All England Horrified by The Discovery of a Terrible Tragedy
SECRETS OF A FIREPLACE
London, March 17.
A tragedy unparalleled in the history of British crime came to light Wednesday through a singular chain of circumstances. In July last Arthur Williams resided in the Dinham Villa, Rainhill, a fashionable suburb of Liverpool. Nothing seems to have been known about the antecedents of Williams. He was received in society and passed as a well to do bachelor. He courted Miss Mather, a young women generally admired for her beauty and other attractions. They got married and went to Australia. The people of Rainhill were shocked a few days ago by news from Australia that Williams had been arrested there on a charge of murdering his wife and that he had concealed the body of the murdered woman beneath the fireplace, carefully covering the place again with cement.
As soon as these facts became noised about in Rainhill, the people called to mind queer suspicions that had been afloat about Williams when he occupied Dinham villa. They remembered that one day a lady and two children visited the villa and from the moment of their entering the place no one had seen them again. The affair caused some remark at the time, but nobody thought of murder and the matter was dropped with the supposition that the lady and the two children had gone away without being observed. Now, however, the neighbors began to suspect that there might have been foul play and they stated the facts to the police. The police proceeded to Dinham villa and began to dig up beneath the fireplace. They noticed as they began, signs that the place had been disturbed within a comparatively recent period and certainly since other work had been done in the interior of the villa.
They hardly expected, however, to discover anything and their amazement was great when they came upon the bodies of two children. The body of one child indicated that the little one was about 7 years of age and the other was apparently about 5 years of age. Both bodies were wrapped in a damask table cloth, and both had their throats cut. The remains were in a fair state of preservation and neighbors who had seen the lady and the two children at once concluded that these were the children.
The digging then proceeded with greater energy then before, and the searchers soon came upon another body. This was a woman. The throat was also cut and the body wrapped up before interment. It was said to be that of the lady who had accompanied the two children. The police kept digging while outside the news spread, and the excitement grew and thousands rushed to the scene of the tragedies.
The next body unearthed was that of a girl of 12 years. Unlike the former victims she had evidently been strangled and it was evident also that her death probably antedated that of the lady and the two children. The girl's body was removed and the search kept up. A baby about one year old, and with its throat cut, was reached next. Even the hardened policemen could not restrain an exclamation of horror as the tiny and shrunken body was lifted up to view. No more discoveries have been made. The news has caused almost a frenzy in Liverpool and the multitude have rushed to the conclusion that Williams must be Jack the Ripper.
