Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1865-03-28
TDAILY LEADER.
EnrIi.h CiriIIEnfIon.


AtIoIn tue 1onQon AAAn1Hg
On Saturday last, ct the Durham ASST
zes, Matthew Atkinson was convicted OF
the murder of his wife, and the unexsrTi-
pied circumstances Of the crime can hard
", we pre=ume, have yet escaped the recol-
lection of the public. The murderer was q
Durham pitmsD, living at place called
the Spen, near Winlston, spot which it
is desirable 10 identify with some minute
ness, ss no other district in the kingdom
would care TO have the credit Of such a
story as we are about to tell. Pitmen are q
rough set in most places, but there are none,
We trust, who resemble those of the Spen.
Atkinson, on the l7th of last September,
left his home, about 10 o'clock in the NOR
ming, to 20 TO a shooting-mateh st neigh
boring pit. He was accompanied by two
nepheWs, beth mere lads, who, after spend
ing the day 81 the match, came home with
him at IL O'clock st night He was then
intoxicated, indeed Every drunk" but he
could walk and talk and put out his
strength. When he got TO his own house
he had to rattle at the door for minute
or two before his wife came 10 open It
for him, and when she did SO he found the
FIRE out and no supper ready. This sns
ragged him, and, as he and his wife had
long been living on bad terms his, anger
soon burst into blaze. The poor woman,
when he presently jumped up TO strike
her ran out Of the house, closed the door
after her, and tried TO effect her escape.
She did, indeed, actually get as far as the
door of a neighbor named Anderson, but
her husband pursued her, caught her on
Anderson's threshold, and after giving her
1 Ea ,.,aI h.
back home. Then he began TO kill her, q
| work on which he spent about an hour and
q half He beat her with the poker, the
toniT, the fire shovel, and a sweeping
brush. Theshovel be broke over her head,
and the tongs and poker he bent with the
violence Of his blows. Once, in the mid
die of the business, he stopped, went out Of
the house for about twenty minutes, re-
turned, and fell TO work again. At last
the deed was done, and then he seemed
rather sorry for it, having perhaps worked
himself sober; but his grief did not pre-
vent him from sitting down by the bed on
which the body lay, and smoking pipe,
an entertainment in which his neighbor
Anderson quietly joined lin.
These, however, strange to say, are not |
the most revolving features OF the csse.
Horrifying as they are, they are actually !
less calculated to kindle indignation than |
the Sc still to be detailed. The pit-men |
mustered pretty thickly st the Spen. |
There was a little colony OF them. We
hear their houses spoken of IS 81 the row."
and dozen men and women come before |
us in the scene. Yet, in all this number of |
these strong men, there was not one who |
dared TO lift his arm in defense of this poor |
woman. II was not that they were ignor-
ant of what was going on, Tor the whole
place WIS sstir. 1t was not that they held
life cheap or thought lightly of murder.
They held back from sheer coWsrdice.
Atkinson threatened them. He declared
that "he would shoot man or woman,
beast, God, or devi, that interfered," and
so they let him 60 on. One msn-it is his
own evidence that we quote-hesrd Atkin-
son start to thrash his wife" Then there
was iingling of fre-irons;" then a lul
then the sound of blows sgain; then the
woman cried "OhP few times, and so,
continues the witness, " went out TO my
brother to tell him what Atkinson was do
ing" Another man looked
through the upstairs window and
heard him thrsshing her and swear
ing he would kill her." @This,"
he adds, Heontinued very near an hour"
and he proceeds to say, "After thrashiDg
her long time he came out and went into
Bella Halls. 1 thought it was done, and I
went TO bed sgain." A third man actually
went into the house while the murder was
going on, saw blows inflicted, and heard the
not dead yetp He cried fShamep hessyS
hav Nrfa -, I
and keep him down; but then he tells us
that his wife was afraid that Atkinson
would hurt him, so he fsat awhile and then
went out" Two others went in togo rther,
and found the murderer sitting on the floor,
with his wife lying across his leg and the
tongs ready 70 his hand. They saw him
take the tongs and strike her, when one
told the other 10 go and take them away
from him. But Atkinson 'ordered them
out OF the house." and on his promise that
he would alet her alone" they went out,
when he followed them to the door, threat
ened TO shoot them if they interfered again,
and resumed his occupation.
We do not know what foreigners may
think of this ftorY; but we must say, for
the credit of Englishmen, that we believe
the like of il wSs never recorded before.
Here are humber of big, sturdy mem
seven actually gave evidence on the trial
who allow q woman to be killed by inches
before their eyes, without daring to stay the
arm of the murderer. He tells them that
he will killthem too if they come near him,
and they stand slOof The judge reflected
in strong language on the "crsYen spirit
which had permitted this outrage, and on
the Hwent of msnliness" which $50 many
persona" had exhibited. That the poor
woman's lite could have been saved by the
least demonstration of courage or spirit is
as clear as possible, yet these men did not
dare do even in a body what any police
man would not hesitate TO do single
handed any day of his life. 1t |
was but closing with q frantic
drunka1d, and the thing was done; but the |
murderer was allowed to 90 on for an hour
and half till he had finished his work,
become little penitent and "very civil"
We have heard of some such things In
Ireland, but there tbeconniYsnce was either |
the expression Of secret sympathies or the
result of an organized terrorism. We never
heard of man beating his wife to pieces
in an Irish village, while his next neighbors
looked on without daring TO interfere. We |
trust we may never again hear Of such |
thing in England, and we should much like |
70 know whether in the last six months that |
have elapsed since this murder, the pitmen |
of the Spen have been brought to any sense |
Of their conduct by those who should in
sttuct them. Are there any agencies
through which the population can be led |
l. i -