On 9 October 1912, the driver of a horse-drawn carriage noticed a man crouching near the front door of the house of Countess Flora Sztaray, located on South Cliff Avenue[1] in Eastbourne.

[6] The following day, a former medical student named Edgar Power visited the police, claiming that he knew the identity of the murderer.

Power said that the murderer was one George McKay, who was living in Eastbourne under the name "John Williams" with his pregnant girlfriend, Florence Seymour.

[9] Police covered Williams's head with an apron to prevent him from being photographed and thus possibly influencing witnesses.

[6] Upon his release, Power went to Seymour and told her that the police knew what had happened and that the only way to save Williams was to dig up the gun and move it somewhere safer.

Seymour was pregnant and in poor condition both physically and mentally; after a few hours of questioning, she wrote and signed a statement which incriminated Williams.

[9] In her statement, Seymour stated that Williams "had left her for half an hour near the Countess's house on the night of the murder, returning without his trilby hat, and afterwards throwing away a burglar's rope with a hook on the end of it, also with him burying a revolver on the beach he had broken in two.

"[1] Despite Seymour's statement, Williams maintained that he was innocent of the murder and the burglary, saying that "whoever did that did it to get to [Sztaray's] papers for political purposes.

On his way to and from the court Williams's head was again covered with an apron to prevent him from being photographed;[8] the press accordingly dubbed him "the hooded man.

She was physically exhausted and fainted four times in the witness box; this and other interruptions meant that the initial hearing took four days.

By this time, Williams had found a solicitor who had arranged for Patrick Hastings and C. F. Baker to represent him in court.

[11] Low received permission from the judge to treat Seymour as a hostile witness; despite this, she refused to say anything that would incriminate Williams.

At the suggestion of Chief Inspector Bower, photographers attempted to photograph the inside of the gun barrel in order to prove that the bullet had been fired from that particular revolver; the attempts were unsuccessful, and Churchill instead made a cast of the inside of the gun from dental wax.

After around fifteen minutes of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and Channell sentenced Williams to death.

[19] Hastings argued that Mr Justice Channell had misdirected the jury in the initial case, and that therefore their decision was void.

[19] Hastings felt that Alverstone had been biased from the start, later writing that "from the outset of the hearing it was apparent that he was satisfied with the prisoner's guilt, and no legal argument seemed to make the least impression on him.

Accompanied by Chief Inspector Bower, Williams' solicitor visited Freddy Mike, who again told the same story.

[21] A copy of the letter was sent to the Home Secretary, Reginald McKenna, along with a statement by Florence Seymour in which she claimed that her confession had been given after threats by the police.

[21] When Freddy Mike's statement became known to the public, various petitions and campaigns to free Williams were organised throughout the country.

McKenna replied that: "The house will understand that there is no part of the Home Secretary's duty which throws greater responsibility upon him or is indeed more painful, then that which has to be exercised in connection with the prerogative of mercy.

I have traced the family history of the man who calls himself Freddy Mike, and I find beyond question, and I may say even on his own admission, that there is not a shred or shadow of foundation for his story from beginning to end.