THE HAMPSTEAD MURDER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7068, 21 January 1891, Page 4

THE HAMPSTEAD MURDER.

» Trial of Mrs Pearcey. The Motive for the Crime. Verdict and Sentence. [From oub London Cobrespondent.] London, Dec. 5. The Central Criminal Court, or (as it is more usually called) the Old Bailey, seems never more appropriately gloomy, nor fuller of sombre shadows of past , tragedies than when some possible mur- , derer or murderess, " one of tbe immortals of crime," stands in the roomy dock to be tried for his or her life. Last Tuesday and Wednesday Mrs Pearcey, erstwhile of Priory street, Camden Town, occupied this historic locale. An amiable woman, Mrs Pearcey, and kindly. All her neighbours said so. Unfortunately, she loved James Hogg, not in the limp, selfish, emasculate manner he cared for her, but with all the rude unbridled passion of a really strong nature. In narrow meanneaa and weak sensuality. Hogg strongly resembles the animal after which he is named. As he stood in the witness box, glibly purring forth, without any apparent discomfort, the terrible evidence which was to hang the woman who had sacrificed so much for his sake, many in Court would gladly have scragged the little beast. He was so smug, so complacent, so anxious to -divide himself morally from the poor J creature in the dock. And yet what a story , is his ! Mrs Pearcey seems to have blown off the steam of her passion for him by writing love letters. These she sometimes sent off and sometimes retained to gloat over, but : if an epistle was actually despatched she invariably insisted on its being returned when read. The whole of this one-sided correspondence (for Hogg never wrote his inamorata a line) was discovered by the police in Mrs Pearcey's room and enabled the prosecution to formulate a reasonable motive for the crime. j James Hogg, it now, for the first time : transpired, knew, and was on terms of great affection with Mrs Pearcey (whom he believed to be a married woman) for two yearß before he met Phoebe Styles. Early in 1888 Hogg seduced Phoebe and found himself, or fancied himself, confronted with three alternatives. Either he must bolt, or marry Miss Styles or commit suicide. Hogg's inclination (being a pig) was towards bolting and his imagination ran in the direction of suicide. Mrs ; Pearcey persuaded him to take the middle course. Let him marry Phoebe and come to see her occasionally. It was not, Hogg swears, till after he had been married to Phcebe Styles for six | week? that he became criminally intimate I with Mrs Pearcey. I The theory of the prosecution, as set , forth yesterday in Mr Fulton's opening , address, was that the attachment of the I prisoner was too strong for such a comi promise, pnd that the murder was the result. Whatever may be the verdict of the jury, surely never was a more pathetic and pitiable object than the pale, passionate woman sitting with downcastface in the dock, front to front with the man to whom she had written :— " What can I do ? I love you with all my heart, and I will love her because she will belong to you." Alas! alas! "Things will come right in the end," she had written to him ; and the words were read out while the great bell of St Paul's boomed dolefully through the fog-laden air—" Things will come right in the end. It is always the darkest hour before the dawn." And there she sat to listen to it, in deadly peril of her life, with murderous weapons and blood - Btained garments, and whole phalanxes of witnesses appearing in Court against her, and the man to whom she had written that vehement letter opposite to her in tho witness-box, swearing that he had never had such a letter, and that he was blankly unable to understand what she could mean by it. The evidence dragged its weary length through Tuesday, the prisoner sitting absolutely still and impassive. Only once did she give any sign of feeling, and that was when Inspector Banister described how the woman sat whistling " Ask a Pliceman," whilst the constables were discovering the signs of a sanguinary struggle in her room. Then a whisper ran round the Court, " See, she's smiling." On Tuesday evening Mr Hutton concluded a lame speech for the defence 11 There was, in fact, little to be said save the danger of trusting to circumstantial evidence, &c, &c. Judge Denman summed up on Wednesday morning, and the Jury, after a brief deliberation, found the prisoner " Guilty." As the twelve good men and true re-entered Court the prisoner, who had remained standing tottered slightly ion her feet, and for an instant it | looked as if she must fall, but it was only momentary. A paiuful hush fell on the I Court, broken only by the scratch of a I number of pencils and the slight rustling of paper, and the Clerk of the Court rose. I "Do you find the prisoner Mary Eleanor , Wheeler, guiity of the wilful murder of j Phoebe Hogg, or not guilty ?" demanded i the clerk. " Guilty," said the foreman, j and. a perceptible thrill of horror went through the Court. "Is that the verdict of you all?" "Ifc is." The chaplain of Newgate, in clerical robes, now moved |to the right hand of the Judge, ; who, in evident emotion, somewhat ! hastily drew the black cap from under his j desk and put it on. The clerk, addressing i the prisoner, said, "Mary Eleanor Wheeler, ; have yon anything to say why the Court : should not proceed to pronounce sentence {of death upon you ?" To this the prisoner replied in a very faint and tremulous > voice, which could not be distinctly heard, ; and the usher broke out prematurely with his formulary requiring all persons to remain silent while sentence of death was passed on pain of imprisonment. But the Judge Btopped him and enquired what | she said. " Only that lam innocent of j this charge," said the prisoner, the warder at the same time repeating her { answer. Then began the dreadful sentence, in which at one point the Judge's compoßure seemed to fail him. But he went through his painful duty in the same calm, measured, judicial tone he had preserved throughout. It sounded dreadfully stern, though it was tempered by tone and emphasis which unmistakably bespoke the profound pity of the Judge. " You will have a certain time for preparation," said the Judge very feelingly. "God grant tbafc yon may use that time for your eternal benefit. You will be kindly dealt with and ministered to, and I trust that you will use the short time upon earth that remains in preparing yourself for another world." The sentence was then pronounced, the woman fixing her lustrous eyes, that now seemed brimming with tears, on the face of the Judge. " May the Lord Almighty have mercy on you," concluded the Judge, and the Chaplain by his side fervently ejaculated " Amen," and seemingly from every part of the awe-stricken Court echoed a subdued "Amen." The clerk now rose to put the fourth question, as to whether she had anything to say why the sentence pronounced on her should not be carried out. This the condemned woman evidently didn't understand, and she gave the same answer as before. " Just explain to hex," said the clerk to the female warder by her side. This was done, the prisoner Bhook her head, and was then led off to her certain doom. " I cannot," the Judge had said, " hold out any hope whatever that within a very short time you will not cease to be an inmate of this world." The trial from beginning to end has been one of the fullest and fairest any prisoner could possibly have, and as to the justice of the verdict there can be no reasonable doubt. Hoixowat's Ointment akd Pitts are beyond all doubt tho moßt valuable and most couvoniona modioitiea tbat travellers can take across tbe seat to distant climes, for change of climate and the new conditions and Rurronndinga of lifo to whiob they will be exposed will assuredly Rive rise to great disturbances of tbe system and to snob especial morbid states of the blood and constitution generally as will render tbo tiHa of these effectual remedies highly necessary, for they will find in tbein a ready and safo means of relief in most of the disenses whiob. afflict the human race, and «it Q tnem at hand may te sal * to have a phyaicianlslwaya »* tn eir c-,11.