The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-05-13 00:00:00

THE ALLEGED CONSPIRACY TO
MURDER:

In London, lit Bow-street Police-court, on Friday in la,.
week, William Kimpton Vance, 21, medical student, and Mrs
Helen Snee, 30, were brought up for final examination
before Mr. Vaughan, charged with conspiring together to
murder some person unknown.
Mr. Poland appeued on behalf oi the Crown to prosecute ;
defended Vsnce, and Sir. George Francis
appeared for Snee.--The following report cf the case is from
The Times :

last.

Elizabeth Brand deposed that she was an assistant
to the post-mistreis at Welwyn, Herthrdshire. She
knew the prieoner Va,nce as a medical student, and
acting as Dr. Kite's assistant. He came to the post-
office with the money order produced, and witness
_ _ . .

- William James, assistani. to MessrEl. Corbyn and
Co., chymists, 300, High Holborn proved that on the
Bth of April a man calling himself W. Bennett, of
Kimblethwaite, Leeds, bought an ounce of liquid
chloral. Witness did not identify the prisoner, but
believed the bottle p-oduced was the same in which he
served thq cleoral. • Witness charged the man medicark
price. •0"!--ILI , a 4 JI
Chief lnspector Clarke, of Scotland-yard, rec.,
deposed that he took to Dr. Bond all the drugs fl
on Vance 's premises.
Dr. Thomas Bond, Of Parliament-street,
and Lecturer on Forensic Medicine at Westminster',
deposed that he received from the last witneep
certain drugs, including the bottle referred to. The
bottle from the smell had contained chloral.- The
-
bottle would contain, sufficient to destroy two
lives. Some of the bottles contained prussic acid;
one had no label on it. The label of another
bottle was "Poison—not to be. taken •" the bottle
containing strychnine. There were about 4oz. of
corrosive sublimate, a bottle of laudanum, powdered
opium, 6-1 grains of morphia, and one tincture of bella-
donna. They were alf'poisons, but were used by medi-
cal men in the course of their profession. The remain-
ing drugs were ordinary. In reply to Mr. Francis,
witness said he had never known the liquid chloral to•
be used by doctors in the form found in the bottle. It
could be used with safety in the hands of a medical
man. Questioned by Mr. Vaughan, he said that death
from chloral was not easily distinguishable from death
from natural causes, and it could not be distinguished
from death by chloroform or opium.

Mr. Poland here intimated that the prosecution was
closed, and the prisoners, after receiving. the usual
caution from Mr. Vaughan, said they would reserve
their defence.

Mr. M'Call complained of certain observations
which appeared in a weekly newspaper commenting on
the evidence given in the case. He said they were cal-
culated seriously to prejudice the minds of every one.
Mr. Vaughan said he had not seen the article, but
he was sure if the jury saw it, and it was improper, it
would not influence their minds in the matter. The
Press, as a rule, was managed very well in this country,
and deserved the support of the public.
The prisoners were then committed-for conspiracy to
murder Helen Snee, and Vance was specially charged
with unlawfully encouraging Mrs. Snee to commit
self-murder.

TERRIFIC BOILER EXPLOSION AT
BRISTOL.
A serious boiler explosion occurred at eleven o'clock
on Monday morning at the whitelead works of Messrs.
Hare and Co., in St. Philips. The engineer, Thomas
Chilcolit, had just got up steam in one of two boilers,
when one, weighing about five tons, exploding, went
bodily hrough the roof, and crossing two thorough-
fares at a height of three hundred feet, it crashed
through two houses, carrying away the roof of one and
completely destroying the other, and finally landing in
the centre of a thickly populated square or court of
small tenements. At the moment there was only one
child in the court, a little girl who was found lying
insensible with some injury to the brain. The
greatest excitement prevailed, amidst the crash-
ing of glass, the falling in of roofs, and the screams
of the terrified inhabitants of the court. For
nearly five minutes nothing could be seen, owing
to the atmosphere being filled with dust, and
mortar scattered by the falling walls of the houses;
but the occupants of the court—chiefly women—then
bearing screams proceedings from a corner of one of
the rooms of a house that had been wrecked, climbed
over the debris, and found the occupants—Mrs. Rowley
and a child—had miraculously escaped, though the
huge boiler must have passed within a few yards of
them, while the house was a complete wreck. The
engineer at Messrs. Hare's factory received such a shock
that he had to be taken to the hospital, and several
persons in the court were suffering from shocks to the
system. The escape of the other inhabitants of the
court was simply miraculous. Some thousands of per-
sons visited the scene of the disaster during the day.

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