LONDON LEGAL LETTER.
FEHRUARY, 1903.
A MOST interesting point has arisen in
connection with a murder trial in
England which has attracted wide attention.
Early one morning in May last a young girl
was found lying dead in the kitchen of the
house in which she was living as a domestic
servant in a small Essex village. The
wounds which produced her death were of
such a nature that the blood from them be
spattered the walls of the apartment and lay
in copious pools on the floor and stairway
leading to her bed chamber. There was evi
dence that the murderer, not content with the
death of his victim, had attempted to con
sume the body by saturating the night cloth
ing with coal oil and then setting fire to it.
It was ascertained that the girl in the course
of two or three months would have become
a mother. Notwithstanding the evidence of
violence there was at first a theory of suicide,
but that was soon abandoned, and suspicion
fell upon a married man of exemplary habits
who lived with his family near the house in
which the body of the murdered girl was
found. He was arrested, and in November
last was put upon his trial. The evidence of
the prosecution seemed at first overwhelm
ing. The accused, Gardner, was a leading
member of the congregation of a Primitive
Methodist chapel in the village, the head of
the Sunday School and the director of the
choir. The deceased was also a member of
the Sunday School and in the choir. Some
months before the murder gossip associated
Gardner's name with the girl. It was alleged
that they had been seen to go into the chapel
upon a week day alone, and two lads affirmed
that having observed them and approached
the building they heard suggestive words
and voices. The matter was referred to
the officials of the church and was denied
by Gardner, so far as any immorality was im puted, and he was continued as Sunday School superintendent and choirmaster. An other witness, a local preacher of the same chapel, gave evidence that notwithstanding this incident he had observed Gardner and the deceased walking alone together late at night upon a secluded road and had seen familiarities between them during the services in church. Upon the theory that the de ceased was pregnant by Gardner a motive for the crime was thus found, for being a married man, Gardner would not care to stand the exposure that would ensue, and which would drive him out of the commun ity. In the room of, the murdered girl was found an unsigned letter, which it was con tended by the prosecution was in Gardner's handwriting, asking her to show a light in the window of her bed-room at eleven o'clock the night she was murdered. The buff envel ope in which this letter was enclosed was of a somewhat uncommon kind, but such en velopes were used in the office where Gard ner was employed and accessible to him. Under the girl's body was found a torn copy of a newspaper, which was not taken in by her employer, but which was taken in by Gardner. There was also found a bottle, from which the coal oil had undoubtedly been poured upon the body, and this bottle was labeled "For Mrs. Gardner's children.'1 A witness was produced to prove that Gardner was in the road in front of the house on the night in question at the hour when the de ceased was requested to show a light in her window, and that the window was visible from where he stood. Foot-prints of some one wearing shoes with bars across the soles were found leading from Gardner's house to the deceased's and back again, and shoes
