The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-04 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, AUG. 2.
The accounts of murders are coming so rapidly
upon us that they will soon cease to produce any
sensation from dint of repetition. The last always
appears the worst, the most daring and atrocious ;
but another comes and casts it into the shade. The
news of assassination comes like successive flashes
of lightning in a thunderstorm, each more vivid
and lurid than its predecessor, and followed by a
louder clap ; but the eye and the ear become ac•
customed to the phenomena. The murder of Mr.
Braddell, however, seems to have reached the
climax. We can hardly conceive anything more
horrible, unless the assassin walks into the church
during Divine service and murders a landlord in
his pew, and then walks off without being inter.
rupted or questioned. There are peculiar circum-
stances connected with this astounding crime which
invest it with something of the interest of romance.
In Carleton's numerous sketches of bailiffs, the
boldest fiction does not come up to the reality
brought to light on this termination of a lengthened
connection between Michael Hayes, the murderer,
and his victim. In order to understand the denoue-
ment it is necessary to refer to the previous history
of the parties.
Mr. Braddell, a highly respectable solicitor,
living at Mallow, in the neighbouring county of
Cork, has been for many years acting as agent for
several landlords. The famine of 1847 was the
means of utterly " breaking" many of the small far-
mers in all parts of the country. They had lost the
whole of their capital and stock, they were deeply
in arrears, and it was quite impossible that they
could crop the land or pay rent for it. Their al-
most sole means of existence was the potato, and
that was gone apparently for ever. Unless, there-
fore, the landlords relinquished their property and
allowed it to become a common, they must evict the
tenants who could not pay rent. Many of them
were obliged to sell, and the new owners were re-
solved to have a fair return for their money. It
fell to the lot of Mr. Braddell to be engaged exten-
sively in the odious work of eviction, which is
always accompanied with painful, sometimes with
tragic incidents, occasioned by the removal of aged
and sick persons. It is stated by the Morning
News, a Tenant Right and Ultramontane journal,
that between 1847 and 1850, Mr. Braddeli had
ejected in one parish no less than 250 families, re-
presenting about 1,250 individuals. In effecting all
that dreadful work, Michael Hayes, the murderer,
was his bailiff; and it is said that he was one of the
worst specimens of the detested class to which he
belonged. He is a tall powerful man, of dark com-
plexion, repulsive physiognomy, with a sinister ex-
pression about his eyes. As might be expected, his
character was not the best, and no doubt Mr.
Braddell had sufficient reason for dismissing him

from his employment. His successor was Daniel
Moore, the young man who was in the room a t the
time of the murder. It appears that in addition to
the dismissal, there was a more serious cause of ani-
mosity and a stronger motive for committing the
crime, in the threatened eviction of Hayes himself
from a small farm which he held under Colonel Hare.
Mr. Braddell had selected for his office the smok-
ing room of the hotel, a small apartment at the
rear of the building, approached by a long, narrow,
ill-lighted passage, the room having a window open-
ing into the yard. Mr. B raddell sat at the table on
which was the box containing the money he had re-
ceived from the tenants. He was dressed in a suit of
grey with a soft felt hat. It should be mentioned that
a son of Hayes had been prosecuted at the last assizes
for the murder of a man named Quinlan, who had
obtained a farm from which he had been ejected.
At the trial Mr. Braddell was a material witness.
The evidence, however, was not deemed sufficient
by the jury, and the prisoner escaped. Since that
•

time the deceased seemed to be under some appre
hension that the elder Hayes would make an at.

tempt on his own life, and he therefore carried
pistols. Moore, the bailiff, an athletic young man
about 20 years of age, was in attendance on his
master. The only other person present in the room
before the occurrence was a tenant, named Reardon,
who came to speak about drainage. While he was
speaking Hayes entered. The scene that followed
is described by Reardon and Moore. The former,
in his evidence at the inquest, said that Hayes
wanted Mr. Braddell to allow him to remain on the
land at the same rent he had always paid. He said
that Colonel Hare had no °Mentions to his remain-

ing, and that Braddell was the person that wished
to put him out. Mr. Braddell made no reply.
Hayes then got angry, and was very much ex-
cited. The deceased at last said, "I want to have
nothing to do with you." Witness noticing the
passion in which Hayes was, tried to persuade
him to leave the room, but he would not go.
Witness then went out himself, and just as he
passed the door and got into the passage he heard
a shot, and then he heard a second shot, and im-
mediately Mr. Braddell rushed passed him, and ran
to the hall into the street, saying nothing, but
pressing his hand against his side. Witness saw
Hayes in the street afterwards.
" The Coroner—ls it possible that you made no
attempt to catch him? Yon saw him in the street;
you heard the shot fired. Good God !—why did '
you give no alarm—why did yon not try to have
the murderer taken up P
" Witness—Shure I did.
" The Coroner—When ? Is it possible that
Tipperary has fallen so low that we are to be cowed

by one or two assassins ? Is the whole of Tipperary
at the beck of a murderer ?

" Daniel Moore was called and sworn—He de-
posed that he was sitting in the room when Hayes

_ -
came in, and heard him ask Mr. Braddell to allow

him to remain upon the land ; that Mr. Braddell
refused, and that Hayes then fired. He saw Mr.
Braddell leap up and rush out of the room. Wit-

ness, swore that ihe attempted to catch hold of
Hayes, but could not succeed in holding him, and
that Mayes then went out of the room, and he went
out at mast the same time. The man passed
through the hall into the street, and he saw no more
of him.

ig The Coroaer.....y
olu are a strong, althetic young
man, and y®t ye, tel
u you could not succeed in
preventing the escape of
thet murderer !"
The following
is I,lr, raddell's dying declara-
tion, read at the inquest,....
"I, John Waller Braaden,
Mallow, in the
county of Cork, Esq., but atf
present in the town of
Tipperary, being fully aware that I am
l
pistol
lg shot,declaration, do
in a d •
state from the effects ofay
and ben
dying
desirous to make this, m
declare as follows
" I was receiving rents at Dobbyn's hotel, la
the
There were
town of Tipperary, on this day. in the
roam Daniel Moore, Thomas Ilearaun, and Mieh,,,el
Hayes, of Carrigmore, county of Limerick, and no
other person. I was sitting in said room when the
said Michael Hayes took from his breast pocket a
pistol, and aimed same at me, firing at same time
the contents of said pistol, which lodged in my
abdomen, and from the effects of which I am now
in a dying state. I have been for years acquainted
with the said Michael Hayes, and entertain no
doubt whatever but he is the person who fired at
me as aforesaid.

"JOHN WALLER BRADDI'LL.
" Acknowledged by the said John Waller 'Brad-
dell, before me, this 30th of July, 1862.
" J. MASSEY, J.l'., county of Tipperary:'
Dr. Nadin and Dr. Kennedy were examined, and
made the following joint information :
" We this day have made a post mortem examina-
tion of the body of the deceased, Mr. John Waller
Itraddell. We find that his death was caused by a
wound inflicted by a pistol bullet which passed
through the abdomen, wounding the vessels of the
great o'lleutunland lodging in the right side. The
w ottnd caused
internal haemorrhage, inflammation
and death. The
bullet passed through the left
arm before it entered
abdomen."
The jury then retired, and after an absence of
some time returned to ;l
°"1 and handed in a
verdict of wilful murder against Michael Hayes.
" The Coroner, addressing Danielst Moore, said the
jury had directed him to express their very strong
condemnation of his conduct in rnakin
seize and hold the murderer of Mr. Ilf_no effort to
'a4dell, and
not giving a prompt alarm.
" Moore said he did attempt to hold Hayes, end

that he gave an alarm. When the police came the
man was gone, and yet they were afraid to go into
the smoking-room.
"Head-Constable Bible—That is a falsehood, and
you know it is. So far from that being true, we
found him sitting in the hall, and e would tell us
nothing.
" Moore_ i told a tenant named Cormac to go
for the police.
" The Head-Constable, addressing the Coroner,
said the police got no information of the murder
until 15 or 20 minutes after it occurred.
" Mr. Howley, R.M., said that before the Coroner
went he wished to say a few words. 112 could scarcely
express the feelings he entertained about the fearful
occurrence. He was sure that had an immediate
alarm been given the assassin could not have
escaped. There were plenty of people in the street
who would have joined in pursuing him. He had
spoken to many persons that day, and all had ex-
pressed the deepest abhorrence of the crime and the
strongest desire for the apprehension of the mur-
derer. He had long lived in that town, and up
to the present it had been his boast that what-
ever crime had disgraced the county, the town of
Tipperary was altogether free from outrages of
the kind, but, unhappily, he could say so no
longer." _ _

A rumour was prevalent in Nenagh that Hayes
had been arrested, but it is not confirmed, and
the police are still unsuccessful in their pursuit.
They could get no information about him from the
people. The lord-lieutenant has offered a reward
of £lOO for such information as may lead to his
apprehension, and a like sum to any person who
will give information against those who harbour
him or aid him in any way.
In addressing the grand jury of the North Riding
of Tipperary at Nenagh yesterday, Baron Deasy
made the following reference to the murder of Mr.
Braddell

" The report of the county inspector agrees with
the state of the calendar, and describes the state of
the county as most satisfactory. I cannot terminate
my address here, as I would wish, for I regret that
within the last few days a most appalling outrage
has occurred in the South Riding of this county,
which does not, of course, come within your juris-
diction, but which in the daring publicity which
attended its commission exceeds all that we have
heard or read of. In a room in a hotel, in one of
the most populous towns in this county, in the pre-
sence of several and in the immediate proximity of
others, a gentleman, in the discharge of his duties
as land agent, was openly and barbarously mur-
dered. I knew him for a long time, and, as far as
I could judge, he seemed a man of humane disposi-
tion, and just in his dealings with those he came in
contact with, mild and inoffensive in his manner,
and I should say, as far as I could judge, incapable
of doing any harsh or oppressive act. A short time
ago I saw him in that home which is now made
desolate, in the presence of that wife whom the
assassin's hand has made a bereaved and disconso-
late widow. It is not merely for the purpose of
expressing what we all feel in reference to this out-
rage that I refer to it on this occasion. We cannot
escape the conviction that a widespread sympathy
with crime pervades this and a neighbouring
county, which leads them to shield and protect the
perpetrators of agrarian crime, so as to render the
detection of crime difficult. There is, I fear, a wide-
spread disposition to shelter and screen the assassin
from justice. But it should be remembered that to
stand by and see a felony committed, without inter-
fering to prevent the commission of the felony, or
making any effort to seize the offender, is at com-
mon law a misdemeanour ; while all who supply
food, shelter, help, or refuge to any one who has
committed a felony, or harbours such a person, or
aids in screening him from those seeking to discover
him, make themselves accessories after the fact, and
are liable, if convicted, to be sentenced to undergo
penal servitude for the whole term of their natural
lives. It is the duty, and I trust the firm resolve,
of those intrusted with the administration of justice
in this country, to endeavour to bring to justice
those who screen an assassin, and harbour him or
aid his escape. The manifestations, both before
and after the late special commission, show how
widespread is the sympathy with crime in this
county."

MYSTERICUS AND ROMANTIC AFFAIR,

Considerable excitement has been canoed in the
usually quiet village of Street Cobham, which is
about four miles from the Weybridge railway sta-
tion, in consequence of the following extraordinary
occurrence,by which the lives of two gentlemen have
been sacrificed under circumstances of a peculiarly
distressing character. It appears that about eight
o'clock on the evening of Friday last two men,
named Eyles and Organ, were passing through
a wood, when they were attracted by a strong smell
and on going to the spot from whence it proceeded
they discovered the bodies of two men who had ap-
parently been dead for several days, which presented
a most horrifying spectacle. Without remaining to
examine the bodies they at once hastened to the vil-
lage and gave information of the circumstance to
police-constable Lovell, who, in company with Mr.
Webb, surgeon, repaired to the place and made a
minute examination of the bodies of the deceased
men. They were lying in a hollow space between
two or three small birch trees, about 80 or 90 yards
from the main road leading from Weybridge to
Cobham, and about half a mile from the village.
The spot was very secluded, and was probably se-
lected on that account for the tragical occurrence
which has excited so much sensation in this locality.
The head of one of the men was found reclining upon
the other's breast ; the face of the latter and a por-
tion of his body being covered with a rug. The up-
permost man had been shot through the lowerjaw,
and the ball, after passing through the inner part
of the head, effected its exit upon the top of the
skull near the crown. This was apparently the
younger of the two, and at the time of his death he
was wearing a wig, although it is conjectured he
was only about 20 years of age. Upon removing the
rug from the other man the surgeon perceived a
bullet wound in the breast, which evidently caused
death almost instantaneously. He is supposed to
have been about 30 years of age, but the bodies were
in such a high state of putrefaction as to render any
other than a mere guess in that respect impossible.
A discharged pistol was found lying close to the
head of one of the meL, and he was lying upon an-
other pistol and a fish basket, as though he had
thrown down the deadly weapon and fallen upon it.
A bottle containing a small quantity of port wine,
of which the men had evidently partaken before
closing their final career, was picked up close where
the last-mentioned pistol was found. On searching
their pockets the constable found the sum of £1
S. 6-41., a pocket-book containing several artificial
flies for fishing, some fish hooks, a spirit flask con-
ttainillbint a small quantity of pale brandy and water, a
piloZoeiu ontaining some small a percussion caps, a
f twhich were two bullets, a small box key,
air
chiep fs, and
,:tzers, three white pocket handker-
one of the men,m
ells other alleles. The pockets of
collar, a 1
ight-eoloure
_contained a pair of socks, a
The caps worn by th:Zalp, and a pair of kid gloves.
theeTtunate men were lying
ground beside
the bodies .4- None of the articles
found upon ....0rti0, „ e s .
lead to their identification; h'utt'!l lightest clue to
on the
Lti, addition to those
Wye-mentioned, a pocket-book .„.
a "as feu d b
inscription, which, I, earin
-"fe'ferhnad be g
a written
much effaced as not to admit any possibility a
so
rl The bodies were removed
of b
ing deciphere—
mile ed. to the
about a half
King's Arms Inn, a . isdistant, where
which, it understood • they await an inquest, , will
take place this morning. They presented a shock_
the younger i
ing spectacle ; the face and throat of
man being almost entirely consumed by maggots, so
that that portion of his body bore the appearance of
a skeleton ; and the elder was equally sickening,
the flesh being almost charred by the sun, and the
features so far destroyed as to be quite unrecog-
nisable. Theirgentlemanly attire and the complete
arrangement of their fishin-
g.- tackle leave no doubt
that the deceased persons Were men of respectability
who had evidently left their homes to enjoy the
pleasures of a piscatorial excursion, for which the
river Mole in the neighbourhood is well adapted.
A fishing rod was found on Monday last by a little
girl named Susan Lasham, about 80 or 100 yards

from the:place where the:bodies were discovered. It
affords some satisfaction to know that on Saturday
morning a little girl, who was minding some cows
near the spot, picked up a 'piece of paper which
proved to be a circular issued by " S. Henderson,
tailor and outfitter, Holloway-gate," on the
back of which were written in pencil, in a
) bold, gentlemanly hand, the following words :
" Whoever finds this body will confer a great
favour on one who can never ask another, if
he will take the gloves the writer wears to
(here a name was written, and afterwards
effaced by the writer to render it illegible), and tell
her that he died blessing her and praying for her
happiness. And the writer asks with his dying
breath that will love —7 and he asks to be
(illegible) dearly for his sake; and he asks
forgiveness from all whom he pains by thus going
away to die, but he is too unhappy to live. And
as the last request of her dying child, he asks his
mother to love—(name repeated and again effaced)
—and to take care of her as far as possible. And
the writer most earnestly begs pardon from his poor
old father, whom he is sorry to leave, but fate is
too strong to resist. May God bless all those who
have been so good to me, and whom I have so ill
afraid requited l e;
hbeuetl
dif d mey all life
I have
ee done.live d again,
As
for m
I am
y
death, I die quite happy,
and with a blissful feeling
that I am going to rest. (Here a name was
written, but effaced) is nearly dead. I have
promised to see him safely dead before I quit —."
Here the writer ceased, and no doubt at once pro-
ceeded to terminate his own existence, after having
lir if
throwsTo nvvT.
oh
gi As
et
nhan
petol
ptel heemeaa
ersr
nts r
light
habwwte aeusrtpih lyingoneng o
ttnhhleye by
mdi tneehssl etcarrnsoi icpnidi
at eioe.
description
first covered over with a rug the dead body of his
whichchoi
mm
affair ps
himself.
of the deceased visited the village on Thursday
1
week last, and put up at the " Big White Lion,"
where they purchased a bottle of port wine, of
which it is reasonably supposed the portion found
in the bottle on Friday evening formed a part. It
is also strongly suspected that the tragic affair took
place on Thursday week last. On that day one of
the gentlemen alluded to left a pocket-book at the
"Big White Lion," in which were inscribed the
following addresses :—" C. 8., 5, Langham-place,
Brixton, or 11, Angel-court, City." Communications
have been forwarded to each of these places, but up
to Saturday night no reply had been received. On
Saturday afternoon a small phial was found on the
spot containing apparently a tincture for the tooth-
ache, on the cork of which was a wax impression
bearing the name of a chemist (illegible) in Upper
Holloway_ This would lead to the supposition that
one or both of the men came from that locality,
as the circular before referred to was issued from
the same place. Several pieces of burnt paper
which formed part of a London and South-Western
Railway time table were scattered about the spot,
having been discharged from the pistols.

Mr. Superintendent Hollington, of Chertsey,
visited the spot on Saturday, and despatched a
messenger to Scotland-yard ; and he has since used
every endeavour to ascertain the names and houses
of the men, but up to this period without success.
The spot where the bodies were found was visited
yesterday by several hundreds of persons from
Cobham and the adjacent neighbourhood.