The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-02 00:00:00

SHOCKING CATASTROPHE AT BOW.

ATTEMPTED MURDER AND SUICIDE.

During the last few days a painful sensation has
pervaded the vicinity of Bow on account of a most
determined attempt having been made to murder
his wife by a person who has hitherto occupied a
very respectable position, and who afterwards at-
tempted
Ricketts; to take his own life. The name of the
i
accused is
; be is about 45 years of age,
Rick
and is engaged
in the coal trade, and lived with his
wife and family in a cottage in Coborn-road, adja-
cent to the Bow Cricket Ground. Of late he has
been rather intemperate in his habits, and when in
that state he was exceedingly quarrelsome with his
wife. He appears to have spent a portion of Tues-
day evening in the bowling-green attached to the
Morgan Arms public-house, immediately facing his
residence. He left there about ten o'clock and went
home. Soon after this the neighbours were alarmed
by screams, some of the family at the same time
rushing out into the road calling murder. Several
of the inhabitants went into the parlour or sitting
room, and saw that Ricketts had got his wife down
on the floor, her face was covered with blood, and
he was apparently "jobbing" her in the throat with
a sharp-pointed knife. He was instantly dragged
away from her, and the poor woman was carried in
a shocking condition into an adjoining house, when
medical men were sent for. Amidst the confusion
Ricketts was observed to dart dawn stairs into the
kitchen, probably alarmed at the cry which some
one raised for the police. On a eon.stable arriving
at the house Ricketts was called by .
name to come
up. At first the officer declined to
go Liown, fear-
ing perhaps that the assassin was armed a.
ad would
make a murderous resistance. At leng th the
kitchen was reached by the constable and son2e of
the neighbours, and Ricketts was found standing
in the centre of the room and blood spurting from
gashes in his throat. Some one exclaimed, " Good
God! what is the meaning of all this ?" when
Ricketts, with a kind of triumphant grin, said,
"Ain't I a pluck'd un ? didn't I say I'd do it ? "
alluding to some threat which it was supposed he
had made in the early part of the evening. Towels
having been rolled round his throat, so as to check
the flow of blood, Mr. Garman and Mr. Gill, sur-
geons, in the Bow-road, were sent for, and the
wounds were dressed.

The last accounts speak of Mrs. Ricketts and her
wretched husband being still alive, the condition of
the latter being the most serious. The wife has sus-
tained a deep wound in her cheek. It is stated that
the quarrel which terminated with such dreadful
consequences arose over the supper table. The
police have charge of Ricketts, who remains at his
house in the Coborn-road.

DIABOLICAL ATTEMPT AT MURDER AT
MERTHYR TYDVIL BY TWO POLICE-
MEN.

A diabolical attempt at murder, the character of
which is greatly aggravated by the fact that its
perpetrators are both constables in the Glamorgan-
shire county constabulary, was committed on
Thursday, in the immediate neighbourhood of
Merthyr Tydvil.
It would seem that there is a dangerous part of
Merthyr on which the active superintendent, Mr.
Wrenn, deems it his duty to double the beat, and
consequently Police-constables Stuent and William
Rowland were placed upon it. Upon going )his
first round of inspection Police-sergeant William
Thomas discovered Rowland partaking of liquors
in a beer-house. He reprimanded him, and, made
a report of his misconduct to the superintendent.
This matter, it would seem, gave great umbrage to
Rowland, who must have contrived to excite an
equal amount of anger in the breast of his com-
rade Stuent ; for upon the sergeant making his
second round of inspection a very desperate and
unmistakeable attempt to murder him was made
by the two men.
In the course of the beat there is a canal which
is crossed by a bridge, and on nearing it the ser-
geant observed that both constables were standing
at the bridge waiting, as he supposed for his visi-
tation. As he approached them Rowland stepped
towards him as if to make some report, but was
no sooner within reach than he aimed a heavy
blow at the sergeant which at once felled him
to the earth. Stuent then came up, and
both men commenced beating and kicking him
until he was completely prostrate and reduced,
as they doubtless supposed, to a state of
insensibility. They then took him up and threw
him over the bridge into the canal, the fall to the
water being fully ten feet. The effect of the im-
mersion revived the sergeant a little, and there
being a current passing through the bridge he was
carried by its force across to the opposite side of the
bridge. This was observed by the villains, who
rushed to the spot towards which he was drifting
and attacked him with stones. one of which stunned
him for a time. The poor fellow's groans and cries,
coupled with the noise of the struggle, caused some
of the canal boatmen to hasten to the place, and by
their assistance he was got out, but in a state of
great exhaustion and suffering. The ruffianly
Policemen, upon finding assistance at hand, imme-
diately decamped. On the outrage being reported
to Superintendent Wrenn he at once sent consta-
bles in pursuit, and one of them, Constable Wright,
succeeded in arresting Stuent at a distance of 13
miles from Merthyr. Rowland could not be found,
but there is every reason to hope that he will not
escape the officers of justice.