The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-01-31
DREAMS THAT CAME TRUE
Come Strange Stories in The Annals .
~ rrI,1h

Come Strange Stories In the Annals OF
OF Crime.
Some of the strangest stories in the
annals of crime are those which tell or
the part dreams have played in the dis
covery Of criminals. One spring day in
1880 a farm laborer. when passing q
lonely mountain lake in Sutherland
shire, saw in the waters a dead body,
which, when rescued, proved to be
that Of a well-known peddler who bad
mysteriously vanished about a month
earlier. The body bore marks Of vic.
lence, the pockets were empty. and 1t
was clear that the poor fellow had been
brutally murdered and robbed-but by
whom? That was a mystery which
for many a week completely de6ed elu-
cidation.
One night, however, Kenneth Fraser,
a tailor's assistant, saw in a dream
The cottage Of a man named Hugh Mac
leod, and heard a voice say in Gaelic,
"the peddIer's pack is lying in q cairn
Of stones in a hole near this house"
He told the story Of his singular dream
to the. authorities, who accompanied
him to Macleod's house; and there,
sure enough, beneath a heap Of stones.
the murdered mans property was
found. Macleod was arrested, con-
fessed, and was executed.
Another very remarkable story is
told of a tragedy in Ireland. One
evening two strangers presented them
selves at a wayside inn near Portland.
and after taking refreshment continued
their tramp in the direction Of Carrick.
on-Suir. The incident was common.
place enough, but it led to startling de-
velopments, for in the wayfarers the
landlady of the inn recognized two
men of whom she had dreamed a very
strange dream the night before. In her
dream she had seen one Of them kill
the other with a towards blow from
behind, rife the pockets of the dead
man, and stealthily bury him beneath
a hedge. So impressed was her hus.
band when this dream was told fhim
that he made his way to the spot in.
Dictated and there discovered the body
of the buried man. The assassin was
pursued and arrested. and at the en-
suing asslzes was sentenced to death.
There has seldom been q more mys-
FERROUS crime than the murder Of Mr..
Stockton, a London Mctualler. a great
many years ago; and the mystery
would have remained unsolved to this
day had it not been for the interVen-
ton of Mrs. Greenwood, who came for:
ward with the statement that the muir.
dered man had appeared to her in a
dream and conducted her to a house
in Thames street, where one of his as.
,sassins was to be found; while in an.
other dream Stockton appeared and
showed her the likeness Of the man.
On the strength Of this dream clew the
indicated man was arrested, and not
only confessed his guilt, but betrayed
his accomplices-three criminals being
brought to the scaffold as the result of
these visions Of the night.
Some years ago a Mrs. Rutherford
dreamed that her aged relative, Lady
Leslie, was about to be murdered by
a man whom she clearly saw. She i'm.
medlately set out on a visit to Lady
Leslie and asked permission to sleep
in the lady's room. In the middle Of
the night Mrs. Rutherford heard some
one trying to open the bedroom door.
She raised an alarm and flung open
the door, when Lady Leslie's two sons
rushed out and in a moment had seized
the man Of her dream.
The following story is, perhaps, tho
strangest Of all. One night the Rev.
Herbert Powys. a Church Of England
clergyman, dreamed that the daughter
of one Of his %parlshioners had gone out
into the darkness to meet her lover,
who, at the time, vas waiting for her
in a secluded spot and spending the
time in digging a grave for her. Jump.
ing out Of bed, Mr.. Powys rushed to
the place indicated in his dream and
arrived there just as the man had
hurled the girl to the ground by tho
side Of the open grave and was about
to kill her with his spade.-Tit-Bits.