MY CRIMINAL MUSEUM.

NZ Truth, Issue 121, 12 October 1907, Page 7

MY CRIMINAL MUSEUM.

BY GEORGE R. SIMS.

The Southend Tragedy.

! A portion of the "fatal beam" on; which so many despairing eyes have looked m agony m the last moments of their lives is one of my relics of; Newgate that is now no more. ' : ■ The last person executed on the. beam, of which this is a. portion, 1 was George Woolfe, for the murder of his sweetheart, Charlotte Cheeseman, on Tottenham Marshes, on Saturday, January 25, 1902. He ; was . executed at Newgate, May 6, -.arid , died protesting his innocence. ! Between the Tottenham Marsh murder of 1902 and the Southend murder of 1894, with which I -proposo principally to deal, there are some curious parallels. ' The victim was m each case a young woman, and, according to the theory of the prosecution] was murdered for the same reason. ... Both Charlotte Cheeseman,., the Tottenham Marsh victim, , and Flor- , ence Dennis, the Southend victim, ■ were found . dead ma. ditch. In each case the guilty man . emphasised the circmstantial evidence against him by his conduct after the crime. Both George . Woolfe and James Can^ ■ham Read left their emolovment on the Monday following Ihe murder and lay perdu under assumed names. To both the possession of a weapon, which m one instance might have caused, and m the other did CAUSE THE FATAL WOUND, ■

was brought home. Each communi 1 cated with the relatives pf his. victim the day after the crime. Each was proved to have read the newspaper giving a full account of the crime, and to have made no at- ~ tempt to come' forward. George Woolfe, after he had enlisted as a soldier m the name of Slater, was shown a copy of "Lloyd's" newspaper with an account of the murder of Charlotte Cheeseman.- James - Canham JRead, when arrested, had on him an account of the murder of Flotence Dennis. •

The body of Charlotte Cheeseman .was discovered on Sunday " morning :by a boy playing football. She -had •. been murdered about ten o'clock on r Saturday nijrht. The body of Florence Dennis was discovered on Mon.day evening by a boy ?oing home .from his work. She had been muri dered about ten o'clock on Sunday - night. . .' „ The former had been stabbed to death with a sharp-pointed instru--ment. The latter had been shot at j, close quarters. v '.' Both murderers accounted for their . failing to come forward by- the plea . that a charge of theft would be pre- ■ f erred against them. In both cases ' a soldier lover played a conspicuous . part. In the Tottenham Marsh, case '■ he was an actuality against whom there was NOT A BREATH OF SUSPICION. In the Southend case he was a shadowy form invoked by the accusred m the course of his defence, r And there the. parallel ceases.. Woolfe was a single' man of 21, ißead was a married man with a family. Woolfe was an uneducated laborer ; Read was a man of superior education occupying a position of • trust. . The story of the Tottenham Marsh nurder was sordid and uninteresting. bhe story of the Southend tragedy .was intensely dramatic. But there : were people who had their doubts as to whether the last man executed on the beam at Newgate might not have been innocent. There was not one 'who had the slightest doubt as to ; the guilt of James Canham Read.

About half-past eight on the evening of Sunday, June 24, 1894, Florence Dennis, a good-looking girl of

four and twenty, stood gossiping with -Mrs , Eg-gers near her home: at Southerid. ' , Florence Dennis was staying at Southend with a married sister, but the house was crowded, with , weekend visitors, and so it was arranged that this Sunday night-, Florence should, sleep at the .house of Mrs loggers. . Mrs' Effgers noticed that' tlie girl Who had her- hat on to go out, was, as she stood talking, swinging one of her gloves m her hand. She said she was going for a walk. THE GIRL DID NOT "RETURN to occupy the room that had been engaged for- her. The sister, learn- ,• ing: this early on the following morning, went to the police station and gave certain information. She then sent off a telegram to James Cantiam Read, a cashier at . the Royal Albert docks— a man with a wife and seven children, and an I income of .£143 a year; who lived iat .Jamaica-street' Stepney. The telegram, which was ■ addressed to Read at the. Royal Albert docks, was m these words:— . .. *'What have you done with Plorrie : ?..'- Wire- at once." : Later. Mm the ,. day she received ■ a letter m. reply :■— • •

"What- is the meaning of your extraordinary wire. Please write fully. Have not seen the young person for quite eighteen months. — Faithfully yours, C. J. Read."

At six o'clock, that evening a boy returning from his work at a farm at Prittlewell saw a glove lying • on the grass m a cornfield on the other side of the hedge. He peered through the hedge, and • then saw the :

DEAD BODY OF A YOUNG • -WOMAN lying doubled up m a ditch. The boy ran on m search of a policeman.- The" body was that of Dennis. Her forehead, m which there was. a: bullet wound, was blackened and burnt.

In the meantime, the man to whom the telegram had been sent asking him "what he had done with Flor rie," had been to his office m the Albert docks. He had lighted a fire m his room, explaining the unusual proceeding on a hot June day, by the statement that he wan-ted the fire "to clear the air." .■■ He left the office early, and. did not return. He did riot go home to his seven children •m Jamacia-street. i . For nearly a fortnight the search for him «. was a' vain one. -But ; on - July, 7 he was: arrested -at Rose Cottage-/ "Mitcham; where: he 'was living under the name of Edgar Benson,? on affectionate" terms with a young woman who believed Jiiin to ( be a commercial traveller, and had accepted his statement to 'that effect as explaining why he only spent the week-ends with her. When searched, the Albert docks cashier, who had absconded with a considerable sum of money, the property of the company, was found to have on him a portion of a newspaper containing the account of .the coroner's inquest on Florence Dennis, and the ..•■.,■ . , ' j VERDICT OF THE CORONER'S . .--,■■-..; .-; - : -■-.:-■;■ ■■.■■■•.:■: ■ "Wilful ..murder against: James Canham Read." : , . During the: Police Court proceedings, and at the. trial at Ctoelmsford, which took place, the following November, a remarkable story was" unfolded. .. <

This quiet, welt-groomed, unemotional, and respected father,- of a family, had led a quadruple, life. He had a wife and seven children.

During the years he had been on terms of intimacy with a married sister of, the murdered girl. This sister had borne two children. He had, it was alleged by the prosecution, been on terms of intimacy with Florence Dennis, and her "trouble" was the cause of her murder. Letters had been sent by her to Read at the Albert docks. Letters and telegrams had been sent by Read to "Miss Talbot" and "Miss Latimer" at various post offices and stationers' shops, and these letters had been sent for by Florence . Dennis. He had passed as Edgar Benson at Rose Cottage, Mitcham, where she lived with a young woman who had borne him a child, and it was su "vested by his own counsel that the reason he was absent from Rose Cottage on the Saturday and on- the Sunday of the murder was that he had

FORMED ANOTHER LIAISON m another part of the country. And his total income was £143 a year.

The married sister with whom Florence Dennis had been living at Southend— the girl had been sent from her home, where there were younger children, m consequence of her being m "trouble" — gave information to the police about Read directly she discovered Florence was missing.

At the trial she explained that the intimacy between herself and Read had Ceased m 1892, and that later m the year she had discovered a letter from Read m the pocket of Florence, who was staying with her. She accused the sister of "carrying on" with Read, and the pirl admitted it.

After that Florence lived at Hanwell and Sheerness. From December, 1893, the sisters did not meet until June 19, five days before the murder, when Florence was brought by her mother to stay at her sister's house at Southend.

There, having learnt of the "trouble" the married sister advised Florence to write a letter to Read at the - Albert docks. It was to the effect, that she had left Sheerness, and would be glad to know, m view of the coming event, what arrangements Read proposed to make. *

On the Saturday following, Florence Dennis received a telegram, and went out m the evening. On the Sunday she went out and never returned. The sister at once came to the conclusion that she had met Read, and it was with this idea that she gave a description of him to the Southern! * police. The sister's evidence was one of the sensations of the trial. The defence was that her accusations against Read were, from first to last those of a jealous woman. ' She had sworn at the coroner's inquest that she had seen Read m Southern! on Saturday night. She admitted afterwards that she had not. ' She exnlained that she HAD MADE THE FALSE STATEMENT influenced by the knowledge that she had thought that her sister was going to meet Read that evening. As a matter of fact, there was no evidence of any value given at the trial that Read was m Southtnd on .the Saturday or Sunday. The evidence identifying Read as a man seen near Prittlewell on the night of the murder was of the weakest kind. Three telegrams sent to Florence Dennis m June were important, but some remarkable features were discovered m the original forms when produced m court. In each case, the telegram, with a sixpenny stamp af r fixed, had been dropped into the pillar-box at Charing Cross. It was admitted that at the time these telegrams were sent, Read, with his brother, who gave evidence, was m the neighborhood of Charing Cross. They were written with a violet pencil, and Read had one. The writ ing was like his. But m one o£ the telegrams the word Saturday was spelt "Saterday."

The contention of the defence was that the cause of the girl's "trouble" was a soldier lover, and it was*ur-

ged that the telegrams were sent by this soldier. How, demanded the counsel for the accused, could an educated man like Read suddenly become so illiterate as to write "Saterday" ? ... It was an astonishing thing, and the defence made the most- of it m cross-examining the writing expert, but if these telegrams were not sent by Read, but .by the shadowy soldier, then a ■ ' MARVELLOUS SERIES OF, COINCIDENCES had to be accepted. .., "■-. On three separate occasions the soldier must have been at Charing Cross at the same time that it was. admitted that Read himself was. there. The soldier must have still further emphasised the by writing like Read and by having, like Read, a violet pencil m his possession with which to write the telegrams.

The married sister who denounced Read had undoubtedly considerable animus against him. , She had herself received letters . from him, and corresponded with him on her own account. The letters addressed m various names to ..post offices and stationers' shops and fetched by relatives or by Florence Dennis were, it was contended, really for the married sister.

But against this theory there was Evidence which was far m ore con- , viricing than ;even that~ of the rmirdered girl's sister. It was the evidence of Read himself, Riven not m words, but m deeds. He was neither at home nor at Rose Cottage, Mitcham, on Saturday, the 23rd, or Sunday, the 24th of June, and he did not bring forward a single witness to show where he was on- those dates. On the Monday after the receipt of the wire from South end demanding to know "what he had done with Fl6rrie )? he appropriated ~, A LARGE SUM OF MONEY at his office, -and . a;bs.conded. : A revolver," one. that the conical bullet found m the brain of Florence Dennis would fit, was proved to have been m Read's possession at Kose Cottage by the young, woman who! lived there with him.' : She gave her evidence with the greatest reluctance, and she testified, with tears m her eyes, that the man standing m the dock, charged with brutally murdering another woman, had always' treated her and: her child with the greatest tenderness and affection. It was to this young woman that Read wrote prior ' to the murder, "We have been acting , a real life drama, almost deceiving our only audience, ourselves. One mistake would have been fatal." The* life drama was deceiving the girl's parents as to her whereabouts.

The possession of the weapon that, could have inflicted the death wound on Florence Dennis, and- his flight ou the day following the murder were the .two things that brought his crime home to James Canham Read, the- man who had been leading a quadruple life. Read heard the verdict of the iurv unmoved. In reply to the question if he had anything to say, he math; a long, coherent statement negativing the evidence of the principal female witness, amd he declared solemnly that he had not seen Florence Dennis for 18 months. "At the time of the murder I was as near as possible fifty miles from the spot." Then he sat' down. But he rose again to hear his sentence. He stood with folded arms to receive it. Then lie moved • round to quit the clock, but remembering that • he had left his memoranda and papers he returned; and calm, unruffled and methodical to the last,, he gathered them up and put . them neatly together, and placed them under his arm. In all the stress of the trial he WROTE OUT HIS' NOTES for- his counsel m a clear and clerkv hand. I have m my. collection a note that he wrote when he must have been certain that his defence had failed, and there, was, not a tre-

mor m the formation of a single letter. No one who saw him fold and. pack his papers togtether after he had been sentenced to death is likely to forget the marvellous display of nerve.

The trial of Woolfe was only interesting to the student of circumstantial evidence. - ' ''

The proved possession of a weapon which could have killed his sweetheart at the lonely spot on Tottenham Marshes, where the body was found, and his own conduct m disappearing the Monday after the murder, are points of striking resemblance to the crime of Read. But he was able to make a far better defence. Witnesses identified him as a man seen on Saturday night with the murdered girl, but identification of that kind would not be sufficient to hang a man, without very strong evidence of another kind, evidence of motive and conduct. Woolfe went into the witness-box and told a plausible story. He declared "that on the night of the crime at Tottenham he was at the World's Fair at Islington, and he named a man as being m a publichouse at Islington that he entered at the time when he, Woolfe, could not possibly have gpt there from Tottenham. The man admitted, he ■was -there: He also hanied a' man ' whom , he saw at the World's Fair. But he' 'proved that on Sunday night, about 10.50, he had a fight with a man near his own home at Hoxton. He maintained that it was m this fight that, his face was scratched. Not a single witness who saw him that night before the fight noticed any scratches.' But after the fight a woman who had watched it swore •that his face was scratched .and bleeding. , . Oh = the Siindav after the murder, he called three times at the home of the girl who was missing to inquire if she had returned. ■ He call- ' m the morning, the afternoon, Tim] the evening. • In a way he explained his enlisting UNDER A FALSE NAME., But the circumstantial evidence against him convinced the jury; and the Judge agreed with the verdict. Georp-e Woolfe maintained his innocence, even when he stood under the beam on which he was to be the last man to die. But, like Read, he had m his possession a newspaper report of the crime of which he was suspected. And he did not, as an innocent man would have done, come forward at once to account for his movements on the. night of the tragedy. James Canham Read, declared when convicted of his crime, that he was "fifty miles from Southend that Sunday night."

In the condemned cell on 1 he; Sunday before his execution, he wrote to his brother his astounding letter :—

"In snite of the truth, and m defiance of evidence, the Home Secretary has endorsed the murderous conspiracy of his professional brethren. Medical evidence proves that the murder was committed between midnight and 5 a.m., and I have four witnesses to prove that I was

m bed at , Southchurch-road, Southend, during the whole of the time."

So Read was m Southend on the night of the murder. He .lonfPßsed it m his letter, and vet. like Woolfe, he protested his innocence even when the rope was round his neck.