The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-23

Company, in whose Office the insurance on
Martin Stuckev's life had been affected.
About week after this was done, Mr..
Capper, the manager of the Monument As
surance Company, was shown into the Of
nee OF MIR. George George, the eompany's
solicitor.
We'll" he said, ANY result from the in
quiries in Stuckey's case"
Yes, little" replied Mr. George; "but
am afraid nothing that is much use to us
at present"
1T is not case of suicideF
Judge for yourself You remember
that at the inquest the Rev. Alfred Stuckey
stated that he returned with his father from
Rlchmond about five and left a quarter
OF an hour later in order to atch the thirty
tye minutes past five Metropolitan train to
King
II do"
Very well. Now l have ascertained
that Mr.. Alfred and the deceased took
carriage at Richmond not long before p.
M, but were only driven as far as Barnes,
where at their own request, they were put
down on the towpath.- | have found the
lyman, who says that he set them down on
the towpath nearly opposite Chiswick about
4:3O, and saw them walk away eastward.
We have also got hold of an old woman
VINO saw them on the tOwpath
near Hammersmith Bridge, but whether
below or above she cannot state, walking
i'll the direction of Putney. She says it was
within a few minutes of ) p. M, and just
getting dusk. On that day, Oct Is, the
sun, you will find, set at three minutes to
five. Now it is not impossible of course,
that Alfred Stuckev may have been on the
towpath walking toward Putney about )
o'clock, and yet have taken the deceased
home, as be states, and have afterward
caught the twenty-five minutes to six train;
but, to my mind, this evidence throws
boubt on his story. Remember we have
only Alfred Stuckeys word for it that the
deceased ever went home at all On the
Other hand there is strong presumption
that some time after ) o'clock that night he
found his way into the river having been
according to the medical testimony,
knocked on tie head first, presumably by
some one who had a motive for doing
SO, which a stranger to him would not
have"
You think he was murderedw
II form no theory at present; but think
that Messrs. Alfred and Ephraim Stuckey
between them know more about their
fathers disappe irance than they have yet
disclosed, and that the evidence we now
have offers very convenient means of
squeezing tina truth out Of them"
Then what do you advised"
Put all our information in the hands of
the police. We shall never prove suicide,
and if it be a case of murder that does not
help the office. 1t is, therefore, not worth
the company's while to spend money on
further inquiries On the other hand, if
there be any fraud in the case, the truth
will very soon come out when one or other
of these gentlemen is arrested on charge
of murder, which / expect we shall see be-
fore another week is over"
In this last conjecture Mr.. George was
not mlStaken-he very seldom was about
such matters Within four or five DAYS
from the time when he forwarded his in
formation to Scotland Yard the Rev.
Alfred Stuckey was in custody, charged
with murd ring his father.
When he appeared before the magistrate
the facts detailed by Mr.. George We're sup
plemented by piece of most damning evil
dence. A tramp, named Higgs, was called,
and he deposed to having seen the deceased,
whom he knew quite well by sight, in COM
panY with another man on the towpath, be-
tween Hammersmith and Putney, some time
after dark; to having overheard something
like an alteration, the old man apparently
refusing to GO on, and the young one threat
ening to chuck him into the river if he were
troublesome; and, finally, to having heard
two or three loud cries, after he had passed.
Higgs did not attempt to identify the pris-
oner, but he was sure that the man with the
deceased was in black coat, and closely
reSembled the prisoner i'll height and
figure. With regard to the time,
he was uncertain, but it was clear
from his statements that it must have been
within five minutes ON either side of a
quarter to SIX This left time, as the prose-
cution showed, for the prisoner to catch a
train at Putney Bridge, by which he could
have reached ST. Pancras so as to travel by
the 7:10 down train from that station. On
this evidence the magistrate, without besi-
tatiop, committed the prisoner for trial.
Only one other piece of evidence was adj
duced when the trial came off at the Old
Bailey, but it had an important bearing on
the issue. Itappeared that when he had
left the university, four or five years pre-
vously, the prisoner was very much in
debt; that he had lately been threatened
with summary proceedings by some of his
Oxford creditors, and that on the day of
his arrival in town he had been to an adver-
Using money lender to endeavor to raise
money on his small expectations from his
father. In this he had been unsuccessful
Here, then, as counsel for the crown did
not fail to point out at the trial, was sutfi-
Gent explanation of the motive for the dia-
bolical act For the defense every attempt
possible was made to prove an alibi, but
none of the witnesses who thought that
they had seen the prisoner elsewhere were
positive about the time, and in the face of
the admitted fact that the prisoner had
Travelled to and left st. PancraS Station on
that night their evidence came to nothing
The Judge, who unfortunately for Alfred
Stuckey happened to have a reputation for
hanging, Of which he was not a little
proud, put it to the jury that their yer.
dict must practically depend upon the
weight they attached to Higg's evidence,
which was not only consistent with all the
evidence as tc the prisoners previous move
ments, but was strongly corroborated by
the witnesses Identification of the deceased.
There could. in fact, said his Lordship, be no
reasonable doubt that Higgs had seen the
deceased ON the towpath in company with
some man who was threatening him with
violence. The only question was whether
that man was the prlsonsr, in whose com
pany the deceased was proved to have been
up TO half an hour previously, or somebody
else whom no attempt had been made to
identify and who had no conceivable motive
for the crime The jury naturally prefer
red the former alternative and returned
verdict of guilty"
Mr.. and Mrs Waffles were much pleased
with their LOGGER, Mr.. Bib, though they felt
rather sorry for the old gentleman. too. 1t
was very sad to see him sitting in his room
all day looking at pictures or gazing out of
the window with that blank expression on
his face But, on the other hand, young