Steinie Morrison

Case record

Steinie Morrison was a 30-year-old, 6' 3 tall professional burglar at the time of Leon Beron’s death. He was a Russian Jew. He claimed to have been born in Australia. His real name was Alexander Petropavloff, and he also used the names Morris Stein and Moses Tagger. At one point he called himself Banman.

Background

Leon Beron was a 48-year-old widower who had come to England from Paris in 1894. He was a Russian Jew with a poor command of the English language. He was a property owner and owned nine small houses in Russell Court, Stepney, which provided him with income from rents. He dressed neatly and always wore a large gold watch and chain with a five guinea piece attached. He carried a purse containing twenty sovereigns. He rented a room above a fruitshop in Jubilee Road and dined each day in the Warsaw restaurant in Osborn Street, Whitechapel. Another diner in Beron’s company at the Warsaw restaurant in December 1910 was Steinie Morrison.

Morrison had come to England in 1898 and had spent almost all of the previous twelve years in prison. The account also stated that he had already served five sentences for burglary.

Morrison told his landlady, Mrs Zimmerman, at 91 Newark Street, that he was moving to Paris. Instead he moved in with Florrie Dellow, a prostitute who lived at 116 York Road, Lambeth.

The offence

At 8.10 on the morning of Sunday 1st January 1911, Beron’s body was discovered by PC Mumford. It had been concealed in bushes near a footpath on Clapham Common. Beron had been struck on the head with a blunt instrument and was stabbed three times in the chest. There were also some superficial cuts to his face. He had been robbed. The account described a wallet emptied and a curious “S” mark carved into each cheek, described by the police surgeon as “like the f holes on a violin”.

Several people had seen Beron and Morrison together the night before. The owner of the Warsaw restaurant told police that Beron had left the night before in the company of another man.

Investigation

A cab driver came forward and told police that he had taken two men, speaking in a foreign language, to Finsbury Park Station; the description of one of the men fitted Morrison.

Police discovered that Morrison had worked for a time for a baker in Lavender Hill and knew the Clapham Common area.

Police also discovered that Morrison had deposited a revolver and 44 rounds of ammunition, wrapped in a parcel, at St Mary’s Station, Whitechapel, on the morning of 1st January. Another passage in the same account said Morrison lodged a revolver and 45 bullets at the left luggage office of St Mary’s Railway Station, in Whitechapel on the morning of New Year’s Day 1911.

Arrest

Morrison was arrested at Cohen’s restaurant, Fieldgate Street, on 8th January. Initially he was arrested because, while he was still on parole, he had failed to tell police of his change of address. The narrative stated that this failure was used by the police to gain more time, and that two days later the charge was altered to one of murder.

Trial

Morrison’s trial began at the Old Bailey on 6th March 1911 and lasted nine days. The jury retired for just thirty-five minutes before returning a guilty verdict.

The account described disputed and unreliable evidence. Beron’s brother, Solomon, attempted to physically attack defence counsel Edward Abinger when Abinger implied he might have had something to do with Leon’s death.

Sixteen-year-old Janie Brodski backed Morrison’s alibi that Morrison had spent the night at the Shoreditch Empire watching Harry Champion and Harry Lauder. Brodski claimed that she and her sister had paid on the door for seats in the stalls at a shilling each. The theatre manager confirmed that seat prices had been raised to 1s 6d for the night and that all seats had been sold out days in advance.

The account also stated that cab drivers placed Morrison at the murder scene, and that Morrison’s photo and offers of a reward had appeared in the newspapers.

Abinger attempted to cloud the waters further by implying that Beron was a police informant who had been assassinated for grassing on the anarchists responsible for the Houndsditch Murders and the Sidney Street siege. The account stated that the “S” marks stood for the Polish word “spiccan” or spy, and that Abinger suggested this interpretation. The policeman in charge, DI Wensley, scoffed at the theory.

The judge passed the death sentence. The account quoted the judge saying: “May the Lord have mercy on your soul.” Morrison replied: “I decline such mercy!” and “I do not believe there is a God.”

Sentencing

Morrison was sentenced to death. The status field stated: “Sentenced to death on March 15, 1911.”

He was reprieved by Winston Churchill, the Home Secretary, on 12th April 1911, and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The status field stated: “Commuted to life imprisonment on April 12, 1911.”

Appeals

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction.

After Churchill commuted Morrison’s sentence to life, the account stated that Morrison repeatedly appealed to be put to death.

Outcome

Morrison died in prison on 24th January 1921. The status field stated: “Died in prison on January 24, 1921.” The account stated that by the time of his death he was weakened by a series of hunger strikes. It also stated that he had been moved to Parkhurst before dying.

Aftermath

The account stated that Morrison continually protested his innocence, petitioned the Home Office on four separate occasions demanding that the original sentence be carried out, and never changed his story. It also stated that Beron’s brother Solomon attempted to physically attack defence counsel Edward Abinger when Abinger implied Beron might have had something to do with Leon’s death.