Infamous Scots. John Watson Laurie.

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On 12th July 1889 Edwin Rose, a clerk from London, was travelling on the steamer from Rothesay to the Isle of Arran for a holiday, when he met 25-year-old Laurie. Laurie was a pattern-maker from Glasgow and was travelling under the name of John Annandale. He invited Rose to share his lodgings on the island. The pair made friends with two other young men and the four of them went boating and walking together.

Laurie had proposed to Rose that the two of them climb Goatfell. One of the other men took Rose to one side and warned him to be wary of Laurie and not to go on the climb with the man. The other two men left the island on 14th July, at the conclusion of their holiday, and the next day Rose and Laurie left their lodgings without saying where they were going. Their landlady assumed that they had absconded to avoid paying their bill.

Rose’s brother arrived on the island on the 27th July. He had become concerned when his brother had not returned from his break. He found out that his brother had set out to climb Goatfell on the 15th in the company of Laurie. A search involving 200 islanders found Rose’s body hidden under a pile of rocks. He had been beaten to death and robbed. A shepherd was found who had seen Laurie coming down Goatfell on the 15th, alone and exhausted. Laurie had also been seen the next morning leaving the island.

When news of the killing reached the mainland Laurie left his job and moved to Liverpool. He couldn’t resist writing to the newspapers to tell them that ‘I smile when I read that my arrest is expected hourly.’ On 3rd September he was spotted boarding a train at Fernigair and was chased by a local constable. When he was trapped in a local wood he tried to cut his throat but the wounds were only superficial.

He appeared at Edinburgh charged with murder. He admitted robbing Rose but denied killing him, contending that he had died as the result of a fall. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. This sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after he was found to be of unsound mind. He was transferred to Perth Criminal Asylum in 1893 after a short escape from Peterhead Prison. He died in the asylum in 1930.