The Northern Guardian. — 1892-03-18 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

WILLIAMS IN WEST HARTLEPOOL.  AN EXTRAORDINARY CAREER.  (SPECIAL]  In connection with the terrible series of murders which have just come to light at Rainhill, we may mention that the man Williams was well known in West Hartlepool a couple of years ago. Indeed, the good people of the town may be congratulated upon having escaped so easily from the presence of one who was not only a rogue but a criminal of the worst character. Williams' advent into the borough was accomplished under somewhat peculiar circumstances, which tend to show that those who are travelling should be decidedly careful as to the acquaintances they may make while en voyage. A well-known local merchant, while travelling on the mail steamer from Hamburg to Hull, fell in with a charming gentleman, who called himself Lawson, and who professed to take  A GREAT FANCY to his travellinr companion. Lawson, who was no other than Williams, represented himself to be a millionaire wool merchant from Australia, flourished about cheque books containing conterfoils which professed payments amounting to many thousands of pounds, sported diamond rings and other loud jewellery, and altogether made himself out to be a very great personage indeed. He also stated that he was building a yacht that was to cost a very large sum of money. When he arrived at Hull  HE STAYED AT BEVERLEY, which is quite close to that seaport, where, as stated previously, he married a young lady named Mathison, whom he deserted a very short time after the wedding festivities. The way in which Lawson managed to ingratiate himself into the good favour of the inhabitants of West Hartlepool must ever remain as an abiding monument to human credulity. Yet, those who knew him whilst here declare that he was a man of most charming manner and address, tall, good looking, and generous in his actions. He was taken up and petted by a great many of those described as the "best people" in the town, was invited to their houses, and made much of altogether. Upon his marriage at Beverley, indeed, a \Vest Hartlepool gentleman acted as HIS BEST MAN, and both he and others made presents of jewellery, &c., to the happy pair. The curious point about his goings on while in the town is that, although he exhibited much generosity, he was never particularly ostentatious except in the matter of jewellery, and although he was not taken to be a gentleman of University education, he passed very well as a fairly, bred man, of decent origin. Some of his schemes were quite of a large character. One gentleman with whom he became intimate was to be his agent at Plymouth, with a large salary; while to others he made promises whose  COLOSSAL AUDACITY was only equalled by their utter lack of any foundation. The fact of his having made the offer with regard to an agency at Plymouth is rather curious, inasmuch as it may turn out to have some bearing upon the statement that a box was addressed to him at that port, which was never claimed. One gentleman, a resident in West Hartlepool we believe we are correct in saying, slept with the murderer for three nights. We should be inclined to think that the gentleman in question is now congratulating himself upon a very narrow escape. During his stay in the town Lawson, or Williams, was wont to give choice little dinners, to which many of his newly-found friends were invited, and at which THE CHAMPAGNE FLOWED as carelessly as the host's never-ending string of assertions about his doings in various parts of the world, many of which were, doubtless, as much fabrication as were his yarns concerning his wealth. Then came the expost, at Hull, when various little matters in the shape of obtaining jewellery by fraudulent pretences caused his retirement to the seclusion of one ot Her Majesty's prisons for some months. After his release his West Hartlepool friends lost sight of him, but their memories have been most rudely and unceremoniously jagged upon discovering that Lawson, the millionaire wool merchant, is no other than Williams, the couamitter of an unknown number of vile murders.