Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-11-13 00:00:00

THE STEVENAGE MURDER.

STEVENAGE, Nov. 11.—The magistrates acting for this
district, the Rev. Edwin Prodgers andf:M. Prior, Esq.,
yesterday held a special meeting at the' National School-
room, in this village, for the purpose of metering into a
further inquiry as to the circumstances connected with
the death of John Starkins, one of the Herts constabulary,
who was brutally murdered on the evening of the 30th
ult., in a field near the village. Jeremiah Carpenter, the
man who is in custody upon the charge of committing the
offence, was brought into tb,e room in the custody of two
of the constabulary. Two professional gentlemen were
retained to conduct the case for the prosecution. Mr.
Fitzjohn, an attorney from Baldock, attended on behalf of
the prisoner. Since the former inquiry the clothes of the
deceased man, and some other articles, have been handed
over to Professor Taylor, of Guy's Hospital, and that gen-
tleman was to-day in attendance, and he handed in a
written statement of the result of his observations, and
this statement was received by the Bench as his evidence.
The evidence of Dr. Taylor was to the following effect:—
He said : I received from Superintendent Barnes, at the
chemical laboratory at Guy's Hospital, the following
articles —a knife, a smock-frock, a pair of corduroy trow-
sers, a pair of boots, and a pair of gaiters. I subsequently
also received, at the same place, a shirt, a quart bottle con-
taining a colourless liquid, a spade without a handle, and
a wicker basket. I have submitted all these articles to
chemical examination, and the result is that I have ascer-
tained that under the buck's-horn handle of the knife
there was a deep red mark, mixed with rust and dirt,
which I found to consist of coagulated blood in a dry state.
The blood had evidently penetrated through the handle
and the iron plate of the knife. The smock-frock was
damp, but I could not discover any appearance of
blood upon it. Upon examining the trowsers I found
a good many stains upon them, but they yielded no
evidence of the presence of blood. In the groove of
a bone button taken from the left knee. I found a firm
coagulation of blood. It had a bright red colour, and was
apparently fresh. In one of the holes of the button,
through which the blood had passed, there was also a
a small coagulation of blood. The app tarance was such
as would be produced by the wiping of blood from the
surface of the button. There was also a slight smear of
blood on the cotton string connected with the knee.
Upon examining some stains that were upon the boats,
I ascertained that they presented the appearance
of blood, but I cannot state posiively that they
were the stains of blood. The button gaiters pre-
sented some dark red stains, especially on the left side.
A chemical microscopical examination showed that these
stains were caused by coagulated blood. Granules
of wheat starch were also found mixed with the
blood. The leather near these stains also presented in
some parts a rough appearance, as if it had been scraped
or rubbed. On the inside of the left gaiter there is also
the appearance of a smear of blood. The shirt, the spade,
and the bottle, did not present any particular appearance,
except that on the first-named article there were some
small spots of brood Upon the basket I found several
stains of a bright red colour, which I ascertained to be
blood. The blood like that found on the groove of the
button had the appearance of being quite fresh. I am
of opinion from these circumstances that the appearances
of blood on the knife, the wicker basket, and the gaiters,
were such as would be assumed by blood issuing from
the body of a living person, or of one recently dead, i.e.,
before the blood had naturally set or congealed ; and with
regard to the shirt, I am of opinion that the small blood
stains that appeared upon it were produced by blood
reaching it from the outside. lam also of opinion that all
these blood stains present the characteristic of human
blood, bat there are certaht criterions by which human can
be distinguished from animal blood. I cannot state posi-
tively any precise date at which these stains were caused,
but those upon the gaiter and the wicker basket have
all the appearance and properties of recent or fresh
blood. Dr. Taylor further stated that a large
quantity of soap and blue vitriol had been applied to
the left wristband of the shirt, and it also presented several
appearances of wheat starch or gluten upon it. The addi-
tional evidence gone into merely consisted of the
depositions of the witnesses who were examined before the
coroner on Monday, and it will therefore be unnecessary
to give their evidence in detail. It appeared to be dis-
tinctly made out that in consequence of the suspicion that
was entertained that Carpenter was in the habit of robbing
Mr. Horne, the farmer in whose service the prisoner was
employed, Mr. Hawkes, the inspector of the constabulary
stationed at Stevenage, gave the unfortunate deceased
strict instructions, on the 30th of October, to watch the
prisoner, and see if he had any stolen property in his
possession when he came home from his work, and
that he went out for that purpose about half-past five
o'clock. The evidence appeared to make out, in the most
satisfactory manner, that the prisoner was seen close to the
place where the deceased was last seen alive, and in the
field hard by there was the marks of a violent scuffle, and
a quantity of wheat, which was proved by Mr. Horne to
bs of the same description as some the prisoner was
sowing on the day of the murder, was discovered strewed
about on the ground. The prisoner went home apparently
very lame much later than his usual hour, and on the
following morning he was unable to go to his work. The
deceased was a strong young min, and is said to have been
a very good wrestler, and there is no doubt that he made a
most desperate attempt to secure the party, whoever he was,
by whom he believed that a felony had been committed, and
there is every reason to believe that he would not have
been overpowered if his assailant had not stabbed him in
the throat, and then resorted to further violence, which
totally incapacitated him frem making any further resist-
ance, and when he was totally helpless his cowardly
assailant dragged him to a pond at a short distance, and
threw him in, and he was found in that condition on the
following Monday mornieg. The hat of the unfortunate
constable has not been found, and it is suggested that it
has been buried by the murderer, but, altough a strict
search has been made by the police, no trace of it has
hitherto been discovered. The magistrates having been
engaged for more than five hours, and the case for the
prosecution not being concluded, the prisoner was re-
mended till Tuesday.

THE ELLESMERE JEWEL ROBBERY.-
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES.

—At Worship-street police court, on Wednesday, Edward
Jackson, an oil ant coloarman in Leonard-street, Shore-
ditch, and his wife, Anne Jackson, was brought up for
re-examination, charged with having been found in feloni-
ous possession of various valuable articles ot wearing apparel,
the property of the Countess of Ellesmere, and which had
been abstracted, with a travelling trunk, containing property
to the aggregate amount of £15,000, from her ladyship's
carriage during her progress to Windsor Ce.stlle, on a
visit to her Majesty. Mr. Lewis, Jan , of Ely-place, attended,
as before, for the defence, but no counsel or attorney was
present to conduct the elaborate case for the prosecution.
The facts adduced at the former hearing have already
been published, and the following important additional
at evidence was now proceeded with :—Charles Frond,
cab-driver, stated that, at six o'clock on the evening
of the 22,ad of January, 1856 (the day of the
robbery), he was called off the stand in Davies-street,
Grosvenor-square, by two men, one of whom directed him
to assist in placing a large black box inside of his cab, and
having taken leave of his companion, he entered after it,
and desired to be driven to Willow-walk, Shoreditch. As
they were passing through Finsbury-square, he was
ordered to proceed int ) Leonard-street, on reaching which,
the man got out and walked away with the box, which
witness had placed upon his shoulder, and he saw no more
of him. He noticed at the time that the box was very
weighty, and to the best of his belief it was the one now
produced by the police as the property of Lady Ellesmere.
Thomas Geary, a horse-hair corder, in Antelope-gardens,
Shoreditch, stated that shortly before eight o'clock on the
night referred to he found the empty box produced, the
lock of which had been wrenched off, upon a piece of waste
ground at the rear of his house, and within about 300
yards from that of the prisoner. Eliza Parsons, a poor
widow in the neighbourhood, was then eximiaed, and
stated that she had been in the occasional habit of washing
for the female prisoner, in whose possession she had seen
articles of dress f the most costly description. Some
lace haudkerchiers and part of a dress, which had been
proved to be the property of Lady Ellesmere, were here
shown to the witness, who recognised two of the articles
as a portion of these to which she referred
Inspector Brecknell : In the absence of a prosecutor,
perhaps your Worship will allow me to ask the witness
whether she can give any evidence respecting certain
diamonds. Witness: Yes; Mre Jackson once showed me
two very splendid diamonds, which she told me had been
sent to her by a gentleman in Australia, who had paid his
addresses to her before she married her husband. The
Inspector: And I believe she has some disclosures to
make in connection with a copper tea-kettle. Witness :
You mean the kettle that Mrs. Jackson gave me to take
care of when her husband was in trouble about receiving
a cask of butter. I remember there were taro watches
in it, besides some silver plate, a long jewel-box, and
lots of rings with pearls and red stones, but I returned
the whole of them to her about ten days afterwards.
Police-constable Evans then deposed, in addition to the
former evidence, that on the discovery of Lady Ellesmere's
property at the house in Leonard-street, a portion of it was
claimed as her own by the female prisoner, who declared
that some of the articles were presents from her mother,
and that others had been given to her by a female friend
in the Hampstead-road. It having been intimated by the
police that further time was necessary to complete the ends
of justice, the prisoners were again rente.nded for a week,