The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-13 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

WESTERN CIRCUIT.—WINCHESTER, DEC. 12.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Byles.)
THE DOUBLE MURDER AT ALDERSHOTT.
James Johnson, aged 25, a private in the 41st
Regiment of Foot, was indicted for the wilful
murder of Owen Chipts, a sergeant of the same
corps, on Sept. 29, at Aldershott.
Mr. H. T. Cole and Mr. Russell prosecuted; Mr.
W. M. Cooke, at the request of the
judge, under-
took the prisoner's defence.
The prisoner was brought into the dock between
two warders of the gaol. He presented a wild-
looking appearance, muttered frequent and unin-
telligible expressions, rubbed his hands together, ,
and at first sight had altogether the appearance of
a demented person. On being called on to plead,
the prisoner, after some muttering and turning
round in the dock said, " Guilty not," and that he
did not want to stop there. The learned judge
having had a conference with Dr. Lyford, the
medical officer of the gaol, the case proceeded.
The facts of this painful case are these :—On
Friday, the 28th of September, the 41st Regiment,
quartered at Aldershott, went out for ball practice,
each man being supplied with ten rounds ; the day
proved a wet one, and therefore only seven rounds
were fired, the men retaining the spare ammuni-
tion. Next day, Saturday, the 29th, the prisoner
was directed by Sergeant Chipts to clean the fire-
places ' • he did so, but said that he could not polish
them. Chipts told him to go on with his work, on
which Johnson rubbed a dirty brush over the fire-
places, and this caused Colour-Sergeant Penny to
say he would confine him. Sergeant Chipts came
in, and a complaint was made against the prisoner,
who said he would sooner be put into the guard-
room than threatened. Chipts ordered two men to i
take him to the guard-room. About 11 o'clock
Johnson said that the colonel had given him 12
days' extra drill on Chipts's complaint. Before
he went before the colonel he declared, " If I
get any punishment for this I will kill some --
before night." When he came out of the guare•
room he exclaimed, " I will make the —'s head
bleed before night." The prisoner's quarters were
in the centre block of the permanent barracks, and
after dinner Sergeant Chipts and Corporal Coles
were playing at backgammon, seated opposite to
each other at a table in No. 19 room. Eight or nine
soldiers were present. Johnson was seen near his
cot, where each man's rifle is kept, cleaning his rifle,
and the water was distinctly seen to come out at
the nipple—a clear proof that it was at that time
unloaded and without a cap upon the nipple. In
about ten minutes the soldiers were startled by the
report of the rifle, and Johnson was then seen just
behind Chipts, having his rifle close to his side,
above his hip, and the muzzle pointed towards
Sergeant Chipts's back. Immediately on the rifle
being discharged Chipts jumped up from the form
on which he was seated, attempted to seize John-
son's rifle, and said, " You villain, you have shot
me." Coles exclaimed, "My God, lam shot."
Both men died almost instantly of internal hemorr-
hage. The rifle bullet passed through Chipts, then
through the body of Coles, struck and flattened
itself against the wall, and finally injured the stock
of a rifle, with the ramrod of which it came in con-
tact. Private; Mulchey seized the prisoner, and
Private Morley took from him the discharged rifle.
He was told that he had shot two men. His reply
was, " Don't be afraid. I don't mean to hurt you,
or any other man ; I only meant it for one." He
also said that he was sorry he had shot Corporal
Coles. On his way to the guard-room he said, " I
did not mean it for Corporal Coles, but for Sergeant
Chipts." Police-sergeant John Cox went to the
guard-room to remove the prisoner to gaol ; he made
no reply to the charge, but "acted drunk" when he
got outside, and was obliged to be carried to the
station, yet he walked in to the cell all right, and made
an inquiry how many were shot. At the coroner's
inquest the prisoner said he had no ill feeling against
Chipts or any other man ; that while cleaning his rifle
he half-cocked it and it went off accidentally ; he did
not know that it was loaded, and he was so sur-
prised when it went off that he did not know whether
he or any other man was wounded. It was stated
that a rifle might be loaded without the use of the
ramrod—the cartridges being greased and smaller
than the bore, a slight tap of the butt end on the
ground is sufficient to send home the charge.
Assistant-Surgeon Abbott, the regimental surgeon,
found that the ball had entered Chipts' back and
come out obliquely from the chest—death must
have been instantaneous. Johnson joined the corps
in the West Indies, where he had eighteen months'
service and obtained a good-conduct stripe.
Dr. Lyford was called by the judge, and said that
the prisoner had been under his especial observa-
tion ever since his admission to the county gaol,
both at times when Johnson had seen him, and at
times when he could not, and he had found in him
no symptom whatever of aberration of mind. The
discrimination between real and feigned insanity
was a part of medical studies. In his judgment the
prisoner was when he first saw him, has been ever
since, and is now of sound mind; but he was a
person of exceedingly excitable temperament.
Mr. W. M. Cooke, in his address to the jury for
the defence, disclaimed that he had had anv inten-
tion to urge that the prisoner was of unsound mind.
The prisoner's answer to this grave and serious
charge was not that he did this fatal act while he
was in a state of unsound mind, but that it was the
' result of sheer accident, for which he was not re-
sponsible. It was an accident, and not a design.
He entreated the jury to lean if they could to the
probabilities in favour of the prisoner.
The learned Judge having summed up,
The jury after a brief retirement returned into
court with a verdict of Guilty.
Mr. Justice Byles assumed the black cap, and
passed sentence of death in the usual form.
The prisoner, who continued to rub his hands
throughout the trial, clapped them together once
or twice as he was removed from the dock.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—WORCESTER, Dec. 12.
(Before Mr. Baron Wilde.)
William Slim, a dealer in old iron, was indicted
for wounding Enoch Cooper, with intent to murder
him. The circumstances of the ease were most
brutal and revolting. It appeared that the prisoner
entered the Swan publichouse at Titford, in the
parish of Oldbury, on the sth of July last, and
called for liquor, saying he had no money, where-
upon the prosecutor Cooper offered to give him a
shilling. In return for this kindness he challenged
the prosecutor to fight, and on his refusing to fight
prisoner said he would make him do so ; and as the
prosecutor sat peaceably in his chair, he seized hold
of a leathern apron which prosecutor wore, and
attempted to strangle him with it. He then struck
him a violent blow on the temple, knocking him
down senseless. He then seized him by the hair of
the head (prosecutor being all the time quite uncon-
scious), and struck him two violent blows on the
jaw, causing a compound fracture, part of the jaw
and several of the teeth being forced under the
tongue. Not satisfied with this, he proceeded to
further violence. The landlady attempted to inter-
fere, whereupon he seized her by the neck, half-
strangled her, and forced her out of the room. The
surgeon's evidence showed the wounds to be of a
most dangerous description, and was despaired of
for some time. The prisoner was the terror of the
neighbourhood in which he lived, and had been
previously convicted of violent assaults.
The learned Judge characterised the ease as one
of the most savage, brutal, and unmanly that ever
came before him.
Sentence of death was recorded against the
prisoner.

NORTH WALES CIRCUIT.—CHESTER, Dec. 12.
(Before Mr. Justice Blackburn.)
THE STOCKPORT MURDER.
John Howard, 77, weaver, Stockport, was charged
with wilfully killing his wife, Mary Ann Howard,
at Stockport, on the 25th September last.
Mr. Bevan and Mr. H. Lloyd prosecuted ; Mr.
Milntyre defended the prisoner.
The prisoner pleaded not guilty in a firm voice.
The prisoner was a hand-loom weaver, and had
resided up to the time of the murder in Weaver-
row, Stockport. The wife of the prisoner was
much younger, and had borne him twelve children,
six of whom are living. The a very
deceased was
powerful woman, and of very intemperate habits,
and had been the source of much unhappiness to
the prisoner. The day before she died it appeared
that she was rolling about Stockport in a beastly
state of drunkenness. Between eight and nine
o'clock that night she went home, and was very
excited. She knocked at the door for admittance,
which the prisoner refused, and she then went
round to the back of the house to endeavour to get
in. Finding the prisoner would not admit her she
became more excited still, and threatened to break
the windows if she were not admitted. She was
still refused admittance, when she thrust her hand
through the window and cut it. The door was
then opened, and when she went in she became
very quarrelsome and excited. She struck the
prisoner upon his face with her bloody hand, and
turned her daughter out of the house. About three
o'clock in the morning the daughter managed to
get into the house, and found
her mother lying
upon the table. She aroused the deceased, took
her upstairs, and 1
p aced her in bed with the pri-
soner. were They all
past five in the morning, when deceased awoke
and then went toP
the breakfast. A little
k prepare
before six o' l
eoe the daughter left the house. Half
an hour afterwards the prisoner left and locked the
door. He went to a neighbour, and said, " There
is something amiss in our house. I think she has

_
done something with herself, there is so much blood
about the room." On the house being entered the
deceased was found lying on the bed, with her head
between her arms, her face downwards, and her
arms hanging towards the floor. There were three
gashes on the throat and one incision on the side
of it. Her head had been battered in, and a dinner
knife was found in the bed. The neighbours, when
they went into the bed-room, found spots of blood
upon the prisoner's cheek, and told Dim to go and
wash his face. He did so, saying that his wife had
struck him with her bloody hand.
The Judge having summed up, the jury returned
a verdict of not guilty. The announceiment wasreceived with cheers and clapping of hands`