The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-12 00:00:00

MONDAY

EVENING, APRIL 1852.

Mr. GURNEY told him it was a very brutal case;
and if the woman had died he would have had to
answer the offence with his life. He was sentenced
to two years, and hard labour.
This ended the business of the session, and the
courts stands adjourned until Monday, May 10.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
WEST3IINSTE it.
ATTEMPTED MURDER.—FeIix ?11' Gee, a furniture-
broker, who has been in custody since the 12th ult.,
charged with feloniously shooting Michael Collins,
with intent to murder him, underwent a lengthened
examination.
The unfortunate victim of the prisoner's deliberate
attack has been ever since an inmate of the West-
minster Hospital, where, in consequence of the severity
of the injuries he had received, but little expectation
existed of his recovery. He was, however, sufficiently
convalescent on Saturday to attend at this court, a
circumstance at which Mr. Broderip, the presiding
magistrate, expressed his gratification, admitting
that, from the perilous position the unfortunate suf-
ferer had been in at one time, he had hardly expected
to have seen him.
,
Michael Collins said that he resided at Buckingham
prisoner and others in a progressive teetotal so-
ciety, premises for holding the meetings of which had
been taken in York-street, Westminster. Although
the key of the place had been handed to the treasurer
tChoet tag s, Rochester-row, and was associated with
of the society for the body, prisoner set up a claim to
be considered the landlord, objected to a piece called Sir
John Barleycorn, showing the folly of people drinking,
being acted, was frequently called to order at the
meetings, and made himself very offensive. At about
half-past seven on the evening of the 12th prosecutor
found that prisoner had taken possession of the pre-
mises, and refused to let his brother members in ;
upon which he (Collins) partially broke the door in
with a piece
of quartering. The prisoner was stand-
ing with a pistol in one hand and a drawn sabre in
the other, and they repeatedly asked him to come out,
but be refused, and swore he would shoot the first
man who crossed the threshold of the door. He then
struck at prosecutor with the sabre, declaring that
unless he removed his arm, which was resting on the
half-shattered door, he would cut it off; but prose-
cutor removed and avoided the blow. Prisoner re-
peated again and again that whoever entered should
pay for his temerity with his life, and prosecutor then
told him that he had no more business in the pre-
mises than the rest of the society, and no right to
have armed himself in the way he had, and while
in conversation prisoner fired the horse-pistol he held
in his hand at him, and the charge entered his abdo-
men. He deliberately raised the pistol and fired it,
and prosecutor was then carried away.
Prisoner and his solicitor both questioned the
prosecutor in a most irregular way—the former re-
peatedly interrupting his advocate—and endeavoured
to elicit that the pistol had gone off by accident, but
received the reply that he had raised it and fired as
described. They next, in the very face of this, ques-
tioned the prosecutor in order to show that he had
exasperated the prisoner by some offensive epithet,
which prosecutor admitted he had applied with refer-
ence to a meeting about the wrongs of Ireland, which
prisoner wanted to have held at the hall.
William Sherman proved that some of the shot
with which the pistol was charged also struck him.
Mr. Miran, an inspector of the B division, stated
that having heard what had occurred he went and
found the prisoner armed in the room, and when he
told him his determination of taking him into custody
he put down the pistol and sabre and surrendered.
The inspector found two pistols loaded and a quantity
of shot, powder, &c.
Police-constable Saunders, 192, B, proved that he
and two other officers were present while the prisoner
stood for some time in the menacing position described,
when he fired and while he reloaded, and admitted in
reply to Mr. Broderip's question, that they made no
effort to disarm him.
A clerk from the office of Mr. Games, for the prose-
cution, asked for a remand, owing to the surgeon being
unavoidably absent.
Prisoner was remanded for a week.

HORRIBLE MURDER in LAMBETH

A WOMAN'S HEAD TOFF
would bedifficult to
A sensation, which it
fternoon, throughout the
was caused on Saturday afternoon,
road and Lambeth, in
BY HER SON.
neighbourhood of Kennington-road
of
his mother, a respect-
ably-connected female,
the name of Elizabeth
frightful murder com-
mitted by a young man uponconsequence of the follow4in
Wheeler, a widow, about
yearswith this dreadful tra-
gedy were obtained on the spot a few minutes after
of age. The fol-
lowing particulars connected
the melancholy occurrence :
The house in which the tragedy took place was No.
1, Durham-place, Bennington-road,L and immediunatics. The building
immediately
facing Bethlem Hospital for
was occupied by Mr. Wickens, a
dyer and scourer, a
family named Toms, and the unfortunate
has been thus prematurely hurriedinto eternity, and
her son, a young man about 28 years of age.
On Saturday afternoon, at a few minutes hefore
one o'clock, Mrs. Toms, who was in the house at the
time, had her attention directed to a loud scream,
proceeding from the upper part of the building,
which was succeeded by a heavy fall of something on
the floor. She immediately went to ascertain the
cause, when the son of the unfortunate woman made
a hasty retreat out of the building, carrying in his
hand a stick and a knife. Mrs. Toms having entered
the apartment occupied by the poor creature, she
was horror-struck at finding the trunk of the woman
lying on the floor in a pool of blood, and the head,
which was completely severed from the neck, was
lying on a table in the same room, the flesh still
moving to and fro. Mrs. Toms instantly hastened
down stairs, and informed her husband that the
young man had murdered his mother. By that pe-
riod he had proceeded some distance up the Kenning-
ton-road, in the direction of the Common. Mr. Toms,
track until he got within a
few yards of Chester-
street. At that point police-constable Lockyer, No.
however, never lost sight of him, but followed his
135, came along, and having had his attention directed
to the alleged murder, he forthwith secured him. He
his
seh
werea t be
econtinually torturing
at once admitted that he had murdered his poor mother,
and informed the officer that he first struck her on the
head with an iron, and afterwards cut her head
off by means of an axe and a knife. The constable
at once took the man to the station-house in Ken-
wcoatY:idtnhiotthherelpheitt,oflodr
his
se
had committed the
Ile also informed the
same officer that he had been confined in
an:
lunatic
asylum, and had not been liberated long. The mur-
derer, officerhmiiountrghdat enrrnhd, and;lbutfawas
following
otherotihsceni and
dawgc t
hims personsoowasnr ryh
about.
derer, when arrested, did not offer the least resist-
ance, and to all outward appearance did not feel the
awful position he had placed himself in.
From the state of the room there is no doubt enter-
tained but the unfortunate female was in the act of
leaving the apartment with a saucepan of greens in
her hand iu order to strain off the
water, when her
on
son gave her a violent blow
,the head, which felled
her to the floor, after which he must have knelt upon
her body and performed the act of decapitation. The
saucepan was lying near the - --- door, and the steam was
still ascending from the teens therein. In the
midst of the pool of blood was lying a pillow, which,
it is believed, the murderer had
placed there to pre-
vent the gore from flying over his clothes. When
g
apprehended by Lockyer not a spot of blood was per-
ceptible upon his clothes, and his hands were per-
fectly clean, leading to the supposition that after
perpetrating the dreadful deed he had washed his
hands.

In the afternoon the prisoner was examined before
the Hon. Mr. Norton, at
Lambeth Police-office. The
prisoner, on being Placed
at the bar, looked wildly
around him, and appeared to be either unconscious or
and light woollen trPOsusite
indifferent to the
He was dressed in a black frock coat, black waistcoat,
neckerchief, twisted rather than tied round his neck.
He is a well-made rap' • blackeyes, regular
-1; with large
hbelawckasscpalrafc,eodr.
features, and an intelligent countenance.
Mr. Norton inquired—How old are you? Pri-
soner (carelessly) trousers. He iHnewhhadicha
—"Avant -eight.
Mr. Norton--What is Y our name ? Prisoner—
Thomas Cupper Wheeler. y
The following witnesses were then called :
Eliza Phillips said, in answer to questions from the
magistrate-4 reside at No. 1, Durham-place, Lam-
beth-road. I have known the prisoner from the
time he was a little by I knew his mother,
whose name, I believe y.was Elizabeth Wheeler.
I have resided in the 'same house with her since
August last. She was there before we went there.
We found the prisoner and the deceased there. They
lived on the second floor, and we lived on the first
floor. The Prisoner was living with her when I went
there. His mother informed me on more than one
occasion that there was something the matter with
him. I have frequentl seen him in the house with a
flat-iron in his hand, and also a hatchet. He used to
go up and down stairs with a flat-iron or hatchet in
his hand.
The prisoner —My mother—xf did not fear though,
--,
gentlemen.
The Magistrate—It is impossible to conceive any-
thing more horrible than the crime with which you
are charged, and it is my duty to inform you that
every word you say will be taken down, and may be
used in evidence against you.
The prisoner—I don't fear anything.
The witness—I have seen him with the iron and the
hatchet in his hand, muttering to himself, at frequent
intervals,

The prisoner—I hive a habit of speaking to myself,
as I have no ena else to speak to, and my mother Was
always black
guarding me.
The witness.Ahnut three weeks ago I saw him
with the flat-iron in his hand,
muttering himself.