Harding, too, is said to have received from Ross, while Ross was awaiting execution, a letter which impliedly admitted his guilt, and he, too, is supposed to have torn it up. In the witness box Harding was attacked for what he is—the most oily and odious scoundrel that ever polluted a court of justice. If he had, or had ever received, a letter from Ross which would have done anything to rehabilitate his tattered reputation, he would have used it. But, in fact, there is in Melbourne one man at least whose lightest word would carry more weight than Harding’s most solemn oath, who knows that Ross did write a letter to Harding, knows its contents, and knows that, so far from it containing an implied admission of guilt, it contained exactly the opposite.
PART V.
⸻
THE DEFENCE.
As has already been said, the purpose of this review is not to set out the evidence on either side and ask the public to weigh it. That was the function of the jury, and if they did their work unskilfully there is no redress in this world. The main purpose has been to set out the Crown case, and to show, by an analysis of it, that Ross’s guilt could not, as a matter of logic, be deduced from it with the certainty which the law requires in criminal cases. How far that has been done the reader must judge.
None the less it is right to show that Ross, from first to last, did what was humanly possible to establish his innocence.
As far as his evidence is concerned, it simply followed the lines of his written statement made on January 5, and his answers to questions given on that and other dates. His cross-examination left him absolutely unshaken as to his story, though it has to be admitted that his demeanour in the box, his unveiled hostility to the police, his direct allegations against them, his blunt affirmation that what Harding knew he had been told by “the coppers,” and his assertion that the hairs on the blanket had been put there by the detectives, were not calculated to make a favourable impression on the jury. He admitted that he had spoken to Harding about the case, had told Harding that he was in prison to keep the public’s mouth closed, and had mentioned to him that he was with “his girl” that afternoon and evening, but he denied strongly that he had ever confessed to Harding. He said, also, that he knew Harding’s reputation as a “shelf,” and defined a “shelf” as a man who not merely tells tales on prisoners, but makes them up as well—a man “who hears one thing and builds on it.” It is well, however, that Ross’s outline of his movements, both on the fatal day and on January 5, when he is supposed to have made damaging admissions to Olive Maddox during a chance meeting at Jolimont, should be recapitulated in order to see how it was borne out by the long string of witnesses who were called to support him.
ROSS IN THE BOX.
Ross said that when he got into the saloon at about 2 o’clock on the Friday, he saw there, besides his brother Stanley and others, two men named Albert Allen and Lewis. He did not see Ivy Matthews that afternoon, and had not seen her since a couple of days before his trial for robbery under arms in the November previous. He did see a little girl “answering the description” of Alma Tirtschke. It should be borne in mind, in view of Ross’s dying speech, that that was the furthest he ever went, viz., that he saw a girl, between 14 and 15 years of age, whose dress answered the description of Alma, but he never spoke to her, and she had never been in his saloon. She was, when he saw her first, walking towards Bourke Street, and at his next glance was looking in the window of a fancy goods shop next to Madame Ghurka’s. He remained about the saloon all the afternoon, talked to Gladys Wain for a long time, made an appointment with her to meet him again at 9 o’clock, and left the saloon about ten minutes past 6. He then went home. When he got home about 7 he met his eldest brother, Ronald, coming out of the gate. At home he met his mother and his brother Tom, with whom he had tea. He cleaned himself up, and left home again with his brother Tom about 8. They went by the tram to Footscray, and saw and spoke to Mrs. Kee and George Dawsey on the tram. The brothers took the train together at Footscray, and Tom left him at North Melbourne, to go to his (Tom’s) wife’s people, the Ballantynes, at West Melbourne. He got to the Eastern Arcade about a quarter to 9, and waited about the Little Collins Street entrance until a little after 9, when he was joined by Gladys Wain. They went into the saloon, and remained there until half-past 10 or a quarter to 11. They came out into Little Collins Street, went along Russell Street to Lonsdale Street, along Lonsdale Street to King Street, where they remained talking for about ten minutes, close to the girl’s home. He left her at about ten minutes past 11, and went to Spencer Street, where he took train to Footscray. He got to Footscray about fourteen minutes to 12. He there took the tram, and on the tram he met a friend named Herbert Studd, who introduced him to a man named James Patterson. He got off the tram at the terminus, and walked from the terminus to his home with a young fellow named Frederick George Bradley, who was a very casual acquaintance living further along in Ross’s street. He reached home about 12, his mother being still up. He went almost straight into the room, where his brother Ronald was in bed, but awake, and went to bed. He never left his room that night. His brother, Tom, who was working in the neighbourhood, and had come back for breakfast, came into the room about twenty minutes to 7 next morning. He himself had breakfast later on with his mother and Ronald. He then went in to the Arcade, where he was told by Stanley of the murder, and was later on interviewed by the detectives. To them he gave offhand this account of his movements, not with all these details as to meetings with persons, but exactly the same account of his main doings on the previous day and night. Stanley, in the meantime, had given to the detectives his own account of his own and Colin’s movements, and it exactly corresponded with Colin’s account, so far as the movements of the two impinged on one another. In addition to that, the detectives later saw Gladys Wain and got her independent account, and it, too, exactly coincided with Ross’s account.