The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-17

count for his DEATH Having however, regard
TO the fact that no complete explanation could
be arrived at as to the disposal of the vast sums
of money known to have been in his possession,
it was reported both in Ireland and America that
the body was not his, 'but one procured to per-
senate him, while he, during the excitement of
the supposed self murder, effected his escape"
The newspapers of the time II have file of
them before mel were full of the tragic story,
and deceased journalist has included the histo
ryof the case in record of THE Commercial
Crisis of 1873 / shall take the liberty of Dor
rowing from bis pages the facts of Mr.. Need
hams rise and fall, supplying from my own note
books the solution of the mystery with which
the famous fnancers death has hitherto been
surrounded. In regard to the theory suggested
In ireland and America, the historian says:
UNLESS the witnesses on the coroner's
inquest we're perjured, and the coroner him
self was in the conspiracy, this hypothesis
is altogether impossible" The identity was
sworn to by his servant, the medical attendant
and by the coroner himself who knew him WE'LL
sfor they were. members of the House of Com
mons in the same Parliament and sat together
on the same side of the House.
There was also other independent testimony
in this direction and romantic as the idea of a
spurious corpse and successful flight from
criminal prosecution and public disgrace may be,
history records against it the sad sober facts of
suicide death and burial of one of the most re-
markable and clever swindlers of his time
Up to the evening of his death it seems he
maintained his high position, his coolness and
not little of his apparent prosperity, except to
o solicitor whose evidence was reluctantly given
at the inquest
Nevertheless he had laid out the plan and
method of his own death with mathematical
care and precision. So much so, indeed that an
advocate inspired by clever brief might logi-
eally have maintained that the systematic atten-
ton to details in painful a business was evil
dence in favor of the hypothesis that the dead
body found on Hampstead Heath was not the
body of John Needham, late one of her Maiesty's
Lords of the Treasury. But this idea of imper-
sonation was not suggested at the time; and so
far the settled history of the case is on record
such an explanation is inconsistent with the evil
dence and beyondthe region of established fact.
1t was urged at the inquest, in favor of a YER
diet of temporary insanity, that John Needhams
conduct on the day of the suicide was very
strange; and that the method os carrying out his
self murder was not that of man in his right
senses 1t appeared that on the day of his death
he had gone to great deal of trouble to clear
his house of the servants, inventing singular ex-
cuses for sending them away, getting tick
cts for the opera for them, giving Thorn a sup
per, saying it was his birthday, and finally in
the most mysterious fashion, driving his
brougham to the spot where he had arranged
that his dead body should be discovered. These,
it was contended were not like the actions of a
sane man; they were fantastic, and in wise
characteristic of the calm, businessike intellect
of Mr.. John Needham. On the other hand, ii
was shown that he had, up to the last moment,
conducted his affairs with GOODNESS and sense;
that he had had serious and important inter
view with his solicitor, and that he had written
letters Immediately prior to his death which
were the letters of man who thoroughly knew
what he was about. A parlor maid in his
service had reported to the cook that
he was mad, but that was only her ignorant,
foolish view of some sudden act of liberality on
the part of her master; while the coroner
thought his entertainment of the servants as re
ported rather tended to prove his sanity, for he
had evidently not been a very generous en-
ployer in the matter of feasting his dependents
and probably he desired in a manner to make
up to them for his neglect seeing that neither
at Christmas nor Easter nor at any other time
was he in the habit of going out OF his way t.
mako the season pleasant at Portland Place
where he had resided ever since he came to Lon
don. Complete as was the identity of the body
clear as were the reasons why John Needham
should commit euicide, sane as the jury regard
ed him up to the very moment Of his death
there was still an air of mystery about this ease
which was heightened by member of Parlia
ment, day after the inquest, relating one Of
those remarka BILE condolences which are among
the puzzles of everyday life. Possibly had not
the honorable gentleman in question been q
spirituaist his letter to the Times would have
attracted general attention. AS it was, it only
marked the wgiter down as an eccentric per
son. and so cleverly was this idea
worked that he was turned out of his seat at
the next general election as an impracticable
crazy, ghost seeking, spiritualistc dreamer. He
had declared in the Times not as an argument
in favor of any further investigation, but as
an illustration of the truth of the stranger
things than those that are dreampt of in our
phlloSopny-he hau posiuvely asserted thai
while john Needham was lying dead at Hamp-
stead, he saw him on the railway platform, saw
him and spoke to him. A correspondent in re-
ply, who contended that John Needham, like all
suicides and murderers mad, they could
not commit their crimes and be sanen-sug
gested tina. the NJ. p, who saw the ghost al
Liverpool, was also touched In the upper
story and there the matter ended SC far as the
general public was concerned; but the cor
respondence started strange and wild surmises
in the minds of the people of Hampstead, led to
curious speculations in the smoke-room at Jack
Straw's Castle and gayo color to the sueges
tons already referred TO as to the possibility of
he corpse not being that of John Needham.
%. ~. IL.