"TILL DEATH"

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 281, 27 November 1936, Page 3

"TILL DEATH"

NOTE ON CARTRIDGES MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER LETTERS TO GIRL FROM ( ELL i Twelve months' courtship, said io have been punctuated with quarrels and alleged threats, had a sequel recently, when a young railway porter was committed for trial at Rotherham, Yorkshire, charged with attempted murder. Remarkable letters, said to have been written from prison by the man awaiting trial, Arnold Swallow, aged 24, of Holmfirth, were a feature of the case. They were addressed to Marion Prosser, aged 20, a domestic servant, ot Swinton, whom he was alleged to have tried to kill. Mr. C. Phythiam, prosecuting, explained that in April last year Swallow formed an acquaintance with Miss Prosser when she worked at Honley, near Huddersfield. During the courtship there were frequent quarrels, and on several occasions it was alleged he used violence toward the girl and threatened her. Once, I when they were walking in a wood, he attempted to strangle her. Another time he produced a bottle containing what he said was acid.

He told Miss Prosser is would be "excellent stuff" to end their lives peacefully. He wrote the girl last September with reference to money he owed. "If you will settle this account for me I will promise never to trouble you again and part as good friends. If nol, watch your step, I warn you.” In spite of that the association between the (wo continued until September of this year. Told He “Wasn’t Wanted" s On the 21st he called at. the girl's - home, and she told him plainly she [• did not want him to follow her or - press his attentions upon her. Next - day, seeing Marion Prosser with her sister, Swallow asked her. "Do you B really mean you have finished with i me?" and she replied. "Yes." j He then remarked, “Don’t forget f what I say? T.D. It is only 1936 now. You will never see 1937." “T.D.," Mr. Phythian explained, was u a contraction of “True till Death.” On September 23 the girl’s parents told Swallow that he could not sec her, and the door was closed in his face. Later, seeing the girl inside the 1 house. Swallow called out. “Let’s say 1 good-bye, Marion, and part as 5 friends." Believing she could get nd t of him the girl went to the door, t Drawing close to her and taking a 1 knife from his pocket he then cut her , throat, inflicting a wound three and [, a-half inches long. r She screamed and her mother ran 7 out and dragged her away. At the same time Swallow made off. Two b pchcemen later found Swallow >n a seat in Blackmoor Road, Swinton. He d gave them a fictitious name an i ade dress. Noticing Swallow put one hand 5 into his pocket, one officer, Polices contable Sheard, grabbed at it, and found the man was holding a bottle - containing sulphuric acid. d On him were six 12-bore cartridges - and a newly-sharpened pen-knife. On - each cartridge had been written in s ink, “M.P. With Love, Arnold, x x. d Till death." W’hen charged, Swallow replied: “I g did it with that knife. When she - screamed I was frightened. I knew e she would not die. or you would not .1 have got me." While in custody he wrote lo Miss c Prosser: d “Dearest,—To you whom I have hurt - more deeply than anyone. I hardly know how to address myself. . . Now that the truth must be told there is s nothing in all the world that will ever excuse my conduct.

wouki to gou i naa me moiai courage lo open my heart to you sooner, but I could bring my heart, to do so. A3JI feel now, I I know what a hopeless fool I have ibeen toward you. Believe me, from the very moment it happened I have 'rued it, but 1 am quite aware it is too Jat.*. | “All 1 have done so far is to brood lover you and to hope against hope I I have not hurt jou as bad as I have thought.—Yours ever, Arnold. I "P.S.— I love you." i Dr. Aitken, of Kilnhurst, described |the wound, and added that the girl’s !life was never in danger. ! “If I could Take it Back” I Marion Prosser, a pleasant-faced girl, identified another letter which Swallow had written to her. It read. “Dear Marion, —I have been thinking a great deal of you lately and wondering how you might be. I hope you are recovering fast after what happened between us. “Believe me. Marion, if I could lake it back, for all that has happened I would give my life. . . . “Perhaps now-all those times we have had together mean nothing to you. You may be able to forget as though it was an interlude. ; “I am afraid I am not built that way. I shall never forget. . . . "Please tell me if you would rather discontinue writing and I will retire gracefully, but will nevertheless remain, yours affectionately always, Arnold." There was a postscript asking the girl for her photograph. Cross-examined by Mr. Munn, defending. Miss Prosser said Swallow asked her to marry him. but she refused, telling him she did not think he was in a position to maintain her. She “walked out" with Swallow, not with the idea of marriage, but because he fhreateneu ner. Swallow, who pleaded "not gulUV* and reserved his defence, was committed for trial at. Leeds Assizes, and granted legal aid.