A Book of Remarkable CriminalsIrving, H. B. (Henry Brodribb)
History
A Book of Remarkable Criminals
Irving, H. B. (Henry Brodribb)
Criminals -- Biography
For an hour and a half he addressed the jury. He disputed the
possibility of his identification by his alleged victim. He was "an old
gentleman of sedentary pursuits and not cast in the heroic mould." Such
a man would be naturally alarmed and confused at meeting suddenly an
armed robber. Now, under these circumstances, could his recognition of
a man whose face was hidden by a beard, his head by a boxer hat, and his
body by a long overcoat, be considered trustworthy? And such recognition
occurring in the course of a chance encounter in the darkness, that
fruitful mother of error? The elderly gentleman had described his
moustache as a slight one, but the jury could see that it was full and
overhanging. He complained that he had been put up for identification
singly, not with other men, according to the usual custom; the police
had said to the prosecutor: "We have here a man that we think robbed
you, and, if he is not the man, we shall be disappointed," to which
the prosecutor had replied: "Yes, and if he is not the man, I shall be
disappointed too." For the elderly person who had stated that he had
seen a gold watch in Butler's possession the latter had nothing but
scorn. He was a "lean and slippered pantaloon in Shakespeare's last
stage"; and he, Butler, would have been a lunatic to have confided in
such a man.
The jury acquitted Butler, adding as a rider to their verdict that there
was not sufficient evidence of identification. The third charge against
Butler was not proceeded with. He was put up to receive sentence for the
burglary at the hairdresser's shop. Butler handed to the judge a written
statement which Mr. Justice Holroyd described as a narrative that
might have been taken from those sensational newspapers written for
nursery-maids, and from which, he said, he could not find that Butler
had ever done one good thing in the whole course of his life. Of that
life of fifty years Butler had spent thirty-five in prison. The judge
expressed his regret that a man of Butler's knowledge, information,
vanity, and utter recklessness of what evil will do, could not be put
away somewhere for the rest of his life, and sentenced him to fifteen
years' imprisonment with hard labour. "An iniquitous and brutal
sentence!" exclaimed the prisoner. After a brief altercation with the
judge, who said that he could hardly express the scorn he felt for such
a man, Butler was removed. The judge subsequently reduced the sentence
to one of ten years. Chance or destiny would seem implacable in their
pursuit of Mr. William Munday of Toowong.
Butler after his trial admitted that it was he who had robbed the old
gentleman of his watch, and described to the police the house in which
it was hidden. When the police went there to search they found that the
house had been pulled down, but among the debris they discovered a brown
paper parcel containing the old gentleman's gold watch and chain, a
five-chambered revolver, a keen-edged butcher's knife, and a mask.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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