A mysterious murder has startled the City of London. A
solicitor's clerk, of twenty-two, named Edwin James Perkins, was left on Saturday at two o'clock by his employer, Mr. T. H. Bartlett, of 2 Arthur Street West, to lock up. With him was a fellow-clerk, named Brett, who left shortly afterwards. At six o'clock a charwoman went in to clean the rooms, and seeing blood in the hall called the police. They found the hall stained with blood, and the body of the unfortunate young man in the cellar, with the head nearly cut off. The head had been wounded by some blunt instrument, and the throat then cut with a large knife. An aluminium lwatch worn by the deceased had been taken away, and the money in his pockets, known to have been about £2. The pockets were turned inside out. No trace of the murderer has yet been discovered ; but Ann Cox, of Griffin Street, Lambeth, testifies that she found a coat on the doorstep of her house on Sunday night, in the pockets of which she found the aluminium watch and some photographs, all of which belonged to Mr. Perkins. The murderer must, therefore, lodge somewhere on the south side of the river, and probably in that neighbourhood, as he would hardly walk miles in the dark to put away the stolen property on a doorstep at last. We have suggested a theory of this murder elsewhere, but may mention here that the usual offer of a reward has been unusually delayed.
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