The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-11-02 00:00:00

MYSTERIOIIi MURDER IN MAN-
CHESTER.

Leta on Thursday night, the Manchester police made a
discovery which points to a murder of a horrible
character having been committed, the victim being a
woman about 40 or 43 years old. About ten o'clock a
policeman named Carroll, while walking along Cheater.
road, Hulme, noticed a man pushing a hand-cart in the
direction of the city. His suspicions were aroused, and
he followed the man. Stopping him in Great- Jackson.
street, he raised some blankets on the cart, and saw the
dead body of a woman about forty years old, in an
almost nude state. In answer to the constable, the man,
who gave his name as John Smithson, of Brewery-street,
Bradford, near Manchester, said he wasremoving the
body for a gentleman, but beyond this he declined to
give any information. He was taken to the Park
Police-station, and was locked up on the charge of being
ooncerned in the murder of the woman. Intimation
of the discovery was sent to the chief station of the
division, and Mr. Suparintindent Meade has since been
engaged with other officers in the investigation of the
affair. Until a surgical examination has been com-
pleted, the actual cause of death cannot be dated. It
is clear, however, that the deceased had been subjected to
groat personal violence, and the police do not entertain a
doubt that she was murdered. Recognition has been
rendered difficult by the disfigurement of the head,
which appeared to have been battered with some
heavy blunt instrument. The body in other parts
bears marks of ill-treatment, and appears to have been
recently washed. In their inquiries the police learned
that the man Smithson brought the body from the
premises of Alfred Hartley, a druggist, Hulme, and
that he had been assisted in the removal by another
man named Bradbury. The two were seen to take
something out of Mr. Hartley's place of business and
to place it on a handcart. On going to the house
of Smithson the police found Bradry there, and he
also was arrested as an accomplice in the crime.
Hartley is not to be found. It is stated that he was
seen at his shop late on Th,irsday night. Although
Smithson and Bradbury will be charged with murder,
It is not believed that either of them actually killed
the woman. The police look for the murderer in
another person, and regard these men simply as
accomplices after the fact.
The police are understood to be in possession of
facts which it would not be wise at present to disclose.
The murdered woman turns out to be Caroline Barkam,
a widow, of fifty years of age, who has lived with a
druggist named Hartley, as his mistress. Hartley's
shop, where the murder is supposed to have been
perpetrated, is in one of the busiest thoroughfares of
Manchester, and was a lockup place. Hartley lived
with his wife and family at Southport, and it is stated
that Mrs. Hartley had refused to live with him owing
to his relation with deceased. The police arrested
Hartley on Friday afternoon at an hotel not far from
his shop. On being charged he made a long statement,
which will be read at the police-court when he is
charged on Saturday. The two other man arrested are
supposed to have only assisted in disposing of the body
after death.
The inquest on the body was opened on Friday after-
noon, but as a poskutorten examination had not been
nude the surgical evidence was incomplete. Presumptive
evidence was given, however, that death had not
arisen from natural canoes A boy employed by
Hartley stated that on Thursday Hartley sent him
for a quantity of poison, and that all day he seemed
11•111i0111 to keep him out of the way, and had repeated-
ly told him not to go nor the room where the woman
was.

717 he cam) has aroused great excitement in
Manchester.