Deeming was taken under armed escort from Southern Cross to Perth, the capital of Western Australia, for an extradition hearing. The hearing would return him to Victoria to be tried for the Windsor murder. In light of the discovery of the bodies in England, a conviction looked like a foregone conclusion.
Deeming left Southern Cross in the charge of three armed constables for the five-day train trip to Perth. The train stopped overnight in different towns. He fainted twice on the journey and could not sleep or eat. A strict watch was kept over the prisoner day and night, and the handcuffs were never removed.
When Deeming arrived in the small town of York on the final night of the journey, a crowd greeted the man that they had heard slaughtered his entire family and a second wife. The platform was packed with onlookers, and as Deeming stepped from the train under close guard, he was aware of the intensity with which the crowd was scrutinizing him.
Fearing an upheaval that the police could not control, Deeming raised his chained arms and brazenly said, "Ladies and gentlemen, you need not look at me. I am not guilty, but I have been victimized."
When the train moved off, he smiled at the glaring crowd. The awaiting crowd at Perth was so large that instead of disembarking at Perth Central Railway station, Deeming was taken off at the nearby Lord St. Crossing, placed in a waiting van, and taken to the Waterside Lockup.
At the lockup, an inventory was taken of a trunk filled with Deeming's possessions. Among its pitiful contents were a silver case with "Emily" engraved on the outside with one pair of gloves inside. There also was a double photo frame containing two photos, one of Deeming and a little girl about six years old, and the other of a family group of a father, mother and three children. Rounding out the detritus was a pocketbook containing a small timetable of trains to and from Rainhill and St. Helen's Junction; one small battle-axe with a very sharp blade; one master mason's apron with an F.B.D. monogram; and a book of Common Prayer with "December 26th 1889 Emily," written on the leaf of the cover.
Deeming's extradition hearing took place on March 24, 1892, in the Perth Police Court. He appeared haggard and thin, and held frequent conferences with his counsel, Richard Haynes, QC. Det. Sgt. Cawsey, who had sailed from Melbourne so he could personally escort Deeming back to trial, waited patiently as Deeming's lawyer desperately fought extradition on the grounds that his client could not have a fair trial in Melbourne as the angry mob that had formed outside the Perth courthouse demonstrated.
The extradition order was finally granted and Deeming was placed in the custody of Det. Cawsey. At 11:00 a.m. on March 27, 1892, Deeming, Cawsey, three armed police officers, and two reporters boarded the train at Midland Junction on the outskirts of Perth for the arduous 250-mile overnight rail trip to Albany in southwest Australia to rendezvous with the S.S. Ballarat. The ship was travelling to Melbourne.
The train's first stop for coal and water was at York, 60 miles outside of Perth, and there was a huge angry crowd. Word had spread all the way down the train line by telegraph that the despised child and wife killer was passing through. The curious and vindictive gathered to have a look and to voice their opinions. Many women were in the crowd and they shouted, "Lynch him", "drag him out," and "pull him to pieces with bullocks." The shutters on Deeming's compartment were put up to conceal him, but the crowd surged forward and pushed upon the carriage until it almost rocked. One person broke a window from the other side from the platform. Fearing mob lynching, the terrified Deeming jumped from one side of the compartment to the other and begged the police to shield him.
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