The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-07 00:00:00

DREADFUL MURDER.

On Wednesday the pleasant little watering-place,Weston-
super-Mare, 21 miles from Bristol, was the scene of as barba-
rou s *murder as has been recorded for a long period—viz., the
murder of a wife by her husband, a man moving in a re-
spectable sphere of life, possessed of a small independence,
and carrying on a prosperous business in the town of Wes-
ton. We have ascertained the following to be:the particulars
connected with this horrid transaction :—The unfortunate
victim is Mary Fisher, the wife of (the murderer) Joel Fisher,
who keeps a house called the Devonshire Inn, in High-street,
Weston. The deceased, it appears, was formerly married to
a man named Hyatt, who, however' left her with two chil-
dren, and was absent and supposed to be dead for about ten
or twelve years, during which period the deceased was mar-
ried to the man Fisher, with whom, it seems, her life was
anything but a happy one. In consequence of his penurious
disposition there were frequent quarrels between them, and
on more than one occasion she has left him, but has subse-
quently-been induced to return. On the evening preceding
the murder her husband and she had a desperate quarrel,
arising from the circumstance of a lodger having left the
house, on account of (as was alleged by Fisher) her conduct
to him. The quarrel continued up to the period of bedtime,
and her husband frequently threatened her, that he would
"do for her." The consequence was, that she refused to
sleep with him, and at about eleven o'clock retired to bed
with a female servant. After she had retired to bed her hus-
band was still heard about the house in a state of great ex-
citement, uttering horrid threats, to the effect that he would
murder her, and that that night should be her last. From
the appearance of his bed when examined in the `morning,
it was evident that he had not slept in it all night. Shortly
after five o'clock yesterday morning, the servant girl was
alarmed by his bursting open the door of the bed-room
where herself and mistress were sleeping in one bed and two
of his children in another. On seeing him rush into the
room the children, although only of the respective ages of
ten and twelve years, began screaming, and the servant girl
begged him to withdraw. He was then armed with a square
iron bar, with which he had forced the door, and having
jumped upon the bed, he instantly struck hisunfortunate vic-
tim with it upon the head. The servant and children begging
him to desist, he coolly replied that he would not injure any
of them, and in the most fiendish manner struck the unfortu-
nate woman two or three more blows with the bar, which
literally smashed in her skull, after which, as though to
render his butchery doubly certain, he left the room, but in
less than a minute returned with a carving-knife, with which
he cut her throat in so dreadful a manner as to nearly sever
her head from her body. Being thus satisfied of her death
he immediately went into the bed-room of one of his lodgers
—a young man—whom he informed of what he bad done.
The servant in the meantime had alarmed the neighbour-
hood and procured a policeman' who, upon his arrival, was
coolly shown upstairs to the chamber where the corpse lay
by the murderer himself. There is but little doubt that the
first blow caused the death of the unfortunate woman, as
the servant girl states that her mistress never spoke and
scarcely moved after it was given, but that the man Fisher
jumped upon the deceased and placed her head in such a
position as to be able the more easily to effect his murderous
purpose. On his being arrested by the police he was quite
collected, and accounted for his having cut her throat by
stating that he thought it better to put her out of life as
quickly as possible. The deceased was t 1 itifty years of
age, and her murderer perhaps a year jr t ( older.