The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-06-13


still strenuously denied that he hat
stolen anything.
II meant to steal the blue diamonds,
he persisted. But I'd been forestalleG
by some other man. I've no more to say
and shouldn't have if you was to ques
ton me till the day Of judgment"
He was remanded for a week to give
the police an opportunity Of finding the
missing stones; and when brought ur
again at the end of that time, the dia-
monds still being undiscovered, and
there being no immediate prospect OF
their discovery, Morris was duly COM
mitted to the Old Bailey.
In the interval between that event and
his trial, Blumefeeld obtained leave to
see the prisoner in Newgate.
Look here" he said to him Il am con-
densing the evidence subsequently given
by a warder at the trial. I'll make you
an offer. If you'll tell me what you've
| done with those diamonds, and enable
me to recover them. I'll pay two thou
| sand pounds to any representative of
yours you like to name. The money
shall be paid to him in cash here, in your
presence; and then you can have it when
|
tiers q bit better for yourself by sticking
to that absurd and incredible story. If
anything, rather worse, for you'll get
dropped ON more heavily by taking that
line than if you do your best to restore
me my stolen property. Now, then,
you'll be fool if you refuse; you will,
upon my word"
"If had stolen the diamonds, or knew
where they were, I'd close with you like
shot, Mr.. Blumefeeld For ] know
very well that I'm in for five years, any
how. But I didn't steal them, and I
don't know where they are any more
| than you do" answered Morris MY
| story sounds unlikely enough, I'm well
aware. Maybe'the Judge and jury won't
believe it. either; but It's true, and that's
all about it,"
From this position-frue or false
nothing could induce him to bulge.
The day of his trial arrived. The case
excited great interest and the recorders
court was packed. There were two
counts in the indictment; the one G'm
not lawyer and / only know from
memory, therefore, I will crave indul-
gence in case my legal phraseology be
incorrect)-the one Of 'feloniously
breaking into" Blumefeeld's premises in
Hatton Garden; the other Of stealing
therefrom diamonds to the value of
twenty thousand pounds" To the for
mer the prisoner pleaded guilty, to the
latter not guilty, and the prosecution, in
the hope of procuring a more exemplary
sentence, proceeded with the charge Of
stealing the jewels. But this was diff
f1cult matter to prove, Everybody, of
course was convinced that Morris had
stolen the diamonds; but to establish it
by the technical rules of evidence was
another affair. Against the fact that he
was caught on the premises, admittedly
with the intention of stealing the dia-
monds, had to be set the fact that no
sign of a diamond or any other stolen
article was found upon him when
caught Furthermore, the circumstance
of his having refused Blumefeeld's offer
iof two thousand pounds, which was
elected by his counsel In evidence, went
to some slight extent In his favor But
this the prosecution tried to discount by
advancing the theory that he must have
had an accomplice who had made off
with the jewels and that the prisoner
would be hardly likely to give away
twenty thousand pounds for two thou
sand. On the other hand, the defense
urged that there was absolutely no evil
dence of the existence of any accom-
plice; and, besides, after the manner in
which the theft of the blue diamonds
had been bruited abroad and advertised,
it would be impossible for the thief or
thieves to dispose Of them for quarter
of their real value If, indeed, at all, In
which contention, of course, there was
some truth.
The recorder summed up at considera-
BILE length-a careful. equipoised sum-
ming up, as l remember thinking at the
time, balanced, like the sentences in a
Greek dialogue, with perpetual "on the
one hand" and ION the other hand;
impartial, no doubt, but colorless, and
affording no assistance whatever to the
jury The latter, after considering their
verdict for an hour or so, at length
brought the prisoner in mot guilty" on
this indictment. He was then sentenced
on the other indictment to twenty
months hard labor, the recorder observ-
ing that If anything previous had been
known against him, which apparently
there was not, he should have sent him
into penal servitude.
Such is brief--a very brief-recapit-
ulation of Robert Norris trial and sem |
tence in connection with the theft of the |
blue diamonds. Any one who is inter-
ested to go more into details of the mat
ter can turn up the case in the back |
volumes of the newspaper, which he can |
put his hands upon at any of the public |
If he does so, he will find, I |
believe, that, much as 7 have pruned and |
condensed the reports, have not omit
ted any material item. And indeed Ito |
say nothing of the requirements of space
in these columns), it would be weari-
some to retell the story at any length
since, except for the one mystery in the
disposition of the stolen di-
Almonds by Morris assuming him to
have been the thief, as everybody still
did)-the rest of the features are COM
monplace enough.
l now come to the important point in
my story; the only part of it which is
not mere recapitulation, namely-the
alucidation of the mystery as impaired
% me only few weeks ago by Morris
himself. I may take this opportunity of
saying that am the doctor who attend
ID the eX-convict in his last illness, of
which the fatal termination came 50 re-
,ently as a fortnight since. He died in
/ lodging in Bloomsbury, in miserably
DOOR circ1lm stances and being unable to