The trial of Percy Lefroy Mapleton for the murder of
Mr. Gold, the retired corn-chandler, on the Brighton Railway, ended on Wednesday. There was no direct eridence of the crime, and the counsel for the defence contended that it had been committed by a third person, who left the accused insensible as well as Mr. Gold, and escaped at some point of the line. The circumstan- tial evidence was, however, irresistible. It was proved that Lefroy was in urgent want of money, that he had taken a pistol out of pawn on the morning of the murder, that he was in the train with Mr. Gold, that when he reached Preston he VMS saturated with blood, that he had Gold's watch in his boot, and that Gold had been shot. It was proved that Lefroy
fled from justice, and. also proved that no third. person had taken a first-class ticket. Under these circumstances, the jury, after retiring for only ten minutes, found a verdict of guilty, and the Chief Justice, in a brief but feeling speech, sentenced the accused to death. There is nothing remarkable about the case, except the fact that if Mr. Gold had been killed by the first shot, the murderer, unspattered with blood, would probably have walked through the ticket station and have disappeared into the darkness, safe.
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