The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-30 00:00:00

THE. 111U1 DEE IN GLO VCESTERSHIRE

SUICIDE OF THE MURDERER.

Yesterday morning we annnUnced to our readers
the fact of an atrocious murder having been com-
mitted at a small and peaceful village known as
North Nibley, in Gloucestershire., The little village
above named was. much agitated throughout the
day, and many strangers interested in the melan-
choly" eVent found their way to the place, where
everything'etherwiie appeared gloomy. Sheppard,
_it appears, after shooting Miss Smitham, proceeded
to a cowhouse in the neighbourhood and attempted
his own destruction;: but in consequence of the
barrel of the gun being rather long, he was obliged
to lean over on one side to get at the trigger, the
result of which was that his left cheek and eye
were blown away, but strange to say he lived up to
one o'clock on Monday. Early on that morning an
inquest was opened by 'William Gaisford, 'Esq.,
county coroner, at the White Hart, on the body of
Ann Smitham, and evidence to the following effect
were adduced :
James Smitham, weaver, said—l live at North
Nibley, in the county of Gloucester. The decased,
mp dairghter, was 23 years of age. On Saturday
evening last she was standing in my kitchen, close
toa round table near the window, sewing. There
was a lighted candle-on the table in front of her,
and between her and the window. I was at work'
at my loom in the shop adjoining the kitchen,
the door of which was open. I saw her Aake
the candle off the table and go to the window,
where there was a white curtain drawn the
whole length of the window. There is a win-
dow in the shop, which had no curtain to it, and
any person looking through the window could
have seen the deceased standing at the table. I
saw my daughter move aside in the farthest corner
on the, left-hand side, and heard her say, " Thou
beest there, bee'sfit ? I have caught thee." I heard
her mother say, "Is that Sheppard ?" and she said,
" Aye, 'tis." I said, "It doesn't seem to matter
what weather it is, rain or wind, or what not, he's
about." She said, " Not a bit ;" and letting the
curtain fall back again, retuned to _her waxlc.,_ and
put the candle on the table. She was standing in
rather a leaning position over the table, sewing,
with her face towards the kitchen window.
I then heard the report of a gun outside and close
to the kitchen window, about three or four minutes
after she had returned from the window. She
screamed out, and I got up instantly from my loom
and went towards her. Her mother came up first,
and she was in the act of falling when I approached.
She never spoke. I observed blood coming from
her mouth, and I then went for my son, who was
at Mr. Perrett's, just above. There were no other
persons in the house but my wife, grandson, the
deceased, and myself. It was very dark, and rain-
ing a little. I did not look to see who was outside
the window and had discharged the gun. When I
got back to the house I found the deceased lying
down in the kitchen. She gasped once, and died
within ten minutes from the time I heard the gun
fired. I examined the window, and found a small
pane broken on the left side.

Mrs. Smitham, the mother of the deceased, was
next called, and after corroborating much of the
testimony given by her husband, she said—My
daughter had kept company for four years pre-
viously to last Christmas with John Sheppard. She
had wished to give up his company long before, but
he would never take no for an answer. I have my-
self times out of number, told him she should not
think anything of him, for she should have no
prospect but the Union before her, and she would
never give up her home for such a cha-
racter as him. Last Christmas he came to my
house and inquired for her. She had gone from
home to an uncle's to avoid him. I told him she
was not at home, and he said he would see her if
he went to for her. Ido not remember that I

have spoken to him but once since last Friday. The
time I allude to was last= Whitsuntide, when he
came about the middle of the day, deceased and I
being then at home. He came to the kitchen,
where she was standing, and said he wanted to
know her mind. The witness here detailed a con-
versation, in which the deceased said she would
have nothing more whatever to do with him, and
described him as a worthless piece of humanity.
Witness produced several letters, which were
proved to be in Sheppard's handwriting, and which
were couched in threatening terms.
Daniel Ford, a constable, said—From informa-
.

tion I received from the father of the deceased I
went in search of John Sheppard, but I could not
find any trace of him during the whole of the
night. A little before eight o'clock on Sunday
morning I went to Slade's orchard, near Zipporah
Trotman's, and there saw Sheppard lying on his
back, about 15 yards from a shed, his head incli-
ning down hill. The left cheek of his face ap-
peared to have been blown clean away. He was
bleeding a little, and there was a quantity of con-
gealed blood around the wound. His clothes were
much saturated with blood. His hat was lying about
ten yards from him, and was not injured. I spoke to
him, but he made no reply, as he did not appear to
be sensible. There was a quantity of straw in the
shed and a pool of blood in it, and there was much
blood in different places in the shed and upon the
door-posts. Outside there were marks on the door
of a person's knee having been against it. Directly
underneath the straw I found th single barrel gun
produced, smeared with blood, and indicating that
it had been recently discharged. I removed Shep-
pard upon a hurdle to the White Hart Inn and
searched him. In the jacket pocket I found a pow-
der-flask containing powder. In one of the waist-
coat pockets there were some coppers and two
pieces of gun wadding. In his trousers pocket was
a canvass bag containing some shot of the same size
and sort as that found under the deceased and taken
from her. He was kept warm, and had medical
assistance; he became sensible, asking several
times for toast and water. He made no allusion
whatever to Ann Smitham.
The coroner then summed up the evidence, and
The jury without any hesitation found a verdict
of " Wilful murder" against John Sheppard.
It was then made known that Sheppard had
died during the holding of the inquest on the body
of Smitham, as appears by Ford's evidence. The
jury were accordingly sworn in the second case,
and the evidence police-constable Ford being read
over, and Mr. Hill, surgeon, attributing the cause
of death to the effect of a gun-shot wound inflicted
by Sheppard himself, a verdiet of felo de se was
returned.

IS CONSUMPTION INCURABLE ? Invalids labouring
under Consumptive Maladies, and families who have
suffered fruit the ravages of Consumptio.e (and what
family in the empire is there who has not to deplore a
loss caused by this scourge of the human race ?) will find
a .satisfactory answer to the question, " Is Consumption In-
curable," in an original article by Dr. DENIS CRONIN,
M.D., 35, Bruton-street, Berkeley-square, W. Published in
the "Household Physician," in numbers, one penny each
by G. Berger, 19, Ilolywell-street, Strand. From ItO 9 319 W
ready.