The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 21, 1854.

MURDER AND SUICIDE AT
BIRMINGHAM.

BIRMINGHAM, Saturday.—Murder and suicide seem
to have become epidemic in this locality. Within the
last few days three persons have been murdered, and the
life of another is placed in imminent peril. Scarcely had
the excitement caused by these occurronces subsided,
when the public were shocked by rumours of a still more
sad and frightful tragedy, which was unfortunately too
well founded.

The scene of this second murder and suicide is in Lis-
ter-square, Gi eat Lister-street—a small court of houses
situated near St. Matthew's Church. In one of these
houses resided Mrs. Speak, the widow of a band master,
who died while with his regiment in Gibraltar some time
ago. Her son, Samuel Speak, a youth of little more than
20 years of age, resided with her—both, in fact, living
with her brothers, Messrs. John and Thomas Dodd. It
was this poor woman and her son who were almost in-
stantaneously hurried into eternity yesterday morning.
lit appears that the youth Speak got up very early
and went to his cousin, John Dodd, a pistol finisher,
employed at Mr. Dineley's Whittal-street. While there
he produced a pistol which he had borrowed from a com-
panion on the previous day while they were out shooting
about Aston, and wished to cast some bullets in a mould.
He found, however, that the mould would not fit the
pistol—an ordinary pocket pistol—and thereupon he cut
up some lead into slugs and went away, saying, " Now
I'll go and have a good shot; there is some good waste
ground near our house. Nothing particular was observed
about him then, and shortly afterwards he arrived at
home. There he had breakfast with his mother, one
of his uncles, a niece, and his grandmother, and every-
thing went on as usual. At length Mr. J. Dodd went
to work (Mr. T. Dodd, having a rheumatic affection,
was lying ill in bed in the attic). His grandmother then
went out, after he had assured her he was going to work
immediately, and no one was left in the room but his
unfortunate mother and his cousin, Mary Dodd. That
young person, however, also withdrew into a small pantry
adjoining the sitting-room, leaving the door open, and
the youth Speak standing conversing with his mother.
She had scarcely left the apartment when she heard the
report of a pistol ; instantly the place was full of smoke,
and in a moment after, when she ruined into the room,
she saw her aunt falling from her chair, covered wish
blood. The youth Speak was standing close beside her.
" Oh ! Sam," cried the girl, " what are you doing ?" but
he made no reply. He merely turned and looked at her
for a moment, and ran up stairs.
The girl on proceeding to her aunt's assistance found
her lying on the floor, with a stream of blood flowing
from a frightful wound in her head. She screamed in
alarm, and her cries having been heard by Mr. G. F.
Dodd, a relative, who resides in the house opposite, he
immediately ran to her assistance, when his brother, Mr
Thomas Dodd, descended from the attic, having been
alarmed by the report of the pistol. Before, however,
he got to the bottom of the stairs another report of fire-
arms was heard, and on the bewildered relatives pro-
ceeding to the front bedroom on the second floor, they
found the unhappy youth who had murdered his mother
lying dead by the side of the bed, shot through the bead
by his own hand.

Intelligence of the frightful event spread with amazing
rapidity and in a few minutes Mr. Yellowley, surgeon,
and Mr. Davis, surgeon, had been sent for, and arrived
without delay. Their services, however,were of no avail.
Both the mother and her son were dead. In both cases
death must have been instantaneous. The youth must
have placed the pistol close to the right ear of his un-
fortunate parent, and thus blown out her brains. The
wound is of considerable extent, part of the skull being
blown away and shattered. The pistol he must have
had concealed in his pocket, as no one saw it until after
the fatal deed had been committed. After terminating
the existence of his mother, who never spoke one word,
the youth seems to have proceeded to his bedchamber,
reloaded the weapon, and, sitting down upon the edge
of the bed, put the muzzle of the pistol to his right
temple, and, pulling the trigger, lodged several slugs in
his head. He could not have lived for one moment
after. The weapon with which the fatal act was perpe-
trated was found lying by the body on the floor.
The youth Samuel Speak, as we have said, was little
more than 20 years of age. He was a gun engraver,
and had been employed up to Christmas by his uncle,
Mr. G. F. Dodd, Sand-street, and since then by Mr.
Lewis, engraver, Lench-street. He is represented to us
as being a quiet, sober, steady youth, but "never reck-
oned over sharp." There are various rumours as to the
cause of this awful tragedy ; but of course it would be
impossible to attach any importance to them. It is
charitable to infer that such a crime could only be the
result of madness ; and in confirmation of this view of
the subject it is stated that shortness of work lately had
preyed on a mind even at the best of times none of the
strongest ; and that the fear of seeing his mother re-
duced to want had led to its commission. The unfortu-
nate woman was about 50 years of age, and was respect-
ably connected.

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