The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-02-13 00:00:00

SHOCKING TRAGEDY in EAST LONDON.

A terrible double murder was perpetrated on Sunday
evening last, Which in some respects is remarkable for
atrocity even in the annals of the most savage crimes. (line
of the victims was an old man, deaf and nearly blind, who
had reached the extreme limits of the &Area in of human life;
and the other, his granddaughter, a young woman twenty-six
years of age. The supposed murderer is JOhll William
Cooper, an engineer, out of work, twenty-six years of age,
who has lost the thumb of his left hand, and eho is so well

known that his arrest, if he ha.s not committed suicide, cannot
long be delayed. Ile lived with his wife, Sarah Ann Cooper,
at No. 2, Russell-place, Poplar, immediately facing West
India Docks, a low building containing six rooms. In the ,
same house were also living a man named Peter l'earson,
aged 86 )ears, who was very deaf and nearly blind; his '
daughter, Eliza Taffe, mother of Mrs. Cooper ; and her hue-
band, George Taffe. These five persons occupied the whole
of a six-roomed house. Cooper, the suspect.' murderer, it
Is said, lived on very indifferent terms with his wile and her
parents and grandfather.
At about half-past five o'clock Mrs. Taffe went out to see
her sister, Sirs. Gooch, who lives in the East India-road, and
Mr. Taffe went to church, the husband of the murdered
woman mit being in the house. Mr. l'affe did not start for
church till nearly half-past six, and when Mrs. Taffe returned ,
home at about eight she could not gain an entratice to the
house as usual. Mrs. Taffe, naturally becoming alarmed,
went back to Gooch's house, and lie rammed with her, lint
finding no entrance was attainable the front way he got over
the back wall, and, on entering the room in which they had
all been sitting, and hail had their tea, found poor
old Pearson and Mrs. Cooper lying dead on the floor. Mrs.
Cooper was lying underneath, and old Pearson partly over ,
her, their throats being cut in a most savage and determined
manner, so that life must have been extinct immediately.
There was a long sprilig-back clasp knife lying on the floor
by the side of the bodies, and, from its appearance, the
fearful deed had 'men committed with that weapon. The
floor and almost every article in the scantily-furnished apart-
ment were covered with blood. That a desperate striggle
had taken place was manifest, a kitchen thole having been
knocked down and the legs broken, anti the remnants of a
table-lamp being scattered over the place. 'There was jib. Iv}
if water in the kitchen which hail been used by the murderer
after he had butchered his wife and her grandfisthem in washing
the blood from his hands. After the murders were perpe-
trated the murderer must have lighted a candle and pro-
ceeded up-stairs, for what purpose is not defined, for a
candlestick was found with marks of blood upon it; and the
Imprint of his hand (in blood was recognised on the wall of
the staircase. The police were at once sent for amid the
excitement that speedily prevailed in such a locality, and on
Inspector Smith going to the spot he called in Dr. Brown-
field, the divisional surgeon, who, with assistance, examined
the bodies, in which no signs of life remained, and they were
therefore left until the inquest, the police taking charge of
the premises.
During the whole of Monday Inspector Smith, and In-
spectors Thomson and Meiklejohn, of the detective depart-
ment, Scotland-yard, were actively engaged in making
, inquiries, and endeavouring to trace the supposed murderer.