THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MURDER

NZ Truth, Issue 931, 29 September 1923, Page 5

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MURDER

CASES Or REVOLTING SLAUGHTER Old Crimes Recalled STORY Of A CALLOUS CRIMINAL

Maoril*nd rid herself of a human jackal when Cooper paid the extreme penalty of the law for his cold-blooded and revolting acts at Newlands. That he made a full confession at the end is hardly surprising, but it is nevertheless rather remarkable, so far as the criminal records of this country are concerned, Usual* !y the most inhuman creatures have gone to their fearful doom protesting their innocence m the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt. '

The psychology, of murder has always aroused the interest of students of crime,' and. Cooler's confession seems to square with the generally accepted theory that murderers, who take innocent lives m cold blood, would- naturally, have a strong tendency to suddenly develop

A RELIGIOUS ECSTACY as their violent end approached, and become' so buoyed Up by those who offered spiritual mintetration aa to become half unconscious of their Immediate surroundinifs and impending, fate, ; It to strange,- however, to reconcile the fact of a man who is condemned to suffer the legal consummation of his dastardly act«, becoming ■ so penitent as to. go to the scaffold apparently at peace with his Maker. Fortunately the criminal history of ttifcr country records very few primes of such revolting- callousness .as. that for which Coopet ;^aa hanged the Terrace Gaojt *« ne^ The terrible case, of :jttfinle i D,einy, the Winton "babyrfarmOTtf* 1$ it once recalled, but she wfta paised, to the hangman stll! defiantly protesting her Innocence. She a woman with a stone-cold heart, Who carried on a hellish traffic m the destruction of. harmless babes for filthy lucr^e. She, unlike Cooper, went to her ignoble death without remorse 1 having m any way soothed her conscience. A9 related some -months ago m "Truth," when the case was retold, Minnie Dean received her awful summons at InvercavgiU on the morning of August 12, 1896. "Leaving her cell When the last call came, ajie walked without a halt to the scaffold, erect and dignified as ever, stepped calmly up the steps to the teap, gave a scirutlniaing glance, ilrst at the scaffold and gallows, then at the halfrdozen people .BtaneVing below, a contemptuous! loathing look at the hangman, the absolute Tom Long, fun* then placed herself m position to facilitate the adjustment of the noose an* the placing of the white cap over her head and face, then sought for and held, the hand of the chief warder. The sheriff asked her if she' had anything to say, whereupon she answered: 'I have nothing to say, except that I &m innocent,' then, 'Thank you/ She began to swajr a little as the bolt was drawn. She dropped- to instantaneous death." As '9. "'further study m the psychology of murder and >s an example of how one o( the most fiendish murderers -rnet'hls death at Lyttelton Qaol unflinchingly while protesting his innocence, we now relate the almost forgotten Btory of John Mercer's dreadful crime of fifty years ago. In this case the cold-blooded monster did to death a little girl aft&r brutally raping her m a clergyman^) garden. , It was a sunny; pright morning on January S>, 1575, when little Isabella Thompson, aged 12 yoars, left her home m Lyttelton to get sbme groceries for her mother, and she; skipped gaily down the street, waving hex; hand to her father, m the garden. She had jibt gone faic.whßn a burly sea- cook going m the same direction started to phat to her as they walked along. A few hours , later little, Isabella was

FOUND BRUTALLY MURDERED lii the grounds of the local vicarage. A- brief reference to the Court proceedings i when John Mercer, 3.3, was arraigned on the capital charge of murder, will, after the lapse of half a century, throw some light upon life m the early days of the Canterbury seaport and tell of the hideous tragedy "the guilty seafaring man committed to so grievously Bbdtik many of the pioneer families. : '„.. Mercer waa a man of medium height but burly proportlons.'.He had a vicious glint m his eyes, and even with men then associated with the coastal trade m and out of LytteJt<m; he held a bad reputation. His demeanour before the Court was one of arrogant self-pos-sesfiloh as he gazed around tho crowded building, grinning, from time to time as revolting evidence was given. He, was, indeed, a study for physiogonomists. When asked to give his plea to the charge that ho did kill and murder Isabella 1 Thompson he replied "Not guilty" m a .clear and audible articulation and toolc tho kotmest scrutiny of the jurymen as they were called. Judge ' Williams was on the Bench, and the '•trial lasted until 9 o'clock at night, after two (days' sitting. -. John Blair Thompson, a shipwright, mid-father of the. murdered child, told hostile little one proudly left her houpe on A MISSION FOR HER MOTHER. Bho was a strong girl and of the brSghtoHt disposition. She left home about noon, and witness- next saw her dead at the fetation atlout 5 o'clock on January 9. James Allen, mate of the schooner Canterbury, of which the prisoner was cook and steward, deposed that he was with Captain Russell, his skipper, m the main street of Lyttelton when ho saw Mercer come along with a little ■ jigirl. Mercer came uti to the skipper nnd there was some dispute over wages. Accused had been paid qff that day. When prisoner left witness next saw him hurrying to catch up V? the girl, who started !to run, and- the two went out of sight round a cornet*. Ho recognised tho body of the child, later, m the deadhouse, as the girl he had previously seen 'With prisoner. Captain John Russell corroborated the evidence of his mate. He said he asked Allen who the little girl was. because Mercer had previously tried to outrage a small chSld\at tho Buller. He had also heard from a girl's mother In Dunedin that the prisoner had been * guilty of an outrage m that city. Matthew Percy, a seaman on the Canterbury, stated that on the morning they were both paid on* he asked nccußod if he was going up to Christchurch. Prlsonor said "No," and added that ho would get hold of some girl down at the port and If ho didn't havo her HE'D CUT HER WINDPIPE. The knife produced belonged to prisoner. Witness was sure of this, because he had used It when Mercer was sick. "When ho »poke about cutting the cirl's throat I was going to hit him," added witness, "but we were then near the police station, so I loft him instead." Riphard Rouso, a laborer, deposed to /mvlnir discovered the body of a little irlrl /lying Just inside a gorso fence at the/ parsonage. This was between i and 6 o'clock m tho evonlng. The f»sfl waa thrown over her neck an* » lega were naked. Her head was x\k down a slope and there waa Mood on tho body. -Witness went for tt»« police, and did not touch tho body. Police witnesses gave evidence a* to tho rocovery of tho body, saying it lav about nlno feet insldo a gap m the gdrse fenco. The face was cov ere d In blood, with the head down hill and tho child* dothos Orown over her chest There wan a largo wound „.. round tho throat. The child was dead nnd tho limbs cold, although tho body still retained somo warmth. The wound wa» on tho left aide and ran almost from the back of tho neck to the wlndpipc .

A small boy said he saw the prisoner coming out through the vicarage f^noe a few feet from where the deceased's body was found. Prisoner. was shaking his coat. He thought he was . a drunken man who had been having a snooze. He passed witness about four yards away, and went m the direction of the railway station. There was some blood on prisoner's cheek. He had his hands m his pockets and was hurrying away. When he passed he did not seem tipsy. He was a perf ept stranger.

Mrs. Twomey, who lived opposite the vicarage, Bald she saw a man come out of the orchard by a hole, m the gorse hedge. He caught bold of a rail* line as if drunk, and then shook his ooat. Witness had never- seen the man before. She was sure that >man was the prisoner. . A. carpenter who travelled from Lyttelton to Chrlstchurch by a tr*ta,«leayT ing about 7 o'clock, testified to seeing prisoner on the train and they spoke to one another. Witness remarked that prisoner's hands were bloody, to which prisoner replied he had been killing a sheep! There was also blood on his cheek, which appeared fresh.

(Well-known Salvation Aririy Relief Worker at Christchurch.) "Here is the Major, describe, him who ; can, . \ ■ ...■'.- ;.' ■ •"...-■ An abridgement of all that -:• is plear ■ sant in' man." v " • ';.,.: — Apologies to Goldsmith.

A boardinghouse keeper, with premises near the Chrlstchuroh Railway Station, stated that Mercer came m to his pjaoe about 10 o'clock at night with another man. He came for a bed, saying he was going back to port In the morning. Prisoner had, a knife m his possession the same as that produoed m Court. John Darcy, a cook on the sohooner Cleopatra, said that on Sunday morning (January 10) prisoner came aboard. He washed and changed his clothes. Witness picked up the knife produced m a coal bin. Prisoner threw some clothes Qverbqard. Chief Detective Harry, Feaet was the first to give evidence on jhe second day of the trial. Mercer was still self - possessed but seemed indifferent about following the evidence. He smiled from time to time and gazed cheekily about the Court. The detective said he went aboard the Cleopatra, on the day following the crime. Approaching the prisoner, he said, "You murdered that poor girl ; that le the mark of her fingers — the BRAND OP CAIN . on your nose." Prisoner muttered, '•Would you like me to say I did it?" He was arrested. When taken to the police station prisoner was told to strip. Witness noticed gorse prickles m his legs. These prisoner said were pimples. He explained the blood found on him as the result of kllHngr'a sheep. The gorse prickles taken from prisoner were the same as had been 'gathered at the scene of the crime. ' \ Dr. Rouse ' said he went' with the police to recover the body ofrthe little girl. T-he limbs were nearly, cold but the body was still warm. There was a gaping wound occupying the whole i of the left side of the throat. The legs were bare and there was blood about them. The ground was thickly covered with gorse prickles. The post mortem showed that the wound was of a three-fold character. One Incision commenced about the centre of the chin and wont to the left about two inches, then the instrument used appeared to take a deep plunge, dividing the tissues for *anj; Inch upwards and backwards to the- 'base of the skull. This last woun* was fully five inches long. Thore was also anpther wound forming. a tongue half an inch lower. Below this again there was a cut on the front of the throat about one and a half inches long. The main wound had divided the carotid artery and had caused death, which would be almost instantaneous. The knife produced would inflict such wounds. There were also bruises about deoeased's body. Witness had compared the thorns extracted from the prisoner's limbs with those extracted from deceased. This was done under a microscope. They were identical. No evidence was called for the defence. In summing up the Judge remarked that every link of evidence was clear. Tho crimo had been committed by a strong man upon a weak young girl. Tho murder was of tho very FOULEST AND BRUTAL NATURE that could bo perpetrated. After a retirement of 12 ♦••tnutes the jury returned with a verdict of guilty. Asked if ho had anything to «ay why sentence of death should not bo passed on him Mercer, who accepted the verdict with disdain, said, defiantly: "All I have got to say i 8 that I am not guilty. If fifty Jurymen had found mo guilty, I am not guilty. I never killed that child." Judge Williams, addressing the priaoner. said: "You have been found guilty of the moat brutal murder of an unfortunate, innocent and inoffonblvo child. You must know that m this world as you have shown no morcy to her bo also you can expect no morcy from tho society you havo outraged" Mercer was then sentenced to bo hanged, and accepted the dreadful pronouncement with apparont Indjtterfncc On hla way back lo Lyttelton Olnol, where he wan to await execution, tho prisoner nuked ono of his guard to 11 H a pipe, and lighting it amoked away with a degree of nonchalance that was ultogether Inconsistent with the ter-

rible fat© that«awaited him. He re- ' marked to the constable m charge as I they reached L.yUelton: "Welt, Wailace, farewell. I suppose I'll not see you after to-night m this world, but I hope I'll see you m the next." While being escorted through the crowd from the station to the gaol one man stepped out and hooted. Mercer turned round and yoUed back, "Oh, you hound." The night before he had to die at the hangman's hands he asked to be allowed an hour's stroll m the prison yard. This was granted, H© slept through the night, and In the morning asked for A ((dbcent Nip( , because It was very oold hanging at a o'clock In the morning." He was urged by the chaplain to confess his guilt m these words: "John Mercer, I beseoch you as you havo to answer to God within ono hour of thi« time, to solemnly say whether or not you have been guilty of the crime laid to your charge, that lfl, the murder of Isabella Thompson." In answer this callous bravado replied firmly: "I have not done this crime. 11 „,.,_ He submitted with perfect indifference to having tho rope adjusted round his neck^ NBVER PLINCHBD or showed the slightest signs ofjomotlon. His final words were: "Farowell, gentlemen, and may God have mercy on my soul." And so John Mercer paUl tho penalty for hln dastardly and- heartless destruction of an innocent life. He apparently was ever a depraved degenerate, because It was afterwards recorded that at Dunedin some nix yours before he was sentenced to 12 months' Imprisonment for indecently assaulting a girl 10 years of ago. When he was leaving the dock ho said: Til take care the next woman doesn't tell ngalnst me." Ho was also arrested on the West Const for a similar ofTonee, but on this occasion escaped Justice.