The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-20 00:00:00

THE . EX

1/18440itLias TO THE LATE BISHOP Of
CALcurra.

ASSIZE

INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—Ls7O6, Dec. 18.
(Before Mr. Justice Lush.)
THE 81111:71,1ELD MIIRDFIL
Haan/ Oabbiks, 16, draper, was indicted for the wilful
murder of Arthur Allen, at Sheffield, on the 220 d of
November last. He had pleaded guilty to the charge on
Saturday, but by the mince of his counsel he afterwards
withdrew that plea.
Mr. Campbell Footer and Mr. V.Blaokburn were counsel
for the prosecution ; Mr. Waddy for the defence.
Mr. Foster said the prisoner was charges with She
murder of another boy, about his own age, o was
fellow-apprentice, both being in the servioe of Mr. Edmund
Draper, hosier and draper, Fargate, Sheffield. The de-
ceased had been nine months in Mr. Draper's service, and
the prisoner two years and eight months on the 22nd of
November. Allen was aged 15, and the prisoner 16 or
17.
The prisoner was a tolerably steady and good lad. andeAllen.occupied one bed, and there was no reason to believe
that there was any ill-blood between them. They had
been accustomed after business hours to go out until ten
o'clock, but their master had deprived them of that pri-
vilege, because Allen, while the prisoner waited outside,
went into a confectioner's shop, and had a glass of wine and
a tart, though he had no money with which to pay for it.
For this misconduct he punished both of them by keeping
them in doors each night. Nothing, however , , had tr
spired to show that the prisoner entertained any animosity
towards Allen because of that deprivation. On the night
of the 21st they went to bed as usual, and there was nothing
to excite any suspicion ; but at seven o'clock next morning
Mr. Draper was awoke by a knock at his door • and on
inejuiring what was wanted, he was answered by the
r pisoner saying, •' I've killed Arthur." Mr. Draper said,
" What have you done?" and prisoner answered, I've
killed Arthur.' "Oh ! what do you mean!" exclaimed
Mr. Draper, and the prisoner answered, " I've hammered
his head with a hammer, and stabbed him with a knife ;
I have killed him." Mr. Draper got out of bed, and enter-
ing the apprentices' room he found Allen welteand ring
on in his
blood, on the dressing table a bloody hammer, the
bed a carving knife, bloody and broken. A surgeon was
sent for, and the prisoner taken to the police-office. On
the way thither a fellow-apprentice named Moss said to
the prisoner, " Why have you killed him ? and "Do
you not know what you have been doing ? " and the
prisoner's reply was, " I did it for revenge." The
surgeon (Mr. Favell) found that on his left temple
the deceased had received a violent blow, which had
driven in part of the skull, and on the crown of the
head another blow, which had fractured the skull.
In the neck there was a wound of a superficial
character, which might have been inflicted by the
carving knife. The knife and the hammer must have
been carried up to the bedroom the night before by the
prisoner, for the hammer was in constant use downstairs,
and the knife belonged to the shop ; so that it had re-
quired some degree of contrivance on the part of the
prisoner to secrete those weapons in that way. He asked
if that did not show a degree of premeditation indicating
contemplation of the deed in question, and proving that
the murder was wilfully and intentionally done.
Mr. Draper, the master of the deceased and the prisoner,
in the course of his evidence said, on the Saturday fol-
lowing the going out at nights had been stopped the
prisoner spoke to him, saying that it was very hard
he should be deprived of his liberty through the fault of
another, but he (Mr. Draper) told him that he considered
both to blame. The prisoner had been a good and dutiful
apprentice. When at the police-office he said be was very
sorry for what he had done.
Cross-examined by Mr. Waddy With regard to
his apprentioeship I have had no communication
with his father, though he signed the indenture,
which was sent to Hull to him for that purpose.
His father has paid no attention whatever to him during
the two or three years that he has been with me. I
cannot say that be has had a single letter from his father
during the whole time that he has been with me. He has
been remarkably docile and amiable. He has always been
deferential to me aril kind to his brother apprentices.
This continued up to the night of this terrible tragedy. I
did not observe that on the night of the 21st be was very
heavy and pensive. I did not see him after half-past seven.
During the day I had observed nothing of the kind. He
has been deaf, and treated surgically for it. At the Town-
hall he flung his arms round my neck and kissed me, and
bads me " good bye."
Re-examined by Mr. Footer—There was nothing in my
family to make him unhappy.
By the Judge—He has a step-mother.
By Mr. Waddy—The gentleman who has taken most
care of him, so far as he was taken care of by his relatives,
was his uncle on his mother's side, Mr. P. Platt, of Gains-
borough.
Mr. Favell, surgeon, described the wounds, and said in
two or three days after he had received them, Allen died
from the hurts to the head.
Mr. Waddy cross-examined this gentleman at length in
a way suggesting that the defence would be insanity.
Moss, the third apprentice who has been spoken of, in
cross-examination, said the prisoner went quietly to the
Town-ball, and was not flurried. Once or twice be had
beard him complain of being neglected by his father and
mother, aid that his stepmother had behaved cruelly to
him. He bad not been subject to fits of passion.
By Mr. Forster—On the night before the murder,
prisoner complained twice of pain in his head, and was
dull and melancholy.
Dr. l'yemont Smith, of Mount Stead Retreat, near
Ilkley, said he had visited the prisoner that morning, and
talked with him. Prisoner talked rationally, certainly,
but with a slight degree of reserve. He answered
all questions, but volunteered no information. His
appearance altogether was defective, but there wan nothing
about the heed indicating disease of the brain. His face
was the worst, the lower part being very receding. The
conversation turned on the present accusatidb. (His lord-
ship would not allow it to transpire what that conversation

was.)
Mr. W. N. Price, surgeon to the Leeds Gsol, deposed
that he had had several opportunities of conversing with
and noticing the prisoner. and he believed he knew right
from wrong, and was able to understand the consequences
of any act he might do.
Mr. Waddy said they had before them a young man, a
boy, a child almost—for although a boy of 16 in point of
years, they hod been told by the surgeon who had been
called for the prosecution, that the prisoner was a compa-
ratively undeveloped youth : and they had also the fact
that this lad—of whose character, bearing, and demeanour
up to the period of this crime being committed it was
impossible for him (Mr. Waddy) to speak too highly—
that was this youth charged with a crime the most atro-
cious both in the eyes of God and man. As to the motive,
there was not one which could occupy the attention of the
jury for an instant, and this had been shown in the case
for the prosecution. The jury might natur-illy inquire
what was the meaning of the act the youth had committed.
He should attempt to explain that by the evidences of the
witnesses he should call. He should call before them
those who had known the boy from the tine of his birth.
He was the child of a very fond, affectionate, and devoted
mother, who was consumptive, and who died and left him
when he was only about five years of age. He should
also show that the prisoner had had a constant succession
of fits, these afflictions extending over some length of time,
and drawing from his own mother at one time the expres-
sion of the wish that the Lord would take him first, in-
asmuch as she considered he was mentally and physically
ruined by this ailment. After prisoner's mother died, the
father, unfortunately for the lad, married again, and when
that event took place, the whole course and history of the
lad's life was changed. He was then treated with great
cruelty, and made to undergo considerable hardships. The
stepmother systematically illtreated him, and soured his
life. Prisoner himself had declared, in unguarded mo-
ments, and when he was suffering from this shameful
treatment, that his stepmother had told him she knew he
was doomed to the gallows. From his early days, that
appalling vision had haunted and darkened his life, until
it culminated in the horrible crime about which they had
that day to inquire. He should show to them that there
had been some terrible delusion on the part of the patient.
Medical men would be called who were familiar with cases
of homicidal monomania, and their testimony would be
entitled to the most careful consideration of the jury.
He had no right to ask them for mercy on the part of the
prisoner, but if they came to the conviction that at the
time he did that act he did not know what he was about,
and did not know its nature and quality, it would be their
duty to acquit the prisoner.
Eliza Minty, publican, Hull, was called to show that
the stepmother, Mrs. Gabbites,had systematically treated
the youth in a very brutal manner. Remembered her
breaking a toasting fork over his head, and other inci-
dental acts of violence which witness considered bad made
the boy nervous. During the period of her knowledge of
him he was always goodnatured, and his temper never ap-
peared to be moved.
Christiana Standing, of Owaton Ferry, had known the
prisoner since he was a week old. She was asked whether
his mother's health was not feeble, but the judge rejected
such evidence as not legitimate, because there was no evi-
dence of the prisoners insanity. At twelve months old he
had fits, which, from the description she gave of them,
must have been epileptic. The fits left him with a very
singular " daft " appearance. The fits left him at three
years old. His mother died when be was seven years old.
She believed neither his father nor his stepmother were in
court.
Mary Fielding, of Owston Ferry, said she knew the pri-
soner as a child, and bad heard his mother pray about
him. He we. kind and good, but a dull, daft boy. She
knew moat of him from four to eleven years old, when he
went to Hull, and she never noticed that his hearing was
imperfect.
Thomas Hargrave Fletcher, schoolmaster, of Crofton•
bridge, said the prisoner was formerly one of his scholars.
He did not remember anything vindictive in his conduct,
or passionate. Scarcely any other boy was so constantly well
conducted.
Robert Sharp, a Sunday-school superintendent, consi-
dered that when a boy the prisoner was of weak intellect.
Cross-examined by Mr. Forster—He seemed to under-
stand the teaching when he was taught to pursue the good,
and avoid the evil.
By the Judge--Though there was mental imbecility, he
knew right from wrong.
Mrs. Sharp, wife of the last witness, said she had noticed
the prisoner to be soft, and to laugh sillily when he was
eight years old but he was very land to cats sad birds.
Caleb Williams—l am visig physician to Mao York
Itotrist, frbich is an asylum for the Society of /rim&

,ESSI THUMEIDAN7 SVIRICNO; (MEOMBEW `,119;71860:

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

(Before Mr. Justice Mellor.)
Janus Batten, an elderly man, was charged with
feloniously casting a quantity of boiling water upon
Georgian Batten, with intent to do her gnecous bodily

bane:
Mr. F. H. Lewis prosecuted ; Mr. Pater defended the

.
.. .
I have seen cases of homicidal monomania, and one eye- I would do nothing for her—it had bean in the hands al
I
chilly was under my treatment. I believe the rimier to the lawyers for months and yet nothing
_had been done.
he a boy of defective intellect. I have talked with him, 1 She afterwards said that she wiehed she had stopped with
and ha was quiet end well-behaved. I spoke to him on the I the child, and then there would have bean an end of them
subject of this charge, and he told me what took place. both. Some marks were found upon the dress of the cll.,
In my opinion, with his limitce range of powers of which, according to the medical evidence thatwas addn,
mind, he
nwold be able to form some judgment on were occasioned by oxalic acid, and this, coupled with t
matters i general. When the mind is tutsound on symptoms described by the child, was relied upon by the
one (abject it is rarely entirely sound on 'subjects ' prosecution as evidence that oxalic acid was the ingredient
in general. I formed the judgment that the prisoner is that the prisoner attempted to administer to the child,
of unsound mind—unsound in generaL In our converse- I and that her object in doing so was to destroy its life.
tion the Lord's Prayer was spoken of, and he said the I In the course of the ease a polioe-inspector stated that
moment he was lifting the hammer to strike the boy's , he eked the prisoner at the tame she was taken into cum-
bead he was repeating the Lord's Prayer in a hurried . tody, and when she said it Will alum-water that she gave
manner. He told me that his stepmother had rpoken of 'to the child, where she got the alum-water from ?
his ending his days on the gallows. He, having Iran sub- , Mr. Justice Mellor expressed his opinion that the in-
ject to fits in his infancy, would be more liable than , spector had no right to put such a question to a prisoner,
another to become eubject to cerebral disease of one )tind and he admonished him not to do so again under similar
or another. Having described homicidal monomania, Dr. circumstances.
Williams added that such patients, after the deed, gene- ; Mr. Straight made • most feeling appeal to the jury on
rally give themselves up to justice. I behalf of the prisoner, and having dwelt upon the miss-
The Judge—Does not that show a sense of right or rable and unhappy condition in which she had been pieced
wrong? 1 through being deserted by her seducer, he endeavoured to
Dr. Williamshere was imbecil but not to an ex- show that there was not sufficient evidence to show con-
tent preventing him from knowing right and wrong. ' elusively that the liquid in the bottle consisted of oxalic
. 1
Cross-examined by Mr. Foster—l formed my opinion acid, or that the prisoner really entertained the deadly in-
of the prisoner's insanity from his telling me he bad , tention of destroying the life of her child.
killed the deeeseed, and from the quiet manner in : Mr. Justice Mellor, in summing up Abe case to the jury,
which he recited the circumstances, and that he had adverted to what had taken place in Ilie course of the in-
no fear of the consequence& Be (Dr. Williams) was quiry, and to the observation he had made with reference
a witness in defence of Dove, who some years ago to the conduct of the police inspector, and said he wished
was convicted at York of poisoning his wife by it to be understood thalie did" not think that any eerions
strychnine. He thought Dove was a homicidal mono- blame was to be cast upon him, or that he had acted in-
maniac. He thought, if a policeman had been standing by, tentionally in an improper manner, but he thought
the prisoner would not have committed the murder. Hi it should be known that the police, when they apprehended
believed the prisoner did not know, at the time he cow- I a prisoner, had no right to put' questions to him, the
nutted this murder, that he was doing an unlawful act. ; answers to which might have an important bearing upon
Mr. Foster—When he told you of the murder, and then ' the question as to his guilt or innocence. He (the learned
said his mother had always told him be would tome to the judge) was not permitted by law to put questions to a
g.llowa, did not that indicate a knowledge of right and prisoner, and a policeman certainly had no ri,ght to dos o,
wrong!__ I and his duty was to hear what a prisoner said volun-
Dr. Williams—Persons like him must then commit tartly, but not to ask him any questions. He then celled
murder in order that they may be hung. their, attention to the facts of the case, and said that the
The Judge—What would you say in this instance? material questions for the jury were whether the bottle
Dr. Williams—l should call him insane. contained oxalic acid, and, if they were of opinion that it
Dr. Kitchen, of the York Retreat, was also called to did, then with what intent it was administered to the
confirm Dr. Williams's evidence. He said the prisoner told child by the prisoner.
him he always had a belief he should kill scene one or him- The jury retired at half-past 4 o'clock to deliberate upon
self, and finding himself in a bedroom with a fellow app ren- their verdict. They returned into court in about a quarter
tice be thought his opportunity hail come, and he seized it. of an hour and found the prisoner Guilty, but at the same
He said he never had had an opportunity before. Formerly time strongly recommended her to mercy on account of the
he slept with an assistant. He thought of killing him, distressing circumstances in which she was placed at the
but he thought he would be too strong for him. He said time the act was committed.
hie stepmother had so instilled into his mind that he Mr. Justice MeThir, addressing the prisoner, said that
would come to the gallows, that he felt he must kill some the jury had evidently paid great attention to the case,
One. and bad endeavoured to ascertain whether there were any
Cross-examined by Mr. Foster—He believed that knock- circumstances that would justify them in coming to any
ing the boy on the head would kill him. and probably other conclusion then that she had really committed the
thought he should be punished for it, and that he knew very serious crime that was laid to her charge. The
hangg was the result of murder. It was only an idiot evidence, however, precluded them from coming to any
who did. not know that. The prisoner was an imperfectly other conclusion then the one they bad arrived at, that
developed creature, both mentally and physically. He she was guilty of the dreadful crime of deliberately
told witness be had never heard the Bible except at the attempting to destroy the life of her own child b fns most
Sunday school, and he could not tell the arrangement cruel means. It was a most serious and vated
of the commandments, nor name the first five books of the offence, and while he was most anxious to give l effect
Bible. to the recommendation of the jury, he felt that his duty
Mr. Wieldy then summed up the prisoner's defence, Mr. to the public left him no abernative but to pass upon her
Foster replied, and the Judge summed up. the same sentence be had been called upon to inflict upon
The jury retired eighteen minutes, and then returned another prisoner for an offence of the same character
with • verdict of Guilty, but strongly recommended the during theday, which was that she be kept in penal servi-
prisoner to mercy on account of his youth. lode for fifteen ye&rs.
The Judge put on the black cap, and said he could not The wretched prisoner shrieked violently when the Den-
trust himself to comment upon the awfulness of having to tenee was pronounced and she was removed] from the
pass sentence of death upon a boy so young. He would dock in an almost insensible condition.
convey the recommendation of the jury to the proper
quarter. His duty simply was to pronoun°, the sentence
of the law, and his lordship then did so in the usual fem.
There was much sobbing among the women in the gallery,
and the judge himself was deeply moved.
The prisoner maintained to the end an impassive and
stolid bearing, betraying not the least emotion.
LIVERPOOL, DEC. 19.
(Before Mr. Justice Smith.)
.Robert Reid was charged with the murder of his wife,
Ann Reid, on the 3rd December, 1862, in LiverpooL The
case derived an additional interest from the fact that after
the murder Reid escaped from England and was only cap-
tured in August last, the arrest being made in the city of
New York, and the prisoner being brought to Liverpool by
detective officer Marsden. Reid, when in Liverpool, worked
SS a tin-plater and lived with his wife and child
din a
cellar in Myrtle-street. About midnight of the recember, 1862, the prisoner entered the cellar in company
with his son. His wife was sitting there together
with a female neighbour named Rogers. The pri-
sonerjsat down. The cellar was dark,ithe only light being a
faint glow from the fire. Reid appeared quiet, and Rogers
did not notice any appearance of intoxication about him.
Pointing to his lad, he said to Rogers, " Mary, is not that
a fine boy ?" After a while Reid asked his wife to sing a
song. She did so, and when she ceased Reid, aft s
er look-
ing at his wife in a wild manner, began himself to ing,
" Rambling round the world for 'port." He stopped in
the middle of the song, and rising from his seat seized his
wife by the hair and dragged her towards the door. Rogers
implored him not to do her any harm, as she had not pro-
voked him in any way. Reid did not speak, but he loosed
his hold of his wife. What followed is best told in the words
of Rogers herself. "He left hold of her, and she
crawled along the wall to the fireplace, and lay down with
her back to the wall. She was not able to stand. When
she sank down I saw two little fountains of blood coming
from under her left side, right under her arm, like water
from a tap." The prisoner steed a moment in the door-
way, and when Rogers said, " Oh, Bob, you have mur-
dered the woman," he came forward a little, and saying
to the boy, " Johnny, come on," he took him by the hand
and left the place. Rogers then gave the alarm, but Reid
could not be found. The wife bad been stabbed twice
under the arm, the wounds being from two to three inches
in length, and she died in a few minutes afterwards. A
witness named Adams saw Reid coming out of the cellar
with a bloody knife in his hand, and noticed that be after-
wards dropped it down a sewer grating.
The jury found the prisoner Civilly, and he was sen-
tenced to death.