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''R v Williams'' (1913) 8 Cr App R 133 (known as the Case of the Hooded Man and the Eastbourne Murder) was a 1912 murder in England that took its name from the hood the defendant, John Williams, wore when travelling to and from court. After the murder of a police inspector in Eastbourne, with no witnesses and little forensic evidence, Edgar Power, a former medical student, told the police that his friend John Williams had committed the murder. Power helped the police conduct a sting operation to catch Williams; police also interrogated Williams's girlfriend Florence Seymour, who then confessed to having helped Williams hide the murder weapon. However, Seymour later recanted her story, and another man came forth claiming to know the identity of the real killer. This new evidence, along with the behaviour of the judge in both the initial case and the appeal, made the case controversial enough that Members of Parliament from the three major political parties directly questioned the Home Secretary on the matter. Despite many requests for clemency, all appeals were denied, and Williams was executed in 1913. The case was one of the first investigations in Britain to use the emerging science of ballistics. ==Background== On 9 October 1912, the driver of a horse-drawn carriage noticed a man crouching near the front door of the house of Countess Flora Sztaray, located on South Cliff Avenue〔"Executed 1913."〕 in Eastbourne.〔Hyde (1960) p.39〕 Sztaray was known to possess large amounts of valuable jewellery and to be married to a rich Hungarian nobleman. The driver, who was Sztaray's coachman, informed Sztaray of the man's presence, whereupon Sztaray telephoned the police.〔Wilson (2003), p. 321.〕 Inspector Arthur Walls was sent to investigate. When Walls arrived on the scene, he observed a man lying on the portico above the front door.〔 Walls called out, "Now then, my man, you just come down."〔Quoted in Wilson (2003), p. 321.〕 The man fired two shots, the first of which struck and killed Walls.〔Hastings (1950) p.185〕 The police had only two clues: some footprints in the garden, and a hat that they found in a nearby gutter. The police took moulds of the footprints and endeavored to trace the hat, but with no success.〔 However, during routine questioning of local residents, police learned that earlier in the afternoon of the murder, a man had been seen sitting with a heavily-pregnant young woman on a bench at one end of South Cliff Avenue; the man had also been seen wandering the street while the young woman sat on the bench alone, leading police to suspect that the man was assessing the lay of the land.〔 The following day, a former medical student named Edgar Power visited the police, claiming that he knew the identity of the murderer. Power said that the murderer was one George McKay, who was living in Eastbourne under the name "John Williams" with his pregnant girlfriend, Florence Seymour.〔 Power knew Williams through Williams's brother,〔Not named in any sources, beyond his real family name of McKay.〕 who was Power's best friend. Williams's brother had received a note that morning from Williams, which he had passed on to Power. Power gave the note to the police. It read:
Power told the police that the letter had been written by Williams and that Williams had tried to burgle Sztaray's house and killed Inspector Walls.〔 According to Power, Williams met with his girlfriend—Florence Seymour—after the murder, and the two decided to bury the gun on the beach and send a letter to Williams' brother asking for money to return to London, which was then given to Power.〔 Power's motive in coming to the police was that he was in love with Seymour.〔 In order to trap Williams, Power asked Williams to meet him at Moorgate Street Station the following day. Police were lying in wait and arrested both Power and Williams at the Moorgate station.〔 Police covered Williams's head with an apron to prevent him from being photographed and thus possibly influencing witnesses.〔Whiteley (1942) p.28〕 However, no one had glimpsed the murderer's face, and no one selected Williams from an identity parade. Power was immediately released.〔 Upon his release, Power went to Seymour and told her that the police knew what had happened and that the only way to save Williams was to dig up the gun and move it somewhere safer.〔Hyde (1960) p.40〕 Seymour and Power retrieved the gun on 15 October;〔 several police officers were lying in wait and immediately arrested both Seymour and Power. Power was released a few hours later;〔 Seymour was retained for questioning. Seymour was pregnant and in poor condition both physically and mentally; after a few hours of questioning, she wrote and signed a statement which incriminated Williams.〔 In her statement, Seymour stated that Williams
Despite Seymour's statement, Williams maintained that he was innocent of the murder and the burglary, saying that "whoever did that did it to get to () papers for political purposes. No doubt she is mixed up in some foreign political business. I would not commit a crime like that."〔 Williams appeared at the Magistrates Court in Eastbourne for an initial hearing. He was not represented by either a solicitor or a barrister, and pled not guilty. On his way to and from the court Williams's head was again covered with an apron to prevent him from being photographed;〔Whiteley (1942) p.28〕 the press accordingly dubbed him "the hooded man."〔Wilson (2003), p. 322.〕 The police decided that Seymour should take the witness stand as soon as possible to avoid her going back on what she had told the police. As such she was called to the witness box by Cecil Whiteley (who was Treasury Counsel at the time) to go through her statement line by line. She was physically exhausted and fainted four times in the witness box; this and other interruptions meant that the initial hearing took four days. Eventually the case was referred to the Assizes for trial.〔Hyde (1960) p. 41.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Case of the Hooded Man」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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