Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1890-03-01 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE FINSBURY-PARK MURDER. ARREST OF BARRETT IN. NEW YORE. - DESEEHATI SUICIDE. .  Richard Barrett, who stands accused of the murder of a man named Edwin Thomas Williams at Finsburypark in January last year, was on Feb. 22nd arrested in New York by the local police at the instance of the Scotland-yard authorities. The prisoner stabbed himself in the throat. The man Richard Barrett, alias Collins, according to • subsequent despatch, died from the effects of his sell-inflicted injuries. Though at first supposed to have stabbed himself with a nail, an examination of the body shows that the instrument used was • brace buckle, and the prisoner appear. to have afterwards torn open the wound with hie fingers. The following particulars are furnished by a News Agency: -From information received in London by ' the police, it is believed that the man Barrett, wanted for the murder of Edwin Thomas Williams at Fins. bury-park, on the morning of Jan, 19, 1889, has been arrested by the New York police, but up to the present the American authorities have communicated nothing definite or details of the arrest to the metropolitan police. It has been feared that Barrett had fled the country some six months since, and in consequence the London police forwarded to America, amongst other places, woodcut photographs of Barrett, and a most complete and corrected description of the murderer. The circumstances of the murder for which he is wanted are of a brutal and mysterious character. It will perhaps he remembered that at 20 minutes past twelve on the night of Friday, Jan. 18, 1889, Police-constable John Stevens, 375 Y, was on duty in Clifton-terrace, Finsbury-park, when he saw Williams standing outside the Railway Hotel, with only his shirt and trousers on. He was holding his sides, and complained to the constable that he bad been shot at 3, Clifton-terrace. The constable returned to the house, and on reaching the top landing, where a man named Charles Turner, aged 37, was standing, Williams said, "The man who actually shot me has gone, but (pointing) Turner also threatened to shoot me." Williams WM positive that Turner bad a revolver in his hand, whereupon Turner was arrested. Turner replied, "I did not shoot, nor have I got • , revolver." Williams wiss taken to the Great Northern Hospital, where his depositions were taken by Mr. Bros, police magistrate. The statement of Williams was that on the Friday night the prisoner (Turner) and his wife were on the stairs creating a disturbance. They had just pulled an old woman, one of the lodgers, out of bed. Williams, who wu going to bed, opened his room door, and asked what was the matter, whereupon Turner called up another man (whom the dependent did not know), who bad a revolver in his hand, and said " Charley," or " Styles,'' shoot him. He was then shot. Williams positively swore that Turner also had a revolver in his hand, and that Turner had threatened to shoot him • few weeks before. Williams was 21 years of age, and a betting man. The bullet entered his abdomen and came out at the right thigh. Williams died on the following Sunday evening. Detective-Inspector W. Miller, of the Y division, at once inatituted a rigorous search for the missing man who was accused of the crime, and who Elifsbeth Charlotte Barnett, • paramour of Williams, and another woman, said fired the fatal shot at Williams. They speedily established identity, and • woodcut photo. graph, together with • detailed description, and the offer eta reward of £lOO, were published. A marked peculiarity in the man's features, and which it was thought would speedily result in his detection, was his very weak eyes. Time brought no result to the efforts of the detectives, who believe now that the man wanted remained in the locality for some months after the murder. Notwithstanding, no stone was left unturned to find the suspect, and in the course of these investigations it was discovered that Barrett was s dangerous criminal, who made no scruple of extremes when driven into a corner, and that he had, furthermore, a record in the police annals at Scotland-yard, his photograph being in their museum. As a burglar he is stated to have been an expert. In 1887 he was convicted of burglary at Chelmsford, and in November of the following year he was in custody at Hoston for stabbing. He is, furthermore, alleged to have been concerned inn notorious burglary and murder in the North of England, on which occasion three out of the four men concerned in the murder of a police-officer were hanged, the fourth never being captured to stand his trial. This aus• picion is stated to have been confirmed just recently by certain men who have been sent to penal servitude for s transaction in North I.ondon which nearly resolved itself into a case of murder.