THE CORONER'S SUMMING-UP.
"We have now," said the Coroner, addressing the jury, "arrived at the
end of the inquiry, so far as the examination of witnesses is
concerned, and the duty devolves upon you of carefully considering the
evidence, and of giving your verdict. At the opening of this inquiry I
made a strong appeal to you to keep an open mind, and not to be
influenced by the rumours and theories which have been freely broached
by press and public. It is in this way that the interests of justice
will be best served. The case is one of the gravest import, and your
task one of unusual difficulty. For this reason I feel it my duty to
address you at greater length than is usual in inquiries of this
nature.
"There are leading points in the case which we may take as established
beyond dispute. One is that a murder has been committed, a murder of
extreme brutality, and distinguished by features of extreme cunning.
Another, that the man murdered is Mr. Samuel Boyd. Another, that the
murder was committed on the night of the 1st or the 2nd of March.
"That the crime should have remained undiscovered so long is due to
the peculiar domestic habits of the deceased, and to the facts that he
kept no servants in his house, that he lived quite alone, and that on
the evening of the 1st of March he dismissed the only person whom he
kept regularly employed. Had this dismissal not been given, and had
Mr. Abel Death, his clerk, gone to his work as usual on the following
morning, the discovery of the murder would have been made within a few
hours of its perpetration, and the task before you would have been
rendered far less difficult. I would not have you attach too much
importance to the apparent connection between the perpetration of the
murder and the disappearance of Mr. Abel Death. Coincidences as
strange are not uncommon in matters less serious, and it is not
because this matter is serious that the coincidence should be
construed to the disadvantage of a man who is absent. Up to Friday,
the 1st of March, his relations with his employer were as fairly
satisfactory as could have been expected from the miserable stipend he
received and from the character of the murdered man, and, unpleasant
as those relations became on that last day, there was nothing in them,
so far as we are aware, to supply a reason for the committal of a
deliberate and dastardly murder, all the details of which must have
been carefully planned. If Mr. Abel Death had been a party to this
plan he would hardly have asked his employer for a loan of ten pounds,
a small sum for a rich man to grant to his confidential clerk.
"For the purpose of arriving, as far as possible, at a clear
comprehension of this part of the mystery let us for a moment follow
the probable movements of Mr. Death on that night.
"He is dismissed from his employment, and he leaves the office, a
disappointed and unhappy man; he relates to his wife all that passed
between him and his employer, and subsequently informs her that he is
going to Catchpole Square to make another appeal to his employer. I
gather that the time of his arrival at the house would be about ten
o'clock, at which hour we may assume that Mr. Samuel Boyd had not
retired to rest. At about nine o'clock Lady Wharton left Mr. Samuel
Boyd at the door of his house, and from that moment all is mystery. We
know, however, that he must have had matters to attend to which would
keep him up a couple of hours. Lady Wharton had deposited with him a
number of valuable jewels, to which, when she was gone, he would
naturally devote attention, appraising them, and probably taking a
list of them. The dismissal of his clerk would most likely cause him
to pay some attention to the state of the books and accounts, and the
jewels had to be put in a place of safety.
"All this would occupy him a couple of hours, and this brings us to
eleven o'clock, when he would be ready to seek his bed. But before
this hour Mr. Abel Death, according to the theory we are following
out, has paid his visit, or rather, has made his attempt to see his
employer. He knocks at the door, and in response to the summons Mr.
Boyd goes down to see who is there. A man living alone in a house so
safely removed from public observation would be scarcely likely to
open his street door to casual visitors at ten o'clock at night, nor,
the business of the day being over, would he neglect to put the chain
on the street door. His probable course of action would be to go down,
and, opening the door as far as the chain would allow, inquire who is
there. He is answered by Mr. Death, who begs to be admitted to make
his appeal; is refused; while standing in the square implores to be
taken back; is listened to, laughed at, ordered to go away, and the
door shut in his face.
"I do not see how we can carry the matter farther as regards Mr.
Death. To assume that he is admitted to the house, and that Mr. Boyd
went to bed in his presence, is so wildly improbable that we may at
once reject it. If anything can be said to be ridiculous in so awful a
tragedy it would be to suppose that Mr. Boyd thus placed himself in
the power and at the mercy of a man whom he knew to be embittered
against him, and who was in a sense desperate. As to Mr. Abel Death's
subsequent movements we are left in mystery. His wife suggests foul
play. That a man left in the position to which my argument has carried
him should deliberately conceal himself without a distinct motive is
not to be thought of, and for this reason I consider the suggestion of
foul play tenable. From whom, or from what quarter, who shall say? But
we are not here to inquire into this matter; it is not the fate of Mr.
Death we have to deliberate upon, and I advise you therefore to narrow
the issue, which is sufficiently wide and perplexing, by setting him
aside. There is nothing whatever to connect him with the crime beyond
the merest conjectures, and were he alone concerned the only verdict
that could be returned would be one of 'Murder by some person or
persons unknown.'
"We will now turn to another branch of the subject. In reply to a
question I put to Mrs. Death she expressed her belief that her husband
had no enemies: but a man carrying on such a business as Mr. Samuel
Boyd transacted must have had many. However harsh it may sound, there
is in my mind very little doubt that he must have inflicted great
wrongs upon a number of persons. The tactics pursued by moneylenders
of his class are so tricky and unscrupulous--they are so entirely
oblivious of the claims of common humanity--that they must perforce
breed animosity and resentment in the breasts of those whom they
entrap. I am referring, understand, to that class of moneylenders
whose nefarious practices have made them a danger to society, and I am
happy to see that the strong arm of the law is being stretched forward
to protect the unwary and unsuspecting victims who fall into their
clutches. On the other hand, there are, of course, among such a man's
customers some crafty borrowers who would trick the moneylender as he
would trick them, men with doubtful reputations whose characters are
no better than his own. It is for your consideration whether Mr.
Samuel Boyd has fallen a victim to a cunningly laid plot on the part
of a band of these men; the abstraction of the books and papers in
which their names would appear favours this presumption. We have no
evidence presented to us that affords a clue to the discovery of such
a plot, but it will be as well not to lose sight of its probable
existence.
"Returning to my argument concerning Mr. Samuel Boyd's movements
within his house on the night in question, we behold him still alone
at about eleven o'clock, his office business finished, the visit of
Mr. Abel Death disposed of, and he preparing for bed. And here Mr.
Reginald Boyd comes into the picture.
"We have heard from his lips his account of what took place during his
interview with his father, and we have to accept or reject it. They
were alone together, there were no witnesses, and we have only Mr.
Reginald Boyd's word to go upon. You must not allow this to militate
against him. In the circumstances of the case it is hardly possible
that there could have been witnesses to corroborate the account he
gave, and I have no hesitation in declaring that his bearing in the
witness box bore the impress of truth. It has been objected to that in
the course of this inquiry private domestic affairs have been dragged
into the light which seemingly had no connection with it, but painful
as this must have been to certain of the witnesses, it has established
more than one point which, in the opinion of some of you, may be of
importance--such, for instance, as the nature of the relations which
existed between Mr. Samuel Boyd and his son, and the fact that the
latter was in extremely straitened circumstances. I do not think that
any blame is to be attached to the son for having renounced the name
of Boyd two years ago, when the strained relations between him and his
father led to his leaving, or being turned from, his home in Catchpole
Square. It is not an instance without parallel; men have changed their
names for motives less powerful than this. Mr. Reginald Boyd's bearing
while giving his evidence here, was that of a high-spirited,
independent young gentleman, who held in abhorrence the business
tactics and practices of his father, and it is not unnatural, when the
connection was severed, that he should resolve to be quit of a name
which carried with it a disreputable stigma.
"Nor was it unnatural that Mr. Reginald Boyd should have believed
himself to have been tricked out of the fortune his mother left him,
and that, being now a married man, anxious to provide a home for his
wife, he should have made an effort to obtain restitution. In my
reference to these matters I am not wandering from the issue, for what
you have to consider is, not one incident, circumstance, or act, apart
from the others, but all the incidents, circumstances, and acts in
relation to each other. What in the former case may seem suspicious
may, in the latter case, be robbed of its suspicious complexion.
"And do not forget that there was not a single question put to Mr.
Reginald Boyd, whether pertinent to this inquiry or not, which he
refused to answer. He evinced, indeed, an anxiety to disclose
everything within his knowledge which cannot be regarded in any other
than a praiseworthy light. He even went so far as to voluntarily
mention small incidents leading to the asking of questions, his
answers to which may be unfavourably construed. I observed him
narrowly while these questions were being asked and answered. There
was no confusion in his manner; he answered unhesitatingly and
frankly. His demeanour was entirely that of a man who was giving his
evidence with honest intention."
"Interrupting you here, Mr. Coroner," said the Juror, "was not the
evidence of Dr. Pye given in a manner which invited entire belief in
his honesty and straightforwardness?"
"I was coming to Dr. Pye," said the Coroner. "Yes, there was nothing
in his conduct in the witness box that would warrant a belief that he
was not speaking truthfully. It cannot be denied that the evidence he
gave threw a startling suspicion on Mr. Reginald Boyd, and were it not
for the evidence of Mrs. Abel Death which, in point of time, is in
direct conflict with that of Dr. Pye, I should be addressing you in
different terms, so far as Mr. Reginald Boyd is concerned. Here we are
confronted with a most singular discrepancy. Dr. Pye states that he
saw a man issue from Mr. Samuel Boyd's house at three o'clock in the
morning. Mrs. Abel Death states that she was in Catchpole Square from
half past two till half past three on the same morning, and that
during the whole of that time the door of Mr. Boyd's house was not
opened. I do not see how these conflicting statements can be brought
into reconcilement. The presumption that Mrs. Death may have been
mistaken as to the time of her visit to, and her departure from,
Catchpole Square is disposed of by her further statement that, while
she was in Catchpole Square, she heard the hour of three struck from a
neighbouring church clock. And we have evidence that the chimes of
Saint Michael's Church can be heard in the Square."
The Juror: "Might she not have been mistaken, Mr. Coroner? It may have
struck two. If Mrs. Death reached Catchpole Square at half past one
and remained till half past two, the discrepancy would vanish."
The Coroner: "Just so; but it is not for us to alter the statements of
witnesses in order to make them fit in with one another. We have to
take the evidence as it is presented to us, and draw our conclusions
from them. I asked Mrs. Death if she was certain that the church clock
struck three, and she answered that she was, and that she counted the
strokes. However, gentlemen, there is the discrepancy, and you must
place your own construction upon it.
"With respect to the night on which the murder was committed we may
safely assume that it was Friday night. Mrs. Death's repeated knocking
at the street door would surely have aroused the inmate had he been
living. Mr. Boyd was in the habit of going out daily, but from that
fatal Friday night he was not seen alive.
"So much of the morbid interest attaching to this case has been
centred upon Mr. Reginald Boyd and Mr. Abel Death, that there is a
danger of matters being overlooked which have an important bearing
upon the inquiry. The disposal of the body in bed and the composing of
the limbs after a violent life and death struggle had taken place, the
orderly condition of the rooms after the confusion into which this
violent struggle must have thrown their contents, direct our minds to
a consideration of the kind of men responsible for the murder and the
robbery. That so much trouble should have been taken to remove and
obliterate all signs of the struggle, and to make it appear that a
ruthlesss and brutal deed had not been committed, would seem to point
to the probability that the men are not experienced members of the
criminal classes; while the skill and cunning of the plot, and the
cool and deliberate way in which it was carried out, denote that they
are men of infinite resource and daring. I use the plural because I
share the belief that the deed and all that followed it were not the
work of one hand. A master mind there certainly must be, and I can
conceive no greater danger to society than that such a man should be
at large, watching this case and guarding against its consequences.
"Undoubtedly the leading motive was robbery, but behind this leading
motive were others as to the nature of which we have no clue. For what
reason were the books of accounts and the private papers of the
murdered man removed? Valueless in a commercial sense, why should the
robbers have encumbered themselves with articles of considerable bulk,
the carrying of which, by night or by day, would have drawn attention
upon them? Some ulterior motive there must have been. The close and
secret manner in which the deceased conducted his business, the
circumstance that he admitted no man into his confidence, serve, in
the present aspect of the case, as a stumbling block to justice. The
criminals must have been familiar with the premises and with the
habits of the deceased. They must have known where the key of the safe
was kept, they must have known that it contained property of value. It
is difficult to understand why a sum of money was left in the pockets
of Mr. Boyd, but it is only one of many circumstances which it is
difficult to understand.
"And mark the hardihood, confidence, and patience with which the plot
was carried to issues not included in the original plan of the crime.
On Saturday morning Mr. Boyd lies dead in his bed, and the criminals,
if not still in the house, have free access to it. I am following this
out now because it is quite likely to have escaped you in the
multitudinous incidents and circumstances of the mystery which it is
necessary for you to bear in mind. On Monday Lady Wharton recollects
that Mr. Boyd, when he received the fresh acceptances signed by Lord
Wharton and endorsed by Lord Fairfax, omitted to hand back the old
bills for which the new ones were given in exchange. She writes to Mr.
Boyd, she being then in Bournemouth and he lying dead in London. In
her letter she requests him to bring the old bills to Bournemouth, and
also requests that the loan of £1,000 already arranged between them,
for which she had deposited jewels as security, should be increased to
£1,500, promising, for the additional £500, to hand him other jewels
as security when they meet in Bournemouth. The letter written and
posted, is left by the postman in the post box of Mr. Boyd's house in
Catchpole Square. And here we are brought face to face with the
unparallelled audacity of the criminals. Having access to the house
they obtain possession of the letter, and they conceive the idea of
personating the dead man for the purpose of getting hold of these
additional jewels. No illiterate, uneducated criminals these;
past-masters in forgery as well as in murder, who shall say what
undiscovered crimes may be laid at their door? I have no hesitation in
declaring that no parallel exists in criminal records to the expedient
they adopted and carried to a successful end. You have heard the
astonishing story from Lady Wharton's own lips, you have heard it
corroborated by her brother, Lord Fairfax. It is an extraordinary
revelation, more like a chapter from the dark pages of romance than a
chapter from real life. The closer the attention we devote to the
many-sided aspects of this mystery, the longer we consider it and turn
it this way and that in the endeavour to grasp a tangible clue, the
more bewildering does it become. One moment suspicion rests upon one
person, the next moment upon another, the next our suspicions fade
away; while behind those whom we already know as being connected--and
bear in mind, as likely as not innocently connected--with the awful
tragedy lurk others whose identity up to the present moment is a
sealed mystery.
"It has been my desire to place the matter before you in as clear a
light as possible, and I am fully sensible of the difficulty of your
task. Justice demands that this mystery shall be cleared up, but be
careful that you do not take a false step, for at the same time
justice demands that you do injustice to no man because of some theory
or prejudice you may have in your mind."