“‘Before I die I will make a revelation which will show what one man is, and it will place in the dock a man who occupies a far higher post than ever Micklejohn or Druscovitoh did. Palmer never did anything like it.’
“Beyond the facts above recorded, we have further ground for saying that Peace was concerned in the Portland-street murder, London, when it will be remembered that a French lady, named Madame Riel, was found lying in a cupboard in her house having had her brains half knocked out. The unfortunate woman had also a thick rope entwined round her neck.
“The murder had been committed in the coal cellar, and the lady had been dragged upstairs to the cupboard, where her body lay all day, until it was found by her daughter and others.
“The cook, a Frenchwoman, absconded to Paris with some of Madame Riel’s diamonds, and was apprehended in St. Denis by Druscovitch, the London detective, and some of the French gendarmerie.
“It then transpired that she had not committed the murder of her mistress alone, but was helped by more than one.
“Before the day of his execution, it is confidently believed that he will make such disclosures as will throw even the above revolting confessions into the shade.”
The Manchester Evening News is responsible for the following story, which, whatever may be said of the facts it narrates, either does not relate to Peace, or is altogether mistaken as to time. Four years ago Peace, as is perfectly well known, was living in Scotland-street, whence, in the beginning of 1875, he removed to Darnall.
We have previously stated that when the transference of his picture-frame making business from Kenyon-alley to West-street proved a failure, he and his family went to live in Manchester, but that was in 1866, and he had not been there a fortnight before he was caught robbing a house, and was sentenced to eight years’ penal servitude:—
“As our readers are well aware, Charles Peace, the man condemned to death for the Bannercross murder, on more than one occasion plied his many vocations in Manchester and the neighbourhood. From inquiries made in Levenshulme, it transpires that the notorious criminal resided in that pleasant suburb about four years ago.
“He stayed there only three months, and after he left the many freaks he committed gradually faded from the memory of the local residents. However, not many days ago a policeman took a photograph of Peace to the locality, and many tradesmen at once recognised him as the man who had formerly lived amongst them. In fact, he had for the time been quite a favourite in the district, and was well known to most of the inhabitants.