The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-12 00:00:00

THE LATE MURDER

The murder of the child, Lewis Deake, at 33,
Harley street, by Sarah Drake, its mother, has
caused an extraordintry degree or excitement in the
district of the Marylebone Police- court, and since the
prisoner's examination before Mr. Long, on Friday
last, many particulars have, through the activity of
those intelligent officers Sergeant Whither, 27 A
(detective), and Superintendent Kinder, of the Not-
tingham constabulary, transpired having a tendency
to fix a vast amount of guilt upon the prisoner, apart
from the awful charge still pending against her, and
the correctness of what follows may be relied upon.
It will be remembered that the child so inhumanly
murdered by its mother, according to her own con-
fession to the searcher at the station-house, had been
at nurse with a Mss. Johnson, at Shirley, near Croy-
don, and that after the whole of the evidence gone
into on Friday, Mr. Kinder was directed by the
magistrate to seek out Mrs. Johnson, in order that he
might convey her into the country previous, if possible,
to the interment of the body, so that she might have an
opportunity of speaking as to its identity. He
accordingly lost no time in proceeding to Shirley,
where heesaw her (Mrs. Johnson), and explained to
her the object of his visit. They went by train
the same night, and arrived at North Leverton on
Saturday afternoon, shortly after the inquiry before
the coroner had been a second time adjourned. She
saw the body of the murdered child, and was enabled
to speak most positively as to its being that of
Lewis Drake ; she also identified the clothes found
in the box as forming part of those which the
murdered child had on when she left it with Sarah
Drake at her master's (Mr. Iluth's) house. She
had had the child to nurse from the period of its
being only six weeks old, and had brought it up by
hand, and when she first undertook the charge of it
the prisoner was lodging in Chelsea. It appears that
she suddenly quitted there without informing Mrs. J.
where she had gone to, and she heard nothing more
of her until February last, the sum of 9/. 10s. being
up to that time due to her for the child's
support ; on the 27th ult., the day before the
murder, Mrs. Johnson received a letter f.om the
prisoner, desiring her to take the child to the parish,
as she (prisoner) was about to leave England the
next day for Spain ; and in the said letter she set
forth that in the event of her dying through any mis-
chance at sea, she had given directions that she (Mrs.
Johnson) should have the whole of her wearing apparel,
which would go towards the liquidation of the debt.
Mr. Johnson, who had reason to suspect that the story
with regard to the trip to Spain was a mere ruse,
thought it right that his wife should restore the child
to its mother, and she therefore came up to town, and
acted iu accordance with his wishes, after having had
a great deal of trouble in ascertaining where the
prisoner lived. This was on the day when it was so
brutally murdered. She told her that her husband
intended to sue her for what she owed ; and she ob-
served that he might do so if he thought proper. She
returned home to Shirley, and in two days afterwards
she received another letter from the prisoner, in
which she alleged that she had arranged
with another person as to the taking care
of the child, and promised to pay what
was owing in January next without fail. She
(Mrs. Johnson) heard nothing additional upon the
subject until waited upon by Sergeant Whither at her
own house. Many other particulars of a startling
nature have been brought to light;principally through
the exertions of the detective officer alluded to, and he
has, in the course:of bis inquiries, elicited the im-
portant facts that in 1842 the prisoner was tried
for the wilful murder of an illegitimate child, and
upon that occasion she was convicted of concealment
of birth, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment.
She was then living in a family at Layton, in Essex,
as cook. In this case the child was also packed up in
a box, which was addressed to the porter of the
Knutsford Union ; an I from inquiries made by the
police, the forwarding thereof was traced to the pri-
soner. In 1844, a box, having in it a dead infant
newly born, was sent to Mr. Thomas Burton, another
member of the family. An inquest was held upon
the body ; hut in the course of the investigation
gone into nothing transpired which could fix
guilt upon any party. Taking all these
circumstances into consideration, very little, if any,
doubt can exist as to the prisoner having murdered
no fewer than three children. On Monday Mr. Ander-
son, the governor of Ilford Gaol, had an interview
with Mr. Long, the magistrate, to whom he made
known some particulars connected with a former exa-
mination of the prisoner, and other matters appertain-
ing thereto. A copy of the depositions taken by the
Coroner by whom the inquest on Lewis Drake was held
has been received by the magistrate. It is therein
set forth that the surgeon, upon making an examina-
tion, found, in addition to marks upon the throat, a
bruise on the left side of the forehead, and extensive
blows had also been inflicted upon the head; these
alone were sufficient to cause death.
The prisoner has ever since she has been in the
House of Detention, where she will remain until
brought up on remand next Saturday, been in
an extremely dejected state, and makes no reference
whatever to any of the attendants of the prison as to
the awful crime with which she stands charged. It
is stated that during the short time she was in the
family of Mr. Huth the appeared to be remarkably
serious and reserved, and that whenever opportunity
offered she employed her time in reading the Bible,
the Prayer-book, and other works of a religious and
moral tendency.