On the Sunday after the murder, Marchant surrendered himself into the custody of a police-officer at Hounslow, to whom he at once confessed the murder, without, however, assigning any reason for its commission. He appeared to be terrified at what he had done; and as he walked into town frequently looked behind him, declaring that he fancied he heard the murdered woman at his back.
On Friday, the 21st of June, the prisoner pleaded “guilty” to the indictment for the murder which had been found against him at the Central Criminal Court, and sentence of death was immediately passed upon him. He appeared to be in a lamentable state of weakness and misery, and to be deeply penitent for his crime. He subsequently entered freely into conversation upon the subject of the murder, and confessed the circumstances attending its commission. He stated that he had found the deceased in the drawing-room of his master’s house, and had made overtures to her of an improper character, which she had indignantly repulsed. He strove to force the unhappy girl to a compliance with his wishes, but she resisted with her utmost strength; and then drawing the razor from his pocket, which he had taken from the upper-footman’s pantry on his way from the kitchen, in a moment of ungovernable passion he cut her throat in three places, with the greatest determination, amidst her cries for mercy and of “murder.”
On Monday the 8th of July the wretched culprit was executed. He met his death with much firmness, and was apparently sincerely penitent. He was attended to the scaffold by the Rev. Mr. Carver, the ordinary of the jail, newly appointed in the room of Dr. Cotton, who had so long held that post, but had recently resigned.
The unhappy youth Marchant, at the time of his execution had only reached the age of eighteen years. He was the son of decent parents, and had been remarkable during the early part of his life, the greater portion of which he had spent in service, for his extreme humanity and gentleness of disposition. The victim of his crime was twenty years old at the time of her death. She was a young woman of prepossessing appearance and of sprightly disposition, and she had often laughed at her fellow-servant and eventual murderer, for a supposed affection which he professed for her. Up to the moment of their being last seen together, however, they were upon the best terms. The dreadful crime of Marchant could only be attributed to the cause which was assigned for it by its perpetrator.
LEWIN CASPAR, ELLIS CASPAR, EMANUEL MOSES, AND ALICE ABRAHAMS.
CONVICTED OF FELONY.
THE extraordinary robbery to which these persons were parties, involved circumstances probably more singular than any other which ever came before a court of justice. The affair has generally been known by the name of the “Gold-dust Robbery;” the produce of the plunder being gold-dust of the value of upwards of 4000l.; and the facts which attended the investigation of the circumstances most forcibly illustrated the adage, that “When rogues fall out honest men get their own.” As will be observed from the names of the culprits, the persons who were convicted were of the Jewish persuasion; and truly, the proverbial cunning and habits of cheating of these people were most singularly exemplified throughout the whole course of the inquiry.
On Monday afternoon the 25th of March 1839, the robbery was effected. It appears that two boxes of gold-dust, from the mines of the Brazilian Mining Company in South America, had reached England on the 18th of the month, and had been landed at Falmouth from H.M.S. Sea-gull, from whence they were to be forwarded to London, consigned to Messrs. Marsh and Co., the agents of the Company. At Falmouth they were put on board the City of Limerick steam-ship, and on Monday morning, the 25th of March, they were landed at the wharf of the Dublin Steam-packet Company at St. Katherine’s. On the same morning a letter was received by Messrs. Hartley and Co., the agents of the Dublin Steam Navigation Company, in John-street, Crutchedfriars, to whom the City of Limerick steamer belonged, purporting to be from Messrs. Carne and Co., of Falmouth, apprising them of the transmission of the gold-dust, and instructing them to hand it over to a person who should call at their office, and produce certain documents. This letter was opened by Lewin Caspar, a clerk in the establishment; and on the same afternoon a person drove up to the counting-house, and presenting certain papers desired that the boxes of precious metal should be delivered to him. From his manner no suspicion was raised, and the credentials which he produced, giving a description of the boxes and the marks upon them, tended to remove all doubt as to the authenticity of the character which he had assumed. His right to the boxes, therefore, being apparently established, he paid the wharfage dues, and the trunks with their golden contents were placed in the cab in which he had arrived. He gave the foreman of the wharf a shilling for his civility, and then drove away without the smallest suspicion being excited that he was not fully entitled to the goods which he had claimed.
In a few hours, however, an authorised agent of Messrs. Marsh, the consignees, arrived at the counting-house, and making known his character, and demanding the gold-dust upon the authority of vouchers which he produced, the fraud was discovered. The contents of the boxes were valued at 4600l., and as this loss would fall upon the Dublin Steam-packet Co., the consternation which was created among their servants at this event may be well imagined. Instant steps were taken to secure the individual by whom the robbery had been so ingeniously effected, and Lea, and Roe, police-officers, were engaged to pursue the necessary investigation. In the course of the same day the cab which had conveyed the thief to Messrs. Hartley’s wharf was discovered, and the driver questioned, but the only information which he could afford was, that the individual who had employed him had hired him in Cheapside, and he had driven him back to Wood-street, where he had quitted his vehicle and had entered another cab, which proceeded in a direction towards Holborn. A clue so vague was not easily to be followed; but the officers pursued their investigation with unabated vigour and determination, and at length after infinite difficulty they traced the thief to No. 12 New-street, London Hospital; from whence, however, they found he had now removed to a house in Mansell-street, Goodman’s-fields, with all his furniture, but from which again he had absconded no one knew whither. From the inquiries made by the officers they ascertained that the name of this person was Moss; and that he was foreman to Mr. Hyams, a watchmaker in Goodman’s-fields; that before the robbery, as well as on the day of its commission, he had been observed to be in frequent and earnest conversation with Ellis Caspar, whose son, Lewin Caspar, as we have already stated, held the situation of confidential clerk to Messrs. Hartley and Co. No time was lost in taking these persons into custody, and then it was elicited from the servant of Moss, that both those individuals had occasionally visited her master;—that on the day of the robbery, Moss, contrary to custom, went out in his best clothes, and that in the evening he came home in a cab with two boxes corresponding in appearance with those which had contained the gold-dust, and the half-burned fragments of which she subsequently saw under the grate of the sitting-room. Some mysterious whisperings after this took place between Moss, and his wife, and her sister; and on the next morning they quitted New-street for Mansell-street. The description which was given of Moss exactly corresponded with that of the thief; and the exertions of the officers were now applied to secure his apprehension.
In the course of the inquiries which were now made, the circumstance of the purchase of a large quantity of bar gold by Messrs. Bull and Co., bullion-dealers in Cheapside, from Mr. Henry Solomons, a gold refiner at No. 58, Strand, was elicited, and Messrs. Bull and Co. instantly afforded every assistance to the police. On Saturday, the 6th of April, Mr. Solomons was examined at Lambeth-street police-office, when he admitted having sold 1200l. worth of bar-gold to Messrs. Bull; but he stated, that that gold was the produce of a large quantity of snuff-boxes and other articles which he had melted, the precise nature of which he could not describe; that he had received the 1200l. and had paid a great portion of it away; but finally, he protested against being further questioned, and refused to give any more information upon the subject.