Great Train Crimes: Murder and Robbery on the Railways by Jonathan Oates

discharged at the end of the year, and spent 21 days in prison. He then went to London, returning to Portsmouth with some jewellery and looking prosperous. He was suspected of having been involved in a jewellery theft at the Lyceum Theatre. He then disappeared. Apparently he had written to his father, saying he had a job as a barman.
    He now wrote a letter to his father, trying to explain his actions: ‘I do not know what I did it for. I must have been mad. I had no cause.’ He explained that his father broke up the family home while his son was serving in the army and this had contributed to his son’s current difficulties. Parker had other problems; he had spent £9 in Eastleigh and Southampton with a young woman from Portsmouth, who he now thought might kill herself. He wrote, ‘But there is one girl in Portsmouth whom I love better than gold and she is not good looking. But I love her dearly and she does me. I promised that I would fetch her away from home next week and she is not happy there.’
    The girl in question was Mrs Elizabeth Sarah Rowland, wife to a private soldier. Parker claimed to not know of her marital status. In the days prior to Parker’s journey to London, the two went around together, spending money and going to the theatre. This resulted in Parker being left almost penniless. They said their farewells in Eastleigh on 17 January.
    He also wrote to Mrs Pearson, expressing his regret and sorrow at his shooting her husband:
I am really truly sorry and I feel for you and your husband’s brother. I am truly sorry and repentant for having in an evil moment allowed myself to be carried away into committing the offence which I am now being charged … I had no intention of shooting your husband. No, none whatever. I purchased the revolver at Southampton with the intention of shooting the girl whom I have been going out with and myself. She was unhappy at home, and so was I. I shot your husband on the spur of the moment.
     
    He denied ever asking Pearson for any money and said that Mrs King lied when she said otherwise. After begging her forgiveness, and God’s, he went on to state that he deserved to die. He signed it ‘The Wretched Murderer of your husband’.
    Mrs King, meanwhile, was sent to the Beatrice Ward in St Thomas’s Hospital. Her son, a quartermaster sergeant in the Royal Artillery based at Woolwich, later visited her. He was doubtless pleased to learn that she was making good progress. When her husband, a prominent freemason, heard that she had been shot, he had fainted at the news. The bullet had entered her left cheek and broke the jaw bone. However, it would not be a permanent injury and she later made a full recovery.
    The inquest into Pearson’s death began on 21 January at Lambeth Coroner’s Court, presided over by Mr A Braxton Hicks. There was a crowd of 200–300 people outside the court, but Parker was not intimidated. Quite the reverse. He entered the court with head held high and a swinging gait. Sympathy was extended to the family of the deceased and to Mrs King. Due to her injury she could not be present at the hearing. James Pearson, one of the deceased’s brothers, had identified the corpse at the mortuary. He had last seen his brother on 15 January. The court was adjourned until all the witnesses could be present. In the mean time, all the jurors were bound over for £40 to attend it. Pearson was buried at Winchester on the same day.
    On 11 February the inquest was concluded. Parker briefly attended the court, though he did not wish to. Few people were aware of his being there, so he was not shouted at by anyone on his arrival or departure. There was important new evidence given. William Cox worked in a gunsmith’s shop in Southampton. Between 10 and 11 on 17 January, he had sold a cheap revolver and ten cartridges for 7s 5d. A young man had bought them and Cox identified him as Parker by his photograph, but did not recognize the man himself when he arrived. He did not