Edward Seton

Edward Seton is the young man whose trial and execution for murder form the central legal injustice that Justice Lawrence Wargrave later confesses to exploiting as the moral foundation for his own killing spree. Seton was charged with the brutal murder of an elderly woman who had trusted him. He came before Wargrave in June 1930, and his case became the catalyst for Wargrave's realization that the law could be bent to serve a judge's private will. Seton's fate is the one instance among the ten victims on Indian Island where the accused was actually guilty, yet it is also the clearest example of a judicial murder committed from the bench.

Identity and Background

Edward Seton was a fair-haired, blue-eyed young man with a habit of looking people straight in the face, a manner that created a strong impression of straightforwardness on the jury. He was defended by a skilled barrister named Matthews, who handled his client's cross-examination masterfully and made a powerful closing speech that seemed to tilt the case toward acquittal. The prosecution, led by Llewellyn for the Crown, was over-vehement and tried to prove too much, which further strengthened the defense's position. Seton himself came through the ordeal of cross-examination well, remaining calm and not becoming over-vehement. Despite the evidence against him being clear though unspectacular, public opinion at the time was overwhelmingly in his favor: nine people out of ten believed Seton was innocent and that the judge's summing up had been vindictive.

The Trial and Wargrave's Role

Justice Wargrave presided over Seton's trial. He remembered the case with precise satisfaction, noting how he had sat listening, making notes, appreciating every scrap of evidence that told against the prisoner. Wargrave's summing up was deliberately biased: he turned the jury right around and they brought in a verdict of guilty. The judge then passed the death sentence, concurring with the verdict. An appeal was lodged on grounds of misdirection, but it was rejected, and Seton was duly executed. Wargrave later reflected with cold pleasure that he had "cooked Seton's goose all right." Dr. Armstrong, who had followed the case, recalled hearing comments that the judge was dead against the prisoner and had turned the jury, though the summing up was quite legal. Armstrong also remembered that Matthews had been confident of an acquittal, and that it seemed almost as though Wargrave had a private grudge against Seton.

The Truth of Seton's Guilt

Despite the widespread belief in his innocence, Seton was in fact guilty. Wargrave, drawing on his long experience with criminals, was certain of it. Evidence turned up after Seton was hanged that proved his guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt. Wargrave himself stated in his confession that not only was the evidence clear, though unspectacular, but his own knowledge of criminals told him without any doubt that Seton had actually committed the crime. The man's appearance and manner were misleading, creating a good impression on the jury that did not reflect his true nature. This makes Seton the one person among the ten on Indian Island who was not a murderer in any sense of the word—he was a legally convicted and actually guilty murderer—and yet his case is the one that most clearly demonstrates Wargrave's abuse of judicial power.

Narrative Role and Significance

Seton's case serves as the cornerstone of Wargrave's entire scheme. It was the trial that awakened Wargrave to the pleasure of manipulating justice from the bench, and it provided the moral paradox that Wargrave later used to justify his own murders: since Seton was guilty, Wargrave could claim that his own judicial murder was merely the execution of a rightly convicted man. Yet the public perception of Seton's innocence—and the suspicion that Wargrave had been vindictive—allowed Wargrave to present himself as a victim of false accusation when the gramophone record named him. In his confession, Wargrave identifies Seton's case as one of three clues that might lead the police to the truth: because the police know Seton was guilty, they know that one of the ten people on the island was not a murderer, and it follows paradoxically that that person must logically be the murderer. Seton's ghost haunts the narrative: Vera Claythorne, sitting on the terrace, imagines seeing a young man with fair hair and blue eyes and a bewildered, frightened face standing in the dock, and she sees Wargrave's old hands putting the black cap on his head. Philip Lombard, upon discovering Wargrave's body dressed in scarlet and wig, cries out that Edward Seton would laugh if he were there to see the judge's end.