The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-18 00:00:00

AN EXPERIENCED BURGLAR.

Luis Peter Nicolal Ernst, a native of Elsinore,
was brought before the borough magistrates at
Leeds on Saturday last, having been remanded
from a previous day, charged with committing
a burglary at the residence of the Rev. W.
Williamson, incumbent of Headingley, near
Leeds, and was committed for trial at the next
Yorkshire assizes. On the night of the 30th
ult. an entrance was effected into the prosecutor's
house through the drawing-room window, and a
gold watch, a quantity of silver plate, and other
articles, worth between .E3O and £4O, were stolen.
The prisoner was apprehended a few days after-
wards at Liverpool, and he admitted having com-
mitted the robbery. He appears to be a very
daring character. He was convicted of burglary
at Gloucester in 1858; at Worcester assizes he was
ordered to be imprisoned for two years ; he was
convicted at the Glocester assizes, still more recently ;
and since his release he has been scouring the
country. He is " wanted" at Birkenhead for a
desperate burglary. He broke into a blacksmith's
house at Bramham, Rear Leeds, on the 14th inst.,
and some of that property was found upon him
when apprehended at Liverpool. On the 22d of
March he assisted in a burglary at Blackmoor, near
Leeds, in the house of Mr. Thomas Shires, farmer.
On the day previous he was at Manor Heath, near
Halifax, inspecting the plate basket of Mr. John
Crossley. He was at Scalby, near Scarborough, on
the 11th of March, and will be prosecuted for a
robbery there ; and on the 30th ult. he was at the
Headingly parsonage, near Leeds, where hevom-
mated the burglary above mentioned. Such is the
web which has at present been unravelled by the
Leeds police, and it is not yet known how far the
catalogue may extend. Ernst appears to have a
spice of romance in his composition. He is about
38 years of age, of sallow complexion, middle
height, wears gold earrings in his ears, and
has many scars about his body ; the right lower
arm is marked, in blue ink, with the figures
of a sailor and a woman joining hands, and
underneath are the letters " ANA LINE" and
a ship with three masts ; the left arm is marked
in blue ink, with the figures of a woman, a mer-
maid, and the letter " M" in the centre of a heart ;
underneath, the letters "M. 111" and a tree, a man, a
woman, and a sea-horse, in red and blue ink inter-
mixed, and the words " Anna Maria Gonzales ;" a
serpent on the left wrist, a man's head in centre of
a ring on the back of the left hand ; a ring with
diamond on the third finger of left hand; he has a
small silver ring through the nipple of each breast,
and on the centre of the breast, in blue ink, the
figure of Christ on the cross, and a man on the
one side and a woman on the other, weeping ; on
the front of the left thigh, in blue ink, the figures
of three men and a serpent in a tree • on the front
of the right thigh the figure of an Indian warrior :
calf of left leg marked, in blue ink, with the letters
"PLSMMSS ;" right calf marked, in blue ink,
with a crown and the letters "MK MS WLPNE-
HSCS ;" he has also a red and brown mark near
the bend of the left elbow. Several persons who
were found dealing with the property he had stolen
at Headingley were taken into custody, but some
of them were discharged, and others were admitted
evidence against Ernst.

THE SUPPOSED MURDER AT
RAMSGATE.

RAMSGATE, SATURDAY.

By the exertions of the police sufficient light has
been thrown on this sad occurrence to lead to the
belief that it is a case not of murder but of delibe-
rate suicide. It will seem, from what follows, that
the object of the deceased was to conceal his iden-
tity, and this would explain almost all the myste-
rious circumstances connected with the case.

The deceased landed at. Southampton at the end
of March from America, and went to the Hotel
de L'Europe, in that town. He there gave a name
which sounded like " Maltinger." He left South-
ampton for London on the 31st of March, and there
put up at Hahn's hotel, America•square, where he
remained till the 7th of April. He wore his left
band in a bandage, and said it had been injured on
board ship. On leaving the house he stated that
he was a German, travelling for pleasure, and that
he intended to make the tour of Scotland before re-
turning to Germany, but must first go to Paris.
The people of the hotel believed him to be a native
either of Baden or Wurtemberg. During his stay
he appeared perfectly rational, but on an occasion
when asked to write an address card he said he
would do it at once, as his memory had been very
bad since he suffered so severely from brain fever
in America. On the 7th of April he left by the
South Eastern Railway for Dover, and, as has been
already stated, in the same carriage with Mr.
Samuel Kidd. It has been said that Mr. Kidd
noticed two of the deceased's fingers to be want-
ing. The fact was, however, that Mr. Kidd only
observed that the fingers were bandaged—that is
to to say, concealed as they were at the hotel in
London. On the Bth the deceased bought the
hatchet at Mr. Green's shop at Dover, as described,
and stated himself to be a Russian. There is now
no doubt that he was a German.

On the same day he went from Dover to Deal
by omnibus, and while on the way, the deceased
being the only inside passenger, a German Bible
was thrown or dropped out of the omnibus, and
was picked up by a travelling hawker, who
sold it at the Swingate Inn adjoining. The
Bible has been examined by the police, and contains
no name or marks. The motive of deceased in get-
ting rid of it was probably because the possession
of the book would have pointed out the country
to which he belonged, and thus have given a
clue to his identity, for from this time the deceased
always declared himself to be a Russian.
On arriving at Deal the deceased went to the
Walmer Castle Inn, stayed there on Friday night,
and on Saturday came from Deal to Ramsgate by
train. On arriving at Ramsgate he had his beard
and moustaches shaved off. He then put up at the
Royal Oak While there, a gentleman in the
coffeeroom addressed him in French and in German,
but he shook his head, saying, "Me Russ, me
Russ." On Sunday he visited Margate, as already
described, and after dining at the Elephant and
Castle went to the house of Brasier. He then went
for a walk with his carpet
bag under his arm, and
returned to the railway without it. The bag was
found near Westbrook empty, and near it two
shirts and a white handkerchief with the marks
picked out. He returned to Ramsgate the same
afternoon, and at half-past five o'clock entered an
oyster shop, where he partook of some refreshment.
At a quarter to seven he was in the inn at Broad-
stairs, and at a quarter past seven he was seen near
Sir Moses Montefiore's wall upon the cliff. At a
quarter past eight a man whose clothes and hat—
the latter of large size and peculiar shape—exactly
resembled those of the deceased, was seen by a
young man named Jackson at the eastern end of
the Parade on Mount Albin. The man walked
rapidly, with his arms folded and his eyes fixed on
th© ground. Here all trace of the deceased is lost
till he was found at six o'clock next morning dead,
under the East Cliff.

The following are among the circumstances which
point most directly to suicide. The spot where the
I body was found was 25 feet from the cliff, and the
tide had risen some feet above it, high enough to
have washed the body to the place where it lay.
About 80 yards lower down the beach, in nearly a
direct line, cuts were found in one of the chalk
rocks exactly corresponding with the blade of the
hatchet found close by. This rock would be covered
half
flood soon as the water rose above half flood. Now
flood on Monday morning was about half-past
between etw a
one,
and the death cehsequently took place
quarter-past eight and half-past one. The rock is
as high as a chair, so that a man might
ueasily hand
knelt it, and
knelt beside it, placed his fingersfi
erps, boots, and
chopped them off. The hatchet,i
t 0 sink) nwere found
g
umbrella (the articles most
likely
to
this latter spot, while the clothes were found
among the seaweed near
the body. Our reporter
was informed by experienced._the
deceased had chopped men, who accompanied
him to the spot, that if
off his fingers at the rock alluded to, and had then
stabbed himself to the heart and fallen instantly
dead, his body would have been washed by the
regular set of the rising tide in shore, and a little
to the northward, or exactly to the place where in
point of fact, the body was found. The knife, which
has been searched for without success, would pro-
bably have been knocked out of the wound by the
body washing against the low rocks, and if the knife
had a wooden handle, as many sailors' knives have,
it might have floated and been carried out to sea.
The medical evidence was that the skin was frayed,
which would have resulted from the body washing
up the beach.
Why, it may be asked, did the deceased chop off
his fingers ? The answer is, for the same reason
that he had previously bandaged them, viz., to con-
ceal his identity. One joint of the first finger and
two joints of the second had been amputated some
years ago, and were perfectly healed. By this
mark the deceased would be recognised, and there-
fore he determined to take all his fingers off. There
was no sign of disease or other injury upon his hand
to require a bandage. The absence of his watch and
ring is now easily accounted for. Both being of
peculiar appearance, and likely to lead to his iden-
tification, he would destroy them. If there was a
name written inside his boots, to cut off the tops
would effectually get rid of it. The wristbands of
the shirts were torn off, and the marks picked out
with a similar object. The unfortunate man, how-
ever, forgot a scrap of paper which was found near
the body in the storehouse, and which there is no
reason to doubt belonged to the deceased. It con-
tained there words, written in pencil, in indifferent