The Dewsbury Chronicle, and West Riding Advertiser. — 1875-12-04 (Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England)

THE TRIAL OF THE WAINWRIGHTS.  was the victim of ford play. With regard to Henry Wainwright, this difficulty stared him in the face from the beginning to the end. There was a woman buried at 215, Whitechapel-road, and on the 11th of September, 1875, he was found dealing with the remains. If the theory of suicide was correct, then it was incumbent on the prisoner Henry to afford an explanation, and no explanation had been brought toward. If it was not suicide, then there must have been foul play. There could be no doubt that it was the prisoner Henry who had mutilated the remains, notwithstanding the evidence brought forward. There could be no doubt that in the middle of 1874 Henry Wainwright was in embarrassed circumstances, and had great difficulty in supplying Mrs. King with money. The attempt to pledge the revolver, and the fact of Mrs. King having pledged her rings, proved this. As to the Frieake theory advanced by the defence, it was quite evident that in August or September a person met Mrs. King, who supposed him to be Mr. Frieake, the auctioneer, of Coleman-street. The letter written to that person by Mrs. King was not indicative of any undue familiarity existing between the two. One suggestion was that Mrs. King had allowed her affections to be estranged from Wainwright, and transferred to a man who was passing under the name of Frieake. He thought there was ample evidence to destroy this theory. Harriet Lane was shown to be affectionately attached to her children, and if she were really living, and had eloped with Frieake, or anybody else, the yearning to hear of her children would have afforded some trace of her long before this. Then, again, if Thomas Wainwright was not the Frieake known by Mrs. King, the jury were placed in this dilemma that there were three Frieakes to account for. The learned gentleman then entered minutely into the evidence in regard to the Frieake incident, and deduced the conclusion that the two brothers were acting in concert, and that Henry must have had some ulterior motive in palming off his brother as Edward Frieake. It was not credible that such a woman as Harriet Lane would have gone away with a man who was a comparative stranger. Harriet Lane, it had been proved, was very fond of her children. Conclusive proof was furnished by the witness Humphreys that the man personating Frieake was Thomas Wainwright. The date of the purchase of chloride of lime had been definitely fixed. The date of the firing of the pistol shots was not definitely fixed, but if the remains were Harriet Lane's there could be no doubt that she had met her death on the 11th of September by means of these pistol shots. The Charing-orose letter was false .from beginning to end, and it was dictated to Thomas by a man who knew that at that time Harriet Lane was lying foully murdered at 215, Whitechapel-road. That letter, part of a cunningly devised scheme, was followed up by the Dover telegrams. Miss Wilmore had been led to believe that Harriet Lane would return, and it was therefore but natural that, seeing some one in a cab like Harriet, she should jump at the conclusion that it was the person, but it had not been proved that it was Harriet Lane. It had been urged that the conduct of Henry Wainwright was not that of a guilty man, but Stokes and Alice Day might have been resorted to for the purpose of averting suspicion. Was it not the conduct of a guilty man to attempt to bribe the police to accept £2OO, as Henry Wainwright did on the day of his arrest? After ample time for deliberation, how lame was the explanation given by him in regard to the manner in which he came into possession of the bundles containing the remains! The learned counsel then went into the medical evidence, and maintained that it conclusively showed that the remains were those of Harriet Lane. If Harriet Lane were alive she must have heard of the charge against Henry, and yet she refrained from corning forward, although she knew that one word from her would clear the reputation of one whom at one time she must have loved. If Harriet had really gone away with a wealthier man people would have commiserated the prisoner if he told the truth. But instead of doing this he devoted his whole energies to a scheme whereby all suspicion was to be lulled—a scheme based throughout upon falsehoods and deceit, but designed admirably, with the greatest cunning and astuteness. Harriet had been missing since the day on which, in all human probability, those remains were interred. There was overwhelming evidence that she had been deprived of life by violence, that the person who fired the shots was Henry Wainwright, and that the younger prisoner was an accessory before and after the fact.