The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-16 00:00:00

MURDER AT VVANDSWORTH.

On Saturday evening an inquiry was opened at the
Queen Adelaide Inn, before Mr. W. Carter, the coro-
ner for East Surrey, and a jury, 'respecting the cir-
cumstances attending the death of Elizabeth East-
wood, aged 46, who was stabbed with a table-knife
by her husband, William Eastwood, on the night of
the 4th of June, and of which wound she died on the
morning of Thursday last.
The jury proceeded to view the body of the de-
ceased, which lay in the room of a small house com-
fortably furnished at Point Plesant.
Mr. Gilham, solicitor, attended to watch the case
on behalf of the accused party; Mr. Bicknell, the
superintendent of the V division, conducting the eve
deuce for the prosecution.
On the return of the jury,
Sarah Taylor said, she was the wife of a points-
man in the employ of the South-Western Railway,
and now living in Falcon-lane, Battersea, but when
this circumstance occurred was residing at Point
Pleasant. On the night of the 4th instant, between
nine and ten o'clock, she was in the yard, which is
COMMA to all the hones, and was taking in some
clothes, when she heard screams of children proceed-
ing from Eastwood's house. She listened and heard
Mrs. Eastwood, who had been from home a fortMght
or three weeks, swearing at her husband, " You aro-
mised to behave yourself better when you came
home." She swore at him again, and she then heard
a scream, and a child said, " Oh, father, you have
killed mother." Witness then went into the house
the back way and saw the deceased lying on the floor
in the front room. She said, "He has stabbed me."
Eastwood was standing close by, and said " He had
not done it; she ran against the knife." She was
stretched at length on the floor. Witness and aaother
woman got her into bed, and nothing more passed
between the deceased and her husband. Whea they
undressed her they saw a wound in her left breast.
Eastwood carried his wife upstairs. After she was
undressed she was very faint. He kissed her and
" God bless you; I hope you will do we'l," and,
addressing witness, said, " Do what you can for her."
Sarah Staples said, I am, a widow, and Used next
door but one to the deceased. I followed the last
witness into the house and saw Eastwood standing by
his wife's side. She called me by my name and said
her husband had done it. He said she did i: herself.
She contradicted him and said he ran the Init.() into
her with furious force. She wished us to undress her,
which we did, and as soon as I had removed her stays
I saw a wound under the left breast. It was bleed-
ing fast when we held her upright. While I was
there she repeatedly said he had done it, both before
and after she was taken up stairs ; and he was pre-
sent when she said she was sitting in her chair and
had long expected it. I looked at her husband and
said, " Eastwood, you have killed your wife.'" he re-
plied, " I hope not," and said he trusted they would
do for her what they could. The deceased had made
complaints to me when she met me at the pump of
his brutality at different times. I had known them
a year and a half.
William Walker—l am a police-constable in the
V division, No. 98. On the night of the 4th of June
(Wednesday), I received information which induced
me to go to Eastwood's house. I knew him, because
he had been in the V division of police, and I said,
" Bill, how did this affair occur ?" and he said "
tell you ' • me and my wife were at supper, some words
occurred, I had a knife in my hand, and she ran
against it and stabbed herself." I said " You don't
mean that ?" and at that moment Mr. Brown, the
surgeon, came in and said that, as the woman was in
danger, I should take the man in custody. The pri-
soner then said he should tell me no more, and I should
find it out as I could. I asked him what weapon he
had done it with, and he pointed to the table and gave
me the knife produced. There were stains of blood
half-way up the blade, which had got narrow and
rounded at the point. I saw the wound ; it was about
an inch and a half in length, and about a quarter of
an inch wide. It appeared to have been made by a
knife, or some sharp instrument.
Mr. Alfred Brown—l am a surgeon in practice,
and in partnership with Mr. Finch. I was called
on the nigtht of the 4th of this month, and was
taken into the deceased's room. I found her in bed,
in a state of collapse, and nearly pulseless, which
led me to believe that she had received a very seri-
ous injury. I made an examination, and found
there was an incised punctured wound rather more
than an inch in length, and situated about three
inches below the nipple of the left breast. There
had, been extensive haemorrhage, probably to
the extent of a few ounces. I account for the col-
lapse from the shock to the system more than from
the haemorrhage. The shock was by reason of the
wound. I did not think it necessary to probe the
wound, particularly as it was situated in a dangerous
part of her person. She remained under my sole
charge, receiving no medical assistance from any one
else. On the first occasion of seeing her I thought
she would sink under it, and considered that what
she had to say should be taken down. She rallied
towards the morning, reaction set in and was going
on favourably, when inflammation of the abdomen
arose, and carried her off. I saw her last on Wed-
nesday night, between 11 and 12 o'clock, and she
died on Thursday morning. I have no doubt about
the cause of the death, but I could not have sworn to
her death arising from any one cause without a post
mortem examination. I have since made one and
have seen the knife. I think that the injury was
in all probability inflicted by that knife. On re-
moving the dressing of the wound, I found it had
healed, but on dissection I traced the wound
between the sixth and seventh ribs at their
junction with their cartilages, and passing through
the cavity of the chest and diaphragm into the left
lobe of the liver, the structure of that organ being
divided in an oblique direction about two or three
inches. The anterior margin of the inferior lobe of
the left lung was not wounded, owing to its having
been pushed aside by the blunt knife by which the
injury was inflicted. I found a considerable quantity
of blood tinged with bile, and have no doubt that
blood was effused from the liver, besides which I
found a large quantity of serum also discoloured by
bile in the abdomen. The intestines and other vis-
cera were glued together, being the result of inflam-
matory action of the peritoneum. The wound in the
chest and diaphragm had severally healed, and the
injury to the liver was partly repaired. The cause
of death was effusion of blood and bile from the liver,
the result of the wound in the first instance. I do
not consider the wound could have been inflicted by
deceased, but it was not impossible; but the injury
was one that required considerable force to be used,
and I consider it was done by a second party. The
wound extended from left to right; the knife had
gone between the ribs without injuring them. Look-
ing at all the circumstances, I should say the de-
ceased had died from the consequences of the stabbed
wound, and which is what is termed a mortal wound.
Mr. Alfred Taylor said—l am chief clerk to the
magistrates at Wandsworth and Hammersmith Police-
courts. I produce a deposition of Elizabeth East-
wood, taken in the presence of William Eastwood
her husband, on the sth instant, by myself, before
Mr. William Frederick Beadon, one of her Majesty's
justices of the peace for the county of Surrey ; in
which she states—" lam the wife of the prisoner,
William Eastwood. I was sitting in my rocking
chair last night, in this house, at the Point, Wands-
worth, between nine and ten o'clock. The prisoner
was sitting at his supper, with his knife and fork in
his hands. We had some angry words, and he ran
at me with the knife in his hand, and stabbed me
while I was sitting in the chair. That is the truth,
as I have not long to live in this world. My neigh-
bours came in and assisted me." The deceased was
then cross-examined by the prisoner, and she said
—" The cause of our words was as is always the case ;
for when he comes indoors whoredom is in his mouth,
and he called me a whore last night. I dare say I
have said that he had had connexion with his daugh-
ter. I don't think he was sober. lam sure he had
been drinking." Re-examined by the magistrate, she
said—"l did not mention anything about his Baugh-
, ter that night when we quarrelled; it was on former
occasions.' That statement was read over to her by