<Li> Justice Lawrence John Wargrave , a retired judge , known as a `` hanging judge '' for liberally awarding the death penalty in murder cases . Wargrave is accused of influencing the jury to hand a guilty verdict to Edward Seton , a man many thought was innocent of his crime of killing an old woman , and sentencing him to death unfairly . However , as the two policemen discuss at Scotland Yard , new evidence after Seton 's execution proved he was unmistakably guilty . He admits in his postscript that he has a lifelong hidden sadistic urge to cause death , but felt bound only to indulge it with guilty persons , and a lifelong wish to create a masterpiece of a mystery . Finding himself terminally ill , he creates a game in which , as island owner `` U.N. Owen '' ( i.e. , `` Unknown '' ) , he entices to an island various people who have been responsible for the deaths of other people , but escaped justice , through a third party agent , Isaac Morris , in order to be a murderer himself , and kill his `` guests '' in a way that would leave an almost - unsolvable mystery . After the deaths , he arranges the island so that each death appears to have a survivor . However out of what he admits is a `` pitiful human need '' for recognition , he also writes a confession , which he throws in the sea , and leaves to chance whether it will be found . His final act is to shoot himself in a way that matches the description of his death in some of the other guests ' diaries , by using a rubber cord and handkerchief wrapped around the gun when he shoots himself in the head ; the elastic will separate and attract no attention , and the gun and cloth will recoil a sufficient distance from him to avoid any suspicion of the true circumstances by the police . </Li>
who was mr.owen in and then there were none
Justice Lawrence John Wargrave