The National Register.
London, England, 1818-02-16 00:00:00

TUE NATIONAL REGISTER.

HORRID MUTDERS AT GREENWICH.

It is a painful tusk for us to record two auto.t shoelciog nutr•
dem, in some respects resembling those of Nee Marr%, whirl,
were discovered on Sunday, at Greenwich, ea the persons or
Mr. Bird and his housekeeper, evil° resided•ia a•house• near
the Mitre.

Mr Bird was near 70, and bed lived a great many years
in Greenwich, where he corrierl'on the berisess of a 'allow-
chandler, and argeired sufficient property% retire, and live
noon his optimise, arising 'nom houses and. owstrey in the funds.
His wife died two years• nell, and since that time no person
has resided with hisa•but his housekeeper. He was a con.
stain attendant at Glerowich church. and was always in his
pfwerail soon a• Are service began, accompanied by his house-
keeper.—On Sunday morning it was noticed by the beadle
of the parish and others, that they were not in their seats in
the church as usual. At the conclusion of the service, the
beadle mentioned the circumstance to some neighbours, arid
they having observed that the shutters of Mr. Bird's house
11411 not hero opened, went with the beadle to Mr. Bird's house
and ktiorkeil at the door, but received no answer. They now
had no doubt bet that something dreadful had happened, and
determined ow forcing an entrance by the garden at the back
of the house. On their entering the passage, a most shocking
spectacle presented itself. The body of the housekeeper was
seen near time street door ; she was lying ow her face in a
bloody state, her head drove in, and eat open so a most inhu-
man imusiter. The horrid act seemed to have been perpe-
trated he a large blunt instrument. Ou 'proceeding front this
terrible scene, another, equally horrible. presented Rimini' a
patlowr adjoining the passage, en viewing the body of Mr.
Bird, who was lying on his hack, his arms stretched out, and
his head in a still more shocking state than his housekeeper's.
His forehead was drove in about an inch deep, and the %sound
as large as a crown piece. 'The wounds of Mr. Lird also were
inflicted by a large blunt firth omen[, supposed to be a blud-
geon, by a powerful man, and some inspect, a left-handed
one.

A candle was (mind is the passage close to where the house-
keeper lay, and it is snpposed that the ders werecommit-
ted late on Saturday, or at least before ten o'clock, as that was
the hour Mr. Bird constantly went to bed, and the house-
keeper alwa” tail the chain of the street door up. There
being no doeuht that the murderer entered by the door, it is
supposed that she must have been induced to open the door,
and let down the chain wider some pretence of bringing a par-
cel, 3cc. It is supposed that Mr. Bird ,was passing his even-
ing, as was his constant practice, in reading, aged that. hearing
the attack upon Iris housekeeper is the passage, he lef►ttis
fireside to proceed to her assistance; as hos body w:.* found
between the fireplitee and the door of the room,. with his spec
tacles close to one hand, and a candle close to the other.

The discovery of this dreatiffil wise rreateda.very consi-
derable agitation and alarm in the town of Greenwich' ditring
the whole of Sunday. Mr. Bicknell, the solicitor. sent off an
express to the Public Office, Bow•street, for assistance ; and
Adkins and Lavender, the officers, arrived there with all
possible speed, and proceeded to examine the pretwiaes, and
find suspicious characters; but we arc sorry.to *ay, williont
being able to discover any thing to lead to detection of• the
murderer. There is no doubt but the object °Abe attack Willi
plunder. The keys of the drawers and boxes had bees. pro-
cured, supposed to have been taken from the pockets of the
deceased, as tiny were bloody, like tlaelsioda, and other
things. _ .

has not yet been ascertained what property the persons
and premises have been rubbed of. 1114 drawer, which had
nut been opened, Mere were found Batik notes to the amount
of 311. which was ascertained to be the• amount of a dividend
Mr. Bird had received at the Bank, on the Binh ofJanuary last.
The murderer also left four i.ilver salt, at table mid otber
spoons, EMI a soup ladle.
Mr. Smith, Magistrate of Greeiiwich, was in attendance on
the spot, to act with promptitude in rive any person should
he discovered who was suspected. On the dreadful intelli-
gence being commnoizated to Mr. Bird's son, he hastened to
the house, obis ivis.overwhelining grief and distraction, on
viewing the mantled body of his father, can be better Slangier
ed than described.