The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-29 00:00:00

THE SUPPOSED MURDER BY POISON.

THE SEARCH FOR THE BODY.
During the whole of Saturday the search for the body
of the man John Monaghan, said to have been poisoned
by his son and two accomplices, and which is interred
in the burial-ground of St. Wilfred's Roman Catholic
Chapel, Hulme, was continued without success. Five
excavators were employed at the work, and grave after
grave was opened and its contents examined, but with-
out the discovery of the coffin which contains the bed./
of Monaghan. Mr. Timperley, the undertaker, is peed.
tire that there was a zinc plate oa the eo;; n, having upon
it the name of the deceased and the date of his inter-
ment, but he has been present in the graveyard durint
the excavations, and could identify the coffin, which km
made himself, even if the plate should have been take*
off or accidently separated from it. The coffin is sot
a parish coffin. The men employed at the work did not
cease their labours till dark on Saturday evening, and
they had then been employed 24 days in the search.
The want of success which has attended their labours
up to the present moment has given some colour to
a very improbable conjecture that the alleged priso-
ners removed the body from the grave after its
interment. It is said that the system of burying in the
common graves in St. Wilfrid's churchyard has been to
open a grave of sufficient width to hold two or thrra
coffins abreast, and the coffins were packed into it, at
the sides as well as centre, the hole being kept unfit: d,
with a covering of scaffold planks, until a sufficient atm-
ber of bodies had been interred to fill it. The graveyard
is surrounded by a wall eight feet high, but towards
Clarendon-street there is a large hole through it,by which
access could at all times be obtained, so that such an en-
terprise as the removal of the body would present very
few difficulties ; but, ina much as there was no suspi-
cion of poisoning entertained at the time of the old
man's death, there seems little or no inducement to make
such an attempt, and by the risk of discovery of the body
after its removal, invite an accusation of murder, which
apparently would not otherwise have been preferred.
It may be a less unlikely conjecture that the coffin plate
has been removed, in the hope thereby of destroying
the identity of the remains of the deceased, but this
chance appears to be guarded against by having the
coffin maker on the spot, who could recognise it with-
out the plate. The search will be continued till the
body is found, or it is proved that it is not in the grave-
yard, and this (Monday) morning it is the intention
of Mr. Bradlaugh, the prosecuting solicitor, to confer
with Mr. Herford, the coroner, with the view to settiAg
a body of excavators to work in the search. This wrmid
have to be done by employing some contractor, wire has
a number of such workmen in his employ, to dig tip the
graveyard. As the precise spot pointed out by Mrs.
King, the daughter of the deceased, and by Mr. Timper-
ley, the undertaker, has been examined in vain, the ex-
cavations will have to become more general. They have
been regarded with much anxiety by the relatives and
friends of deceased persons who are interred in the
burial-ground, and it is much to be lamented that there
is no sufficient land-mark by which the grave can be re-
cognised from its fellows, and the natural feelings of
survivors spared the outrage which is offered to them,
The place has been watched unceasingly by the p01i,,,18
in Mr. Superintendent Leary's division, since the °pox*,
tions commenced, and we shall he glad if this day's arch
should terminate them.—Manchester Guardian of MK,"
day.

The body of John Monaghan, who is snpposed to have
been poisoned for the sake of recovering the amount for
which his life had been insured, was discovered yeeter-
day afternoon in St. Wilfred's graveyard, after a search
of five days, during which many other bodies bad bee*
exhumed. The inquest was to be opened this morning,
but as a post mortent exz.t..nination will have to be made,
and a chyrnical analysis of tfre.contents of the stomach,
the most material portion of the evidence will probabty
not be ready for some days to come.