The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-24 00:00:00

RECOMMENDED TO MERCY.

At the Derby Assizes, Bose Brown has been charged with
the murder of her husband, William Brown.
Mr. Buzzard and Mr. Brogden prosecuted ; Mr. Weight-
man (at the request of the learned Judge) defended the
prisoner.
it appeared from the evidence and the cross-ex-
amination of the witnesses that the prisoner and her
husband lived in Bag-lane, Derby. The prisoner is
about 60 years of age' and her husband was about 99.
He was well known from standing in the market at
Derby, and gained his living by selling boot-laces.
He was a cripple, and was in the habit of walking
with a short stick. On Saturday evening, the 12th
of June, about nine o'clock, as a neighbour,
Frederick Read, was walking past the prisoner's
i cottage he heard a noise n the house, and
heard the prisoner say "I will kill you ! "
He returned in about a minute, and found the
door of the cottage open, and saw the prisoner
"laying on the old man's head with apiece of iron."
He saw two or three blows struck. The old man
was sitting in his chair with his head bent down,
and she was standing over him. He then went and
*old their landlady what was going on and Bent
for the police. Mrs. Lindley, their landlady, said,
when she was called in, she found the old man sitting
fronting the door. His faoe was covered with
blood; the prisoner was in the act of striking him
on the side of his face with her hand. The pri-
soner was threatening to kill him. She had some-
thing in her hand, which she waved about the land-
lady's head, and called her an offensive name, and
"beat the weapon on the table like a drum." The land-
lady kept her away from her husband. He said, "She
has done for me now." Mrs. Lindley then took the
old man into her house and dressed his wounds. She
stated, on cross-examination, that he was quite a
dottbled-up cripple and could not protest himself at
all ; that they lived on very unhappy terms, and she
had frequently to go to them for quarrelling • and that
she had taken him out a few weeks before, alter Mrs.
Brown had beaten him, and dressed his wounds
When the old man was taken to the hospital, it was
'mind that he was suffering from ten scalp wounds.
Mr. Highton, the house surgeon at the hospital, stated
that not very much force would have been required to
have produced the wounds, and that they were not
very dangerous. Five days after his admission into
the hospital erysipelas set in, and he died on the 20th
of June. When the prisoner was apprehended oethe
12th of June for wounding her husband with intent to
do grievous bodily harm, she sai,d she was innocent of
cutting; what she did was with% poker.
His Lordship, in summing up the case, said it was
perfectly clear that the plisoner inflicted the blows,
and that her husband died from them. He could not
see any reason in point of law why she should be
found guilty of a less crime than murder. No lan-
gueage that the man could have used would have
justified her conduct. It was clear that the prisoner
had struck her husband ten repeated blows, and he
was unable to think what amount of provocation in
point of law would justify the prisoner's conduct. Her
language showed that she was bent on mischief, and
there was no evidence that pointed the other way. If
the jury believed the evidence, they could only find a
verdict of murder. He had carefully watched the evi-
dence to see if he could seize on the slightest facts that
he could lay before them to reduce the charge to one of
mancdaughter ; but he had failed to find any. He
hoped that if any of the jury saw any reason for mitiga-
ting the offence they would act on it, and he prayed
them to do so.
The jury found the prisoner Guilty of wilful murder,
but recommended her to mercy on account of her age,
The prisoner then stated that she did not mean to
kill her husband.

His lordship, in passing sentence of death, said that
the prisoner had been fou.nd guilty of the murder of
her husband, who was a quiet, inoffensive, and very
old man, and that she ought to have treated him with
every kindness, instead of in the way she had done.
It was no part of his duty to make any other remarks
In the case, but that if the jury had found any other
verdict it would have been against the evidence.