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

LAW AND CRIME.

STEAM:HI StoRY.--Ou Thursday, George John
Whitehead, • tall well-built man of 32, who lu lost
one of his orals, was charged before Me. Knox, upon his
own confession, with murdering his wife, at the
Wership-street Police Coort. Lidiard, 340 N, stated,
that while ca duty at the Hackney statism at a quarter
to 2 that morning, the prisoner knocked at the door.
On being admitted, he paid, "I have mine here to give
myself up for the oeminiadon of a very serious offence."
Witness asked him what the offence was, and he replied,
"I stabbed my wife about • month ago at Guildford
with a knife, and she died, and I have had no peace of
mind sinew." He seemed perfectly sober. Sergeant
Ensaine, 25 N, said that the prisoner was brought to
him by the last witness. He said that he wished to give
himself up for killing his wife. Alter he had been
cautioned he stated that be eommitted the act four
weeks ago on a Wednesday. Ha at that time went
to Guildford, and discovered that his wife, hlsmaret
Matilda, was living with a Captain—at the Railway
Tavern, lie went into a bedroom, and, finding his .if.
and the captain in bed together, he took up • carrier
knife from the table, stabbed her in the chest with it,
. . . .

and killed her. The captain and he then agreed to
hush the affair up, and bury the body, so that the
bh" I took some *cable to see the seutot4.,,oolthtr nubile might think she had committed suicide. Re was
9: Chinese use ter'faoe' tee." ivrifeg
_dlr. Mk; (pap induced logo to Guildford, be added, in consequent* el
to).hinh6.ll/9 knee Iket bisitlett/ftffartss., purposely his wife hawing left him abont nine or ten &Ye.
.. 1 OW dfialtereeof admired * itiTatiland. Islyil-qttaa- Witness took down this statement, end, the prisoner
tay of Pretrial blue 'add jippludy they Imbibe. 'TO 161 having simied it, was detained. The prhomr here said
P"ndt a let, the amikraiir at the tilingpane. appUed that he did make the statement the last witness
rather more that, 'oeie Attie Y the
;74f
67,,Pleged princi I to Auk Ike fisottartess foundation whatever for it. Sergesnt.tdajoe Platt, of
ow,„,Zinf',l; 4ul , Ottgritt, and ;re tit!, colour ; the Corps of Commissionaires, deposed to the prisoner
~„ "
...?" whott,_
." . /ref 'hr . itusegl, the ' eon- Joining that corm in August, 1869, when he was pieced
CO clijuke ukoie than li Nu=pnvid of Pros- on duty at the South-Western Railway terminus. where
wan blue h •
ta "t° "Pltlal, cOdidlyintil of tea, his londaot was irreproachable, and he was afterwards
Yet, tell the dUnriltlf itdo * that ihe;Chtpese transferred to another station. Hifi conduct thee
eat 'cat and doge, and they will Solilii ',heti ba. In seemed to change altogether; he was guilty of drunk-
ya.,...'"'"lnen4, "41146Y-tive- peer to-Osa oozier and other misconduct, and wm at last summarily
umeoloi.
- tines M."; Published th above „work &solo- dismissed the force. The witness added that be (the
Mug eOis cl Otit/114Adt 11414#‘011. _ prisoner) had • wife, whom Ise had see* in October,
lecluntlY have far - when she WAS about to p, be believed, to Dahlia.
the Pure ' *v*l,o s.l
"• . ' ' 1' Although laopeogor Bowler's wridowa was aal
- • -........ .
- '...-) t.,,,,... . ,
"N'. . •

•

taken, it may he slated that. having learnt the prisoner
had a sister living in Jeresalele-gardens, Hackney, he
went there and saw her. She told hint that her
brother, the prisoner, had been there at three o'clock
that morning, and had had 1111 interview with her
husband, which, however, she Was not present at. The
inspector then proceeded to the address given by the
prisoner, namely, the Commissionaire Barracks, in
Exchntwe-court, Strand, l'here he hail a conversation
with Mijor Brett, who told him that Whitehead had
joined them as a teetotaller, and until removed to Cork
his conduct was unexceptionable. That on being sent
back, Captain Walters, chief of the commissioners,
gave bun another trial, and that lie remained until
Monday, when he was discharged for drunkenness.
Several of the wen in the barracka ineutioned a strange
circumstance, namely, that Whitehead had litely
spoken of Ilia wife thus : " Nobody knows where she
is—nobody can find her." An examination of the coin-
misaionaire's books showed another remarkable inci.
dent, namely, that Whitehead was absent on the 12th,
13th, and 14th of March ; the first-mentioned being the
date when the self-accuser averred that the deed was
done. The prisoner had been, by his own statement
to the inspector, nine years and eight months a quarter-
nese:ter. in the Royal navy, and lust his arm at the
captnte of Rangoon, in Berm iii, when he retired front
the service on is pension of Is. 2d. a day. He was
married, on the 6th of January, 1854. at the Old
Chsrlton church, to Margaret Matins. Adams. She,
after his appointment at one of the stations on the
South-Weatern line, obiained a situat'on in a first-elass
waiting.room at Guildford ice an attendant, and there,
he seserta, she first became acquainted with —. She
left her husband suddenly, and he knew not her
whereabouts until the receipt of a letter confidentially
stating that she was cohabiting with a person at the
Railway Tevern spoken of, upon which he starta.d off,
and entered the tavern about six o'clock on the 12th of
March ; that the body was buried on the Saturday; and
that he returned to the barracks on Monday. This
date also tellies with the accounts there kept. He was
remanded.