The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-17 00:00:00

A SAD TRAGEDY.

At the Durham Assizes, last week, George Herbert Plum-
mer was charged with the wilful murder of Sarah Foster, at
Brandon, on the 26th of A.pril last.
Mr. John Edge, Mr. Sowerby, and Mr. Liddell were the
counsel for the Crown; Mr. Widley Wright and Mr. Atherley
Jones defended the prisoner. _ _ _

This case, which is known in the neighbourhood as
the "Brandon tragedy," excited considerable interest,
and during the progress of the trial, the Court was
densely crowded. The prisoner, who is a pitman,
and only 21, and appeared in the dock in a very
forlorn and depressed condition, was charged with the
murder of his sweetheart, to whom he had been en-
gaged ten months, and was to have been married on the
Monday following, by shooting her first through the
heart and then through the head; and the defence set up
was that the act was committed in a paroxysm of ex-
citement supervening upon melancholia. The cir-
cumstances of the case were very peculiar. It ap-
peared that the two were very much atttached to each
other, and that on the day previous, which was Sun-
day,•.he had spent the day with her at her father's house
and arranged with her and her parents about the
wedding. He also accompanied her to chapel in the
evening, and it was arranged between them that shs
should come over to Durham next day by train,
and he should meet her at the station in order
to complete their preparations for the marriage.
Accordingly he met her on the following day, and
the two walked along the road together to his
mother's house at Brandon, conversing in the most
friendly manner, he carrying a handbox and parcel
which she had brought with her, and she having a
leather bag in her hand. The prisoner's mother was
in the kitchen preparing her husband's dinner, when
she heard them enter the house through the front
door talking amicably together. She put down a
saucepan she had in her hand and turned round to go
and welcome them when she heard the report of a
pistol. She ran through the open door into the room
they had just entered, and found the girl lying on the
floor and her son with something in his hand and
smoke coming from it, when she fainted away. The
neighbours, alarmed by hearing two reports at an in-
terval of a minute, then rushed in, and it was found that
the first ball had passed through her heart, the muzzle of
the pistol havingbeen held close to her back and the
second had passed through her mouth, through the carpet
and the floor, so that it must have been discharged
down her throat when lying on the ground after the
first shot. The bandbox and parcel:.he had carried
for her were on the sofa, and she was lying dead in a
pool of blood opposite the front door fully dressed,
with her gloves on and the leather bag still in her hand.
Two pistols which had just been diEcharged were found
in the room—one on the chimney-piece and the other
underneath the sofa cushion, and a third was found in
the kitchen drawer; and when apprehended on the
following day in a privy close by, two loaded revolvers
were found upon him.
According to the evidence of his mother and uncle,
as a lad he was always fond of firearms and frequently
carried them loaded in his pocket. Always delicate
and often away from work from ill-health, as he grew
up his disposition and tastes changed as his health
failed him. From being cheerful he became moody
and depressed, gave up his concertina and telescope,
and painting, and sketching, and reading, of which
he was very fond. His memory seemed to fail him,
his speech became less fluent, and he often seemed at
a loss for words in the middle of a sentence. He com-
plained of sparks before his eyes, and of giddiness and
swimming in the head, and often expressed a wish
that he were dead on account of his ill-health, and at

the time when the act was committed he had been of!
work for six weeks.

For the defence, Dr. Smith, the well-known Super-
intendent of the County Asylum at Sedgefield, and
who has on an average 700 patients under his care, was
called, and expressed his opinion from the history of
the case and the symptoms he had heard described,
and from an examination of the prisoner, that he
had been suffering for some months from melancholia,
and that he is now and was at the time of the commis-
sion of the act, of unsound mind. It was not at all rare
for a paroxysm of excitement to supervene upon melan-
cholia, and not unfrequently in such paroxysms the pas-
sions were excited against those nearest and dearest to
the person labouring under them; and he believed in
thia case the prisoner was not in a condition to distin-
guish between right and wrong, and was not conscious
of the nature and quality of the act. He thought it
possible the paroxysm might have come on suddenly
without warning, and pas.sed away as rapidly after the
act was committed. Similar cases had occurred in his
own experience.

His Lordship summed up the case ia great detail;
and

The jury, in the end, found the prisoner Not Guilty
on the grounds of insanity.