The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-14 00:00:00

THE TODMORDEN MURDER.

Miles Weatherall was tried on Friday at the Man
chester Assizes, for the murder of Jane Smith, at Tod-
morden Parsonage, on Monday night, the 2nd inst.

The prisoner pleaded not- guilty. During -the time
occupied by the trial he exhibited great anxiety, and at
times there were seen traces of strong emotion in his face.
This was especially so when Mr. Campbell Foster, in
opening the case for the prosecution, announced that Mr.
Plow was dead.

Mr. Campbell Foster and Mr. Addison were for the
prosecution ; the prisoner was defended by Mr. J. B. Torn•
After Mr. Foster had made his opening statement, he
proceeded to call witnesses.

Mr. BineHs, architect, and-Mr. Cockcroft gave the same
evidence they had given before the magistrates.
The deposition of the Rev. Mr. Plow was read by the
officer of the court.

Elizabeth Spinks was examined at great length, but her
story did not differ from that she had previously told.
Mary Hodgson, Margaret Ball, George Stanfield, and
Mr. T. W. Eastwood were also examined about the inci-
dents of the crime.

The prisoner's movements before the murder were
spoken to by a man named S. W. Lord, who said pri-
soner and he were intimate, and the prisoner had re-
peatedly said to him that he did not like Mr. and Mrs.
Plow and the deceased. On the night of the murder, a
few minutes before ten o'clock, witness saw the prisoner
on the county bridge, and noticed that he was wearing hi.
best clothes. The prisoner said he• had been off work a
little bit ; that he had been four hours on the way, but did
not say where from. Witness said, " Thou hast been to
see her ;" but the prisoner did not reply. Witness asked
him to walk with him, but prisoner declined, and said, "
should be a happy man if yon lass were in Todmorden.r
Witness advised him to get married and bring the girl to
the town, and the prisoner replied, " Dost thou know it
takes two to get married ?" They then parted at a spot a
few hundred yards fromlike vicarage. Since Sarah left
the vicarage the prisoner had not been as cheerful as h
was before.

By the Judge : Witness had associated closely with the
prisoner for the last five years.

Sarah Elizabeth Bell, the girl for whom the prisoner
hard conceived so violent an affection as to lead him to the
terrible crime with which he had been charged, was next
examined. She appeared to be suffering very much from
dejection of spirits. Her story has already been reported,
and the letters which have been already given were again
read.

The prosecution then put in the prisoner's statement
before the committing magistrates, which was as follows :
" I wish to say a few words, but it will all amount to
nothing. When I began to keep company with Sarah,
I thought I would act as an honourable man. I waited
upon Mr. Plow one night when he was coming out of
church, and told him I wanted to ask a favour which I
hoped he would grant. I told him I wanted to keep
company with Sarah, and when he asked me how long I
had known her, I said I had had my eye on her ever since
she came to •Todmorden. He said that was quite natural.
I asked him if he would grant me that favour, and he
said, ' Oh, no, he could not think of such a thing.' I said
I thought I would come and ask him in the right way, and
I little thought he would deny me. I said also that I did
not want to go whistling about the back yard, and that
my intentions were good. He replied that he had always
looked upon me as a respectable young man ; that Sarah
was a good girl, and he would speak to his wife about it.
I went to him a day or two afterwards, and he told me
that he had talked the matter over with his wife, and they
could not give their consent. He said they were both
very well pleased with the honourable way in which I had
acted, but they could not allow me to come into the house.
I asked that Sarah might be allowed to come out to see
me but he refused, and I saw it was no use asking for the
privilege, but I was determined to go to the house, and I
did go until Jane told about us keeping company. A
stop was then put to it. Since then I have been going to
ruin, and ever will be. I will die like a clog; but, after
all, I am glad Mr. and Mrs. Plow are living, and I hope
they will forgive me."

This concluded the evidence for the prosecution, which
Mr. Foster then summed up.
Mr. Torr addressed the jury for the defence. He said
the only defence he could suggest was that the prisoner
committed the murder when he was under the influence of
homicidal mania, and unaccountable for his actions. The
very atrocity and magnitude of the horrible crime was
proof that the prisoner's mind was diseased when he com-
mitted it. The number of weapons with which he had
provided himself, the alternations from the wildest passion
to the gentleness of a child, which he shewed during his
proceedings in the house, were proof that he had not gone
about the commission of the crime in that cool and delibe-
rate manner in which a sane man, who had resolved to
commit a murder regardless of consequences, would have
conducted himself.

The judge, in summing up, said the jury would not be
justified, by anything that appeared in the evidence, in
returning a verdict of not guilty on the ground of insanity.
The plain rule of law was, that if the prisoner knew at the
time he committed the act that it was a wrongful act, he
must be held to be responsible for the consequences. There
was. nothing at all inconsistent with the idea that the
prisoner was a person who had nourished bad and vindic-
tive passions, and that his disease was a moral and not a
mental one. He (the learned judge) could see that the
prisoner had nourished these bad passions against Mr.
Plow and Jane Smith, because he believed they had
separated him from his sweetheart ; but there was no proof
whatever of aberration of mind, and the theory which one
of the medical men had invented amounted to nothing. If
that theory were accepted by the jury, he did not know
what society would come to. The learned judge only occu-
pied twenty minutes in summing up.
The jury, after two minutes' deliberation, found the
prisoner guilty.
Mr. Justice Lush, after assuming the black cap,
addressed the convict as follows : " It would have been
a deplorable thing if the jury had listened to the argu-
ments which were advanced on your behalf, and ac-
quitted you on the ground of insanity, for I can see no
tittle of evidence from the beginning to the end that
your mind was ever affected further then any man's mind
and will are affected by cherishing bad and vindictive
passions. You have been most righteously found guilty
of a murder which, in its accompaniments, is almost
unparalleled in the history of crime. It looks like a mur-
derous onslaught of a wild savage rather than of a person
3H,eVm ascertained.a ny
. will
bb
erotti upe
victimsand o
fn3i nurtured re(i
outragein civilised life. How
We know that two have died, and a third, I believe, is in
peril.
For that crime you must die. You have forfeited
your life to the laws of your country ; but the law will not
deal with you as you dealt with your victims. You will
have time and opportunity for repentance, and I pray you
to make use of it, with the aids that will be afforded you ;
and I pray also that, by Divine grace, your heart may,
before you are launched into eternity, be softened to
sincere repentance."
The judge then passed sentence in the statutory form.
When he came to the close he said, " And I say it in all
sincerity, may the Lord have mercy upon you ! "
The convict, who had gazed steadily at the judge whilst
sentence was being pronounced, but appeared unmoved,
was then taken from the bar, -
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