The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-11
From Answers.

v
 hinge very largely on the question ! of Identification of the remalns' for according to English law, the pooy ,,ust be found and identified before any one can be convicted of murder.
 There are some rare exceptions 10 this r,,,o os when A man is seen by witnesses to throw a person overheard rom si'p' inc body never being found; or lnto TUT mace. where all marks of Identity may pc destroyed. But, generally, some remains must be found and identified.
 ,,onv curious cases have occurred where trifing marks of identity haNe sen guilty man to the scaroid or saNeo "' innocent one from it. --...... ried two parcels wrapped in American bcloth, was arrested in the Borough, Lon don. One parcel was found to contain the trunk and the other held the remaining parts of a human body.
 | The doctors set to work and found that the victim was a woman of about 20 years, measuring feet Ills inches, or slender build, with small hands and feet, and with light-colored hair. .She might be any one of a million people. | But tooth was missing from the right upper jaw, and scar from burn was found on the leg below the knee
 This was the famous Wainwright case. l Relatives of Harriet Lane came for- ward A year previously she had been seen going into Wainwright's premises and never seen again. They said her age was "A, her height feet A inch, and that she was generally as the doctors descrip- | ed The features were quite unrecog- nizable: but they testified to the missing tooth, andfthe scar on the leg, caused by | poker. It was these two trihes when proved the identity and convicted the prisoner.
 l Some years ago, near the village of Ringstead, in Northamptonshire, a la borer. digging in lane, found the skele- ton of a woman. The doctors said she must have been of middle age, was buried between 12 and 20 years before the dis covery, and had lost the first grinder tooth of the left lower jaw.
 Then 1t was recalled that IA years pre- viously the wife of a man living in the neighborhood had suddenly disappeared. Some witnesses swore that on the even | ing of the disappearance the husband and wife went quarreling into their orchard, and she was heard to say: 'I believe you mean killing me tonight" Every one thought him guilty at the time, but there was no legal evidence. 1 The wife was of middle age, about the same height as the skeleton, and had l disappeared about the time the doctors said the body was buried. Then den- | rI 70 U | swore that he had drawn just such g. tooth--a tooth rarely drawn-from the missing woman two weeks before she disappeared.
 This seemed conclusive evidence. But a certain fact led the court to order ail- ether digging of the ground. and IS inches deeper they came upon another l skeleton
 Both bodies had been buried without clothing, the feet were placed in pecu- liar manner. close together, and the sec ond body was found exactly under the | first, and lying in the same direction. This could not be coincidence. The con- clusion was that the place was gypsy grave, and the man was saved by the | skin of his teeth.
 A very close shave was that of man who lived on rather bad terms with his brother. One winters night the younger man disappeared and was never seen again. He had, said the brother, let himself down from the window by a rope. and next day his footsteps were ] traced for considerable distance in the snow Later on the elder brother left the farm and when the new tenant came to make some alterations in the grounds a skeleton was dug up
 Everybody said 1t was murder. An in- quest was held and, owing to some care lessness, the skeleton was taken for that of the missing man. But keen-eyed doctor who happened to be present asked permission to examine 1t. And, instead of being the remains of a tall young man, he found it to be the skeleton of an old and very small woman. On fur ther investigation it was shown that the remains came from an old gravel pit used by the gypsies as a burying place. I In London some years ago woman was found dead in the mornins Her