The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-28 00:00:00

THE MURDER BY A GERMAN LEGIONARY.

Hans Hansen, 34, described in the calendar aaa stock-
ing weaver, late a soldier in the German Legion, was
then placed at the bar, charged with the wilful murder
of Chas. Jacobi, at Maker.

Counsel for the prosecution, Messrs. Coleridge and
Yonge ; for the prisoner, Mr. Stock.
The facts of this case have lately appeared at conside-
'rable length in The Sun.
The prisoner and the deceased man, Jacobi, were pri-
vates in the Jager regiment of the German Legion. The
last time deceased was seen was in company with the
prisoner, about 8 at night. They were then seen in com-
pany by two or three witnesses, ranging in time from 6
to 8 o'clock, after which no one ever saw the man Jacobi
alive. Both parties were much intoxicated whey last
seen, and prisoner was carrying a large stone under his
arm. The next morning• the corpse of the man Jacobi
was found in a field, with fractures and contusions about
the head ; near the corpse, in a hedge, a large stone was
found with blood and hair upon it, and also a militarycap,
the prisoner having lost his. The prisoner returned to his
barracks on the night the murder was committed, long
after the proper hour—he ought to have been in the bar.
racks at 8 o'clock, whereas he did dot reach there till 12
o'clock, and then in a most excited state. There was a
great deal of blood on his hands, and his clothes were
stained with blood. Prisoner was asked on different caeca-
lions to account for the blood, and he gave two accounts
of it quite inconsistent with each other—one of them not
at all probable or likely. On another occasion, before
the prisoner could be at all aware of the death of Jacobi,
if he had been innocent, he said, " I did not kill Jacobi."
This was said in reply to a statement which had no re-
ference whatever to the death of Jacobi, and the pri-
soner had no reason whatever to suppose he was 6harged
with the crime.

Witnesses were canal who proved these facts, and
one also spoke to the altered demeanour of prisoner
when he returned to the guard-nom on the night of the
murder. His conduct was quite different from what it
usually was when he was drunk ; he scarcely spoke, and
luoked quite wild, and when they spoke of Jacobi, he
cast his looks on the ground. On the following morning
he neither ate ncr drank.

Mr. Stock, for the prisoner, made an able speech,
commenting on the improbabilities of various portions of
the evidence.

His Lordship then summed up, and
The jury, after five hours' deliberation, returned a
verdict of Guilty.
The Judge, amidst most profound silence, delivered
sentence of death in the usual form.

The prisoner was much agitated throughout the pro-
ceedings, and on hearing his sentence his countenance
turned exceedingly pale, and he was removed reiterating
his innocence of the charge.

NORFOLK CIRCUIT.-- BURY ST. EDMUNDS, March 27.

(Before Chief Justice Jervis.)
CHILD MURDER.

Elanta Mussett, a married woman, was charged with
the wilful murder of her male infant, at Nayland, on the
29th of February.
Mr. Couch appeared for the prosecution, and Mr.
Dasent, at the request of the learned judge, undertook
the defence of the prisoner.

The prisoner is the wife of a labouring man at Nay-
land, and for some time before the 29th of February bad
been observed by her neighbours to be in the family way.
She did not deny that she was enceinte, and stated that
she expected to be confined in May. On the afternoon
of the 29th of February she went for Mrs. Pressney and
Mrs. Oakes, two of her neighbours, and requested them
to clean ep the house. From what they observeil, Mr.
Penn, a local surgeon, expressed his conviction, after
examining her, that she had been <levered of a child.
She at first denied it, but afterwards opened a box and
produced the dead body of an infant, which she said was
still-born. It was a full-grown child, but had sustained
severe injuries on the head. The principal questions for
the jitry were—first, whether the child was horn alive ;
and secondly, whether the injuries observed on it were
inflicted intentionally or accidentally. The medical evi-
dence was, therefore, especially important.
Mr. Fenn, surgeon, was examined, and having de-
scribed the injuries on the head, the state of the lungs,
heart, &c., he gave it as his opinion, formed after a most
careful investigation, that the child had been laid clown,
and direct violence applied to the lett aide of the head.
The injuries might have. been caused by the old brick
found by the police the house with blood and hair
upon it. The prisoner asserted that the blood and hair
were those of a rabbit which she had killed, but he (Mr.
Fenn) had carefully examined them with a microscope,
Ste., and found they presented a marked difference to
those of a rabbit. On the whole, he was decidedly of
opinion that the child was born alive, and came to its
death by violence.
Mr. Duncan, another surgeon, gave similar evidence.
He believed death was caused by part of the parietal
bone being driven into the brain. The injuries were
too great to have been produced by a fall.
Further evidence was given to show that the prisoner
had not provided any baby clothes, and Pickiss, a county
police constable, produced a shelf, brick, and piece of
wood, which had been alluded to in course of the trial.

Mr. Dasent, for the defence, remarked strongly on the
absence of any apparent motive for the murder, It was
an undoubted medical fact that many women were
affected in the most extraordinary way, not only during
their confinements, but during the whole period of gesta-
tion ; and perhaps the prisoner, suffering under intense
agony, and unattended by any one, might have accident-
ally and unintentionally injured the child. She appeared
to have behaved with decency and propriety in all the re-
lations of life ; her husband seemed to have been fond of
her, and it was notorious to all the gossips of the neigh-
bourhood that she was enceinte ; what reason, then, was
there to induce her to murder her own offspring ?
The Chief Ju,tie,, in summing up, said he was sure
the jury would be only too glad to take this merciful
view of the case, but there were unfortunately some very
serious facts against the prisoner. If the jury believed
that the child was horn alive, and that the unfortunate
prisoner killed it, then whatever might be the conse-
quences they must find her guilty of murder ; if they
thought that it was barn dead, she would be guilty of the
offence of concealing the lirtb. At the same time they