The Pall Mall Gazette - Saturday, April 27, 1895

THE CHARGE AGAINST OSCAR WILDE.
TRIAL AT THE OLD BAILEY.

The first feature of this morning's proceedings in the Wilde case was the cross-examination by Sir Edward Clarke of the young man Alfred Wood. It was Wood who obtained from the man in the dock the sum of £30 for the return of certain letters of his to Lord Alfred Douglas. But there was one letter which was not returned. Wilde met it again in his cross-examination after it had come into the possession of Lord Queensberry. It was Wood, too, as disclosed yesterday, who in conjunction with a man named Allen obtained by blackmail £300 from a gentleman who had been delivered into their hands through the instrumentality of Charles Parker. Wood got £175 as his share of that blackmailing transaction, he now said. He denied having obtained money in this way frequently. It appeared from his statement now that when he got the £30 from Wilde he represented that he was anxious to go to America. There he had had employment, but it was three or four years since he had done any work.