The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1864-12-17 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

BRUTAL MURDER IN SHROPSHIRE.  An Inquest was held on Saturday, before Mr. Weyman, Coroner, on the body of an ~id mao mimed John It wary, mole than sixty yeses of age, who f ilowe I the avocation of a atutV her. Tim murderves llama is Walter Barker, ethos Bytheway," thirty one years of age It appeared from the evidence that the deceased and prisoner started together on the morning of Thursday on a ratcatching expedition. intending to visit wveral farmhouses in the neighbourhood, g tiny at once to else Downton. After the day's work they vi•ited the Holly Btoh Inn, at Stoke St. Milborough, where they re. wanted drinking for tome time. Previous to leaving, Barker took a glass of ale from the hand., of the deceased, and threw the contents into the old man's face, cursing him several times. Several person who were near expostulated with Barker upon he ill-ussge of deceased, and the landlord (Mr. Howell) offered a hello his house to the old man, and tried to prevail upon him not to go borne as he was some A hat intoXiCated. Ile, however, refused, and at about half past nine Barker and Rowley left the house together to go home, as they lived not very far from each other. Between ten and eleven o'clock, an old Wolnan named Butcher, Heins in a cottage on toe roulsioe, heard a noise and a scuffle a little above her rfsidence. but did not go out to eve what was the matter. Rebecca Rowley, widow of the deceased, mid that Barker's grandmother being ill, Abe went to attend to her during Walter Barker's absence, and woe waiting for him to come home. Between one and two o'clock on Friday morning he came into the house awl said to her, " &coif. your old man is dead, or very swat will be, for he is awfully drunk; he cannot stand May more than a child. I reared him up against a Elven batik, the dryest place I could find. You had better go home and tell J..nea to go after him." On Friday morning a farmer named Ilodnet was Passing along the road, and saw the dead body of It iwlty lying on the road ; he gave information to some other persons, and it was discovered from marks on the road that there bad been • scuffle, and that the body tif deceased had been dragged for some distance to the place where it was footed. A great deal rf blood and some human hair were also found in different places near. In the place where the scuffle appeared to have occurred there were marks of two sets r,f boot., but near to where the lts dy lay only one kind of foot prints were ohaerved, and they did not correspond with the boots on the feet of the deceased. Mr. Meymott, surgeon, dela:sod that in making a post-mortem examination he found a bruise on the left temporal Entocle. On removing the scalp he observed nearly a teaspoonful of clotted bloat on the brain, in the part exactly corresponding with the external bruise. This wield be quite eutlicient to cause immediate death. When the police officer went to the prisoner, before any charge WM made, he said, "It is a bad job about poor old Jack, is it not?" A verdict of "Wilful murder" was returned: and the prisoner was committed on the coroner's warrant for trial at the next sea loge.