THREATS TO THE KING

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8365, 27 February 1913, Page 10

THREATS TO THE KING

REMARKABLE LETTERS YOUNG MAN ALLEGED TO HAVE DEMANDED MONEY. MISS LILLAH McCARTHY ASKED FOR SUM OF £IOOO. LONDON, January 12. A remarkable story was told at Horsham when the magistrates heard the charge against the young man, Percy William Collins, who is accused of sending on December 16th a letter to the King demanding money with menaces. Prisoner was further charged with having written letters of a similar character to Miss Lillah McCarthy, the actress, and was committed for trial to the Old Bailey on the three charges, under section 44 of the Larceny Act. The prisoner, a strangelooking young man, aged twenty-four, and married, was for a while in a mental hospital. In the dock he stared at the witnesses, put several questions to them, his lips were constantly moving with unspoken comments, and he joined in the occasional laughter. Miss McCarthy attended the court accompanied by her husband, Mr Granville Barker, and gave evidence. Air- Muir, in his opening statement, said that the prisoner lived at Horsham, in the same house as his mother, bis .wife, and his infant child. A small laundry business was carried on. The defendant did no work. From October, 1907, until March, 1908, he was in the West Sussex Mental Hospital at Chichester. On December 3rd he wrote a letter to Miss Lillah McCarthy, the present manageress of the Savoy Theatre, and the principal actress in 1 “Twelfth Night,” as follows: Dear Madam, —I beg to offer you a lyric entitled “Eileen,” signed Percy W. O’Neill. The music is by a well-known composer, who at present wishes to be anonymous._ The song is to he published shortly, and will be a great success. Would you like to have the song dedicated to you? And oblige your obedient servant, PERCY W- COLLINS. A reply was sent by Miss McCarthy’s manager, accepting the offer. On December 12th Miss McCarthy received the following letter: The Gables, Horsham. Unless yon send me the sum of £IOOO per return, I shall shoot you with a Browning pistol, also . . . Percy Collins. Epsilon. ’Wine is good.—Yours truly, MAURICE DEWING. The envelope bore a Spanish postage stamp, and on the flap was the device of a capital T, with a loop at the top. In the prisoner’s house afterwards wore found drawings of that device. The letter was placed in the hands of the police. ’Mr Muir said that the prisoner was watched. On December 13th another letter was received by Miss McCarthy bearing the same address and the same device on the envelope. It ran: Madam, —Unless you send me the £IOOO previously demanded immediately I shall shoot you, and also . . . Percy Collins. MAURICE DEWING. “WINE IS GOOD.”

Mr Dewing (explained Mr Muir) is a Horsham solicitor, who acted for the prisoner’s mother tinder the will of the prisoner’s father. Counsel commented on the word “epsilon” and the phrase “wine is good” as being meaningless in the letter. There could be no doubt probably that the defendant sent those letters because of the state of his mind, but it was no part oL the duty of the prosecution to give evidence of unsoundness of mind, for the law presumed everybody to he of sound mind ‘ until the contrary was proved, and it was for the defendant to prove it. , By. December 16th the prisoner knew that the police were watching him. He conceived the idea of venting his spite on the two officers engaged in the work, Superintendent Goldring and Sergeant Stenning. He posted the following note, written in capital letters, and addressed:— Please open. King George, Buckingham Palace. London; The Bishopric, Horsham. Sir, —If you do not send us £4OO each we shall shoot you dead. No precaution will help you. No one will believe that we wrote this, because we have very good characters and are very well-known members of the police force. The magistrates will never believe anything against ns if we put it on to someone else. Yon must send by return. The prisoner, counsel said, was seen to post that letter. It was duly delivered at the private secretary’s office in Buckingham Palace, and there sent to the Home Office. The prisoner was arrested at Horsham. MISS LILLAH MCCARTHY’S EVIDENCE.

Mrs Granville Barker (Miss TiiTTah McCarthy) was the first witness. She wore a navy blue costume with a plaid facing and a Balkan turban fur, with a broad band of embroidery. She said she received the first letter and authorised her reply giving her permission for the dedication to her of a song. The second letter, threatening' her, she gave to her manager.—Do you know anyone named Percy Collins S' No.—Do you know Mr Dewing? No. —Do .you know the defendant? I have seen him before. “That is as far as you know,” remarked Mr Muir, “for of course a good many people have seen you who you have never seen ?” Miss McCarthy assented with a smile and a nod. The prisoner, on being asked if he had any questions to put, turned to Miss McCarthy and said. “Of course you believe these lying canaille of the gutter, which disgrace the King’s uniform?” Miss McCarthy looked at the prisoner with a puzzled expression, and Mr Muir remarked that it was not a question for the witness to answer. “Is there any reason why you should believe me guilty?” demanded the prisoner. No answer. “You do not suggest that I wrote the letters, do you?” pursued the prisoner. Mr Muir said it was not for the witness to suggest anything, and the'chairman directed that the next witness be called. Mr Alfred Piggott, business manager of the Savoy Theatre, proved the receipt of the threatening letters. The Prisoner: You know nothing against my integrity or moral character? I know nothing of you. Mr Maurice Dewing, solicitor, of the Gable, Hor-

sham, said he only knew the prisoner to the extent that he had acted under the will of the prisoner’s father, and he had sent letters to the prisoner’s mother. Ho neither wrote nor authorised the letters to Miss McCarthy. The signatures to them were a. colourable imitation of his own, ' and he thought one of them was written on a half-sheet of his own notepaper—possibly torn from a letter he had written to the prisoner’s mother. The Prisoner: You know nothing against my character? “In what way?” asked the solicitor.—Do you know anything against my honesty? No. “None of these ■witnesses,” said the accused, “has anything against me.” PRISONER’S MOTHER CALLED. Dr Kidd, medical superintendent of the West Sussex Mental Hospital, said the prisoner was resident there from October, 1907, until March, 1908. While there be wrote a letter to his mother (letter produced) in capital letters, similar to those of the letter addressed to the King. Further evidence of a corroborative character was given by the prisoner’s mother, a frail old woman, whose voice could scarcely be heard; by Mr Morgan Bryant, assistant secretary in charge of the Private Secretaries’ Office at Buckingham Phlace, and by the police witnesses. The prisoner asked Police-Sergeant Stenfiing, whose name was attached to the letter to the King, who would havo xeceivod the money asked for had it been sent. The sergeant said he did not know; his address was not in the Bishopric. “ But,” said Mr Muir, “ you axe well enough known. If the money had been sent it would have reached you?” The witness agreed, adding that he got no money. (Laughter.) The prisoner (referring to the letters to Miss McCarthy): Did 1 not say to you that the great Thespian lady would not believe your statement? The witness: Nothing of the kind.—When you told me about these so-called threats to our monarch, were you referring to swords, bombshells, pistols, revolvers, rifles, bludgeons, muskets, or what? I don’t know, I am sure. This concluded the evidence for the prosecution. ACCUSED’S STATEMENT. The prisoner was asked if he wished to make a statement why he ’ should not be committed for trial. Ho replied that he most emphatically desired to do so. Leaning over the front of the dock, and smiling at the clerks’ attempts to write his words down’, he said: “ With regard to the letter with the device oh the envelope and the drawings of similar designs found in my house, the-sergeant showed me the envelope, and afterwards I made sundry sketches of the design on a slip of paper. When Constable Barnes made his arbitrary domiciliary visitation he requisitioned this piece of paper. As regards all the witnesses heard before lunch, with the exception of Dr Kidd, they all spoke in my behalf. “With regard to the letter to the monarch, I actually posted four letters that day, and unless the police were possessed of ; telescopic perspicacity, combined with, the features, of the X-rays, they could not possibly have known what the letters contained. 1 had upwards of a dozen of these letters, though 1 cannot tell you the number with numerical exactitude. They were given to me by a certain: priest for distribution in the locality, asking for subscriptions ' for a certain pious object—to wit, to build a church ” The chairman (interrupting): I sho*ld not say any more, if; I were you.-' You are only making your case worse by talking about it. The.pfisoner (dramatically): As you like-it ! I don’t mind. The bench then committed the accused to the February Sessions at the Old Bailey; and, on Mr Muir’s application,. made an order on ,the county funds for the costs of the prosecution.