The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-23 00:00:00

Murder near Stafford.

A fearful murder was committed at Coppenball,-
near Stafford, on Friday afternoon. Copenhall is a
village containing scarcely 100 houses, situated on a
slight eminence about three miles from the town
named, and to the right of the Wolverhampton-road.
At end of the village, and hardly 50 yards from the
house and farm occupied by Mr. Ward, a widow •
woman named Ellen Buckley, who would have
attained her 80th year had she lived a few
months longer, has rented a small thatched cottage,
containing only two rooms, for the last 20 years.
Her husband, who was a labourer, died in October
last, and Mrs. Buckley has since been supported by
her two sons. one of whom lived with her, while
the other is employed near Liverpool. She was a
woman of exemplary character, and since the death
of her husband has been in the habit of allowing a
man named John Cooper, who worked as a labourer
for Mr. Ward, and who lived at Dunston, about a
mile and a-half away, to eat his dinner at her house.
Cooper was seen to go there a little after 1 o'clock
on Friday, and a passer-by, half an hour later, ob-
served Mrs. Buckley at her door. She was not seen
again until half-past 6 in the evening, when Mr. J.
W. Moore, the proprietor of a neighbouring farm,
called at the house to request her son to remove a
ground roller that had been placed in the middle of
the road in front of the cottage. Upon entering
Mr. Moore found the woman lying on the floor, but,
thinking she was in a fit, with which she was at
times afflicted, he did not closely examine her then,
but went away to procure assistance. When he re-
turned he noticed that the woman was surrounded
with blood, and, upon touching her arm he became
aware that life was extinct. An alarm was raised,
a messenger was despatched to the police office at
Stafford, and two officers were soon on the spot.
The deceased was lying on her face, her head
touching the fire-place, and her body in a straight
position.
each side of the poor woman's neck, just An official examination revealed the factt
utlnladterupnhoer
r the head from
ears, there were two large jagged wounds,
inflicted with an intention to sez
the right cheek
gyhwt,aarsma
the body ; while a sharp cut,abc apparently
t of it
had almost cut the jaw
was•
struck.cut-
largea y a
loaf knife,
ofand h roe na
dthe other
jthihr sidee°orunl e Neofecatsilliietehebe oerdai
time she
sdeceasedhe w as
ting a slice of bread
leading to the
the body and from
the fact
From the position of
was no blood upon the shoulders or the
suppos,il‘tiaetnttiiheatt
have come to the conclusion that
breast,
that
Mrs. Buckley was first knocked down, and thlr rcn-
police
dered inscuzilc, and that the murderer then delibe-
rately inflicted the wounds described. It was evi-
dent that no struggle took place, for, excepting that a
teapot had been broken and a cup knocked off the
table, nothing had been disarranged.
Suspicion pointed to the man John Cooper. Con-
trary to his usual custom, he did not return to his
work on Friday afternoon. At a quarter to three
o'clock he called at the house of a shoemaker named
Wright, who lives near Dunston. Cooper had then
a billhook in his hand, and Wright, alarmed at his