Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1905-06-01
THE SOLVING
OF A MURDER.
By GRANT JONES.


Railway company did so upon tn
occasion Of the trial of Percy lie
troy Mapleton, at Maidstone, Oh
November 4, 1881, lin conse
quence of the vast public interest,"
in the case" / Travelled down III
one of these trains, with Mon
tagu Williams and other barrls
tiers engaged in the trial. The
train was besieged by a crowd OF
the general public. AS a celebrate
ed and cynical legal gentleman
remarked, eve might have been
going to a race meeting"
| doubt whether, among all the
sssassins | have seen in the dock,
| have met one who was more dan
gerous than LefrOy-as he chose
10 call himself. He was a tall,
weedy looking young fellow OF
about 25, thin, with sunken
cheeks. dark, short hair, and a pc
uliarly pallid complexion. He
was neatly dressed in a dark suit,
with turn down collar, and lit.
lie knotted dark blue tie. His
bearing was of the exaggerated
theatrical type.
AS he appeared in the dock,
md walked forward to it's front,
every gesture seemed artificial,
and his eyes glanced round as if
he were surveying his audience,
expecting their appreciation.
He was charged with the muir
der of Isaac Frederick Gold on
Monday, June q, in Brighton
express on the London, Brighton
& South Coast railway, between
Three Bridges and BalcOmbe.
The case was one which presented
many extraordinary features.
MOntagu Williams had been espe-
cially retained to defend the
prisoner. The attorney general
himself went down to Maidstone
to lead the prosecution. Lord
Chief Justice Coleridge, it is said,
in arranging the circuits of the
Judges, took some care that he
should himself preside at the lie.
troy trial. The court was crowded
to suffOcatiOn.
For some weeks indeed the
whole nation had been excited
over the miscreant, now safely
Gagged in that dock in the Eaid-
stone criminal court. AS people
unfOlded their newspapers on the
morning of June % their eyes had
fallen upon the startling words in
the heaviest type calling their at
tentiOn to one Of the most cruel
and dastardly crimes ever perpe-
trated. And the perpetratOr had
disappeared.
Isaac Gold was an aged Lon
don gentleman, who had retired
from business, and who had gone
to live in the suburbs of Brighton.
On the morning of June % he left
home and came to London to col
lect some money owing to tim,
and he caught the two o'clock ex,
press to Brighton from London
bridge on his return journey. He
was we'll known to the station Off,
cials, and was seen by them com
fOrtably seated in a first-class
smoking carriage reading a news.
paper as the train started out of
the station. He was doomed never
to reach the end of that journey
alive.
AS he sat snugly enscOnced in
his corner, lazily glancing at his
paper, and nearly asleep, over
come by the intense heat of the
day, a tall, thin young man in a
dark frOck coat, with dark hair
and small side whiskers, and with
a low felt hat worn rather on the
back of the head, walked slowly
up and down the platform, Ian
guidly looking into the carriages,
as if in search of a comfortable
seat. At last he opened the door
of the carriage in which Mr., Gold
sat, and entering took his place
in il.
At 81 minutes past two o'clock
the express car was swinging
through Croydon. A few minutes
later, with a shrill shrek of its
whistle, it plunged into the mile
long Merstham tunnel. AS the
engine uttered that shrek a pas
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