The Commonwealth. — 1867-04-20 (London, England)

MURDER OF A WOMAN AT COL CHESTER.  On Friday morning, at one o'clock, Mr. J. A. Church, borough coroner, concluded an inquiry at Colchester, which had occupied no less than four sittings upon the body of a woman found in the river Colne, in the eastern part of the town. The body had apparently been in the water five or six weeks, and, although little notice had been taken of the circumstance in the interval, its discovery recalled to the recollection of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood that on the evening of Saturday, February 23, screams and cries of distress, apparently front a female, were hear a in the direction of a garden adjoining the river. The cries were such as to suggest that some foul deed was being perpetrated, but no immediate assistance was attempted. One man, to whom a couple of women appealed, refused to go lest his own life should be endangered, and it was nearly half an hour before the occupier of the garden, with seine of his neighbours, went with lanterns to the bank of the river. They could find nothing; and, indeed, it afterwards turned out that they did not get so far as the spot from which, in the opinion of persons who heard them, the cries proceeded. The evidence taken at the inquiry was very voluminous; but the facts raising a presumption of violence towards the woman, and casting grave suspicion upon the man who was last seen in her company, lay in a comparatively small compass. The deceased, whose name was Mary Ann Pettitt, 26 years of age, was the wife of a railway labourer, who had left her in the Colchester union workhouse while he went in search of employmeat; and having met with work at Kirby, in Tendring Hundred, about 15 miles from Colchester, be had written to her to nu et him at the Tendring Hundred railway station on Saturday afternoon, February 23rd. The woman got leave of absence on that afternoon, and went to the station; but as her husband did not arrive till the evening train, she did not meet him as she expected. The woman had left her child in the workhouse, and was expected back at the expiration of her leave of absence, but she never returned. From between four and five o'clock (a short time after her leaving the railway station) until about half-past seven in the evening, the deceased was shown to have been in the company of a man named Henry Page Draper, commonly known as Draper Page, a se mewhat notorious character, especially in the eastern part of the town, where he used to reside previously to separating from his wife, since which time he has had no settled dwelling. Draper and the deceased seem to have met by accident at a public-house near the High-street, where they drank together, and in the course of conversation deceased mentioned that she had just come out of the union. house, and Draper told her he had a good home, and asked her to be his housekeeper, to which she amented, and they left together. They went away together, and after taking more drink at another public-house, were seen in each other's company near the place where the cries were heard. Later in the evening he returned to one of the public-houses alone. The accused attended every sitting, accompanied by his solicitor (Mr. Henry Goody). Mr. Goody said he had advised his client not to say anything, knowing that he had been suffering under great excitement from domestic matters, and that he was subject to occasional aberration of intellect, but he preferred to act upon his own responsibility. Draper was then sworn, and admitted that he was in company with the woman during the afternoon and evening up to seven o'clock or thereabouts; that after they left the Rifleman he made a proposal to her which she would not allow, and he then left her. He wished to state on his oath that he never had any improper intercourse with her at all; and that he was never connected with her in the shape of destroying her life. The jury delivered a verdict, "Wilful murder against Henry Page Draper." The accused, on hearing the verdict, vehemently protested his innocence. He was immediately taken into custody, and the coroner committed him for trial at the July Assize at Chelmsford.