The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-03-16 00:00:00

NOT AGREEING TO A VERDICT.

A trial of exceptional interest took place at the Donegal
Assizes, and lasted two days. It was a prosecution of two
brothers named Bernard and Charles M 'Cailog for the mur-
der of a woman. The case presented some of the most re-
volting features of agrarian crime, remarks the Dublin
correspondent of The Times, who thus narrates the proceed-
ings of the trial—
The prisoner Bernard AUCallog, when called upon
to pis ad, said, with an air of solemnity, "Not Guilty.
No, tha lks to God, I never murdered any one!"
His brother pleaded " Not Guilty," and in reply to
the usual question, said he was ready for his trial at
any minute.
Mr. Johnstone, Q.C., who represented the Crown,
stated the circumstances under which the murder was
committed. Edward M'Callog, a brother of the pri-
soners, and Owen I'Fadden, husband of Ann
M'Fadden, the murdered woman, were married to two
sisters. The former lived with an man named
Magee, but a quarrel having arisen, M Callog bad to
leave the house, and the old man then took into his
house a widowed daughter named Sally M'Fadden.
Magee diet on the Bth of January, 1871. All the par-
ties then met about the house, and the prisoners were
heard to threaten Owen M'Fadden. Their animo-
sity to him was not diminished when they afterwards
found that he had induced Sally M'Fadden to gel
the interest in the farm to him, and to eject the
51`Callogs. They were further exasperated by the
seizure of their cattle for the costs of the ejectment
proceedings. Owen M`Fadden went into possession
on the 9th of June. On the night of the Ist of
August he and his family, consisting of his wife
and three children, were in the house, which
contained but two rooms. They were preparing
to go to bed, between eight and nine o'clock.
Owen was getting his bed ready, and his wife was
seated beside another, with a candle in her hand,
looking over some clothes, when a man entered the
room and fired a pistol at the woman, who imme-
diately fell. She afterwards got up and struggled to
the door. Her husband seized the man, and a
desperate encounter ensued between them. Owen
M.Tadden seized the pistol with his left hand and held
it firmly, and the two combatants, when other means
.if inflicting injury failed, then used their teeth against
each other's faces, and endeavoured, as it was sworn, to
bite off each other's nose. Ultimately. M'Fadden, being
the stronger of the two, contrived to get his antagonist
down on the bed, and lay over him. Meanwhile
another man, believed to be Charles M'Callog, had
come in immediately after the shot was fired, and he
, followed the woman out and discharged another pistol.
On returning the house he found his companion, who
was allege! to be Bernard 111.Callog, struggling
with M'Fadslen, and, coming to his rescue,
struck the latter on the temple with some blunt
weapon. M'Fadden with difficulty crawled away
from them and got into the house of a neighbour,
where he fell on the floor exhausted. There were
five or six young men in that house, but not one
would put forth a hand to ahl him. The woman was
afterwards found outside the house still breathing, but
expires! in a few minutes. The police were commu-
nicated with, and on searching the prisoners' beds
found clothes with stains which on chymical examina
tion were proved to be of blood. Owen M'Fadden at
onee identified the prisoners after they were arrested.
He swore to the facts stated, and two of his children,
both very yoursg, corroborated his evidence, and posi-
tively identified the prisoners.
. The defence was an alibi, and the evidence to sup-
port it was that .if a sister of the prisoners, who swore
that on the night in question they met with an acci-
dent, that the shaft of a cart having broken struck
Bernard M'Callog on the cheek, and that neither of
them went out of the house afterwards. She gave her
evidence in Irish, and it was communicated to the
l'ourt through an interpreter.
Counsel for the Crown applies! for liberty to produce
rebuttihg evidence as to the breaking of the cart, but
Mr. Justice Keogh objected to that course as unfair
to the prisoners, after the case for the Crown had
closed._

The learned Judge delivered an elaborate and hn-
pressive charge, to which he devoted three hours.
After four hours' deliberation the jury stated that
there was no chance of their agreeing to a verdict,
and, one of them being seriously ill, they were dis-
charged.