A Philadelphia Lawyer in the London CourtsLeaming, Thomas
History
A Philadelphia Lawyer in the London Courts
Leaming, Thomas
Courts -- Great Britain; Lawyers -- Great Britain
In substance it was related that Dhingra came to England about three
years before to study engineering and fell into the association of
India House, a rendezvous in London of Indians of seditious
proclivities. He lived in lodgings where he had few visitors and
where, after the murder, was found a letter from Sir Curzon Wyllie
which was read in the opening speech and which stated that the
prisoner had been commended to the writer's protection and offered
to be of service to him while in England. The story was told of his
procuring a license to carry a weapon, of his purchase of a Colt's
automatic magazine revolver and another revolver, of cartridges and
of a long dagger--all of which were produced by the speaker and the
triggers of the empty pistols snapped to show the jury how they
worked.
An account of his frequent practice at a pistol gallery for three
months and up to the very afternoon of the day of the tragedy and
the use of a target the size of a man's head, preceded an exhibition
of the last paper target used, when four bullets out of the five had
pierced the bull's eye. The speaker described how Dhingra had called
his victim aside into a vestibule while Lady Wyllie proceeded down
the staircase, how he fired four shots pointblank, which passed
through Sir Curzon's head; how Dr. Lalcaca had tried to intervene
and was shot for his temerity, and how, finally, an elderly English
baronet had grappled with the murderer and succeeded in wresting the
revolver from him and bearing him to the floor.
The witnesses were then called and examined with great rapidity, the
judge restricting their testimony to essentials and checking both
counsel and witness from the slightest digression. This seemed to be
carried almost to an extreme, as an untrained witness often brings
forth an important fact amid much irrelevant verbosity. At the end
of the direct examination of the first witness, his Lordship asked
Dhingra if he wished to cross-examine. The latter growled a negative
but added that he had something to say, whereupon he was informed
that he would have an opportunity for that later. Thereafter, when
asked the same question at the conclusion of each witness' evidence,
he merely shook his head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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