Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1881-12-08
LEROY and Gui eau.

SIMILARITY OF THEIR CRIMES AND TRIALS.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3.--On the 9th of
June last two passengers got into u
compartment of the railway train at
London to go to Brighton. One was
Mr.. F. j. Gold, well-to-do Londoner,
stoutly built The other was slim,
cranky young fellow named Percy Le-
| troy Mapleton, who had been penny-a-
lining for the LONDON dramatic press
had written farce or two, which had
not been produced, and had the repu-
tation of broken. down Bohemian.
When the train arrived ut Brighton.
Percy Mapleton, better known as
LEROY, got out alone. He was covered
with blood, and told the police that a
countryman in the compartment had
SHIT at him several times and so
wounded him that he had been insensi-
BILE. The policemen believed his
strange story and allowed him to slip
away from their custody.
The next day, however, Mr. Gold
was missed, and his murdered body
was found in the Merstham tunnel,
having evidently been thrown from a
! passing train. The compartment from
which LEROY had emerged bore traces
of a terrific struggle. a watch which
LEROY had slipped out of his shoe and
claimed as his own was identified AS
| having belonged to Mr.. Gold. 1t was
ascertained that LEROY had taken a
| pistol out OF pawn on the day OF the
| murder, and, after his trial, this pistol
was picked up on the line Of the Bright
on railroad. The hue-and,c cry was
raised, and on July s the landlady of
the house where LEROY was boarding
gave him into custody, having recog-
nized him from the p lice descriptions,
although he had shaved off his beard
and mustache and seldom left his room
LEROY was tried and found guilty of
the murder of Mr.. Gold. The evidence
against him was all circumstantial; but
he could not explain his flight from the
police; his possession of the watch and
the pistol; his wounds, and the discov-
cry IN the compartment of his hat and
collar, and of several bogus sovereigns,
matching others which were found in
his pockets.
After his conviction and sentence,
Percy LEROY Napoleon pretended in
sanity, which had not been pleaded on
his trial Then to gain time, he con-
fessed not only the murder of Mr.. Gold,
but another murder of an officer who
had been found mysteriously dead on
the stairs of his lodgings at Chatham.
No official attention was paid either to
his insanity plea or his confessions. and
he was duly executed, in private, at
Lewes Jail. He died calmly, and leaves
a mother and sister to be disgraced by
his crime. That he was guilty there is
not the slightest room to doubt. 1t is
equally certain that he was, like Gui-
teau, a crank with homicidal mania.
What actually happened in the com
partment we shall never know; but Lc-
troy probably shot Mr.. Gold first; then
cut him until he tainted from loss of
blood, and then threw him out of the
car window. He was sane enough to
invent a story to deceive the police and
To hide himself safely for weeks. The
only feature of his crime which re-
deems it from the mediocrity of an or
binary murder is that we are now try
ing very similar crank for just such
useless, crazy, hopeless murder of
| our Ialt pTesluent.
We cannot believe but that the Sc
quel of both cranks and crimes will be
! the same, and that Guiteau will be
! hanged next month,
WARNING.
The following letter has lately been
received by Mr. Scoville, which
is a specimen of class which fills his
pigeon holes Judge Cox receives sim
| liar epistles at the rate of dozen a day
. MINIATURES, Wis, Nov. 20, 1881. -
To. c. j. Guiteau, Judge Cox and the
jury who are now trying Guiteau-Gen-
tiemen: You are hereby notified that
if the trial of Guiteau for the murder
of General Garfield results in the ac-
quittal of the prisoner, he and you may
! com mend your soults to a merciful
| God, and say farewell to your relations.
| We are now one thousand strong in
| this city. Branch organizations are
being formed in al the principal cities
of the country. We expect ut least
10000 from New York and the whole
state of Ohio, Have you heard of Ed.
Williams? Our object is death 10 Gut
1 teau,' and he cannot escape us II ho
is acquitted, or declared insane, we are
sworn TO march to WASHINGTON and
lynch the assassin, together with Judge
Cox and the i-Iy Outraged justice
demands the sacrifice FOR the deliberate
murder of the noble Garfield, for the