Suspected Murder.
The Times, 1824-05-10T00:00:00

On Friday two men, each about 34 years of agze, named W Spencer, and S. Johnson. were brought before J. ScRlvESr and J. WOOLLEY, Esqrs.. Surrey .1agistrates, charged upon suspicion ofhavinrc mnurdered 2lIary Wilkins, wife of llenry Vilkins, a car- man in Bcrmondsey. iTbe deceased was found in the Surrey canal on S urdav (Istin:t), with Tnmarks o1 violence on her person. 1IIery Wilkins said,-Tlhe last time I saw my wife was on last Pritlay evening, at her mother's (Ars. Horslev)( Grange-road ; I Icit her there,and never saw her alive after. iv!y landlatly and me stopped up till nearly twelve o'clock; I theni retired to bed ; I made inquiry at her mother's and difhrent places, and could get no in- formation about her. Elizabeth Horsley said-lUy-dauglhter the deceased, came to my house on Friday, as I have been infonrned, about nine in the morn- ing, and stayed all dav the lodgers told me that she left about 20 minutes after 7 o'clock; on Saturday morning her husband called at my house, a little past five o'clock, to inquire whether Mlary had been there; he said she hadl not been bome all night. Tuesday morning early, I went out to inquire about my daughter. In the Rent-road I met a woman who asked me if I fiad heardl of a ytoung womnan being found in the canal. I then went to the Lord N'elson, and lound a body, which I discovere4 to be my daughter. T never heard of my daughter's husband striking or ill-using her, but they sometimes quarrelled. Olive Westward deposed, that Johnson and Spencer came several times after the deceased at her lodgings. She told witness that Spencer had been to sea for two Years, was just aeturned, and was a single man-shc had known him slnce she was 12 years old, and that he would have had her-he did not mind tying for her now, for that he would shoot W'ilkins ; that he had brought her home six shawls, and many fine thin s; she first staid his vessel lay at Gravesend, then that he lotiged in Blackfriars-road; that she had lett him at her father's, to sleep there that night; he was come to take hler to France with him; witness reniinded her that she was married now-she said, " Where I am he will be." Witness added, that on exarnining the corpse, she should not think, from the appear- ance, that slhe had destroyed herself; there were marks on both arms, particu!arly the left, as if she had been squeezed by some one; there was also a mark under one of her cars. Stephen b'omera swom.-I live at the WI'heatsheaf, Lombard- strect, in the Mint. I hare seen the deceased repeatedly at mv house about three months since; she had net been there since tiil last Friday nghit; she came about half-past eight or nine o'clock, in company with the two prisoners; they all left my house about half- past eleven o'clock. The woman seemed to be a little intoxicated; noticed dit to inv wife. Spencer seemed quite sober; Johnson ap- peared to be a lictle in liquor. I think the deceased was not so far zone as not to be able to tind her way home. I did not see which way the deceased or the prisoner l wenteon leaving my housc. I don't know whether tney separated or not and did not hear any thing more of the deceased till Monday or Tuesdav, when it was men- tioned at my house that she was found drowined. On Saturday morning the prisoners came to my house together, and stopped about an hoour. lobserved no chaage in their dress. I did not hcar them saY one word about tlihel Pre,-- Ann Spencer, the wile of Slencer._All I know is, that mv husband was out last Friday night. We have been married nine years, and I never'knew htim to be out a night before, aU night: sometimes he would getin liquor with his companion, .Joinson; buthe was always agood kind busband, and regular incoming hore to hiarneals and his bed. On the Friday, at half-past two o'clock in the afternoon, he came home, washed himself, and put on a waistcoat and another liat. He then said that he was going out, but would shortly return. I next saw him on Saturdlay morn iag, about ten o'clock. He ap- peared a little in liquor, and saidl that he had been at Johnson's, and that he had got there at a little after two o'clock that morning. At the Pitt's Head, a woman told rne my husband had been drinking with the dleceased on the Friday night at that house. Eliz. Johnson, the wife of the other prisoner. said-illy husband and Spencer camle to our house about two o'clock on Saturday morning and remained there till half-past five; they then went out, ano returned at seven o'clock: my husband was in liquor; Spencer was more collected. The Magistrates asketd them whether they wished to state any tling, but to,l them that ticy were not bound to do so unless they thought proper. Spencer said-On Thursday afternoon, I and my shipmate, John- son, were nut; and on coniing down Teoley-street, in the Borough, r said; Wc may as well go and see if Susan is at home ;" and he went and came back, saying that she was not. tL Here the prisoner said that he did not wish to state any thing more at present.1 Neither of the prisoners attempted to give any account of himself from the time they left the Wheatsheaf until they reachsed Johnson's honse-an interval of two hours and a half. The M1agistrates postponed the further investipation. On Saturday usorning, at 8 o'clock, the investigation of this mys- terious circumstance was resumed in the committee-room of Cam- berwell WVorkhouse, before JA5CESSCRLIVEN, 1sq., JOHN WOOL- LEY, Esq., ClUARLES GORDON, Esq., GEORGE ALLEN, Esq., and other Alagistraics of the county. The prisoners, Spencer and Johnson, were brought from Camber- well-cage, in which they had been confined during the night, attended by a considerable number of the inhabitants. The only additional evidence of importance was thefollowing:_ Gideon Levis, constable of Cambenvell, sworn.-I never desired any mau on Saturday last to go and searclh for things supposed to have been stolen. I heard, on Friday nigbt, that a gentleman's carriage had been robbed of an imperial, and that two men had been seen with it in Peckhaam-fields, by the canal-bridge. On Saturdav morning about a quarter before six, a man came to my wife, and said he tnought there had been a robbery committed, on the bank of the canal, for he hnd found some linen. The person was a man about 45 or 50 years ot' age; he bad an olive-coloured smock-frock on, and I thik be had gaiters-on, but I am not certain. Under- neath the frock he had a sort of corduroy c0at on, like a game- keeper's Jacket; he said hic name we Johnson, that he came to Londoi~ to see the stewara of Sir Chardea Carewr h.t. He saidl tbat he had been down in Comrwaflsomnelengthoftimne, loolkingafter a salmon fishery belonging to Sir Chirles, a short distance from Bod. usin. He describeA the mode of catching salmon. Iscompanied the man towards the canal. On arriving iWithin twenty vards ofthe halfpennv hateh, be said, " This is the place where I found thebas- kct.'the basket had a large pillow-case in It, wlthout a mark. ,l'e went to the spot where he found the basket, and he wished me to get a rake, saying he was confident there was saoe property there. I told him that I doubted it. He aid he had seen no per- sons about, except twe men, then at a distance, whom I knew to be employed there. I thouyht the man might be a little dislordered in his mind. f watched him; he'went to a house near; and brought out a rake, like a hay-rake, and worked it backwards and forwards in the canal, just in the spot where the basket was found, which was about twenty vards from Back's hatise, on the same side. About thirty yards from that spot the body was found, the same 5ide of the water, but on the other side of. the gate. I left the man on the bank of the canal. Back came to me between twelve and one o'clock on Saturday, and informel me they had found the body of a young woman in the water. I went to the Lord Nelson and saw the corpse, and noticed marks on the left arm; the marks were much alike, and appeared to have been caused by the pressure of finger I heard that the landlord had searched the body, and therefore did not de so. An Inquest afterwarcls sat on the deceased. On Vedntedady, between 12 and I o'clock, I and Sedgler apprehended Johnson, at a public- house on Saffron-hill. We asked him a few queslions desired him to speak guardedly, and held out no vrntise of favour. He said that he was out on the Friday night tall 2 o'clock in the morning,mand he was in the company of Spencer. He did not say that a woman was in their comranv, but he said, " he did not know where the woman went to ;` and he said " that Spencer knew more about it than lie did." Sedgeley took .Johnson to Cam- herwell. I went. o }acknev, and found that Spencer had left his employ to Fo to the Pitt's Head, mranze-road, Bermondscy. On rev return from Hackney, at half past 6 o'clock, Spencer was at the Pitt's Head. I took him into custody. I cautioned him against saying any thing to his own projudice. I told him for wh%t he was apprehended, and he denied knowing any thing aUout it He said atterwards, " that he had been withi the Young woman, and had bad a bit of fun, or a fuddle ;" he also saia that they went to a nublic house in the 1M1int, where they drank together, and that he parted with her at the top of the Dover-road. He aftnrwards said that it was very late, and they went to Johnson's hou.e, and sat up. I think nis words were, "1 We left her at the top of the Dover-road." I have made inquiry for the man that wsaS raking the canal. but halve not been able to learn anything of himt He was a stranger to mne, but was as familiar as if he had kttoytine for yeAra. The miatks on the arms of the deceased wbenutfaw ihem, were of a bluc cast; she had then been taken out of the catal about an hour and a half. The CHAIRMA2; (MIr. Scriven), havinc consulted for some time with his brother Alagistrates, asked the prisoners if they had sny witnesses who could prove in what manner they employred their time after they left the Wheat-sheaf public-houec, tili two o'clcck on the Saturday morning. Theprisoner Spencer said, they had gentlemen in attendance to speak to their character. The Mlagistrate said, that the case was involved in much mystery, and strong suspicions offoul play attached to the prisoners, in conse- quence of the marks of violence upon the body of the deceased, they being the laatpersons seen in her company previous to her death. 'Ihe prisoners said they were inrkocent of the murder. The Magistrate said, that he hoped they would be ablc to sub- stantiate their innocence, but he and his colleagues were of opinion, that justice demanded a more solemn investigation of the cause of the young woman's death. They therefore committed the prisoners to llorsemonger.lane gaol, on suspicion ef the murder of Alary W,ilkins, and directed tbem to be brought to Union-hall on Wed- nesday next, for final examinatiorn before the police-magistrates of that oFfice. The mother of the deceased said the bodv was not interred, and that the marks on the arms and side of the neck had become more discoloured. The Magistrates ordered a surgeon to examine the bedy, prior to its interment, and directed that he and M$lr. Pritchard, a surgeon in the Kent-road, whosaw the body before the jurysat upon it,shlouldat- tend at Union-hall wvhen the examination takes plae. Summonses were issued to compel the attendance of other witnesses, whose evi. dence is expected to be important. The officers were ordered to use all diligenice in their power to apprehend the man seen raking the canal; and the IMlagistrates were of opinion, that publicity of this case in the newspapers was important, and likely to aid in Its deve- lopment, as it was pregnant with suspicion. SUSPECTPD MlURDER.