The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-26 00:00:00

THE ROEHAMPTON MURDER
SINGULAR COINCIDENCES.

(From the Record.)

Although the same reflections have, in all probability, al-
ready passed through the minds of the majority of our
readers, we do not feel at liberty to keep silence on the topic
of the very remarkable evidences of an overruling hand,
which have been apparent in the circumstances of the recent
murder and the detection of the perpetrator of the crime.

There was in former days a book in very current use in
England, but which has for the last fifty years disappeared ;
it was entitled—" God's Vengeance on the Crime of Mur-
der," and consisted chiefly of very remarkable narratives of
the detection of criminals of this class. It is perhaps to be
regretted that its place has not been occupied by some less
horrible, but equally impressive, collection of such histories.
Few, however, perhaps, could surpass the case now before us,
supposing, as we are compelled to do, that the murderer of
the poor woman recently destroyed at Putney, is indeed the
prisoner Daniel Good.
The cool and horrible forethought and contrivance of this
miscreant appear to have been of an unusual character ; and
his possession of these qualities, coupled with the peculiar
local and domestic facilities which he enjoyed in Mr. Shiel's
establishment, clearly rendered his concealment of his crime
so probable and nearly certain, as to force us to observe the
remarkable coincidences which rendered all his cunning of no
avail.

Apparently, in the hope and intention of marrying a
younger woman, Good must have formed the diabolical pur-
pose of destroying his last wife, in order to free himself from
the embarrassment which her claims—knowing, as she did,
his residence—might have brought upon him. With this
view he removes her from her lodgings in town, quieting all
alarm by a feigned story, and brings her to Putney, where a
portion of her mangled body is soon afterwards found in that
part of Mr. Shiel's premises which was under his care. But
how came the discovery to be made ?
Good goes to Wandsworth, a town distant some two or
three miles, and there gets involved in a suspicion of stealing
a pair of trousers. It does not appear at all certain that he
was guilty of this offence. Still, however, the suspicion,
somehow or other, springs up, and two men are despatched
after him, with instructions to search for the missing pro-
perty.
Good, thus surprised by the very thing of all others least
desirable to him, naturally offers any terms rather than al-
low the search. He will pay for the trousers—he will go
back to Wandsworth and satisfy the owner ; anything, in
short, to stop the threatened search.
But nothing will pacify or draw off the officers. Search
they will, in spite of all he can say or do. And soon they
come upon the unexpected and sickening sight.
Good's cunning and adroitness, however, do not forsake
him. He contrives to turn the key upon the officers, and
wholly succeeds in effecting his escape. So well did he use
the opportunity, that for nine days not the least trace could
be found, not a single reasonable surmise be formed, of the
path be had taken.
His next plan was most judicious. He goes to no great
distance, and yet so entirely changes the neighbourhood, and
his own appearance and way of life, as to entirely succeed in
his object of concealment, without removing even so far as
fifty miles. He becomes a bricklayer's labourer—a class of
men so migratory and so numerous as to render it quite un-
usual to think of their previous character or history. And
he goes to the neighbourhood of a railway in progress, where
swarms of similar workmen were covering every road and
filling every beer-shop, and thus effectually hindering all
remark.

The sagacity of this plan was evinced by its success. He
gained employment, fixed himself in a lodging, and to all ap-
parent probability might have rer:lained there till the autumn
unobserved ;—then joined the reapers, and with them have
quietly passed over into Ireland without a risk of suspicion.
But " evil shall h 'nit the 'Nicked man ;" and there was an
Eye following Good's steps, which never for an instant lost
sight of him, and a Hand preparing to " turn his wisdom
unto foolishness." We doubt if the most experienced rogue
inexistence could have pointed out to Good a better course
than that taken by him ; for who could possibly foresee, that
among the workmen on this very spot there should be found
a discharged policeman, who had formerly been a patroling
constable in the very lane in which Good had lived ?

Two such coincidences as these very rarely occur ; nor
ought they to pass without remark when they become ap-
parent. We have heard, within these few days, men of
gaiety and of the world using the word " providential" with
reference to these circumstances, in a tone and with an
earnestness which was quite gratifying. They can see that
either of the two—the strange attraction of the officers to the
spot where the body was concealed ; or the most improbable
meeting at Tunbridge, with one of the very few men who
could identify him—would of itself lead any reasonable man
to look away from human causes ; but that the conjunction
of the two events in a single case is so perfectly out of the
reach of all probability, as to force every man, who is not an
Atheist, to exclaim—" Verily, there is a God who judgeth
the earth!"