alternatehistory.com

15 April 1865 SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAPH

The lamentable events of the 14th instant have cast a pall across the learned societies of Britain and the Continent, and have delivered a dire blow to the progress of human thought.

On that evening, the renowned naturalist and geologist Mr Charles Darwin was attending a performance at the Dagenham Theatre of the new play Our British Cousin, adapted somewhat freely from Mr Charles Dickens’s novel Martin Chuzzlewit. Mr Darwin had been honoured with a seat in the box.

Mr Anthony Booth, a well-known player, apparently had contrived a hatred of Mr Darwin in the belief that his naturalistic speculations had undermined the foundations of religion. As he was familiar to the staffers and workers of the theatre, he was able to obtain access to the facilities without drawing comment.

The subsequent course of events is not entirely clear. Mr Booth appears to have concealed an improvised door-bar in the access to the box, and after obtaining entry, closed off the access. He thereupon entered the box, and with a derringer-pistol, shot Mr Darwin in the head.

In the confusion, he jumped to the stage, crying, “Believe God rather than man!” before making his escape. The Metropolitan Police Service has issued a bulletin for the arrest of Mr Booth and has dispatched a force of constables to search his usual places of residence.

Mr Darwin was removed to the precincts of a nearby boarding-house for medical treatment. At press time we can only say that his life hangs by a thread.
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