The Weekly Gazette for Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and Cleveland District. — 1879-02-22 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

TFIE CONVICT PEACE. CONFESSION OF ANOTHER MURDER. AN INNOOENT MAI BUFFERING.  A telegram from Manchester states that information has been received at that town to the effect that Peace has made a confession that he shot Police-Constable Cock, at Whalley Range, about eighteen months ago Three brothers, named Habron, were tried for the offence, and the youngest (Wm. Hebron) was- found guilty, and sentenced to death. His sentence was afterwards commuted to penal servitude for life, which he is now serving.  The Sheffield Independent says :—We have every reason to believe that Peaoe has a greater surprise in store for the public than has yet been made known with respect to him; that before his execution on Tuesday next he will confess to a murder for which he has never been tried, and for the commission of which an innocent man narrowly escaped the hangman's rope, and for which he is now suffering. Between his prayers and his meditations Peace has for the last few days been busily occupied in preparing plans, similar, though on a larger scale, to that which he furnished of Banner Cross; and when not engaged upon these he has spent his time in writing what is believed to be a confession. Neither the precise locality with which the plans deal nor the nature of the confession has been allowed to leak out from Armley, but from information upon which we can rely we have reason to believe that both the one and the other relate to the murder of a policeman named Cock at Whalley Range, a suburb of Manchester, on August Ist, 1876. Peace, as the Banner Cross plan proved, has a wonderfully accurate recollection of the scenes of his exploits, and if we are not mistaken the plans upon which he is now working will show that he remembers the precise spot where Cock fell and all the roads in the vicinity. There is no doubt that Peace was in Manchester at the time of the murder. It was there that he went when the warrant was issued against him by Mrs Dyson towards the end of July; and it is known, too, that he went there not only to escape ti:e execution of the warrant, but to do a little business in the way cf burglary. For this purpose he took his housebreaking implements with him; and his revolver, without which he never went on such expeditions, formed part of his stock. Two or three days after his arrival in Manchester Police-constable Cock was shot under circumstances which bear a very close resemblance to the scene enacted at Blackheath when Peace fell into the hands of Robinson. As will be noticed, he is watched into the private grounds of a gentleman's house; he is followed by an officer; and in endeavouring to escape he encounters a second. Cock probably attempted to arrest him, and is shot by Peace, who, in the darkness of the night, escapes unseen. Three brothers, named Hebron, were apprehended for the murder, and one of them was found guilty upon evidence of a purely circumstantial character. On account of his youth—he was only 18 years old—he was recommended to mercy, and though he NMI sentenced to death, that sentence was afterwards commuted to penal servitude for life. Peace went to Hull, came to Sheffield, and returned to Hull again; and when he had quarrelled with his family he went back to Manchester. He was in the city when the two Hellions were put on their trial; and there is reason to believe that he was present at the trial and heard the unfortunate youth sentenced to death for the crime of which he himself was guilty. Early the next morning he came to Sheffield, and calling upon his mother in Orchard street, he threw a Manchester paper down on the table and said, " There, that's where I've been." The paper was looked into by one of his relatives, and it was found to contain a report of the trial and conviction of the young man Habron. That same night Peace went to Banner Cross and shot Mr Dyson. The jury, after a long deliberation, acquitted John, but returned a verdict of guilty against William, but he, being only eighteen years of age, was recommended to mercy. Sentence of death was passed upon the youth, the judge tolling him that he would forwarci the reoomiitry to tile proper quarter. The prisoner, on leaving the dock, exclaimed "I am innocent." Subsequently, the prisoner was reprieved, and his sentence WM commuted to penal servitude, More than two years have elapsed siace then, and Perthe may feel anxious that the young ma-n should have his innocence proved before he goes out of the world.