The Warwickshire Herald. — 1888-03-15 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

THE ALLEOED THREAT TO MURDER KELYN(:E OREENWAY,  DISCHARI:E OF THE ACCUSED. In charging the grand jury at the Warwick-shire Assizes on Monday, Baron Huddlepton referring to the charge against Michael William Walsh, who was charged with sending a letter to Major Fosbery, the trustee of t;reetiwayie estate, threatening to murder KelyngeOreenway. said the accused hail Raved a little money, and he should Suppose, from the character of the letter, that the loss of this through the bankruptcy of the Greenways had driven him into a state of deltair. He seemed to have contemplated emigration to America, and the fact of his money having been lost by the bank failure deprived him of the means of accompanying some ()this friends thither. Then he gave vent to seine very violent expressions of anger towards the persons who had become bankrupt, and wrote some very injudicious . and improper letters to the trustee, imploring him to make an exception in his favour, at all events to give him an early dividend. If the I; rand Jury really thought from those letters that the prisoner i•eall intended to murder one of the • Greenways, they might perhaps feel it their duty • to return a true bill ; but if, looking at them, intemperate though the language was, they believ• ed accused had no real intention to carry out his , threat, it would be within their discretion to throw ' - out the bill. The (rand Jury returned a true bill, and ..prisoner wits indicted later in the day. After the evidence had, been given in support of the prosecution, witnesses to prisoner's character were then called.—Mr. Thomas Hughes, of Oaklands, Knowle, stated that Walsh had been in his service as farm bailiff until some two or three months ago. He received a thirteen year's character with him from Mrs. Job Taylor, from whom he (witness) took the Oaklands. He always found him a thoroughly honest, industrious man, and most • frugal. Mr. John Nowell, farmer, Chessett's 'Wood, near Knowle, said he had known the ,prisoner for nearly seven years as an honest, hardworking, steady man.--Mr. John Harrison, cow. keeper, Baddesley Clinton, who had known Walsh for twenty years, spoke of him in similar terms.— Mr. Wilmot, for the prosecution, said it was only due to the prisoner for him to say that there was a slip enclosed in the envelope which contained the letter in question which to a certain extent modified the letter which the prisoner wrote, and subsequently he expressed his sorrow for what he termed his idle threats. He (Mr. Wilmot) would leave the case in his lordship's hands. —The J edge, addressing the prisoner, said it was a very sad thing to see a man who had borne a respectable character such as the prisoner standing in a crimina) dock. He sympathised a great deal with the prisoner in the position in which he was placed. He had saved a little money, he was trustee for others, and the whole of his savings were engulfed by that unhappy bankruptcy which had created such devastation in the whole of this county. He quite felt that the prisoner might have been very much excited, very angry, and irritable over it; but he ought to have restrained himself. He was trying to get Major Fosbery to give him preference over other creditors. Every man felt his own case to be the hardest, and thought probably that some benefit . would be more properly given to him than to others. His lordship quite felt that the prisoners was a very cruel and very hard case, but he must not transgress the law. He should think the prisoner had given (luring the years he had been in this country substantial pledges to show that he was a lawabiding citizen, and an honest and respectable man. He was inclined to make every allowance for that, and he thought that the justice of the case would be met by allowing him now to go away upon entering into his own recognisances in the HUM of £5O. not to offend again. He must in future restrain his impetuosity and his language, and he would hear nothing more of this matter. Prisoner: Thank you, thank you, my lord.