The Cincinnati Daily Star

Bennett of the Herald did not appear at the Premier's swell ball in Canada, on account of detention of his trunks containing his swell suit. So he says.
This was considered altogether too improbable; nevertheless, inquiry showed that Shaw's wife's maiden name was Oram, that the tramp had worked in Nottingham, and that his brother kept an inn on the Waterloo Road, London.

But what could be the object in Shaw's sending the man off in the middle of the night, and after he had discovered, too, that he was a relative?

The accused man's brother employed counsel, and every effort was used to establish his innocence. Among other things, a reward was offered for any Bank of England notes bearing Shaw's initials on the back, as it was ascertained that it was his custom so to mark all notes that came into his possession. But the person in whose keeping the plunder was had himself discovered the tell-tale initials, and was too cautious to put them into circulation, where they would be likely to be detected, or, what is more probable, had carefully altered the letters, for none of them were ever found.

But light was to be shed on the crime from another direction. An expert London detective was employed by the prisoner's counsel to investigate the matter, and his first inquiries were as to whether any suspicious persons had been seen around the neighborhood previous to the murder. A tollkeeper between the town and the Moat farm deposed that about 8 o'clock the same evening two men passed in a dog cart, but he could give no description of them, as it was dark at the time.

These men, however, had not passed the next toll gate, which was five miles distant, until 4 o'clock in the morning, and, though the most diligent inquiry was made, their whereabouts from 8 o'clock to 4 could not be ascertained. The dog cart, it was found, was hired in Northampton, and returned by a youth the next day. After much patient search this lad was found at a village twelve miles distant, and from him a fuller account of the two men was obtained. One of them was clean shaved and wore a fur cap. The other had side whiskers, and smoked a meerschaum pipe with a snake's head for a bowl. While getting out of the dog cart at the inn in the village the pipe fell to the ground and was broken. The man gave the fractured pipe head to the boy and put the other piece in his pocket, remarking that the mouthpiece was still good.

The two men, it was found, walked over the field to a railroad station two miles off, and there the station master remembered that they took tickets for Birmingham. Twelve hours after the discovery the police of that town were on the lookout for the two men. They were believed to be two of a gang who made Cheshire's on Navigation street, their headquarters, and one of them was set down to be a notorious convict known as the Major. This man was tracked to a house, along with a man known as Cornish Jake. Here they were kept under surveillance until near daylight, when they quitted the place and took a cab in New street.

The officers, watching them, followed and saw them safely lodged in a house on the Bromwich Road, kept by a sporting man named Nat Walsh. An extra force of police was obtained, and the house was entered. The Major and Cornish Jake were taken in bed, and in a search of the room they brought to light the stem and mouthpiece of the broken meerschaum pipe. The officer who discovered it slipped it into his pocket, and the men were unaware of its having been taken.

They sought to establish an alibi, but were held for trial. When their case came on they were confident of an acquittal, as they had witnesses to swear that both were together at Cheshire's, in Birmingham, at the time the crime was perpetrated. Though the lad at the village inn swore to their identity, yet their case was so strong as to render their escape probable, when the incident of the broken pipe was put in evidence. The head in the possession of the boy fitted the stem found in the Major's room precisely, and that settled the matter. They were convicted and sentenced to be hanged. Up to the last moment they maintained their innocence; but after their execution Big Poll delivered up to the Police a large part of the plunder, admitting that the two men had placed it in her charge, but disavowing any knowledge of the murder.
The impression was that the men had got information from their pals of Shaw's habits and wealth, and had thereupon planned and executed the crime; that they were around the house at the time of the tramp's departure, saw what was going on in the kitchen, and entered by the window by which the tramp quitted the house. Before the old man had time to fairly enter his room they sprung on him, and he fled to the bed to protect his keys, which were under the pillows. His chances in the grasp of one of his powerful assailants was small, and they quickly dispatched him. Then they locked the door to pursue their work in safety. Having secured the booty, they determined to quit by the room window as affording an easier and readier way of escape.