The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-02 00:00:00

.NORTHERN CIRCJIT, Newcristic-upon • Tyne,
4T;7.1"
7 ref (Be(Befote Mr. Jetice CoszainCte.)
• f
- -
Ralph Joicey, a young ins of 24 years of age, was indicted
for the wilful murder of his other; Robert Joicey, by admi-
nistering to him a quantity arsenic.
Mr. Otter, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Selby conducted the prose-
cution ' • the prisoner was deAaded by Mr. Matthews.
Mr. OMR addressed the,ury, and stated the fasts of the
case, as subsequently detailet by the witnesses.
Isabella Joicey examine by Mr. Orr Ea—l am the
widow of the late Robert Joicey, who was sixty-seven
years old at the time of hi death. Came to Cockle Park
•in May, 1845. My huebtid was bad with pains in his
arms last summer. In October he and I were attended
by Pr. Hedley, of Feltoi. We have had medicine
If ft ler ua at the Portland Arms. At the latter end of Noy.
my husband went to Yalta; and brought a lit% of pills and
some powders home with hie, which he took. I remember
getting a parcel from 1843E114 lirown on Monday, the Ist of
December, between nine aid ten in the morning, I took it
into the house, and laid it tpon the table, while my husband
was shaving. He opened tie parcel, and read one direction,
which was in the inside. 'here were two powders, the large
one of a slate colour, and a imaller one of a snuff colour. I
do not know what was dme with the outer paper of the
parcel, as I never saw it after the powders were taken out. I
cannot read. I saw my datghter give to Dr. Iledley the
paper which was contained in the parcel. I cannot say
whether, the paper produced is like the one found in the
.parcel. On the same day my husband went out andreturried
with some gin to mix the powder with, When he went to bed,
at nine o'clock,. I got the medicine from the shelf, and
laid it beside him with the gin, and a teaspoon and a cup. He
mixed it himself and drank it, He took the larger powder,
which was the slate coloured one. He had got his supper,
and went to bed after taking the medicine, When I went to
bed shortly after, he was sleeping. I fell asleep, and was awoke
by him, as he was making a work, and said he was sick. 1
got up, and before 1 could get out of the bed lie began to
vomit, and vomited a good' deal. There was once a little
blood in his vomit. Ile continued by turns vomiting all
night, till about four o'clock in the morning, when it abated.
During the night he was also purged, and complained about
being sick. I gave him water 'to drink when he desired it, and
tea and coffee, and anything he wished for. He took a good
-deal of cold water. In the morning I said that, as he bad been
so poorly after taking the powder, I would burn the
other. He said I might, if I had a mind, and I
put it in the fire. The next day he was sick by turns, and
complained of a pain at his breast. He drank little water
that day. He got some powders from Dr. Hedley on the
same day, my son bringing them in the afternoon, according
to my directions. He got a dozen powders. I told my son
to tell Dr. Hedley that my husband had had such a night
of throwing after taking the large powder. My husband
died on Monday evening, the Bth of December. During
that interval he did not throw, so that what he ate he kept
in his stomach. He took the powders every four hours,
according to Dr. Hedley's directions. I remember Dr.
Hedley coming over on Sunda evening, the 7th December,
having been fetched by my' son, wt the desire of Mr.
Dickinson. The doctor saw the old man, but I did not hear
what was said. On Saturday, the 13th of December, Mr.
Weallens came to our cottage, when my son and daughter
were in. I cannot say whether my son (the prisoner)
made a statement to Mr. Weallens, nor can I say who sent
for him.
Sarah Thompson, a neighbour of the Joicey's who saw the
deceased frequently between the time of his taking the
powder and his death, described his symptoms. He said the
skin was off the inside of his throat. He could not rest, bat
rolled about the bed and kept 'asking for drink. He said he
thought his entrails were out. At the latter end of last
August—just after the " kirn supper"—the prisoner came
into our house, and said to my husband, "he wished to God
his father was gone from the place a corpse—he would not
shed a tear." The prisoner used often to say that his father
was such an out-of-the-way man.
Walter Weallens, /arm-steward at Cockle-park, said—On
the 15th I was in Joicey's house, having been told that Mar-
garet wanted me. When I went in, Margaret, her mother,
and the prisoner were there. Margaret setme a chair, and I
asked her what was her will. She made no answer, and
Ralph, the prisoner, then said he had sent for me to confess. I
asked, " confess what?" he said "I did the deed;" and I
replied, " what deed?" He said, " I poisoned my father."
I said I was sorry to hear that, and he said that no person
was guilty but himself. Every other person, he added, was
clear. I then asked what was his motive for doing so, and
he said he was so agitated by the old man almost pushing
him into the fire one night, that he made up his mind to go
to Morpeth to procure so.ne stuff. I then asked what he got,
and he said arsenic and jalap.- 'I think he said it was on Mor-
peth horse-fair night. He also stated that he went straight
through the fields, as fast as he could go, to the Portland
Arms and gave it in, and then came round by Tritlington,
and called at James Ord's on his way home. He said it
wanted twenty minutes to eight when he got home. He
further said that when he saw the old man suffering so much
he would willingly have shared his sufferings, but it was too
late. He told me that a part of the stuff was in a thorn
bush on the west side of the road near the Helm-on-the-Hill
turn. He said he got it from Mr. Creighton, of Morpeth.
I never gave directions to the prisoner to procure arsenic: I
have seen the prisoner write.
Arthur Hedley described his visit to the old man, in a
medical eapacity, and the symptoms which he observed. He
continued—A piece of paper was given to me by the daughter,
having something written upon it. I gave it back to Mar-
garet. I did not see the old, man vomit. My opinion was
that he was suffering from metallic or irritant poison ;
arsenic is both. I suspected that mortification was going on,
and gave him the powders I had with me. When I left to
go to Mr. Dickinson's, the bailiff, the son went with me. I
then told him that his father 'was dying from the effects of
the powder he had taken. The prisoner seemed sorry. Mr.
Dickinson and I returned to the house some time afterwards,
when the paper I had formerly seen was again given to me,
and I handed it to Mr. Dickinson. The mother, daughter, and
the prisoner were talking to me, when the son said that
before his father took the powder he had seen it, and world
not have taken it, it had a curious look; and the mother said
that was correct. On the 10th December, Mr. Hudson and I
made a post mortem examination of the body. The gullet
was highly inflamed ; a portion of the stomach, about the
size of a hand, was gangrenous; the rest of the stomach and
the small intestines were highly inflamed, and just beginning
to ulcerate. This was caused, in our opinion, by a metallic
irritating poison. I have no doubt that that was the cause
of death.
Cross-examined-1 cannot say his death was caused by
arsenic, but by some metallic irritant poison. In another
case in which arsenic caused death, it was fatal in about
eight or nine hours. The dry parched tongue is usually a
symptom of typhus. Catching at the bed-clothes frequently
accompanies typhus in its later stages. Calomel is a metallic
irritant drug. In very large quantities it might produce
similar symptoms.
Re-examined—On the 27th of November and the 7th of
December, when I saw Joicey, I think he was not suffering
from typhus. Supposing a large quantity of calomel to be
admanstered, if time were to elapse in this case salivation
from Mr. Hedley's for the Jeiceys to the
would ensue. The post modem appearances found in Joicey's
body could not have
aboutahbosult r
t.t
whee n t
Creighton,ym.
fe 0 ui nr
re sanumnit
medicine
fro.pedp riceninintetlychmenahadwausi
t
It
question
beenp rov eadge
lnett—h at
°Grte
surgeonlrpgdeaAn Pringle
Arms.
uggist, Morpeth
en.
anngln
t' they I at tht
ae
tr t ehned
prisoner o f oc -
otisorbtetwhr twenty-five yold a
svoemn. i):eheeaarrpsseeonrfseicaifte.ogao7tioalsout an ounce of arsenic,
w
dshht Park. A young man
fnromw,hoanbod hueghetiththeer
hi ch was wrapped in blue paperoie,ipe,nawpamietnrhadsotshoeme wordeo
eprosaistoionn"
Park an where
or
Cockle
soanidit. frolmmCkaeudstehyem
arsenic. I have seen a piece of
tooknam e dp El✓amc
ab lbeettown e we
na s
hint t
ahne
paper in Wigham's (police-
man) possession, the writing on which is mine. We sell a
good deal of arsenic, in quantities of one pound and up-
wards, to use for sheep.
Thomas Brown—l am a hind at Cockle Park, and on the
Monday following old Juicers death I went to Newton, for
lime. Mr. Weallens told me to look in a bush on the west
side of the Little Helm. I did so, and found a small par-
' cel ; inside a white paper was a blue paper, containing a
powder. Charlton was with me, and on our road home we
met Wigham, the policeman, and I gave the
parcel to him.
I live next door to Joicey's, and have heard noises •
great in
their house. On the day before finding the parcel, I went
into the stable where the prisoner's horses stood. Charlton
was with me, and Thompson came in, and found something
in the prisoner's great coat, which was hanging over a stall.
John Thompson—l am a hind, living at Cockle Park. On
Tuesday, the 2d of December, the prisoner and I went to
Newton. on-the-Moor. He went to Earsdon by. a bye-road,
and I went by the Portland Arms. He had to pass by Helm
Hill; where there is a bush. On Sunday evening, Dec.l4,
I went into the stable, and in ea old coat belonging to the
prisoner I found a paper, which I afterwards gave to the wit-
need Dickinson.
Ann Richardson, the bendager, deposed to the fact of the
prisoner and his father living on bad terms.
John Wigram—l am a police officer at Morpeth. In con-
sequence of information I received, I went in search of the
prisoner on the night of the 13th December. I came to New-
castle, and apprehended him at his brother's house, in Hut-
ton's-yard, Pilgrimastreet. It was about three o'clock on
Sunday morning. I charged him with having poisoned his
father, and he replied that he knew all about it.
, Robert Hawdon, surgeon, who assisted at the post mortem '
examination, gave a similar account to that given by Dr.
Hedley. Gave the stomach and its contents to Dr. Creighton.
Some other medical evidence was then produced, to prove
the existence of arsenic in the contents of the stomach of the
deceased.
Mr. Marrnaws then addressed the jury on behalf of the
prisoner.
. Several persons by, whom the prisoner had been employed
were'called, and gave him a good character. ,
His LORDSHIP summed up with great care and minuteness,
and the jury, after a consultation of about a quarter of an
hour, returned a verdict of Guilty, recommending the pri-
sOner to mercy.
Sentence of death was passed upon the prisoner.

HOME CIRCUIT.—Her ford, Feb. 28.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Baron ALDERSON.)
Levi'Warman was charged upon the coroner's inquisition
with the wilful murder of his wife, Elizabeth Warman.
Mr. T. Chambers conducted the prosecution.
The evidence against the prisoner was entirely of a circum-
stantial character. It appeared that he was a labourer, and
resided at Standen, in this county. The deceased was re-
presented to be a very well conducted industrious woman,
but the prisoner had some bad connexions, and frequently
quarrelled with and ill-used his wife. On the evening of the
16th of August the deceased had been to market, and re-
turned with some little articles she bad purchased about
seven o'clock, and the prisoner questioned her as to what had
become of some apples off the trees in the garden. The de-
ceased replied that she knew nothing about them, upon
which the prisoner abused her, struck her on the head,
and drove her out of the house. She went to a neighbour's
cottage for protection, and the prisoner went there and told
her to come out, at the same time making use of various
threats towards her; and among other observations, he said,
if she did not come out he would "weed her in the neck hole,
and she should remember the day and the hour." The neigh-
bour seeing the temper of the prisoner, advised the deceased
not to go indoors until he was gone to bed, and she remained
about the house, and was last seen alive crying in the garden
of the cottage. Shortly after this the prisoner sent his
daughter, who was the only person in the house at the time,
to a beer-shop at some distance to fetch him a pipe, and
sng
te he e motherbod
lyingh im-
mediately after she was gone, the prisoner was heard to come
down stairs and go into the garden, and he then again re-
turned to the house. When the daughter came back, she
founde
i h
"Ahrden
Iqusihtee
is
gone, and Godead. An alarm
in
exclaimedtheg,a
was even, and' the prisoner went down stairs, and on his
e
bless her." Upon the body being examined by Mr. Pack-
maul a surgeon at Puekaridge C9;11(1 )49t dlSTbver any
external rear 4 Of Violence but,'
upon opening the head he
discovered a violent bruise under the akin upon the scalp,
which had caused an extensive extravastition blood,
which, pressing upon the brain, bad occasioned the death
9r the decoatied, en 4 149 44d he lad Ao doubt the ii;jurt