The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 27, 1864.

case which had been referred to by the noble lord were of a

strictly legal character.
After some remarks from the Earl of Donoughmore and
Earl Granville,
The subject dropped.
The house adjourned at twenty minutes to eight o'clock.

The Murder and Suicide in Somers-town,

Yesterday afternoon inquiries were made by Mr.

Inspector Gibson, with a view, if possible, to dis-

cover the motives which prompted the murderer

James Brown, to take away the life of the deceased
Rosetta Bishop. Oa interrogating the old woman
Lodi, or Loader, who resides in the front kitchen,

she admitted that she was the medium of a clandee-

tine correspondence between the deceased Rosetta
Bishop and a man she was in the habit of occasion-
ally meeting, and she believed that Brown had
lately by some means discovered the connection.

She then produced and handed to Inspector Gibson

a letter which had been addressed to the deceased
woman under cover to herself no later than Saturday

last. The inner envelope was addressed Rosetta

Bishop, and although there was no address, and it
was simply initialed "J. W.," the writer addressed
her as " My dear Rosetta," and wished her to meet
him that night at the corner of Liverpool-street,
King's-cross, It is now believed that the knowledge
of this connection led to the frequent quarrels be-
tween the woman and her paramour, and led to the
ultimate commission by him of the double crime.
Daring the afternoon the sister of the deceased
woman and some other relatives visited the deadhouse

of St. Pancras Workhouse with a view of speaking
to her identity, and, notwithstanding the advanced
stage of decomposition, they at once recognised it.
The coal•cellar or cupboard in which the body of the
murdered woman was thrust after the commission of

,he murder is so small that the murderer must have

had some difficulty in getting her into it, more es-
pecially as she wore a somewhat large and stiff

crinoline, which had to be cut off before the corpse
could be got into the shell in which it was conveyed
to the dead-house. It was generally asserted in the
neighbourhood that the house in which the deed

:ook place, No. 15, Smith-street, as well as one or
wo others adjoining, belonged to Brown, but that

is not the case. Inconsequence of the number of
previous engagements, Dr Lankester will be unable
to hold the inquest before to-morrow.
On searching the back kitchen the first point
that attracted attention was the evidence that the

hearth in front of the fireplace had been recently
taken up, and it was removed by the police with
the greatest care, but immediately under it ran the
drain. It is believed that but for this it was the
intention of the murderer here to have buried the

body. Having replaced the stone, Dr Sutherin,
the surgeon of the S division, next directed atten-
tion to the hearth-rug, which lay folded up in a
corner. On being opened it was found saturated
with blood, and contained a quantity of brains, and
among them a very cleanly-cut piece of the unfor-
tunate woman's skull. This clearly indicated the
fact that the murder had been perpetrated on the
hearth rug and in front of the fireplace, corrobora-
tive evidence being afforded by the fact that the
murderer must have himself collected a portion of
the brains and skull after the commission of the act
and thrown them on the fite, as a portion of brain
and clotted blood was found partly burnt adhering
to the back of the grate. From the appearance of

the piece of skull found, as well as the wound on
the right side of the deceased woman's head, it
was the opinion of Dr. Sutherin that the blows
had been inflicted by a chopper or hatchet.
Brown was known by the lodgers to possess such
an instrument, with which he was in the habit
of chopping wood to light the fire in the morning,
but during the whole of Monday afternoon and
evening the most diligent search on the part of the
police failed in finding such a weapon. The only
other instrument calculated to have inflicted such
injuries as those found in the skull of the murdered
woman was a large iron gas key, about 18 inches in
length, and having a sort of pincers at the end, but
on being carefully examined there were no traces of
blood upon it. A chisel was, however, found, upon
which there were epots of blood. Yesterday morn-
ing about 8 o'clock, Inspector Gibson, who, with
constable Woodrow has charge of the house, dis-
covered what appeared to be spots of blood on the
waterbutt in the back yard, and the circumstance at
once suggested to him the probability that the mis-
sing weapon might have been thrown into the water.
He directed it to be drawn off, and, as he conjec-
tured, at the bottom of the waterbutt was disco-
vered a large sized axe, such as carpenters use for
chipping wood. It was at once taken possession of,
and seat to Platt ••street station, where, on being
examined by Dr. Sutherin, it was found to still
retain, notwithstanding the action of the water,
evidence of human blood and a large quantity of
woman's hair adhering to it, leaving no doubt that
it was the instrument with which the diabolical deed
Was committed. The bodies of the murderer and his
victim having been conveyed to the deadhouse of
St. Pancras Workhouse on Monday night, Mr Jack-
son, of Brewer-street, under the orders of Dr. Lan-
kester,,the coroner, made a post mortem examination
of that of the woman yesterday morning. Mr Jack-
son was the only surgeon called in after the disco-
very of the bodies on Monday, and it was he who
took the body oat of the coal cellar. Yesterday he
found the whole of the right side of the skull battered
in, and a large portion of the brain on that side gone.
From the nature of the injuries and from the fact that
a chair was found near the fireplace in the back
kitchen broken down on the left side, it is believed
that the first and fatal blow which drove out the
skull before alluded to was given behind, while
the deceased woman was seated on it ; but the
screams thet were heard would make it appear that
other blows were given deceased by Brown prior to
this fatal one. It would appear that deceased was
enabled to get her own living, irrespective of the
man with whom she cohabited, as there was a large
quantity of female wearing apparel found, and a
eifoular on which was printed, " Mrs. Bishop,
dealer in ladies and children's wardrobes, 47, Adam-
street west, Bryanston-square," and also a book of
the Marylebone Savings-bank, with several pounds
entered in her name.
It now appears that the man Brown, although
he slept in the back parlour on the Tuesday night
after the murder, and on the night following (when
he sent Mr. Townsend's, the first flier lodger, little
boy for some beer) had not been seen in the place
from that time until the Saturday, when he came
home about 8 o'clock with his son, a
youth about
19, and slept with him. The son dined with him and
the Townshends on the Sunday, and, accompanied
by Mr. Townshend, they went in the evening to
his:daughter's Mrs. Johns, 9, Coburg-street, Euston-
square. The son declined to return home with
Brown, and he came back to the house with Towns-
hend about half-past 12. On entering the passage
the latter spoke to Brown about the smell, and ho
said it was the meat Mrs. Bishop had left locked
up, and he would go down and remove it. Towns,
bend wished him good night, went upstairs, and
Brown unlocked the front parlour and went in. It
is believed that he had been afraid to sleep in the
house by himself, and that finding himself alone he
then determined to commit auicide.
On opening the safe in the back kitchen there
was found a piece of cooked loin of pork and part
of a currant pie, both of which were mouldy, as
well as a quantity of hard stale bread, indicating
that no one had touched it since the date of the
murder.
The first intimation that anything wrong had
taken place was discovered bL a woman named
Margaret Murphy, who resided in the lower part of
the next house, and who knew the deceased. She
had once or twice expressed her want of belief that
Mrs Bishop had gone away, and she had such a pre-
sentiment that something had befallen her that she
on or twice went into No. 15. She at last, in consee
quence' of the smell, determined on making inquiries.

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The Newsvendors' Benevolent and Provident
Association,

Last night the 25th anniversary festival of this
asseciation was celebrated at the Freemasons' Tu•
vern, Great Queen-stree►, Lincoln's-inn-fields. The
chair was taken by Andrew Lusk, Esq., Alderman,
and about 120 ladies and gentlemen sat down to
dinner.