Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-05-19
Miseellansous Reading.
SCRAPS OF PAPER AS EVIDENCE
Sufficient Often to Put Rope Round a
Criminals Neck.

And this, gentlemen, Is what you
are asked to hang man on!" said Ser
geant Ballentine. addressing jury OF
the Central Criminal court. He held UP
in his fingers a little piece Of paper,
only few inches big. You are asked
to return a verdict that will send that
man standing there before you to the
ga!lows, on the strength Of scrap Of
paper!"
| The scrap Of paper was enough, says
London Answers. Ballantine's client
was condemned. have known num-
berless cases In which a scrap of pa
per has sufficed to place the halter
around the criminals neck.
In a case tried at Leeds some years
back a prisoner named Mountford was
charged with a peculiarly diabolical
offense. Having conceived a murder
GUS hatred of q man who he imagined
had done him an injury. Mountford
set to work to plot his death. A few
weeks later a parcel was delivered at
the intended victims house. The par
eel, which looked innocent enough, was
a tin case holding several pounds Of
gunpowder so packed as to explode
when opened. Between two pieces Of
paper was some detonating- powder,
connected with ingeniously arranged
matches at the top and bottom Of the
box.
The attempt failed, the Internal ma
chine did not claim its victim, and the
police were called in to discover the
would be assassin. Underneath the
brown paper in which the box was
wrapped the detective found a scrap
Of newspapers portion Of the Leeds
Intelligencer Of July 5. Other circum-
stances led them to suspect Mount
ford. and on their visiting his house
and searching 1t they found Leeds
Intelligencer Of that date with a piece
missing. The scrap in the Internal
machine fitted 1t exactly. He was
found guilty.
Newspaper used as a wad In firearms
1 has over and over again sufficed to
convict a murderer. A youth named
John Toms was charged at Lancas-
ter Assizes with the murder Of man
named Culshaw. Culshaw had been
killed by a pistol shot, and the weapon
had evidently been discharged from
close quarters. The evidence against
Toms was meagre and unsatisfactory
until there was produced in court a
terribly bloodstained piece Of paper.
1t was handed to the jury and exam
ined by them, and on 1t were still
plainly discernible the words Of
north country comic song.
The piece Of paper had been recov-
cred from the fatal wound in the dead
mans head and had been the wad for
the assassin's pistol. A songbook was
found in Toms pocket and part Of one
page of 1t was missing. The piece
found in the dead mans wound corre-
sponded with the lost part exactly.
Tom was, of course. found guilty, and
hanged.
Franz Muller, the murderer Of Mr..
Briggs in a railway carriage on a
North London line, made off with his
victims top hat. When caught seve-
raj months later, a top hat. declared
to be Mr.. Briggs's, was found In his
possession. Its shape, however, had
been considerably altered, and Muller
declared that the hat had been bought
by himself Was it Mr.. Briggs's hat?
IF 1t Is Mr.. Briggs's hat" said the
halter who supplied him. you may
find scrap of tissue paper In the lin
Ing. Mr.. Briggss hat was too large
for him. so I put paper in to make 1t
fit."
When the lining was turned down. a
scrap Of the paper, which had adhered
to the leather. was discovered. Muller
had a bigger head than Mr.. Briggs,
and had. therefore. resolved to take
the paper out He left this little bit,
however-sufficient to establish the
identity Of the hat beyond all question
as that Mr.. Briggs was wearing when
he was murdered.
Never was a murder more deliber-
ately planned to battle suspicion than
that of Percy Malcolm by DR.. Lamson.
Lamson. It will be remembered. paid
visit to Malcolm at his school at
Wimbledon and murdered him with
aconitin. put in the place Of sugar In a
soluble capsule. AS soon as Malcolm
had swallowed the capsule Lamson set
off by that nights mail to Paris,
whence he returned to give himself
up when he heard that he was sus-
pected of the crime.
Lamson imagined that his return OF
his own free will from abroad would
prepossess people immensely i'm his
favor. The whole affair was cleverly
planned. but the murderer was in one
respect strangely forgetful. When his
clothes were taken from him ana
searched, the police found in one of
his pockets O piece Of soiled and crum-
pied paper, on which were some notes
made in Lamson's handwriting. They
were some notes on the effects and
symptoms of vegetable irritant pol
sons. Among them was aconitin.
Lamson had forgotten the fatal note.
In a Scotch case, in which young
lady was charged with the murder OF
her father by poisoning him at the in
stigation of her lover, scrap of paper
played a most important part. The
old gentleman had most emphatically
refused his consent to his daughter
marrying her lover and had threaten
ed to disinherit her If she did so. His
wealth was considerable, and the
young fellow, after some time, sue
ceeded in persuading the infatuated
girl to administer arsenic to her par
ent in slowly increasing doses. One