TWO CONDEMNED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7808, 12 September 1903, Page 4

TWO CONDEMNED.

LIVED WITH A CORPSE FOR A FORTNIGHT. I Sentence of death was parsed at the Sur- [ rey Assizes at Guildford, , last month, on William Tuffin and Maxy Stone, for the murder of Caroline Tuffin at Thames Ditton. They heard tbe verdict unmoved. Earlier in ;t_i© day Tuffin, a slightly-buut caiman, aged twenty -three, showed some emotion. His pale face twitched oon%pl-ively at times and the perspiration stood in beads on his , brow. The woman, who is a year younger, was impassive throughout. Tall of figure and heavy of jaw, she sat motionless, with he* ey«.-s half-closed, and with not a trace of expression on her features. No realistic novel, said the , - defending - counsel, has ever been wi.it.ten with so many horrors in suoh a small compass as this story contained. Tuffin and his wife lived in Alexandra Road, Thames Bitton. Stone, who had been a fellow-servant of Mrs Tuffin' s, lodged with them. The man had been seen to kiss Stone, and there could be no doubt, as the counsel for tho prosecution asserted, that they both wished the wife oute of the way, so that they could get married. Mrs Tuffin was .murdered on April 23, For. a fortnight she lay in a room, in the house in Alexandra Boad, , with her head smashed iii, and on the bed beside hesr a hammer, a blood-stained axe, and-ra baby's milk-bottle. During that fortnight Tuffin and Stone continued to live in the house. The neighbours noticed that a light burned continually in a certain room. At the end of the fortnight the guilty couple fled, after the man had assured the murdered woman's brother that she had died ,in childbirth and been buried in the churchyard. Almost immediately the police discovered the crime, and a few hours later arrested its perpetrators. Stono went into the witness-box at the trial. She said thafc after April 23 Tuffia locked the door .of the bedroom and slept in the kitchen, telling her his wife had gone away. She knew nothing of the murder. Twenty witnesses Were called for the Crown. The gallery of the Court was full of women. * In passing sentence, Mr Justice Darling said thes verdict was a just one, and he could hold oub no hope of mercy. Unless reprieved, Tuffin was to have been hanged on August 11 and Stone the day after. ■ ,