The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-04-03 00:00:00

DREADFUL MURDERS IN LIVERPOOL.

One of the most frightful murders that have ever been
perpetrated tcok place on Wednesday forenoon last, at
the house, No. 20, Leveson-street, in this town. Two
children were soon dead, and the mistress of the house was
so dreadfully injured that she expired on Saturday even-
ing, without ever having been sensible, while a female
servant of the lady bears on her person fearful marks of
the assassin's ferocity.

The unfortunate lady is the wife of Captain Henrich-
son, commander of the East India ship Duncan. belong-
ing to Messrs. Aikin and Son. She is stated to be highly
accomplished, and respectably connected in Hull, from
which she arrived a few months back. She was in the
habit, in order to diminish the expenses of a rising family,
of teaching music to a few private female pupils. At the
time of the murderous attack, she was eight months ad-
vanced in pregnancy. The house is in a respectable street,
a short distance from Great George-street. Mary Parr, the
servant, states that a person came to the house on Tues-
day afternoon, who called himself Wilson, arid took apart-
ments, the back parlour and a bed-room. Next morning,
the eldest boy, five years old, went into the new lodger's
room, and ran out again, followed by the man, who had
struck him. The servant girl remonstrated, when the
man took up the tongs and struck her down, leaving her

iad at this time gone out to make
some purchases, and sent home some potatoes by a boy
named Carney, who rang the door bell. The man opened
the door, took in the basket, emptied its contents on the
parlour floor, and returned the basket to the boy, who
went away. The man when seen by the lad had a band-

in sensi b.

Mrs. I

kerchief iied round the lower part of his face, and his
hands were covered with blood. The boy saw Mrs. Hen-
rickson return and enter the house. Nothing more was
seen of the inmates until a neighbour saw the man known
as Wilson leave in a hurried manner by the front door.
He passed up towards Great George-streeti, wiping the
perspiration fiom his face with a handkerchief. One of
the legs of his trowsers was pulled over his boot, to hide,
it is supposed, stains of blood. He was afterwards seen
to enter a car and was driven off. At half-past eleven
o'cloc': Mrs. H. purchased a jug, at Mr. Roebuck's, St.
James's-street, and shortly after sue left. a boy was sent
with it to the house. Hs rang the bell and knocked, no
one answering he looked through the key-hole, and saw

the legs and-feet of a female lying across the lobby.
Looking through the front parlour window, he saw the
servant and a child lying on the floor, and immediately
hastened for his master. A young lady, a pupil of Mrs.
H., also came up at the time, and on looking in at the
window burst into tears. Moans were heard to proceed
from the parlour, and some workmen who came up, broke
a pane of glass :and removing the catch, obtained an en-
trance.

The appalling spectacle which presented itself to the
men who entered was sufficient to overcome the stoutest

heart. Three hum

rally weltering in a pool of their own blood, their skulls
and faces smashed and mutilated in the most frightful
manner. Mrs. Henrichson lay with her head inside the
parlour door and her feet across the lobby ; her hair was
dishevelled, her features distorted, her face covered with
gore, and blood was still streaming from her fractured
head. In the middle of the floor lay the servant girl, and
near the fire place the eldest boy. They were all alive,

but dreadfully injured. No time was lost in procuring
medical aid, and Mr. Martin was soon in attendance. He
was followed by Mr. Slater; and as the victims still
breathed, they were ordered immediately to be conveyed
to the Southern Hospital.

Blood was traced down into the kitchens, and the walls
and stairs were besmeared with it. A pool of blood be-
tween the two kitchens was covered with a mat for con-

cealment.

n a smal

kitchen, was discovered the lifeless but still warm corpse
of the Child of three years old, the head nearly severed
from the body, and by its side, besmeared with blood, lay
a large table knife, with which the fatal wound had been
inflicted. The throat was completely cut to the backbone.

he vertebrae

)eing t

'y obstac

to complete decapi7.

the tongs were found. They were clotied with 'blood,
and portions of hair adhered to them. Some idea may
be formed of the force of the blows dealt unon his victims.

when it is known that the poker is much bent, that the
tongs are shattered, and the bottom part of the shovel
broken. On examining the head of Mrs. Henrichson,

twetve or tnirieen contuses wouras of toe scalp were ob-
served, with an extensive compound fracture of the skull,
besides other bruises and contusions about the face and

reac

she was per

For some time it was conjectured that the murderer was
a maniac, for though some of the drawers had been
opened, jewellery was found in them, and plate in the

kitchen. Subsequent events showed that the murder
had been perpetrated solely for the purpose of effectin
the robbery.

During the evening of Tuesday, Mr. Parsons, of Mill-
street, the family surgeon, and an intimate friend of Mrs.
Henrichson, called at the house. Mrs. Henrichson told
him all the circumstances as to the apartments being taken

by Wilson. Upon this Mr. Parsons remarked upon the
impropriety of taking any lodger into her house without
some previous knowledge of him, or a recommendation
with him. Mr. Parsons added, " Suppose he were to get

up in t

he nig'

it and murder you all."

Sadly has this

suggestion bee

The sup.

from noon the preceding day. On the morning the mur-
ders were committed Wilson met a boy in Leveson-street,
to whom he gave a note, with a request that after he
(Wilson) had entered the house the boy should knock at
the door and hand in the note. This the boy did, and he

has since identified the prisoner as

he man

evening, about eight o'clOck, a Mr. Cane saw a man w

inn his shoes and the front of his trowsers with a handke

chief, at a pit in Windsor, who appeared to resemble Wil-
son. An officer was afterwards sent to the pit, and found
the bloody handkerchief and the letter alluded to. It was

addressed to Mr. John Wilson, No. 2, Leveson-street."
The real number is 20. The letter contained nothing but
some unintelligible scribbling, within an envelope, and the
address appeared to be in a different handwriting from that
inside.

In the course of Wednesday afternoon, a person answer-
ing Wilson's appearance called at the house of Miss Har-
rison, 19, Upper Pitt-street, and asked for lodgings, and
the same afternoon he offered the gold watch for sale at

Tranmere. He is known also to have called, in the course
of Wednesday, at the house of his father-in-,aw, at Tran •
mere, a respectable man, possessed of considerable pro-
perty; but the latt3r, in consequence of his idle, dissolute
habits, had forbidden him to come near the premises.
There he saw his wife, to whom he showed money.
On Thursday he was traced to a shop in Great Howard-
street, where he bought a pair of trowsers, and cave his
others to a paviour who was at work in Shaw-street. On
the same day he had called several times at the shop of
Mr. Samuel, Great Howard-street, offering a gold watch
for sale. Mr. Samuel suspected, from the urgency with
which he pressed the sale, that the watch had not been
honestly obtained, and asked the man to walk with him to

the Police-office. This he consented to do, and when he
reached the office his general appearance raised the suspi-
cion that he was the person for whom such anxious search
_ . ___

had been made. Ills dress had undergone considerable
change. Instead of a hat, with crape on it, which he had
previously worn, he had on a cap. He had a wild and
confused look, and appeared somewhat in liquor.
The police have obtained a letter in his own handwri-
ting, addressed to his wife, and the writing corresponds
with the direction of the letter found at the pit. On Wed-
nesday evening he lodged in a house in Porter-street,
where he had given a shirt stained with blood to be washed.
Officer Toole afterwards found at the same house a hat

with crape on it, which, when placed on his head, consi-
derably changed his appearance. When he saw it he claimed
it as his own.

The mother of Mrs. Henrichson, who arrived in town
from Hull, has identified the watch and chain found in the

possession of the prisoner as those belonging to her daugh-
ter. A purse also found upon the prisoner has been iden-
tified by the charwoman who was in the habit of washing
in the house as the property of Mrs. Henrichson. The pri-
soner stated he bought the purse at Bristol, and also one
of the shirts of which he had three on his back, one of

th- m having lately undergone partial washing about the
sleeves. Mr. Superintendent Clough having cautioned the
prisoner, told him he was charged with the wilful murder
of two children. He replied, in a half careless, half im-
petuous manner, " I am satisfied to stand my trial for it."
Mr. Dowling ordered the prisoner to strip, and stains of
blood were found upon his black silk handkerchief. His
trowsers, cap, and neckerchief were new.

The prisoner, when asked his name, said it was John
Gleeson Wilson, and that he was an engineer. He betrayed
considerable levity.
The house in Leveson-street is in charge of the police,
and the valuable property is locked up. In Mrs. Henrich
son's bed-room a box was found opened, from which it is
supposed the watch and purse were taken; but a number
of valuable articles of jewellery, &c., were left. In the
front parlour almost every article is stained with blood,
including a wooden hoop with which one of the children
had been playing when the murderer struck him. During
the whole day the house was surrounded by crowds, dis-
cussing the fearful details of the affair. The servant girl
is recovering. '