The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-21 00:00:00

MYSTERIOUS MURDER.

On Thursday night,- between 11 and 12 o'clock,
a merrier was discovered to have taken place in the
house of Robert Seale, a rule-maker, in No. 46,
Wentworth-street, Spitalfields, which, in atrocity,
has scarcely a parallel, and its perpetration, as well
as the parties themselves, are yet involved in the
darkest mystery. The facts, as they can at present
be collected, are these :—On last Saturday, about
twelve o'clock, a man apparently ber iering on sixty
years of age, swarthy complexion, full face, and in
excellent good health, about five feet six inches in
height, dressed in a grey frock coat and dark panta-
loons, called at the house of Mrs. Stafford, in
Wentworth-street, who keeps a lodgiug-house, (it
appears the custom is to let the lodgings by the night),
and asked her for lodgings. She had none unoccupied,
but seeing him a respectable settled man, she recom-
mended him to her opposite neighbour, a shoemaker.
He had a wife, but no woman was then with him.
He agreed for the lodging at Bd. per night for a
week at Seale's, and gave Is. earnest, but neither
gave his name nor any reference. He and his wife,
who is described as a decently-attired middle-sized
woman, about 40 years of age, slept there that night.
On Sunday he was seen by one of the lodgers in
the same house in the yard, and on Monday he was
also seen to bring a pot of porter from the Seven
Stars public-house opposite. On Tuesday morning
the woman went out early, and a person named
Whateley, who lodges in the next room, being up,
she gave him a shilling, and requested he would give
it to the landlord, as she supposed he was not then
up, and to tell him she would pay him the balance of
the week's rent on Saturday. On her going out,
the landlord (who sleeps in the front parlour) heard
her, and asked who it was ? She answered, and
told him what had passed between her and Whate-
ley. She slept there that night, and went out the
following morning, without interfering or speaking
to any person in the house • on Wednesday she
brought a pot of porter from the Seven Stars, and
went out on Thursday morning with the same reserv-
edness she had hitherto observed, but did not sincere-
turn. After the manbrought the porter from the publie-
house on Monday, he= was not afterwards seen. On
Thursday night, a little after 11 o'clock, the land-
lord not hearing her come in, and apprehending that
she might be stripping the room, went out into the
hall, and finding a key in a cupboard, which he sus-
pected was the key of their room, he went up stairs,
and applied it to the lock, but he found the proper
key was inside; he then forced the door, and horrid
to relate, he found the man lying on the bed, laid
out, with a cloth pinned under his chin, and covered
over with a sheet much marked with blood; the
body appeared in a state of complete putrefaction,
Ind the face nearly black ; the blood and matter
remain or any time
the in
circumstance
um room,stan ee the
to smell Al.
which had oozed from the mouth, nose, and ears,
made his appearance truly horrific, nor was it pos-
sible ,
t who hreom communicateda
n
,nond, an officer, of Spitalfields, wh ) yesterday re-
lated the facts to Mr. Nenett, at Vi7orship-street
Police-office, and he despatched Garton, the chief of-
ticer, with Eagles, to inquire into this mysterious
,flair. In the mean time, Locke, one of the beadles,
Drought Dr. Byles, of Crispin-street, to examine the
I ody, after which it was locked up in the same room,
to await the inquest.

Garton proceeded to the house of the landlord,
who told him the deceased came there on Saturday,
and he had never seen him but once • the wife he
had seen twice or thrice, and thought he should
know her again. When he entered the room, he
round the deceased as described, and the room
gripped of a counterpane, quilt, three blankets, a
new tea-kettle, with all the deceased's clothes. When
the deceased took the lodgings he gave no name or
reference, nor was it usual to ask lodgers such ques-
tions, paying as they do by the night.
Mr. Garton.—Then, if they were to pay Bd. by
he night, and had been with you since Saturday, and:
that you only received 25., is it not singular that 'you
lid not sooner look after your money ?
Seale.—The woman going Vilt on Thursday
morning, assured me she would pay the balance on
Saturday, and my uneasiness was more for fear of
stripping the room than the risk of the trifle they
owed.

Mr. Vithately said he lodged in the next room to
.he deceased, and understood he was a shoemaker;
but did not hear him at work. Indeed, he often re-
marked to several persons that they were a very
'Met couple, as he never heard them even talking tii"
each other. He alsn thought he should know the
woman.

Halligreen, a lodger in the same howae, said she
went to him early on last Tuesday• morning, and
rot a light in his room, whey, she gave him a
Shilling for the landlord, and requested he would apo-
logize for her until Saturday for the balance. He also
:ieard her go out early on Thursday morning, nor had
to the curiosity to ask her name, but was satisfied
he should know her again.
Dr. Bytes said, that on entering the room the first
,king he looked for was a cup that might contain
•ome poison, or any instrument that would take away
life; but he saw no appearance of either. The de-
eased bore all the appearance of having been poi-
;oned, as the body was in that state of rapid putre-
raction as to denote its effect; and he thought the
woman remained in the room until the smell became
•;o offensive as to drive her away, in the expectation
that from the state of putrefaction the cause could
not be ascertained. He also promised Mr. Garton
that he would in the course .of the evening dissect
`-he head and body.

Thomas Allen, a private on furlough, belong-
ing to one of the East India Company's regiments, on his
return from Liverpool to Chatham, was, on Thursday
corning, stopped by three men on the road crossing that
part of Cannock Chase which lies immediately beyond the
village of Milford, near Stafford. The ruffians robbed him.
,f his watch, fifteen shillings in money, and a gold rinpi, to
obtain which they had the brutality actually to cut oft; with
i knife the poor fellow's finger ! They were warmed by
two gentlemen coming up, or there is no kno,;.:in,; to what
length their barbarity might have gone.
•ft,t the time they
attacked
andhim c
thheee
cheessoldiere by
the wasrod side.
paartaking %f a temperate meal
of bread

W
LEEDS STUFF vv EAThe committee
of the operative Stuff-weavera now standing out to oppose
t reduction in their wages, in this town, hare published an
advertisement in the Leeds Mercury of Saturday, declaring
that "direct falsehoods" were promulgated in our last
week's paper, respecting the disturbances which took place
the week previous. They there state "that the men re-
turned the webs on their own accord," and that, if a mob
took place, as described by us, "it was their opinion the
Magistrates would interpose their authority, to bring those
to justice who were identified in that mob." In answer to
this we have only to say, that a number of those who were
" identified," were in custody at the period the Mercury
was published, and during the day, they underwent au ex-
mination before the Mayor, charged with committing the
utrage which we mentioned, and which has been denied
y the committee in the advertisement above alluded to.
After several witnesses had been examined, the result ruts,
that Thomas Wheelan, Jeremiah Chokely, John Fitz-
patrick, James Rudd, Nicholas Burke, Mark Conway,
Edward Fitzpatrick, Fenton _Duff, and Charles Wood,
(Who is brother to Thomas Wood, the person who signed
the advertisement in the Saturday's paper, as president of
the committee,) were ordered to find bail to answer the
charge at the Sessions. It appeared, that a great number
of the men had proceeded to the houses of the unfortunate
objects of their vengeance, immediately after having held a
meeting on the Tab Hill. All the prisoners acknowledged
to being present when the alleged offence was committed,
but denied having had any participation in it. In furtlur
proof of the correctness of our paragraph, we may mention,
That in another part of the Mercury, was a statement of
the occurrence, to the same purport as the one published by
us. Notwithstanding this, we are concerned to state that,
on the evening of the same day, another violent attack was
made upon some of Mr. Green's workmen, whose persons
were violently assaulted, and the windows of their houses
shamefully broken by the fury of the " turn-outs." These
men perhaps are not aware that the expense of repairing-
the mischief they commit, does not fall upon the industri-
ous individuals whose property they destroy.—Leeds
tilligencir.