The Express.
London, England, 1865-08-28 00:00:00

THE ROAD MURDER.

CONSTANCE KENT'S CONFESSION.
We have at length authentic details from the ups
of Coeds. Ca Kent
was
of the crime of which sheeau
pond Mesa guilty whoa pieced on her trial st &ashen
Let nicuth. Dr. Jobs Moshe Beekeell, of HQ**
Ball, near Rugby, who, with the permission of the lied
Chancellor, examined the accused for the purpose of wee
Minis whether time erne any grounds for supposing that
II she de labour* ester mental disease, has, at thieving
Id the criminal beeself, omantunicated the following thug,
ci her crime, which she has reinfieeed to bins sad to gt.
I Medway, of Trowbridge, her solicitor, and which she dee*
to be made public. fibs says that the TUMID in die
sits committed the crime was as follows.
A few days before the murder she obtalad p
swim a a razor from a green eau in hp
Mises wardrobe, sod seented it. This was the sole
lawArnment which she used. She also secreted a math with
=etches, by placing them is the earner of the closet is eta
genies whole the murder wee committed. On the night et
the =UAW she undimmed basil' and went to bed, bings
she expected that her Adam would vitt her nem. Shsbg
awake watching until she thought that the household vele
all asleep, and soon after midnight she lest her bedroom sad
wont down stairs sad opened the drawing-room door sad
derby shutters. She then went up into the screwy,
withdrew the blanket from between the sheet sad eh
eousterpthe, end plated it on the side of the cot. She then
took the child from his bed end carried lint Bowe eels
through the drawing-room. She bad on her night drop,
and in the drawl's-room she put on her goloshes. Having
the child la one arm, she raised the drawingeeet
window with the other head, went road the home sad imp
the closet, lighted the candle, and placed it on the suet
the closet, the child being wrapped in the blanket and sa
sleeping ; and while the child was in this position she h.
Mated the wound in the threat. She ups that she that&
the blood would dew come, a
killed, nd that the child it
sh
and she thrust the razor tato its left aide, led *
the body with the blanket (round it into the vault. The
light burned out. The piece of flannel which she had wilt
her was torn from en old Saadi garment plead in themes
beg, sod which she had taken some time before, sad ewe
it to use in washing herself. She went beck into her bel•
room, examined her dress, and found only two 'pots of blood
on it. Theme she snaked out is the has)), and threw de
water, which debut little diecoloure3, into the footles is
which she bad washed hoe feat. She took were
of her night-dresess end got into bei. ID Ike
maiming her nighttime had beemers dry Aft
it had been washed. She folded it up sod pit it ie.° mks
drawer. Her three night-01moms were trade id by*,
Foley (the polio. superiateedent, sad she bet Yee she by
Mr. Period, the medical attendant of the family. fiss
thought the blood stales bad been effectually mod*
bat on holding the dress up to the light a day or In,
afterwards she found the states were still visible She we
meted the dress, mowing it from place to Om, sad is
*notedly burned it in her own bedroom, sad pet de
saes or tinder into the kitchen grate. It war about be
or sic days after the child's death that she hand the
nfght-drese. On the Saturday morning, having diesel the
reser, she took en opportunity of replacing it, useimeet,
is the case in the wardrobe. She abstractel het slid
dregs from the clothes-butte when the hominoid melte
fetch a glans of water. [This it may be reordered or.
tatty donnas the evades of the housemaid, Mrs. Eager
(formerly Cox), so given at the examination at Trowbridge(
As regards the motive of the crime, says Dr. Sedmil,
it seems that although she entertained at *se time a gni
regard for the premed Mrs. Kent, yet if a remark vu d
any time made which in her opinion was diem :aging te esy
member of the lest family, she treasured it up sad dem
mined to avenge it. She had no 11l will spied the ills
boy, except as one of,the children. Dr. Bucknell adds del
a letter had been addressed by Coustanos Kent to Mr. IA
way, her solicitor, before the trial on this poise Ws me
the ground for the statement made by the misoser's ore*
to the effect that she acknowledged that she had resild
the greatest kindness from Mr. and Mrs. Kent. Dr.Budrag
adds : "She told me when the aurae:mid wee secessditsid
fully made up her mind to confess if the nurse led bee
convicted, and that she bad felt herself Hader the Weds
of the devil before she committed the murder: het the
she did not believe, and bad not believed, that the and
had more to do with her crime than he had with rep
other wicked action. She bad sot said her prayers hr s
year before the murder, and not sft mots cued she cam
to reside at Brighten. She mid that the &muted&
which revived renews feelings in her mind vu Odd*
about ressiving the sacrament when confirmed.*
As to the whaler's mental caddies, Dr. Busked din
"An opinion has been expressed that the peculates
synced by Constance Kent between the attired' of he
Zed and 17th may be attributed to the thee deities
period of her life. Moreover, the fact of her cutting d
her hair, dressing herself is bee brother's clothe, red
leaving her hold with the ideation of going abroad,ebbk
occurred when she was only 13 years of an. of I
peculiarity of disposition and great determination el es.
radar, which foreboded that, for god or evil, haa Wag
life would be remarkable. This peculiar dispirited will
led her to such singular and violent resolv bare
seemed also to colour and intensify the thoug fed.
togs, and magnify into wrongs that were to be meta
any little family incidents or occurrence which prated
her displeasure.
" Although it became my duty to advise her counsel tad
she evinced no symptom of Insanity at the time at ef
examiestims, sod that so far as it was possible to seer*
the date of her mind at so remote a period, there me se
evidence of it at the time of the murder, lam yet of
opinion that, owing to the peculiarities of her conithatior
it is probable that under prolonged solitary contialnwst
she would become insane. The validity of this 4001
' of imported*, now that the sentence of death hes tem
commuted to penal servitude for life, for no use did
desire that the punishment of this Criminal should beer
carried oat as to emus danger of a further sod gate
punishment not contemplated by the law,"
8.

LIB

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1
4 THE SUEZ CAELL.-44 letter baa been *darling
to the Tina by Mr. Daniel A. Lange, director ad rson
mutative of the SEWS Canal Company, which relates teas
recent alleged opening of the Suez Canal. After alledisll 004
I gueral impressioo that a misstatement on the part of
company was intended by the recent telegram, the want
1
1 mays :—" I request to be allowed to ex chin that the teig
pram sent from Ismail* on the 17th i ut. to the
N'pekoe was as follows :—'The floodgates of the Sual=
ahave beat thrown open, sod • vestal lathes with coal mull
4 direct from the liediterrause to the Bed Sea on the 16tb
ff inst.' The meaningbeing perfutlyintel fib* *atulatorhie Ifsja
for whom the message warn in a congrorn, the
?
was sent to the company. As is reetc,ll, horn,
oax.l is to be an open passage without locks, and thesis*
the word floodgates ' Gould only have reference to IS
Hain( of the smithery fresh-waerr caul with a will
of the mealtime Caul:. As regards the telegrephic aimed*
runt to the effect that the Suez Cai was opened co the
13th inst., 11r. Lange °beery's, " I hue not wee el
each msotteeemeot, and should it bare camped ma I hal
distinctly to state that it has never been made nor 'mho
rimed on the part of the Canal Company."
Tag LATE SO-CALLED sr-CantcawAsoci or Br.
OLgieurr DAZE& —The following letter appear/ IN the
risme :—" In the mood of on ioquwt held at 11•1104
Workkouss, Dr Leekester, ea the body of Mule Dor
Smart, it I. stated that the deceased wee to the= 1118
obnrehwsrden of St. Clement Data. I beg le is rt •
that no peruse of that name hits held any *lke hi
Parish for the last 20 years. and that in the raer
wee the eburchwsrden of St. Clement Dues sot sullon•
tended the erection of the seats in the cburell)anl foe
gem
its the late Duke of Wellingtons funeral procession.
inquiries I have made I believe the deceased to hue**
the moo of an ex-churchwarden and respected islakilelf
of • neighbouring parish.—Younl obedieetly, Moat
BEAcEDL, Church union of St. Clement Danes islBo3-•
17, AWN% 26."
NARROW ESCAPE OP A RAILWAY TEAST.-.01
Saturday,u Hoary Crowder, • farm labourer near Rol.
bridge, Hta, appeared before a beech of magignee
sitting at Andover, to answer to a mamma* takes call!
r. Thomas Bent, by direction of his stiperior dliers•
the Soutb.Weetere Railway, charging him that he ea it
Sith day of July negligently drew • horse sad sort oe se
reilwsy near We Stockbridge station, pod left WOO
etudieg on the line whale he wee goosipping with efle,,
man, to the great deep' of the Val& oo the lime.
effliamence,A6BB"and fro': his teatimOvnery'itwappit vs°lriedleatl:t rievaelmo 1116111
defeadant maw the teals near upon him, be whirriml_..... -
a
bores and ram him late • ditch. and thu laved tbelwra.
sod vehkde from baba* destractioe, sad bed sot Now
t• spare la dohs( so. The chairman observed that them/
wee
1• very led ON. sod It wee therefore the
eqi of the booth the* he
deare outwitted ia • ow..
este,anti in psivomat,s
sied:ortersabe.,
fine, aid be wr dischargd.
DOIIATIONA TO THE SOUTH Kimengaras 110133%
—Mr. R. oce him lately promoted to the pehlk iv. 14
temarbable objects—one aa ivory °offer, probed? eirso
thee sod al the Wadi or heath ceaterrl 04
Ulm as unique iselecoosainal club, ecodneled 1
kr • soomartit.