1. Cold-blooded murder
2. Body found buried under the fireplace
3. A man of many disguises
4. Deeming chooses his next victim
5. Capture at Southern Cross
6. Journey back to Melbourne
7. Was Deeming Jack the Ripper?
8. Detecting the signs of insanity
9. Preparing Deeming's defence
10. Crime of the Century?

5. Capture at Southern Cross

Within a few days of the discovery of Emily Mather's body, police had received reports of various sightings of Deeming alias Williams or one of his other identities and had a reasonable idea of his movements. A fellow-passenger on the voyage to Fremantle aboard the Albany, Mr Lamonde, reported seeing a man fitting the suspect's appearance and mannerisms. Lamonde told police Baron Swanston was intending to stay at the Shamrock Hotel in Perth. After analysing this new evidence with reports they had already received, Victorian police decided their suspect was now most likely in Western Australia, and contacted the local authorities.

Western Australian police kept good records of new arrivals in the sparsely populated colony, and it was very easy for them to trace the suspect from the Shamrock Hotel to the small gold-mining town of Southern Cross, where he had arrived by coach. Local police were telegrammed the news and instructions.

Deeming was arrested in Southern Cross on Friday 11 March 1892. Among the possessions he carried were his wedding certificate from his marriage to Emily Mather and the birth certificates of two of his children. A telegram was sent to Melbourne on 21 March confirming the identity of the man arrested:

Under heavy guard, Deeming was kept in a lock-up over the weekend and on Monday 14 March he was placed in a horse-drawn coach to travel the 320 km back to Perth to face justice. During the seven-day journey, news of the Rainhill murders in England reached Australia (see chapter 7 entitled Was Deeming Jack the Ripper?). On 18 March, Deeming's party transferred to a train at the small town of York that would take them the remaining 30 km into Perth. The closer the train got to the Western Australian capital the larger the angry crowds that gathered at stations to vent their outrage.

Deeming appeared before Police Magistrate J. Cowan the next day, 19 March, and was remanded to await the arrival of Detective Cawsey whose job it would be to oversee Deeming's police escort back to Melbourne. Cawsey was joined by Max Hirschfeldt, a fellow-passenger on the Kaiser Wilhelm II during Deeming's journey to Australia the previous year, who identified the prisoner as Williams. A deputation of police had also come across from Victoria for the escort.

With crowds of eager spectators trying to make their way into a courtroom already packed with legal professionals, the extradition hearing resumed on 22 March. After some further delays caused largely by inter-colonial resentments, Cawsey took Deeming into custody on 25 March to begin the long journey back to Melbourne.