THE COLCHESTER CRIME.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9098, 16 March 1901, Page 4

THE COLCHESTER CRIME.

EVIDENCE TO BE GALLED f IN ENGLAND. ° In an article dealing with the Col- p Chester murder, m connection with which n the man Lillywhite, alias Blatch, is now upon his way to England, the London f ( Daily Express gives these particulars of tl evidence that is likely to be called m h England to establish the prisoner's iden- p tity. It tells of the fruitless search forthe t murderer and of the fact that the case t had been relegated to the list of undis- t covered crimes, and says:— .- Then a startling thing happens m i New Zealand. A year. or two before a j Colchester man, named , Drawbridge, a v former close acquaintance of the murdered man, had gone out to Wellington r "and opened a labor bureau. ■_ One day there walked; into his office an individual m search of . work, whom, m * spite of his down-at-heel appearance, the labor agent instantly identified as Blatch. Congealing his) surprise as best he , could, the agent questioned the man as , to his acquaintance With England, and asked him to call later, going m the mean- _ time to the police. But tne recognition ■ had evidently; been^mutual, v and Blatch , didn't call the: second tune.' '■ For a time he disappeared, but during his absence Air. Drawbridge had another . startling adventure, which was destined at last to lead to the wanted man's ar- ; rest. ._' _- .; . .;'_■'_ . -■''•■' Walking one day m: the street at Wel- . Hngton the agent was accosted. by a woman, who wished him to dispose of certain property which, she said, had been given her by a Chinaman whom she had met m New Zealand after leaving Colchester some years before, as she put it, "under a cloud." "Colchester," said the agent; "if you come from Colchester you must know Blatch." -..'.' . ' "Blatch," the woman answered m surprise, '"why that is the name of the than who ruined me." "Well," said the agent, as a climax to this sensational -scene, "Blatch is here m Wellington.'" He wasn't then, but he returned to his old' haunts a little later, and the woman, who had been an old sweetheart Colchester, and whose name was Alargaret Archer, met and recognised^ him. Although she had been some time married, and was now Airs. Wong Ton (the Chinaman referred to being her husband),: toe meeting with her former lover awoke the old passion, and she continually met kirn. . : The agent Drawbridge mentioned the, matter to the police again, but they regarded his story as improbable, and one; day the. woman left Wellington suddenly: for England. Then it was that Drawbridge, feelingconvinced' of rthe # identity of the man,! cabled straight to' toe English police, the result being that on_the arrival of the boat Detective Simmons, of Colchester, met the woman and ' questioned " her as to the man at /Wellington. Then sha admitted reluctantly that Blatch was m re^ty m Wdliffgton, and under pressure as to further particulars, made tne startling statement that before her departure Blatch, who . had always denied all knowledge of. the murder, had admitted m a moment of over-confidence that he had committed it, and begged her for old time's sake not to "give him away/ - '■.-'■ ; Cross-examination only served to con- : vince the police of the truth of the wo--man's, story, and a cable was hurriedly despatched to the Wellington police, the restilt of which was the arrest of the '< suspect as he was painting pillar-boxes m the street.,? • The mani claims 'to be a naturalised American, and has papers m, his posses^ i sion, but these, it is believed^ have-been i obtained froiq someone dse, and the i prisoner wUI shortly sail for home to • takte his trial, : which, should prove one I of the most sensational of recent years. 1