MYSTERIOUS MURDER.

West Coast Times, Issue 291, 29 August 1866, Page 3

MYSTERIOUS MURDER.

At a quarter-past ten on the night of the 11th of April last, a widow woman, Sarah. Millson by name, housekeeper in the establishment of Messrs Bevington, in Cannon -street, city, Was found lying with her feet towards the stairs and her head towards the door, dead, near a poo) of blood, by the cook, her fellowservant, whoiti she had left upstairs an hour before, to go down alid answer the front door bell. According to this fel-low-servant, the deceased always answered the bell — was often downstairs in the evenings, sometimes for an hour and a half at a time ; used to write letters in the counting-house ; received many letters, and wrote many ; had borrowed of her a sovereign or two on two occasions 'when a visitor called in the evening. The night of the murder was dark and rainy ; all the gas-lights were out in the house except one, which was burning just over where the body lay, and it appeared that the poor woman's head and face had received several wounds "from a blunt and a sharp instrument. After two days' trial at the Central Criminal Court this murder remains one of the undiscovered mysteries of the London streets. The trial of \Villiam Smith has resulted in his acquittal, the jury having, without a moment's hesitation, returned a verdict of " "Sot guilty." The cumulative evidence of the prisoner's absence from London on the night of the murder was too strong to be resisted. Several witnesses swore to having met the accused on the evening of the 11th of April, walking between Eton, where he resided, and Windsor, and others to having passed a part of that evening in his company at two beerhouses at Windsor and Eton. The evidence adduced by the prosecution to the identity of the prisoner with a man who had been seen by a certain Mrs Robbins leaving the door of Messrs Bevington's on the night of the murder was of the flimsiest description. This witness was also a widow and a housekeeper, who lived next door to Messrs Bevington's ; and on her return home shortly after ten on the 11th of April, she had been startled by the slamming of Messrs Bevington's door, and presently after had seen a man go by, giving her a side look as he passed in a hurried manner, but not so hurried as to prevent her from observing that he was thin-legged and flatfooted. She " believed the prisoner was the man." A few days after, when the prisoner was taken past her door in custody, she "was " too bothered and confused" to recognise any one, and was in the same state when she went to the Mansion-house to see the prisoner. Such was the evidence to the identity of William Smith. The materials of suspicion upon which the police appear to have acted consisted of a letter addressed to the unfortunate Sarah Millson and demanding repayment of a certain sum of money, with the threat of informing Mr Bevington of the circumstances under which she had borrowed the money. This letter, signed " George Terry," was written by William Smith, and delivered by him to the deceased, and on the back of it was written a receipt of Ll by "William Denton, for George Terry." The prisoner did not deny having written and delivered this letter, and having signed the receipt under the assumed name of Denton, because he knew that the money was not due to Terry. The witness Webber, of whom a sum of L 33 had been borrowed, deposed to having given it to Mrs Terry, to be lent to the deceased, Mrs Millson, and repaid by instalments of 10s a week. Two instalments amounting to L 8 had been paid, and, according tp Terry, who deposed to having known the deceased some years #go, and borrowed the L 33 for her, William Smith, to whom, as a fellow-lodger, he had mentioned the loan, had offered to obtain the money back, and had received, in fact, 5s on one of the instalments he had recovered. Terry had subsequently accused the prisoner of receiving more money from the deceased than he had accounted for. The deceased had told Mrs Terry that she had paid " a man," and had been warned not to pay " any more to such a person." All these vague and loose depositions established a certain connection between the accused and the deceased, sufficient no doubt to set the police on his heels, but not sufficient to connect him with any probable motives of the murder. The poor woman had, it was proved, been long in extreme distress of mind, pursued by a constant dread ; repeatedly visited after dark by some man whom she would go down alone to meet at the door, and for whom she had repeatedly borrowed small sums of money to satisfy and* send awa} - ; but the evidence did not prove any connection between this unknown person and the accused, or between his demands of money and that sum of JE33 borrowed by the woman -vyhoiri Terry called his wife of Mrs Webber for tbo deceased, and of which instalment* to fte ftwovmt of $& <mty tod bwu paid

back. The prisoner did not deny having applied to the deceased for these instalments j his own loose and reckless habits of life, and tlld manner in which he had become associated with the" deceased woman through her miserable hidden difficulties, lent art air of probability to the ease for the prosecuti' >n> and seem to make the severe penalty he has undergone not entirely undeserved. But tlie motives and circumstances of the murder of this poor' woman ; the secret of the long agony of persecution and dread she had undergone ; who was her persecutor ; how she fell into ( the toils from which she was only released by a savage and cruel death ; remain, as we have said, among the foul mysteries and^ sordid horrors of our London civilisation.