Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1889-02-20 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

MORE ABOUT THE RAZOR.  NEW POINTS IN THE CASE. STRANGE CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY. • .  The Swansea IKili7; Co- -er—t. was filled at an early hour on Thursday morning by an ex • pectant crowd, in anticipation of thc magistcrial inquiry into rho guilt or otherwise of Thomas Allen, who is in custody on the charge of murdering Frederick George Kent at the Glo'ster Hotel, on the morning of Sunday last. 'The magistrates on the Bench were—His Worrhip the Mayor (Aid. James Jonew),Messrs. J. C. Fowler, (stipendiary), J. G. Hall, J. C. Vye-rarruinter, A. Mason, E. F. Daniel, and J. Clarke Richardson. In the (Trend Jury gallery a number of ladies were accommodated with ••eatti. Mr W. R. Smith appeared in court for the firs' time since his illnes, and was very cordially received by the officials of the court. He was engaged by the Licensed Victuallers of Swansea to prosecute on behalf of Mrs Kent, while Captain Colquhoun watched the osee on behalf lof its police. For the prisoner Mr T. G. Walianas, of Llandilo end Swansea, appeared. The learned gentleman has becn fully instructed by the prisoner, and cross-examined the wituesaes with the idra of proving that the prisoner had no burghrious intention in being in the Gloster on Sunday night, and that the wounds on Mr Kent were inflicted in selfdefence.  Since the inquest the police have been makin diligent inquiries concerning the prisoner's antecedents,and bave secured most valuable information. In the first place, they have proved to their own satisfaction that the prisoner ie not the man who went to sea four mouths ago in the oat. Katie of London in company with a man nainid Dickenson, of Plasmarl. They have found the man Dickenson and confronted him with the prisoner, and he la 118 stated that prisoner was not the man who lodged in his house, while Mrs Shepherd was there. Mr. Shepherd therefore in recognising the prisoner as the man who had stayed in Plasmarl, and whom she in company with Mrs Dickinson hod watched to sea, was the victim of a ease of mistaken identity. This is certainly an extraordinary incident that black men are so much alike, that mistakes of this kind are easily made. the police also find that the prisoner exactly eorreeponda with the descriottion furnished them by the Newport police of the coloured man Tom Allen, who was sentenced to six months imprisonment for stealing a gold watch there in June last. There is one distinguishing mark about the prisoner and about the Newport watch stealer, which is peculiar, and that is a well defined dent, or sear, upon the left fore. head.  -The police have important evidence of the &acquaintance of the prisoner:with the Glo'ster Hotel, and will be able to show that the prisoner bad been in there before the night of the murder. With regard to the razor it appears that Mr Barnett, hairdresser, rostern Buildings, lost a razor quite recently and suspects that it was stolen from his shop. The razor found on the floor of the room, however, was not of the kind lost, and Mr Barnett states, having examined the razor used in the murder that it is not of the kind generally used. It is a moustache razor, quite a toy affair, and would be need only by men such as the prisoner who had but little hair on ,the face. There is only one place in Swansea where such razors are sold and that is the ironmongery establishment of Mr John Evans. When the minor cams had [been di.poricel of Captain Colquhnuo, speaking to Detective Morris, who was on duty in the prisoner's dock, said, "Put up Allen," and the coloured culprit was aacordingly ushered into the dock where he was accommodated with a seat. The prisons when arrested, called himself a Zulu, and said he was from Liandula. The way he pronounced this word plainly showed that he lied, for a Zulu would have called the place Isandwlhana, the name it bears among the natives. Allen is in abort, a West Indian Digger, hut a good looking and more than ordinarily plucky specimen of the race. The prisoner followed Mr Smith's able opening speech with clam inserest, and certain portions of the address created no little sensation ' amongst the audience.