FAMOUS MYSTERIES.

NZ Truth, Issue 142, 7 March 1908, Page 8

FAMOUS MYSTERIES.

r (By L'adbroke Blacky

;;ff 1 attempted to deal with.all the ; ~%hutilatjfon mysteries which have hor- ' rifled the country during the last 50 years I should weary my readers .with endless repetitions. The "main fesfrtures of- such cases fare always the same 1 . The passionate wretcji who has committed an !wtrocious crime seeks' in the first revulsion of horror to, find some way ;of hiding the crying evidence of Ms guilt. Almost invariably m such cases' the first impulse of "the assassin leads him to "cut , the body into pieces, "either with the idea b£ burning it", or '•with the object of enabling' him to conceal it more conveniently. ; Fortunately., for- the sake pf justice, to- rediidb a -body to . dust by • the ordinary pocesses of combustion-. is v very long, a very difficult, and a •very^ expensive process. More than one: "murderer has been caught cngag•"edurr the gruesome, and. unavailing tusk of trying •: * TO BTJRN THE) CORPSE ' V of his victim pj.ccem6af. Tlio details ;o'f- these cases are too nauseating to find, a record here. • , Sometimes, ' early discovering' that his n ttcinpts arc jbound to fail, the murderer has desisted from eniployahg lire to cover his guilt, 'and, takang "the fragments of his . iv:ictiin.'s frody; Jms either deposited the remains m one * place, or ''else scattered them, broadcast, 'Hoping by "this means. to escape, detpefion. ' : ■-Mv readers •yirill recollect the story ,of She^ard, of Norwich, who; ■haying; Jciljetl" ?iis wife, cvt 1 her body 'into pieces, 'boiled- them, and then, night Utter night; •for a whole week, distributed portions' ',bf j>hem round the ! ci.ty. : From liisowh point of view his 1 > ■efforts were bo successful J that had it hot been "for the fact that, lie confessed 18 teats. I'ater he would never have . pyet' liiVxieatili on" ttitf gallows. - 'T/here. are' two cases': whichi' are invariably quoted 'together -when tho ptfbjepjr pi rjiutilation mysteries is freiajlfc withi n the ; . • ! Various histories • op *■ crime. '-the Waterloo . Bridge case of 1857 and the Ba,ttersear mutilation mysWy cf 1873. ' Though I intend dealing only with the latter at length; perhaps it will interest my readers if i'i9Comt y _^n^Y,ijYie little :that is bi the ' f brnaer. :■■-■■■■■•• Two boys who. were "out in' a boat m the; y.ear .1857 noticed acatfpet bag, f&ught by tih> flow, of the tifl e> resting "against one of the buttrejsses / 'of |f^tettoo^b,ridge. Regarding it as a' $jrtf, they rpwed up to it, and p^iin-ptly •." proceeded to investigate its- Q/axtwnps, .. , ; . . \ •. .©n opening': the -bag,: they were lior-ifMsed-fo find i that it contained the "ri&tjiated fragiaents . of a human body flipped:' up into anutfifoer of pieces. •y irftm^diately';;' 1 took their " grue■sN»rti«j. jrid to: the authorities. '■" : T ; hc° Bubseqiuerit medical examinati<j>n> ddecitosea the following facts :— ' SPhere adhered to spme of. the pietm QtHb* body the unmistakable *»REIS.S OF MALE CLOTHING ; - f«pHier,"'the doctors were able to an,a«ince that trie victim was . a dark Bad hairy roan/, who had met his ms& through a &»& ?H)> between ihsv'^prd' a'nUJtpurthJx^bs. ; 7 j9^/ieniains;liad been boiled, and sprteqjiehtly fea'tted; or placed m Sr|ae, vfiib , the " probable object of "trying \o ayo-fcd 'the damning evidences if ,decQrnpo^|j?ion until such, a , time 'ais the "Corpsl.o could' be disposed of. JlkHiie parts of the interior .bones had tiiwiapeu'^he action 6j the Salt, and fr<im thSsfe it ws possible* to make && approximate guess at the date •f death, .which raust have taken place three ot four weeks beforettoe nature of the clothes it wsis; adduced that the deceased must haVe vbfeen a foreigner. But begrond Jtiese ;gener^lisi'es it was found im-r pdssibl,e- to discover 'anything. . j- - The crime had 'been. ; ,COMI\!tITT.EP . WITH vDIABOJ-ICAL' .-,'... ; .cuNisfi'^G, ' - j •«iod ; must have been carefully i&oug?f£ sput 'before-hand. All the parts/ likely-, ftp" lead to idenifcificatioiij ; swh , as Sbbe; hands, . ieetj and/ head^ were foiind to 'be missing. Though search iwas itta4e eyeiywhtei* they were nevr er 'brpught to light ; and, as a con«equeiic.e, the' Wateiloo-hridge mysitery remains ia siystery '-'to this day. -The s|milarity between, this • case and the ' Battersea one, 'which I will now recpuat; will be apparent at tonce to "the' reader. On S^jjtembef ' 5, .1873',, • a .Thames policetnjaji found m the mud off the Batters'ea waterworks 'the left quarter of a ■W'omaji's trunk. He took ■the mutilated part "at. once to the ICiapham and' Wandswbrth ; union iworkhouse, whigre Pr. Kempster, the divisiorial surgeon, saw it, atid pjcor nounced it tp "be the porftion of , a body (which lia'd npt been m -the water mote Hhau 42 houjrs.' - " • A careful and miwute search of fthfc river was imanedfately instituted by ' the police, Jjut, strangely enough, "jthe next discovery was noadeT by aconstable m the etoplpyJbf the Westerji Railway, who. had no knowledge of 3»hat. toad abeady. been brought )to light. Off the Brimf,fcyic& whari, near -Nine Elms' station^ he found ffiie rigbt quarter of a Awman's trunk. Tbis part corresponded with the first part found, and its was clea/rly seen that THE <JOTESOME OPERATION ftad been performed w^th 'a very sharp kpife, and $hat, mon^over, a saw. had also bjee» used. '.-.*. Other portions of the body began Ao be discovered .m rapid succes r eion. Inspector Mf/rley, of the Thames police, found a portion of toe lungs uraier. an arcji of/the old Battersea brii^lge, and t-he other part near the ' Bart'tersea railyr/<a,y pier. ■■ , ' On_the2olloviiig day, September 6, *he Thames yielded up oft Limefioilse the farce' pf a woman, w;ith the iealp attached-^ROssibly the most apftMing hprror e:tet pulled out -of a whose bisiory runs red with .tragedy. V r It was evident at a glance tftat the murderer, or ;4nurderers, had taken Ming pr<vcautions to prevent idejijon, fxir the nose was carfc ;from' 3e, liut still hung attached to 10/ My lip: There was the mark Js!f±?e on the right temple^Levii^'%l by. ,a blu^fe %f^jmP^

The Battersea Mutilation Case.

On September U two mote portions of the same body were found. Tho right thigh was picked up in the r river ofi Woolwich, and the right shoulder, with part, of the arm, which was smeared with .tar, ofi Greenwich. The left foot was discovered near ttoe bank of the Regent's canal, oil Rotherhithe, and the right forearm near the Albeit-em'banfcment. Six • days later another piece of THE RIGHT ARM WAS/ FOUND near Hungerford-bridge. / - There , was one circumstance attaching to these dreadful discoveries from Which the authorities were able to deduce, a very sound theory. Each fragment had been found on an ebb . tide, each lower and lower down the river. This seemed to indicate that ■ the heavier portions , at , least were committed to the river not very far from the place where the Wandle enters the Thames, and had been • washed down by the tide 'to where they were found— one to Batter sfea, ■ which' is about a couple of miles from tfta Wandle, and another part a little below that, & few hours later.

PUBLICATION OF THIS GRIM .... . - NEWS - cheated an immense sensation. The public joined 'hands with the police in trying to track the missing portions oi the body. .Several frag,ments, which might otherwise have .escaped the notice of the authorities, were taken to :■ the Clapham and Wandsworth "Workhouse, i As invariably happens in tlvese cases, quite a number, of pieces of flesh and bone were handed in, which, on examdna-' tion, we're found to belong to different animals' . •. The one portion that the police were. most anxious to Jay their hands upciti was the skull. Without, that they were unable to tell the exact cause of 'death.- It was thought that' With that in tfceir possession they ,would- be ajble .to decide definitely Whether -the blows on the head, as shown "by the .CONTUSIONS. ON THE SCALP, . really proved fatal, or whether they only stunned the victim, whose head, while she was insensible but still living, was cut from her shoulders. But the skull was never brought to light: : . Under the direction of Mr Hayden, Wte medical' officer of the workhouse, where the remains lay preserved in spirits of wine, the body was built up, and the face so arranged as to give some hope that the mutilated victim ... might be identified. The, medical evidence at the inquest agreed unanimously that the body was cut up, ,but a short time before it was committed .to the water, and that death was'caused, in all proiba-. bility, by; a " Mow on the right temple— a blow which the scalp seemed to sfaow was, liar d enough to have crushed in the skull 1 , and so to HAVE CAUSED INSTANT tvp a It was held 'also that the parts first, found had been in the water but a few hours. ~^ . ' . The inquest was postponed- from; ■week to week dn the hope that somebody could identify Jhe remains^ Crowds daily flocked to the work-' house, fearing to recognise in the horribly; mutilated corpse some dear friend or relative who had been swallowed .up in the mysterious maw of Lonfton?With unfailing patience and pertinacity the police followed up the story of each missing woman, as it was related tp them, testing even the most ridiculous and 4mproba!ble narratives. - Wisrin , the first fow days several theories were seriously propounded. •One laid it down that it might be the work of an association of criminal, lunatics, escaped from Broadf riioor, who, .hiding among the. islands of Battersca-park, wandered forth now and again to seize some victim, and to put him' or her to a horrible death . Another theory, that was 'mooted als/o, in the case of the Waterloobxidge mystery, received for several days' considerable support. The whole . ' affair, it was said, was > A GRIM, PRACTICAL JOKE, , played by some medical students, who had deliberately thrown into the Thames a body they were dissecting in the hope of horrifying the public. The laws governing, the dissection of corpses were not then generally known, and iH; was not until the "Lancet" showed the .impossibility of this theory that it was abandoned. Every body of a person dying unclaimed in. a public institution is registered at the office of the Inspector of Anatomy,, and its destination settled by bis officers. It is forwarded with an official schedule and certificate to a licensed school of. a»natomv. where its receipt is . duly acknowledged by a formal certificate. . From that moment the anatomical teacher is responsible for its care ; no entire body is ever given to anystudent, and, after dissection, the remains are collected and buried^ There are undertakers attached to the schools whose interest it is .to see. that each body sent for dissection is ultimately committed tp the earth/ and who would be certain to report to the authorities the loss of a> corpse,' which loss would • 'ROB THEM OF THEIR FEES. The theory was rendered finally untenable by the official announcement that after the closing of the schools in the summer no bodies are 'dissected within the metropolitan area -before October 1 . As September was not then out, the suggestion that the sinister discovery in the Thames was the work of some practical joker among the medical students was shown to bo inadmissible. Meanwhile another startling discovery 1 had been made, which seemed to promise that the whole mystery would be cleared up. Among the number of people who came to view the corpse- was aMr Christian, of 15 South-street, Rattersea-fields, He had ha.d "a ; lodger a Mrs Cailey, who had taken his rooms five weeks previously. She was supposed to be a widow frofti; Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire. On the morning of September 2 she had left the house after offering Mrs Christian two pawn tickets in payment of her rent. "Next" time you see me , YOU WILL NOT KNOW ME/ 1 wer« feer last -words as she set out.

From that day she had been seen no more m South-street, Batterseafields. Mr. Christian brought with him his wife and another lodger, Mrs Lawson. On seeing the body they both decided that it was the. body of Mrs * Cailey. The police at once followed up this clue with great zest. Mrs Cailey had certainly disappeared ; her old landlady anil a fellow lodger appeared' to recognise her m "the awful human fragments at the workhouse. What was more likely, then, that it was the body of Mrs. Cailey that toad been picked up piecemeal from the Thames ? An incident that occurred prior to .. Mrs, Cailey's disappearanle seemed to lend support to the. theory. On her return late one night she had been set on .'by some men near Batter sea-park, had received a blow over the eye, and had become so frightened of going out that she had asked for the protection of the police. . Might not these men who had assaulted her been the murderers ? Her brother, Abel Beer, of Southstreet, Bridport, Dorsetshire, was sought out and brought up to London. As soon as he. saw the body he became deeply affected, 'r'l believe 'tis she. Yes, I believe , 'tis she.

There was a large white mark on the poor victim's breast, which confirmed Abel Beer's opinion. His- sister had scalded herself when she was. young with boiling water m exactly the same spot. Beer was also positive as to theidentitv of the ear and nose ; her stature troubled him a little, but did not make him alter his opinion that the remains were those of Iris missing sister. • The story of •- ■ - Beer's tearful recognition' of ' his sister convinced ! the public and the press that it was Mrs Cailey whose mutilated body .had 'been found m the Thames. While they were still hoping that now that I THE VICTIM'S IDENTITY; WAS . E&TAT* 1 Tr ' the murderer would be discovered, Ptfrs Cailey suddenly turned up smiling m Kings-road Chelsea, very much alive, indeed. After that the whole affair was allowed to lapse gradually into _the realm of undiscovered .mysteries ; for, though the Government offered a reward of two hundred pounds, no one has ever come forward who was able to recognise that awesome, skulless face, and those brutally mutilated limbs .that wero fished out of the Thames on September 5, 1873.