The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-02-19 00:00:00

THE HOXTON MURDER. -

' • ARREST OF CURRELL.
At half past eleven on Tuesday morning Thomas
William Currell, the man who is charged with the
murder of Lydia Green at Heaton, and who for 10
days has succeeded in evading capture, was arrested
by the police in Upper-street, Islington. Since the
10th inst., when he suddenly left the lodgings in
Flask-walk, Hampstead, where he had found shelter
since the commission of the murder, all clue bad been
lost as to his whereabouts. While, however, the
disappearance was complete, the authorities at
the Criminal Investigation Department in Whitehall
surmised that he had not left the north
and north-western districts, in which since Satur-
day week he had been hiding. Indeed, one or
two items of information which came to hand on
Monday pointed distinctly to the conclusion that
Currell was in concealment somewhere in Islington.
The movements of the authorities were to a large
extent guided by this belief, and every avenue of
escape from this particular neighbourhood was care-
fully watched by the police acting under the direc-
tion of Inspector Lansdowne, of the Criminal In-
vestigation Department, and Inspector Peel, of the
G Division. Late on Monday night, although
nothing definite was known as to the movements of
the prisoner, the authorities seemed to feel satis-
fied that the coils were rapidly being drawn about
Currell, and at eight o'clock on Tuesday morning
Inspector Peel received a letter, the postage of which
was not paid, at the police-station in the King's cross-
road, in which Currell intimated that, in order to
save further trouble, he was prepared to give him-
' elf up to the authorities if somebody would meet him
at the Upper-street Police-station at half-past :nine
that morning. The inspector, accompanied by one of
the sergeants of his division, proceeded to the spot at
the time indicated, and waited there patiently till
eleven o'clock without Currell putting in the pro-
mised appearance. asappointed at his non-success
in making the long sought for errest, the police-officer
returned to the Upper-street Station, where he found
awaiting him Inspector Lansdowne, who had come
over from headquarters to make arrangements for
the day's movements. A hurried consultation
resulted in the despatch of a plain-clothes detec-
tive named Mather to watch Upper-street. He was
accompanied by Albert Horan, of No. 10, Elm-road,
Canonbury, who had been on intimate terms of friend-
ship with Currell for the past 12 years, and conse-
quently knew him well by sight. It was about 20
minutes past 11 when the two men left the police-
-statior, and very shortly after, while they were
slowly walking down the Upper-street, Horan sud-
denly called attention to a man who was in the act of
crossing the road some 100 yards ahead, and ex-
claimed, " There goes Currell." No sooner had Horan
said this than he ran back towards the police-station
with a view to getting aid, while Nather rapidly fol-
lowed his man across the road down Florence-street,
into which he had turned, and coming up with a run
pinioned him from behind and called upon him to
surrender. For a moment or two Currell, who
was at the time walking slowly along, and seemed th
be taken quite unawares, struggled to free himself
from Mather's grasp, but then ceased his efforts and
yfelded, calmly remarking, "All right; I meant to
rive myself up." Matht r and his captive then turned
lack in the direction of Upper-street, and were in a
few moults!. ts met by two constables, who had hurried
up from the station to render assistance. Their
services proved to be quite unnecessary, for the pri-
s)ner walked along as quietly as possible and with-
out making the slightest attempt to get away from
"Mather, who was simply holding him by his elbow
and the cuff of his coat. In this way he pro-
ceeded on foot to the Upper-street Station, where
the prisoner was taken inside for a short time.
Msanwhile the news of the arrest had spread
w great rapidity, and in an amazingly short
space of time a numerous crowd collected in
front of the station. Accordingly a cab was pro-
cured, and in this the prisoner and his escort of police
officers drove off, amidst the hooting of the spectators,
to the Olt rkenwell Police-court, in the King's-cross-
road. So excited were the people that quite a mob
followed the vehicle to King's-cross-road, shouting
and yelling the whole of the distance. During the
greater part of the time he was at the station he re-
mained sitting in a corner of the charge-room gazing
moodily at the floor. The next stage of the prisoner'n
journey was to the Holston Police-station, in the
Kingsland-road, where he was to be formally charged
with the murder of Lydia Green. In the carriage
with him were Acting-Superintendent Hunt, In-
spectors Lansdowne and Peel, and Dectective Mather.
Here, too, a large crowd awaited the arrival of the pri-
soner.

In reply to questions put to him by Acting-Super-
intendent Hunt, Currell stated that he was 31 years
of age, and earned his living as a clerk, bat that he
had no address. Mr. Arthur Newton, solicitor, who
had already received instructions to defend the
prisoner, was present during these proceedings. This
formality concluded, Currell was removed from the
charge room, and before starting for Worship-street
to appear before the magistrate had an interview
last in; fully half-an-hour with his solicitor, Mr.
Newton, who, on being at a later period of the day
interviewed by a reporter, stated that he had been
fully instructed by the prisoner as to the line of
defence he was to take up. Currell was
perfectly calm throughout the interview. He spoke
readily and without hesitation, answering all the
questions that were addressed to him. He ex-
ossed to Mr. Newton his sincere regret at the death
of Lydia Green, but absolutely denied that be had
been in any way instrumental in bringing it about. On
this point he spoke again and again with emphasis,
and declared that the reason why he had given him-
self up in the manner he had done was in order to
estall,sh his innocence of the charge of murder.
At three o'clock Carrell was conveyed in a four-
wheeler to the Worsbip-street Police-court, and about
four o'clock he was placed in the dock and formally
charged with the murder of Lydia Green before
Mr. Hannay. Mr. Newton appeared for the de-
fence. The proceedings were brief, not lasting
more than some three or four minutes. Detective
Mather simply gave evidence as to the arrest, and the
prisoner was then formally remanded till Wednesday,
the 93rd inst. It was not until some considerable time
after that Correll was removed:in the police van to Hol-
loway, where he will be detained during his trial.
Even then a crowd still remained collected outside
the entrance to the court, and there was another de-
moustration of public feeling in loud hooting and
groaning by the crowd assembled in the street as the
van drove off. When arrested no money was found
upon Currell, though he looked to be in anything but
a destitute condition. While he was at the King's.
cross Station le was given some coffee and bread and
butter. He seemed to appreciate this attention very
much, but he did not seem to be hungry. The meal
seemed to brighten him up a bit, for while he was
eating he remarked in quite a jocular manner to De-
tective Ma, her "You did not flatter rue much with
that photo." Then he relapsed into silence again,
and contieued eating. He seemed very cool and col-
lected, and did not appear to feel hie position by any
means keenly.