The Argus, 25 January 1930 DEEMING: PREHISTORIC MAN STORY OF A SKULL. Recent removals of the remains of criminals executed in the Melbourne Gaol afforded an opportunity for a careful examination of the skull of Frederick Bayley Deeming, the murderer, which was made by the director of the Australian Institute of Anatomy (Professor Sir Colin Mackenzie), who was astonished to find that in Deeming, by an extraordinary lapse of nature, a prehistoric man of the earliest primitive type known to science had been born in the nineteenth century. The evidence of the remains proves that Deeming was little less than a dangerous animal. In March, 1892, the body of a woman was found under a hearthstone embedded in cement, in a house in Windsor. The crime was traced to Deeming, who, under the name of Barron Swanson, had fled to Southern Cross (W.A.), where he was arrested and whence he was brought back to Melbourne. In the meantime inquiries instituted by The Argus through its London representative brought to light the fact that Deeming had also murdered his wife and four children at Rainhill, near Liverpool, in England. The bodies had been disposed of in a manner similar to that of his victim at Windsor. These disclosures, Deemings callous and indifferent behaviour after his arrest, and the brutality of the crimes aroused popular feeling deeply. The murdered woman proved to be Emily Mather with whom Deeming had gone through the ceremony of marriage in England. He had become engaged after the murder to a Miss Rounsevell, and at Southern Cross he had already provided the cement for the disposal of her body. The Trial. Deemings trial, which lasted for five days, was begun before the late Mr. Justice Hodges at the end of April, 1892. The evidence left no possible doubt of his guilt. The only possible hope of procuring a verdict in his favour lay in a plea of insanity, which was not upheld, despite evidence by Dr. J. W. Springthorpe and the late Dr. J. Y. Fishbourne. Deeming was an extraordinary glib liar, and Dr. Springthorpe had the greatest difficulty in arriving at the truth. The vanity of the prisoner was immeasurable and he displayed an utter lack of remorse for his crimes. He pretended that when he changed his name he changed his identity. He admitted that Frederick Williams - the name he had used at Rainhill - had killed the women and children there, also that Frederick Deeming had killed Emily Mather at Windsor, but neither of these crimes, he insisted, could be alleged against Barron Swanson, the name he had assumed in Western Australia, and he vigorously dissociated himself from the acts of Williams and Deeming. Dr. Springthorpes summing up of the life of Deeming was that it had been an extravaganza broken by lack of funds at intervals. The Crown kept the medical witnesses for the defence strictly to the terms of what is known as the McNaughton test, namely, whether at the time the crime was committed Deeming was aware of the nature and quality of his actions. This test was laid down by a committee of the House of Lords in 1843, as determining guilt, and in 1891 it had been reaffirmed by the Victorian Full Court. Dr. Springthorpe could not conscientiously swear to the state of Deemings mind at the time he committed the crime, in order to overcome the McNaughton test. His persistence in maintaining his own conviction of insanity brought him into conflict with the Court, and Mr. Justice Hodges somewhat abruptly terminated his evidence. The verdict of guilty was a foregone conclusion and Deeming was sentenced to death. The Scientific Viewpoint. The examination of the remains by Sir Colin Mackenzie revealed some very interesting features. When man first assumed the upright posture his head was placed on the spinal column toward the back of the skull, where also was the opening known as the foramen magnum, through which the spinal cord reached the brain. In order to keep the head from sagging forward a broad band of muscle was attached to the back of the skull, where it was anchored to a bony ridge. When the upright posture of man became firmly established the spinal column and the foramen magnum moved forward to the centre of the base of the skull, where the head became balanced, and, their usefulness being passed, the heavy muscles and the bony ridge disappeared. These changes took place slowly over thousands of years. Even in the now extinct palæolithic Tasmanian native the foramen magnum was in the centre of the base as in modern man, and there was no trace of the bony ridge at the back of the skull. It was therefore with no little astonishment that Sir Colin Mackenzie discovered that in Deemings skull the opening for the spinal cord was at the back of the base as in the anthropoid. The bony ridge at the back was also clearly in evidence. This, however was not all. Behind each ear there is a small bony projection on the skull known as the mastoid process. In modern man these point directly downward and slightly forward. In the most primitive type of man they sloped backward. In Deemings skull the mastoid processes curve backward. The arch of the skull is also distinctly simian. A cast of the oldest human relic known to science, the Java skull, when placed upon Deemings fits it like a cap. Deeming had also the characteristic anthropoid heavy bony structure of the brows. The cubic content of the skull is also very low, and there is no frontal development, showing that the brain was of a very low and primitive type. The skeleton of Deeming also revealed two very distinct and typical anthropoid characteristics. The angle at which the thigh bones were set in the hip sockets gave him the shambling ape-like gait that was so noticeable in him, and he also had immensely long arms which reached to his knees. The deductions to be drawn from these extraordinary peculiarities are that Deeming was a dreadful anachronism. He was born thousands of years too late for the biological era to which he belonged, and compared with modern man he was but one step in development from the anthropoid, with a moral and intellectual capacity to match. Like Sir Colin Mackenzie, Dr. Springthorpe, who has also examined the cast made from the skull, is astonished. Deeming must have been totally incapable of appreciating any moral precept. His mind was governed only by his material needs. Whatever he required he acquired by the most direct means. If killing were the easiest method of attainment, he killed. His knowledge of right or wrong was similar to that of a cat or a dog, which has no moral sense, but which realises wrong-doing because of former punishment. Just as an animal detected in theft will use cunning to evade punishment, so Deeming used his higher order of animal cunning. He was not capable of remorse for his crimes, and that factor accounts for his callousness.
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 04:59:46 +0000
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