AFTER THE VERDICT

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 March 1925, Page 2

AFTER THE VERDICT

LATER DAYS OF CRIMINALS

After the.drtimA of important criminal .trialsthere is xehc.tion or 4^ ose who i. hqy-e taken ' .leadifig parts, .Whether .as accused o.r witnesses. Many •'witnesses acquire a liking -for the ‘’limelight” and they are disappointed when little notice is taken, of them fit tt later time. It is not liniisual ~tp. ,ffnd them -visiting tlie law hbiirts; either in the heipe, of, attracting attentipff, or as /contioissetfrtf or other trials. stmie convicted persons who are fortunate enough to escape with a gaol sentence also sedk notoriety, when liberty allows them to do so. These facts, familiar to those Whose occupation takes them to the counts, come to iiilbd again in reading one of the sections in Mr.- Charles Kingston’s new volume, “A Gallery bf Rogues.” Several of the chapters of this interesting and varied book are grouped under the Gtlo “What Happened After the Verdict.’ 7

One of the cases, which has a certain amount of Australian interest, is that of Madeleine Smith, the girl Who Was charged in Edinburgh, with having poisoned a Frenchman,. Emile L’Angelier, her forliiOf . Idyer, Two years after their first meeting, when she was 21 years of age, MadeleliiS was in the dock on this charge. She had written passionate letters to L’Angelier, who proved to be a blackmailed. He had threatened to make the letters public if she jilted him, as she wished to do. His death fol- 5 lowed. In the nine days’ trial, Madeleine Smith was the coolest person in the Court. Mr. Kingston 'suggeststhat though she had undoubtedly suffered under L’Angelier’s threats, by comparison a trial for murder was less disturbing. She smiled as the letters were read, and she told the prison matron that her cell would be perfect if it contained a piano. Invited to say whether Miss Smith had put poison in L’Angelier’s cocoa, the jury gave the Scottish verdict, “Not proven,” and Madeleine stepped gracefully from the dock, murmuring with a radiant expression, “Well, they won’t catch me with arsenic again.” While she Avas waiting for the carriage in which she was to be driven with her wealthy father to his country house, she invited one of her counsel to call and see her. “Thank you, Miss Smith,” he said, “but, please don’t forget, ; I never touch cocoa.”

Madeleine’s parents had done all that was possible to help her in the trial, but they and her other relatives were ashamed of her, and would not receive visitors in her presence. She then insisted, on an allowance, and went from one boarding-house to another. Madeleine married an eccentric medical man, Dr. Hora, who feared discovery in Great Britain of the identity of his wife. It was this that caused them to go to Perth, Western Australia. There Drr. Hora practised for a time, and, though Mr. Kingston does not mention the fact, he was a candidate for election to Parliament. Dr. Hora died in Australia, and a few years later Madeleine was: in London as the wife of a merchant whom she had met on board ship. At their Sunday. parties there were many artistic and theatrical visitors. One evening some of these unwittingly began a conversation on crime, which veered found to the Madeleine Smith case. Among the guests was George du Maurier, who wrote “Trilby,” and drew for “Punch” the series on “Things One Would Rather Have Expressed Differently.” Speaking of the fair > poisoner, he loudly declared—“ She ought to have been hanged. Her beauty should not have saved her from the scaffold.” Du Maurier received a severe shock when a fellow guest afterwards asked him whether he knew the maiden name of their charming hostess. The parties fell off, and Madeleine turned to music for consolation. Thirty-four years after her acquittal she died in London in 1891. Another woman of whom Mr. Kingston tells is a venerable dame of saintly aspect, who was treated with unusual respect by visitors to a Melbourne home for the aged in the “eighties.” She was Sarah Gale, the woman who inspired Janies Greenacre to take the life of Hannah Brown. Sarah was the housekeeper of Greenacre, a thief and adventurer, who asked Mrs. Brown to marry him because he accepted seriously her description of herself as a wealthy widow. Just before the time arranged for the marriage he found that she was not only penniless, but in debt, and that she had told tradesmen that he would pay the debts. Sarah encouraged Greenacre’s desire for revenge, and he killed the other woman at a Christmas Eve feast which Sarah had prepared. Greenacre was hanged, but Sarah Gale, after serving a transportation sentence, lived to old age in Australia, and had much influence for good. She claimed —justly, it is said—to have assisted hundreds of girls to lead a good life, and to have helped scores of needy persons with her limited earnings. Sarah Gale was a leading worker for two American evangelists who visited Australia.

Much mistaken sympathy has been ■wasted on John Lee, “the man they could not hang.” Mr. Kingston says that he was coarse, illiterate, and ruffianly. Lee was footman and handy man to Miss Keyse, of Babbacombe, when he murdered her and tried to conceal his crime by setting fire; to the room in which the body

lay. The case was proved up to the hilt. Lee was refused a reprieve, and was led to the scaffold in Exeter Prison, hut a week of I'ain had stiffened The drop, and if ; would not Work. Lee. was kept in gaol for neayly a..quarter of a century. Mr. Kingston, says that ;he was sly and Uriah Heep-like except when there was comment on the refusal of successive Home Secretaries to release liiru at the expiration of the regulation 15 years. He then showed murderous hatred. Lee received a considerable sum for his “reminiscences,” and lived extravagantly while the money lasted. Then he became a barman in an East End; public hoiise, and told sensational stories of his experiences tn gaping audiences in the bar. When interest dwindled in recent years he begged even from the poorest. A nurse whom he had married soon after his release applied to the Lambeth Board of Guardians for relief for herself and their three children. “It was then stated,” s.ayS Mr. Kingston, “that Lee had eloped to' Australia, with a barmaid. From all accounts his Australian adventure did not prove a success, and' when he died ffe was buried in a pauper’s grave and .there was no one to jnourn him.”

Mrs. Maybrick, AVho was convicted of having poisoned her husband, a Liverpool cotton broker, returned ti) her native country, the United States, after having served 15 years’ imprisonment. Mr. Kingston says that “Now, in her loneliness and retirement,’ she finds distraction in discussing her claim to ownership of certain very valuable lands in the United States/'

One of the strangest cases mentioned is that of Dr. Miners, a highly valued contributor to the great Oxford dictionary. The editor or the dictionary, Sir James Murray, decided to call on him at the address given, Crowthorne. This proved to be an accommodation address for prisoner patients at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Some years before Dr. Minors had suffered from “persecution mania,” and had shot a brewer’s drayman dead under the impression that he was in the pay of enemies. Dr. Minors had a soothing influence on the more violent prisoners, and, as Dr. Murray had found, he was exceptionally gifted in word lore. Mr, Kingston remarks that Eugene Aranl, Edward Rulloff (an American murderer), and other notorious criminals have been noted for their passion for exploring the meaning of words. The statement is rather alarming to innocent students with the same taste.

Alice Rhodes, with another woman and' two men, w r as sentenced to death for the murder by starvation and illusage of Harriet Staunton, the wife of one of the men. On a walking trip Mr. Justice Hawkins entered a public house, and was served with refreshments by a woman. “Haven’t I seen you, before?” he asked. “Yes, my lord,” she answered. “You once sentenced me to death. My name is Alice Rhodes.” “I hope you are well,” said the judge. “I am fairly well,” she retorted—“no thanks to your lordship.” —Melbourne “Argus.”