The Potteries Examiner : — 1874-12-05 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

SHOCKING MURDER IN HANLEY. A murder of a horrible character was committed on Saturday night in Burton Place, New-street, near the Temperance Hall. It appears that on the day named a collier, George Chatterton, 25 years of age, was drinking with a cousin, one Henry Roe, and other persons. Roe, Chatterton, and Chatterton's father, together with other persons, loft a beerhouse at about eight o'clock, and walked to the Three Tuns, a public-home situate in the Bucknall-road. The man Roe challenged someone to fight, and he was asked by the landlord (Mr. Hopwood) to sit down or leave the home. The man Chatterton had, however, previous to thi.i offered to fight some one for half-a-crown. Roe, upon going out of the house, was closely followed by Chatterton, and the father of the last named man likewise followed, sns:  pecting, it is said, something might occur. He watched the two men until they got near the Old Hall Mann. then went hack to the Three Tuns Inn for a companion. They returned to the spot where Roe and Chatterton had been left, and, not finding them there, walked to Burton Place, SA before described, it New.street. Here the father saw to his horror a baly lying across the footway. At this time it wanted some few minutes to nine o'clock. Ile raised the body up and discovered it was that of his son. Life was quite extinct, the wretched man's death having been caused, to all appearance, by stabs, one of which had produced death by the penetration of the femoral artery. Blood MIA flowing from the lifeless body, and an alarm was instantly given and the body conveyed to the police station, and a horrible sight was presented. Roe was found to be missing, and the Superintendent of police (Mr. Williams) immediately set to work with a view to apprehending him. The telegraph was put in operation and the County police together with the Borough constabulary worked with a will during the whole night, and by eleven o'clock on Sunday morning the prisoner was apprehended by the Borough police in Old Hall-street, and immediately conveyed to the police station. He was searched and stripped. No knife was found upon him, but there were stains of blood en his shirt and on the lining of his right.hand trouser pocket. After being duly cautioned, he made a statement to the effect that he was SO drunk he knew nothing about what had happened after he left the Three Tuns the night before. Prisoner is a labouring collier, and is a cousin of the deceased. The prisoner is about thirty-one years of age, about five feet three inches in height, rather stiffly built, and of an unprepossessing appearance. In the pockets of the deceased was found a pocket handkerchief, about II in money, a tobacco pipe, and a bleed-stained knife. The knife, which was literally imbued:with blood, were found in bin right-hand trousers pocket. The deceased, who was a single man, lived with his father in Nelson-plase, Hanley. The prisoner, who is a native of Snelstone, near Ashbourne, has been recently lodging at Corcoran's lodging-house, Longton. He left his lodgings at nine o'clock on Saturday morn. tog, and is supposed to have spent the day with the deceased. The body of the deceased was examined at the police-station by Mr. Spanton' surgeon. There were four wounds in different parts of the body, which, according to Mr. Spanton's statement, were probably inflicted by a sharp knife. One wound was in the left cheek, and penetrated into the mouth; a second, but not a very severe one, was in the region of the heart; and a third on the right side of the abdomen. This wound most have been inflicted with considerable force, as the ninth rib was cut clean in two. The fourth wound, and the one which was probably the direct cause of death, was inflicted deep into the groin on the right side, extending down the thigh, and severing the femoral artery. The wound was of sufficient dimensions to allow of the medical man to insert three fingers into it. The knife found in the pocket is a sharp-pointed, single-bladed, knife, and is such a knife as would have inflicted the wounds on the deceased. The prisoner was seen to cut some tobacco with a pocket knife on Saturday. It is well known that it requires a sharp knife to cut tobacco properly, but nothing is known at present to connect the knife found in deceased's pocket with the prisoner. The prisoner passed a good night, and ate his regulation meals with zest. He maintains a callous indifference.