‘MIND OF A MURDERER”

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11435, 3 February 1923, Page 14

‘MIND OF A MURDERER”

&EVJ3N TEAKS FOR MAR WHO ATTACKED CITY TYPIST. The young man, Joseph Parsons, was sentenced at the Old Bailey to seven years’ penal servitude on the charge of attempting to murder a city typist with whom he was in love, Edith IS oole, aged 18, of Leyfconstone. He was found guilty of wounding with intent to murder. The couple had kept company for over two yearn, but latterly the girl’s father objected to him. Parsons attacked tho girl with a razor near Broad street station and wounded her throat. On him was’ found a letter addressed to his mother,, in which ho said : “By the time you get this, mother, I shall bo gone away from all these cares and troubles. They have taken my sweetheart. For twelve days I have eaten out my fceart alone. For twelve nights I have not slept. "Last night was the climax. I thought I should have gone mad, and the thought of again being put away was too awful to contemplate. I did so want to get on for'her 6&ke. I only had her in my arms once in all this long v/eek, and even then she told me what might happen if he taught her Money was his creed. .. . . "Don’t worry, mother dear. . . I am taking her with me. I feel it is for the best. She is so unhappy, and, besides, Paradise would not be Paradise if she was not there. . . /* Dr. East, medical officer of Brixton Prison, called by the judge, said that he found the man mentally impulsive, but not insane. Tho Recorder, in passing sentence, said: "You had tho mind of a murderer. The thing you are suffering from is self-pity; von think too much of yourself and nothing of her/’