. He was horrified to see a human head. While he was still shaken bv his discovery Wainwright returned * with the cab and, placing the bundles inside, drove off. A moment later Stokes, recovering his presence of mind, save chase. &

Blocks in the traffic enabled him to keep the cab in view until he came up with it v here it eventually flopped, outside the Hen and Chickens in the borough. He reported his discovery to two policemen, who appeared on the scene just as Wainwright was taking (lie second parcel into the building. When challenged, lie attempted to bribe the constables and was arrested. The parcels were examined and found to contain the body of a woman in 10 portions. Death was accounted for by two bullets in the brain. A third was found llattcncd again-t the pins in a liairpad. The throat had been cut.

A search of tiie T>rti -11 factory brought to light a grave, nlulor ]00.-e hoards in the flooring, i" wind) wore found rings, a pair of car-rings. and buttons attached to the remains of a dress. The buttons a friend was aide to recognise as some she had given to the missing woman, and was able to produce more of the same j)attern. The remains bad been preserved to some extent by chloride of lime, which the murderer had put into the grave in mistake for quicklime—an error of judgment made l»v many others, inclinilli jr Crippen' —but tlie features wens unrecognisable. Identity was established by general measurements, a, missing tooth in the upper jaw, and thj inference of the jewellery and button-, it was proved that Wainwright bough: chloride of lime on the. di\y before Harriet Lano disappeared. Jfe ennfessei his guilt just before his execution 01 December 21, 1575. Nellie Trew Murder An overcoat button ptckert np rear the body of IG-ycar-old Nellie Trev, who was found outraged and strangled on Kltham Common on the morning of February 11, HtlS, was chiefly responsible for the conviction of Daiid (Jreenwood on a charge of wilful mirder. On examining l the scene of tlie nmrJer the police picked up a cheap rcpica of a military collar badge—that of the Leicester Regiment-—and later an cvereoat button, which had evidently been attached to the garment by a piece of wire, was handed to them by a member of the crowd that had gathered. The state of the turf at tlie spot where it was found indicated that a Struggle had taken place there.

Reproductions of both chips were published in the Press with an appeal for information, with the result 'that a young man employed at the Hewson Manufacturing Company, of Kewraan Street, Oxford Street, came forward with the information that a fellow-employee, David Greenwood, had worn such a badge, and was, in fact, wmrins it when ho left work on Saturday, February 10. On the following Monday it was missing from his emit. Inspector Brown of the C.T.D. went to Xewman Street, where, in the manager's office, lie interviewed (ireenwood, who admitted that the aadire was the one he had worn, but declared that he had sold it to a man on i tram car on the Saturday night, and give a description of the purchaser. The inspector then asked Greenwood t« accompany him to Scotland Yard. On the journey he drew his attention to a 'act that he had noticed immediately he Vad entered the room, that Greenwood's overcoat was entirely bare of buttons. The bottom button but one was not ody missing, but there was a ragged hoe where it had been.

At Scotland Yard the young irttn was taken before Chief Inspector Tarlin, later superintendent, on whose de>-k lav the button and wire found at the scene of the murder. He rose and fitted "t to the hole in the coat. Greenwood took the button and examined it. "If I say it is my button, what -will it mean?" he asked. "I cannot tell you," Carlin replied. "Well, I won't say, then," Greenwool returned. Later in the day Greenwood was charged with the murder. At his trial his defence was an attempt to establish an alibi. He and members of his family denied that he had worn his overcoat on that night. He explained the absence of buttons by saying that he-had taken two to pack the lathe on which, he worked, a purpose for which the works manager declared they would be quite useless. The others he suggested might have been pulled off by the dog at his home, who had formed the habit of hanging on to them. He denied»«ver having used wire to fasten one on. He also denied that the conversation between himself and Chief Inspector Carlin had ever taken place. The wire was found to be of «n unusual type, used in the works, and had been sharpened at one end on a grindstone similar to that which stood near his lathe.

The jury, after an absence of three hours, returned a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation to mercy on account of the prisoner's war service—he had enlisted in li) 14, and was discharged three years later, at the age of 21. suffering from neurasthenia, and disordered heart's action.

Greenwood declared his innocence, and at the same time begged the judcre to disregard the jury's recommendation. He was sentenced to death, reprieved and committed to penal servitude for life.