The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-03 00:00:00

THE INQUEST.

Lefroy's body, after hanging the usual hour, was
cut down at ten o'clock by Marwood. The coroner
for East Sussex, Mr. Baxter' convened the jury in the
committee-room at the gaol. The jurors, thirteen in
number, were sworn in, and subsequently instructed
by the coroner as to the nature of their duties under
the new Prison Act. The jury then proceeded to
view the body, which was lying in an elm coffin in the
dead-room. The deceased's features looked calm, and
save for the abrasion of the rope on the neck, a
slight breaking of the skin of the cheek by the hang-
man's rope and brass ring, used in lieu of a knot, and
the bluish colour of the face, he might have been mis-
taken for one asleep. The lower part of the neck and
chest were white, whilst his fingers had a vatural ap-
pearance, soft and relaxed. The governor, Captain
Criekett, and the gaol physician, Dr. Turner, gave
the usual legal testimony as to the trial, exeeution,
and death of Lefroy, the doctor stating that death was
instantaneous. The jury returned a verdict in accord-
ance with the evidence.

The Times of Wednesday said :—" The hope of a reprieve
seems to have been indulged in by the convict and his
friends ahnost to the last, and to that end ursparing efforts
were made to persuade the Home Secretary that he had
in this case to deal, not with a man who had committed
a ruthless and premeditated mut der upon an unoffend-
ing felrow traveller in a failwar carriage whose pockets
he wished to rifle of the money they milit contain,
but with a homicidal maniac who had yielded only to an
uncontrollable desire to kill for killing's sake, and who was,
therefore a tit inmate for Broadrnoor Asylam. J t was publicly'
alleged t'hat Lefroy, after protesting his innocence in the
most solemn and sacred fashion before and after his trial,
had suddenly turned round and confessed, not only to the
murder of Mr. Gold, but to a series of other crimes which,
if accepted as true, would undoubtedly have gone some way
towards establishing a case for the postponement of the
execution. How far Lefroy himself was responsible .for
these statements it is impossible to say. He did on
Saturday make a communication to the chaplain of the
prison which that gentleman thought it his duty at once to
lay before the Home Secretary. But we have authority for
stating that in this there was no confession whatever of the
murder of Mr. Gold in the Brighton train, and his statement
as to the murder of Lieutenant Roper in Chatham Barracks
was probably only the last desperate card played by an un-
scrupulous schemer in the hope of prolonging his life by a
few days or weeks."

It has been stated that Lefroy's last night was one of
the easiest he had spent during his confinement. After
the chap:ain had left him in the evening, lie engaged
himself in scanning the books which had been sup-
plied to him, reading extracts first from one and then
from another, until about half-past ten o'clock, when
appearing to grow somewhat weary, he turned to
his attendant and said he thought it was time to
go to bed. He then knelt by his bedside fur some time
as though in prayer, and this he has done every night
before going to bed since his incarceration, lout no audible
words escaped his lips. Having risen from this attitude he
undressed and composed himself to rest. During the night
he turned two or three times from side to side, but his
sleep did not appear to be materially interfered with, and

It was not until six o'clock, when the doors in the
various wards were unlocked, that he seemed to realise
his position. Be then, suddenly awaking exclaimed, "Why,
it must be six o'clock I" Springing from his bed, he pro-
ceeded to attire himself, and again engaged in reading and
in preparing himself for his doom. After this he ate a fairly
good breakfast and awaited with composure the time of
execution. All the written papers which he left in his cell
were collected, and will be sent to the Home Office.

The Daily Telegraph of Wednesday said :—"lmmediately
after the jury found their verdict of guilty against Lefroy,
he handed a document to some of his friends. It was at
once sealed up. A correspondent communicates to us its
contents, from which it appears that he confesses to have
taken Mr. Gold's watch, and, finding it impossible to eds.
pose of it without laying himself open to fatal suspicion, he
threw it over Blackfriars Bridge into the Thames. Lefroy
further says in this document, penned apparently during the
progress of the closing stage of the trial, that upon the day
of the murder he was desperate, owing to his want of
money. He rose and went out that morning with the inten-
tion of cobtaining funds, even though the effort involved
murder. At the railway station, before taking his seat
for Brighton, he walked up and down, looking into the car-
riages, in the hope of discovering a lady likely to have some
money in her possession, thinking.that by merely frighten-
ing her he could realise his object. If he could h‘ve
avoided murder in this way he would, he declares,
have done so. If he offered a lady the alternative
of "her money or her life" he fancied she would
at once have yielded up the former. At any rate her
timidity would reach a point, on his presenting a pistol at
her, that would enable him easily to overawe her, or, he
adds, he could have struck her a blow which might have
caused her to swoon, when he could easily have rifled her
pockets. Incidently he remarks that, whatever the method
to which he might have had to resort it would not have been
difficult to seize a lady's pocket, as most ladies wear it outside.
Seeing no lady whose appearance betokened to him the pos-
session of any considerable sum of money he turned his atten-
tion to the male passengers, and at once nerved himself for
the commission of murder. This probably explains a
circumstance which the railway officials noticed—namely,
his walking up and down the platform, peering into
the carriages, as if in search of some one
"That to gain time was the chief object Lefroy had in
view in making the various confessions and statements that
have emanated from him since his conviction may be con-
sidered to have been established beyond doubt. He would
seem almost to have varied them from time to time in
his communications with his relatives, the chaplain,
and his solicitor, in order to furnish a more ample
field for inquiry ; nor did he retract until the truth
was at last forced upon him that the execution of
the death penalty was irrevocably settled. He wished, at
least, to throw around himself a suspicion of guilt in regard
to the murders and outrages in which he pretended he had
been engaged, and also to create a belief that he had been
assisted by accomplices. At the same time, he was pro-
fessing outwardly great penitence for his crimes,
with the purpose, apparently, of inducing the chap-
lain to believe that he was telling the truth in his
startling disclosures. He did his utmost in this way to pro-
duce the conviction that he had killed Lieutenant Roper,
and been in some manner mysteriously connected with the
supposed murder of Mr. Clarke; and at the same time, with
an appearance of frankness which might easily mislead as to
the veracity of his statements generally, he entered into
minute details as to the way in which he had compassed the
death of Mr. Gold. This system of false pretences was only
terminated when the convict learnt that there was abso-
lutely no hope of a reprieve.
"No sooner, however, did it become certain that the law
would take its course than Leroy's manner changed. He
then made a final confession, in which he admitted that all
he had said about shooting Lieutenant Roper was a pure
fabrication; and that, similarly, his apparent acquiescence
in complicity in the supposed mysterious disappearance of
Mr. Clarke was without any foundation. With regard to
the murder of Mr. Gold, however, he confessed that the
finding of the jury was just and right.
" Down to the very last moment, it would seem, Lefroy
clung to the idea that, by some extraordinary interposition,
his life would be saved, and this notwithstanding the earnest
entreaties of the chaplain to cherish no such hope, and the
most positive official warnings that a reprieve was im-
possible."