The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-21 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.

HORRIBLE MURDER, AND SUI-

CIDE OF THE MURDERER.

(ANOTHER ACCOUNT.)
Yesterday morning, about a quarter past nine, a most
dreadful murder and suicide took place at No. 14, Caro-
line-buildings, Elliot's-row, St. George's, Southwark.
The pot-boy of the Fountain, St. George's-road, and Mrs.
Callaway, the landlady, who resided at No. 33, Caroline-
buildings, were attracted to the spot by hearing most
dreadful serelms, and looking through the window
were horror-struck at perceiving a man leaning over a
female in the act of cutting her throat. He then re-
leased her, when she rushed from the house, with the
blood pouring in torrents from her, to the door of
No. 12, where she was caught by Mrs. Callaway, who took
off her apron and attempted to stanch the blood, despatch-
ing persona far a surgeon, policeman, &c. The man at
this time was brandishing the knife and threatening to
stab any person who approached him. While several
persons were engaged with the deceased the murderer
placed himself behind the street-door, and, with the dread-
ful instrument in his hand, nearly severed his head from
his body. From the particulars obtained on the spot, it ap-
pears the murderer was a lodger, and that the husband of the
deceased had but a short time before the fatal deed was com-
mitted left home for the purpose of exhibiting in the streets a
sea dog, or seal. -Various rumours are afloat in the neigh-
bourhood as to the causes of this dreadful deed—one
stating that the deceased woman had left her husband to
live with her murderer, but bad lately returned to her
home. Thousanis of persons are on the spot, and no
slight difficulsy is experienced by the police in preserving
order. Wth the bodies remain in the house till the
inquest.
Another account says that the pot-boy, on hearing
the screams of murder, burst open the door, and in the
front room was horror-struck en beholding the woman
lying on the floor, and her murderer in the very act of
cutting her throat with a knife. The moment the pot-
boy entered Healy stood up with the knife in his hand,
still reeking with the blood of his victim, and ex-
claimed, " Why don't you go for a policeman ?" The
woman at this time, although her throat was cut in a
shocking manner, made an effort to raise herself from
the floor, and ran towards the door into the erect,
ejaculating, He has murdered me—l am a dead wo-
man." The pothoy seeing Healy with the knife in his
band, and having no weapon of any kind to defend
himself is the event of an attack upon himself, ran
into a neighbour's house, and armed himself with a
shoemaker's last, with the intention of disarming the
niarderer of the knife, and giving him. into the custody
sff the police. When, however, Smith returned to the
bowls where the murder was committed, which was in
less than a minute, the moment he entered the room
be Was shocked on seeing Healy standing before a glass,
which was hanging against the wall, in the act of cutting
his threat with the instrument with which he bad affected
the murder of the unfortunate woman. The moment he
had given himself two or three gashes be fell into a chair
close at hand, and from thence on to the floor, and scram-
bled towards the street-door on his hands and knees, while
the blood gushed in torrents from the wounds inflicted by
hie own band. By this time an alarm was raised, and
the people from the adjoining tenements came run.
ning from their houses, and the first object that
met their sight was the unfortunate woman We-
therley lying on her face and hands along the pave-
ment in the court, at a short distance from her own dwel-
ling. At that time she was not dead, and she was carried
into the house, where, however, she soon afterwards ex-
pired, and Healy almost immediately afterwards. Hen-
ninghem, a policeman of the L division, was sent for with.
out loss of time, and he having assisted in carrying the
bodiss into the house, the fl s- of which were.cteluged in
blood, afterwards found the knife with which the deeds
were effected, at the street door, close to which the body
eq. Healy was lying.
_

The filth-and, who was in ProTect-row, on being in-
forteed of the dreadful event, ran home, and attempted to
"mane suicide by drowning. himself in the water-butt;
he was, however, rescued by the police, and was con
veyed to St. George's Workhouse, where he at present
The &ceased, who was a fine looking woman,
left a boy aged 10 years to Lancet her untimely end
Tee murderer was about 35 years of age, and single.
le the confusion which necessarily attends so horiihle a
transautien as this &Allele deed of blood, it is very difficult
le ascertain the precise facts of the case; and the different
recounts which ae have received coesequcntly disagree in
scene of the details. The brother of the unfortunate woman
eveo has fallen a victim to the unhallowed passion of her
paneemur, who must be one of the best authorities, states that
Wetheeley was not a seafaring man as had been supposed,
probably frCrn his possession of the seal which he exhibited,
but a fishmongee; that fur nerly be was doing very well in
that business and was possessed of meney.but that, through
his intemperate habits, be had latterly been very much re-
duced in his circumstances, and had hawked fish %bout the
streets in the neighbourhood of Greenwich. where he
teed his wife had lived for the last three years. About
',ears ago Healy, who is a shoemaker, came up from
two cvem,
ii:ngland, and took ledginga with Wetherley
the Greenwich, where he attended to his busi-
ness !.,s wife at'
4occurrin; te disturb the bar-
witlicut any:.hing,
the occasional drunkenness of
moor of the family beyoue-
the imsband. He bad not. hewever, lived long with them
before he became very much attac;e7d to Mrs. with the
and, in the language of the brother of the deceased, " was
so fend of her, that he cleated upon the very ground on
w',ich she stood." His attachment and attentioes to the
wife soon excited the jealousy of Wetherley, and frequent
quarrels among the three were the consequence. They
eteli, however, continued to live together, and although
both Wetherley mad his wife often attempted to induce
Heal/ to get lodgings elaewhere—for the poor woman was
wearied with the constant dissensions to which his unfortu-
nate attachment gave rise—ho still persisted in retaining his
grout!, sad would not be persuaded by kind words or
otherwise to quit the house. Finding that all their efforts
to ejeethim kens the lodgings were useless, Wetherley and
his wife agreed that they would take lodgings in London
tea:known to Henley, and leave him in possession of the
house at Greenwich. This they had done about a fort-
night ago, to the great annoyance of the infatuated
Healy. who immeldiately resolved upon fieding- them out.
On Swim-day he Met the wife in the neighbourhood of the
Newel t, I:anabeth, and tried to make her divulge the
place of their retreat. This, however, she refused to do,
and did all in her power to induce him not to persist in a
course which interfered with the happiness of hrr husband
and herself. Ho was bent upon revenge, and this morn.
ing doffed the steps of the husband home, by that means
d'iScovering their dwelling. He then watched him (the
husband) out with his barrow and seal, and thereupon pro-
ceeded to the house, when, finding the wretched woman
alone, he despatched her as above described.
The passage of the house in which the Wetherleys re-
sided resembles the floor of a slaughter house, deluged
with blood, and the window frame on the ground floor
bears the marks of the blood-stained hand of the ill-fated
woman, whose first act after she received the fatal wound
was to throw up the window to alarm the neighbours.
Healy ways a much more temperate man than Wetherley,
end but for the passion which be indulged for the other's
eife. might be considered a decent and well-behaved man.
After be had killed the woman be deliberately stood
before the looking-glass, and cut his own throat from ear
to ear. He then sat down in a chair opposite the glass,
but was seen by a pot-boy of a neighbouring public-house,
almost immediately to fall lifeless from the obair. The
wound in his own throat is one of the most desperate that
could bo inflicted by a man's own hand.
The house La which the murder and suicide were com-
mitted is in St. Gee-ge's parish, and the inquest will be
held today, if ajury can be impannelled in time.
The seal which Wetherley had brought for the purpose
of exhibiting, it appears that he had only brought up from
Greenwich on Saturday morning. He heard of the mur-
der of his wife in less than an hour from the time he
had quitted his house ; and he was for some time in such
a state of desperation that the police took him into
custody to prevent him laying violent bands upon
himself. When he became more calm they gave him
into the care of two of his friends, with whom he walked
about in the neighbourhood for some time in a state of ex-
citement and mental suffering which it was painful to
behold.

Caroline-buildings are within a stone's throw from the
house in which Oxford lodged.
The bodies of both the deceased lie in the room in which
tto murder was committed, the police with difficulty keep-
ing off the populace.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

rPRONI THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.)

(From the Globe.)
The true character of politicians is seldom- more
clearly illustrated than by the discussion of what are
denominated Church questions ; and from the fre-
quency with which these have recently come before
Parliament, the nation has been supplied with a pretty
safe test. for forming an estimate of public men. When
Lord John Russell submitted to Parliament a plan for
the abolition of Church-rates, by creating a permanent
fond derived from an Improved system of management
of Chinch lands, the opponents of the plan founded
their resistance on the injuries which would be inflicted
cn the lessees ; who, having expended considerable sums
in the improvement of their leaseholds, on the faith of
-renewal on the same terms on which their present leases
were originally granted, would be unjustly dealt with
were a system to be introducedby the operation of which
they would be required te renew their leases on a valuation
founded on the improvements made by themselves. These
are,sitnents, founded on an amiable regard for the interests
ototite-rs, were exhibited as proofs of the liberal spirit of
the Church in the management of its lands. It was ad-
mitted that they might be made to produce an increased
SUM by an improved mode of management : but, then,
the lessees! Who would vesture on obtaining the
means of extinguishing feuds in parishes respecting
•' Church-rates, if the good were to be purchased at an
expense so great as that of managing the estates of the
Church on the same plan as if they were the property
of the State, or of private proprietors? The discussion
on the Farnham Rectory Bill, now before Parliament,
has shown that the regard for lessees, so warmly pro-
fessed on former occasions, was time-serving, hollow, and
worthless. The interests of lessees are sacred things
when they can be pleaded by the Church, however spe-
eteusly against the public interests ; but may be seized
On and sacrificed with impunity when the Church com-
mits the injustice of its own aggrandisement.
(From the Standard.)
The report of the Committee of the House of Com-
mons on Mr. Kelly's Bill for the abolition of capital
punishment in all cases save treason and murder stands
for Wednesday night. It, therefore, seems necessary,
that w, and others who anticipate danger from the ex-
tent. to hich the tneasNare goes should lose no time in
0rr,,i,4 such reasons as in our opinion ought
to ::v,al nzainst the excess of the proposed change.
Wiloevcr can satisfy himself that by limiting the ,
it-fli of capital punishment to the classes of

offences named, other classes of offences will not be
encouraged, is, of course, unprepared to agree in our
views ; for the general proposition, that the State ought
to content itself with the fewest and the mildest
punishments that are sufficient for the protection of the
public, can admit of no dispute. We are not, however,
satisfied that the effect of a mitigation of penalties is
necessarily to diminish the number of crimes. We know
of no instance in which the effect has been produced by
such means ; and a priori,
.the coercive influence of
penalties would seem to increase with the terror they
are calculated to inspire, and vice versa.
(From the Courier.)
Additional proofs of the value which Englishmen
ought to place upon the word of the Noble Secretary
for the Home Department, and of the nature of the
violent opposition made by the Whig Government to
Parliamentary investigation into the state of Ireland,
continue to be received. No fewer than fourteen
persons, of whom several were delegates from
England and Scotland, were tried last Wednesday,
at Carrick-on-Shannon, on a charge of being
active members of the Ribbon conspiracy. We
shall mention the general result of the charge, and
then proceed to notice some new features that have
been developed by the proceedings. Two of the party
having pleaded not guilty, were placed on their trial.
The Irish Government seem to have considered the
cases of great importance, as the prosecution was con-
ducted in person by the highest law-officer of the Crown.
The Attorney-General's speech appears to have been
remarkably impartial ; indeed, we cannot discover in it
the slightest attempt to exaggerate the facts, which,
in reality, are of themselves sufficiently strong
to show the imminent danger in which the country is
placed by the criminal connivance of the Whig Go-
vernment at the existence of these treasonable bodies.
After the examination of several witnesses, some of
whom were gentlemen in high official situations, the pri-
soners retracted their plea, and their accomplices in
iniquity followed their example, and recorded a plea of
guilty. Thus here are twenty persons in the short
space of three days convicted, either by verdict or con-
fession, of Ribbonism—that crime whose existence was
boldly denied by the Marquis of Normanby.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

HOUSE OF LORDS, JULY 20.

The House aat to-day to hear appeals. The Peers
present were the Lord Chancellor, Lord Brougham,
Lord Monteagle, and Lord Wodehouse. The Lord
Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas was also
in attendance.