ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MURDER TRIALS
ENGLISH
AND
AMERICAN
MURDER
293
TRIALS
By Lee M. Friedman WHILE the Thaw trial has been drag ging out its weary length from week to week our English cousins have also been absorbed in an equally sensational murder trial. On January 24, 1907, William Whiteley, the "Universal Provider," head of the great "Whiteley 's " of London, was shot and killed in his establishment by an unknown man, who immediately attempted suicide. Foiled in his attempt at self-destruction the murderer was arrested. For some little time his identity was a mystery. On his person was found a paper addressed "To all to whom it may concern," announcing that, "William Whiteley is my father. He has brought upon himself and me a double fatality by reason of his refusal of a request perfectly reasonable," and signed by the initials "R. I. P." On March 2 2d, or within sixty days of the murder, the prisoner was put on his trial in the New Bailey in London, before a jury of his peers on a charge of willful murder. During the time that had elapsed the interest not only of all England, but of all Europe and America had been aroused by the sensational development of the case. The identity of the prisoner had soon been established as Horace G. Rayner, aged 27, clerk, living in London in great poverty. Rayner claimed to be the illegitimate son of the murdered man and one Louisa Tur ner, a former shop girl, who had lived " under the protection " of Mr. Whiteley for some years. The suggestion of the prisoner's insanity only furnished an added item of doubt and interest to the public. On the whole perhaps not so sensational as the Thaw case, but yet in many incidents quite parallel. The deliberate and dramatic shooting in a conspicuous place of a well known man of great wealth and consider able public position, the laying bare of the
secret scandals of his life, the story of the life of shame of his victim, and the debat able questions of the prisoner's sanity had all the same elements of interest for the English public as appealed to the morbid tastes of America in the Thaw case. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Alverstone, opened the trial by calling upon the pris oner to plead to the indictment. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. A jury was promptly drawn and without loss of time, Mr. R. D. Muir who prosecuted on behalf of the crown, made his opening. In a plain matter of fact statement without sensation alism, he outlined the case of the govern ment. He said : 1 The case which the prosecution would seek to make out against the prisoner was that on January 24 he started out on a journey which ended in his taking the life of Mr. William Whiteley, in circumstances which showed that he had a criminal motive and had prepared for the crime which he intended to commit with great care and deliberation. The prisoner was born in April, 1879. His mother was at that time a single woman, Miss Emily Turner. She was living with a man named George Ray ner, and the child was registered by her in the name of Rayner, she, so far as that registration was concerned, represented her self as a wife, when, in fact, she was a single woman. Emily Turner had a sister named Louisa. On November 15, 1882, Louisa Turner entered the service of Mr. William Whiteley in Westbourne-groveThat was the earliest date at which any member of the Turner family came into contact with Mr. Whiteley. In January, 1883, Louisa Turner went to live at a house 1 The summary of this opening statement as well as that of Mr. Elliott, are adopted from the London Times of March 25, 1907.
