Witness: Mary Annie Wheatcroft

Defense attorney: What happened to give you full value?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: My husband manifested.

Defense attorney: Your husband appeared?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: Yes, he fulfilled a promise he made some years before he died.

Defense attorney: Did Mrs. Duncan know, or could she have known, of that promise that he fulfilled to you?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: No.

Defense attorney: Did he appear on this occasion?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: Yes, in the afternoon.

Defense attorney: How close to you did he come?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: I should think about three feet; I am not very good at measuring distances, but I was sitting next to Mr. Homer just by the cabinet.

Defense attorney: Are you quite certain that it was your husband?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: Oh, yes. Definitely.

Defense attorney: Do you live in London?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: Yes.

Defense attorney: Did you know Mrs. Duncan before?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: No. ‘

Defense attorney: Did Mrs. Duncan know that you were going?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: No.

Defense attorney: As far as you know, had either Mrs. Duncan or Mr. Homer any means of knowing what your husband looked like?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: No, That I am sure of.

Defense attorney: Why do you tell my Lord and the jury that your husband came into that room in Portsmouth?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: Albert said, “There is a gentleman here that wants a lady near the door”. I was not sitting near the door, but I looked at somebody who sat near the door, and I said, “I think that is you”. But, when my husband heard my voice, he opened the curtains and he came out and pointed to me and said, “I want you, Annie; I am Alf.”

Defense attorney: Is your name Annie?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: That is what my husband always calls me.

Defense attorney: Did he then come towards you?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: No, he just stood outside the curtains. I spoiled it, I think, by being so excited and told somebody else it was her that was wanted, because as soon as I said to him, “Oh, Alf, how lovely of you to come like this”, he seemed to fade and he went.

Defense attorney: It was only a very short recognition, was it?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: Yes, but it was perfectly certain.

Defense attorney: Are you judging it from appearances or anything else?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: Just the way he would speak to me ; it was just his manner, and it was him. I recognized his voice, and nobody else would call me Annie, and nobody but me would call him Alf, because his name is Absalom, and his friends called him Tab, but I did not like it so I always called him Alf.

Defense attorney: Have you any doubt it was your husband?

Mary Annie Wheatcroft: None whatever.