CANAL MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11771, 28 September 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

CANAL MYSTERY.

A WOMAN IN BLACK AND A MURDER

CHARGE. ■ . ";; An extraordinary case is under the investii gation of the Metropolitan Police. A la-< bouring man, describing himself as Harry, Houghton, 43, a .oemaker, with no fixed abode, was before Mr. Curtis-' Bennett, at MaryleDone, charged on suspicion with drowning a woman at present unknown in the Regent's Canal on the 10th of August. "..;';':/ William Henry Burton, a capstan man employed at Chalk Farm Railway Station, stated that between ten and a quarter to eleven o'clock on the night of the 10th ha was leaving the yard of the station when he heard the cries of a woman coming from the direction of the Regent's Canal. He distinctly caught the words, "Oh, oh!" " Don't," " Murder," and " Police," and upon reaching the main line railway-bridge spaning the canal he heard the cries repeated.. He communicated with the railway police, and accompanied them back to the bridge,; and they heard the same cries themselves. The cries continued for about four or five minutes, the last few being accompanied by a gurgling sound, as if the woman were drowning. All of them then went by a necessarily circuitous route to the towingpath of the canal, but they saw nobody* It was very dark.' • '"-,-' Henry Haynes, a bricklayer, of 2, Haver-sett-street, Chalk Farm, spoke to seeing prisoner in the Carnarvon, Chalk Farm Road, about ten o'clock on the night of the 10th, with a female who was dressed in black. About quarter-past twelve he again saw him walking along the towing-path of the canal, and from what the " tug-boys" said he asked him what, was up down there. "Oh," he replied, " I have only given her a good hiding." Witness inquired what he had done with her, and he said he had left her up on the hill (Primrose Hill); hut- when asked whereabouts he made no answer and walked quickly away. He then informed the police. Inspector Merritt said he met prisoner on the canal bank shortly before midnight and asked him his business. He answered that he worked on the barges and had been down to see whether they were locked. As witness was walking on he shouted after him, " All right; I would tell you if I knew anything." An hour and a-half later witness found him lying asleep on the canal bank at Chalk Farm, about 100 yards away from where he had originally seen him. He woke, him up and told him that he should take him to the station and detain him while he made inquiries respecting a woman who accompanied him along the canal. Prisoner replied, "She is all right; I left her on Primrose Hill." Witness Haynes then interposed and remarked that prisoner told him he quarrelled with he- on the cut (canal) side and punched her on the nose. To that prisoner made some reply, which was unintelligible by reason of his condition. When told, howevei, about the woman's cries he said, " We went by St. Mark's Bridge, and then went to the York and Albany and had a drink', and afterwards to the" Queen's Head, and then I left her on Primrose Hill." Witness added that the canal had since been dragged, but no body had been found, although from inquiries it would appear that a woman about 40 years of age, wearing a pink bodice, black jacket, and r hat o* bonnet trimmed with briar roses, was missing. . Prisoner was remanded in custody.