The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-14 00:00:00

Determined Attempt at Murder at Great
Barr, near Birmingham,

A shocking occurrence took place at Great Barr, on
Sunday evening last, under the following circumstances :
It appears that in the course of the evening two navvies
entered the house of Mr. Charles Newey, who keeps the
Maltshovel beerhouse, at Newton, in Great Barr, and called
for a quart of ale. The landlord refused to serve them with
the ale, as some months previously he had forbidden them
to enter his house, because they were continually creating
disturbances, much to the annoyance and inconvenience of
the regular customers. Upon the landlord's refusing to draw
the ale the men began to use the most obscene langnage, in
the presence of Mr. Newey, his wife, and family. Whilst
they were doing so two gentlemen walked into the house
from Birmingham and ordered some refreshment, but before
they could be supplied, and without the slightest provoca-
tion on their part, one of them was immediately knocked
down by the two navvies. Astruggle then ensued between
the parties, and the landlord endeavoured to rescue the two
gentlemen from the grasp of the ruffians, and he succeeded
in getting himself and the two gentlemen into a private par-
lour and closed the door. The two navvies rushed from the
kitchen, but before doing so one of them seized a spittoon
and the other a fender, and with frightful oaths swore they
would kill everybody in the house. They then brought all
their force to bear against the parlour door, and succeeded in
effecting a partial entrance, One of them, through the par-
tially.open door, aimed a terrific blow at the landlord's
head, which he fortunately escaped. The villains, foiled in
this, rushed upon the landlady of the house, who happened
to be outside the parlour door, and hurled her violently
against the door. One of the men then ran out into the road
and told his companion to draw his knife. They then put
out the lights in the house and recommenced their attack
upon the persons in the parlour, trying to batter in the door
with a large piece of wood one of them had got out of the
hedge in the road. The two gentlemen within managed to
effect their escape through the parlour window, but making
some little noise in doing so, the attention of the men
was attracted to the spot, and they diverted their plan
of attack, and ran out in search of the runaways, but
not being able to find them, and the street door having been
fastened by the landlord, they commenced hurling large
stones at the windows, speedily demolishing a number
of them. Finally the men retired, only to return again in
a short time with an ally, in the shape of a tall, athletic,
herculean-looking ruffian, and recommenced the attack upon
the house, endeavouring to force open the street door.
Failing in this, they exhausted their fury by demolishing
the remaining windows. The landlord now became seri-
ously alarmed for the safety of himself and family, ima-
gining, with some degree of justice, that their lives were in
danger. He took down an old-fashioned gun from the
ceiling, which happened to be loaded, and rushed out, de-
termined to face the ruffians. The night was dark, and he
was only just able to see the men. However he fired the
gun at them as they were retreating, more with the view of
frightening them than doing them any serious bodily in-
jury. The gun was loaded with shot, and the greater por-
tion of the charge was lodged in the hinder part of one of
the retiring men, the remainder of the charge scattering and
wounding another of them in the legs and neck. The men,
however, managed to effect their escape. Mr. Newey ob-
tained a warrant for the apprehension of the offenders.
Strange to say, the men themselves applied for a warrant
for the arrest of Newey for assaulting them. On the re-
turn of the reporter to Birmingham he found that two out
of the three men who had committed this outrage had been
admitted to the General Hospital. One of them has given
bis name as Daniel Powell, and stated that he had come
from Stratford-upon-Avon in search of employment as a
navvy. The other gave his name as George Barker, and
professed to come from Wednesbury for the same purpose.
They are both badly wounded, although their lives are not
endangered. The police officers are aware of the where-
abouts of the two men, and as soon as the nature of their
injuries will permit they will be conveyed to the police-
station, when the matter will doubtless be thoroughly inves-
tigated by the magistrates.

Strange and Suspicious Death in St. Luke's.

Yesterday morning Mr: IL Raffles Walthew, de-
puty coroner, resumed at the Pitman's Arms Tavern
Pitman's-buiidings, St. Luke's, the inquest' '
ing the death of an infant child.
respect.
It appeared from the evidence
taken on the pre-
vious occasion, that Friday week Dr. Bruce was
Keys, called in to see a Mrs. the wife of a clerk, at
4, Norway-street, who Bras suffering from small-
pox. She had given birth to deceased the day prior,
and the child, after living 14 hours, was found dead,
with a mark of a ligature
around the throat. The
tongue protruded, and blood issued from the nose.
Dr. Bruce said that the
arisen
presented were
re
not such as could have en from suffocation, but
i
rather from strangulation. t was stated that no
mark of a ligature had bie3rlnthvisible around the child's
neck at the time of its at which, however, no
medical man was present, the
only assistant being
Mrs. A. Cameron, a midvaii, She had given a cer-
tificate of the death of the
child, and alleged that
the fact of the child was of
premature birth justified
her doing so. She stated that inl an a her opinion the
child could not have lived more
any case, and that its death arose ent. few days in
trely from its
having been prematurely born.
Mr. W. Rays, 4, Norway.p lascoe, said that he had
called in Dr. Bruce, because m
had taken the small-pox. it was come of
his children
en found that
the mother of the deceased had the same disease.
The deceased was born on Thursday Week, and died
on the Friday.
Dr. Bruce said that he had made
ae
He - st-mortem
a(,
examination of the deceased child. found that
ehild
the deceased was an eight months' There was
not hat/® lived. It
no natural reason why it should
was well developed. There was a
were rked ex,
coriation on the throat. There ell-mad The marks
around the nape of the neck.
healthy, but gorged with blood, as brain was
healthy,
also the
lungs. The other organs were There were
internal injuries corresponding toyih
marks on the neck. Death resulted outward
froem violence.
Suffocation and overlaying would
itwas impossible
have pro-
duced death in such a manner,
to suppose that such violence could have been
accidentally. It appeared to him thatthecaused
child's
neck had been graspedand
from behind, the fingers
had gers
had then grasped the throat and squeezed the jugu-
lar veins and the arteries. If murder was intended
it must have been a skilled person that effected the
death in that way.
Mrs. Cameron recalled, said that the certificate
which she gave of the.child's death stated that death
was from convulsions. She had not examined the
child. It was a mistake that the child died in 14
hours after birth. She noticed that the child'sjaw
' had been tied up when she
gave e certificate she
[did not know that Dr. Bruce had been in the house.l
She had no idea that the child had died from vio-
lence, as the mother was as collected as she (wit-
ness) herself.
The Coroner said that no charge had been made
against the mother as yet. It was moat improper for
a midwife to give a certificate of death in such a case.
Dr. Bruce said that he was only told about the
child's lying dead by a lodger in the house, who
complained of the danger of b:ving a dead body in