The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-09-13 00:00:00

CHARGE OF ATTEMPTED MITRDER:

In London, at the Clerkenwell Police-court on
Tuesday, William Costello, aged 38, a labourer, was
charged on remand with feloniously and maliciously
cutting the throat of his wife Emma, with intent to
murder, at No. 153, Bemerton-street, Islington, on
the night of the 30th ult. Evidence had already
been given by Police-constable Parish, and by Drs.
Slater and Stokes. The injured woman was in the
Great Northern Hospital at the time of the last hear-
ing of the case.
Emma Costello was now called, and appeared wear-
ing a bandage upon her throat. She said that on the
evening in question—she could not say at what time
she was drinking with her husband in their room.
She could only remember that; she had no recollec-
tion whatever of anything that occurred until she
woke up in the hospital on the Sunday morning, and
found that her throat was bandaged and very sore.
The witness was closely cross-questioned by Mr.
Barstow, but persisted in her statement that she re-
membered nothing of the occurrence, and that she
had no remembrance of having made any different
statement at the hospital or elsewhere.
Annie Costello said the prisoner was her father,
and the last witness her mother. She had been to
fetch her parents some drink during the evening, and
about half-past eight they told her to go out, and she
went, leaving them drinking together, and with
apparently no quarrel between them. She returned
shortly after nine o'clock, and found a policeman in
the room, and her mother lying on the floor with her
throat cut, her head resting on the prisoner's knees.
She did not hear anything said by either her father or
mother.

Emma Waterfall said she lodged with her husband
in the back kitchen, beneath the room occupied by
Costello and his wife. A little after eight o'clock on
the night in question, she heard some scuffling over-
head in the prisoner's room, but she was accustomed
to that on Saturday nights, and took no notice of it.
About ten minutes afterwards she came up from her
kitchen and heard some one cry, "Oh! the woman in
the back parlour has cut her throat." She went into
the back parlour and saw a man named William
Rogers holding a candle, while the prisoner sat on the
bed holding his wife's head upon his arm. The
woman was bleeding from a wound in her throat, and
she said to the prisoner, "You know, Bill, you did
it; didn't you?" The prisoner let her fall upon the
fender, but picked her up again immediately, and he
then had his hand upon her throat. The husband of
the witness said, "Don't hold her there."
In reply to the prisoner—She did not notice that
he held a handkerchief to his wife's throat.

The prisoner accused the witness of giving false
evidence.

John Rogers, a boy living in the same house, said
he was sent by the prisoner to buy a candle, and after-
wards to fetch a policeman. When the candle was
lighted he saw Mrs. Costello lying on the floor, with
her head beneath the bed, and the prisoner lifted
her head upon his arm. Witness saw that, she was
bleeding.
The Prisoner: The boy has told the truth.
Jane Rogers, the mother of the last witness, gave
evidence of similar purport. The first she knew of
the affair was, when coming downstairs in the dark,
she heard the prisoner come out of the room and say,
"Will you be so kind as to give me a light; for I
believe my wife has cut her throat." She replied,
"Good God! you don't say so." Her little boy was
sent for a candle, and she afterwards fetched another
son from a neighbouring public-house. Witness heard
Mrs. Costello, after her throat had been sewn, say to
the prisoner, "Yes, you know you done it," and the
prisoner replied, "No, I didn't."
William Rogers, another son of the last witness,
said that when he entered, the, room he saw the pri-
soner holding a candle in one hand, while with the
thumb and forefinger of the other hand he tried to
close the wound in his wife's throat and to stop the
bleeding. He heard the woman say, "You know you
done it.' All he heard the prisoner say was, "Oh,
poor girl." • He (witness) had to hold the woman's
hands for the doctor, to keep her from tearing at her
throat.

Inspector Ruff said that the prisoner MA very
violent at the station. • -
, The prisoner said he only askeel his daughter to be
careful what she signed her hand to.
Dr. Stokes, in reply to the magistrate, said that in
• ik his opinion the wound,on the throat ould not have
been inflicted by' the' wcunair hersel less she was-
left-handed, and the wound on the ad could not
have bedn inflicted by grasping a- knife to'-cut with.l
It was too far tbivards the hack of theiand. • • -
The pt,soner, 711? made a statement of some length,.
• 5334 14wite,fried to get out,
,beiiig&unkatia hysteri-
ial„ IV drewa bed 340;* tile' dilor to prevent her;
....mild-turned it on its side., ~Thure.w,ere,.two or three!
. loose hArs on the cbedsteacl, the ends of whi.th were
, very silty, and when he.tarne*l the bedstead back
again he found that his wife was' underneath it, and
that she felwet t. He called at once for a light and
.for h0ri..,.: . , -
."" aFjlariti, committed him for trial.

. .
AT; AUTUMN-3rAnc BREAK.--The Proroaahon 'of
I Arliameut.-Punch.