HANGED BY A BUTTON

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11326, 2 October 1930, Page 3

HANGED BY A BUTTON

TRIFLES THAT MEAN MUCH

STORIES TOLD BY CORONER

Trivial matters frequently have a knack of proving all-important. This applies particularly to crime and the detection of criminals as Mr. H. R. Oswald, coroner for the western district of London, is fond of relating.

Mr Oswald, who is due to retire in October, has. during his career, attended between 20,000 and 30,000 inquests, some of them being cases ei murder which developed into famous trials. Before he became a colonel . Mr Oswald practised medicine, and was called to the Bar in 1891. “I have been amazed, at the tiny incidents or objects which lead to the conviction of a murderer, Mr Os" am relates. “A button — a little button from a military tunic — led to the conviction of one murderer. It "as one of the most ghastly tragedies I have ever had through my couit. A fine athletic woman was brutally murdered as; she was coming home across Woolwich Common. The murderer, who was in the Army Service Corps, lost a button from his uniform, and it was from that missing button that he was traced. . "The first case where finger-prints were used in a murder trial in England went through my court. It was the case of an old man and his wile, caretakers of an old shop in High street, Deptford. ' They were murdered by two brothers for the sake of robbery. The cash box contained only about £3. but the finger-prints on that box led to their arrest. One went to the scaffold whistling and the other crying. ~ , "Ronald True went through my "ourt. His case was one of murder for money. His mother, from whom h“ received a substantial allowance was out of town, and be stole the jewellery of the girl he killed. _ "True even stole while waiting ior his trial at Bnxton Prison. He took fho monocle of a fellow prisoner, and I saw him looking at me across the court with this monocle, which had no glass in it. It was pure swarm.