The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-01 00:00:00

THE MURDER NEAR -NOTTINGHAM.

The inquest touching the death of John Wood-
head, beerhouse-keeper, Bulwell, was resumed on
Thursday, at the White Hart, before Mr. Coroner
Swann. Our readers will remember that Woodhead
died in consequence of injuries received about a
month ago, in an encounter with a strange man he
found secreted in an upper room of his house, while
a company of about half-a-dozen were drinking in
the tap-room immediately underneath. Suspicion
having fallen upon one of those men, known by the
cognomen of " Ginty," though his real name was
West, he went out of the way for a short time, but
he returned home and was immediately appre-
hended, and brought before the county magistrates.

As there seemed lo be no case against him, he was
discharged on his own recognisances to appear again
on Saturday. The first witness examined at the
adjourned inquest was Joseph White, surgeon, Not-
tingham. He said—On Friday week, the 17th, I
made a post-mortem examination of the body of Jahn
_ _

W,oodhead. I was assisted by Mr. Buekby, of Bul-
well. I found externally on, the left side of the

head, about two inehes behind and above the

temple, a semi-circular wound, about seven inches
in length. I found that the flap which this wound
had caused had been turned down so as to expose

the skull. There were other slighter marks of
bruising on that side of the head, but none other
of a serious character, and no other external marks
of injury. Upon opening the skull I found upon
the right side, that opposite to the seat of the
injury, a quantity of blood over the surface of the
brain. The greater portion of this appeared to have
been recently effused, but a small part had the
appe2rance of having been poured out some days
before. On an examination of the body I found all
the organs healthy, with the exception of the right
lung, which was universally adherent to the walls
of the chest ; but those adhesions were of old stand-

ing. I found nothing further which it is necessary
to mention. The immediate cause of death was the
effusion of the blood which I have described. It is

impossible to say exactly the cause of the semi-circu-
lar wound. It was caused by coming into contact with
a hard body of some kind, but whether from a fall
or blow it is impossible to say. If a wound had
been infl'eted upstairs, it would not follow that
there would have been blood found on his clothes.
Jf there was a pool of blood found below and none
on his clothes, it might be fairly presumed the
wound was caused by falling. The bleeding from
a wound of that kind would be immediate and
profuse.
Rpeben Smith said—l am a glove hand by trade.
I know the deceased very well, and was occasionally
employed by him as. a waiter. On Tuesday, the
7th of this month, I was in his house from five to
six o'clock in the evening. He was then sober and
quite well. There were only two strangers there,
besides me and Mr. Woodhead. The strangers
were not Bulwell people. One was dressed in
black, and had on an ordinary black hat ; and the
other was attired in fustian trousers with a dark
coat and cap. He had a rule sticking out of his
trousers pocket. He said he was a bricklayer.
The man in black did not say anything, and was
very down and still.. While I was there Joseph
Lomas come in. The strangers were sober ; they
left the house before I went away. I only left
Lomas and Mr. Woodhead in the house. As
soon as the accident happened, Lomas came to
fetch me, and I helped to get the deceased
into bed. I never left him all that night and next
day, and attended him several times every day up
to his death. For a few minutes only was he sen-
sible during the first night. He raved a bit. While
he was sensible he said the man he had struggled
with had been in the house that afternoon ; but he
never mentioned his name. When I questioned
him all he said was, " If I was to see the man again
I should know him, as he has been at the house
before." I was with Woodhead all the night be-
fore he died, and was with him at the time it hap-
pened. No man could have been better nursed or
attended to. When I went up stairs after the
accident I could find no blood, and nothing to lead
to anything. West arid five others were in the
house when I was fetched by Woodhead. I asked
Woodhead several times who had done it, and at
last Hall said it was done in the chamber. Wood-
head said that when he saw the man in the cham-
ber he had something like a piece of iron in his
hand ; that he could remember holding the man at
the bottom of the stairs when he called for help.
He never said he was' struck with the iron. He
said that the man was partly hidden by some malt
bags, and that as soon as he saw him he ran and
got hold of him, saying, " I've caught you now."
Then they struggled till they got to the top of the
stairs, when they both fell down together. He said
he seized hold of the man in the chamber, and that
he never let go his hold till they got to the bottom
of the stairs ; that he rememberedholding him there
while he shouted for help. It seems to me the de-
ceased was sensible when he got to the bottom, and
might have been struck then, as he became insen-
sible afterwards. I have formed no idea, except
what people talk, who the man was. I have not
seen the strangers since.
John West, framework-knitter, Bulwell, better
known as " Ginty," was next called. Having been
cautioned, he said—l have known Woodhead since
he came to that public-house, and I went there on
the 7th December, a little after three in the after-
noon. I went there with another young man. I
didn't know his name. I live up the kiln yard. The
man went up to Mr. J. Wilkinson's house, asked
where I lived, asking for the name of "Ginty." I
was in bed, having been fresh over night, when he
came to my house, which was at ten o'clock. I got
up and came down stairs to him. I had seen the
same man at Nottingham 12 months before, and
told him if he ever wanted to inquire for me again
he was to ask for" Ginty." We were drinking at
Clark's, at the Bell, on the Long-row, and we slept
together one night. I did not learn his proper name,
only the nickname " Scrimsh Murf," which he told
me. I believe he has been in the Nottinghamshire
militia since that time, and has been discharged. I
never saw him again until the 7th of this month.
When I came down stairs and saw him he said he
had come from Mansfield that morning. Ho said to
my wife, " You don't know." She said" No, I don't.'
I said, " How are you?" and he said, " How are
you?" I invited him to breakfast with me, but he
said he had had it at the place where he started
from. He didn't tell me what he came for, and I
didn't know ; how should I ? I proposed we should go
out and have a pint of ale. We both left the house.
My friend had on a blue pilot jacket, very white or
light coloured corduroy trousers, and a very big
white coloured neckcloth, a black cloth cap, and a
pair of buttoned-up boots. We left my house at
about 20 minutes after ten, and went to Geo. Wil•
kinson's public house. When we had had several
pints of ale, George Wilkinson, the landlord, came
in, and Scrimshaw said, " This is the first man I
saw, and I inquired of him where you lived." We
were in Wilkinson's house four hours, as near as I
can speak. We went from there to Woodhead's
house. It was 20 minutes after three. We had one
pint of ale, and did not stop more than half an hour.
We were in the tap room, and Woodhead saw the
man. Thomas Osborne, the fiddler, was there.
While we were at the house, Woodhead said, " Hall
and your master has been here, and has gone down
to Pollard's." Osborne, Scrimshaw, and myself theu
went to John Pollard's beer house. There were five
or six of us, and we might have five pints more ale
amongst us. We went in there about four, and came
out about dusk, just as they were lighting up. Os-
borne would not go with us, but said he would go
to tea, and he left us 14d. I and Scrimshaw went to
Brocklehose's, and got some collared head, and one
pint of ale. We soon- after parted,andisaw no-
thing more of him. I went home then, and saw
Samuel Hall, who works with me. I asked him to
lend me some money, but he did not, and we came
to Woodhead's, where we had some ale. I found at
the house Woodhead and Joseph Lomas. We stayed
there till after the accident. Osborne, Lane, and
Read came in while we were drinking. I sang one
verse of a song, and asked]Lomas to finish it, but
there was no more said nor done. I went out twice
while I was there. I wasn't drunk nor fresh, but
had no idea what time of the night it was. The door
was shut when I went out, and I closed it after me.
It makes a noise as hard as a gun. I did not see any
one about, or speak to any one, that I remember. It
was possible I might, but I don't recollect it. lam
sure I did not see Scrimshaw about, or speak to him.
I shut the door after me. I never heard it open
after I went in. I think it would be about a quarter
of an hour afterwards that Woodhead met with the
accident. A man named Hollingworth came and
asked for a can of ale, and Woodhead went out to
fetch it; He did not take a candle out of the tap-
room. He was going to have sun°. " Daniel M'Cree '
but he wished to wait for the &idler to come, and
he asked me to sing my song; and just as I was
finishing the verse Hollingworth came in, and
Woodhead went out to fetch his can of ale. I be-
lieve Woodhead, after going out of the room, went
into the bar to fetch a candle. I then heard him go
up stairs, and at the top I heard him say, " Here,
here, I've got him." He shouted out quite loud, so
that everybody in the taproom could hear him, I
think. Hollingworth rushed out into the passage,
which he reached in a moment, as he sat near the
door. All of us ran ; I got out second, and shouted,
." Where's Woodhead ?" for I could not see any, one.
The passage was quite dark. I did not see any one
rush out of the passage to the front door. I ran
towards the front door, and if anybody had been
going along at the time I must have seen him.
After some further evidence had been adduced,
the coroner summed up, and the jury returned a
verdict of wilful murder against some person or
persons unknown.—Nottinyhain Journal.