Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-10-18
THE CHAIN OF CIRCUMSTANCE
Uneonsidered Trifies That Have

| iHE CnAIN Of SIhCOmS AWE
uneonsidered Trifles That Have
Brought Men to the GaIIows.
The recent death of Sir Alfred Wills,
for many years a high court judge,
recalls his association with one OF
the best known, and quite the most
enthralling, of legal books: "Wells
on Circumstantial Evidence"
| One of the dead judges last acts
was to bring out a new edition of the
classic work, while the daylight still
remains" as he pathetically said in
the preface.
! Since the previous edition, many
notable cases have occurred to en-
rich the romance Of FORUM" among
which may be mentioned the New
castle murder, the Slough murder,
Crippen's case and some more recent,
though the case Of Oscar Slater-re-
Gently rediscussed-has escaped the
attention Of the late judge.
The veriest trife sufficed to put
the moose around the neck Of Broome,
the Slough murderer. On being ar
rested on suspicion he sought to dis
count 1t by telling the police that
they would find EGO in gold in his
room, which he solemnly declared he
had brought away from his fathers
house.
The money was found, but the
trouble was to connect 1t with Mrs.
Wilson, murdered sometime before
at Slough. However, smart officer
had noted just an ordinary piece Of
brown paper In the victims sitting
room. This he carefully preserved,
and, on closely examining 1t, 1t was
discovered that at had marks ex-
actly such as would have been made
by 1s sovereigns made up into a
rouleau, in which they lay not at
right angles to the paper, but some
what sloping. No other coins would
occupy the same space"
There were the marks Of two small
er milled-edge coins-sixpences or
alf-sovereigns-and minute yellow
specks such as 1t was found by ex-
pertinent gold coin would leave after
friction with brown paper. The sum
found in the prisoners possession
being 10 sovereigns and two halves,
pleted against him through the agen-
cy Of a small piece Of brown paper.
A view Of a northern castle in a
third-class compartment enabled an
artist witness to identify the carriage
in which Dickman, the Newcastle
train murderer, and Nisbet his VIC
tim embarked on their fatal journey.
The accident that Dickman fumbled
in his left trouser pocket to find his
excess fare at Morpeth enabled the
prosecution to connect the man so
observed fumbling by the ticket in
spector with the owner of a certain
pair of "inexpressibles'' stained with
blood on the lining Of the left pocket.
1t is still fresh in the public mind
how the most convincing evidence
against Crippen was supplied by those
fatal pajamas, the jacket Of which
was found with the remains of poor
Belle Elmore, and was proved to be-
long to a suit Of which the trousers
were among Crippen's effects, sold by
a Holloway firm on January s. 1909,
thus fixing the date Of the interment
as long subsequent to arrival as ten
ant Of the house, and negativing the
suggestion that some previous occu-
pier might have done a deed Of dark
ness and concealed the traces In the
cellar at Hilltop Crescent.
An insignificant laundry mark,
"5s9," showed the corpse found on
Yarmouth beach in 1900 to be that
Of a young woman who had resided
at Bexley Health, and a cheap beach
photograph served to identify neck
lace found in Benefits possession
with one worn by the deceased wife,
whom he had throttled with a boot
lace.
A dentists recognition Of false
teeth and filings in the almost cal
cined skull, which had once held the
fine brain Of DR.. Parkman, led to the
conviction of his colleague, Prof.
Webster, whose great knowledge Of
chemistry had enabled him otherwise
totally to destroy his victim. A dentist
also helped to hang the Mannings in
like manner.
Reading in these pages by the late
judge how sometimes after half a
lifetime in one case, James Andrew
Horne's, nigh 40 years-guilt has at
last been overtaken by justice through
some small circumstances, we realize
some truth in the familiar words:
Though the mills Of God grind slow
ly, yet they grind exceedingly small"