The Sun.
London, England, 1834-06-24 00:00:00

UNION.HALL

SUSPECTED MuRDER.--:Yesterday Peter Bullock,
alias Williams, was charged on suspicion with having
murdeied a woman (name unknown) in the neigh-
bourhood of Leatherhead.

In the month of January last, some gentlemen were
out coursing in the vicinity Leatherhead, and it
happened that one of the dogs entered a thick copse,
where he remained and could not be called off. Some
of the parties went into the brushwood ta-aseertain
the cause of the animal remaining there, and on their
arrival they found the dog standing dose at hand to
a heap of human bones, and amongst them a skull,
the hair on which was in some places visible. In con-
sequence of the extraordinary circumstances under
which the discovery took place, notice was immedi--,
ately transmitted to Epsom, and upon medical exami-
nation it was found that the bones were those of a
female. On further investigating the matter, the me-
dical gentleman was of opinion that a female had been
murdered at or near the spot, for the skull had evident
marks of having received serious injury, a portion of
the bone being beaten in, apparently with a sharp in-
strument ; and another fact which strengthened the
belief that the unfortunate woman had come to her
death by violent means was, that on examining the.
mouth it was apparent that several of her front
teeth had been knocked out, and had• not dropped
from the sockets owing to long exposure to the
weather. Upon this discovery handbills were printed
describing the particulars of the finding of the skeleton
remains, and other publicity was given at the time,
but still no clue could be had or information obtained'
relative to whose remains they were, or the party who
had committed the crime. In the month of March
following, when the. Banstead murder was under in-
vestigation at Epsom, a man suspected of the mnrder
of the woman alluded to-voluntarily resigned himself,
and after an examination before. Mr. Goss and other
magistrates he was discharged. Since then informa.
tion has been collected which led to the apprehension
of the prisoner Bullock alias Williams. • The prisoner
is a travelling tinker and kuifegrinder, and some time
previously to the discovery of the bones of the female
he had been following his usual avocations in the
country. In March last a little girl was sent up to
town from Tunbridge Wells by the magistrates, who
described that she was in possession of some important
evidence relating to the suspected murder perpetrated
near Leatherhead. Upon the examination of the
girl alluded -to at this office she made .a state-
ment to 'the effect that she travelled about the country
with a man and his wife, and that she knew a man an-
swering the description of the prisoner, from the
circumstance of meeting him at times in the country
when she was on the tramp with the persons who em-
ployed her. That on one occasion, when she was
sleeping with others in a barn near Dorking, the pri-
soner, who also slept the-re at the time, returned from
the town in liquor, and commenced talking to himself
(for all the others in the barn were asleep, the witness
believed, except herself) about a woman whom he
called his dear Nancy ' he lamented her death, and
upbraided himself with having been her murderer, and
at the same time said that he did the deed with a ham-
mer, after leaving a public-house, where they had a
quarrel, in Leatherhead, and that he dragged her
body to a wood and left it there. The girl who had
made the above statement gave a very minute descrip-
tion
of the man whom she alleged had made the dis-
closures, and it agreed with that of the accused, who
was not taken into custody until Sunday morning,
although the police have been on the look-out for him
ever since. The following is the result of the investi-
gation which took place at this office yesterday rela-
tive to the suspected murder :--.
Sergeant M'Craw, M division, stated that he heard

the girt from Tunbridge Wells make the statement
alluded to, ever since which period he has been endea-
vouring to trace the prisoner. On Thursday last he
at length had private information that he had ap-
proached London, and on- Sunday morning, between
one and two o'clock, during the heavy rain, he suc-
ceeded in taking him into custody as he was going into
a lodging-house in Kent-street. When he seized the
prisoner the exclamation the latter used was, " Is it
for murder you are taking me ? Are you going to
hang me ?" The sergeant added, that the prisoner
had a wife,.but they were not living together, and that
when he asked him where she was, he replied that she
was at Canterbury, living with another man. He
(the sergeant) then asked him where was the woman
that he was in the habit of travelling the country
with, and he denied that he ever travelled with any
female.

Mr. TRAILL asked the prisoner what was the reason
he asked the sergeant whether it was for murder he
took him into custody ?

Prisoner—l don't recollect saying that.
The prisoner was then remanded, in order to have
the attendance of all parties who can throw any light
on the subject of the suspected murder.

THAMES POLICE.
Yesterday a respectable young man, accompanied
by a seaman, who described himself as the chief of-
ficer of the ship Britonzart, which was advertised to
sail to Sydney from the London Dock ten weeks ago,
but is still in the bason without any signs of going away,
applied to Mr. COOMBE, and asked him if he could
not compel the parties in charge of the ship to deliver
up his goods which he had sent on board. The appli-
cant stated that he and .70 or 80 other emigrants had
been put to great inconvenience in consequence of the
detention of the ship, and many had been utterly ru-
ined, and compelled to sell every thing they possessed
to support themselves and families. His detention for
upwards of two months had been a serious loss to him,
and he had at last got back his passage money, but his
goods were detained on board.

Mr. COOMBE advised the applicant to go to the Lord
Mayor immediately, to receive his instructions.

A man and his wife in John-street, who had
a son in his eighth year that for five months past was
subject to violent periodical headaches, having read in
the Glasgow papers of the great cures performed by a
physician there, resolved on Saturday last to make a
trial of his skill, and went for this purpose with their
son by the canal-boat to that city. The boy was able
to walk from his father's house to the boat, but had to
be carried at intervals between the boat and the doc-
tor's house. The doctor having heard the history of
the boy's illness, and examined the body, performed
the operation of cupping, gave the parents some me-
dicines with directions for their use, and the parents
took their leave. The boy finding himself very weak
had to be carried, and the father, by way of cheering
up his little charge, was showing him, among other
things, the statue of Sir John Moore. The
boy had only strength to ask if that was the
cloak, pointing to it, in which "he was left
all alone in his glory." The mother then wished to
direct his attention to a small horse that appeared in a
window, but when he raised his head he could only
articulate, " I cannot see," and immediately his eyes
closed, and his head drooped in death ! To prevent
the collection of a crowd by the mother's agitation,
the body was carried into a public-house, when the
doctor and two other doctors were sent for, but their
efforts to restore animation were fruitless. The
mourning parents then wrapped the body in a cloak,
and being disappointed of a seat in the coach, carried
it to Port Eglinton, entered the boat, kept the boy on
his father's knee as if asleep, and sufficiently sup-
pressed their feelings of grief to prevent the other
passengers from knowing, until their arrival at Paisley,
anything of their mournful state. The body h s since
undergone a post mortem examination, and we under-
stand a legal investigaton also into the circumstances
has been wade.—Paisley Advertiser.

COURT OF CHANCERY, RNE 23.