The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-24 00:00:00

THE LATE MURDER AND ROl3-

EERY IN SOHO.

A very natural anxiety exists among the public to know
what steps have been taken to bring the perpetrators of
the horrid tragedy in Princes-street to justice ; but although
the police have been unceasingly engaged in the inquiry,
their movements have been wrapped in so much secrecy,
that no information can be procured from that quarter.
One thing, however, is quite certain, th..t no satisfactory
clue has been obtained likely to lead to the discovery of
the villains. We have good reason to believe that the
police authorities have received a great number of anony-
mous communications, all of them detailing, with great
apparent minuteness, the circumstances connected with
the murder and robbery, and all promising to give such
evidence as would lead to the capture of the wretches,
provided certain stipulations were complied with. When
these communications have been attended to, some have
been found to be of the nature of a hoax, and some so
wholly unworthy of further notice as to meet with entire
disregard. It was confidently reported some weeks ago
that the murderers had been in the neighbourhood of
Gravesend, and that on the evening after the murder and
robbery a number of watches were offered for sale at prices
which created a suspicion the property had not been
honestly come by. An inspector of the A division was sent
down to make inquiry, and having learned that- a boat had
been stolen from the neighbourhood of Ramsgate by a mar,
who had made his escape to the French coast; he fol-
lowed up the matter, and on 'arriving at Boulogne, ob-
tained such particulars as were sufficient to prove that. the
man in question had nothing whatever to do with the mur-
der of Mr. Westwood. The police, during their inquiries
in France about the man who had made his escape into
that country, were informed of a melancholy occident. The
man in the stolen boat being descried was pursued, and he
ran the boat on shore and was taken. The French autho-
rities gave instructions to a fisherman to get possession of
the boat. The fisherman went with his two sons, and on
reaching the boat a sudden squall came on, and all three
perished. This will, perhaps, explain the report that the
persons presumed to be the criminals . had been drowned
while endeavouring to make their escape over to France.
From a consideration of all the known circumstances, the
impression daily becomes more strengthened that those
who committed the crime were not of the class
termed " regular thieves," but that they must have
been persons well acquainted with the murdered man,
his. habits of business, and the nature and disposition
of the valuable property in the shop. This is evi-
denced by the fact, that the robber who rifled the
premises, when he came to a particular drawer which
could only be only be opened by the removal of the ad-
joining drawer, took the latter drawer out, and, after re-
moving the contents of the other, replaced it carefully.
The' safe was also attempted, and it must have been pre
viously known that the key was kept in a beaufet in the
room where the murder was perpetrated, for the key was
removed, and, no doubt, taken away by the villains. It
is also conjectured, and not without reason, that tile
wretches were personally known to the unfortunate man,
and that, having been recognised, they committed the
murder, and afterwards set fire to the sheets and clothes
to avoid discovery. No marks of blood were found, ex-
cept where the murdered man lay, and this makes it clear
that more than one person was concerned in the crime,
otherwise the drawers and places from whence the valu-
ables were taken would have been marked. It is also be-
lieved that the property is still undisposed of, as it is of a
description that no " fence" would have anything to do
with, now that the dreadful affair has obtained so much
publicity. Up to the present time, therefore, we may
state with confidence that nothing is known, and no satis-
factory clue exists to give a hope that the murderers w
be eventually apprehended.— Observer.