The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-27

Note Paper That Led to Discovery of Murderer-BurgIar's Fatal Over
 sight
 "And this, gentlemen, is what you are asked to hang man on!" said Ser geant Ballantine addressing a jury at the Central criminal court. He held up in his fingers a little piece of paper, only a few inches big. You are asked to return a verdict which will send that man standing there before you to the gallows, on the strength of scrap of paper!"
 i The scrap of paper was enough, says London Answers. Ballantine's client was condemned. I have known num- berless cases in which scrap of paper has sufficed to place the halter round the criminals neck.
 In a case at Leeds some years back a prisoner named Mountford was charged with peculiarly diabolical of fense. Having conceived a. murderous hatred of a man who hs imagined had done him an injury, Mountford set to work to plot his death. A few weeks later a parcel was delivered at the in- tended victims house. The parcel, which looked innocent enough, was a tin case holding several pounds of gum powder so packed as to expode when opened. Between two pieces of paper was some detonating powder, connect ed with tngeniously arranged matches at the top and bottom of the box.
 The attempt failed, the internal ma chine did not claim it's victim, and the police were called in to discover the would-be assassin. Underneath the brown paper in which the box was wrapped the detectives found soap of nswspaper-a portion of the Leeds In- telligencer of July 5. Other circum- stances led them to suspect Mountford, and on their visiting his house and searching it they found a Leeds Intelli- 1 gencsr of that date with piece miss ing. The scrap in the internal machine fitted it exactly. Mountford was found guilty. .Hr
 l Newspaper used as wad in fire arms has over and over again sufficed to convict a murderer. A youth named John Toms was charged at Lancaster Assizes with the murder of man named Clushaw. Culshaw had been killed by a pistol shot, and the weapon had evidently besn discharged from l close quarters. The evidence against Toms was meager and unsatisfactory until there was produced in court a terribly bloodstained piece of paper. It was handed to the jury and examined by them, and on it were still plainly discernable the words of north coun- try comic song.
 The piece of paper had been recov- tered from the fatal wound in the dead mans head and had been the wad fol l the assassin's pistol. A song-bo was found dn Tom's pocket and part of one page of it was missing The piece found in the dead mans wound cores. tponded with the lost part exactly Toms was, of course, found guilty and hanged.
 Franz Muller, the murderer of MT Bridges in a railway carriage on the North London line, made off with his victims top hat. When caught severa months later, a top hat, declared to bt MT. Briggs, was found in his posses. sion. Its shape, however had beer considerably altered, and Muller de clared that the hat had been bought b, himself. Was it MT. Briggs hat?
 Eff it is Mir. Briggs hat" said tht
 natter who supplied him, you ma. find a scrap of tissue paper in the lin ling. MT. Briggs hat was too large for tllim, so put paper in to make 1t fit." ; When the lining was turned down, {
 scrap of the paper, which had adhered to the leather, was discovered. Mule
 had bigger head than MT. Briggs, ant had, therefore, resolved to take the pa Eper out. He left that little bit, howev Ier-suff1cient to establish the identity o, the hat beyond all question as that MT
 Briggs was wearing when he was mur
 dered.
 Never was a murder more deliberate fly planned to baffle suspicion than tha
 of Percy Malcolm by Dr. Lamson
 Lanlson, it will be remembered, paid {
 visit to Malcolm at his school at Vim
 bledon and murdered him with aconi
 tin, put in the place of sugar in asolu
 ble capsule. As soon as Malcolm hat swallowed the capsule Lamson set of
 by that nights mail to Paris, whence
 he returned to give himself up when h.
 heard that he was suspected of tn
 crime. gs
 Lamson imagined that his return 0
 his own free will from abroad would
 prepossess people immensely in his ia
 vor. The whole affair was cleverlJ
 planned, but the murderer was in on
 respect strangely forgetful When hi l clothes were taken from him an,
 searched, the police found in one 0 his pockets Q piece of soiled and crum 2 pied paper, on which were some note
 made in Lamson's handwriting. The,
 were notes on the effects and symptom :, of vegetable irritant poisons. Amonl - them was aconitin. Lamson had for Y gotten that fatal note.
 In Scotch case, in which a younl lady was charged with the murder o her father by poisoning him at the in stigation of her lover, 8 scrap of pape played a most important part. The ol' ' gentleman had most emphatically re = fused his consent to his daughter mar 5 rying her lover and had threatened t disinherit her if she did so. His wealtl
 was considerable, and the young fellow after some time, succeeded ill persuad !, ing the infatuated girl to administe