The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-04 00:00:00

ATTEMPTED MURDER of A WIFE
BY HER HUSBAND.
Yesterday morning the inhabitants of Vauxhall-
road and Tithebarn-street were thrown into a state of
great excitement by a rumour, rapidly circulated,
that a man had stabbed his wife at No. 11,
Lower Milk-street, and that the most serious appre-
hensions were entertained that the wound was mor-
tal. It unfortunately turned out to be but too true
that the diabolical act had been perpetrated : and
we fear that by the time this sheet meets the public eye,
the unfortunate female's life will have fallen a sacrifice
to the. revengeful spirit of her husband. The parties
had only removed the evening before (Mon-
day) from Cockspur-street to Milk-street, where
they took lodgings on the first floor. After
the lodgings were taken, the husband, who has
given his name as John Morris Murphy, and who
is an Irishman by birth, and an oil and colour mixer
by occupation, went out, and remained at some public-
house during the whole of the night. On his return
home, yesterday morning, he requested his wife, wha
was lying upon a wretched bed in the apartment,
to get up and prepare him some breakfast. She
refused, upon the ground that she had no
victuals in the house, and no money to purchase any,
whereupon he seized hold of an old table-knife, and
stabbed her with it behind the ear and on the right
side of the neck. Her screams brought several of the
neighbours to the spot, and there they beheld blood
flowing copiously from the wound, and Murphy in
the act of holding, with one hand, a washhand-
basin to
.receive it, and endeavouring with the other
to stop the bleeding by applying a cloth to
the wound. The account he gave of the trans-
action was, that it was purely accidental ; that she fell
against a large pan which was lying on the floor, and
that the broken edge of the vessel caused the injury.
This story, however, was looked upon as very impro-
bable, and was rendered still more so by the medical
men being of opinion that the wound was caused by a
sharp instrument. A rusty table-knife was found in the
room, and was taken possession of by one of the police
officers.
The prisoner was apprehended by Superintendent
Lawson and conveyed to Vauxhall Bridewell, where
he remained during the day, and repeatedly made
inquiries as to how his wife was getting on and
whether she was likely to survive. She was conveyed
on a stretcher to the Northern Hospital, where every-
thing was clone for her that medical and surgical skill
could accomplish. The great object, of course, was to
stop the bleeding, and this was almost wholly effected in
a short time ; but the danger likely to arise from stir-
ring her, by causing the woundto bleed afresh, prevented
minute c!--anainztion of the irj!.ra!l prat from being
made. in answer to our ingli:le3, n-a Iranrd ti: it
vis iwpos,siblz to say boy iic,ul7 the I:ndc
is the heck ~-1-,,scovm•ad with her elottM
hair, but that the ~.vounl bore e;rry appeanYreP of
having been infi'.ct,sd by soate icArmucnt. Her
life yesterday afternoon was considered in imminent
danger; there was a chance that she might survive, but
the probabilities were that she was fast sinking
into the jaws of death. She alluded constantly
to her husband, spoke of him in the kindest
terms, and said his misfortune was that he could
not bear up against poverty. It appears that
though he is a journeyman colour-manufacturer he has
not been in the habit of following his trade, and that in
fact he had no means of livelihood except what he made
by selline. newspapers. The parties have seven chil-
dren, the youngest of whom is only two months old, and
the eldest only ten years.—Lire. pool Cortri,r of Wed-
nesday.