The confessions made by the two lads Gower and Dobell,
aged respectively eighteen and seventeen, as to what is known as the Tunbridge Wells murder, are perhaps the most painful and extraordinary ever recorded. Last July, Mr. Lawrence, a foreman at the Baltic Saw-Mills, was called out of his house by two persons and shot dead. For a long time no clue could be found, but on Monday the two lads named above, Gower and Dobell, attended a Salvation Army meeting, and it was noticed by the officer, Mr. Cotterill, that (lower seemed to have some- thing on his mind. The following morning, Gower came to Mr. Cotterill, and. confessed the murder of the foreman Lawrence. "Me and my mate did it ; we tossed up who should do it," said the lad ; and then told how, simply because Mr. Lawrence "was always calling him soft-headed," he had planned with his mate Dobell, who had no knowledge of and no grudge against the murdered man, to do the deed. The lot fell upon Dobell, who, as Gower said, in the language of the "penny dreadful," was "a friend of mine, and as true as steel," and by him the foreman was shot. Mr. Cotterill, after taking the advice of the Salvation Army officers in London, communicated the confession to the police, and both boys were arrested and committed for trial. It
unfortunately does not appear that their confessions were any real sign of penitence, for though, in addition to the murder of Lawrence, they have confessed several most atrocious outrages, as well as an attempt at murder, their demeanour has throughout been utterly reckless. They appear to glory in the consternation caused by their wicked- ness. The desire for notoriety seems to have prompted their confessions, as the love of wickedness for its own sake pro- duced their crimes. Probably the wretched lads are by nature viciously inclined cretins.
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