The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-21 00:00:00

SHE

S' NJ

LON DOE

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT,--This Das

OLD COURT.
(Bcfore Mr. Baron Pigott.)
THE CHARGE OF ATTEMPTING TO MURDER A WIFE IN

LEICESTER SQUARE.
John Williams, aged 36, surrendered to answer an in-
dictment charging h:m with assaulting Annie Williams,
his wife, with intent to kill and murder her. In several
other counts he was charged with wounding with intent to
do grievous bodily harm. _

The prosecutrix said on the evening of the 25th of
August last, about half•past 10, she was walking in Leices-
ter-square, in the direction of the Alhambra. A gentle-

man was with her, and while so walking, the prisoner came
up and asked her to leave the gentleman and come with
him. The gentleman told him to go away, when the
~.

soner said she was his wife, and ought not to be walking
there. The prisoner then struck her with a knife in the

neck. The weapon broke, and he then threw it away.
The prosecutrix rushed to tho Sabl,miere Hotel, followed
by the prisoner, when she found her throat cue, and a
medical man was sent for and the prisoner was taken into

custody,
Cross-examined by Mr Sleigh—She knew a Mr Cutler,
he was a doctor, and she had known him from a child. He
had attended her mother. She had been married to the pri-
soner 14 years. They lived happy together for several years
at Barnstaple, but they afterwards came to London about
four years ago. She was residing in Nutford-placa. She
had an illness at that time. Dr Cutler visited her there
several times. She lost sight of him for about IS months.
She was then living with her husband in Brewer-street.
Cutler had become reduced in circumstances, and the pri-
soner entertained and kept him with great kindness. Shortl3
after Cutler came into a fortune of £5OO, and took the
Cock publiehouse, Market-street, St. Martin's-lane, and
put the prisoner and witness into it, he also being in the
house, and the result was she cohabited with Cutler.
Mr Sleigh—And you and Cutler actually turned the pri-
soner out of the house.

Witness admitted that was true, and, in answer to further
questions, she admitted she was in the habit of walking the
streets and meeting gentlemen. Her husband had re•
peatedly urged her to give up her abandoned mode of life,
and come to live with him, and he would forgive her. On
the night of the occurrence the prisoner came up and en-
treated her to come home, and when he did so the gentle-
man told him to go away, and she also told him she would
walk with whom she liked, when he struck her.
Police-constable Conquest said he took the prisoner into
custody, when he found the prosecutrix had been wounded
in the throat. Prisoner then said he was glad he had done
it. He found a broken knife on the pavement.
Mr John Skegg, surgeon, of St Martin's-lane, said he
was sent for on the 25th of August to the Sabloniere Hotel,
and found the prosecutrix with a wound on the lett side of
her neck. It was an incised wound about half an inch in
length, but not a dangerous one.
Inspector Wilson, of the C division, said when the pri-
soner was in the room at Vine-street station he pulled out
a locket, and said it contained the portrait of a man who
had murdered his wife. The prisoner was excited but
sober.
At the close of the evidence for the prosecution,
Mr Sleigh made an earnest appeal to the jury on behalf
of the prisoner, urging the misery the prosecutrix had
brought upon him, by her voluntary cohabitation with the
man Cutler and the abandoned life she had adopted.
Mr Baron Piggott summed up the evidence, and
The jury returned a verdict of unlawfully wounding.
Baron Piggott, in sentencing the prisoner, said he was
not justified is taking the law into his own hands, and
although sympathy might be felt for him, he had no right
to carry a knife about with him, which could only have
been intended for an improper use. He then sentenced the
prisoner to three months' imprisonment, with hard labour,

TAU ALLEGED MURDER IN HATTON GARDEN.
Henry Wilkinson, stone mason, was indicted for the
wilful murder of EliEl, Wilkinson, his wife, on the night of
Sunday, the 28th of August, in Cross-street, Hatton-
garden.
The prisoner pleaded not guilty.
It will be recollected, from the evidence which has
already appeared at length in The Sun, that a young man,
named Chipperfield, and the niece of the prisoner's wife,
came to visit them on the evening of the 28th August. In
the evening prisoner and his wife went with their friends to
the Farringdon station of the Metropolitan Railway. and in
bidding them good bye the prisoner kissed his wife's niece,
at which Mrs 'Wilkinson seemed annoyed. The prisoner
said to Chipperfield—" Don't be jealous : kiss my old
woman." Prisoner and his wife returned home, and a
quarrel was the result. Prisoner went out and returned
home in a state of intoxication, and finding his wife from
home he went in search of her. II e found her in the room
of one of the lodgers in the same house, and having recom-
menced the quarrel, the prisoner struck the deceased and
kicked her in the abdomen. The unfortunate wife ex-
claimed—" You have given me my death blow," and shortly
afterwards died.
The prisoner, when sober, always treated his wife with
kindness.
The Jury returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter.
Baron Pigott told the prisoner that the pernicious habit
of drinking had led him into his present positien. He had
doubts whether he ought not to pass a severe sentence of
penal servitude, but uniter the eireerastanena ha hoped ho
wad not doing wrong in dealing with the prisoner much
more leniently. He therefore sentenced him to 12 months'
imprisonment with hard labour.
CHARGE OF ATTEMPT BD WIPE MURDER IN CLERIENWELL.
John Rowland, gold refiner, was indicted with feleniously
attempting to kill and murder his wife.
The parties, it will be recollected, resided in Seckforde-
street, Cletkenwell, and the prisoner, on returning home.
found his wife in a state of intoxication, whereupon a
quarrel ensued, and he struck her on the head with a
hatchet.
The wife, in her examination this morning, said she was
so intoxicated that she did not khow how the injury was
inflicted. She believed she hurt herself by falling against
the fender.
Mrs Smith, however, proved that she saw the man strike
the woman with something having a handle. The prose-
cutrix, she said, was generally intoxicated four days a
week.
The jury found the prisoner guilty of unlawfully wound-
ing, and
Mr Baron Piggott sentenced him to 12 months' im-
prisonment, with hard labour.

OUTRAGE ON LADIES BY THE POLICE AT PIT,
LOCIIRY.—The Dundee Advertiser pubtishes a cor

respondence that has taken place between Sir John S
Richardson, of Pitfour Castle, and Messrs Pattullo and
Thornton, respecting an outrage committed on three young
ladies at a bazaar recently held at Pitlochry. From a nar-
rative of the case given in the Advertiser, it appears that
the ladies, who are members of respectable families in Dun-
dee and Perth, paid a visit to the bazaar and made several
purchases. While doing so, a cry that there were pick-
pockets in the place was raised, and those present examined
their pockets to see whether they had been picked. Shortly
afterwards the three ladies alluded to went out, and, after
walking about for some time, returned, when they were
apprehended, and taken, notwithstanding their protests, to
a small tent adjoining, where their outer garments were
searched; but as this resulted in the discovery of nothing
that oould lead to conviction, the ladies were taken to the
police station in charge of three policemen. Between the
bazaar and the station the ladies were treated as if there
was no doubt of their being regular pickpockets, and on
arriving at the station they were compelled to strip them-
selves in the presence of a policeman's wife, who searched
everything they had on. it was only after this that the
policemen became satisfied of their mistake and liberated
the ladies, Messrs Patullo and Thornton were employed as
agents for one of the young ladies, and in this capacity
they addressed a letter to Sir John Richardson—who, it
was alleged, had caused the apprehension of the ladies—
calling upon him to make due apology and ample reparation
to their clients. Sir John emphatically denies, in the cor-
respondence, having ever interfered in the matter or been
in any way responsible for it, and feeling aggrieved at being
charged with an offence with which he says he had nothing
whatever to do, he has published the correspondence.
ROYAL BOSTON YACHT CLUB REGATTA.—The
second regatta this season in connexion with the
Boston Yacht Club, which enjoys the patronage of the Earl
of Yarborough, Lord Burghley, the Hon. W. H. Adams,
came off on Monday. The weather was beautifully fine,
but the wind was rather too light to make the race exciting
in the broadest sense of the term. There were three prizes
offered, namely £2, and £l, for which the following
yachts competed :—Water witch (7 tons), Mr John Pilley,
Boston Fire Fly (7 tons), Mr L. J. Fawcett, Boston ;
Vixen (3 tons), Rev. J. Tunnard, Frampton. The course
extended over a distance of about 27 miles, from Maud Fos-
ter Sluice down to the Upper-Scul-Rig Buoy, and back to
Freiston. The start took place at 9.12, the Waterwitch
taking the lead and maintaining it all round the course.
The race finished as under—Waterwitch, 2h. 17. n. 78.;
Fire Fly, 2h. 21m. 455.; Vixen about an hour after.

SALMON FISHING.—Owing to the protracted
drought which prevailed during the month of
August, and the autumn spates which followed, salmon
fishing has been unusually good in meet parts of the coun-
try. The Ness is swarming with fish ; it is nothing un-
common for 15 salmon and grilse to bo taken by one rod in
the course of a few hours. In fact, most of our North
rivers have been yielding splendid baskets since the with
drawal of the nets, and there is every prospect of their con
filming to do so until the close of the season. Anglers on
the Spey have every reason to be well satisfied. The sport
obtained on the Tay, however, notwithstanding the appre-
hensions which were entertained during the past month,
seems to eclipse the whole.—lnvernes.; Laurier.
FORBIDDING THE BANNS.—A scene of rare oc-
currence took place in the Manchester Cathedral on Sunday
morning. Daring the reading of the banns by the Rev. Mr
Troutbeck a woman rose from her seat, and, when tv o
names were mentioned, she said in a loud tone of voice, " I
forbid that." Sho was requested by one of the apparitors
to make her objection in the vestry after the service, and
she resumed her place. The scene caused some commotion
in the crowded church,