The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-04 00:00:00

A COLD-BLOODED ATTEMPT TO MURDER.

MANCHESTER, MONDAY:
This . morning, at the Borough Court, a man named Gill,
was brought before Daniel Maude, Esq., the stipendiary
magistrate, charged with one of the most diabolical and cold-
blooded attempts at murder which has been recorded for
many years. The victim of the attempt was his wife, a
woman respectably connected, (the sister of Mrs. Leresche,
proprietress of the Manchester Acirertiserd to whom he
had been married about fourteen years, but who for the last
five years had been separted from him owing to his ill-usage,
and had been placed in a small way of business in Ashton-
road, Manchester. The prisoner had been to Africa during
the last two years it appears, and returned to Manchester
about a fortnight ago. During this time he had sought and
obtained repeated interviews with his wife, the object of
which was to persuade her to let him live with her. She re-
fused to do this, but offered to do all she could to maintain
him if he would continue separate. On Friday evening
last, he called and repeated his persuasions, and was
sitting alone with her at tea, when he suddenly seized hold
of a clasp ki4fe, and dragging his wife into a dark room used
for coals, threw het' down, and after deliberately feeling
about her neck, for the jugular ve.n, drew the knife across
her throat, inflicting a wound about nail-an-inch deep and
three inches long. He then deliberately left the house, and
was going down the street when some neighbours who had
been alarmed by the cries of his wife, suspecting what was
the matter, raised the hue and cry after him, and he was soon
afterwards safely lodged in the keeping of the police. His
poor wife was found weltering in her blood, where he had
left her, but on the assistance of a surgeon being procured,
it was discovered that the wound was not fatal, the villain
having missed his object. The following are the particulars
of what transpired in court :
Mary
Ann Gill, the prisoner's wife, was called into the
witness box and sworn. The unfortunate woman appeared
very weak from loss of blood, and being much affected on
seeing the prisoner, was some time before she could proceed
with her statement. In answer to questions from Mr.
Maude, she said : I am wife of the prisoner, and we have
been married about fourteen years, but about five years
ago he was induced to sign a deed of separation and leave
me. I believe he went to Africa about two years since, and
returned home a fortnight since last Saturday. I have not
lived with him since, but he has been at the house every day,
and in consequence of the language he made use of I have
mostly had a man who is a neighbour, to come and remain
in the house to protect me. He came in first on Saturday
fortnight, and said he wished to come and live with me. I
told him he should not, but he said he would, and staid in
the house several days. I was afraid of him, and had persons
with me most of the time. During this time I had many
conversations with him, but he did not then attempt any
violence. He did take his penknife on the Wednesday, before
he left me, and threatened to stab me. In consequence of
that he was taken before the magistrates at the New Bailey,
in Salford, but was discharged on his•promise not to annoy
me again. On the Monday following he came again to my
house, and said he was come to live with me. I told him he
should not, but promised to do all I could towards his sup-
port if he would not molest me. He again threatened to
annoy me before leaving the house. He came 'again on
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and behaved in the
same manner.

Mr. Maude: Was there a threat held out on eacl:
occasion ?

Witness : There was, sir : he kept saying he would have
blood. He came on Friday, about three o'clock. There
was no one in besides our two selves, and be sat down very
quietly. I was getting my tea at the time; and after he had
been in the house some time, he said,—" Will you live with
me, Mary Ann ?" and I said " No." With that he dragged
me into a dark place under the stair, used for coals, where I
had not room to turn round, and there he threw me down.
He had a clasp knife in one hand, and with the other hand
I telt him feel about for the jugular vein ; but I put my hand
over it. I said, "Oh ! spare my life ;" but he said "No ;
you shall die, Mary Ann,' and then he drew the knife across
my throat. cannot say how long we struggled, but it see ru-
ed but the work of a few moments. In that state he left me.
He had made use of no threats to me on this occasion, but
seemed wore than usually civil.
The prisoner put a number of questions to his wife, of
which the only ones to the purpose were the following :
Prisoner : Did not I ask you, on Friday, to he reconciled
to me, and I would try to get work, and assist you to keep
my children?
Wife: You did.

Prisoner : Did you not then fly into a passion and use op-
probrious epithets, saying 1 had borrowed another man's
clothes ?

Wife : No, nothing of the kind.
Mr. Maude : Had you said any thing to the prisoner to
make him angry ?
Wife : No, sir. He appeared all the time unusually civil,
but I observed that the muscles of his face worked very
much.

Prisoner : Did you not say that you had been obliged to
whore with Mosca to keep a house over your head, and did
not I feel as though the veins in my head had swollen to
double their usual size, and I seized you and said, " Then
you shall die, you b—ch, in your whoredom ?"
Wife : Oh, dear no.
Mr. Maude : Then did you say nothing of the kind to him?
Wife : I told him, sir, that he had tried to drive me to
prostitution, and I would never live with him again.
Mr. Maude : Was it then that he seized 'you ?
Wife : No, sir ; his last words were, would I ever live with
him again, and I-said I never would. He then seized me by
the shoulders, and pushed me into the place I have before
described.

Prisoner : Didl not accuse you of improperly admitting
that man into the house?

Wife : Yes, but the accusation W2S very unfounded.
The prisoner then said he was a murdered man ; but he
did'not attempt to deny that he had previously threatened'
to destroy his wife, though the magistrate called his attention
to that part of the evidence.
Mr. Robt. Boyer, surgeon, said he had dressed the wound
in Mrs. Gill's throat, which was about half an inch deep and
three inches long. In his opinion she had narrowly escaped
death.
The prisoner was then committed to the Liverpool assizes
for trial, charged with " cutting with intent to murder."