The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-11-19 00:00:00

i c. _ , _ .

THE CONVICT LEFROY.

The Daily News of Tuesday said :—" The friends of
the condemmed man, Percy Lefroy Mapleton, are
still engaged in collecting information respecting
the existence of insanity in the prisoner's family,
with a view to using the particulars so elicited in
the memorial to the Home Secretary for his reprieve.
It will also be sought to be shown that Lefroy has at
times exhibited symptoms of mental disease, being
afflicted with a morbid taste for ghastly subjects. His
sister, Mrs. Brickwood, who has busied herself in
making the necessary inquiries, visited the office of
Mr. Dutton, Lefroy's solicitor, yesterday, where she
was engaged for several hours in furnishing data and
giving the requisite details to enable that gentleman to
complete the memorial or petition to the authorities.
Both Lefroy's sisters are much distressed at the result
of the trial, and his younger sister, who is matron at
the Fever Hospital, Islington, is too ill to assist
in the present steps taken on his behalf. The object
of all their solicitude, according to the latest accounts,
still outwardly preserves a calm demeanour, and ex-
presses himself as resigned to his fate. In a letter
written from Lewes Gaol on Saturday addressed to
Mrs. Cla ton, which the latter received yesterday, lie
said he had no fear, and hoped to meet his friends in
heaven. He also expressed an intense desire to see
their eldest little boy, a lad of seven years, once more
and for the last time. The child in question was a
great favourite of Lefroy's, who always exhibited a
close attachment towards him. If it can be con-
veniently arranged, without too much shock to the
child's feelings, the parents will grant the wish of the
condemned man. Lefroy also expresses himself as
deeply grieved at being the cause ot so much suffering
and trouble to them all. Beyond these references Ile
makes no allusion to his case, the letter, which is a
closely-written one of considerable length, mainly
dealing with private matters.
Having received numerous communications respecting
Lefroy, Sir W. Harcourt has decided to send down to
Lewes an eminent me.dical man to examine and report
on the condition of the prisoner's mind. A report re-
ceived from Lewes last night states that the convict has
not made any confession. He was visited yesterday
morning at nine o'clock by Captain Crickett, deputy
governor of the gaol. The prisoner has a slight cough,
and during the past two days has been most of his
time in his cell, being carefully watched by two special
warders. Yesterday he wrote to one of his sisters.
He slept soundly on Saturday night, but on the
previous ev.ning was somewhat restless. He got up
at seven o'clt.ck yesterday morning, and having eaten
a hearty breakfast commenced reading. During the
time he has been in Lewes Gaol many hundreds of
tracts and religious publications have been received
there and addressed to Lefroy, but in several cases the
convict has refused to receive them.
It has just come to light how the prisoner had made
his plans to escape from London to a place of con-
cealment, knowing that all the railway termini in
London would be carefully watched. After the murder
Lefroy got to Stepney and decided to leave Stepney
Station for Southend on-Sea, where be had, at
that time, a relative. He took the lodgings
in Stepney until he had time to disguise his
features, and previous to his arrest he went to a
public-house, where he was seen looking over the
London, Tilbury, and Southend time table. He
strictly noted the time of the last train from Stepney
to Southend. Mr. Hawtree, the superintendent of the
Southend police, has just received a communication
from Mr. Vincent, the chief of the Criminal Investiga-
tion Department, in which that gentleman states that
Mr. Hawbree and the whole of the men under him de-
serve the highest praise for the energy they displayed
in attempting to capture Lefroy when it was thought
he was on the Essex mast and making his way through
woods and fields for his sister's cottage. Several
reports reached the police at Southend when Lefroy
was at large that a man answering his description and
having his head bandaged had been seen to emerge
from the woods at Leigh and Shoeburyness. The local
police were out for several nights with lanterns, and
kept up constant telegraphic communication with
Great Scotland-yard."

During his incarceration in Lewes Gaol, Lefroy has written
a large number of letters to his friends, all of which were
couched in the most affectionate language. The first letter
was written on July 10 (two days after his capture) to his
cousin Mrs. Clayton. In that letter he says :

"The particulars of my coming here are of course
only too well known to you, and I need not pain
either you or myself by mentioning them again. God
will, I firmly believe, yet extricate me from this terri-
ble position, and that is the one thought that keeps me
up. . I have the greatest confidence in Mr. Dutton's
ability, and I have every reason to believe his or rather
my strong defence will be successful in the end. . . •
I must wish you good bye and God bless you now.
Dearest -- you, in spite of all my faults, know me
better than to believe me capable of taking the blood
of a poor old man."
Writing on August 9, Lefroy deprecates any sort of
public appeal for funds to aid him in his defence. On
the 11th of August he wrote to Mrs. Clayton
"In spite of the terrible charge made against me I
am happy here, and were God's hand to strike me
down now I should feel no fear; my mind is at rest,
the rest that collies from innocence, and from that
alone." On August 10 Lefroy said
"The time that I think of you most, (;'.ear, is-during
our long nights in bed, and from 8.30 p.m. until 6
aan. Then my mind, in the stillness of the night,
wanders back, carries me out once more to life and
freedom, and to you. Bitter thoughts against God
rise up in niy mind, and I try in vain to divine why I
have been thus cruelly afflicted by Him. Possibly
from my past life I may have deserved this awful
punishment, but, after all, my sins have been more of
omission than commission. My years are but a boy's,
so does not this fearful chastisement seem out of pro-
portion to my offence. Annie, dearest, shall I ever
see the silver lining of the cloud again? In any case I
must be, nay, I am, far happier than the wretched
man who has escaped the hands of justice and left an
ill-fated fellow-creature to suffer in his stead. At
least, however, one Judge has already acquitted me of
the awful crime with which I have been charged."
In the last letter of the series, dated October 25,
he said :

"Now that the trial is approaching I feel no fear;
on the contrary, however strange it may appear, I am
happier now than I have been in a good many epochs
of my life. Thank God, my health is quite up to the
average, and I am ready, hopeful, and trustful for the
combat. How often, I think of home you can well
imagine, and each niglit I look forward to with delight,
tor then I am far away from here, free and happy once
again with all I love. And this I am firmly per-
suaded God will allow me to be once again in reality.
With fondest love to all,—Yours ever, PERCY."

The Chaplain of Lewes Prison, the Rev. T. H. Cole,
in a letter to Mrs. Clayton, dated Saturday last, says
that 'he sms her cousin daily, and that the way in
which he receives his ministrations leaves nothing to
be desired in the way of gentleness and submission.

The father of Lefroy was the late Captain Henry
Mapleton, R.N., and his mother the daughter of Mr.
Henry Seale, late Colonial Secretary of St. Helena.
His godfather, after whom he was named, was Sir J.
H. Lefroy, late Governor of the Bermudas.

On the subject of Lefroy's demeanour in Court, the Deify
News has published a letter from Mr. L. S. Forbes Winslow,
from which we make the following extract :
Sir,—Having been honoured with a seat on the
bench on the last day but one of Lefroy's trial, and
having watched the prisoner during the speech for the
defence and also for the prosecution, I had every op-
portunity, from sitting immediately opposite to him, of
carefully observing his general demeanour and bearing
in court. The prisoner during the whole day was un-
moved and indifferent, as if unconscious of the fact
that his very life depended upon the decision of the
Court. After Mr. Montagu Williams had finished his
loquent address, which caused tears to flew from the
eyes of more than one of the jury, and the Attorney.
General had replied, Lefroy did not even turn his
eyes away from his advocate who had just sat down
towards the learned counsel for the prosecution,
or apparently fix his attention in any way. I was
amazed at the extraordinary bearing of the accused.
No statement even of the most painful description
or of vital importance to the issue in question
caused even a frown on his countenance. He alone of
all present sat unmoved and unconcerned. If had
been a hardened criminal mature in years and vice, one
would not have been surprised ; but here was a youth
scarcely beyond his teens on the verge of his fate. The
case from the first aroused publiu indignation to an
unusual extent, from the possible likelihood of any
one being placed in a similar situation to Mr. Gold.
. . . . Having read the history of Lefroy, and con-
sidered the case carefully, I must confess that
I was surprised that the question of the respon-
sibility of the prisoner was not raised. There is
no doubt but that Lefroy has a strong hereditary
predisposition to insanity his father and grand-
father having both been insane. His behaviour in
Court was, as I have mentioned, a most strange and
unnatural one, the explanation to me being either
that he was indifferent to what was going on, or that
he was from some reason, not yet explained, unaware
of the gravity of his position. Ido not in any way
express an opinion, or desire to do so, on his condi-
tion as far as mental responsibility is concerned, but
at the same time having seal from to-day's paper that
the solicitor for the defence is preparing a petition
praying for an investigation into his mental state, I
have troubled you with this communicatinn.

A contradiction has officially been given to the
statement that Sir W. Harcourt had decided to send a
medical man to Lewes Gaol to report on the mental
condition of the convict Lefroy.