The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-10 00:00:00

atu anb Volta.

THE MURDER IN CHESHIRE.
THE adjourned inquest upon the body of James
Henderson, farmer, of Braman, Cheshire, who was
shot in his bed on the morning of Wednesday
week last, was resumed this week, and con•
eluded with a verdict of "Guilty of Wilful Murder"
against James, the eldest son of the mur-
dered man. Before detailing the circumstances of
the case, it may be as well briefly to describe the
fa• ruhouse in which the murder has been committed,
and the position of the different sleeping rooms
Hardy's farm consists of about two hundred acres of
land, rented from Colonel Davenport, of Braman-
hall, Cheshire, about a mile distant. The house is
a good•sized tenement, with a garden and small lawn
on the south, and an entrance from the garden by
the trout door, and also a second entrance from the
farmysrd at the back by the kitchen. Mr. Hender-
son slept in a front bedroom on the first floor, near
the head of the stairs ; his eldest son, James
slept in the front bedroom to the left of his
father's, on the same floor ; and Mrs. Henderson, the
wife, who has been some time in ill health, slept with
a married daughter in a back bedroom on the right.
A younger ion, Thomas, aged twenty-six, slept with
a servant•man and a boy in an attic, and a female
servant slept in an attic also ; two Irish hum labourers,
who had been working on the farm from June last,
slept in a granary over the kitchen, having an en-
trance from stone steps outside the house, at the
west end.

As the trial will come on shortly, it may be as well
only to give a brief outline of the case as it stands
at present. On Tuesday week the family retired to
bed at their usual hour, James, the eldest son and
prisoner, sitting up. He was heard coming up to bed
late. Suddenly, at two in the morning, the household
are aroused by the report of firearms ; a second shot
is heard, and the cries of the eldest son that robbers
are in the house. The scuffling of feet is beard,
and the whole family at once get up to discover
that Mr. Henderson has been basely murdered while
asleep.
The story of the prisoner, James Henderson, is. that
he was w eked at about two o'clock in the morning by
tLe discharge of a pistol in his father's room, and,
getting out of bed, Le took down a double-barrciled
gun thitt was in Lis own bedroom. On opening his

bedroom door, which is opposite the top of the stairs,
lie saw on the landing half-way down the stairs, near
a window there, a tall man, at whom he instantly dis-
charged one barrel of the gun. " Did you not call
out before you fired, because it might have been
your brother or some one of the family," asked the
police officer. "\o, I did not," replied the prisoner.
The man gave vent to an exclamation of pain or
alarm, and immediately ran down the remaining six
steps. Immediately after this his father's bedroom
door was opened, and a light being extingushed at
the same moment three men rushed out and went
down the stairs.
In corroboration of this, Jane Henderson his
sister, says
- - -

- • -
The first thing I heard was the noise of footsteps on the
stairs. 1 heard several footsteps, and immediately after.
wards I heard my brother James open his door and fire. I
am quite sure that I heard him open his door.
Jean Henderson, the widow, was awoke by the
first shot, and distinctly heard James "opening his
door and firing down stairs." "There was not more
than half a minute," added this witness,"hetween the
first and second shots. I next heard sminds as of
persons running down the stairs, either in their
stockings or with something over their shoes."
Thomas Henderson, his brother, corroborates this
evidence. He heard the second shot " about half a
minute " after the first. After the second shot he
also heard footsteps on the stairs. They "appeared
to he those of three or four persons who had some-
thing on their shoes."
John Blaize, a farm labourer, who slept in the
attic, also heard the second discharge " immediately
afterwards." He rose, dressed, and ran down-
stairs :---
When I got to the second landing, upon which the bed.
rooms of the first floor open, I saw the prisoner James
standing at his bedroom door, and he had a double-
barrelled gun in one hand and a candle in the other, and
said there were robbers in the house. The candle flame
was fell, as though it had been lighted some lime.
No mention appears to have been made by the
prisoner of any apprehension of the murder of his
father. He called up every one in the house with
the alarm that "robbers were about," and searching
Vie downstairs premises, even to the cellar, without
finding any one there, said at last, " Come upstairs,
and we'll try the rooms."
The conduct of the prisoner at this juncture is
remarkable.. He had heard the report of firearms
in his father's room, he had seen men rush from
that room downstairs, but it does not seem to have
occurred to him that any ill result had happened to
his father. Even when he goes upstairs, it is not
until he has searched his " own room" that he ven-
ture: into that of his father. And when before the
bed bespattered with the blood and brains of the old
man, his conduct is singularly unfilial.
Michael Malockney states:—
We followed him in, his brother Thomas following first,
and then myself and Dillon. The prisoner said, " Come
on out, my father is killed." He had not been up by the
side of the bed, but he went a little past the foot of it. He
did not touch his father, nor did Thomas. We then left
the room.
John Dillon, another witness, corroborates the
fact, and states:—
He went to the end of the bed, or a little beyond it. He
went furthest into the room. He did not examine the
body or touch it. lie said either, "My father is killed,"
or "My father is shut," but I am not sums whiub.
Both these witnesses assert that "no search"
was made for !missing property ; and the most
mysterious circumstance connected with the
murder is, that nothing bad been taken out
of the father's room ; the room was in no way dis-
turbed, the table•drawer in which his money was
kept was locked, and the key was in the pocket of the
deceased's waistcoat, which hung on the foot of the
bed. "The room struck me," says the superinten-
dent of police, " as in a remarkable state of neatness
and order, considering what 1 bad heard had taken
place." Neither were there any symptoms of burglars
having forced an entrance into the house. Jane Hen-
derson swears that she " saw the kitchen door locked
and barred," and Jean, the mother, " fastened " the
kitchen door before she went to bed, and "knew
that the front one was also fastened." Upon the
family being roused "the kitchen door," sets
Thomas Henderson, "was standing open":—
It was fastened the night before with a lock and a wooden
bar. The bar was resting against the wall, and not broken,
so that it must have been placed there. The lock was not
injured, and the key was in it on the inside.
" I asked how the entrance had been effected," stated
the superintendent of police, " and James Hender-
son said he supposed"
some one must have got in during the early part of the
night, concealed themselves in the cellar, and after the
family had gone to bed had let the rest of the gang into
the house. He said he had been up last, seeing all the
dcrors fast ; that he went to bed about half-past twelve,
and thought be heard a shuffling noise, which caused
Lim to turn several steps back, but all was then quiet,
and he went to bed. 1 emarnined the outside doors, bat
there were no marks of violence upon them,