The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-26 00:00:00

THE MURDER NEAR BATH.

In dm E.rpress, in December last, there ap-
peared the particulars of a brutal and cold-blooded murder,
perpetrated on • quiet and inoffensive man named Ueorge
Bush, at l'riston, a village situated a few miles from Bath,
on the night of the first of that month. Tie deceased, who
was a milkman residing at Tinishury, a mile or two from
Primes' had attended an auction sale at the latter village,
and intho evening, with others, regaled himself at the
Ring of Bells, the village public-house. lie leR early,
however, to go home, but neat morning his dead body was
dimovered in a field not half a mile from the house, the
unfortunate man's threat having been est from ear to oar,
and his pockets rifled of their contents.
Several persons were at the time apprehended on Rapt-
cies of the horrible crime, but after lengthened
lions discharged, and one young man, • butcher named
' Evans by wider such terrible suspioioa that he has been
almost an outcast from society ever since. The pukes were
completely baffled in their investigations, and the painful
&Emir was almost considered ma impenetrable mystery,
when, most unexpectedly, • ohm was lately obtained to the
murderer by his own confession.
The party thus implicated is an Irish pedlar named
Christopher Smith, who was lately confined in the Dorches-
ter County Gaol under the Vagrancy Act, and who whilst
imprisoned stated to a fellow prisoner that be had com-
mitted • murder in Bomersetshire. This led to

Ifenther inquiries, which resulted in the prisoner's apprehen-
lin by Mr. Hughes, chief of the Bath police, on the charge
ef the murder of Busk, at Primon. On being apprehended
the prisoner said he amid make a clean confession of it,
and then told Mr. Hopes se follows 1 was at the pob-
lie-heese, end at the Mule selling incline and other little
=trathad half ••pleg of beer, aced 1 sew the man I
pull wet hieuptssews, whisk tempted me. I fol-
lowed hint hem doe pslMbsma until he VW two or three
Adds over a stile, ad whim he pt 70 or SO porde I tripped
his up with sty let. He fell en the back of his heed and
esietl out hardier • very loudly, and said tome, Do you
moat to warder rr 1 replied to him, ' Yes.' " The pri-
sneer, them leellies at kis arms, said, " I was then much
stringer tad mem settee than I am now, and I held him a
few minutes and drew say knife across his throat two or
three times, and he never moved afterwards. There
was not much straggling, as it was soot over. I knelt
oa him, and when I wee oa him the blood came over me,
and I tore up some grass and stuffed it into the cut. I
then took his purse, but did not get more than seven or
eignt shillings. I thought he had more, or it would not
have happer ed. lam sorry for it, It was a eold-blooded
deed, and one of the worst murders that ever was done. I
slept in a cart-house that night, and in barns end under
haystaclu ever since; bat wherever I was I could not rest,
as I saw the man. It was a dreadful thing to have on the
miad, and I am perfectly prepared to die for it."
On Saturday the prisoner was brought up before a full
bench of magistrates, at the County-office Bath. The
greatest excitement prevailed, and several hundreds of per-
s2ns followed the fly in which the prisoner was conveyed
from the police station to the magistrates office. The pri-
mer apron very dejected. end hie countenance presents a
wry limped appearance. He appeared to pay great atten-
tion he die evidence of the various witnesses, but declined
peidag my questiose to them.
Thelenewing evidence was adduced:—
Flower, son of M. Flower, who was first apple.
lts2=rs suspicion of the murder, de to finding the
body of the deemed severed with lying neer the foot-
pat. is • nil batmen Peldos end Timsbury, between
mess sad eightedeek m themes*/ after the murder, the
Ihad of Deeember. _

VM.Viii,carps---- War, of Timsbury, wee told on the morn
ing of the 2nd of December that Bush was lying M a Geld
with his bowels out. He went to the field and found the
body lying on the back, the left hand being evens the sheet,
and there was a shilling stack by blood on the back of the
hand. The throat wee cat from ear to ear, and both of the
pockets of the trowsen were turned inside out, and there
were marks of this having been done by a hand with blood
on it. The deceased's hat was lying near the body. The
spot where the body woe lying was about half a mile from
the Ming of Dells public-house, at Priston, and about 901
yards from the stile of the field leading from it. The
wound in the throat was stuffed full of grass.
Mary Weeks, wife of William Weeks, Isndlord of the
Ring of Bells, Priston deposed that she remembered the
let of December last. It was a Monday. On that day she
saw the deceased Georg* Bush at her house. lie left at
stout a quarter pest 7 in the evening. Could net swear she
bad seen the prisoner there ; but a man shabbily dressed
Ike him came to the house in the afternoon, and had half a
pint of beer. He bad a basket sad a bag with him. She
knew he was an Irishman by his brogan, and he was vary'
like the prisoner, bat she could not swear to bins. There
was a sale at Priaton that day.
Sampson Willis sew the deceased at the Ring of Bells on
the let Demeter. He saw him pat his hand in his pocket
to pay some money, and heard money rattle.
?amity Fowles, servant to Mr. Keeling, of Priston, re-
membered the aide on the Ist December. She was then
living as Reek-hill with her mother. About half-past 10
o'clock ea that morning a man came to the gate of her
mother's Mom The man bad a basket on his arm with
aleitsrs and laces hi its sad be asked her if
she smithies ? She did not make any
That day Weigle previously he had asked at Litt,
end she had prodissed some huller matches of him.
She should knew the mass again, eke bed seen him fre-
quently darialettr2tret two or three years. He weeny
came once a t to the house, but she had never
bouOt anything him except on the one occasion when
she Weed the nmaises because be was so very saucy. Tee
winless was lore melted to look round the court and see if
she meld the ma. She at once identified the pd.
lienfie. The , sit orstinued, was much thinner
new thorn when she 'raw Yen ow the da of the sale. He
had also et that the• shah sop es with a leathers peak.
▪ had ohm a huh miser, and Whoa ma hoer than he
did sow. Nage Bask was mordswed the ems eight.
She went sad saw the body the Lest manias. Hock-hill,
when she lived, was but a bald or two /toss the spot where
the body was found. The add in whisk the murder took
pleas could he seen from the beam.
John Wiwi, labourer, of P • dopeadi that on the
morale' after du murder of George Bush, as be was going
to his work about 8 o'clock, he saw a man skiing upon the
beak by the roadside, our the Ring of Bells, and he was
wiping his shoos with a pions of paper. Hs spas to wit.
sees and said him what time *was. Ha epee like an
Irishman. The primer was aimed the sine height and
features, bet be simuld not Shaw sweat Iss was the man.
If be was the maw be was abused a gnat dial he the
worse. He looked at that dor • peat Sod jollier than be
did now. He had as a brews do* will a peak to it
and • boast *wag to his back. Habawl the primmer
was dio nom, bet tint ba was mask ailing.
Istawry wide of Joseph lkinmea, of Oradea-
end. Balk. resnewhored the night By was murdered.
'no next wear she went over to Priem to boss about
ft. Oa her way, chant half -past II e' when between
the Hod Lies lan, Odd laws. sad Hand MOM SUMAS.
gate, ski neat a ma. (This new shout a mile sod a b
nearer Bath than the plans whore the WI witness deposed
to seeing the prisoner.) He turned oat of the tl
read towards Combs Deers. There wee a woman wighaC
As witness came up as awn the man was riermilsgesime
the well, and the mum was dabs, essambing as host
of his shirt, num whisk witness observed NM Spits
of Mod. The prisoner was the wan she saw • oho was
gulls sore of that. He was stouter then, and lied were
whiskers thane hod new. The futures were the tam.
Witness stopped to sois what the woman was ag, when
the wawa said to her, " what the devil are you 11.14
at r Wham sada no mply.
Jos* Maw Synssa4 surgeon, of Karkabirty, was
called wpsw Isemessioe the body of the murdered man ea
the Sul of Hoomabor, the day after the murder was disco-
vered. lb saw the body is the churchyard, at Primes.
He lid the threat sat from ear to as,, the wowed going
through to dis spits. amides the larger wound, there
Were two mast eats ea the left side of the throat. To
Mdiagtholleige wooed, he should think there mast have
e several maw, and it mast have been Lashed with a
amp hatmonsat. There were two wowed' hided sod
above the right ear. They were each weds as arlibt
have been avid by the damned falling beeline' upon
• sharp stns. The wound in the throat world mass
almost iasimimaawas shark.
The witness Ira gebilo someime the bands of the
prisoner, after whisk fe doled that brs head scut on the
forefinger of the left head, and there woo a soar above
the knuekle.

Allred Hughes, chief.( the Bath police, deposed to the
coafenion nada to his by the prisoner, as gives above,
mad added, that after the prisowir said he was prepared to
die for the murder ha added tat he ought to have killed
himself, and that he night have dose it, only that he had
set the pluck • sad that he had got We band bit sad his
lager out ia dena:t. He showed wines some soars on
the ibreinger of left band. Witness asked hiss how
he got his left band cot, and he than ewilaind the way
In whiels it wee dons, as he was holding back the chin of
the demised.

The primmer hero said, se the magistrates were consi-
dering the propriety of calling timelier witness', " Gentle-
men, thete's enough evidenoe to hang twenty without any
mom."

The usual caution was then rend to the prisoner and he
was asked if he had ■nyth' to say why he should not
be committed. He replied " I hare nothing to say ;" and
signed the 'Meant in a capital haudwritise.
The prisoner was then committed to take his trial at the
neat senses on the charge of wilful murder.

Etscrtots RIOTS, Bylaw., JULY 25th.—Wo re-
gret having to record the death of a person named John
°ridding, who breathed his last yesterday, at the Bristol
Infirmary, and who was severely wounded. at Bsnwell, by a
pike by some miscreant, at the recent election for the eastern
division of the county of Somerset. An inquest on the body
of the deceased has been opened pro forma by the coroner,
J. B. Grindon, Esq., and it stands adjourned till tomorrow,
when, of course, a strict enquiry will be made into the
num of this brutal outrage.