In December, 1893, Mr. and Mrs. Williams, and elderly couple who ran a farm in Port Credit, Canada, were brutally murdered, in a crime that shocked the neighbourhood.
Ultimately, a man named Walter M’Wherrel was tried, found guilty of their murder, and sentenced to death.
However, the sentence was commuted to one of life imprisonment, and, in 1898, with M’Wherrel serving his sentence in Kingston Penitentiary, a lady came forward to make some astonishing claims about the perpetrator of the crime:-
The Dundee Courier, in its edition of Saturday the 3rd of December 1898, gave details of her story:-
MURDERER CLAIMANT TO KINNAIRD ESTATES
EXTRAORDINARY STORY FROM TORONTO
One of the half-forgotten mysteries of Canadian criminal annals (says the Toronto Mail and Empire) is that as to the antecedents of Walter M’Wherrell, who is now serving a life term in Kingston Penitentiary for having killed an aged couple named Williams near Port Credit five years ago.
The mystery of who M’Wherrell was and where and whence he came was never really solved.
WHAT WAS KNOWN ABOUT HIM
All that was known of him was that he had worked as a groom with one two Toronto gentlemen, and as a farm labourer in Scarboro’ township, that he was a man superior intelligence and address to most men of his position.
He had the bearing and general neatness of a soldier, and stated and possessed papers to show that he had fought, necessarily as a mere lad, with the British at the battle of Tel-el Kebir.
To friends, who were instrumental at the time he was sentenced to death in securing the commutation of his sentence, he practically admitted that that his name was a fabrication, and that it was assumed for the purpose of concealing his identity from his relatives in the Old Country.
A LADY RELATIVE TURNS UP
Within the last few weeks, however, something has transpired which tends to throw light n M’Wherrell’s antecedents. A
A fortnight or so back a lady giving the name of “Mrs G. M. K. Truman, Mount Hope Cottage, 183 Queen Street North, Hamilton, began to intercede with the Minister of Justice at Ottawa for the pardon of M’Wherrell, who, she stated, was a relative of hers, and is connected with a distinguished family in the Old Country.
MRS. TRUMAN INTERVIEWED
A representative of The Mail and Empire visited Hamilton with the purpose of locating Mrs Truman.
“Mount Hope Cottage” is far from being the pretentious abode that its title would lead the reader to expect.
Living among the very poor, and no better off herself, Mrs Truman tells her neighbours that she is by right Lady Kinnaird, the wife of the rightful heir to great estates in Scotland, and that she obtains her title in virtue of being the duly wedded spouse of Walter M’Wherrell, condemned murderer.
THE WIDOW OF TRUMAN RANSOM
In the Hamilton city directory she figures as Mrs. Gertrude Truman (widow of Ransom).
Who Ransom Truman may have been nobody knows.
Some say that he is alive at Albany, N.Y.
She has been a resident of Hamilton for some time, and was, it is alleged, one time known as Mrs. Thompson.
She is also alleged to have a married daughter living somewhere outside Hamilton.
She goes indifferently by the names of “Gertie Kinnaird ” and “Lady Truman,” and is a large, loud-spoken Scotswoman.
A STORY OF VAST ESTATES
Although boldly proclaiming to all-comers her right to bear a title, it is only with two or three special friends and companions that she has been explicit.
One these is a Mrs Saul.
The story told her is to the effect that Walter was the scapegrace son of a Scottish gentleman of quality; that he ran away and joined the army.
Afterwards he married her, a servant on his father’s estate, and was cut off for ever from his kindred.
Through the death of Lord Kinnaird, she alleges, he had become the rightful heir of the title and estates.
SHROUDED IN MYSTERY
The date or of her marriage to M’Wherrell, Mrs Truman has not communicated to her friends, nor have they thought it worth while to inquire.
Ransom Truman is supposed to be the successor and not the predecessor of M’Wherrell, and it appears from her remarks that at the time of the crime, and for some time preceding it, she was not living with M’Wherrell.
HOW THE CRIME WAS COMMITTED
Mrs Truman has even gone so far as to give Mrs. Saul a story of how M’Wherrell came to commit the crime he was convicted of.
She said the old man Williams insulted Walter when he went to his house to look for work, that the man struck out, and unintentionally killed him.
Having done so, he was obliged to finish his work.
SALIENT FACTS IN THE CASE
What grounds Mrs. Truman has for her startling allegations are unknown.
The two salient, facts in the case are:- (1) that Mrs. Truman has applied to the Department of Justice for the pardon of Walter M’Wherrell; (2) that the same Mrs. Truman circulates the story that she is the wife of the said M’Wherrell, whose real name should be Lord Kinnaird.
THE LAWYER ASTONISHED
Mr P. C. Robinette, when interviewed, said:- “I had letter from the prisoner a few days ago, in which he asked me to come and see him on my way to Ottawa.
What he wanted to say I do not know.
As to any claims to Old Country estates, that is equally new to me.
He always struck me as having good blood at the back of him somewhere, but does not appear to have had the early advantages consonant with such a story.