The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-03-29 00:00:00

THE PICKERING MURDER.

The trial of Itribert Charter awl W. Hardwick—the former
for the mur !er of Joseph Wood, and the latter for being an
accessory aftir the fact, commenced on Tuesday miming at
York.

The crowd ontskle the court was immense, and the
want of all al rangement or order was conspicuoue.
The crowd hot been allowed to collect close to the
doors and on the to? of the flight of stone steps leadiog
to the courts. The consequence was that there was no
chance of those who had busint se in the coutts getting
to their places. The police at last made an effort to
foroe the crowd down the stone steps, and the women
began to scream and the men to push, and all the usual
phenom ono of an ill-managed crowd appeared. .What
the d tticulty in keeping a free passage could be one is
at a loss to imagine, but apparemly no effort had been
made in that direction at 20 minutes before ten o'clock.
_

•
In this case, which is commonly called the Pickering
or Cropton murder, the Grand Jury had thrown out a
bill charging Robert Charter with the wilful murder of
a boy named Joseph Thompson.
Mr. Mauls, Q C., in opening the case for the prose-
cution, said the deceased lived at Cropton, about five
ruil•s from Pickering, and had a small farm of his own
of 80 acres. In May lastle was living there with two
children—Joseph ibompson and Thomas Thompson,
one aged eight years and the other five years. There
was a man named Stead who worked there but ret,rned
home at night. He hat three brothers—John Wood,
who lived near; Thomas Wood, who lived at Cropton;
and Willi m Wood, who lived at Pickering. On the
13th of May the prisoner Charter, who is a cousin ••f
the Woods, came to Cropton to stay the week, lie
livAl at Lastringham, where he had a small farm,
two miles from Cropt••n. On the 17th John Wood
cams and saw his brother Joseph, and at 7.30 on that
evening Stead saw Joseph with his two boys in the
kitchen. From that day to this hour Joseph Wood

and Joseph Thompson have not been Peen alive. The
next morning Stead met the prisoner Charter, who
told him that Joseph Wood had gone sway. An hour '
afterwards he repeated the same statement to another
witness. At 12.30 John Wood came, and the prisoner
told him that Joseph had gone away and taken the
!Myr boy with him. John said it was a strange thing.
Charter said they went away in the night, and he
called to me from the bottom of the stairs, "Robert,
Robert, we are going away, and you must stay and
catr,v on our affairs." On the 19th of May John
Wood came again, when the pt itioner tell the same tale.
The prison, r remained at the farm till the 19th of
September, WIND he asked William Wood torelieve
and William agreed to take the farm, the prisoner
aek:ng that an inventory should be made that when
Joseph came back there should be no complaint. The
prisoner ace irdingly went to his own farm at Lastring-
ham. On the 2nd of November, in some straw in a
barn, a pair of boots belonging to Joseph fell down.
In the house, under some stairs, another pair of hoots
was found. On the 4th, in a pond, portions of Joseph's
clothes were found, and on the sth the pond was
pumped out, and the lemaining portions were dis-
coverer', and also the left hand of a human being. On
the 6th the house was searched, and the jacket and
waistcoat of the boy and hie only pair of biota were
found. A stick stack near the house was searched,
and in digging beneath it a right hand and two
feet we; e discovered. Search was next made at

Lastriugham, and in the bank of a beck, which had been
freshly basked us, was dug up a sack containing the
body of Joseph Wood, without hands or feet. On the
23rd of May a postman delivered a letter to the pri-
soner, who read it and then asked the postman to read
it. He afterwards took the letter to John Wood and
showed it to several persons. It was a letter from
Liverpool, dated the 20th of May, and having the
post mark of the 22nd. The letter said that the
writer was goirg to "take water foreign," and asked
Chatter to take charge of the farm. On the 4th
of November Charter gave this letter to William
Wood, and said he had better keep it. In Charter's
pocketbook was the corresponding half of the
sheet of paper on which the letter had been
written. The learned counsel then directed his
speech to the case against Hardwick. On the 28th of
October the beck bsnk was undisturbed. On the 31st
two witnesses saw Charter and Hardwick labouring
there. On the Ist, 2nd, and 3rd of November they
-were seen there again. The body was forted in a sack
built op with etionts into the bank, and a quantity of
soil thrown over it to such an extent as to alter the
course oor shape of the beck. If Hardwick knew that
he was helping to hide the dead body then he was
guilty of the charge laid against him. Its was the
son-in-law of Charter, and he knew, as all the neigh-
bours knew, that Joseph Wood and his son had disap-
peared. In Mayat night Charter had gone to Hardwick's
house and next morning he went away on a horse and was
absent two days, and it was at hat time that Charter
received the letter, On the 7th of November Hard-
wick went to his brother-in-lawn hcuse, and said, "If
any one asks thee where I was about the 22nd of May
say I was staying with you." On the 10th of November
he said to the police that he had been to his brother-iu-
law's house and got home late at night. He never got
a letter from Charter to post. On the 15th, he said,
•• I know nothing about the murder. I only took the
letter to Liverpool to post"

The learned counsel then described the wounds upon
the skull of the deceased. There was one crack across
the back of the skull, a triangular hole on the left
temple, and another blow on the right temple, and the
cheek bone was broken. Each one of these fractures
was caused by a separate blow, and each was sufficient
t ramie death. There were.also other fiactures, The
blows must have been given during life or immediately
after. The blow on the back of the skull muse have
been given while the deceased was standing up. The
learned counsel next read and commented on the fol-
lowing statements made by the prisoner:—

"Superintendet VaUflice, Pickering, Noy. 14, 1072.
"Statement of Robert Charter.

'A little before three o'clock on the Saturday, the loth of
May, I heard a noise and got up mid came out. I found
Joseph Wood laid against tile gatestead leading front the
garden to the stick-heap to the orchard, lie was dead.
Terre was some blood about his head and on the ground.
I took him into the barn and placed hint among the straw
In the barn, thanking I should be blamed for murdering him.
I went and fedderect the hones and Cone I let him lie there
about a week. I then took and burled him In the orchard,
near the atick-heap. About three weeks after I found the bones
of the boy in the fold yard. It appeared as if he had been
devoured by jigs They were leg bones. I hurled the bones
against his father. I let them remain there until about
sweet before I was coming away. I tried to pull him out,
but his clothes slipped off. I took his clothes and threw
them tutu the pond. I took the remains and put them
In a bag and took them to one of my fields near Lastringi
ham, and placed them in a hole iu the corner of a bolt
Lent to Lastritigham. No one had ail concern iii it but
myself. After that I began to feel concerned about in
On Sunday, the 19.1, of Slay, I thought I should be
blamed for murdering him and I wrete a letter. I saw a
)(twig !HMI craning from Rmedale and asked him if he
.as leaving Rosedale, and he said that he was going
to Liverpool and going to leave this country f r
Arum Ica. tasked him to go into the barn with me and
wait a few minutes until I had written a letter. Ile went
in and I gave him something to eat. f then wrote the letter
aod gave it to him and told him to post It at Liverpool. I
thought it would save so much trouble, susrehing and rum.
mailing about till things got settled. I received the letter
beck again in a day or two afterwards from the postman.
Jelin hes nothing tn do with it: he knows nothing about R.
I have never seen Min since the s lay Mere Kirbyureer•
side Steeplechasese—Raffiger CHARTER."

The words "I found the bones of the boy" originally
stood "I fuond the bey," laut were altered at the re-
quest of the prisoner.
race-station, Piet, rii g, nifty, Nov. 15, 1872
"About tour p m. I was on duty at the police station in
charge of Robert Charter, now charged with murder. /le
calls I out to me and said, ' I want to see Mr. Superintendent
Jonas.' I told him that he was not at home. He then said
to me, 'I will tell you all about it.' I went into the cell. He
then laid :—' Ile called me to get up and take my barley back
again. I said I would take it back what was spared. He M-
elded on me getting up and going hack there and then. I told
him I did not want to get up. He came upstairs and Bald I
was to get up, s I got up and west down stairs, and he said I
was to go and take my barley back. I begged of him to let
me be till flaylf;ht and then I would Fee. lle then ran into
the house and got the gun. I met bin at the dour and tried
to get the gnu. I missed my click I then ran behind the
wall corner. Ile followed me with the gun I took an Iron
of/ the wall and struck him on the head and knocked him
down and took the gnu front him. I then went into the
house and fastened myself In, and when! came out again I
found he was dead I then took Mot into the barn.
fastwned re 3 self in the bedroom for most of an hour. I did
not-think I gave Joseph such a blow. I bad no thonght or
killing him. I never saw the boy at CHARTER.'
- -

-
John Wood. the firet witnrsiicalled, tic n gave evi-
dence of some general facts, which are suffidently in-
dicated in the pening of counsel ; after which some
other witnessea were examined, and the Court ad-
journed.

MR. BROGDEN, M.P., ON THE INDUS-
TRIAL PROSPERITY OF ENGLAND.
On Tile 'day evening, Mr. A. Itrogden, member for
Wednestury, in speaking at the annual zinc-Ault of the
Building Society in the new Town-hall of Wednesbury,
alluded to the treat prosperity of the industrial classes.
Ile advised the working classes to be thrifty in the time
of activity, en that they might be the better j repared to
meet the days of adversity, for thoughtful and far-seeing
judges already scented the smell of war atar off, and
who, though holding that the nation had arrived at the
height of its prosperity, had good reason to believe that
a time of reaction was not very distant. He (11Ir.
Brogds n) did not mean to say that reaction would take
place this year or next year. He hoped, in fact, that
the period might be long deferred ; but of this there
could be no doubt, that there were signs in the in-
dust: ial state of the country which unmistakably
warned them that the period of reaction would surely
c me. If they looked at the great industries of their
own country, they would find many of them in a la-
mentable con iition. The silk trade has been com
pletely paralysed; the cotton trade, a Mid greater
industry, was also in a very bad state, for
they could scarcely pick up a newspaper with-
out reading of some failure. On the Continent
the industries appeared equally full of these
reactionary indication,. The commerce of France
had fallen off alarmingly. It was not, however,
only on the Continent that the indications showed
themselves; but America, that great country with its
enormous resources, had reached a period when its
financial credit no longer enabled it to continue in that
rapid career of commercial progress which had marked
its history in the past. These indications, he insiqed,
should lie seriously watched by the working ClitiOtH
I,f this country, so that they might be prej arid to
no-et any commercial depression which might touch
their trades. Above all, it was necessary fur thein to
be provident,