The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-28 00:00:00

MYSTERIOUS MURDER AT HOLLOWAY.

Mr. W. Payne, the coroner, yesterday held an inquest
at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, on the body of James
Walsh, aged 54, who died in that hospital from a wound
in his abdomen, inflicted by some sharp instrument on
the night of the 18th inst.
__..

The jury having viewed the body, the following
evidence was taken :

Mr. Alfred Stephen Wood, of No. 6, Francis-place,
Lower Holloway, surgeon, said :—Last Wednesday
week, at about a quarter past one in the morning, a man
came to my house and rang the bell. I answered him
from the window, and asked him what was the matter.
He said he wanted me to come and see a man with
the belly-ache. I told him to wait and I would come
down. When I went down stairs, I again asked him
what was the matter, and he said that a man (his father),
who was down by the turnpike, had the belly-ache.
I told him that I could not go to see a man with the
bellyache, but that I would give him some medicine for
him. He then said it was a wound he had in the belly
from sonic instrument. I then immediately went with
him, and a youth, about 17 years of age, to No. 1,
Pleasant-passage, Lower Holloway. When we got to
the house the door was opened by a young woman, who
said the man was very well, and did not want me. The
son, however, said, " Come up, sir, and see him," but
the woman stood at the toot of the stairs and said that I
should not pass. I said " Very well," and turning away
said I would return with the police. I left the house
and soon met a policeman, when the woman came after
me and said her rudeness was owing to her being awa-
kened out of her sleep. I went back with the police-
man, and on going upstairs saw the deceased in the first
floor front room, on the bed. He was dressed, but his
trousers were unbuttoned. I saw a wound in the lower
part of the abdomen, on the left side, and on examining
it I found there was a great quantity of coagulated
blood, which I did not disturb. It was a punctured
wound, and was about an inch in length. There
were present in the room the policeman, the son, the
young man, and an old man, who I understood was the
grandfather. I then asked the deceased how it was
done, and the son said it was done in a " row" in the
court, but when and by whom he did not know. I re-
marked, "Not by the woman ?" and he said "No ; no
one here." The deceased made no answer to my ques-
tions. I asked him several times, but the son each
time answered the same. I advised his removal to the
hospital. While the policenion was gone for assistance,
the son lighted his pipe, and invited me to do the same.
The youth said, " I would not care if I had only seen it
done." I asked what it was done with, and somebody
in the room said, "A. knife ;" but I do not know who
it was that said so. I did not see any knife there, nor
was there any blood about the room. His clothes were
completely saturated with blood, as were the clothes of
the bed on which he lay. I saw no blood on the stairs.
If it had been done in the court I think there would
have been blood there, unless it had been washed up.
Israel Wills, 89 N, corroborated this evidence.
Hustings Moore, police-sergeant, 29 N, said he was
on duty at the station on the night in question. The
son came in and said that his father had been stabbed
near the Holloway-gate. Soon after the deceased was
brought in and the son went away. He had known the
deceased as a private watchman and a shoemaker.
Witness said to him, "Walsh, how was it done ?" and
lie said, "Oh, Mr. Moore, some woman has stabbed me
in Pleasant-passage." Witness said, " I have heard the
surgeon has said you will not live; do tell me the truth."
He said again, " A woman has done it in Bandyleg-
row"—Pleasant-place used to be called by that name.
He was then sent to the hospital on a stretcher.
Benjamin Goodwin, 422 N, said he had made
inquiries and had found that the deceased had
been at a beershop in the Hornsey-road, between
eleven and twelve the previous night. He had been
to Pleasant-place, and saw the son there. He said
that he came home about one o'clock in the morning, '
when he found his father up stairs. His father said
they had done for him. As they were both the worse
for liquor he did not take much notice until he saw his
father fall down, when he called the rest of the
inmates up. Witness then saw a woman, and asked
her what she heard of it. She said she heard a noise
and went to the deceased, who said that some one had
stabbed him. Afterwards, on the same day, he went to
the hospital, and asked the deceased again if he could
tell him anything about it. He said, "No ;it hap-
pened in the court in a row." The son, who went with
him, asked his father if he could do anything for him,
and the deceased only replied, "Don't bother me."
He had made every inquiry, but could not find anybody
who had heard any disturbance in the court, nor could
he discover anything satisfactory.
William Walsh, shoemaker, said the deceased was his
father ; that his name was James Walsh, and that he
was 55 years of age. He saw him about six o'clock in
the evening before this occurrence, and saw no more of
him until about one o'clock in the morning. He let
himself in and went up stairs. His father was then
standing in the room, and Mary Fitzgerald was with
him, and crying. He asked what was the matter, when
his father said that he had been stabbed. Witness asked
bal i
siomkueldewr hhmehriele ,w;
go
noo dad
after
thisat
a doctor, and don't let me bleed to
Witness was at the George public-house, in Cornwall-
place, till 12 o'olock. After that he sat opposite waiting
for the potman, but he did not come out, so he went
home.
Mary Ann Fitzgerald corroborated the above, with
saasidd done
the exception that she saw the son at the Victoria pub-
said
surgeon,
lie-house about nine o'clock, and that she went is had
about eleven, and was awoke by the eleceased calling out.
He did not
mtserlalini.hteehrinw,hAo
rdeihderiyt,.hbouttiseh:
hade had a
colonckthein lest smidoer.ninlgt.
dbyeel‘sefearins.eLedewnwls brought into the hospital on WednesdayH
swvoeeukn,dabinouht
istlibreeellye
good deal. They rallied him but he graduallybled a
and died on Tuesday night. He had sank,
since made a post-
mortem examination, and found that
penetrated to the bone, It was four '
the wound had
and 1 ' inches long, It must
have
inches in depth
great force. He could not say _ •ve been done witll
but it must have been done wthwhat it was done with,
lie died irorn the (fleets of the something very sharp.
him say that it was d in wound. He had heard
one a row in the court. He
seemed very disinclined to -
s peak. Ile was asked how
lie could get up stairs
ai,l he pressed his hand withoutoTlthbelomod escaping, and lie
trousers and pocket were cut throug.'hindHteigshatiliflic Thi:de
been struck whil..t standing, and that he had been jobbed''
down, but that could not have been so. The deceased
refused to look at his son in the hospital, and could not
he persuaded to do so.
The Coroner summed up the evidence, and
The jury returnel a verdict of " Wilful murder against
some persons or persons unknown."
The police were instructed to use every exertion to
trace the murderer, and bring him or her to justice.

The sale of the vast territory of the Western Austra-
lian Land C ,mpany, announced by Mr. Robins for
Tuesday next, is postponed, in consequence of valuable
and favourable information just received respecting h 4
mineral rights of' the company.