New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-14
THE UYBRIDGE MURDER.

The little town of Uxbridge, near London,
was the scene, short time ago, of a crime
beside which even the murders of IrOpmann
seem almost venial. A respectable blacksmith
named Marshall had been preyed upon for
several years by a vagabond brother grad
uate of innumerable jails, an incorrigble thief,
who extorted money from his relatives by
threatening to disgrace them by publicly claim
ing the relationship. Early one Sunday morn
ing he visited his brothers cottage, as he had
so often done before, and probably on the
usual errand. What was said at the interview
can only be cOnjectured. We may suppose
that the demand for money was renewed, and
was answered by reproachcs and refusal. The
convict became incensed, seized an ak, and
drove it through his brothers skull. The rest
of the family had not yet risen. At the alarm
they hurried down half dressed and one
by one they were dispatched as they came
into the room. His mother, his sister, his
brothers wife, his brothers three children all
fell under the muTderer's frenZied hand. Three
or four hours he remained in the cottage with
those awful witnesses to his crime. He
changed his bloOd-smearcd clothes for a suit
belonging to the man he had killed. He
gathered up what money and jewelry he could
find, and then he went forth, not to flee the
country, but to loiter around the low taverns
of the neighboring towns, pawn his sisters
watch, and spend his few pounds worth of
plumber in debauchery and vulgar ostentation.
One night it is known that he passed with a
prostitute, whom he terrified by running around
from room to room with pistol Cooking for
somebody to kill" OF course he was soon
arrested, and he is now awaiting trial.
We have not called attention to this case for
the purpose of moralizing on the horrible phe-
nomenon which the existence of this monster
presents; for such studies we believe are
neither pleasant nor improving The prob
lens involved in the crimes of creatures like
Marshall and Tropmann are insOluble by any
known rules of mental analysis. But we can
not help rejecting what an excellent chance
this slaughterer of his mother, his brother and
sister, a whole family of seven of his nearest
relations, would stand of escape if the practice
of some of our New-York courts should
be introduced into England. 1t has been
held here that man may pass instan-
taneously from sanity to mania, may
commit homicide in that insane and ire
spOnsible state, and may tn en- recover his
reason as suddenly as he lost it; and of all
that he has done during the mOmentary frenzy
the courts will hold him acquitted. 1t has
been held that a brain more or less disordered,
yet still to all intents and purposes practically
sound, may be overturned by some violent
emotional disturbance, and then in an hour
regain its balance. 1t has been declared by
well-knOwn medical expert that degree of
melanchoGa, not sufficient to constitute insan-
ity in the ordinary acceptation of the word
may be changed by some violent exciting
cause into brain-congestion, resulting in total
responsibility; and the courts have sustained
this view. with the additional ruling that a
man who commits homicide in that paroxysm
of congestion, though he regain his senses i'm
mediately afterward, and though he be. ON
medical testimony, liable to have another
attack and to go around like Marshall
looking for somebody to kill" is not to be
punished nor even placed under precautionary
restraint. There are some principles here
which, unfortunately for the Uxbridge slaugh-
terer, have not been adopted yet in England
But how easy it would be- With the precedents
established by certain cases which We need