Justifiable homicide

FRIGHTFUL ENCOUNTER IN NORTHUMBERLAND STREET. - A very extraordinary and mysterious deed of violence, designated by the newspapers by the terms “affray,” “encounter," or “attempted murder,” occurred in Northumberland Street,Strand. On the east side of this street, near the river, is an old-fashioned, dingy-looking house (No. 16), with narrow windows, which, being unsuited to the modern taste for dwelling-houses, has been converted into “chambers," which are let in various divisions as “offices,” and are entitled “Northumberland Chambers."

On Friday, the 12th inst, about 11.45 A.M., some workmen, at the back of this and the next house, heard two pistol-shots, apparently fired on the first-floor of No. 16. This excited no surprise, as the same sounds had been frequently heard before. But, about five minutes afterwards, one of the windows was thrown open, and a man, apparently in the greatest excitement, and whose face was covered with blood, appeared at the window, and put one leg out, as though about to jump down - he appeared to have some kind of weapon in his hand.

The witnesses called out, “For God's sake, what’s the matter?” The man answered to the effect “that murder had been done." The witnesses called to him to stop where he was, and they would come up to him; and they then entered the house by the back-door, and ran up stairs. They were unable to enter the rooms on the first floor, the doors being locked, and they, therefore, ran down into the street for assistance.

In the meanwhile, the wounded man had, by some means, succeeded in reaching the back-yard. To have thrown himself directly down would probably have resulted in fractured limbs, or, perhaps, death - for besides the depth of the ground-floor, there was also a back area - but it would appear that, animated by a frantic energy, he had passed sideways along a very slight ledge until he reached the wooden casing of a water-pipe, by the aid of which he had reached the ground without injury.

In his blind terror, the man now attempted to climb the wall dividing the back-yards of Nos. 15 and 16, but while so doing was pulled back, by the coat-tails, by one of the workmen. He instantly turned, and ran through the passage into the street, where he was stopped by some of the persons who had given the alarm.

It was found that he was desperately wounded in the back of the neck, and that his hair and whiskers were singed and burnt. He seemed almost unconscious of his injuries, and only to be desirous of getting away.

On being told that he was wounded, he said, “Am I?” and on being again told that he was fearfully wounded, he said, “It's that damned fellow up stairs, Grey." His informant said that there was no person in that house named Grey, and that if he meant the person with whom he had been seen to enter the house some time before, his name was not Grey, but Roberts. To which he answered “He told me his name was Grey."

As a head police station is near at hand, numerous constables were by this time on the spot; and the injured man was taken to the Charing Cross Hospital, where with much difficulty it was ascertained from him that he was “Major Murray;” and the officers then proceeded to investigate this strange occurrence, and made startling discoveries.

The first floor, from which Major Murray had escaped, was occupied by a Mr. Roberts, a solicitor by profession, in practice a bill-discounter. The door between the landing and the first room was found to be permanently fastened up; while that admitting to the back room was so securely locked and fastened that it could not be forced, and an entrance was finally made from the back-yard by the window.

The back room presented a hideous spectacle. A large pool of blood was under the mantel-piece, another large pool in the corner near the furthest window; in the centre of the room was a broken table; broken wine-bottles and pistols were on the floor; the carpet was much disordered, the drawers were pulled out from the furniture, and the papers scattered about; and every part of this disordered area was smeared and splashed with blood.

The folding-doors between the two rooms were closed, but when they were opened by the police the front room presented a disordered appearance: the carpet was disturbed, the drawers were pulled out, and the papers scattered, and there were smears of blood on various articles. The window-blinds were down, and the room bore the appearance of being seldom entered; but amid the obscurity and dirt the object that fixed the attention of the police was a man sitting or crouching on the floor near the door, with his hand on the handle. He was evidently frightfully injured. On the police sergeant asking him “How did this happen?" he answered distinctly, “It was done by that man who has just gone down stairs." This was Mr. Roberts. He, also, was conveyed to the Charing Cross Hospital.

His condition is best described by the popular phrase - he was “battered to pieces." His head showed 13 distinct wounds, one of which was 8 inches, others 5 and 6 inches in length: by these the skull was beaten to pieces, one cheek-bone crushed, the temporal artery divided, the eyes closed, the flesh ruptured, and the whole face, especially the left side, beaten to a jelly: the left shoulder was found to be frightfully bruised; the right hand was much beaten, the index finger broken, and a deep cleft made between the thumb and that finger; the left hand and arm greatly beaten.

The wounds of Major Murray were few, but one of them was so placed that it is a marvel how he escaped instant death. In front of the right ear was a long but superficial wound, and his legs were much contused; but on the back of his head between the right jaw and the cervical vertebrae was a circular mark, surrounded by burnt and scorched hair, in the centre of which was a jagged opening which would scarcely admit the top of the little finger. This jagged aperture was the commencement of a wound which led by a long track downwards to the spine. On sounding this the probe struck against a metallic substance - a pistol bullet rather large, which was extracted with difficulty, and which was found to have struck against the spine with such force, as to have been indented to the shape of the part against which it struck.

Major Murray was very communicative as to the events of the frightful affray in which he had been a party; but he professed utter ignorance of the person and motives of his assailant, and inferred that he had been led into a trap for some mysterious purpose of violence. Mr. Roberts was too fearfully injured to make any statement; and though, notwithstanding his dreadful condition, he rallied sufficiently to make known his wants, he never attempted the slightest reference to the affray.

An occurrence so terrible and so mysterious naturally excited the public interest. The police had possession of the house, and would permit no ingress; but the narrow street was crowded during daylight for many days, with numbers of people, whose eyes were intently fixed on the dingy house-front; even throughout the night, persons lingered on the pavement; and few of the numerous passengers but paused on their way from Westminster to the city - for the house stands about midway in the “short cut” at the back of the Strand - to take a look at the scene of so mysterious a tragedy.

When the agents of the press had been admitted to the ensanguined apartments, their accounts, perhaps somewhat painted for effect, added to the thrill of horror.“A description of these rooms," says The Times, “would read almost like a chapter from a French novel. The front room has originally been furnished in the most luxurious and costly style. On the walls are five water colour drawings, and between them handsome brackets, supporting statuettes and copies from the antique. Round the room are ranged costly book cabinets and inlaid tables, on which are all sorts of ornaments under large glass shades. It is not, however, until one has been in the room some time that the richness of the furniture attracts notice, for glasses, pictures, statuettes, and vases - even the very cabinets themselves - are almost concealed under the accumulated dust of years. The shades and ornaments are enveloped in this as if coated with a positive fur, and even the slightly relieved figures which are on a copy of the Portland vase that stands on a sideboard in a corner, are barely distinguishable under their fine black coating. In spite of the costliness of its furniture, and the taste that has been bestowed upon its arrangement in the room, it is evident that it has never been cleaned or dusted probably since the things were first placed there many years ago. In the centre of the room is the table at which Mr. Roberts used to work, with the fireplace on the right hand, having an exceedingly handsome white marble mantel-piece, which is marked with bullets. Yet, almost immediately under the mantel-piece, making a great mound that stretches out into the centre of the floor, are the waste papers which have been crumpled up and thrown aside, and allowed, like the dust, to accumulate undisturbed. The back drawing-room was as richly furnished and as dirty as the front. But the dust has here been beaten down and the gloomy richness of the room disturbed by the most desperate of all contests - a contest where strong and angry men struggle to tear and beat each other down with whatever weapon they can seize in their frenzy. If two wild beasts had been turned loose to kill each other in this apartment it could not have presented traces of a more prolonged or deadly contest than it does. The furniture is broken and overturned in hideous confusion; the walls, the gilded tables, backs of chairs, and sides of dirty inlaid cabinets are streaked and smeared about with bloody fingers. One may almost trace where blows were struck by the star-shaped splashes of blood along the walls, while over the glass shades of the ornaments and doors of the cabinets it has fallen like rain, as if a bloody mop had been trundled round and round there. There were no pools of blood, as they are called - for blood neither sinks into the carpet nor flows away - but there were in many places lumps of thick gore nearly half an inch high, and showing clearly that each had flowed from the wounds of some one lying immediately over the actual spot. The furniture was of course overturned, bloody, and knocked about in all directions, as if the struggle had been as long as it was desperate. The remains of the tongs which Major Murray had used upon his assailant or opponent were broken into many pieces, while the stumpy fragment which he continued to wield with such terrible effect was found actually coated with flesh and blood. Beneath the window from which Major Murray made his hazardous escape there are, on the inner side, several irregular pools of blood among a pile of scattered papers, which are smeared and saturated with blood and wine. In the corner, near, there are some bottles of wine, one or two of which have been broken among the papers, which, however, appear to have lain there some time. In this corner of the room, close to the window, the awful traces of the conflict are more visible than in any other part. There is an ornamental table and book cabinet sideboard, which only leave a passage wide enough to enable a person to approach the window. It is evident that Major Murray here made his final struggle to escape, for the blood is thrown in long drops, like heavy driving rain, over everything around, far and near. Such fearful violence has been used here that it almost seems as if Mr. Roberts had been trying to throw his antagonist out of window, or endeavouring madly to prevent his escape."

While the police were trying to trace out the cause and circumstances of this dreadful occurrence, the two actors were lying in separate wards of the same hospital, both in a precarious condition. Major Murray, however, after the bullet had been extracted, recovered rapidly; and made frequent and apparently frank communications concerning the struggle, but uniformly denied any knowledge of his antagonist. Mr. Roberts, on the other hand, sank under his injuries, and died on the evening of the 19th.

He preserved an absolute silence as to the affray, except when questioned by Inspector Mackenzie. The Inspector asked him if he knew him, and he said he did. Witness then asked him, “How did this affair occur?” and he replied, “Murray did it." He asked him to tell him how, but deceased replied, “My head is too bad. I cannot tell you now.” On the next night, at half-past 11 o’clock, he again saw deceased, and asked him once more if he could tell how it had all occurred, and how he had received such dreadful injuries about the head. Deceased replied, “Murray did it all.” But he said, “You must tell me how he did it, Mr. Roberts" and deceased answered, “Murray attacked me with the tongs, and also hit me over the head with a glass bottle.” Witness said to him, “ You must tell me more particularly than that. Did you know Murray before?” and deceased replied, “I have seen him before, but not spoken to him.” Witness asked, had they met by accident or appointment? to which Mr. Roberts answered, “By accident, in Hungerford Market, and he came to my office with me about a loan.” He then asked him what was the amount of the loan, and Roberts answered, “50,000l.” He then added, “Murray shot himself in the neck, and then attacked me with the tongs like a demon, and hit me with a glass bottle.” Witness asked him if he wished to make any depositions before a magistrate, and deceased replied, “No, I have nothing more to say.”

The rumour had been circulated that the struggle had originated in pecuniary transactions, and that the parties had stood in the relation to each other of usurer and dupe; but it was understood  that the police had failed to find in the papers of the deceased any trace of any connection whatever between the parties.

Circumstances had also made it almost certain that Major Murray’s statement was true, and that he was utterly unacquainted with Mr. Roberts; but also certain that Mr. Roberts was well acquainted with Major Murray’s person, and, to some extent, with his affairs.

A coroner’s inquest was held on the body of the deceased, which, in the absence of any positive evidence, was necessarily protracted; and it would be superfluous to repeat the evidence from which the preceding narrative has been drawn. It was not at first thought advisable to produce Major Murray as a witness, since he would necessarily be advised to make no statement that should incriminate himself. When, however, a witness had been examined whose statement made it certain that Major Murray was a victim - and which will be referred to presently - it was judged advisable to take his statement of the affray. He said:-

“My name is William Murray, and I live at 82, Harley Street, and at Tottenham. I was a Major in the 10th Hussars, but I have sold out. I know a little of what has passed in the court below, but not much, for I have seen no papers. On Friday morning, the 12th, I left London Bridge by the penny boat for Hungerford. As I was going down the right side of the market, a man came up to me from behind, on my left, and said, ‘I believe I am speaking to Major Murray?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s my name;’ and he then said, ‘I believe you are a director of the Grosvenor Hotel Company?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am; and pray who are you?’ He said, ‘My name is Grey.’ I had never seen him before in my life. I said, ‘How do you know me ?’ and Grey replied, ‘I have seen you at the meetings of the company.’ I said, ‘Are you a shareholder?’ He said, ‘No; but I attended the meetings.’ He then went on to say he had a client who had 60,000l., and he understood the Company wanted to borrow money, and his client was anxious to get the investment. I said I had no power in the matter, as I was only one of 10 directors, and could do nothing personally; but I added, ‘If you will give me your name and address, I am going to the Company, and will say what you wish.’ He said that would do, and that, if not in a hurry, he would like me to come to his office and answer a few questions. I asked where his office was, and he said close round the corner. By this time we were at the door of his office, and he asked me to step up stairs. He showed me into a back room on the first floor, and requested me to be seated.

I never was in the house before - most positively, never. I took a seat; and he then said, ‘You will excuse me for one instant,’ and left the room. I sat with my back to the folding doors in front of the table. On my left was the fireplace. The folding doors were shut. When he left the room I took a look round, and thought it was the most extraordinary place I had ever seen; torn papers, bottles, and pictures lying about: a most disreputable looking place.

In a minute or so he came back into the room and took a seat in front of me, with a pen in his hand, and asked what interest we proposed to give. I said I was not in a position to say, but would hear what his client proposed to ask. He said, ‘Oh, then, I understand the offer is to come from us.’ I said not, as under any circumstances we should not give more than five per cent. He replied, ‘That will do very well;’ and I asked him for his card of address. He said, ‘Immediately,’ and got up from the table and walked round behind me and began rummaging among the papers of a desk. I thought he was looking for his card, and took no particular notice. Presently, I felt a touch in the back of my neck. There was a report of a pistol, and I dropped off the chair on the ground. I was perfectly paralyzed. I could not move any part of my body. My head, however, was quite clear.

I was lying with my face to the fender, and when he fired I believe he left the room. After some little time I felt returning life in my leg and arm, and I was just raising myself on my elbow when I heard a door open, and he came in again. He immediately walked up behind me and fired a pistol into my right temple. I dropped back on the carpet, and the blood gushed all over my face, and eyes, and mouth, in a regular torrent. He either stooped or knelt down close behind me, for I could feel his breath, and he watched close to see if I was dead. I then made up my mind to pretend to be so. I felt that the bleeding was bringing life back to me fast all over my body, which was tingling to the fingers ends. I knew if I could get on to my feet I should be able to make a fight for it. After he had knelt behind me for some short time he got up and walked away, and I then opened my eyes and took a look round, and saw a pair of tongs within a few inches of my hand. Feeling that my strength was returning to me, and there was the whole length of the room between us, I seized the tongs, and sprang to my feet.

He was then at the window. Hearing me move, he turned and faced me. I at once rushed at him, and made a heavy blow at him with the tongs, which missed. I then seized them short by the middle, and made a dash into his chest and face, which knocked him over on his back. I got my knees on his chest, and tried to smash his head with the tongs. They were too long, and he got them in both his hands firmly. I struggled hard for some time to get them away, but he was as strong as I, and I could not do it. I looked round for something else to hit him with, and close to my right hand I saw a large black bottle, which I caught in my right hand, and shaking the tongs with my left, to keep him occupied, I hit him full, with all my force, on the the middle of the forehead, and smashed it to pieces. That made him like quiver all over, but still he did not let go the tongs, so I caught hold of a metal vase and dashed it at his head with all my might, but I missed him. Then, as I saw there was nothing else at hand, I set to work desperately to get the mastery of the tongs, which he was holding all the time.

During all this he was on his back, close under the window nearest the door. After a long struggle I got the tongs. As they came into my hands I lost my balance, and fell back, but was up again in an instant, and by that time he was rising into a sitting position, which gave me a fair, full blow at his head with the tongs, and I gave it him with all my might and main {these tongs, broken, bent, and covered with blood and hair, Major Murray had in his hand when first seen escaping from the window]. I repeated it three or four times. He hid his head under the table to escape my blows, and I then hit him over the back of the neck; and in order to disable his hands, I hit him hard over the wrists.

I then thought he was sufficiently disabled, and tried to get out, but the door of the room was locked. I then went through the folding doors of the front room and tried that way, but that door was locked too. In coming back through the folding doors, I met him again face to face, walking towards me. I took a step back in order to get a full swing, and hit him on the head again with the tongs. He fell forward on his face through the folding doors as if he was dead. I pushed his feet through the doors and, shut them, and then threw up the window. The

Major having then narrated his escape from the window, added: “That is all I have to say. There was no word passed between us but what I have mentioned. I have not the slightest notion in the world why he should attack me. I never had any communication with. the man, good, bad, or indifferent. I did not know even that such a man was in existence.”

The key to the mystery was, discovered in a singular manner.

On one of the tables in Mr. Roberts’ room was a sheet of blotting paper, on. which was written, in deceased’s handwriting, the address of a “Mrs. Murray,” and among his papers, several letters in a female hand, some of which were signed “Annie,” others “A. M. Murray.” The address was followed up, and it was found that Mrs. Murray was a young woman who had been for some time Major Murray’s mistress, though not living with him. The unfortunate young woman was able to make a statement which gave an object and motive to 'the murderous proceedings of Mr. Roberts.

She had, it appeared, been living for several years under Major Murray’s protection, and had had one child, a daughter, by him. He had behaved to her with uniform kindness, and had been sufficiently liberal; but the expenses attending her confinement had brought her into debt, and unwilling to apply to the Major for money, she unhappily applied to Mr. Roberts, the usurer, who gave her 15l for her bill at three months. This seems to have been renewed several times, for the poor young woman was seldom able to save from her allowance more than the quarter's interest.

She was naturally terrified lest Major Murray should know of these transactions, and the usurer was well aware of her anxiety for secrecy. The low, coarse-minded brute - who was a married man with a family, and keeping every outward appearance of staid respectability - began to lust after his unhappy client, and sought to turn her necessities to his advantage. Nor did he use any delicacy about the gratification of his passions; for on one occasion when she went to deprecate his forbearance and offer the quarter’s interest for renewal, he plainly told her not to make herself uneasy about it, for that if she would be his he would forgive her the whole of it. The poor creature (whose appearance and conduct while under examination were most becoming) indignantly repudiated his disgusting proposals.

But the idea seemed to have got complete possession of the man, and ruled him as with an absolute passion; he pursued her in every direction, watched her in her out-goings with Major Murray, knew where she had been, could tell where she had sat, and with whom; he passed her in cabs in her walks, and even sought to introduce her to his wife and family, for which she again had moral sense to rebuke him. His one overruling idea was to get her to leave Major Murray and become his mistress.

Although inaccessible to his offers, the young woman was so far cowed by the necessities of her position, that she did not acquaint Major Murray with these proceedings, and submitted to receive from him presents and ardent letters, which she answered in a too corresponding style, fearing he would betray her if she did not.

Either with an eye to business or urged by a morbid curiosity, Mr. Roberts also kept a close watch upon Major Murray, and by his continued knowledge of his proceedings, kept the young woman in continual alarm; and from her forced a knowledge of the position and wants of the Grosvenor Hotel Company, and of Major Murray’s circumstances.

About a month before the fatal affray he ascertained from Mrs. Murray that the Company were desirous of borrowing a large sum - 40,000l. or 50,000l. He professed to have a client who was willing to lend it; and on this pretext caused Mrs. Murray to come frequently to his ofiices, until two days before the assault.

Under what circumstances the idea of destroying the Major in order to get possession of his mistress first entered the wretched man’s mind cannot be known - whether the one overpowering frenzy so blinded him to the futility of the scheme that he had dwelt upon it until it took shape and consistency, or whether it was a momentary impulse, so sudden and so thrilling as to allow no time for pause or reflection. From the brute’s pursuit it seems rather more probable that he desired to entangle the Major in an usurer’s toils, and then to force or purchase from his necessities the object of his desires.

Nothing was stated which would suggest that the long-continued pistol practice had any other purpose than amusement; yet it is very possible that the presence of these weapons and habit of using them may have suggested the frenzied idea. Shakespeare truly says :—

“Oft-times, the sight of means to do ill-deeds makes ill-deeds done.”

After a very protracted inquiry the general concurrence of circumstances corroborated the main points of Major Murray’s statement, and the jury returned a verdict of “justifiable homicide, and that Major Murray slew the deceased to save his own life.”