Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-09-16
Dbeelias Register
THE MYSTERY
OF A.
HANSON CAB.
BY FERGUS c. HUME.
[CoNrINuKD1

DIS speech, IN Nhlcn ne pointed out the
strong evidence against the prisoner. CAL
ton arose to address the jury. He was q
fine speaksr,and made splendid defense
Not single point escaped him, and that
brilliant piece Of orstoTy is still remsm-
bsred and spoken of admiriDgly in the
purlOus of Temple court AMI Chsnoery
lane.
lie began by giving 3 vivid description
of the circumstances Of the murder-ot the
meeting Of the murderer and his victim In
Collins street E4st-the cab driving down
to St Kilds-the getting oct Of the cab OF
themurderer after committing the crime
and the way in which ne had secured him
self against pursuit. Having thus en-
chained the attention Of the jury by the
graphic manner in which he described the
crime, be paiutei out that the evidence
brought forward by the prosecution was
purely ciIcumstAutisl, and that they
had utterly failed to identify the man
who sntesed the can with the pris-
onsr ia the dock TIs suppositiou that
the prisoner and the N 1 in the light coat
being Oae and the same person rested sole
ly upon the evidence of the csbman, Roys-
ton, Whu, though not intoxicated, was,
Judging from his own statements, not in
ft state TO distinguish between the man
who hailed the cab and the man who got
in. The crime was committed by means
of chlorcfurm; therefore, If the prisoner
was guilty, he must have purchased the
chlorOlorm 10 some shop or obtsined it
from some friends At oil events, the pros
ecution had not brought forward n single
piecs of evidence 70 show how and where
the chlorcfOrm was obtained. With
regard to the glove beloaging to the MUIR
dersd man fouhd IN the prisoners pocket,
he picked il no of the ground at the time
when he first met Whyte, when the de-
ceased was lying drunk near the Scotch
church. Csrtsinly thsre was no evidence
10 show that the prisoner had picked 1t up
before the deceased entered the cab; but,
on the other hand, there was no evidence
to show that it had been picked up in the
cab 1t was far more likely that the glove,
and especially white glove, would be
picked up under the light of the lamp
near the Scotch church, where it was
easily noticeable, than 10 the darkness
OF a cab, where there was very little
room, and where ii would be quite dark,
~ the blinds were drawn down. The cab
mSn, Royston, swore positively that the
man who got out Of his cab % the 81
Kilda road wore a diamond ring on the
foretiuger Of his right hand, and the cab
man, Rankin, swore 10 the same thing
abCut the man who got ont at Powlstt
street. Against this could be placed the
evidence of one of the prisoners most IN
innate frisnds-one who had seen him al
most daily for the last five years, and he
had sworn positively that the prisoner
never wax in the habit OF wearing rings
The cabmau, Rankin, had also sworn
that the man who entered his cab
on the St. Kilds road slighted
ut Powlett street, Esst Melbourne,
at 2 o'clock on Friday morning, ~ be
heard that hour strike from the pOstOffice
clock, whereas the evidence OF the prison
sr's Iandlady showed plainly that he en-
tered the house five inmates previously
and her evidence was further supported by
that of the matchmaker, DENLY. Mrs
Sampson saw the hSnd Of her kitchen clock
poiut to five minutes 10 , and, thinking ii
was ten minutes slow, told the detective
the prisoner did not enter the house till
five minutes past 2, which would Just give
the man who alightsd from the cab, pre-
Stunning him TO have been the prisoner, sat
ficieut time to walk mp to his lodgings
The evidence of the matchmaker, Dendy,
however, showed clearly that he had
nut the clock right at the hour of 8
on Thursday night; that it was impossible
for il TO gain ten minutes before 2 on Fri
day morning, and, therefore, the time, five
minutes 10 ,, seen by the landlady, WAS
the correct one, and the prisoner was in
the house five minutes before the other
man alighted from ire cab in Powlett
street. These poi1ts in themselves were
Sufficient to snow that the prisoner was in
nocent, but the evidence Of the woman
Rswlins must prove conclusively to the
Jury that the prisoner was not the man
who committed the crime. The witness
Brown had proved that the woman
Rawlins had delivered letter to him,
which he gave to the prisoner personally,
and that the prisoner left the club to keep
the appointment spoken of in the letter,
which letter, or rather the remains Of II,
had been put in evidence. The woman
Rswlins swore that the prisoner met her
At the corner Of Russell and B0urke streets
and had gone with her TO one Of the back
slums, there to see the writer of the letter
She also proved that ut the time of the
eommittal Of the crime the prisoner was
still in the back slum, by the bed Of the
diving woman, and there being only one
door 10 the roon, could not possibly have
left without the witness seeing him. The
woman Rswlins further proved that she left
the prisoner at the corner of Russell and
Bourke streets at twenty-five minutes to 2
O'Clock, VIII eh WAS five minutes before
Royston drove his cab up 60 the St. Kilds
police station, with the dead body inside
Finally, the woman Rswhns proved her
words by stating that she saw both the
pnstoffice and town hall clocks; and sup
posing the prisoner started from the corner
of Bourke and Russell streets, IA she SAYS
he did, he would reach East Melbourne
in twenty minutes. which made il
five minutes to on Friday morning, the
time at which, according to the land
lady's statement, he entered the house. All
the evidence given by the different wit
nssaes agreed completely, and formed q
chain which showed the whole of the
prisoners movements at the time of the
was absolutely impossible that the muir
der could have been committed by the
man in the dock. The strongest piece of
evidence brought forward by the prosscu-
ton was that of the witness Hableton,
who swore that the prisoner used theeats
AGAINST the life of the deceased. But the
language WAS merely the outcome of
passionate Irish nature, and WAS not suf-
ieient 10 prove the crime to have been
committed by the prisoner. The defense
which the prisoner set mp was that Of an
alibi. and the evidence Of the witnesses for
the defense proved conclusively that the
prisoner could not, and did not, commit
the murder. Finally, Cation wound up
his elaborate and exhaustive speech, which
lasted for over two hours, by brilliant
peroration, calling upon the jury to bsse
their verdict upon the plain facts Of the
case, and if they did so they could hardly
n var1iak NJ fkpnk