The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-15 00:00:00

TEE MURDER, A.T LEEDS.

At the York assizes on Monday, before Mr. Justice
Mellor, John Gair, 53, was charged with the wilful
murder of Alice Gair, at Leeds. Mr. Middleton and
Mr. V. Blackburn appeared for the prosecution ;
Mr. Maule defended the prisoner. On being placed
at the bar, Gair, in a firm voice, pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Middleton, in stating the case, said that the
prisoner was formerly in the army, and was now a
pensioner. Some four or five years past he had been
living with Alice Gair, as man and wife. It ap-
peared latterly quarrels had arisen, from the
jealousy of the prisoner with regard to an improper
intimacy between Alice Gair and a man named
Davis. On Thursday, the 2d of April, the pri-
soner went to the barracks to draw nit+ pension.
During his absence, in consequence of the auareels
which had previously taken place, Alice Gair re-
moved part of the furniture to the house of a Mrs.
M'Manus, her object, there could be no doubt, being
that she might effect a separation from The prisoner
Gair. On the prisoner's return, it seems that he
remonstrated with Alice, and wished to be friends ;
and eventually, when she declined to have anything
more to do with him, Le threatened to cut his own
throat. The prisoner after this not only used vio.ent
language but fought with Alice, and the neighbours
had to separate them. The prisoner, however, ex-
pressed a strong desire to be friends, but to this
Alice Gair would not consent ; whereupon it seemed
cited, and he made anger became considerably ex-
that she was too intimateinnselnf
that the prisoner's
anw teixi pDreasysiiso.n
Herto t
answereffect
to that was exceedingly provoking, and was in the
prisonerwo r d s , "
thenlt Im
have,a
de I have the gains of it." The
with
me, I
use of the expression, " If you
will not live umust have your life or
Davis's." An arrangement was ultimately come to
is's whilst the that Alice should sleep at M
,m
pri-
soner that night would leave for
North Shields. The
prisoner left the house. but did not
Shields, for he presented himself attgo to North
I'Mantis's
house at half-past ten. On his return a
better
feeling appeared for some time to exist between the
two, for Alice kissed him, and expressed a hope
that he would not leave her again. Being thesre-
conciled, the two slept together; but on tee follow-
ing morning, when Alice found the prisoner lying
by her side, she commenced again to upbraid him'
--
and said she thought he had been many miles away.
Deceased dined at M‘Manus's, and afterwards went
to the house of a man named Bohanna. About ten
o'clock at night the party was suddenly disturbed
by the entrance of the prisoner, whom it was ex-
pected had gone to North Shields. The prisoner
finding Alice and Davis together there, made use of
some exceedingly coarse epithets, and seized Alice
by the hair of the head. A disturbance took place,
and a general fight ensued, in which the prisoner
appeared to have got considerably the worst of it.
After this the deceased returned to the house of
M'Manus, and about one o'clock in the morning she
was followed there by the prisoner. More quarrel-
ling then ensued, and further threats were used, and
this manner of proceeding was kept up until about
three o'clock in the morning. At this hour Alice,
Mrs. M'Manus, and the sister of the latter, went
upstairs to bed. The prisoner got up, and before
proceeding upstairs made use of the threat to
M'Manus, "It is of no use. Tom : she means going
with that Jack Davis ; and I shall either take his
life or hers." At six o'clock the prisoner was seen
to leave his bed, and stealthily to cross the room to
the bed in which lay the children, apparently to see
if they were asleep. The witness of this act was the
son of Mrs. M'Manus, who, being frightened at the
prisoner's manner, hid his head beneath the bed-
clothes. The prisoner after that returned to his
bed, and then the little fellow, who had seen
him the minute before, heard from Alice a
slight utterance of " Oh," and then a noise
which he described as like the squirting of a
ginger-beer bottle. The same noise awoke Mrs.
M'Manus, who, on looking towards the deceased, saw
blood squirting against the wall, and heard blood
flowing on to the floor. She screamed, and said,
" Oh, good God, John must be murdering Alice."
She also screamed " Murder' " and her husband
being aroused, jumped out of bed, and found Gair,
who was lying on his back, cutting his throat with
a razor, which he held in his right hand. M'Manus
at once, leaning over Mrs. Gair, who he saw had her
throat cut, and was apparently quite dead, took the
razor from Gair. In the struggle M'Manus received
a severe cut up his thumb. The police and surgi-
cal assistance were at once summoned, when it was
found that the deceased had received a cut in her
throat about seven inches in extent, and which went
to the spine: She was quite dead. The wound
which Gair had inflicted on himself also extended
through the windpipe, but he was alive, and was re-
moved to the Infirmary. Here he lingered some time
in an al/in.+ baceie.% condition, but ultimately his
tile was preserved. Evidence was then called, after
which Mr.Maule addressed the jury for the prisoner,
contending that the act was committed in a fit of
temporary insanity. The jury, after an absence of
three-quarters of an hourreturned a verdict of guilty.
The jury also wished that the prisoner should be re-
commended to mercy on account of the large amount
of provocation which he had received. The learned
judge then assumed the black cap and passed sen-
tence of death in the usual solemn form. The pri-
soner receive& the sentence with considerable emo-
tion, and bad to be assisted from the bar.