The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-23 00:00:00

SHOCKING MURDER AND ATTEMPTED
SUICIDE AT NORWICH.

(From the Norfolk Nm.)
A murder of a moat revolting character was com-
mitted this (Friday) morning in Fountain-yard, St. Bene-
dict's. Two old people—John and Elizabeth Winter (man
and wife) the former 71 and the latter 73 years of age—
have been living together in a single room at the top of
the yard, their means of subsistence being parish relief,
and some little assistance from their son, • man named
Hardesty, in the employ of Mr. James Hardy, grocer,
St. Stephen a. The woman being paralysed was un-
able to do any active work, and for some time past her
granddaughter, a girl about 14 years of age, who lived
with her father on Grapes's-hill, lied been in the habit of
assisting in her house work. Tide morning between 8 and
9 o'clock, she went to the room for the same pur-
pose, and found that the old man had got up and
dressed himself, and lighted the fire. Her grandmother
was lying in bed, but they all had breakfast together,
and at the time nothing was noticed to occasion any
alarm. The repast, however, had not been concluded very
long before the old man turned her out of the room, and
locked the door, giving no explanation for this singular
proceeding. The girl immediately ran home, and told her
elder sister of what had occurred, and the latter (Laura
Hardesty) at once proceeded to the Fountain-yard. Find-
ing that the door was locked, she looked through the win-
dow, and saw her grandfather in the act of leaning on the
bed and cutting the old lady's throat with a razor. Fright.
ened at the horrible act which she had witnessed, the
girl ran out of the yard and told her mother of
what had occurred. In the meantime • neighbour
looked through the window, and saw the old man lying
on the bed by the side of his dying or dead wife, with his
own throat cut. It seems that he had only that moment
committed the rash act upon himself, for he was laying
down the razor at the time the neighbour looked in at the
window. The door being still fastened, Mr. Minus,
butcher, broke it open by forcing out the staple, and raw
the murderer and his victim lying together on the bed,
which was saturated with blood. The deceased's throat
was cut on the left side, the wound being about four inches
in length and of considerable depth, and severing the wind-
pipe. The murderer had inflicted • wound upon his own
throat, eaten, ling almost from ear to ear, and penetrating the
jugular vein, and from the jagged character of the cut, the
razor appears to have hail a backward and forward move-
ment. The house was promptly entered by the police,
and police-constable Wollard found on the window shelf a
razor covered with blood. A quantity of cord was tied
round the handle so as to enable the murderer to hold it
with a firm grasp, and the blade was also tied so as to pre-
vent it from shutting. Mr. Bailey, surgeon, who was the
first medical gentleman in the house after the discovery of
the occurrence, dressed the old man's wound, and remained
in attendance upon him until 11 o'clock, when he was con-
veyed on a stretcher to the hospital. He was able to speak
to three in attendance, but the injury is of so frightful a
character that it is feared there is little chance of his
recovery.
From information which we were enabled to collect
amongst the neighbours, it seems that the old people were
in tolerably comfortable circumstances as regards food and
clothing. The room in which they lived was furnished
with two or three old chairs, a table, and other trifling
articles, and in the centre of the floor was the bed, pro-
vided with plenty of clothing. The deceased, as already
stated, was helpless, arid the peculiar conduct of the man
of late points to the presumption that his mind bad
become deranged. One neighbour stated that he had
" got it into his head " that he and his wife would
be taken to the workhouse, to which he hail a
great objection, and others state that during the last week
or so, he had behaved more roughly than usual towards
his wife. There seems no reason to doubt, from the con-
dition in which the razor was found, with the cord round
the handle and the blade secured, that he had premedi-
tated the murder. Hannah Goulder, who was the first
neighbour attracted to the house after the occurrence,
says that she saw the old man as he was taking the razor
from his own throat, and on asking, " What have you
done?" he replied with violent language. " tfa
We heard at the hospital, some time after the mans adnus-
sits, that he was is a very precarious state.