ABSTRACT
On Friday evening last, about a quarter to five o’clock, one of the most cold-blooded murders on record was perpetrated in the Birdcage-walk, St. James’s-park, by a Frenchwoman named Annette Meyer, a servant, who, at the station-house in Gardener’s-lane, stated her residence to be 40, Albion-street, Regent’s-park and her victim was a young soldier, belonging to the sixth company of Coldstream Guards, stationed at the Wellington Barracks, named Henry Ducker, formerly servant to Colonel Codrington. The following particulars of the melancholy catastrophe have been collected at the barracks, and may be relied on:—Ducker had left parade in the barracks at four o’clock, and intended to proceed to Storey’s-gate. Annette Meyer was waiting as he left the barracks, and nodded and smiled at him; but he is said to have taken no notice of her. She followed him closely on the side nearer the road, and when he had got a few yards distance from the Queen-square gate, she took from her pocket a large horse-pistol, which she placed under Ducker’s left ear, and discharged it. He fell dead instantly. She, finding she had effected her terrible purpose, threw the pistol at the murdered man’s head, and walked slowly away. The report on the pistol was, however, heard by police-constables Richards and Paul, who were on duty in the park, and they instantly ran to the spot where the smoke was observed, and, seeing the lifeless body of Ducker lying on the pavement, quickly followed Annette Meyer, who was pointed out to them as the assassin. She made no attempt to escape, and was quickly conveyed to the station-house. She said nothing, and appeared little concerned. In the meanwhile a stretcher was procured by Davy, 46 A, and Sergeant Dalglish and Paul, and the body was conveyed to the Wellington Barracks, where Dr. Skelton, the regimental surgeon, examined the wound, and pronounced the man quite dead, the ball having passed through the brain. The police-constable remembers seeing Meyer walking in the Birdcage-walk on the previous afternoon, when she was laughing and joking with other soldiers, but Ducker was then on picket, and of course could not leave the barracks. Ducker is said to have been acquainted with Meyer, who is of rather prepossessing appearance, for some time, and she often came to the barracks when she thought he would be off guard, but he seems to have treated her with indifference. He was but twenty years of age, and was much liked in the regiment. The body lies in the hospital of the barracks, to await the coroner’s inquest, which, together with the examination of the prisoner at the Bow-street police-court, we shall give a full report of in our later editions.
