The Saint Paul globe., 1904-04-17
LONDON BLUEBEARD
COMMITS SUICIDE
COCkney Biqamist Lives in Real
Chamber of Horrors for
Months.
SneciaI Foreign Service.

LONDON, April 16.-George Albert
CrOssman, who cheated the gallows
the other day by cutting his throat
when he found escape from the police
impossible, and the discovery that he
had murdered one of his numerous
wives inevitable, left behind him q
story of callous villainy, reckless au-
dacity, tragic horror and dramatic ret
ributiOn of which cabled summaries
can have conveyed only faint out
line. The body of his victim-wife No.
6-he placed, imbedded in cement, in a
tin box, and thus for over twelve
months hid his CHASTITY secret IN the
house in which he continued to live
with his fourth wife. Meanwhile, al
though he had already served a SEN
tence of five years for bigamy, he mar
Tied two more women.
Outwardly, Crossman was an attrac-
tive villain of the type most favored
in modern sensational fiction. Hand
some and dark. almost as an Italian
with piercing black eyes, thick black
hair, slightly curled and tinged with
gray about the temples, a high fore
head, a pallid complexion, and pos
sessed Of a good address, he found it
advertisements and false protestations
of affection, thus getting hold of any
money they might have.
His first wife died when he was
twenty two, before he had contracted
any other matrimonial alliance. Cross
man always carried the death certifi-
cate of this wife about with him, pre-
sumably that he might be able to fur
nfsh ready proof that from at least
one of his spouses nature had given
him legal quittance.
Wife No. 2 he married in 1897 when
he was twenty-eight and in November
1898, less than year later, wife No. g.
Before the year was out he was serving
a five-year sentence of penal servitude
for bigamy. BY good conduct he had
obtained the usual abbreviation of his
sentence, and was released on ticket
Of-leave. While still reporting himself
regularly to the police, as required by
his ticket of leave, on Jan. 10, 1903, he
committed bigamy again, making Edith
Thompson, the daughter of a CONNER
cial traveller, wife No. f. Unconscious
irony had christened the house in which
he established himself and this bride
'Sunnyside." 1t was a typical, modern
London suburban structure of the emi-
nently genteel and cheap variety-red-
bFicked, two-storied, bow windowed-
Just like every other house in Lady
smith road.
Marries Another.
The couple had been living here only
q few days when Crossman informed
wife No that he had to make a triI
TO Manchester and suggested that his
absence would afford her an excellent
opportunity to visit her folks who liv-
ed in another part Of London. Accord
ingly on the morning of Jan. 15, 1903
nVe days after their marriage-bott
ieIt the house, she to go to her rela-
uVeS; he oStenSibly bound for the rail-
way station but really bent on making
another matrimonial contract In &
IeW hours he was back again bringing
with him wife No. 5, whom he haC
married in the interval, assuming fol
The purpose the name of Seymour
Mrs. Sampson was her former name
sne was widow and hospital nurse
ana though over forty was said to bt
an attractive woman and with a very
sweet disposition. But the tmportan
thing for CrOssman was that she haC
some money saved up. No. 4 hat
brought him only 800 and he wa!
running snort OF cash.
A Dreadful Surprise,
"Oh, what surprise" No. 3 hat
written gleefully, as the inevitabl,
postscript to letter she had sent he
sister telling her Of her intended mar
r1age. Of the grim nature of the sur
prise that awaited her she could hav
mad not the fatntest suspicion. TIL
morning after she had entered th
house as bride she was dead-foull-
murdered. AS to just how she me
her death only post mortem evidence
obtained more than a year after tn
deed had been committed was availa
Die. That indicated she had first bee1
chOked into insensibility, her throa
cur and then her skull smashed il
with. some heavy instrument.
In the house was a tin trunk tha
mad belonged to Crossmans first wife
Into this he forced the body of his vic
tim, locked 1T up in a large cupboar,
under the stairs, and that same even
Ing early went off to bring wife Nc
home again, telling her that his bust
ness In Manchester had taken up mucl
less OF his time than he had expected
No trace of nervousness was apparen
In his manner, there was nothing t
betray to his wife the working of
guilty conscience or the dread fear q
the hangman's moose. And in the hous
Itself there was nothing to reveal tn
horrible tragedy that had been enacte
there during her brief absence.
But something had to be done wit
that chastity horror in the tin box un
der the stairs or it would inevitabl
proclaim its presence. CrOssman toll
his wife that step was needed wher
the back door opened on the garder
and to save money he proposed maxim
1t himself. Several bushels of cemen
he purchased for this purpose, buvin
IL at different places, and she accom-
panied him on some of these trips an
helped him bring the stuff home. Thu
ne made her an unconscious accom-
'pllce In aiding him to conceal the evi
dence OF his atrocious murder Wbe
ne had made liquid mixture of tn
cement, in the garden, he told his wifi
TO go for a walk with the boy-Cross
mans son by his first wife, who live
with them. When they returned tn
cement had disappeared. He told he
that he had poured it into the tin trim
that it might be nodded into the nron
er shape for the STEP
Makes Fatal Error.
And he had poured it into the box unit
1t was filed, completely covering tb
CHASTITY object that it contained. an
hiding it from the sight of anybod
who might remove the lid But on
precaution he had neglected. He ha
not first covered the bottom of tn
trunk with cement. If he had done tht
the body would have been 'hemeticall
Sealed IN the cement, and Crossman