The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-07-10 00:00:00

TRIAL FOR MURDER.

At the Central Criminal Court, in London, on Friday
morning in last week, James Sweetland, 33, a master baker,
was placed upon his trial on an indictment charging him
with the wilful murder of Samuel Wan' Buckler.

Mr. Poland and Mr. Montagu Williams were counsel for
the prosecution, on the part of the Treasury; Mr. Atherley
Jones was for the defence.

Mr. Poland, in opening the case for the prosecu-
tion, stated that the prisoner was a master baker,
having a shop at 7, Junction-road, Holloway, and
the deceased, Samuel Warr Buckler, was a cheese-
monger, having a place of business at 2, Junction-road,
which was directly opposite the prisoner's house. It
would seem that the prisoner had become addicted
to intemperance, and on the Wednesday previous to
the occurrence, which was on the 22nd of May, the
deceased man had to close his shop for him in conse-
quence of his intoxication, a crowd being outside. On
the following Friday the prisoner went to Harpenden
Races, and on his return in the evening he went into
a publichouse in the neighbourhood, and, meeting
some acquaintances, a conversation arose with refer-
ence to Buckler, the deceased. The prisoner used
certain expressions which tended to show that he
had some complaint against the deceased. On that
same night there was knocking heard at the door of
the deceased's house, and it appeared that the pri-
soner must have gone to the house for the purpose of
annoying Buckler. The prisoner was spoken to about
the matter, andhe went home to ben. On the following
morning, Saturday, May 22, he got up at half-past six
for the purpose of his business. He sent out an asssist-
ant to procure some gin, and from that time till seven
o'clock he was drinking spirits. He went across to
Buckler's shop, and at about a quarter-past seven was
seen in an excited manner having hold of the de-
ceased's collar. The prisoner owned two double-
barrelled guns, which he was in the habit of using for
pigeon-shooting, for which purpose the ordinary shot
used was Nos. sor 6. On that morning, however, he
appeared to have gone to a neighbour's shop and pur-
chased a pound of No. 2 shot, asking for the largest
that was kept. He then went back to his shop, and
some time afterwards, at about eight o'clock, two
shots were fired across the road by the prisoner in the
direction of Buckler's house. Mr. Sweetland, his we,
who was in the shop, ran out, crying " Murder ! " The
prisoner was then seen, with a gun at his shoulder, at
the door of his shop, and he fired two other barrels at
Buckler, who was standing in front of his shop on
the pavement. The deceased fell seriously injured,
the four barrels having been discharged at him, and
he died at two o'clock on the afternoon of the following
Monday. The moment he fell assistance was rendered
him, and the prisoner was at once seized, and he made
statements at the time showing that he was well
aware of what he was doing. As two persons were
taking him to the station, the prisoner said he saw
Buckler with a knife, and he thought he would have
the first chance. One of the men noticed he had
something bulky about him, and found on him four
bags of flour, which the prisoner said he had intended
to throw at the deceased for the purpose of "aggrava-
ting" him. Two cartridges were found upon him,
which proved to contain No. 2 shot, and they had
the appearance of having been opened and the
original smaller shot taken out. Two double-barrelled
guns which had been recently discharged were found
at the prisoner's house. The case, of course, was a very
painful one, and it deserved their most anxious considera-
tion. The defence was that at the time of the com-
mission of the crime the prisoner was not responsible
for his actions. Since the prisoner had been in custody
he had been seen by medical gentlemen, who would
be called for the prosecution' and would say that the
prisoner was perfectly sane. They would have to take
into consideration in this view of the case his conduct-
ing his business as usual and going to races, and he
need hardly say that drunkenness was no excuse for
crime.
Charles James Gay said that in May last he was
the assistant to the prisoner. On Saturday, the 22nd
of May, at six o'clock in the morning, the rprisoner
went into the bakehouse and asked him if there was
anything to drink. Witness said, "No," and he told
witness to bring him half-a-quartern of gin. He gave
witness the money for it, and he fetched it. Witness
saw him drink it. A quarter-of-an-hour afterwards,
at his request, witness brought him another half-
quartern, and about five or ten minutes afterwards
a further similar quantity. On each occrsion he gave
witness the money to pay for it, When witness re-
turned the last time he saw half-a-pint of gin on the
table in a bottle. It was none of that which witness had
fetched from the publichouse. Witness saw him
drink in addition about half of the contents of the
bottle, and he shortly afterwards saw the bottle lying
empty in the palour, where the prisoner was. The
prisoner ran upstairs and came down and went
across to a neighbour's shop—a cheesemonger. He
returned to his shop shortly after' and witness saw
him throwing the bread down on the floor in a wild
manner. Some customers came in, and he served some
right, others wrong. Witness went down into the bake-
house at about a quarter-past 7. At 8 o'clock he heard
the report of a gun from the parlour door, which was at
the back of the shop. He turned round and saw the
prisoner with a gun at his shoulder. Mrs. Sweetland, his
wife, ran through the shop into the street shouting
"Murder !" That was after the second shot was
fired. The two shots were fired in quick succession.
The prisoner was standing behind the counter, and
the gun was pointed towards the shop door. Before
witness had time to walk out of the shop two other
shots were fired in rapid succession. These were fired
out of the doorway over Mrs. Sweetland's head. The
prisoner then walked out into the street, through the
shop, saying, "Where is a policeman?" Witness had
seen one gun standing in the shop, near the parlour.
Two men came up, to the shop and took the prisoner
to Highgate. After the shots had been fired, witness
saw Mr. Buckler, who was a provision merchant
opposite, staggering in the road, and he fell, being
then about halfway across the road. Witness had not
seen the deceased previously. On the previous day
the prisoner had been to Harpenden Races.
In cross-examination, he said the prisoner came
down with his shirt only on, on the morning in ques-
rion. He observed a strangeness in his manner when
he first came down. In April, 1879, the prisoner had
an accident. He was brought home after it, and was
very ill and insensible. He was cut at the back of the
head, and he had to lay up for some time. He always
had a "short" temper after that, and when he took
to drink it affected him and made him irritable. His
manner changed, and there were certain peculiarities
in his temper. At times he would talk in an
incoherent manner. In October last the prisoner was
thrown out of a trap in Camden-town. and was again
injured in his head, and medical gentlemen attended
him. Witness had since heard him complain of
pains in the head. He had also a slight loss of
memory. _ _ _ _ _ .

-
Being re-examined, he said after the accident he at-
tended his busines in his usual way. He was in the
habit of taking too much drink at times. In the week
of the occurence the prisoner went to the races. On
one occasion he took his Funs with him, and witness
understood he had been pigeon-shooting
Mrs. Emma Buckler, wife of the deceased, said
that on Wednesday evening, at half-past nine, there
was a disturbance at the prisoner's shop. On the
Friday night they were awakened by knocking at the
door, and the deceased went down. When dressing,
at about eight o'clock on the Saturday morning,
she heard a very loud double report of firearms.
There was nothing to be seen, but the prisoner walked
out of the shop with the gun, and took a deliberate
side aim at the shop, where her husband was standing.
He fired, and witness heard a double report. The pri-
soner then went indoors. Witness heard her son call-
ing to her that his father was shot, and she went down
and saw her husband being carried into the shop very
much injured. A doctor was sent for, but the deceased
died on the Monday following.
In cross-examination, the witness said tile prisoner
and her husband wee on neighbourly terms.
A lad named Twitchett, the stepson of the prisoner,
gave evidence to the effect that on the Wednesday
night prior to the occurrence the prisoner came home
drunk. There was a disturbance, and Buckler, the
deceased, with witness's help, put up the shutters. On
the Friday night prisoner came home home in a very
excited state, having been at Harpenden Races. The
witness described how on the Saturday morning the
prisoner fired two of the barrels from the shop and
two others after Mrs. Sweetland ran

In cross-examination, the witness said the prisoner
had, soon after his marriage with his (witness's)
mother, lost £3OO by a flour speculation. That loss
seemed to have affected him, and he • became less
regular in his habits and he took to drinking, After
the injuries to the prisoner's head in April and
October, 1879, his temper became irritable; he had
nervous habits, and his memory was defective. The
prisoner had laboured under the delusion that Buckler
was watching him, and he used to hang things on
the parlour blind to prevent him doing so. They
used to tell him that it was ridiculous to do so, but he
insisted upon it.
Other witnesses were called, and proved that on the
prisoner's arrest he stated that he saw Buckler with a
knife in his hand, that he thought he would have the
first chance, that Buckler had done him harm and
spoken against him, but that he had never been so
bad as Buckler, for he had not paid ss. in the pound.
The prisoner took from his pocket four bags of flour,
saying that he had meant to throw them sA Buckler
to aggravate him, and he also produced two cartridges.
One witness who spoke to these facts said the pri-
soner appeared not to know what he was doing.
Anottter witness stated that on the way to the station
the ptisoner said he had done what he meant to do,
-and that he did not care if he "swung" for it. He
repeated this expression more than once. When
brought to the station the prisoner seemed to the
police calm and collected, and appeared to be sober.
The shot in the cartridges weighed an ounce and a
quarter, and on the front of Buckler's house over 1,00
hbot marks were found, and some of the wintlicms

ai

wan

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liiii*

only saved by the fact that he was cramped up n a position
where the force of the explosson must have been in no
small degree realised, and where the terrors of the moment
were by no means likely to be incompletely felt. . .
The house of Mr. Simmons, No. 6, Percy-street, was re-
ferred to in yesterday morning's Daily Hews. This house,
although it has not had part of its front wall absolutely
blown away like the one in Charlotte-street, is certainly the
most striking memento of a striking disaster. The two
arches under the pavement are raised by the concussion
from their foundations. Externally, the house is a ruin,
Windows are smashed, blinds twisted, and walls marked as
with battering rams. But inside the havoc is more sur-
prising still. In this house is to be seen perhaps, the most
remarkable evidence of the force of the explosion, for a
causeway stone, weighing probably not far short of a
quarter of a hundredweight, has come crashing through the
skylight and down three flights of stairs, crushing in its fall
a portion of the balustrade. From the outer wall of Mr.
Simmons' kitchen yesterday, while standing on the rubbish
now in the area, the writer brushed off a portion of a brick
which had been at once pulverised and compacted by the
force of its contact with the wall, and had stuck there like
a snowball. In the lobby lay another large causeway stone
which had come flying through the fanlight, leaving unin-
jured in its flight the gas-lamp which lit the hall. In the
drawing-room, left by the ladies of the house and some
visitors half an hour before the explosion, was a sur-
face of concrete from under the paving stones and of
broken, glass. The inevitable causeway granite lay by the
chairs where the ladies had sat. In the front bedroom up-
stairs one of the huge stones had flown in at an upper window
pane, struck the further wall with a force sufficient to expose
the laths, and rebounded to the floor near the window.
Another had broken down the bed, but spared the baby's
crib. Some live or six of the huge missiles lay about the
room, and the floor was covered with concrete and broken
glass. In another room still higher the same story repeated
itself; but the most marvellous story of all the stories that
thrilled the witnesses of this devastation was the simple
record of the preservation of the inmates—all for the time
being women and children. The evening was advancing, the
children had quitted their front play-room and retired to
the back-room nursery to prepare for bed, the ladies had
gone with them not long before tne calamity happened. If
they are ill it is only because of the awful reflection of the
narrowness of their escape and the nervous shock to which
they have been subject. These and the ruined shop of the
French Boot Repairing Company, in which the workmen
were singularly enough uninjured, although several street
passengers were, as inidicated yesterday, injured in its
vicinity, are the more prominent memorials of this disaster.
The bare mention of them will suggest ground enough for
the panic which prevailed; but in the other houses not
specially mentioned there is naturally plenty of damage,
even if it be small in comparison with what has been
described

The explosion opened quite a huge crater at the junction
with the old main at lowland-street, and there of course the
gas rapidly escaped and threatened to keep the great
districts of Marylebone, Paddington, and part of St.
Pancras in partial darkness as night came on. The gas com-
pany's chief inspector, however, availing himself of arrange-
ments intended to meet emergencies, through an
emergency like this was not to be contemplated, was able to
turn on into the small service pipes supplying these districts
another supply from the King's-cross Works. The Prince of
Wales' Theatre and many of the houses in the immediate
locality of the explosion were deprived of gas for the night
owing to the dettruction of their usual service pipes, but a
large staff of workmen were busy yesterday repairing these,
and last night the inhabitants had light restored to them,
and a theatrical performance was again possible.

The successive reports of the explosion seem to have pro-
duced different effects upon different people. A lady living
at 105, Charlotte-street, above the offices of Mr. Beckett, auc-
tioneer, declares that the noise was not very appalling to her.
S. e had been accustomed to live near powder mills,
and had heard reports much louder and more sta
As she sat at her window, however, she was suf-
ficiently alarmed by the noisy roar and by the showers of
stones and clouds of dust. There were three windows
in her room, and she and her sisters were sitting at separate
windows. Causeway stones flew past the chair of one of her
sisters. They thought the house was falling, but the power
of observation and reflection returning to them after their
fright, they were soon accquainted with the fact that the
mischief had been done below. The lock was blown neatly
out of their downstairs door, and it was their maid who
had escaped imminent danger because of her summons to
her mistress's room. It was extremely fortunate that
of the six or seven places at which the explosion broke out,
ove of them was not the part of the pipe crossing; the
busy thoroughfare of Tottenham-court-road. There were
comparatively few people in the streets, in which chasms
had been opened of from thirty to seventy feet long and
seven or eight deep.

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