WHAT THE PEN TOLD

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1926, Page 6

WHAT THE PEN TOLD

LETTER CLUES TO GREAT CRIMES.

Many a murderer would be alive today if he had not foolishly betrayed himself by his pen. Madeleine Smith, the pretty daughter of a Glasgow architect, would never have found herself ia the dock on the charge of murdering her lover had the man oho was accused of poisoning destroyed her letter* For these, found in his lodgings, revealed the whole secret drama of her life—her passion for him, of which not even her most intimate friend had the least knowledge, and also her motive for getting him oat of the way, Iler love had waned. She had promised her hand to a rival; and, from fear of discovery, had implored him to return her incriminating letters—a request he had refused. The discovery of these letters led to her arrest. But, though it was proved that she had made these separate purchases of arsenic shortly before the tragedy, the jury returned a verdict of “Not proven.” A HUSBAND’S CONSCIENCE. When Mrs. Bell, wife of a Lincolnshire farmer, died suddenly one day, a doctor certified that her death w'as due to gastric trouble. She was buried without the least question that her death was due to natural causes; and to this day the man who murdered her by poison would hove lived unsuspected had he not' sent the, following anonym’oiis letter to the dead woman’s mother: “I can keep it no longer. The doctor never sent that powder and I am miserable about it. . See the doctor and he will tell yoii the same. I am going away to-morrow. I can’t stop here.” This strange letter was proved to be in the handwriting of Mrs. Bell’s husband. The doctor declared that the powder he had given Mrs. Bell was harmless magnesia; while, on exhumation, it was found that she had died from strychnine poisoning. Further inquiries led to the discovery that Bell had been engaged in a love intrigue with a pretty local girl. He was arrested and sentenced to death. Thomas Neil Cream, who murdered his victims to blackmail othere for his crimes, could forgo any signature so cleverly ae almost to defy detection; but two of his letters doomed him. One was written to the deputy-coroner of East Surrey, ostensibly by “A. O. Brown, Detective,” offering for a large sum to bring to justice the murderer of Ella Donworth; the other, identifying himself with the family of one of his victims and acknowledging the receipt of charitab) > donations. In each, slight peculiarities pointed conclusively to Cream as the writer. DOOMED BY A TELEGRAM.

William Palmer, the sporting doctor of Rugeley, would probably have died respected and mourned if the police had not discovered in his study more than sufficient proofs of his guilt as a murderer. In his diary he had actually entered particulars of several of his murders, and on one page of a treatise on poisons, dealing with strychnine, he had made a marginal note: “Kills by tetanic action of tho muscles.” When Jamee Canham Read wrote bls telegram to Mrs. Benson, Upper Mitcham: “Wire immediately if all serene not returning yet preserve letters unopened reply to Holm wood Station,” he thought he had completely dksguised hie