The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-13 00:00:00

CONFESSION OF THE MURDERER.

On the Saturday evening after his trial, the unhappy
num began to make known to the chaplain the sad
details of his story, and finally he wrote the statement,
and signed it.

Ile said he had been jealous of the gill for some time,
and that for a month or more it had come into his head
that, if he did not have her no one else should. This was
because he thought she made too free with the lodgers, and
because he was told by a lodger she and her sister had
certain bad books. "I thought it very crone," he wrote
"that respectable girls should have such books, and spoke
to them about it, and they denied it. But it was agreed
Upon between the girls and me that the next time
we met him Alice should ask him If he bad meant
what he had said, and tilt n she would pitch into him. This
made me feel very jealous, and I swore then that if I catehed
her speaking to aity body I would kill her. on the Fr.day
night before it happened I was going through the kitchen of
her father's house, anti as I passed I saw one of the lodgers
and her sitting near each other. lb had his hand on her knee.
and she was either asleep or pretended to be asleep. This
made me very savage, because I thought that showed there
was something else between them. There was Mrs.
a neighbour, in the heuse at the time, awl as we left the
house together I asked her if she noticed it, and if she
thought it a right thing to do? I thought more of
this than of anything else. F.mily was drawing some
beer, and one of the lodgers reached over her shoulder to
draw some for himself. I spoke about his reaching over her
shoulder, anti he called me a jealous —. On the Sunday
afternoon it happeued she went and sat in the same room
the lodgers were in, and I asked her several times to conic
and sit where luau and she would not, but stopped is the other
room nearly all the time. I was drinking most of the day
and all that afternoon. I went to my tea, and returned about
six o'clock. It was If I took the razor froni the place
where It used to be kept, and alter a bit Alice ale!
Emily said they were going for a walk, alai ask,: 1 me
If I would go with them. They said, ' Now, Fred, are
you going along?' I said, would.' We walked
towards Swindon, but didn't go iltitC all the
way : and I had the razor in my pocket all the time. I felt
inclined to throw it assay two or three times ; but some-
thing seemed to keep me from doing it We came back
again, anti I went home to have my supper, and after I
had had it I went over to their house again. When
Alice was ready to go home Emily put on her things to
go with her, and they asked me to go along. After we
had parted with Alice, and was coming along home again,
it Caine into my mind that I would kill her if she did not
tell me she cared for me; and I said to her, 'Von seem
to care for those humbugging lodgers more than you do
for me, and you have been sitting in their company all
the evening. I also told her about seeing Jack's hand
upon her knee on Friday night, and she said, 'Don't bother
me I shall do as I like.' I said. 'Do you care anything for
moor not?' and she would not tell inc. I said, • 1 will make
you tell me, or I will cut your throat, and with your own
father's razor.' She then screamed ' Murder !' three times,
and I said, I'll murder you if I am bung for it the next
minute.' I then placed my arm against her chest.
She stood against the wall, and I was too much for her.
I cut her across the throat, and she fell against me
and knocked sic down. and we fell together, and that
was holly I was covered all over with blood. S. tine.
how or other in the scuffle my face was cut. I did not do it
nivself, as that doctor said. The prisoner subsequently
said that the wound was self-inflicted—that he was gone;
to kill himself, but that hie courage failed.] When on
the ground, I was determined to kill her, and cut her
again. I dragged the body, as they said, to the ditch
that it should not be run over, and I, mit home. She
always chose that root, and not me ; and I used to say,
' What makes you fond of going that tray?' I never
made an Improper proposal to her 1 never once
thought of such a thing ; I loved her too well for
that, and thought too much of her. Many a time I have
thought of asking her to go away with me somewhere, and
both of us to destroy ourselves. This has been when I
halve heard her mother going on at her, and telling her she
wished she was going to follow her to her grave. Every-
thing that has been mid abou It is all true, except
what the old woman said—that I tom her my girl always
carried a razor about with her ; which is a con-
founded story. Poor girl she never carried a razor
about with her, and I never told anyone so. lam very,
very sorry I ever did it ; but it was the cursed beer ; but
for that I shouldn't have done it. I never knew any harm
of her in all my life, and I love her now. I care not to live,
don't seem to dread what is before nie, and I pray every
hour for the Lord to have mercy on me and forgive me. I
can see It all now it is too late."