The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-02 00:00:00

SHOOTINt; AT A CROWI).—A man named Frank

Blackburn was taken into custody at Leeds, on Wednesday
last, charged with firing a pistol several times into a crowd
of people in Priucess-street, New Wortley, one of the out-
lying districts of the borough of Leeds. It appears that
Blackburn, who is 26 years of age, and resides in Airedale-
place, Leeds. was until very lately a guard in the employ of
the North-Eastern Railway Company, and that he has been
separated from his wife for a considerable period, and
has cohabited with an elderly woman living in Princess-
street, New Wortley, whom he had passed off as his
aunt. This assertion, however, would not be accepted
by the public, who manifested their disapproval of his
conduct by hissing and hooting him from the house yester-
day morning. He repaired to the shop of Mr. Shear!,
ironmonger, West-street, and possessed himself of a pistol
same powder, and No. 26 shot. Thus armed, he returned
to the scene of the morning's expulsion, when the house
was again surrounded by a crowd, who repeated the morn-
ing's disturbances, whereupon Blackburn presented him-
self at the upper window and deliberately fired among
the crowd three times in quick succession, and afterward:
discharged the pistol a fourth time from the kitchen win-
dow. On all four occasions it is supposed that some per-
sons were more or less injured, though happily not seri-
ously. By this time the crowd had become very gre.t, and
information having been conveyed to the police, George
Rider, of the force, arrived and took Blackburn into cus-
tody. He did not offer any resistance, but suffered him-
self to be conveyed quietly to the police station. No
denial of the shooting was put in ; he acknowledged having
fired the pistol four times, and in the coolest manner pos-
sible expressed his willingness to abide by the conse-
quences, justifying his conduct as an act of self-defence.
James Arthur Clutheray, of New Wortley, was bit on the
temple ; Mary Hill was hit on the right arm ; and Richard
Henry Woodward was hit on the right side of the nose.
Two other persons were also wounded. The prisoner was
taken before the Leeds borough magistrates yesterday,
and remanded till to-day.
MURDER.—Yesterday, about 1 o'clock,
a shocking murder was committed in Wollaton-street,
Nottingham, by an imbecile, named Joseph Frost. It
appears that Frost had been for some time an inmate ,
of the imbecile ward of the Nottingham Union. He
had recently left the union however, and had resided
with his mother, to whom he was a source of continual
annoyance. She had maintained the young man of late,
and he had done odd jobs for neighbours. Yesterday he
was engaged in getting a load of coke in for • neighbour,
named Akroyd. Some children were about, and one of
them, • girl aged 14 years. named Ann Leary, threw a
piece of coke at him. Frost immediately raised his
shovel, and, rtislain4 at the little girl in a furcate manner,
struck her several tunes on the neck, breaking some of
the arteries, and killing her shortly after. Several per-
sons were in the street at the time, but the deed was done
so quickly that it was found impossible to prevent the in-
furiated young man from striking the girl. When taken
into custody, Frost said if he had had a knife he would
have cut the child's throat. He will be brought before
the town magistrates to-day.