Edmund Reid

Inspector Ross decided to try a few
experiments to investigate whether
the dog Nip was gun-shy. The results
were wildly divergent: when a blank
revolver shot was fired, the dog
merely wagged his tail, but when an
alka-seltzer bottle was opened with
a pop, the timid canine yelped with
fear and ran out into the yard. At the
coroner’s inquest, Dr Fox testified that
the assailant had probably stood just
four feet away when he shot Mrs Noel;
the bullet was a large one, probably
emanating from a revolver or pistol of
large calibre. Rigor mortis had begun
to set in when the body was at the
mortuary at 7.30, indicating that she
had been murdered five or six hours
earlier. A number of witnesses swore
to the impressive alibi of William Noel
between 2.20 and 4.00 pm: he had been
seen by many people walking to the
Sunday school, looking quite jolly and
contented, and later returning home
accompanied by some of his pupils.
Miss Martha Saunders, the spinster
sister of Mrs Noel, produced a letter,
written in the last month, in which the
deceased had referred to her husband:
“William, I think, if possible, is more
fond of me than ever.” Two days before
the murder, when the two sisters
had been at Hastings, Mrs Noel had
expressed herself in a similar strain.
There was much newspaper interest
in the ‘Ramsgate Mystery’, which held
its own among the celebrated murders
of the day, even in the large London
newspapers. A worried local, who
despaired of the Ramsgate police’s
ability to solve the crime, appealed to
Dr Conan Doyle to come to Ramsgate
Mrs Noel and the dog Nip, and Noel before the magistrates,
from the Penny Illustrated Paper, 10 June 1893
and make use of his Holmesian powers of deduction, but all he received was a polite reply that Conan Doyle was too
busy with his professional duties to have time for any seaside crime-solving excursions.
But Inspector Ross did not agree with this benign picture of William Noel. Since a number of valuables had been left
at the murder house, he felt convinced that the robbery had been ‘staged’ by the murderer. Since Mrs Noel did not seem
to have any enemies, and since the dog had not barked much at the time of the murder, he thought William Noel the
prime suspect: he had shot his wife just before leaving for the Sunday school, and then successfully played the innocent
husband. Inspector Ross lent a willing ear to the Ramsgate gossips who spoke of Noel’s immoral activities. The lustful
butcher had once employed a young lady book-keeper named Miss Miller, and an old woman had once seen these two in
a compromising position, lying together on the floor. A farm labourer had once met Noel, who was coming to purchase
some lambs; he had been accompanied by a young woman, for whom he gathered a bunch of wild flowers. Several other
Ripperologist 147 December 2015 33