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
peered in The Sun, was resumed on Friday afternoon.
The inquiry excited great public interest, both on ac-
count of the circumstances which bad 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 L-wis, 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 eveeiog, 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 bead 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•
fleeting a wound on 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-perate attempt to
force it into his bowels ; but the instrument not being
very sharp did not prove fatal, but caused the wreteheet
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
Mr. John Morgan, to whom the deceased had been
housekeeper for three years, deposed that she was io
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 bed.
A a 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 frtmt
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 my
wife at the bottom of the stairs in her blood, as you now
see her." Witness sent immediately for Mr. Dyke, sur-
geon, 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, baying 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 lithe stairs had been knocked off, as though
a struggle had taken place. The prisoner was intoxi-
cated at the itime, and on his face there was a recent