The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-05 00:00:00

MURDER AND SUICIDE.

An inquest has bedn held at Leicester on the bodies of
Zinnia Stone Crofts, aged 34, and Amy, her -daughter.
The mother of the child for many years past had led a
loose and immoral life. About seven years ago she Was at
some open-air movement, when a young man named
Charles Crofts, of respectable: position, a clerk in a
solicitor's office in the town, fell in love with and
married her. They lived together but a little time, as
her husband, on
_finding that she Was leading a profli-
gate life, abandoned her, went to America, and has not
since beenn, heard of. About two-and-a-half years ago she
was taken to by a man named Preston living at Grantham,
with whom she seems to have stayed up to within the past
six months, and by whom she had the deceased child, who
had attained the age of 1 year and 7 months. Since her
return to Leicester she had againindulged in dissolute
habits, had frequently been seen in a state of intoxication,
and had often been heard to say that she would destroy the
child and herself too. On Wednesday her sister happened
to go into the house of her parents in Sandia,cre-street, and
was nursing the child in question, when deceased snatched
it out of her arms, and said, " Give me my child, and I'll do
for it and myself." She then took out of her pocket a.
bottle containing a dark fluid and endeavoured to swallow
its contents, but both it and the child were wrested from
her. She, however, took another bottle from her pocket
and was about to drink the contents, when it was also taken
from her, and also a caster from her 'locket, which were all
found to contain laudanum. On Saturday morning she re-
turned home about one o'clock, and seemed very strange. She
had several glasses of ale during the day, and about six o'clock
in the evening, while her mother was feeding the child, she
snatched it out of her lap and ran out with it ; but as it was
supposed she was going to a neighbour's no further notice was
taken of the act. A few minutes afterwards she was seen
by a man named Joseph Rudkin passing down the street
towards the canal. Fearing that something was wrong,
he watched and followed her for some &Stance. After
looking about in various directions, she turned her back
towards the Abbey and ran towards the canal side.
Rudkin followed her, and shouted, " What are you going
to do ?" but she rushed onward, and before he could get
near to her hurled the child, which she had in her arms,
into the water. She then threw her bonnet and child's
hood aside, and rushed into the water herself. Rudkin then
went to his own premises and procured a drag, and was
using it, endeavouring to reach the deceased, when, with

the excitement, he let it slip through his hands into the
w,ter. Assistance having arrived, he went to his yard.
loosened a boat, and pushed it towards the floating bodies.

He soon succeeded in rescuinr the child, which was -still
alive, and which was taken into his house and properly
attended to, but expired soon- In a few minutes he secured
his drag, and with it brought out the deceased woman,
whose body had floated some distance down the stream,
and mustlave been in the water from twenty to thirty
minutes. Life was quite extinct. Rndkin also stated that
about a week since he was the- means of preventing the
deceased committing D. similar act, when she said, " If I
had got into the water no one would have known anything
about it."

The jury returned a verdict that the deceased woman
committed both acts while in an unsound state of mind,
brought about by her intemperate and profligate habits,

THE MURDER IN DUMFRIES.

We yesterday reported a horrible murder from Dumfries
shire. The circumstances of the case are of great atrocity,
The little girl who was the victim of this fearful crime is
named Thomasina Scott, the daughter of John Scott,
shoemaker, at the village of Cummertrees, about three
miles and a half north of Annan, and was one of a family
of eleven children. She was a smart little girl, and her
mother had been in the habit of sending her to Annan on
Saturdays to make some household purchases ; and on
Saturday forenoon, about twenty minutes past ten o'clock,
she was despatched upon her weekly errand. Half-way
between Cummertrees and Annan stands a lonely cottage
—Longford Cottage—inhabited by a farm servant named
Creighton, who is employed on a neighbouring farm.
There the little girl called for shelter. A young man,
named Robert Smith, or Colvin, was sitting in the kitchen
talking to Mrs. Creighton, who was the only other person
in the house. He had been engaged in harvest upon the
,ining farm, and was therefore acquainted with the
people of the district. When the little girl entered he
asked whither she was going, and, hearing she was going
to Annan, said he would accompany her on the road.
The two left the cottage together between eleven and
twelve o'clock. The girl was never again seen alive, ex-
cept by Smith. The prisoner next appears upon the scene
between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, when he
re-entered Longford Cottage, in which Mrs. Jane Creighton
(whose maiden name was Patterson) was then engaged in
washing and scrubbing the kitchen floor. He struck
her a heavy blow with a stick, or some such instru-
ment, and having thus stunned her he seems to have
rushed upon her with a pocket-knife, with which he
inflicted some severe wounds upon the unfortunate
woman, cutting her throat across in front, and inflicting
two other serious wounds upon the side and back of her
neck. The blood flowed copiously, as the appearance of
the floor amply shewed afterwards. He then dragged the
wounded woman into a back room, she struggling ; but
while he was intent upon completing the horrible murder
he had commenced, two little boys who were passing on
the road with a donkey cart, on their way to the farm
where Creighton worked, called at Longford Cottage with
a message for Creighton's wife. They knocked loudly at
the door, but could obtain no answer. The noise, how-
ever, had the effect of alarming Smith, who seems to
have desisted from his murderous work, for the woman
soon came staggering to the door with her face covered
with blood and with blood streaming down from her neck.
The boys, alarmed at the horrible sight, called a shepherd
from the neighbouring fields, 3nd in the meantime the
prisoner rushed out of the house-door and was seen by
the boys, who recognised him, he having been working on
the same farm during the harvest. He ran across the rail-
way, and was there afterwards seen washing his hands by
some railway labourers, among whom was a brother of
the little girl who had been murdered. He then disap-
peared. Assistance was rendered to the half-murdered
woman ; the police authorities at Annan were communi-
cattd with, and the county constabulary at once com-
menced a search for the prisoner on the charge of the
murderous assault upon Jane Creighton. The fate of
the little girl Scott had not then been ascertained ;
but the news of the assault upon the woman having
been spread, the parents of the little girl became alarmed
for her safety. They heard that she had been on the road
with the prisoner ; and, as the child did not return home
when she was expected, a search was commenced by
lantern-light. Inquiry at Annan shelved that she had not
been there ; and the roadside and neighbouring plantations
were then carefully examined. At a place about half a
mile south of Longford Cottage traces were first dis-
covered. There, by the side of a plantation, marks
were found of a violent struggle ; and, crossing the
palings and entering the wood, the searchers found the
little girl lying murdered. There was a mark around her
neck, showing that she had been strangled by a thin
ligature probably a leathern boot-lace and the
condition of her clothes and person shewed but too
plainly that a horrible violation of her person had been
committed before she had been murdered. The police were
now informed of this second outrage, and they continued
their search with redoubled eagerness. Under the direction
of Mr. Jones, the chief constable of the county constabu-
lary, the whole country round was scoured by police
officers ; and intelligence was sent to Carlisle and other
places with descriptions of the suspected murderer. After
he had washed his hands in a"pool near the railway, he
had been seen skulking beneath some hedges, and he was
afterwards heard of upon the highway, but there traces
were lost. On Sunday morning, however, the police
again got upon the track of the murderer, and he was ap-
prehended about noon on Sunday, at 35, Queensberry.
street, Dumfries, where .he had been lodging previously.
His clothes were found stained with blood, and his under-
clothing was similarly marked ; and' a leathern shoe-lace
tied in a noose was found in his pocket. The little girl
had been robbed of about 10s., the purse being found rifled
near her body ; and some money was found upon the pri-
soner. The prisoner, Robert Smith, alias Colvin, is be-
tween 19 and 20 years of age. He is a native of Eagles•
field, near Kirtlebridge, in Dumfriesshire.

Dr. Deane, Q.C., has been appointed Admiralty
Advocate, in the place of Sir Travers Twiss, who resigned
on his appointment as Queen's Advocate.
DEBT AND DOWER.—III a case heard at the
Assize Courts, Manchester, it was shewn that tho estate of
a deceased gentleman who had died intestate was insolvent,
and the question before. the court was as to the priority of
claim of the widow and creditors respectively. The judge
decided that the widow was entitled to dower out of the
balance in priority over ordinary creditors.
TUE RATING OF POLICEMEN AND POSTMEN.—
Mr. Bowater, a letter carrier of the Birmingham Post
Office, has receive:l the following reply from the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer in answer to a question as to
whether the supposed exemption of policemen from
rating extends also to postmen :—" Downing-street,
February 1,186 S.—Sir,.—Sir, in reply to your letter of the
30th of January, I am directed by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer to inform you that policemen are only exempt
from rates when they occupy a police station or building
used for public purposes, in which they are required to
reside in discharge of their official duties.—l am, sirs
your obedient servant, MONTAGUE CORRY. Mr, Henry
Bowater."