Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-26
MYSTERIOUS CORNISH MURDER
The Witness of the Crime Reveals 1t
After Fifty Years.

The Witness of the Crime Reveals II
After Fifty Years.
The writer, then q junior in firm in
London, of which lie is now the head, says
the CoraiSbmaR, came to Penzance in
September, 1884, to arrange terms among
local tin smelters. He left Penzance one
evening to visit a friend in st. just, which
is about six miles from Penzance. On the
way there, in a lonely part of the road, he
met two men, when he heard one say,
CHATS him. while the other asserted
mo, it is not" They again faced each
other, when the two men said they had
taken him for another person. Almost
Immediately man approached from the
direction of St. just, and the writer called
his attention to the suspicious character
of the two men. The man, who said he
was a mine agent, laughed at his fears
and went on his way. He had only pro-
ceeded about a couple of hundred yards
when he was seized with nervous tremors.
His legs refused to support him and he
tell in the middle OF the road, but thought
it better not to stay there, and so pro-
ceeded on hands and knees across the road,
scrambled up a small bank and found
himself on a common. He dragged him.
self to a heather-covered striD between
two clumps of furze and threw himself at
length and closed his eyes. After little
time he looked around and the moonlight
revealed to him newlY-made mound.
Hearing two shots fired he crouched and
waited. and he saw two men just after
bearing the body of third man.
To quote his letter:
EEOnce more thrill of horror ran through
me. On they came toward the newly
made grave, almost touching my feet as
they moved past. Then they turned to the
right and threw the body into the pit. The
corpse in the grave, the two men began to
fill it up. They had not lowered the mound
many inches when one of them discovered
me. They bounced upon me and demand
ed what l was doing there. l explained
but all to no purpose. The same pit will
do for him. Yes; shoot him. NO; cut
his throat 'SCOn. I'll load my pistol
again; don't leave any marks Of blood
about; push him in the pit first and cut
his throat afterWard.' These were the
horrible threats, accompanied by fright
full imprecatiOns, which greeted me. Said
one of the men to me again: we have de-
cided to bury you alive; slip off your
clothes; it's hardly worth while burying
that good suit of clothes of yours; it will
do for one of u.s. L pleaded my youth, my
accidental and unprecedented presence,
my newly-made wife and only child, and
this at last seemed to touch the hearts OF
the brutes. 'Well,' said one, we will
spare your life on condition that you
swear, as you hope for heaven and the
salvation of your wife, child and friends
you shall swear 1t, too, on the point of this
knife and the muZZle of this pistol, that
what you have seen this night you will
never speak of or divulge to any human
being for a space of fifty years from this
day, when we shall all be as this at the
same time kicking into the grave a clod
of light-colored clayey soil. l did swear
most sOlemnly. l bought my life on that
lonely heath of West Penwith. l have
kept my promise. 1t is little over fifty
years ago. l was then 26 years of age, so
you see / am an old man now. These men
were middle-aged, from 40 to so, at that
time"
On his revisting the spot he writes:
"As l approached the fatal spot the
road seemed entirely unaltered. 1 sol
EMMY believe that 1 crept through the
very cap in the low hedge of earth which
stiIl imperfectly protects the croft; that ]
stood between the self-same clusters OF
furze which formed my bed-very nearly
my bed of death-and peep hole as the
murderers hid the result of their accursed
crime, and that knelt on the undisturbed
grave where their victims bones are now
mere dust. After half a century l knelt
again, not to implore mercy of man, as
did then, but of God, lest unwittingly
have sinned in keeping an eXtOrted pledge,
and, to save myself from harm, have re-
luctantIy shielded heinous criminals.
did not at the time hear of any person con-
nected with the district being missed, MOI
have | ever learned anything that would
help to throw light on the name of the VIC
tim or the motive for the murder"