The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-23 00:00:00

THE BILSTON VU.RDER.

CONFESSION OF ONE OF THE CULPRITS.
On Saturday morning the culprit Maddox made
is confession to the principal turnkey in the Stafford
;County Gaol, in which he is confined with the other
two condemned men (Jones and Brandrick), each
lone, however, in a separate cell. Maddox's is a
1" familiar face" in the cells of the gaol, and the turn-
key visited him with the regular warder to evidence
the interest which he took in him on that account.
1 Maddox availed himself of the opportunity to
!say that the right men had been convicted, inasmuch
las only he himself and Jones and Brandrick were
concerned, either in the burglary or in the murder.
!He said that it was Brandrick who cut away a por-
Ition of the cellar door, by which the bolt was drawn
Iback and access obtained to the interior of the house.
(Brandrick, he said, then rushed across the passage,
sand into the room where the deceased was sitting,
and clutching him by the throat as ho sat in his
chair forced him to the ground. Jones then assisted
by picking up the fire shovel and, he thought, pres-
sing- the bottom edge of the pan beneath their vic-
tim's chin. Of the use which Jones made of the
shovel he was not, however, he said, quite clear, as
he did not enter the room where the murder was
perpetrated, and saw what he described only through
the partly open door. While Brandrick and Jones
were thus engaged on the ground floor he (Maddox)
went upstairs with a view to get the money ; but he
,could not succeed, and came down again and said so.
Wrandrick then went up armed with the small
;hatchet obtained from the cellar, where it had been
;used to break the coal. With this implement he
!succeeded in forcing the locks of the chest of drawen;
,and of the cashbox, which was kept in that piece of
Jurniture, end thus obtained possession of, he (Mad-
dox) thought, about £lOO. But he (Maddox) and
?,,,Tones did not get their share of that money, for
`-'l3randrieli had said lie lost it in " running" the
policeman ; but he (Maddox) )Ihought that he left it
in his father's house when he went in there on the
1,
.:,morning of the murder. Maddox added that they
i,Nivent into the house twice, and said that generally
the evidence given against them was correct, and
especially that of the wotnan who saw him leaning
on a wall near Brandrick's father's house, waiting
for his (I3randrick's) corning out—all after they had
" run" the policeman, Harrison, who intercepted
them as they were leaving the house of the mur-
odered man and nearing that of Brandrick, carrying
with them a portion of their booty.
This statement entirely exonerates the other four
prisoners, all of whom were acquitted on Friday
evening, Baron Martin ruling that there was no
evidence against them. The statement was made
known to Baron Martin, when his lordship again
took his seat on the bench in the Stafford Assize
Court on Saturday morning. Immediately after-
wards Jukes, Miley, Bills, and Webb, the other four
men referred to, were arraigned on the charge of
the burglary, for which the grand jury found a true
bill against them ; but the prosecution tendered no
•evidence, and the jury returning a verdict of not
guilty they were all liberated from confinement.
'' It will be remembered that it was Maddox who
,made a voluminous statement to the magistrates at
Bilston, which proved him to be an accessory to the
• burglary, but in which he denied that he entered
the house with Jones and Brandrick, although he
:ran away with them after they left the house. Al-
:though this second statement makes him a particqg
-. crintinis in the murder, yet its comparatively leni-
' ent tone towards himself may leave it to be fairly
-inferred that it will not be before Jones and I3rand-
eick have unburdened their bosoms that all the
truth will be known.