The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-29 00:00:00

The Suspected Murder at Aldershot.

Yesterday morning at half-past 11, an inquest was
opened by Mr Spencer Clarke, coroner for North Hants,
at the Prince Albert Inn, North-lane, Aldershot, on the
body of James Rainsford, who was found dead on Sunday
morning, under the suspicious circumstances detailed in
our impression of Tuesday. The jury viewed the body,
which lay in the deadhouse of the Aldershot Cemetery, and
presented a ghastly appearance, being covered with blood
and bruises. On their return to the inquest-room the fol.
lowing evidence was adduced
George Hardy, the first witness called, deposed,—l live
near the Royal Duke, on ,\.idershott-moor, and am a sawyer.
I did not know the deceased Rainsford. On Saturday night
my wife and myself slept at her brother's in .Church-lane,
Aldershot, and at 7 o'clock on Sunday morning we left for
the purpose of going home. On nearing the cemetery gates
we met a man going in the direction from which we came.
A few yards from the gates my wife called my attention to
something lying on the road. I said I thought it was a
man, and on going close I saw it was. I attempted to raise
him up and spoke to him, but getting no answer I took hold
of his right hand, which I found cold and stiff. I left my
wife with the body and ran for assistance, which I got
directly. It was not very light at the time, being about a
quarter past 7. I could not tell by the light whether the
body was that of a white man or a black ono. The face
was covered with blood and dirt. His coat was lying near
his bead, some Gin or Sin from it. The ground seemed
"scuffled" about, as if he hed been struggling for life.
There was an appearance from his clothes also that he had
struggled very much, his shirt being partially out from the
waistband of his trousers.

Charlotte Hardy, wife of the last witness, was the next
witness, but her evidence was only a corroboration of the
foregoing, with the addition that from the appearance of the
ground, in witness's opinion, a severe struggle had taken
place.
Mr Thomas Brannan, general dealer, Aldershot, said be
knew the deceased well. He had seen him at 3 o'clock on
Saturday afternoon, the 24th inst. Ho was then quite well.
He was a pensioner from the E 4 h Regiment of Foot, and
worked at his trade as a tailor. He was very fond of drink
and occasionally took it to excess. Witness paid deceased 3s
on Saturday for his subsistence. Witness was in the habit
of advancing him his pension in hi-weekly instalments, the
deceased regularly repaying him at the end of the quarter,
when he got his pension,
Police-constable Jenner, 107:Hants County Constabulary,
said he searched the clothes of the deceased on Sunday
morning after the body had been removed to the deadhouse.
He found nothing whatever on him but a piece of Cavendish
tobacco. The coat was wet, and the inside breast pocket
was turned inside out. Observed that deceased's face was
very much disfigured; a cut over the eye and two or three
wounds on the head and the front of his clothes were covered
with blood. The hands of the deceased were clinched, and
one of them ref eeeerely on the back and kn.,,1-I.a
spot where the body was mune was pointed out to him, and
there were marks as of a severe struggle, but witness could
not say whether the appearances were as of one person or
two struggling.
Mr C. W. E. Foster said he was a surgeon residing in
Aldershott. Oa Sunday morning he was called to see the
body of the deceased. He found it in the mortuary of the
cemetery, whither it had been removed. The deceased had
been dead, to the best of his knowledge, six or eight hours.
On examination he found several bruises and cuts, one in
particular over the right eye, about an inch in length. The
skin was also grazed off his knees. The wounds were all of
a superficial nature, and he did not think any of them were
sufficient to cause death. Yesterday he made a post mor-
tem exansina'ion. The internal organs were all healthy.
The stomach contained a large quantity of beer and small
portions of cheese. In his opinion death had not resulted
from violence, but from long exposure to the severe cold,the
congested part of the abdominal organs and the state of the
brain bearing him out in that opinion. The ventricles of
the brain were filled with serum, a result he should expect
to find in a case of death resulting from cold, From the
quantity of liquid found in the stomach ho thought that
the deceased had been recently intoxicated. The wound over
the eye could not have caused death, as on examination it
had not affected the brain. The fact of the deceased's hands
being clinched tightly did not, ho thought, prove that he
had been fighting, though ho could not account for his
shirtesleeves being rolled up.

Thomas Walter, waiter at the Royal Exchange Music-
hall, said that he knew the deceased well, and last saw him
alive from a quarter to past-9 on Saturday night. He was
then very much intoxicated. A corporal of the 75th Regi•
meat and a woman were with him in the music hall; but
he did not know whether they left the place together, as he
was in and out of the room continually, Deceased was of a
very quarrelsome nature wheh in liquor.
Sarah Wetmore, sister of the man in custody, said that on
Sunday morning, at half-past 1 o'clock, her father, brother,
and herself, and a man named Moor and his wife, went out
for the purpose of trying to get somedrink, being Christmas
time. The publichouses being shut up they did not succeed
in getting any, and the party returned to their home. Her
father was missing when they got home, so her ibrother
went to look for him, and in his turn was lost. Witness and
Mrs Moor went out in search of the two men, and in the
road found the deceased, who was drunk lying in the road.
Ho had his coat in his hand. Witness and her companion
tried to persuade him to get up, and, in fact, raised him on
to his legs, but he persisted in lying down. He said he
wanted to go to Newtown (a suburb of Aldershott.) She
and Moor took hold of his anus and tried to get him along,
but could not, as he was helpless. The next morning her
father called her upstairs and said that Samuel (her brother)
had helped a man that was drunk overnight, and had got
some spots of blood on him. As he was only stopping with
wager a day or two and had no other clothes, Mrs Moor
washed the trousers and one spot off the shirt, She could
not say what time her brother came in that night.
Samuel Wetmore, having been cautioned by the Coroner,
was then sworn and said he was a bricklayer's labourer,
living at Plaistow, in Essex. Ho only arrived in Aldershott
by the South-Eastern Railway at 10 o'clock on Saturday
night, After going into two or three publichouses with his
father and Moor, they got parted, and witness went out to
try and find them. It was about 2 o clock, he thought,
when he went up the road towards the cemetery to find his
father and Moor. Instead of finding them, he discovered
the deceased. He attempted to raise him, but found he
was too intoxicated to stand, so he left him on the road, and
went home and got into bed. He heard nothing about
the body being found till the police sergeant took him at
midday, Sunday, although he had bt.en in two publichouses
during the morning,

The coroner then briefly slimmed up, pointing out that
from the medical testimony i; was highly improbable that
Wetmore had anything to eo with the death of deceased.
Ho thought the jury would ccncur in his opinion, that death
had resulted from natural causes alone. The jury returned
an unanimous verdict of "Death from exposure to cold
while in a state of intoxicatica."

BREAKFAST BEVERlGE.—lfornooopathic practitioners,
and the medical profession generally, recommend cocoa
as being the most healthful of al beverages. When the doc-
trine of homceopathY was first introduced into this country,
there were to be obt fined no reparations of cocoa either at-
tractive to the taste or acceptable to the stomach ; the nut
was either supplied in the crude state, or so unskilfully
manufactured as to obtain little notice. J. Epps, of London,
Homoeopathic Chemist, was iniuced in the year 1819 to turn
his attention to this subject, Ind at length succeeded, with
the assistance of elaborate machinery, in being the first
to produce an article pure in its composition, and so refined
by the perfect trituration it rmives in the process it passes
through, as to be most acceptable to the delicate stomach.
For general use Eppa's Cocoa :s distinguished as an invigo-
rating, grateful breakfast beverage, possessing a most deli-
cious aroma. Dr. Hassall, In his work, "Food and its
Adulterations," says —" Cocoa:ontains a great variety of im-
portant nutritive principles—every in,gredient necessary to
the growth and sustenance of the body." &gain: "As a
nutritive, cocoa stands very mach higher than either coffee
or tea." Directions—Two teasponfuls of the powder in a
breakfast cup, filled up with holing water or milk. Secured
in tin-lined lib., 'Ob., and 11b. labelled packets, and sold by
all grocers, confectioners, and thenilsts,—[Acrr.]