The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-22 00:00:00

SENTENCED TO DEATH.

At the Liverpool Assizes, Henry Flanagan has 'wen tried
for the wilful murder of Mary Flanagan, at Liverpool, on
the 4th of April last.
Mr. M'Connell and Mr. Wheeler conducted the prosecu-
tion ; Dr:Commins defended the prisoner.

The deceased woman, Mary Flanagan, carried on a
shoemaker's business in Bent-street, Liverpool, and
had four men living and working in her house to enable
her to do so. She was a widow, 53 years of age. One of
these men, and foreman over the other three, was the
prisoner, the deceased's nephevv. The other three were
called Ryan, Meaghan, aril Flinn, and Ryan's wife
also lived in the house. It appeared that the bush
miens was a good one, and that the deceased was a
thriving woman. On Saturday, the 4th of April, the
men left off work at seven o'clock in the evening, and
Borne beer was sent for; and most of the men appeared
to have got a little too much to drink before
they went to bed. At eight or nine o'clock a mar-
ried daughter of the deceased came in, and, hal,.
pening to push against the prisoner, knocked a pair of
boots out of his hand, whereupon the deceased charged
him with intending to steal them in order to raise
money for more drink. A quarrel thee ensued, and
the prisoner made use of some violent language,
threatening to "have a life before morning." Shortly
after this, at about nine o'clock, Flinn went out of the
house in order to Bleep out, and Ryan and Meaghan,
being the worse for liquor, went to bed in a room up-
stairs. Mrs. Ryan remained up later, until about
eleven o'clock, when she went to sleep by herself in
the workroom, leaving the deceased and the prisoner
in the kitchen together, and the last people left up in
the house. Before that Daniel Flanagan, a married
son of the deceased, who lived in a house itnme Mutely
opposite, had tried to get the prisoner away to lieu,
but had failed. There was, hoWever, a bed laid down
in the corner of the kitchen itself, which had h,--n
used ordinarily by Mrs. Ryan. No !mime or disturb
once was heard I luring the night, and at five o'clock
in the morning Mrs. Ryan, who had oome from the
workshop to get a match with which to light the fire
there, passed the open (It torof the kitchen and observed
the prisoner lying upon the bed and the deceased upon
her side upon the kitchen floor. Mrs. Ryan returned
to the workroom arul went to sleep again, but she was
roused up to let Flinn and a man named O'Neill into
the house at about eight o'clock, and, passing the
kitchen door again, she obrierved the prisoner and the
deceased attparently Icing in the same positions in
which she bad seen them before. Shortly after this
the prisoner went up to the room in which Meaghan
and Ryan were sleeping and got into the former's bed,
and shortly after Flinnanil the other men in the house
discovered and called out that Mrs. Flanagan was dead.
The primmer was told of it, and he very soon asked for
his atel and hattinter and sahl he must start for Man-
chester. He persuaded George O'Neill to go with him,
and before leaving the town changed a sovereign in
pa yin g for two bottles of apple wine he bought for
himself and O'NeilL The men then went to the Lime-
street station in Liverpool, and the prisoner there find-
ing that no train started for Manchester before two
o'clock, slit he must be out of the town before then.
The men then walked off on the road to Preston, the
prisoner changing a seoond sovereign for some pipes he
bought, and giving O'Neill the change, amounting to
its, 6d., saying, at the same time, he had plenty of
money; and at Prescott he left O'Neill, saying that
he intended to go to Glasgow. Before he parted from
him, however, he said to him, "George, I will tell you
the truth. My aunt was drunk on Saturday night, and
I took a purse out of her breast, took the money out of
it, and put the purse back into her breast again •' but
she was alive then. I had a bit of a tussle with her in
the kitehen." He then went on to say that he tried to
violate her hut did not succeed, and that the money he
got from the purse consisted of three sovereigns. After
parting from O'Neill, and at half-past nine at night, the
prisoner was found by a policemen lying on the foot-
path at a place called Knotty Ash, a few miles out of
Liverpool, and taken into custody on suspicion of hav-
ing murdered Mary Flanagan, the news of her death
having then spread. He said he had come from Glas-
gow and had not been at Liverpool, but when charged
formally with the murder he only replied, "Eh ! it
cannot he helped now." When the body of the
deceased was found she was lying on herback, and not
on her side, as when seen by Mrs. Ryan, and with her
head laid on a pillow taken from the bed in the room.
Underneath the pillow was a sealskin waistcoat belong-
ing to the prisoner, and on the floor, close by the de-
ceased's pocket, a purge and a few coppers, the
purse having been emptied of money. The medical
evidence proved that the deceased hail died from
asphyxia, but how produced it did not extend
to show. It appeared from it that the symp-
toms exhibited by the body were almost consis-
tent with apoplexy, but not entirely, being a little
more extreme. The deceased was a very fat woman,
and had a quantity of fat both upon the body and
throat. Upon this case for the prosecution, it was
contended, in defence, that there was no proof of a
murder having been committed at all, and that it was
I quite consistent with the evidence that the woman
had died from natural causes, while many things were
inconsistent with the theory of murder; and it was
also contended that, if she was murdered, it was quite
as likely that it was by the hand of O'Neill or one of
the other of the inmates of the house as by that of the
prisoner.
. -

In the end, after a careful summing up of his Lord-
ship, the jury returned a verdict of Guilty, and the
sentence of death was passed upon him in the usual
form.