The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-14 00:00:00

THE B2LSTON MURDER.

BILSTON, SATURDAY.
When the men were told in their cells that they
must go back to Stafford Gaol, they all manifested
the utmost reluctance to leave, and the more
determined of them refused to come out until
the police authorities were about to take the ne-
cessary steps to compel them, and had given
Jones the third pair of trousers. From Bilston to
Wolverhampton, where they were put upon the
North-Western Railway, they were taken in an
omnibus, guarded by Colonel Hogg, and a number
of his men. At Wolverhampton, the station was
besieged by persons curious to see them go off. The
prisoners were given ale and bread and cheese at
the cost of the chief constable. Whilst they were
partaking of the refreshment, Jukes delivered a
"recitation," the subject of which, singularly
enough, was the approach of Death to Old Age.
Lilley conducted himself with the bravado that has
all along characterised him. He impudently and
loudly criticised the personal appearance and dress
of the different persons who were most prominent
in the crowd at the station ; and when the train
got into motion ho shouted a good bye and waved
biz cap. Jones continued utterly indifferent to any-
thing that was passing, but Brandrick was begin-
ning to break down. The train had hardly left the
station before he commenced to cry outright, and
to remark that he feared he should never again see
Bilston, It is not expected that once again in Staf-
ford Gaol their conduct will be so violent as it was
when they were there upon remand. The beha-
viour of one of them was such that the warder
having reported it to the governor, his supper was
stopped one night. For this the prisoner swore, as
he was leaving Bilston, that on his return he would
murder the warder ; and a second, producing an
old nail, said, that with that he had ripped up the
mattress on which the previous night he had lain
in the gaol. Their conduct in the cells has been on
a par with this behaviour.
The seven had been kept in two cells ; Jones,
Brandrick, and Jukes in one ; and the other four
prisoners in the other. At about one o'clock on
Friday morning the police heard a noise in the cell
of the first three, which excited their suspicions.
They found that an effort was being made to loosen
a brick out of the wall, just beneath the framework
of the window, the panes in which they had
previously broken, and through which they had
thrust their legs. The only implement they could
at all have procured was the handle of a can, but
even this could not be found. During the remainder
of the night a guard was placed outside the cell.

THE ALLEGED MURDER AT STIRLING

SINGULAR PROCEEDINGS.

The Scotsman says :—" It was stated last week
that a woman named Jane Peters had died suddenly
early on the morning of Wednesday, the 2d inst.,
under suspicious circumstances, in consequence of
which a woman named Christina Peters, a sister of
the deceased, and a man named Andrew Johnston,
who lived with the latter, had been apprehended
and lodged in Stirling prison. It appears on in-
vestigation by the authorities, that there had not
been evidence sufficient to warrant them in taking
criminal proceedings against either of the parties,
and they were accordingly liberated from prison on
Wednesday evening. A strong feeling prevailed
against the female prisoner in consequence of her
name having been associated with the proceedings
in connection with the Bathgate murder some years
ago. On liberation from prison, Christina Peters
and Johnston proceeded to the house which they pre-
viously occupied at a part of the Castle-hill leading
to Ballangeich—a wretched hovel of small dimen-
sions, an consisting apparently of only one
room and a small closet. On arriving at their
old quarters, between eight and nine o'clock, the
woman Peters was speedily recognised, and
a number of persons soon collected, who
proceeded to eject them summarily from the
domicile. The crowd rapidly increased, and
Johnston ran seeking protection to the doors of
the prison, where he could not, of course, be ad-
mitted, but made his escape elsewhere. In the
meantime, the woman Peters was pursued by some
hundreds of persons; but by doubling and running
actively she escaped through a close, and found re-
fuge in the Burgh Police-office. Here a crowd as-
sembled ; but after a brief interval the greater por-
tion proceeded to her house in the Castle-hill,where
demolition of the building was commenced by the
mob, and by one o'clock on Thursday morning it
had been all but levelled with the ground. In the
forenoon of Thursday a number of boys completed
the work of destruction. The woman Peters re-
mained for protection in the police-office all night."