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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7343, 2 June 1885, Page 4

We publish in another column to-day a ghastly story of a foul and unnatural murder committed last April in the town of St. Louis,. Missouri, U.S. What lends local interest to this horrible crime is the fact that the supposed perpetrator is at the present moment held in custody in Mount Eden Gaol.. ■ The . circumstances which led to his arrest in Auckland will be fresh in the minds of our readers. It will be remembered that a cable message was received by the United States Consul at this port informing him that a peculiarly atrocious murder had been committed at St. Louis, and instructing him to take steps for the arrest of a man named

Maxwell, who was believed to be a passenger on board the City of Sydney, and who was accused of being the murderer. The Consul immediately put . himself in communication with the Chief' 0 Police here, »md arrangements were made to effect the capture of the alleged criminal. On the arrival of the steamer Maxwell was at once , identified and secured, and now lies in gaol, awaiting the arrival of an officer from America to effect, his extradition in due legal form. The news of hi» apprehension here reached the St. Louis police too late to enable them to make arrangements for despatching an official with the necessary papers by the mail steamer Australia which arrived here yesterday. An officer' however, will* arrive by the steamer due in Auckland at the end of this month. In the meantime Maxwell will be detained in custody. While it may be possible that he will be able to exculpate himself from the terrible charge of which he is accused, it must be admitted that the case at present looks black against him. The strongest suspicions, however, are sometimes unfounded, and although Maxwell's conduct seems somewhat irreconcilable with the assumption that he is innocent, it is still within the bounds of possibility that he may be able to satisfactorily explain it, and to establish his innocence of the ghastly crime imputed to him. That his movements were so promptly • discovered, and his arrest effected, is in a large measure due to the energy and enterprise of the American newspapers. American reporters are expected to combine the training and capabilities of journalists with the aptitude and instincts of detectives. And in this particular case they hi'.ve proved conspicuously successful in that dual capacity. When the murder was discovered, more than a week after its perpetration i Maxwell had disappeared, and all trace of him had been lost. But in a few days the Press had ferreted out his every movement from the moment he left St. Louis to the time when he stepped on board the mail steamer. The murder appears to have been deliberately planned, and to have been carried out in a peculiarly callous and cold-blooded fashion. And what depths of human depravity it reveals ! The supposed culprit is a man of culture and noble birth, and the motive for the revolting deed was the robbery of a few hundred pounds!