The bee., 1882-06-10
A MURDERER'S STORY.

The English papers publish q long
and curious statement made by one
Thomas Fury, alias Wright, alias Cort,
after being found guilty at Durham
sssizes of the willful murder of a
woman, named Maria Fitzsimmons, at
Sunderland. in 1869. Sentenced to
fifteen years penal serVitude for rob-
berry and attempted murder in Norwich,
in 1879, he voluntarily accused him
self of the murder of the woman
Fitzsimmons. He was put on his trial
and found guilty. Fury manifested the
keenest anxiety to be convicted and
received the sentence of death with the
utmost satisfaction. His autobiography
cal statement is psychological curl
sity and not withoutpublic interest as q
contribution to the study of "crime
causes" The following extracts give
the main part of his story. He says {:
ALTHOUGH my past career. as both q
thief and liar, would not under ordinary
circumstances entitle me to receive any
credit in regard to my statements, yet
as now stand before you for the last
time as dying, or rather dead man,
beg your attention to the few words /
now addres to you-not for my own
benefit, but for your own. Every cause
must have an effect, and every effect an
anteeedent cause, or series OF causes.
stand before you now as the resultant
of the forces oil persuasion, example
and compuision. And Maria Fitzsim-
mons, whom murdered thirteen years
ago, WAS another of these terrific results.
The injustice of the land laws In Ireland
caused my relations to join Ribbon
men, and leave their country; and then
induced my mother to come to England
to meet my father. Perhaps crime is
hereditary IN my case-another fact to
strengthen DarWin's and Huxley's
theories. I do not know, nor have
heard Of, BIT one member on either
side of our family that was not strongly
addicted to drinking. My father was q
drunkard. My mother was forced to
become one-held down by her nearest
relatives while they poured rum down
her throat until she promised to be
sociable. As regards myself, / know
that / was raving drunk before I was
eight years old, and several times before
was ten years of age. One of the
reasons for giving myself up is to get
rid Of that craving for drink, for which
in my case, at least, extinction is the
only Gre I shall be quite reconciled
to die o shameful and dishonorable
death-in fact, feel happy-if by my fear
full doom some, o few at the least, may be
warned, by the dreadful example I have
become, to avoid that haiti while they
have yet strength to resist it.
"I was early initiated into the ac-
cursed habit. and it was more fully
developed during four years spent
among seamen, who seemed to think
that drink was the summum bonum of
human life. After this it was my fate
to have to spend more than four years
in prison. Upon my discharge, and
obtaining another ship, / determined
not to drink. Upon the mate Offering
me my share of beer / civilly declined
it, receiving storm of abuse in return,
accompanied with an order to leave the
ship and go ashore if / did not like to
drink. Thirty miles from home, with
out penny in my pocket, what was I
to do? ] drank the beer, was praised
for being a man, and the result there
from, as if human blood had been given
to tame tiger, was that drink was all
that lived for ; for this only did /
work /; for it neglected my duty to
myself, my mother and my employers
for it became again q thief by using
money entrusted to me by my ship
mates for, by and through it, now
stand before ycu as the murderer of
woman.
SIT would be only q waste of time to
detail all the other crimes have been
guilty of since February, 1869, while
under the influence of drink mostly
crimes of violence. One of the effects
of drink upon me is an irresistible
desire to do injury, even though they
may have given me no provocation.
Once threatened my mother with a
knife, shame being the only cause of
not executing the threat. I have been
IN prisons more than thirteen years,
extending ever a period of eighteen
years. During that time have spoken
to many hundreds of prisoners, and
only met with one who bad been an
abstainer previous to his conviction, !
And if any of you have the slightest !
feeling of pity or commiseration for
that poor unfortunate woman whom / !
killed in my stupid, mad, drunken f.rty. |
and for others, not only of her class, |
but of every other class, let me beg Of |
you who call yourselves Englishmen to |
try, by will, word, act and influence, to
Danish those habits, tastes and customs
which are the sources of so much
misery, vice and crime.
upon my return from China in |
1863 was reduced to o state of the
most extreme poverty / fell in with |
some habitusl criminals, who, perceiv- |
ing my necessities and mex perience, |
easily persuaded me to join them. |
With them was concerned in several
burgIaries. each of which was marked |
out previously by a man in the employ |
OF an officer IN the police, COMMONLY |
called putter up and mark This !
man induced me to bring part of the
proceeds OF one of the burglaries upon !
me into - district. When the officer
apprehended me, by threats of impris- |
onment, and promises of obtaining |
employment for me that I might live |
honestly, he induced me to entice my |
companions with their tools upon them |
into his district, where they were ap-
pretended. He did not fulfill his |
promises TO me, but gave me every
lndueement to draw other criminals |
INTO his district in order to profit by
their crimes. i avoided them, and tried \
TO obtain work, but uusuccessfully, and !
1t last took to burglary on my own
account. Being at last detected, and