The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-10-08 00:00:00

HORRIBLE MURDER AT BIRMINGHAM.

About half-past three o'clock on Sunday afternoon a
murder was torpetrated ins notorious brothel in Tanner-
street, Stafford-street, Iliri ll ill ghain, under peculiarly
horrible circumstances. A man named John Thomson,
42, wire-drawer, said to work in Aston-road, WWI to
live at Sutton, killed Ann Walker, alias Ann Linea,
afies Nancy Dawson, with whom lie had cohabited for
some throe months wt. The history of the poor
woman we. in every respect • mid one. Until some
five years ago she lived happily with her husband,
William Walker, • wire-drawer, living in Manchester,
but having unfortunately acquired a taste for drink,
and being perfectly inuible to resist the temidation of
getting intoxicated whenever the opportunity WAS given
her, all domestic peace was soon gone. Some three
years ago • formal separation took place, and she left
her husband, who retained the three children she bad
borne to hint. Since then she had cohabited with
various men in and about Birmingham, first with a
navvy at Sutton, theu with a grinder, and afterwards
with a man employed as labourer at the Oas Works,
who left her about six months ago. At intervals she
had been on the town, and had occasionally stopped a
short time at the house in which she was on Sunday
inuniered. About three months aio she made the
acquaintance of Thomson, and shortly afterwards went to
live with him at Sutton as his inistrus. On Saturday the
two crone together from Sutton in order to visit the
fair, and having delayed until it was too late to return,
they went to the house, No. 8, in Taiateretrect, which
is kept by a woman named Boredom!, and there got •
bed. On Sunday morning they had breakfast in the
house about eleven o'clock, and about noon they went
out together. The woman returned by lier:olf at three
o'clock, and was at that time visibly the worse for
liquor ; indeed so marked was her intoxication that she
had been hustled in the street in consequence. She
asked iormission to go tip stairs and lie down on a bed
for a few minutes, and this being granted, she imme-
diately went up. Soon afterwards Thomson came in
and went upstairs to 'her. It should be stated that
while out Mrs. Walker had met in the street • man
with whom she had formerly cohabited, and that lie had
threatened to ill-use her, and thus gathered • crowd
around them, Thomson and Walker had not boon
long together upstairs before the women who were
down below hoard • noise of quarrelling, and Berestord,
the keeper of the house went up, and found that Mrs.
Walker Lad knocked her arm against the wall in sonic
way, and Thomson was rubbing it, She heard him
say, "Will you go home to Sutton now r to which
Mrs. Walker replied, "No, I will nut." Seeing that
the two were moderately quiet, Beresford went down-
stairs, but no sooner had she sat down again than she
beard a stifled scream. A young woman, named Elise-
both Green, living in the house, went this time, and
was horrified by seeing Thomson, who was then lean-
ing over Mrs. Walker on the bed, stab the unfortunate
woman in the neck with an open pocket-knife, and
then drag her off the bed. Ore n ran downstairs,
ecrc-ai,iimug violently, while Beresfonl ran up and saw
Thomson, who seemed to be quite cool, deliberately
cuttit.g the throat of hie miserable mistress as she lay
on the door. Two men followed her upstairs, and one
of them collared Thomson and took the knife out of his
Land. Beresfoni asked him what he had murdered the
woman for, and lie said, "It's all through drink." He
seemed to Ise at that time quite sober, and was cairn
and collected in appearance. Information was at once
given to the police, and Police-constables Copestake
and Fallon apirelimele4l Thomson, who was at that
time standing before the bleeding corpse of the woman
he had murdered. When charged with the murder, and
cautioned that he need tint say anything, and that any
statement lie might make would be wed in evidence
against him, ho merely said, " Its all right." As he
was being conveyed to the Doke-street police-station •
mob gathered round the officers and their prisoner,
awl litiou.-d and hissed the Latter. On the way ho
threatened Fallon, saying lie would make it hut for
When searched two new pocket-knives that he
had bought in the fair, and two handkerchiefs were
fouwl in his possession. The knife with which the
murder WAS COMMitted is a common pocket knife, with
one large blade, such RS is used by persona of the pri-
soner's class for cutting their victuals. Within ten
minutes of the time 44 the dreadful occurrence Messrs.
Harrison anti Dawson, assiistante to Dr. Key worth,
Ilasshouse-lano was in attendance, hot at the time they
arrived the murdered woman was dead. They declared
death to have been instantaneous, the jugular vein
baring been cut by a stab of the knife, and the wheel-
pipe completely revered by two transverse cute.
The house, No. 8, Tauter-street, has long been
notorious. It is a house three storey/ high, haring
only one room on each floor, and there are no doors
between the rooms, which are connected by a narrow,
awkward staircase. The mom in which the murder
was committed is the uppermost, and is a low-roofed
place, about twelve feet square, lighted by a small
window. Against one side of the wall are two beds, and
the side opposite to the window is another hod, covered
with blood. All the beds are of the most a malid
character, and the only other piece of furniture in the
room is a wooden seat that is fixed under the window.
In the centre of the room is a small open space, which
Is about the size done of the beds, and there on the
door lies the body of the murdered woman, surrounded
by a pool of clotted blood. There is • deep stab just
below the right ear, and two deep transverse cuts across
the throat, each of which serres the windpipe, the head
being almost literally cat off.
The prisoner who was conveyed from Duke-street
station to Moor-street about half-past seven o'clock on
Sunday night, is • man about five feet four Inches in
height, rather stoutly built, of a fresh complexion, and
without any beard or whiskers, lie is dressed in a
nit of coarse fustian, of which the trout of the waist.
oat and trowsers is covered with blood. Ile has •
most forbidding cast of countenance, and if the opinion
expressed by the detectives is correct, has the peculiar
physiogonomy of a returned convict. flis antecedents,
however, are at present not known. Ile appears to be
profoundly indifferent with respect to the crime he has
committed, and to his probable fate.

SHOCKING MMIDEIt__AT NEWCASTLK•ON.