The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-26 00:00:00

EVENING, MARCH 26, 1849.

Mr. Gr,enwnori. Q.C.. and Mr. 13. v-tit were entinq.l

ior :aid

_ended the prisioaerse
This case began yesterday morning, and the court
was, as usual on these occasions, crammed to suffocation,
the bench and grand jury gallery being filled with ladies.
To-day the interest seemed to be undiminished.
Mr. GREENWOOD opened the case to the jury at great
length, and it appeared from the Learned Gentleman's
statement, which was entirely borne out by the evidence,
that the unfortunate woman who was murdered was an
old person who lived at Taphouse, in the parish of Ted-
burn St. Mary, seven miles from Exeter. She was living
in perfect health upon Saturday morning, the 2d of
December last, and upon Sunday, the 3d of December,
she was found dead in her bed. At this time the pri-
soner Landick lived at Moreton-hampstead; he was a
sort of travelling tinman or tinker, living sometimes
in one place, sometimes in another. Mills, the other
prisoner, went about selling small things, such as
wooden pins for holding clothes on lines; he wag an
intimate friend of Landick; a sister of Mills had been
cohabiting with Landick for some time; and she was
sometimes called Landick's woman, and sometimes his
wife. These three lied been living together a great
deal. Woods, the other person in the transaction, was a
cobbler or shoemaker, in a small way at Crediton
Landick for some time had his eye on the poor woman.
Grace Holman, who was an extremely respectable old
woman, had lived for a great number of years in the
family of the late Colonel Fulford, a magistrate of this
county ; and in the latter part of her days, with a small
property, which, by industry, she had accumulated, she
was living in this little cottage. A notion had got about
that she had considerable wealth, and therefore this man
had his eye upon her as a victim. Two or three months
before this murder occurred, Landick made a proposal
to three different men to assist him in the robbery. On
the forenoon of Friday, the Ist December, Landick was
at Moreton, when he made the same proposal to a man
named Woods, who was subsequently taken up with the
other prisoners, on suspicion of murdering the old
woman, but was admitted Queen's evidence. He stated
that Landick said to him that there was an old woman
at Taphouse who was a miser ; that his wife had been
down there from time to time, and had made inquiries
about her property—and he proposed to Woods to go
and assist in robbing the house. Woods declined, and
the same proposal was repeated during the day. On
Saturday the 2d it was again repeated, and on Woods
saying he was going over to Okehampton, Landick said,
" What a fool to think of going there in such weather
as this, when you can get 2001. or 3001. for next to
nothing." Mills was also present, and Woods eventually
consented to go. Landick brought in a gimlet, and said,
"Now, this is the thing that will do to fasten the door
of those that live by." Eventually, about half past
eight, they all three started towards Tedburn. They ar-
rived about eleven o'clock at Taphouse, and then Landick
said, "It is a little too early to begin;" and they hung
about the house for half an hour or so, before they
commenced operations. The first thing they did was
to take out the gimlet, to bore it into the dern of the
door of Collings's house, and then a cord was tied round
the handle of the door, and round the gimlet, and it was
then screwed in as far as it would go, so as to hold the
door fast. Then Landick, who is a tinker, pulled out a
sort of beat iron, or anvil which they use, and said,
" This will be a good instrument," and he tried to force
the door with it, but was unable to do it. They then
went about the premises to look for something to help
them, and eventally got the trunk of a tree, or consider-
able sized post, and put it against the front of the house
near the window; and Wood and Mills held the thing
steady while Landick went up. Landick took out a
small pane of glass from the window, put in his hand,
undid the window, and went in ; Woods and Mills
remained out for a short time. Landick made his
appearance after a while at the front door, and
opened the door to let them in. At this time his face
was all over black, and his shoes taken off. He brought
the two in They took off their shoes. He gave
them a bundle of soot, with which they blacked their
faces, and the package was thrown by Mills behind the
front door. Having done that, they went up stairs.
They went into the room where the poor old woman was
lying asleep. She woke up in a dreadful fright, and sat
up in her bed; but Landwick flew at her head, threw
her back in the bed, covered her with the bedclothes,
and held her there, and then he said—" One of you come
here and hold her, and I'll look about, for I know the
place better." Mills threw himself on the bed, held her
down with his knees upon her person and his hands on
her head. While that was done, Landick went about
to ransack the house, Woods holding the candle, for they
had brought lucifer matches with them and struck a light.
They searched. Landick took his anvil and tried the
doors and boxes with it. They tried all sorts of places to
find supposed treasures—they came more than once to the
old woman and threatened her, and said " Where is your
money?" She replied in a faint and stifled voice—
"l've 'got none 1" They said—" If you don't discover
where year money is, we'll cut your throat." They drew
open the drawer, and found in it some table spoons.
Landick took them, and gave them to Woods, and Woods
by his desire put them in his pocket. There were still
further threats, but nothing could be got out of her as
to any money she had got. They searched the cupboard,
and on the top shelf they found a basin where they took
out some teaspoons. They then looked at the drawers,
and found two rings, one marked with a little heart, and
also a crooked sixpence. In the course of this search
they found a banker's book. They looked at it, and
found an entry of all the money the poor woman had
paid from time to time into the savings bank. That
satisfied them, and there was an end of all further
search ; instead of keeping what little money she had in
the cottage, she had deposited it in the bank ; and Lan-
dick said, "It's of no use making any further search ; I
now see where her money is." They left the bank
book in the other room, and went in and
threatened her again. She had just appa-
rently- strength and life enough left in her
when they said, " Where is your money?" to answer—
" Near the window." On which Landick went and
found there a purse, which he took up without opening
it, and went back to the woman and said, " How much
is there?" and she said, two pounds—and eventually,
when it was opened, there was 11. 15s. Landick then
said, " Where is her pocket? she must have a pocket."
They searched closely by the bed, and there found a
large pocket, but in it only a few halfpence; and these
were placed on the window ledge, and not carried away
at all. The search being entirely fruitless any further,
Mills came off her. Landick then took up the box
and threw it with considerable force upon the bed—it
pitched on her head—and then he said, " Damn the old
—, that'll keep her from hallooing, won't it?" and
then they threw over a chair upon her, and so quitted
the place. So they left the poor woman. Whether she
died at this moment, or a few minutes after, or an
hour after, nobody but God Almighty knows. She was
found next morning dead. On Tuesday, the sth of
December, they are all three found at the house of a man
named Sherman,who keeps a low lodging-house in West-
gate, Exeter. Woods, Mills, and Landick, were all there,
and Landick went up to Sherman and said in slang lan-
guage, "Do you want any wedge ?" Sherman said,
" What sort of wedge?" Landick said, " Why, spoons."
" Well," said Sherman, "let me see them." "You shall
see them," Landick said, "I'll bring them to you in three
or four days, or a week—l suppose you're to he trusted?"
" Oh, yes," said Sherman, " it's all right." They went
and drank together, but Sherman gave information to
the police forthwith. That was on the Tuesday after the
murder; the three were found together offering what
they call "wedge," which they explain to mean spoons.
On the following day, Wedne-day, Landick and Woods
again came to Sherman. Mills had enlisted that very
day as a soldier under the name of Somers, and he was
shortly after moved off to Fernioy, in Ireland, where
the regiment was on the point of embarking; and, sub-
es quen ly he was arrested two days before the
regiment started for India. On Wednesday,
Mills and Landick again came back to Sherman,
and there the constable, who had some information from
Sherman, met them, and Landick saw him, went up to
him, and said—" Halls, I suppose you're a copper ?"
(This is slang—meaning a person connected with the
police.) The constable said I am;" and then Landick
said—" You're come about that croaking job at Ted-
burn?" (This was their slang for murder.) The con-
stable replied—" No, lam not." Landick said—" Well,
I am, then. I am employed by Mr. Harvey to search
out the spoons." This was wholly untrue, as Mr.
Harvey had not had the slightest communication as to
his looking after them. Upon the Thursday, Woods
went off to Crediton, and there he remained, carrying on
his trade of a shoemaker, until he was arrested at Cre-
diton. What became of Landiek between that time and
the time of his apprehension was not distinctly known;
but he was found at Ashbur ton, on the 26th of December,
on Tuesday, the day after Christmas-day. He went
there to a person of the name of Elizabeth Bowden,
and lodged at her house with his wife or woman,
and remained there. He produced, upon that day, a
little anvil, or beat iron, and gave it to Mrs. Bowden, who
put it in her back kitchen, where it was locked up until
eventually taken possession of by the constable. On the
27th of December, Landick was apprehended by the
constable, and a conversation took place between them
on the road, he referring to the murder, and the con-
stable saying nothing at all about it. On the same day
that Landick was apprehended at Ashburton, he saw his
wife, and desired her to go to his box, and to give what
she found there to her brother Joseph (Mills)—that is
another brother, not the prisoner; and he having sent
her to give this to Joseph Mills, they, with a person of
the name of Cann, went away down to Cornwall, and
what they got from Mrs. Landick they offered for sale at
two places—spoons beat up, and two bowls of a spoon,
broken from the end of the shaft or handle. They sold
these two bowls, and the others they made an offer to
some silversmith in Bodmin, who did not purchase them,
and they were found afterwards upon their persons.
These spoons were identified as the property of the
old woman.

The case for the prosecution having been closed,
Mr. COLLIER addressed the jury at great length on
behalf of the prisoners, contending that Woods' evidence
was totally unconfirmed as to the participation of Mills
in the transaction; that there was no doubt that he was
a party to the murder of the poor old woman, and had
told the tale he (lid to take the rope from his own neck,
and twist it round the necks of his old companions. He
also contended that he was not confirmed with regar‘l to
his evidence generally, so as to justify the jury in be-
lieving one word that he had stated, and theretbre that
both the prisoners wore entitled to an acquittal, as the
case for the prosecutio I wholly rested on his evidence.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS having summed up, the jury
Acquitted Mills, but found Landick Guilty, with a strong
recommendation to mercy.
On being asked on what ground, they said on the
ground that they believed he did not premeditate the
murder of the old woman.

Mr. Justice WILLIAMS then passed sentence of death
on the prisoner, in the usual form.
The case although begun the first thing yesterday
morning, did not conclude until six o'clock this evening.