The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-04-15 00:00:00

LAW AND CRIME.

&MANGE STORY.—On Thursday, George John
Whitebait!, • tall well-built MU of 32, who has lost
one of his arms, was chargedbefore Mr. Knox, upon his
own confession, with murdering his wife, at the
Wership-stteet Police Court. Iddiard, 340 N, stated,
that while on duty at the Hackney station at a quarter
to 2 that morning, the prisoner knocked at the door.
On being admitted, he said, "I have some here to give
mynelf up for the commission of a very serious °geom."
Witness linked him what the offence was, and he replied,
" I stabbed my wife about-a month ago at Guildford
with a knife, and she died, mut I have had no peace of
mind time." He seemed perfectly sober. Sergeant.
• Busaine, 2,5 N. said that the prisoner was brought to
him by the last winsome. Hs said that he wished to give
himself up for killing his wife. Alter he had been
cautioned be star that he committed the let four
weeks agnon .a. kdneedat. He at that, time went
to Giaildford; an Alicoverea that his wife, Margaret
Matilda, was livlag with 1%, Captain—at the Raffway
'Tavern, He went into • bedroom, and, ending his wife
Wed the captain in bed together, he 'took up • earring-
-I'oWe front the table, stabbed Insr in Ilse cheat With it,
End killed her. The captain and be then agreed to
bosh the *fair up, and bury the body, so that the
pallid might think she had committed suicide, He was
Induced logo to.Gittildfqrd, he added, In consequence of
his wife having left him about nine or ten dsys.
'Witness took dosen this statement, and, the prinoner
' having tiers! it, WU detained. The prisoner here said
that he - did Make the stStement the last witness
produced, but that it was not true, and there was no
fonedition whatever for it. SergeanaMajo: Platt, of
The Corps; of (..'omniissioueires, clermtW to the prisoner
joining that corps in August, 1859. when he was placed
Ms duty at the Sonth-Western Railway terminus, where
his conduct was irreuromliable, and he was afterwards
•taensferred to another station. His conduct then
seemed to change altogether; be was guilty of drank-
• minim and other misconduct, ind'stas at last antnmarily
dismissed the force. The Witiees 'aniat that he (the
prisoner) had a wife, Wheal he la men in .oefolser,
' 'when she was *bout to go, he believed, to Dublin,
Although Intpoolor Sordid. orklgove Vag'ROt

taken, it may be 'dated that. having learnt the prisoner
had a sister living in Jernsalem-gardene, Hackney, he
went there and eaw her. She told hint that her
brother, the prisoner, lied been there at three o'clock
that morning, and had had an interview with her
husband, which, however, she was not present at. The
inspector then proceeded to the address given by the
prisoner, nemely, the Comaisaionaire Berracks, hue
Eschangemourt, Strand, There he had a conversation
with klajor Brett, who told bhn that Whitehead bed
joined them as a teetotaller, and until removed to Cork
his condect was unexceptionable. That on being Bent
back, Captain Waken., *hid of the eommiesioners,
gave hint another trial, and that he remained until
Monday, when he was discharged for drunkenness.
Several of the men in the 'wreaks mentioned a strange
oireurnatanee, namely, that Whitehead hid lately
spoken Of his wife thus : "Nobody knows where she
hormobaly ran lied her." An examination of the coin-
miasionaire's books showed another remarkable inci-
dent, namely, that Whitehead was absent on the 12th,
nth, and titli of Mare% ; the drst.inentioned being the
date when the self-accuser averred that the deed wee
dotta. The prisoner had been, by his own statement
to the iespeobor nine years and eight months a quarter-
master lath. Royal navy, and lost his arm at the
eeptnie of Rangoon, in Burwell, when he retired from
the service on a pensioa of is. 2ul. a day. He was
married, on the 6th of January. 1861, at the Old
Charlton church, to Margaret Retitle Adams. She,
after his appointment at one of the stations on the
Smith-Western line, ob!ained • situation ins find-class
waiting-room at Guildford as an attendant, and there,
he asserts, she first became acquainted with —. She
left her husband suddenly, and he knew not her
wiseseaboutsiintil the reeeiprof a letter confidentially
stating that she was cohabiting with • person at the
Railway Tavern spoken of, upon which he started off,
and entered the tavern about six o'clock On the 12th of
Ilseph.; that the body wee buried on the Saturday ; and
that he returned to the berracks mi Monday. This
date also tallies with the arnounte there kept. He was
remanded. '