RAINHILL MURDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8830, 19 March 1892, Page 5

RAINHILL MURDERS.

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.

WILLIAMS' ANTECEDENTS.

A CAREER OF CRIME. Press Association.— Telegraph.—

London, March 17. On exhuming the bodies interred at Rainhill, it was found that the baby's brains had been dashed out.

Although they are making a minute search, the police do not expect to find any other bodies. The press ridicule the idea that Williams is Jack the Ripper.

Residents of Rainhill frequently had their suspicions roused by Williams' behaviour. The postman always used to find the doors bolted.

Williams visited London on Saturdays and Mondays, and made a great display of diamond rings and nuggets. He was once known to flourish notes to the value of thousands of pounds.

Inquiries prosecuted by the police show that Frederick Deeming, alias Williams, was born near London. He served as steward in various sailing ships during the early part of his life, and in 1881 married a woman named Mary James at Birkenhead. They had two children— Mary, born in Sydney, and a boy named Sydney born at sea.

Williams returned to England in 1890, and a baby named Leila was born at Birkenhead. The bodies found at Rainhill are those of the wife and children. A copybook found in the house bears the name of Bertha Deeming.

It has been ascertained that another woman is missing who was last seen in Williams' company in 1890.

Deeming, under the name of Harry Lawson, an Australian farmer, lodged with Mrs. Mathieson, of Beverley, and married her daughter in May of that year. He gave her a large quantity of jewellery, but afterwards decamped and eventually deserted her at Hull at the end of the honeymoon.

He took away with him the jewellery he had given her. The articles had been obtained from local tradesmen under false pretences, and a warrant was issued aeainst Lawson, who was arrested in Uruguay and extradited to Hull, where he was imprisoned on the charge for nine months.

During proceedings it came out he had been already married at Birkenhead. Williams was released last July-

Many robberies occurred in the vicinity of Rainhill and St. Helen's last year.

From the position in which the bodies were found ic is supposed the cement was poured on them wet.

The police are now digging in the pantry, which also bears traces of being newly cemented.

It is believed that the heavy luggage Williams is known to have sent away contained blood-stained clothes of his victims.

It is supposed that the murders were committed on August 10th, a few days after the villa was rented.

Later. After the murder of his wife and four children at Denham Villa, in Lancashire, Deeming visited his sister-in-law, and on her inquiring for his wife and family he stated that they were at Brighton, and according to the last letter he had received, were well and happy.

Before leaving Rainhill for Australia Williams sent a heavy box by rail to Plymouth. He gave the railway officials the name of Wilson, stating that his address was Prescott, a town eight miles from Liverpool.

Some question arose with regard to the carriage of the box, and the railway department wrote to Wilson, but the letter which had been sent to Prescott was returned to the dead letter office.

The police are now trying to trace the box.

The inquest on the remains of the woman and children opens at Rainhill to-morrow.

In the course of their inquiries, the police have found out that a passer-by

heard screams issuing from Denham Villa on the 10th August, and it is now thought this was the date on which the murders were committed.

The police dug up the floor in the pantry to-day, and also explored the other rooms in the house, but no other bodies were discovered.

Deeming has eight brothers and two sisters.

On his way home from Australia in 1880, he stopped for some time at the Cape, and purchased a lion, which he brought on to Liverpool.

His wedding with Miss Mary Mathieson was celebrated with considerable display, but many of the girls, neighbours, and friends did not like the look of the man, and were inclined to regard him as a pretender and fraud.

The honeymoon was spent at the

Station Hotel at Hull. He obtained a large quantity of jewellery from Reynolds, jeweller, in Hull, but did not pay for it immediately.

As soon as Reynolds on learning that Williams (Dr. Lawson as he was then known) had decamped after the honeymoon, he issued a warrant for his arrest. The trial took place in Hull in October, 1890.

While he was serving his sentence the police were communicated with re-

garding his past career, with the result that it was discovered he had married a woman named Mary James, at Birkenhead, in February, 1881, and that the issue of the marriage was four children.

It was at first the intention of Miss Mathieson's friends to proceed against Lawson for bigamy as soon as he

gained his freedom, but the action had to be abandoned owing to some legal difficulties that barred the way.

Lawson was released from Hull Gaol on July 16. Failing to establish his relationship with the girl he had duped into the illegal marriage lie went to Rainhill.

Deeming's brother received the bodies of the murdered woman and children at Rainhill, and identified them as the remains of his brother's wife and family. The woman's sister has also identified the remains.

The landlord of the Commercial Hotel in Bainliill says that he saw Williams after he had spent two nights at Denham Villa, and he noticed that his coat was bespattered with blood. This was about the time Williams

is. supposed to have committed the deed, Melbourne, March 17. Williams is now known to the polios under the names of Deeming, LawsoH{ Drew or Drouin, and Bailey. He first disappeared from Sydney in October, 1887, and is then supposed to have gone to England. He again returned to Sydney between that and the present dates. He alleged that his wife and children died in South Africa of intermittent fever. The detectives have reason to believe that Williams is "Jack the Ripper."

WILLIAMS IN AUCKLAND. It has been ascertained that Williams, the Windsor murderer, was in Auckland some years ago, and put up at one of the city hotels. He came here from Victoria, and was a cloth hawker, doing a good business, especially in the North, on the East Coast, and also on the West Coast of the North Island. Williams is described as a looking man, of good address, and even then was noted for the profuse way in which he wore jewellery, and diamonds. The impression which he gave by his conversation was that he had travelled in America, and also in various parts of the world. While on the West Coast he sold a diamond for £2 10s to a traveller, who, being doubtful afterwards of its genuineness, took it to a jeweller. The jeweller, to his astonishment, told him it was genuine, and worth six times the amount. Williams was last heard of in Wellington, from which city all trace of him was lost, as he had then changed his name.