The news broke in the Brighton
Guardian on Wednesday 29 June 1881 with the headline: SHOCKING OUTRAGE ON
THE BRIGHTON LINE. The paper speculated on this terrible crime committed in the
early evening of the previous Monday morning, described as a crime ‘enshrouded
in mystery’.
'Isaac
Frederick Gold, a coin dealer of 64 years lived at ‘Titchfield’, 26 Claremont
Terrace. On 27 June 1881, the unfortunate businessman set off homeward on the
London to Brighton express train. At this stage, no one knew much about what
actually happened, except that the train stopped at Preston Park, where a ticket
collector, Arthur Gibson, joined the train.
On opening a first class carriage,
Arthur found a young man inside, besmeared with blood and showing signs of
having had a struggle with someone. The young man told Arthur Gibson that he
and another man, Mr. Gold had had a fearful encounter with a man on the train,
but the man had succeeded in making his escape. The stationmaster, Mr. Hall,
sent the ticket collector with the young man to Brighton, where the other
stationmaster, Mr. Henry Anscombe, was ready to receive him. A gold chain was
attached to Lefroy’s shoe, which he said he had put there ‘for safety’.
At
this time, although the police were a little suspicious, they decided that the
young man, Percy Lefroy Mapleton had not committed a crime against another
person. More likely, they’d decided, he had been trying to commit suicide,
itself a criminal offence. Even after the discovery of the blackened body of
the unfortunate coin dealer subsequently taken from Balcombe Tunnel and moved
to a shed adjoining the Railway Arms Hotel at Balcombe, the police still took
no action against Percy Lefroy, and he remained the only person who knew what
had really happened to Isaac Frederick Gold.
A Deliberate Act of Evil
That fateful morning, occupying the
smoking compartment of a first class carriage, (the third carriage of the
train), Mr. Gold was later jointed by 21 year-old Percy Lefroy Mapleton. Isaac
Gold wasn’t to know that this innocuous looking man had set out that morning
determined to rob any poor wretch he could find. Having failed to carry out his
devious plan at London Bridge, he’d decided to catch the 2.00pm train to
Brighton. Once he set his sights on Mr. Gold, he must have thought it was his
lucky day. Sometime, between London and Brighton, Percy Lefroy Mapleton
stabbed Isaac Gold to death and stole his watch and some gold coins. When he
got to Preston Park, he was seen disembarking from the carriage, blood-soaked,
in a state of distress, minus his hat, collar and tie, and with a gold watch
chain dragging from his shoe. He wasn’t too upset though, to convince the
railway staff that he’d been attacked by two men who’d smashed him on the head
and knocked him unconscious.
‘I have been murderously attacked,’ he claimed.
Too Much Blood
Percy Lefroy Mapleton actually made
a formal charge against his ‘attackers’ and offered a reward to anyone who
could catch them and bring them to justice. After being interviewed by a
Constable Howland and giving a description of his attackers, he went to the
County Hospital. The doctors were confused thinking that the wounds were very
slight yet had caused a great deal of bleeding. Percy Lefroy began to feel
uneasy and invented a sudden urgent appointment in London, but first he had to
go back to the police station for more interviews. The net was closing in on
Percy Lefroy Mapleton, and so he went shopping to buy himself a new collar and
tie and then set off for Brighton Station.
All Despite the Evidence to the Contrary
Signs of a fierce struggle in the
train carriage, including blood on the floor and door handle, and a newspaper
and handkerchief found in the compartment, together with three bullet marks,
began to alert the police that there was something even more sinister than
attempted suicide behind Percy Lefroy’s account. Further, coins similar to
those found on him at the time he arrived at the Brighton Station were
discovered in the compartment. Things were not looking rosy. Despite that, the
police still failed to arrest him and he was escorted by a detective sergeant,
George Holmes, to a boarding house run by his relatives in Wallington in
Surrey.
By
now a search of the London to Preston Park Railway had been instigated and in
due course the blackened body of an elderly man was found in Balcombe Tunnel.
It proved, indeed, to be the stabbed corpse of Isaac Frederick Gold. It was a
particularly brutal attack. The victim had a deep stab wound in his eye and his
face was cut to the bone, gashed from the right ear to the lower jaw and his
throat was cut. It appeared the attack took place in Merstham Tunnel and thrown
out of the carriage at Balcombe. A knife was found not far from the body and
this, too, was covered in blood. His watch, chain and money were all missing so
the Station Master at Balcombe immediately alerted the police by telegram.
That
night, Mrs. Gold was told and she left Preston at 10.30pm with Mr. Holes, a
neighbour, on the fast train. Mr. Holes did the identification, as Mrs. Gold
was unequal to this painful task.
Time for Action – at Last
After the Three Bridges Railway
Station stationmaster had informed Det. Sergeant Holmes about the discovery of
the body, the detective was told by the Brighton Police to keep Percy Lefroy
Mapleton within his sights. The detective was not, it seems, all that bright
because when Lefroy Mapleton asked him to wait outside while he changed his
clothes. D.S. Holmes agreed and, of course, the cunning murderer made his
escape. The Press were asked to help find him by the Director of the CID. The
Daily Telegraph made the following appeal with a description, (as
reproduced with grateful thanks to Wikipedia and verified)
‘Aged 22, middle
height, very thin, sickly appearance, scratches on throat, wounds on head,
probably clean-shaved, low felt hat, black coat, teeth much discoloured… He is
very round shouldered, and his thin overcoat hangs in awkward folds about his
spare figure. His forehead and chin are both receding. He has a slight
moustache, and very small dark whiskers. His jawbones are prominent, his cheeks
sunken and sallow, and his teeth fully exposed when laughing. His upper lip is
thin and drawn inwards. His eyes are grey and large. His gait is singular; he
is inclined to slouch and when not carrying a bag, his left hand is usually in
his pocket. He generally carries a crutch stick.’
In
addition to this description, the paper printed an artist’s impression. This
resulted in plethora of false claims by people convinced they had spotted the
murderer.
The Inquest on Isaac Gold
The Coroner was Wynne Edwin Baxter,
who opened the inquest on Isaac Gold on 29 June 1881 and the proceedings lasted
several days. The police officers involved in the case including Det. Sergeant
Holmes, were soundly castigated for their inefficiency and a verdict of wilful
murder was returned on Percy Lefroy Mapleton. As a result the Railway Company
offered a handsome reward for his capture.
Capture
Lefroy Mapleton had found himself
lodgings at a house at 32 Smith Street, Stepney giving an alias of ‘Park’. The
murderer had sent a telegram to his employer for the forwarding of his salary
and this was his undoing, negating his precautions of keeping the blinds drawn
and only venturing out after dark. When the police entered the premises, they
discovered his bloodstained clothes, but he refused to talk except to deny his
guilt.
The Trial
Before the Lord Chief Justice at
Maidstone Assizes, Lefroy Mapleton was found guilty within ten minutes after
the jury retired, after evidence from witnesses from the Railway company and
the police. A woman said she had seen two men struggling in the train as it
passed her home. The evidence against him was more than enough for a firm
conviction.
Lefroy Mapleton had needed money and
only intended to rob someone at London Bridge, preferably a female who would be
an easier target. Since there was no victim suitable, he’d attacked Isaac Gold.
Despite his penury, he managed to appear in Court in full evening dress, hoping
to impress the jury, including wearing a silk hat, no doubt he found it fitting
since he was the godson of Sir John Lefroy, Governor of Tasmania.
Final Moments
Percy
Lefroy Mapleton was hanged at Lewes on 29 November 1881 by William Marwood.
According to an eyewitness account (with grateful thanks for a reproduction
from the Daily Telegraph of 30 November, 1881, on the excellent www.mytimemachine.co.uk website,
editor Mark Crail), Marwood took great pride in his work. He placed the leather
belt around the murderer’s body and fastened his elbows and wrists, leaving his
neck bare. It was almost nine o’clock, the clergyman was ready and two warders
on hand, one either side of the condemned man. Everyone was waiting, the
sheriff and the governor of the jail, the magistrate and the surgeon. Lefroy
Mapleton may have worn his best evening garb for his trial but for his
execution he was just a poor young man in an old grey tweed suit, tightly
pinioned, with bruised wrists and hair disarranged. He was unshaven and with a
ghastly pallor. The ‘terrors of death’ were particularly noticeable,’ reports
the eyewitness, and continues: ‘He could scarcely take the step which was to
place him where he had never stood before and from where he would never step
again, and Marwood, who at no instant let go of the belt, was fain once more to
push him forward.’
Marwood
placed the prisoner under the cross tree. As he took up his position beneath
the fatal beam with the assistance of Marwood, Percy Lefroy asked, ‘Will the
rope break?’ The executioner simply replied, ‘No.’ Then Marwood had to stoop to
secure his legs and then he placed the white cap over the victim’s face. The
rope was adjusted and the thimble, through which the rope ran, placed beneath
his neck. As the hood went over his head, Lefroy Mapleton lifted up his head,
his lips moving as though in prayer. As the clergyman prayed, the lever was
pulled back, the trap opened and the victim fell into the vault below, his neck
immediately broken. Despite the suddenness of death, the eyewitness felt the
preparations had been cruelly prolonged. ‘It was a tedious and horrible form of
execution,’ he concluded. The coffin, according to the eyewitness, was a
perfect fit. Lefroy Mapleton had been measured for it and placed in it, just to
make sure, a few minutes before his execution.
At the Whim of the Executioner
Marwood, Percy Lefroy Mapleton’s
executioner, used the long-drop method and death was instantaneous. Some
executioners, for example, the notorious William Calcraft (1800-1879) preferred to make a proper spectacle of their
handiwork for their own twisted satisfaction and the delectation of their
admirers. Calcraft used the short-drop method and made his victims ‘dance’ for
him and some of them took several minutes to die by slow strangulation instead
of the broken neck effected by the long-drop. Calcraft practised his grisly
vocation from 1824 for forty-five years and was said to be very fond of
children.
Footnote: William Marwood hated the
press and it is claimed he once said he would die happy once he had hanged a
reporter.
Execution – An Entertaining Day Out
Until 1868, when an Act of
Parliament decreed that executions should take place behind the prison walls as
in the case of Percy Lefroy Mapleton, a public hanging was a spectacle and a
source of popular entertainment. People went to executions to enjoy themselves
and have a good day out. In the first half of the nineteenth century, people
were hanged for alarmingly minor offences and often these were multiple
hangings. In both the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, children also
suffered the death penalty for murder, arson, highway robbery and property
crimes. This tragic part of our history includes two children; a boy and girl
aged seven and eleven, being hanged at Kings Lynn on 18 September 1708 – for
theft. So maybe, although there was still far to go, the Victorians were
beginning to move towards a more compassionate and informed morality.
Note:
On 29 May 1868, the Capital Punishment within
Prisons Bill was passed by Parliament to end public hangings in Britain and all
future executions would be carried out behind prison walls. The last public
execution in Britain was that of Michael Barrett, who’d attempted to blow up
Clerkenwell Prison, killing four passers-by and injuring many more. The first
private hanging was carried out at Maidstone Prison two months later when a
Dover railway porter was hanged for murdering a stationmaster. (See Dover – Murder & Crime by Janet Cameron)Sources:
Cameron, Janet, Brighton and Hove, Murders and Misdemeanours, Amberley Publishing, 2008.
