On Tuesday, Thomas Neill, the man already accused of sending
threatening letters, was brought up before Sir John Bridge at Bow Street, and charged with the murder of Matilda Clover. The case, which has come to be known as " The South London Poisoning Case," is one of the most curious that has ever come under the notice of the police. Counsel for the prose- cution, in opening the case against Neill, who, it seems, is a fully qualified medical man of considerable professional attainments, undertook to show that he had murdered not only Matilda Clover, the woman Donworth, and two girls named Marsh and Shrivell, but had also tried to poison Louisa Harvey. In the four cases first named, the victims died from the effects of strychnine-poisoning administered by a person asserted to be Neill; but Louisa Harvey, the intended victim, for some reason was suspicious of the pills offered her, and only pre- tended to swallow them. It was mentioned by counsel that a paper with the dates on which Clover, Marsh, and Shrivell died, was found on Neill, as well as a number of strychnine- pills. It is, of course, far too early to conclude that Neill was the murderer. He may have a complete answer to the charge. Certainly there seems a great lack of motive, unless we assume that when Neill desired to blackmail certain people, he com- mitted a murder by way of providing a groundwork for his chantage operations.
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