The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, Lolt,"_0'0". N, Sti.-qUaDAY EVENING, AUGUST 15, 1861

time to say that he would kill his wife "if he got hung for
her." The woman threw a bucket of water over him and
attempted to escape, but the prisoner followed her, and again
wounded her in six places with the chisel. She was at-
tended by a surgeon, and was for some time in a dangerous
state.

For the defence it was urged that the prisoner did not
intend to inflict grievous bodily harm, and that being in a
state of intoxication, the crime might fairly be reduced to
unlawfully wounding.

The jury found the prisoner guilty, and ho was sentenced
to 15 years penal servitude.
_ _

John Knowles, 20, was indicted for feloniously wounding
Benjamin Hall, on the 23d October, 1862, on board the ship
Clan Gregor, then lying in the Old Calabar river.
The prosecutor was clerk and the prisoner steward on
board the vessel, and a dispute bad arisen between them as
to the genuineness of some yams. The prisoner became
very excited, and struck Hall on the face. Nothing further
took place then, but the prisoner subsequently rushed into
the cabin, and returning with a carving knife, gave the pro-
secutor such a dreadful wound in one of his eyes that the
sight was entirely destroyed, and the other eye most seriously
impaired.

For the defence it was urged that the prisoner did not
know what ho was about, as he was in drink at the time.
The jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to 10
years' penal servitude.
Nisi PRIUS COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Mellor.)
PARKER. V. BRADFORD.

This was an action brought by a clerk and traveller on
commission residing in Johnson-street, Manchester, to re-
cover compensation for a false imprisonment. Mr. James,
Q.U., appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Pope for the de-
fendant.

The plaintiff's case was that he was quietly walking along
a street in Manchester, when the defendant, a washing-
machine maker in London and Manchester, met and stop-
ped him, and asked him his name and address. The plain-
tiff asked what business that was of Bradford's, and after
some altercation accompanied him to a public house near
at hand, and referred him to the landlord, who knew him,
as he had been there two or three times. Plaintiff offered
to go to the Ducie Arm s and other places where he was
well known, but defendant refused to do ao, threatened to
send for a police officer, and said, It you will put down
£5O and the gold coins, and the will, you may go." Par-
ker took Bradford to be a madman, and he told him so.
Bradford sent for two police officers and gavo the plaintiff
into custody on a charge of having stolen from his estab-
lishment in Fleet- street, London, a cashbox containing £7O,
some ancient gold coins, and a will. Plaintiff denied that
he had ever been in London in his life, and now seeing that
the defendant was in earnest desired him to accompany him
to several persons who could prove his respectability. De-
fendant declined to do so. Parker was conveyed in a cab, in
custody of a policeman, to the police-station, where he was
locked up until next morning ; he then conclusively proved
that he was not in London on the day when the robbery
was committed, and the magistrates discharged him.
The defence was that, on the 27th of July last
year, two men entered the defendant's London establish-
ment while he was engaged with a customer, and after
being there a short time suddenly went away; that imme-
diately afterwards the eatl-box was missed ; and that when
the plaintiff was given into custody the defendant fully
believed him to be one of the men.
The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff—damages £6O,

MURDER IN WOLVERHAMPTON.

WOLVERHAMPTON, Aug. 14.

A terrible crime has been committed in this town. In
Bilston-street there is a wide court known as the Barracks,
but correctly as No. 4 Court. It Contains about eight houses,
tenanted at 2s. 3d, a week. On the occupancy of one of
these there entered five or six weeks ago a young man and
woman, who seemed to obtain a livelihood by making and
selling forks and skewers of iron ware. On the Monday
evening, about a month ago, the woman locked the house
door and told a next-door neighbour that she was going out,
and asked her to say if any one called that she was gone
to the country. A few days after her departure a respect-
able-looking woman came from Willenhall, a neighbouring
township, and enquired for Mr. Williams, her Bon, who was
alledged to be the tenant of the house and who had passed
as the husband of the woman referred to. The message left
by the woman was delivered,anj old Mrs. Williams desired
that her son should be told to write to hr 2 mother,as she wishede
to bear from him. Whether or net the wo2mn
mhobe
m made
the the inquiries was the person she alleged herself _ the
not yet transpired. After that time no one called, anct
house remained closed. An offensive smell, however; for
some days back has been noticed to proceed from the house,
and this morning the neighbour with whom the message
had been delivered by the woman-tenant began to suspect
that something was wrong. At her request, a neighbour
named Mary Lees procured a key and opened the door.
The smell then became very strong. Lees, however, went
upstairs,and saw a dead body lying in the front room. She
called out to a neighbour named Smith for assistance, and
they both entered the room. On the floor lay a mattress,
and upon it there was stretched, covered with a sheet and
coverlet, what was evidently the corpse of a man, it isneed-
less to say, in a horrible state of decomposition. The mur-
dered man, for such the deceased would seem to be, wore,as
he lay in bed, only a shirt and waistcoat ; and there is no
doubt that some hand must have tended him after he was
unable to do anything for himself. This is clear from the
manner in which his head was covered with the bed clothes.
These were fastened over the face tight enough to secure
suffocation, if death had not previously taken place. The
colour of the hair and other circumstances convinced them
that the deceased was the young man Williams,
The inquest was held yesterday afternoon, Before the in-
quiry commenced a woman present volunteered a statement
to the effect that, some time since, she had known the de-
ceased by the name of Bill, and she now remembered his
name to be William Williams. She was able to identify
him by his trousers,which on one occasion she had mended.
His mother lived at Portobello, a small town near Wolver-
hampton. A letter addressed to him had once been left at
her house, and she had known him when he lived in Bir-
mingham. He was not married, but had lived with a
woman named Rose. This woman she had not seen for
more than three weeks. She had a very bad character.
Mary Lees, the woman who first found the body, and the
first witness called, said,—l last saw Williams alive on
Monday three weeks at the bottom of the court, and he then
appeared to be in good health. On the evening of the same
day I saw the woman with whom he lived go to the top at
the back of the building for some water. After filling her
kettle she returned to the house, and I have not seen her
since. The witness then stated what the woman had said
before going to the country, and the manner in which the
body had been discovered.
A policeman who went to the house soon after the dis-
covery said that a pair of trousers was found under the
deceased's body. He added that in the house there were
some articles found which he could prove belonged to the
woman Rose,

Rachel Barry corroborated the last witness in some par-
ticulate.
The inquiry was then adjourned until the last day of this
month. Dr. Gibbons, the surgeon, in the meantime, was
instructed to make a careful post mortem examination of the
body.