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

THE MURDER AT LEEDS.

At the York assizes on Monday, before Mr. Jut ice
murder of Alice G'aisre, ,awt
La se
ec(hisa.rgi‘e
Mellor, John Gair,
Mr. bar, defendeddl r .w,Middletont with
t h e wilful
and
Mr. V. Black hu
at the bar, Gair, appeared for the prosecution ;
in a thefi prisoner. On being pieced
Mr. Middleton, in rm voice, pleaded not guilty.
isuner was formerly statingin the the case, said that the
)me lour or army, and was now a
pensioner. S,
living with Alice Gair, as man years past he had been
ap-
peared latterly quarrels had
dn and wife. It
jealousy of the prisoner with regardarisen, from the
intimacy between Alice Gair and to an improper
Davis. On Thursday, the 2d of A° man named.r
pri-
soner went to the barracks to draw his , the
pension.
During his absence, in consequence of the
which had previously taken place,
Alice Quarrelsi
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, he 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
that the prisoner's anger became considerably ex-
cited, and he made use of an expression to the effect
that she was too intimate with Davis. Her answer
to that was exceedingly provoking, and was in the
words, "If I have, I will have the gains of it.lf Thu
prisoner then made use of the expression,
you
will not live with me, I must have your life or
Davis's." An arrangement was ultimately come to
that Alice should sleep at M‘Mants's whilst the pri-
soner that night would leave for North Shields. The
prisoner left the house but did not go to North
Shields, for he presented himself at M'Manus'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 thus re-
conciled, the two slept together; but on the 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 teu
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 Eelzt d 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 ttreat 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 bad 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 almost hopeless condition, but ultimately his
life was preserved. Evidence was then called, after
which Mr. Mettle addressed the jury for the prisoner,
contending that the act was committed in antefit of
temporary insanity. The jury, after ad absence of
eturned a verdict of guilty.
three-quarters of en hourr h
The jury also wished that the prisooer should be re-
comme.nded to mercy on aceount of the large amount
of provocation which he had received. The learned
judge then assumed the black cap and passed sen-
tence death in the usual solemn form. The of 'ill con •
pri-
soner receivet, the sentence w
orn
considerable emo-
tion, and had to be assisted from the bar.