A COMICAL INCIDENT.
One of the Liverpool evening papers came out with an edition, or part of one, giving the Maybrick verdict as “ Not Guilty.” The mistake responsible for this was a curious one, laughable almost, if it were not connected with such a mournful subject. It had been arranged, whenever the verdict was announced, that one reporter should signal it from a window in the Court, to a confederate outside. For Guilty a handkerchief was to be shown ; for Not guilty a notebook. Unfortunately, as it happened, another series of reporters had arranged a somewhat similar code of signals. The handkerchief in series one was held up, but the lynx-eyed colleague in the street below had, a second or two before, caught sight of a note-book at another window. 'Taking this to be a signal for himself, and knowing that a verdict of Not guilty had been generally expected, he was off to the office by the time the handkerchief appeared. ’Twas a somewhat awkward blunder, but it was repaired with extraordinary speed and the melancholy finding of the jury was chronicled aright.
Published by: The Evening News and Post, August 9, 1889
Written by: ?
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