Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1890 — A CELEBRATED TRIAL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A CELEBRATED TRIAL.

THE MOST SENSATIONAL CASE IN CANADA’S HISTORY. Trial and Conviction of J. Reginald Hlreliall tor the Murder of F. C. Hen welt. His Traveling Companion—Strange Circumstances Surrounding the Affair.

} ITRIN the memory rof man no Canadian [ criminal case has attracted the attention |or created the inter|est that has been '■ manifested in the trial jof J. Reginald BirehJ all, which was brought (to a conclusion at Woodstock. Ontario, on the 29th of September. The trial consumed ten days and resulted in the conviction of the ac-

cused. When asked by. the Judge if he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him, Birchall replied simply: “I am not guilty of murder.” He was thereupon sentenced to be hanged on Friday, Nov. 14.

HISTORY OF THE CASE. [WOODSTOCK (ONT.) CORRESPONDENCE.] Birchall was tried on an indictment charging him with the murder of Frederick C. Benwell, whose dead body was found in a wild and unfrequented swamp In Oxford County, Ont., In February last. The evidence upon which the jury found the murderer guilty, was purely circumstantial. There are many conflicting and fragmentary accounts of Birchall's identity, but those who ought to know best say that he is the son of an English Church

clergyman who lived in the north of England. and now deceased. Birchall was a student at Oxford, and was known as a harum-scarum fellow, a good-natured spendthrift with pleasure as his principal ambition in life. He is now about 27 years old. lie got married a few years ago, and about the same time financial troubles culminated and he was forced to leave England. He came to Canada early in the summer of 1882 to become a farmer, but. finding the work harder and the pay smaller than lie had been led to expect., lie staid in Woodstock. Birehall talked a groat deal about aristocrats

in England with whom lie claimed to be acquainted or connected, lie signed himself ltirclia.il or Burehell, but spoke of himself as the possessor or heirapparent to the, title of Lord Somerset. • Many people in Oxford County knew him only a« Somerset. He had an inordinate passion for sports. A horse and a gnu were the twin objects of his first affection. As a sportsman lie sought game far and near and became more intimately acquainted with the country than many a person who has spent a lifetime in it. He spent money freely. There did not seem to be anything vicious about him, but ho was simply bent on having a good time. His wife seemed to second Hm in what, he did and was known everywhere as “Lady Somerset. ” These two disappeared in the fall as quickly as they had come, leaving certain unpaid bilis. When a man was arrested in February for the murder of the stranger who-e body was, found in the swamp near Princeton the' people were made aware for the first time that Lord Somerset, or Birchall, had returned. There had been great difficulty in identifying the body, for the pockets had been emptied of all but one or two unimportant articles, and the name had been cut out of all the marked clothing. But a cigar-case was found having the name of “F. C. Ben well* on it. When this announcement was made in the papers, Birchall cape on from Niagara Falls tot Princeton and identified the body as that of a fellow-passenger of his on the steamship Britannic, which had landed in Now York but a couple of weeks before. It appeared from Birehall’s own statement that Ben well had been in his company but a few days before the body was found, so he was arrested on suspicion, and his wife, also, was taken into custody on a charge o/ aiding and abetting in the murder. There had been a good deal of excitement about the discovery of the body in the swamp,but when It was known that “Lord Somerset” had been arrested for the murder, and that the case, if proven, would be shown to be one of almost unheard of atrocity, the whole country was wild with curiosity and indignation. There was only one person who remained cool, collected and smiling, and that was Birchall. He manifested no bravado, but be simply kept quiet, said nothing except to his lawyer, and seemed to be rather amused at the course events had taken. But against Birchall there were scraps of evidence which, while not making a complete case, were all consistent one-with the other aud together were certainly very strong. The principal witness was a young Englishman named Douglas R. Pelly, who had come out on the Britanliic with Mr. and Mrs. Birchall and Benwell. Pelly and Benwell had made ar-

rangements in England to take an Interest iq a horse ranch or farm which Bireha’l claimed he owned in Canada. According to Belly, Birchall had represented this farm to be a mile and a half from Niagara Fails, the stables lighted with electricity, and the place generally in first-class shape. Benwcll's father, a retired British Colonel, was to pay £SOO for an interest in this farm as soon as his son should write from Canada that he was satisfied with his bargain. Young Peily also had paid Birchall a large sum on condition that he was to have employment on the farm, with a small share in the profits. Peily explained how the party had gone through from New York to Buffalo, thence to Niagara Falls, and how on Monday, Feb. 17, Benwell and Birehall had taken the Grand Trunk Southern Division train to go to the alleged stock farm. That night Birchall returned alone, explaining that Benwell had gone on further, probably intending to call at London, Ont., upon a Mr. Helmuth, a lawyer who had been one of their fellowpassengers on the Britannic. Peily told with blanched face how Birchall subsequently took him about Niagara Falls, while his (Pelly’s) suspicions of his companion grew stronger. In private conversation the young fellow declared that he believed Birchall meant to tip him into the river just below the falls, or otherwise to make away with him, and it was quite evident that he believed he had had an exceedingly narrow escape. Everything pointed to Birchall as the guilty man. llad the victim been shot in a quarrel or by a tramp, as was at one time suggested, the marks on the clothing would not have been cut out. That was evidently the work of a man who believed that if he could prevent the corpse from proclaiming its own identity it would fill a nameless grave and inquiry would soon die out. Birchall and Peily were the only men who could have known that the man w“as an entire stranger in the country. Birchall was the last person seen with Benwell, that Is sure. He left Niagara Falls with him, and credible witnesses swore to having seen the man whom they knew as Birchall or Somerset in company with a young Englishman whose description answered to that of the victim. They were seen to get off at Eastwood Station and go across the fields in a direction which would take them to the swamp. Birchall was subsequently seen to return alone. He spoke to a Miss Smith at Eastwood Station on his return and stated to her that he was -going East, but would be baek in a few days. Ho did not buy a return ticket, but a single ticket, however. He stated when he went to identify the body that he had never seen Benwell in the clothes in which the corpse was dressed. All the testimony went to prove that on the train Birchall’s companion wore the very clothes in which the corpse was found. The swamp is on the edge of one of those strange ponds, of which there are several in this country, which have no visible inlet or outlet and which seem to extend under the swampy land by which their surface is surrounded. Birchall,

as a sportsman, knew the place well. When he hunted in this swamp there was access to the lake, but during his absence in England a fire had burned out the spongy, peaty, surface of the ground, causing the small cedars, ol which the swamp is composed, to fall or lean so that access to the lake waprevented. The position of the body when found was such as tc indicate that when shot the man was looking over tho trunks of two trees which had fallen, completely barring the way to the lake. Tho theory that Birchall intended to throw his victim into the lake, where the undercurrent would tend to draw him beneath the boggy surface or shore of the lake, Is completely in keeping with the rest ol the story. The court was presided over by Judge McMahon, one of the best' men on the Canadian bench. On the side of the crown the lead was taken by B. B. Os-

ler, Queen’s Counsel, the leader of the criminal bar, and he was opposed chiefly by George T. Blackstock, Queen’s Counsel, a rising man, young and eloquent. The court-room was crowded to suffocation every day of the trial from the opening to the close. 1

BIRCHALL, THE MURDERER.

MRS. BIRCHALL.

WHERE BENWELL’S BODY WAS FOUND.

F. C. BENWELL.

JUDGE MAC MAHON.