TRUE STATEMENT AS TO HOW THE EVIDENCE WHICH HUNG MAXWELL WAS OBTAINED
PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME.
The Preller murder occurred in the summer of 1885, in one of the rooms
of the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, Mo. Clarence Preller was a young
Englishman, as was also his slayer, Hugh M. Brookes. The discovery of
the body, the apprehension of the murderer, his trial and execution,
attracted the attention of the civilized world. The true story of the
conviction of the perpetrator of this foul crime has never before been
published.
Hugh M. Brookes was a native of Hyde Park, a suburb of London, England.
His father and mother were respectable people, and school teachers by
professions. The young man was about twenty-five or six years of age
when he committed this crime. He had never done anything but go to
school, consequently was well educated. The last school he attended was
a law school. He ran away from this institution, after stealing a lot of
property that belonged to fellow students. The plunder he secured
consisted mostly of ornaments and bric-a-brac, which he pawned at
Liverpool, England, to secure enough money with which to purchase a
first-class ticket to Boston, Mass. After boarding the vessel he met and
formed the acquaintance of Clarence Preller.
Preller was a trusted employee of a large export establishment of
London. His duties required him to travel nearly all over the world,
or, at least, to visit the principal cities of the world. He was a young
man, being about thirty years of age, and finding Brookes, a
fellow-countryman, an agreeable companion, took very kindly to him.
Brookes represented himself as being a titled nobleman, who had just
finished his course at college, and was making a pleasure tour of
America. He called himself Maxwell.
[Illustration: HUGH M. BROOKES, ALIAS MAXWELL
The young Englishman hung for murdering Arthur Preller in the Southern
Hotel.]
During the voyage from Liverpool to Boston, Preller told Maxwell, as I
will call him hereafter, that after he had attended to a matter of
business for his firm at Boston he had to go to Toronto, Canada, where
he would be detained but a day or two. Then he would leave Toronto for
St. Louis, Missouri, where he also had some business to do for his firm,
which would require but a short time, and that from there he would go
through to San Francisco, California, and sail from there on the first
steamship to Auckland, New Zealand. Maxwell told him that he believed he
would go from Boston to St. Louis, where he (Maxwell) would await the
arrival of Preller from Toronto, then accompany him to Auckland just for
the trip. This proposition pleased Preller.
They arrived safely in Boston, where they remained two or three days
together, and where Maxwell learned that Preller had in his possession
seven one hundred dollar bills. After Preller had finished his business
in Boston they settled their bills at the Adams House, where they had
stopped, went to the depot together and separated, Preller going to
Toronto and Maxwell to St. Louis. They had agreed that Maxwell was to
stop at the Southern Hotel in St. Louis, there to await Preller. Maxwell
arrived at that hotel and engaged a room, where Preller joined him a
couple of days later. I think it was Saturday when he arrived, and they
occupied the same apartments.
On the following Sunday, after they had eaten their dinner and returned
to their room, Preller complained of suffering from stomach trouble.
Maxwell claimed to have some knowledge of medicine, and administered an
overdose of morphia, hypodermically. A short time after administering
the drug, and when he saw that Preller was beginning to breathe his
last, he poured more than half the contents of a four ounce bottle of
chloroform into Preller's almost lifeless lips. When Preller was dead,
Maxwell stripped the body and placed a suit of his own underwear on him.
Maxwell was small in stature, being only about five feet five inches in
height, while Preller was much larger and about six feet tall. Maxwell's
clothing was marked with the name of Hugh M. Brookes, and they were
entirely too small for the body of Preller.
In removing the underwear Maxwell used a candle snuffer, which is very
much like a pair of scissors, only the cutting surface had a
half-circle. He cut the undergarments the full length of the limbs so
that he could easily strip them off. Then he managed to pull his own
garments on the body. He emptied out the trunk belonging to Preller, and
pressed the body into it. He had to almost double it into a circle to
get it into the trunk, but he succeeded. Then strapping and locking the
trunk, he put his own, as well as Preller's effects into his own trunk,
and retired for the night.
The next morning, after breakfast, he called at the cashier's office,
settled his bill, and stated to the clerk that his friend Preller had
been obliged to make a short run out of town, and would be back to the
hotel in two or three days, and desired that the room be held for him,
as his trunk and effects would remain there until he called for them.
Maxwell explained that he had to leave that morning and expected his
friend Preller to join him later.
He instructed the head porter to bring his large trunk down into the
corridor. The one he had ordered brought down contained the dead body,
but, to his consternation, the porter brought down the one in which his
and Preller's effects had been packed. He became very much alarmed, and
had his trunk taken to Union Station and checked to San Francisco,
buying a ticket for that place. He departed over the Frisco Road, and
arrived in San Francisco, where he remained one night, and the following
day bought a ticket for Auckland, New Zealand, and sailed that
afternoon.
The weather was quite warm in St. Louis, and after a few days
decomposition set in upon the corpse in the trunk. The odor from the
room attracted the attention of the servants. They reported to the
office, the room was entered and the body found. The police were
notified at once. A good description of Maxwell was furnished by the
hotel people, and telegrams were sent in all directions, giving this
description, and requesting Maxwell's arrest.
Capt. Leas, Chief of Police of San Francisco, received one of these
telegrams, started his detectives to investigate, and succeeded in
learning that the murderer had sailed for Auckland some three or four
days before he had received the telegraphic description of him from St.
Louis. Whereupon Chief Leas cabled the proper authorities of Auckland a
full description of Maxwell, and even the number of the stateroom he
occupied on the ship. Of course, Capt. Leas' telegram reached Auckland
several days before the ship arrived.
When the ship arrived at Auckland, the police sent out two of their
detectives with the pilot, who was to guide the steamer on which Maxwell
had taken passage into port. They arrested him as soon as they boarded
the ship, and when the vessel landed immediately notified the St. Louis
authorities, in accordance with Capt. Leas' instructions to them. After
obtaining proper extradition papers, the Chief of Police of St. Louis
sent two of his detectives to Auckland to bring Maxwell back to St.
Louis. They went to Auckland by way of San Francisco, found Maxwell in
jail there and brought him back to St. Louis. It was a long and
expensive trip, and cost the city of St. Louis a great deal of money.
On arriving in St. Louis the prisoner was locked up without bail, on the
charge of murdering Preller. He immediately employed two lawyers to
defend him. After having consulted with his lawyers, Maxwell became
jubilant--so much so that he became obnoxious to his fellow prisoners.
He was naturally inclined to be overbearing, and seemed to hold himself
aloof from the other prisoners. He was rather inclined to braggadocia,
and attracted a lot of attention. The daily papers devoted a great deal
of space to him, which he seemed to enjoy immensely. In fact, the
notoriety appeared to be very pleasing to him.
[Illustration: MARSHALL F. MCDONALD