And, moreover, the other servants in the shop, although having had the same facilities of recognition, did not think it the same man, and declined to confirm M‘Clelland’s statement.
In addition to this, he neither purchased cartridges nor pistol; so that the visit to Mr. Moore’s shop, as a piece of evidence, even if made by Habron, is of no value whatever.
The little item of finding two percussion caps, introduced by Superintendent Bent, was evidently a superfluity, as Mr. Deakin, the employer of Habron, says the caps might easily have been in the waistcoat pocket when he gave it to Habron, as he had been using his gun just before, and had probably put some caps in the pocket.
The actual bullet extracted from the body of the unfortunate policeman was pronounced by an experienced gunsmith to have been fired from a No. 442 pin-fire cartridge, which was the largest size but one then made.
The third standpoint in the case made out against William Habron is that of dress and general appearance, which bore a similarity to the dress and general appearance of the man seen near the scene of the murder by two witnesses.
J. M. Simpson, who had been walking and conversing with the deceased, had only just left him when he met this man; he described him as an elderly man, and declared that he walked with a stooping gait.
Police-constable Beanland, whose evidence was perhaps the most important, under present circumstances, in the whole case, said that the man was about twenty-two years of age, and walked quite erect; and from general appearance he thought it must have been William Habron.
The man under notice, says Beanland, went along Seymour-grove to Mr. Greatorex’s gate, and he there lost sight of him; and on going to the gate he found it open. He went in at the gate, and examined Mr. Greatorex’s premises, but found all right, and then heard two shots, and found the deceased on the ground at West Point.
We next come to that conclusive evidence of Habron’s guilt as established by Superintendent Bent—the footprints.
He deposed to the examination of the footprints with great exactitude.