CONVICTED BY THE PEN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3134, 11 September 1922, Page 8

CONVICTED BY THE PEN.

When Walter Horsford, the bandsome, sport-loving son of a wealthy Huntingdon farmer, sent a small packet of white powder to his pretty widowed cousin, Mrs Annie Holmes, and wrote on the paper which contained it, the words, "Take in a: little water," he never dreamt that with his pen ho was signing his own death-warrant. The white powder was strychnine. Within twenty-four hours of receiving ii, the unhappy woman died in agony; and underneath her pillow wa.s found the packet with its fateful inscription. When suspicion at last fell on Walter Horsford, who was known to have been very intimate with his dead cousin, there was not the slightest evidence to establish his guilt, with the exception of the inscription on the packet.. Hut that was quite suflieicnl. The packet still! contained some ol the strychnine thiat had poisoned her; the writing on it was proved by experts to lie his; and his pen alone brought him to the death on the scaffold he so richly deserved'.

William Pailmer, the sporting doctor of Rugcley. would probably have died respected and mourned if the police had not discovered more than sufficient proofs ol" his guilt as murderer in his study. In bis 1 diary he had 1 actually entered particulars of several ol bis murders, with details of his personal associations with bis victims; and on one page of a. treatise on poisons, dealing with strychnine, he had made a, marginal note, "kills by tetanic action of the muscles.'' Moreover, when he denied having been with his last victim, John Parsons Cook, on the Sunday and Monday in question, bis diary proved that he was' lying. Thus again and again his pen had furnished the evidence which sent him to the gallows.

However cleverly a criminal may try to disguise his handwriting ho is sure to leave some clue, however slight, that may prove his undoing—the dotting of an "i," the crossing of a "t." the looping of a "1>" or an "li." or some similar individual peculiarity which has become mechanical, and which he seems unable altogether to avoid or disguise. When James Caiiham Read wrote his telegram lo Mrs Benson. Rose Cottage. Upper Mitcham—"Wire immediately if all serene—not returning yet preserve letters unopened reply to Holm wood Station," ho thought he had completely disguised bis writing, lint it was sworn to an unmistakably his by experts; it proved that the alibi he pleaded was false; and completed the evidence that placed the rope round his neck. Thomas Neil Cream, who murdered his victims to blackmail others for his crimes, was an expert penman, who could forge any signature so cleverly as to defy detection; but it was two of his letters that placed Ihe noose round his neck. One was written to the Deputy Coroner of East Surrey, ostensibly by "A. 0. Brown, Detective." offering for a large sum to bring to justice the murderer of Ella Donworfh; the other, identifying himself with the family of one of bis victims and acknowledging the receipt of charitable (lunations. Roth were written "backhand"; but in each were found slight peculiarities which pointed conclusively to Cream as the writer.

Again and again in tin' annals ol crinu l the trutli of Napoleon's saying: “Certain people should never write. Pen and ink are sure to lie I ray them." has keen demonstrated. Hut the most remarkable demonstration of all is perhaps most that of the I'amom Wha Hey will. . James AYhalley, a well-to-do retired merchant, having quarrelled with his two children, made his home ae Twominster with a man named Thomas, a small local official, who. when the old man died, produced a will ill wliicli no left practically the whole of his nliine of CdO.OOO to himself. The will was to all appearance perfeetlv genuine. 'Experts in handwriting,'to whom it was submitted, could (ind no flaw in ie— with the exception of one man” who. after examining it microscopically, came to the conclusion that it had been written over and around a signature and not to a signature naturally written at the bottom. The attesting clauses and the linos ol the will were cramped, as if from lack of space. Examination under a microscope revealed faint pencil marks, which had boon imperfectly nibbed out; and he noticed that the testator’s signature was followed by a date, which never appeared in any other signature of his. To make a long story short, il was finally established that .lames A\ halley when a I the point of death had expressed a wish to see. bis son, and at bis repiiest, Thomas had written a note in pencil In. summon him In his latUer's death bed, getting the dying man to sign it in ink. This note was never sent ; and when Mr Whatley died an lanir later. Thomas had erased I lie pencil message, written the forged will around the dead man’s signature and induced two confederates In sign il a>s wit nesses. Perhaps (ho most sensational proceedings. in which handwriting played a predominant pari, however, was the Parnell Commission, and (lie cross-ex-amination of Pi go II . who forged file letters attributed to Parnell. by Charles Knssell, afterwards Lord Chief Justice, will remain an ever-meniorahle incident, in the annals of the P>ar. It ussell commenced Ins ernss-exa mina - tien by asking .Mr Pigott. “Would yon be good enough with my lord's permission, to w rite some words on that sheet of paper for me?" Pigott having sat. down. I?u.-sell went on. “Will von write the word ’livelihood'?" Pigott wrote. “Just leave a space." went on the lawyer. “Will yon write ‘likelihood’?" and, that having been done, “Will yon write your own name? Will von write the word ‘proselytisin'?" “And finally ( I think I will not trouble yon any more at. present), ’Patrick Egan, and ‘P. Egan'?" Counsel uttered the last wands with emphasis as if they were of great importance, and after Pigott had finished. added, carelessly. "There is one weird I had lorgotten. Lower down, please, leaving spaces, write the word ‘hesitancy.'" adding. as Pigott was about to write, as it it wore the vital point, “with a small It." The last word betrayed the forger. In one of Ihe forged let ters Pigott spell, “hesitancy “ lies it el ley." and the work was spell with an “e” on I lie sheet of paper which Pigott handed to Charles I {ll.ssell.