The "Greenacre" case, which occurred in 1836, was similar to the foregoing
in many of its details. In that year, portions of the mutilated trunk of
an old woman named Brown were found in a house in Edgeware Road, wrapped
in old rags and sacking. Subsequently the head was discovered in Regent's
Canal, and the limbs in a drain in the neighbourhood of Camberwell.
Comparison between the various portions left no doubt as to the identity
of the deceased, and James Greenacre, whom Brown intended to marry, and to
whose house she had gone with all her property, was accused of the murder.
A woman named Gale with whom he lived was also charged with complicity in
the deed. Once more suspicion, however strong, was insufficient to bring
the crime right home to the accused, but the discovery, among Greenacre's
property, of some rags corresponding with the pieces covering the
mutilated remains, together with a few articles belonging to Brown, turned
suspicion into actual proof. Greenacre was condemned to death, and his
companion sentenced to transportation for life.
The murder of William Begbie, at Edinburgh, is a remarkable case of the
manner in which the author of a crime may remain long hidden, and only
then be discovered by accident. Begbie was a bank porter, and on November
30th, 1806, he was employed to carry a parcel of notes, worth about
£4,000, to one of the bank's customers. On his way he had to pass through
a narrow, dark, and tortuous entry, and there he was brutally murdered and
the notes were stolen. Although a knife, of a particular pattern, was
left in the body, the murderer remained at large, and no clue to the
terrible crime could be unearthed. Nine months later the bundle of notes,
untouched, was found hidden in a wall, but long years passed before the
mystery was completely solved. In 1822 a Bow Street runner named Denovan,
while visiting Leith, chanced to fall into conversation with a sailor
lately returned from captivity among the French. Speaking of old times the
mariner accidentally mentioned that coming ashore one morning he had
noticed a man like William Begbie, followed by a person dressed in black
and of respectable demeanour. He lost sight of them for a few moments, but
later on he was surprised to see the man in black rush out of the narrow
entry with a bundle under his arm. On the next day he heard of the murder,
and feeling confidant that he could throw light on the crime, he informed
the mate of his vessel of what he had seen. Permission to go ashore was,
however, refused. The vessel sailed, was captured by the French, and the
sailor witness did not recover his liberty for fifteen years. Denovan set
to work with this important clue, and enquiries proved that the man in
black was no other than a notorious criminal named Mackoul, who had lived
in Edinburgh in 1806. The law had claimed its own, however, previous to
the sailor's disclosures. In 1820 Mackoul had suffered death for robbery;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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