The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-04-29 00:00:00

ALLEGED CONSPIRACY TO MURDER.

In London, on Friday, the 21st, at the Bow-street police-
court, William Kirepton Vance, 24, a medical student, 69,
Euston-road, and Helen Snee, 30, married, 45, Crowndaie-
road, Camden-town, were charged on warrants before Mr.
Vaughan with conspiring together to murder some person
at present unknown.—The case is thus reported in The T17)148
of Saturday :
Mr. PolE.nd, prosecuting on behalf of the Treasury,
said that on the 23rd of February last a letter came to
the Post-office in the Junction-road, Kentish-town,
N.W., addressed "M. Q." No one called for it and
it remained there till the end of March. It was then
returned to the General Post Office, in St. Martin's-le-
Grand. The clerk in the Dead Letter Office who
opened it thought from the extraordinary nature of its
contents that it was his duty to submit it to his
superiors. They in turn forwarded it to the authori-
ties at Scotland-yard. It was placed in the hands of
Chief Inspector Clark, who made the inquiries which
have resulted in the present prosecution. This letter
ran as follows :

"59, Euston-road, NW., Wednesday.

"My dear Sir,—lt occurs to nie I may not have very
clearly esniain,d my sugcested modus operandi. One thinks
of many things pertinent—after toeing the letter for post.
R^ferring to )Our note of the 20t1s, I must say there is a
risk of disc,•very with whatever mode of death, for the
Registrar requires notice of cause of death' from medical
attendant. Should this not be forthcoming an inquest- and
in all cases of sudden death an inquest. If a person die
under unnatural or suspicious conditions, and the matter
hushed up and no inquest—this implies the distinct conni-
vance of friends. But you desire to have your friend or
friends Ignorant of any premeditated design and no doctor
called in atten ; ance. Under the circumstances there must
ensue a coroner's inquiry. My plan is this,—Sudden death
allowed or apparently suspicious death acknowledged. Still
a favourable serdict may be returned, whirna in no way can
invalidate a will made antecedent to death—probably many
weeks. The peculiarity of my suggesti, n is that although
the actual cause of death is found out, and that a narcotic,
yet the verdict will be the most lenient—viz , by misadven•
Sure,' or as it is phrased sometimes mere specifically, 'the
deceased was in the habit of taking chloral, and died from
an overdose incautiously administered by himself.' I can
arrange details to 'square ' with this and submit them to you
et our meeting or on paper. If you the, choral might be ad-
ministered to a dog or cat, or you mignt try yoareaif an ordt-
ndry dose, and be thereby cognizant of the Lena fides of the
age.A. Upon mature consideration, I know of no mire
fessible method. The eves of the poisoners, Pitt.
chard and Palmer, both doctors, were ingenious,
yet they were detected. They lived before these
chloral times. As an anatomist and medical jurist, I
altogether frown on any attempt to excite arterial rupture,
Ste., and am wilting to adduce reasons. I write this letter
at 52, Brady-street, Bethnal-green, E, where I am since
yesterday doing full duty fur Surgeon Mainwarlng. We
have a surgery here, and I have access to the drugs, bottles,
and labels, ittc. I return to Euston-road to-night and will
have a supply of the drug. If you adopt my theory, we
might arrange to meet and then take leave of the subject.
You can select your own fit time. I would desire this for
several reasons (a), to get rid of the affair, have it off my
mind, which is natural and human; (b), I am expected to be
summoned to Liverpool any of these days to meet my
brother-in-law returning in a sailing vessel from San Fran-
cisco ; (c), a cousin of mine en route for Hamburg is coming
to 69, Euston-road to stay a Jew days, and if I be not in
Liverpool next Tuesday I want to be at his service. Expect-
ing a reply, believe me, Sir, in confidence, yours, W. K. V."
No one reading that letter could doubt that the writer
of it had been applied to by some person to supply a
poison in order to destroy life so that there should be
no coroner's inquest, and that any will that might be
left should not be invalidated. Inspector Clark first
went to 49 (not 53), Brady-street, where Mr. Main-
waring, a surgeon, resided. The latter remarked that
on the 23rd of February, the day the letter was
written, he had as assistant a young man named
William Kimpton Vance. On looking at the letter he
identifiei the handwriting as Vance's. The next step
was to discover to whom the letter had been addressed.
This was found out in the following way :

On the 30th of March, a few day after the letter had
been returned to the General Office, a letter was re-
ceived by the authorities, signed "W. Quarll," asking
for the return to Junction-road Post-office of some let-
ters addressed "M. Q." or "Q. W.," which the writer
had not been able to call for, and which had been sent
to the Dead Letter-office. On the 6th of April another
application was made by the same person, it being
added that one of them was very important. To these
letters the authorities replied that there were no
letters so addresssd. This reply was sent to
"William Quarll," Post-office, Junction-road, Kentish-
town." That office was watched by the police, and
on the sth of April the prisoner Snee was seen to
go in. Sue asked for and received the letter addressed
"William Qnarll," and then left. She was followed,
and it was iliscovered that she was living at 49, Crown-
dale-road, Camden-town; her name was Ellen Sues,
and her husband was abroad. On the 16th of April
she sent a post-office order from Eversholr-street Post-
office to W. K. Vance, Welwyn, Herefordshire, for
£2 2s. This post-office order she took outin the name of
Quarll, andgave as address 20, Denbigh-street. At Den-
bigh-street no one of the name Quarll was known, nor
was the prisoner herself known there. The warrants were
now obtained, and the prisoners arrested. Vance when
arrested handed to Inspector Clark the following
letter

“20, 2'76
"Dear Sir,—l make no question you conid be of service to
me. The question is, will you? The solatium I offer is
£100; the conditions these :—I am tired of my life. I could
co a great deal of good to a person I am interested in by
leaving the world just now, and, one way or the other, I am
resolved to do SO, but it pOsshie I should prefer not to wound
the feelings of the person who will gain most by my death,
by shoring it to be supposed voluntary. Besides, the most
merciful verdict of a coroner's jury would be sufficient to
Invalidate my will Now, although i have some acquaintance
With medicine and eh:, mistry, I know of DO drug or combina-
tion of drugs which would do this for me without risk of
discovery. It is possible you may. It is not absolutely
essential that the supposed means should be painless or even
yery quick in their results. It some artery could be hurt
with any plausible appearance of accident, assistance sum-
moned too late, (tc., I am willing to allow time for experi-
ments, and Imo no objection to a personal interview. I will
give any assurance of bona fides that may be thought neces-
sary. I only request that this communication be considered
strictly private. Yours faithfully, M. Q Address to these
Initials at the P. 0., Junction-road, Kentish-town, N.W.”
The prisoner Snee admitted when arrested that she
bad put the following advertisement in the Daily Tele-
graph:—

"To medical men in need of money, or to students well I
up in chymistry and anatomy. A gentleman engaged in an
interesting experiment is willing to give liber4l remuneration
for professional assistance.—Q W., Post-office, Junction.
road, Kentish-town, N W."
It wculd appear that the prisoner Vance answered
that advertisement, the letter just read was her reply
to him, and the one that was not fetched at the post.
office, and that discovered the whole of this case, was
In answer to this reply of hers. It is certain that the
'prisoner Snee wished to obtain a drug to destroy life,
I whether her own or some one else's was matter
for further inquiry; and it was likewise certain
that for the sake of gain the prisoner Vance gave
her the assistance she required to destroy that his and
also sent her drugs. He received, as is shown by the
Post-office order, a sum of £2 2s. as part of his reward
for his assistance. Mr. Poland, in conclusion, stated
that he thought Mr. Vaughan would think, after hear-
ing the evidence, that this certainly was a case in
which further inquiry must be made and the real truth
arrivtd at if possible.
Inspector George Clark, Chief Inspector of Detec-
tive Police at Scotland-yard, :mid he arrested Vance
at 59, Euston-road, on Thursday afternoon. The
warrant being read to him. He said, "Qtite. right; I
have been in communication with a person of that
name. I am a medical student, and I did not
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intend to murder anybody or harm anybody."
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Manton went on to 48, Crowndale•road. The
prisoner Snee opened the door. The warrant was read
to her, and she said, "I have not harmed any
' one. I did not intend to harm any one or to commit a
I
ihinrder. I intended the drugs for myself." She said
she had destroyed all letters and even all the blotting
paper. She only intended' having the drugs ready, as