At Gibraltar on Wednesday last Owen William Mac- donne' Callan,
charged with the attempted murder of Mr. Hubert Birkin at Tangier on May 19th, was found guilty and sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. Callan, the son of a well-known Irish ex-M.P., had been secre- tary to General Boulanger, had served three years' penal servitude in 1893-96 for perjury, and was a solicitor's elerk in London when he first met Birkin, a young man of great expectations and dissipated habits, to whom he attached himself as travelling companion. Having estab- lished a complete ascendency over his victim, Callan induced Birkin to sign a will leaving him (Callan) everything, and when they were staying at Tangier, after failing to brain Birkin with a life-preserver, fired three shots at him with a revolver. Birkin has become insane from his wounds and ill-health, and could not appear as a witness, but the web of circumstantial evidence woven round Callan, together with his contradictory statements, was sufficient to convince the jury of his guilt. The strange thing about the case is that Callan, who is represented as a man of remarkable astute- ness, should have attempted to enter on his inheritance by adopting the crude methods of a bravo of the Italian Renais- sance. If his attempt had succeeded, it is difficult to see how he could have disposed of the body or diverted suspicion from himself.
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