The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-06 00:00:00

THE BOAD CRILD MURDER,

(From thTe Ti2nes.)

If the late Edgar Poe had sat down fo invent a
tale of mystery, he could not have imagined an
thing more strange and perplexing than the child-
murder which for the last three months has occu-
pied the attention of the public. The matter, after
repeated investigations, remains still as dark as
ever. Neither Inspector Whicher's presumed pro-
fessional skill, nor the exertions of the local police,
nor Mr. Slack's unprecedented and almost un-
English inquiry, have succeeded in eliciting any
facts which can throw any light on the deed of that
mysterious night of the 29th of June. The one or
two new circumstances which have been made pub-
lic seem, indeed, rather to confound than to con-
firm former suspicions. There is no conceivable
hypothesis which has not met with almost insur-
mountable difficulties, and if three or four persons
meet they are nearly sure to have so many different
theories on the subject.
l'Sre presume the public are by this time well
acquainted with the main facts. When the body
of the murdered child was discovered suspicion
naturally fell on the nurse, from whose room it
had been taken, and who, if innocent, must have
slept while her room was' entered and a child four
conveyed away. Elizabeth
Gough was accordingly
apprehended and under-
went an examination. Nothing, however, was
discovered
pieion s,heyown-hh coulddicthe bare evenfae be all
fact of
ofthceed sus-abstrac-
tion of the child fromhishie.repustlaeet
reputation for room.
sea
The nurse was discharged, but the detectivecT
played, anxious to keep up
men, was ready with another culprit. " I charge
Miss Constance Kent with the murder " said hi-
spector Whicher ; and accordingly a school-girl of
16 was dragged into court to meet the accusation
of cutting her brother's throat. The evidence was
of the most frivolous kind, all the basis of this con-
fident denunciation being that a bedgown was miss.
ing, and that Constance hal talked to her school-
fellows about their homes being more pleasant than
her own. The girl was of course discharged, and
for six weeks the inquiry flagged, and justice was
obliged to own itself baffled. The circumstances
were, however, so mysterious, the crime so fright-
ful, and the hope of a solution so attractive, that
the neighbourhood could not rest. There is at
present a well-grounded apprehension that detec-
tion lags more slowly after crime than ought to be
or than used to be the case. The poisoner calls all
the resources of modern science to his aid ; the
highwayman takes the train at the nearest station
to where his victim lies bleeding in the ditch,
and in an hour or two is in another part of the
kingdom ; burial societies had to take murder into
account in their calculations, and ei,en first-class
assurance offices are sometimes not without their
suspicions. People are unquiet at seeing an act
like this escape unpunished. There has been an
uncontrollable desire to get at the bottom of the
Road child-murder, and this feeling bas been in-
creased by the fancied easiness of the solution. The
facts seem to lie in so small a space, and to narrow
the field of research so much, that detection appears
inevitable. Once take for granted that no one was
in the house that night except the family, and the
guilty party among those eight or nine people must
soon be made known. Experience has, however,
shown the futility of this hope. Every single in-
mate has been examined again and again, not only
publicly, but in the course of private conversation,
and nothing sufficient to incriminate any of them
can be substantiated. Mr. Slack's inquiry lasted.
four days, and at its close Elizabeth. Gough was
apprehended a second time, to be a a second time
discharged, leavino, the county authorities and the
public in as much bewilderment as ever. •
The new case against the nurse rested principally
on the fact of a flannel, such as worn by women
on their chests, being found with the child. All
that connects the flannel with the nurse is that it
fits her, and does not fit some other women in the
house. The value of such a piece of evidence we
leave our readers to appreciate. Then there are con-
tradictions in the statements of Elizabeth Gough.
Now, contradictions are very properly held to
shake the force of testimony, and if the nurse were
giving evidence against any one else they might
be dwelt upon with great effect by the counsel for
the defence; but they go a very little way in bring-
ing home guilt. A woman may give ten different
versions of the time she awoke, whether she got out
of bed, or sat up, or knelt up, or stood up in it, and
of her reasons for lying down quietly when she
saw the child's crib empty; but, even supposing
her to be wilfully stating untruths, you do not get
any nearer to proving her guilt. It is quite possible
for an innocent person to tell an untruth for the
purpose of averting unjust suspicion. Then there
are fright, stupidity, sheer forgetfulness, all tend-
ing to make the same person give different accounts
of an occurrence at different times. A reliance on
these so-called contradictions generally shows but a
limited acquaintance with human nature and the
practice of the courts of law. There is, however,
one circumstance of considerable importance which
was either not brought forward or not conspi-
cuously mentioned en the former inquiry. The
taking out of the blanket from between the coun-
terpane and sheet, as if it were used to wrap up the
child when he was taken from the room, is one of
the most extraordinary parts in the whole transac-
tion. The blanket was found with the body in
the watercloset, with marks of blood on it, as if the
child, or its newly-stifled corpse, had been wrapped
in it when the murderer finished the work with
the knife. Moore the constable says that when
he went in at half-past seven the clothes in the
child's crib were smooth, " smoother than I should
have expected." " The clothes were turned down,
and I saw the mark of the little fellow's head on
the pillow." The nurse, on being asked if anything
were missing, spoke of the blanket being gone.
Something has been made of this, as if it showed a
knowledge that the child had been taken away
wrapped in the blanket ; but it is evident that the
slightest touch of the bedclothes would enable a
nurse to know that only the counterpane and sheet
were there, and we are not disposed to attach any
importance to the incident. But the fact of the
blanket being taken at all is highly significant.
The clothes were tucked in, according to the nurse's
account, so that it was invisible, and it must haves
been carefully drawn out, so as not to disturblotoh
rest of the covering. This certainly does not look
like the act of a common murderer,
wishes to despatch his victim ; italive,
some original design of taking the child
kin.- until it
or, at least, of preventing it from w
ea
is something
was out of the bedroom. At first there
f a man's
points wah:eaiyt her to
about the murder strongly
strangulationsisggrst
0. large,
of the
the
Iheavynd. childTh e stiflingwithout
body, the deep stab, the
cutcry,
e n carrying
earl
severing
y
head from the body seemeither
E ven a young
ths lady
o f l greateror
stehrveory of the prosecution was that
examination the
were engaged in the deed, a man and
physicala m astrengthant than.
,apnerwhhaopms,
at two persons
woman,
admitted
ro. f somebedroom.. b o drr
Elizabeth Gough
and
wasp
eaffistaking out
she had
of the blanket without disturbing the clothes seems
the work of a woman. If it was a strange man, he
passive acctohmattpolihcee
must have been cool and deliberate indeed. It is
difficult to learn at what hour the murder was com-
mitted, and whether the nightlight was burning.
If the room was in darkness it would be still more
difficult for a stranger to the house to have accom-
plished this part of the work.
The incident of the open drawing-room window
acquires considerable importance if it can be shown
that it could not be placed in that position by a
person who had just made his escape out of it. One
theory of the prosecution is that the window was
so placed by some one inside, who wished it to be
thought that the murderer had escaped. But the
evidence of one of the witnesses is to the effect that
the shutters could be partly drawn to from the
outside, as would, indeed, seem plain enough. still,
the presumption that a stranger committed the act
is as beset with difficulties as the presumption that
an inmate of the house was guilty. No one is sus-
pected. Only the most diabolical spirit of Tens
geance could induce any one to secrete himself in a
house to strangle an infant. Such moral depravity
is very rare, and in this case no one is known to
have any grounds of animosity against Mr. Kent.
A discarged servant was spoken of, but she has
been proved incontestably to have been very far
from the neighbourhood on the night in question.
Again, there is the negative proof—though thatt
course, is not conclusive—that the house wa
On the
wind
ex-
amined by Mr. Kent the night before.
other hand, we have, undoubtedly, to bear
anything
belonging
the
that no trace of blood has been found oilean‘h
what
belonging to any inmate of the house, though
floor of the water.closet was sprinkled and
flowed from the throat of the ed A sharp,
the blanket and flannel were both t
d abut no such wea-
strong knife must have beenouetehe
prisoner on the
pon has been found. As
ntot the shadow of evi-
present occasion, there is
motive for taking away the
dence that she had any.
that she had a paramour
murda.reed_c.bild,
child's life, the assumption b_
unwarranted. the child being per-
and was caught it U a
d In fact, there
feetly gratuitous
approach to a solution of this mystery,
has been no
ustbcontent to wait until some unsus-
draws the secret from its obscurity.
paneedtewdeehmanee

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