The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-10 00:00:00

THE MURDER AND ROBBERY OF

BELLCITAMBERS.

1 So great is the excitement still with respect to this
1 case, that long before the hour appointed yesterday at
the Westinim.ter Police-court for the examination of
the persons accused the place wascrowded, as before, al-
most to suffocation. On the prisoners, Thomas Sale
Thomas Doyle, George M'Coy, John Lloyd. and John
bein:.: placed in the dock, Mr. Wolff took his
seat at the table as before for the prosecution, and Mr.
Briggs, M:. Binns, and Mr. Sidney, for Sale, Doyle, and
MCoy.
Mr. Wolff said (addressing the Magistrate), you are.
probably aware that, since the last examination, in whisk
I had the honour of appearing before you, the prisoissr
Davis has been added to the number of the accused, sal
some evidence taken before your colleague, Mr. Bro-
derip. The advantages derived by your remanding from
time to time the prisoners at the bar are now apparent,
and, but for the course you so prudently deemed expe-
dient, the same advantages would not have been afforded
of carrying out the ends of justice. I must request of
you that you will permit the whole of the depositions to
be read over again, in order that I may strengthen, so
much as may be in my power, the case against Davis.
Mr. W. Taylor, the chief clerk, who has exhibited
much talent and zeal in the course of this inquiry, then
read over the voluminous evidence given on previous
occasions, and which occupied upwards of an hour.
After which,
Mr. Wolff recalled Meyers, who, in answer to his exa-
mination, said—l was serving in the bar of the King's
Head, on the morning of the 11th of October. The
prisoner Davis is the person described by me in my
evidence as the man wearing the plaid shawl. When
he first tried to enter the bar, I objected, telling him that
strangers were not admitted there. That was about a
quarter of an hour before the prisoner Doyle struck a
woman; and about that time the prisoner Davis entered
the bar, and spoke to Mr. Bellchambers. Davis had
the opportunity of seeing Mr. Bellchambers' cash-bag
and his watch-seal, which was hanging out. I saw Davis
talking to Doyle. He talked familiarly with Doyle.
Cross-examined by Mr. Binns—There were others
there beside Doyle. Doyle spoke to others as well as
to Davis.

By Mr. Briggs—Sale was there all the time Davis was
,here.

Re-examined by Mr. Wolff—They were all there.
They all went out together.
By Mr. Bins—They went out with others.
Henry Bees, who conducts the King's Head, was
called, and identified Davis as the man who wore the
plaid shawl.

In answer to an inquiry from Mr. Sidney, witness
said Davis appeared to be as familiar with the others as
with Doyle.
Mr. Barnard Holt, of 30, Abingdon-street, son of the
gentleman who gave medical testimony in the early part
of these proceedings, said —I am assistant-surgeon to
the Westminster Hospital. I, with my father, made a
post mortem examination of the late Mr. Bellehambers
with great care. The cause of death was the fracture of
the skull, produced by some external violence. The
fracture was on the right temple, and it extended over
the left orbit. I examined the interior of the skull in
that locality, and there was a fracture there correspond-
ing with the external wound, extending from the right
side into the left orbit, and there was some extravasation
of blood. In my judgment I should imagine the wound
on the right temple could not be caused by a fall—it was
too high up. I should say the bolt produced (the iron
shutter bolt) would produce such an injury as I observed
on the temple. If caused by a fall there would most
likely be abrasion of the skin, and discolouration of the
part. There was no abrasion of the skin, but it was
such as would be caused by a blunt instrument, such as
the bolt produood, or a round ruler.
Charles Tapping, 48 B, said, at about a quarter past
two o'clock on Tuesday morning I apprehended the
prisoner Davis at the Bell Inn, York street, Westmin•
ster. I have seen Davis in company with Doyle several
times. When I saw him on Tuesday morning I said,
" I want you for the murder and robbery of Mr. Bell-
chambers;" when he replied, " I was drinking with him
at the King's Head, but I left some time before him."
By Mr. Briggs—l never saw Sale with Davis.
Mr. Taylor, an inspector of the B division, said—
Directly after the last examination of the prisoners I
was told that M'Coy wanted to see me in the cell. I
declined going without the sanction of the magistrate,
but having obtained that I went to him, when he said—
" There was a man at a public-house, at the corner of
Dartmouth-street and Tothili-street, I think, saw Sale
give me and Lloyd some money ; his name is Thomas
Stirrup; he is a brushmaker, and is known at the Cra-
ven Head, Drury-lane. If you find him, tell him
M'Coy wishes him to come forward and speak the truth.
We had two pots of stout there together. I could tell
you where the watch was sold, but that's of no use, us
the parties would deny it." He made this statement
perfectly voluntarily.
Mr. Wolff—This is all the evidence at present I have
to offer on behalf of the prosecution. I have from the
first felt myself under extreme difficulty in pursuing this
inquiry. The case was complicated, but still of a most
importaut and public character, and but for the verdict
of the coroner's jury, I should have felt'some hesitation
in asking you to commit the prisoner Lloyd. As it is,
however, and as you have a perfectly independent juris-
diction, I shall leave that prisoner in your discretion as
to how yea feel disposed to deal with him under the pe-
c,iliar circumstances of this case. With reference to
Lloyd, the result to him will be the same, even should
you think proper to discharge him, inasmuch as by rea-
son of the verdict of the coroner's jury, and the warrant
issued thereupon, he must take his trial upon this most
serious charge. With respect to the prisoner M'Coy, I
do not think it at all necessary or becoming in me to
suggest that he should be made a witness for the Crown
in this prosecution. The statements he has made both
written and verbally have been perfectly voluntary, and
I shall therefore avail myself of them for the purposes of
the prosecution, although I have good reason to believe
that the evidence, irrespective of Ruch statements, would
be amply suffioient.
After these observations, Mr. Wolff requested the
magistrate to wait for a short time for a witness who
was expected to arrive, and who might be able to give
evidence of a material character against Lloyd.
After the interval of three-quarters of an hour,
Mr. Wolff said he should not trespass upon the pa-
tience of the Court any longer. Should the evidence be
of any value be would give notice to the professional
gentlemen on the other side.
Mr. Burrill—l shall commit the four prisoners (Sale,
Doyle, M'Coy, and Davis) for trial, and discharge Lloyd.
Mr. Wolff—Ho will be apprehended and committed
on the coroner's warrant.
Mr. Burrill—The coroner's warrant is imperative. I
discharge Lloyd, because I think the evidence is not suf-
ficiently strong to warrant me in detaining him.
Mr. Wolff—l am free to admit that I could not confi-
dently have asked you to commit him.
Lloyd, on leaving the body of the court, was immedi-
ately taken into custody.

MURDER AND SUICIDE OF THE
MURDERESS.
On Tuesday afternoon the inhabitants of this city
were horrified by the news of a tragedy such as was
never before known to have taken place within its pre-
cincts—the murder of four children by their mother,
having cut their throats with a razor, and the taking of
her own life by the same means. The woman who per-
petrated these crimes was the wife of a jobbing brewer,
named Ridout, who, at the time of the occurrence, was
absent from home, having been employed since Monday
in brewing at the Beef-steak Tavern. The facts, so far
as we have yet been able to ascertain them, are these:—
The cottage in which the family resided is situated in a
garden not far from that part of the canal from which
the Bradford boats start, but on the opposite side, and
the way to it so intricate, and the situation so lonely,
that very few of the inhabitants of Bath, perhaps, have
ever been to the spot; and, but for this horrid occurrence
such a humble and retired recess would have remained
unnoticed except by the occupants of some of the strag-
gling houses in the vicinity. This cottage has but
one floor, which is divided into two apartments, the one
a kitchen or sitting-room, and the other a sleeping
chamber. A poor woman, named Seers, lives in an-
other cottage not far from it, and was in the habit of
seeing and having a neighbourly conversation with Mrs.
Ridout. In the afternoon it struck her as remarkable
that she had seen nothing of her for the day. Wanting
some water, Mrs. Seers went to the pump on the pre-
mises, and %% hile there she thought she would call and
inquire how her neighbour was, but on trying to open
the door she found it locked. Mrs. Seers was then in-
duced to look in at the window, when the horrid spec-
tacle presented to her eyes was the wretched woman
lying on the kitchen floor, steeped in her blood. She
immediately called the attention of another neighbour, a
labourer, to the shocking sight, who immediately gaiN
information of what had been witnessed at the pollee-
office, and instantly afterwards Captain Carroll dis-
patched an inspector and another officer to the place,
when the dour of the cottage was forced open,
and a scene was exhibited to view at which
the beholders shuddered with horror. Passing
the dead body of the woman, whom they found with
her throat cut, and a razor lying by her side, the
next object which met their eyes, just within the ad-
joining room, were the lifeless bodies of the four chil-
dren, weltering in blood which had flowed from the fatal
wounds inflicted on their throats. One of the murdered
innocents is an infant about nine months old, and the
eldest of the four is about six years old, deaf and
,dumb.
A large tub was standing in the room almost full of
blood and water, and the circumstance suggests the pro-
bability that the wretched mother had, on making the
incisions in the necks of her unhappy offspring, held
their heads over the tub as a receptacle of the vital cur-
rent as it flowed from the wounds. One of the little
victims was found with his legs partly hanging over the
step leading to the bedroom, as if ho had struggled and
made an ineffectual effort to get away. Tho perpetra-
tion of the tragic deed is supposed to have been the
effect of insanity, as it is stated that the woman had
been subject to symptoms of unsoundness of mind for
some time past.—path Chronicle.
Yesterday afternoon the inquests on the bodies were
held at the Crown Inn, Borthwick-street, before Mr. 1
11. English, the city coroner, and a respectable . jury. 4.
The name of the unfortunate woman
was Jane Ridout,
John,
and those of the children, William aged seven
years; Funny, aged four years; George, agedtwo and
a half years; and Mark, aged ei g t months.
y
The CORONER having briefly addressed
dressed the jury, the
bodies were viewed. The body of the woman presented
a fearful appearance, the throat being gashed with two
deep incisions, and the body being completely saturated
in gore. In the
adjoining room lay the bodies of the
four children.
Elizabeth Lintran, grandmother of the children, and
mother of the deceased woman, was the first witness
examined. She deposed to having been living with her
daughter for the last five weeks, at the request of the
husband. She had been in a low state of mind, and had
previously told her husband that she had gone out one