William Wainwright, the owner of a good paying brush factory, a respected church warden and a past master of a masonic lodge, committed suicide on the North London railway to-day. His death recalls a crime that some years ago created a great sensation in London. On September 11, 1875, Henry Wainwright, a brother of the man who killed himself today, was arrested for murdering a woman named Harriet Lane, about 25 years old. Henry Wainwright formerly carried on his brushmaking business at 215 Whitechapel Road and from this fact the crime came to be termed "the Whitechapel murder." He subsequently removed to 78 New Road, Whitechapel. On the day he was arrested, Henry Wainwright asked a brushmaker named Stokes to accompany him to his former premises in Whitechapel road, to help him lift a couple of packages he had there. Stokes went with him and found two very heavy parcels wrapped in American cloth with ropes tied around them. There was also a chopper, a hammer and a shovel that Wainwright wanted Stokes to buy. Stokes complained of the weight of the bundle he was carrying and set it down until Wainwright brought a vehicle. When Wainwright was away looking for a vehicle Stokes felt impelled, as he said, by a mysterious voice, to look into the bundle. He did so and was horrified to find a human head; Wainwright shortly returned with a cab and, putting the two bundles in it, got in himself and was driven off.
Stokes was left standing on the sidewalk, but, again impelled by the mysterious voice, he ran after the cab, with the object of raising an alarm. Wainwright was then cooly smoking a cigar and having observed a girl named Alice Day, a dancer in one of the theaters, invited her to take a ride with him. She entered the cab, which proceeded to a public house, where Wainwright intended to deposit the bundles. In fact, he had already taken one of them into the house, when Stokes, who had told a policeman of what he had seen, arrived with the constable. Wainwright and the Day girl were arrested. An investigation was started and it was learned that Harriet Lane had disappeared a year previously. It was soon proved that her body had been chopped into pieces. The place where parts of the remains were buried was found, and Wainwright's relations with the woman were soon unravelled. The result was that he was tried for murder, and on December 27, 1875, he was hanged at Newgate. Thomas Wainwright, a brother of the murderer, was arrested for complicity in the crime before and after the fact. It is said that Henry insisted strenuously that Thomas was the actual perpetrator of the crime. William, the brother who killed himself today, was also suspected of having been implicated in the murder. As yet no reason is given why he should have committed suicide.
