The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-12 00:00:00

THE MURDER OF A WIFE AT MERTHYR.

The inquest on the body of Gwenllian Lewis, respect-
ing whose murder some particulars have already ap
peared in The Sun, was resumed on Friday afternoon.
The inquiry excited great public interest, both on ac-
count of the circumstances which had been previously
disclosed, and from the fact that it had become generally
known that the husband of the deceased woman at-
tempted suicide on the previous evening. This'attempt
at self-destruction was of a novel and determined cha-
racter. On being conveyed to the station house on
Thursday the prisoner, John Lewis, was searched, and
deprived of everything with which it was supposed pos-
sible that he could inflict any injury upon himself. In
the course of the evening, however, he contrived to get
out a stay nail, which was used to to support one of the
fixtures of the cell in which he was confined, and having
worked the head of it into the wall so as to present the
point towards him; he ran his head violently against it,
apparently with the hope of being thus able to terminate
his existence. It so happened that the nail not being
firmly secured in the wall gave way at the first blow, in•
flitting a wound bn the scalp, but without materially in-
juring the skull. Foiled in this attempt at suicide, Lewis
then took the stay nail and made a de-pertve attempt to
force it into his bowels ; but the instrument not being
very sharp did not prove fatal, but caused the wretshed
man such pain that he fainted. Mr. Superintendent
Wrenn, who had from the first deemed it prudent to keep
a frequent watch upon the prisoner, soon afterwards
found him in a state of insensibility, and, having admi-
nistered some restoratives immediatelysent for Mr. Dy ke,
surgeon, who was promptly in attendance, and who used
further means for Lewis's recovery. At the inquest on
Friday a great change was observable in the appearance
and conduct of the prisoner. Instead of displaying the
indifference amounting to hardihood which he had
before manifested, he seemed to regard the proceedings
with anxiety, and more than once shed tears. The
circumstantial evidence adduced was very strong .1
Mr. John Morgan, to whom the deceased had been
housekeeper for three years, deposed that she was in
good health when he left his home about 3 o'clock in
the afternoon of the 4th inst. On his return, at about
11 o'clock, he let himself in with a latchkey, but not
finding his night candle placed as usual he rang the bell.
A s no one answered he went into the passage, when the
prisoner called out " Please come to me." On going
down into the kitchen, and seeing the deceased lying on
the floor, he said, " How is this John ?" The prisoner
replied, " I don't know, indeed. I knocked at the fr. nt
door many times and tried to get into the house, but I
was obliged to go over the wall into the field, and force
open the back door, and when I returned 1 found rey
wife at the bottom of the stairs in her blood, as you now
see her." Witness sent immediately for Mr. Dyke, bur-
g eoi? , and also for Mr. Superintendent Wrenn. On exa-
mining the premises it was found that the back door had
been forced open. The deceased was a very. steady
woman, but. the prisoner was occasionally addicted to
drunkenness. Mr. Dyke, surgeon, having restated the
injuries found upon the person of the deceased, described
the condition in which the premises were found by him
when he was called in. Besides a quantity of recent
blood stains observed on the kitchen stairs and wall,
witness noticed that a quantity of lime from the wall at
the side of !the stairs had been knocked off, as though
a struggle had taken place. The prisoner was intoxi-
cated at the ;time, and on his face -there was a recent

[PRICE 4D. STAMPED sfl!

scratch. The prisoner asked whether there were any
injuries on the legs of his wife, and, on being answered
in the negative, he made a statement that the deceased
had some time previously fallen down stairs by acci-
(lent, Mr. Superintendent Wrenn having given a
similar account to that of Mr. Dyke of the appearance
presented by the premises on being called in, added
that, on asking the prisoner if he knew whether
any one had been in the house, he said, " A man
named Ezekiel was here in the morning, and he
went out with me to the Miners' Arms about 12
o'clock. Vie had some beer together; and I came home
ab ut half-pa-t 2 I had some dinn, r, but did not eat it
all. My wife told we she had been to the Peit-office
with some letters. I naked ber for a shilling, but she
was not vey willing to give it, and scolded me for having
been drinking ; but at last she gave me a half-sovereign,
and made me promise to bring hack the change. I then
went out and changed the half-sovereign, and had two
quar►ts of beer. I then went to the Plymouth Arms,
where I spent 6d." He stated further that he came
home at about 7 o'clock, and finding he could not gain
admission he stayed about for some time, and then
forced the door, when be found his wife lying at the foot
of the stairs all over blood. He then moved her into
the kitchen, and called to Mr. Morgan as soon as
he came in. No money being found on the person
of prisoner, he explained this circumstance by
saying that as he was knocking at, the door
a girl came up to him and took it out of his pocket.
Ezekiel Jones, the man referred to in the statement
made by the prisoner, contradicted his assertion as to
his wife having given him a half-sovereign ; and other
witnesses were also examined, who e testimony was in
direct opposition to the account given by Lewis of the
manlier in which he eecupied himself on the day in ques-
tion. At the close of the evidence the prisoner made a
rambling stat-merit, after which the coroner summed up,
and the jury, after a deliberation of about a quarter of
an hii.tr, returned a verdict of "'Wilful Marsy. against
John Lewis," who was thereupon committed for trial: