The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-11 00:00:00

MURDER IN LIVERPOOL.

On Monday afternoon a number of bailifs and
others interested in the sale of furniture were as-
sembled in the auction room of Mr. Archibald Bal-
lantine, 44, Byrom-street, where a sale was about
to take place. Among those present were Wm. Tarr,
a bailiff in the employ of Mr. Ballantine, and seve-
ral other bailiffs, including John Brannan, Michael
M'Kenzie, and James Carney, and a woman named
Eliza Davies, who resides in No. 2 Court, Beres-
ford-street. It appears that the bailiffs have a prac-
tice of casting lots for a job when one turns up, and
about the time referred to several of them were
taking their chances in this way, and ameng,et them
was Branuan, who was unsuccessful, and seemingly
annoyed. Some angry words passed between him
and Tarr, when Brennan struck Tarr a violent blow
behind one of his ears with his flit, and repeated
the blow with the same amount or violence, when
Tarr fell down in the shop in an insensible state.
Brannan then walked quietly out of the shop, none
present offering the slightest impediment to his de-
parture, and the last that was seen of him was
when he was going up Byrom-street from the shop
where he had knocked Tarr down. Seeing that Tarr
was in a dangerous state, one of the persons in the
-hop went to Great Crosshall-street for Dr. Whittle.
That gentlemen not being in, his assistant attended
on the injured man, but his services were of no
avail, as Tarr died in a few minutes after the as-
sistant's arrival. It is a remarkable circumstance
that, although there were several persons who wit-
nessed the affair and saw Brannan leave the shop,
the police were not informed of it until the unfor-
tunate man Tarr was dead, when police-constable
149, who was on duty in the neighbourhood, was
called in and told what had occurred. Dr. Whittle
himself called at the shop, and saw that the man
was dead. He made an examination of the body,
but did not give any opinion as to what had been
the cause of death. The body of the deceased was
then removed to his house in Hope-court, Cart-
wright-place, at the corner of which latter place the
shop of Mt. Ballantine stands. The deceased has
left a widow and two children. The man Brannan

we believe, is unmarried. He is a man very well
known, but has only recently returned from
America, where he had been for about seven years.
He is said to have been in the Confederate army, to
have been wounded while in that service, and to
have been in the hospital at New Orleans when that

city fell into the hands of the Federal troops. He
is described as a man of about 28 or 30 years of age,
and about sft. 10in, in height, with a long face,
sallow complexion, high cheek bones, no whiskers,
straight brown hair, and stoops a little.

IISTRESSING SUICIDE,

Yesterday Dr. Lankeater, the coroner for Central
Middlesex, held an inquest at University College
Hospital touching the death of a boy named William
Frederick Knapton, aged 13 years, who came by
his death under very painful circumstances. The
first witness examined was Charlotte Knapton, who
stated that she was wife of Thomas Knapton, a
pianoforte-maker, living at No. 7, Fitzroy-row,
Easton. road. The deceased was her son. He was
a boy-of very violent disposition. On Friday last
he threw a fork at one of his sisters, and it stuck
in her back. His father threatened to chastise him
if he committed any similar act in future. On
Saturday, when the family were at dinner, his
father being absent at the time, he threw a piece
of bread at one of his sisters. She was drinking out
of a cup, and the bread struck the cup, breaking
it, and causing it to cut the girl's month. Mrs.
Knapton remonstrated with the boy, and ordered
him to leave the room. He then went out and sat
on the stairs. One of her daughters said he ought
to be ashamed of his conduct, and in reply he abused
tier, after which he ran up to a bedroom and
slammed the door after him. As it was his custom
to lie down on a bed and sleep off his bad temper,
his mother thought that he was acting in accord-
ance with that habit, and she prevented one of his
younger brothers from disturbing him. She then
left the house for the purpose of visiting a neigh-
bour with whom she had business, but was recalled
in a few minutes by the screams of her children.
On going up to the bedroom she found the
deceased boy hanging by a cord from a hook
behind the door. She lifted him off, and
afterwards cut the cord and conveyed him
in a cab to the University College Hospital, but
he showed no signs of life when she removed
him from the hook, assd he was certainly quite
dead on her arrival at the hospital. Emma Knap-
ton, daughter of the last witness, corroborated her
mother's testimony, and added that it was she who
discovered the body hanging from the hook behind
the door. When her mother left to visit her neigh-
bour one of her little brothers told her that he
wanted something in the bedroom, but was unable
to open the door. She then forced the door open,
and found that it had been fastened with a pair
of pincers. Dr. Sydney Ringer, resident medical
officer of University College Hospital, stated his
opinion that deceased had been dead a quarter of
an hour before his admission. Unsuccessful en-
deavours to restore respiration were made for
three-quarters of au hour after. The coroner, in sum-
ming up the evidence, said this was the most painful
case that had ever come before him. Every one who
nad heard the facts and had witnessed the mother's
grief must sympathise with that
poor woman. The
only comfort he could offer her was contained in the
reflection that if a boy of such violent temper had
lived to a more advanced age it was very probable
he would have taken life inflicted serious personal
injury on anotker person, and so havF.
:ed h e
broughtewas :i
w
dis-
grace on a respectable family, i
db yhci which,
oh,
t
perhaps accountable to Gode fhoardthdeehpry
deed
in a moment of madness, he
of life. The jury found that the deceased had com-
mitted suicide while in an unsound state of mind,