The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1867-04-20 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF MURDER.  At the Central Criminal Court, in London, Karl Anderson, thirty, a Swede, has been charged with the wilful murder of Jame. Marchin upon the high seas and within the Jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England.  . The circumstances of this case were of a very extraordinary character. The prisoner shipped on board a British vessel called the Baby Castle at Penang, on the 28th of September on a voyage to England as able seaman and carpenter, and it appeared that during the voyage he was considered a person of weak intellect, but perfectly harmless. The deceased was a mulatto, but the prisoner appeared te be under the delusion that he was a Russian Fin, and it seems that there is some extraordinary superstition among sailors that the presence of a Russian Fin on board a vessel is likely to lead to the destruction of that vessel, and the prisoner was frequently heard to mutter some incoherent observations to himself to the effect that he could not go on in this way, and that he must kill this - Russian Fin or else they should never get to London. Luring the night of the 24th of November the prisoner had a watch on deck, and he appeared to have gone to the bunk where the unfortunate deceased man was lying, and attacked him with a carpenter's axe, and inflicted five desperate wounds upon his neck and shoulder, the effect of the former injuries being to nearly sever the head from the body. The prisoner WU immediately suspected DS the murderer, and he Woo seen to be wiping blood from his hands, and to throw an axe overboard. He was asked how he had come to murder his comrade, and the reply he made was that if he had not done so. the ship would have gone on the rocks, and they would all have been lost. There had been a heavy gale of wind blowing about the time, and there appeared to be no doubt that he had committed the act under the impression that, if he did not kill the deceased, whom lie supposed to be a Russian Fin, his own safety and the safety of the crew would be endangered. It also appeared that, in point of fact, there was no Russian Fm on board the vessel, and there did not seem to have been any quarrel inn-feeling between the prisoner and the deceased man. The jury retired to deliberate, and were absent more than an hour. They then came into court and found the prisoner guilty. The learned judge, addressing him, said that the jury, after • very careful inquiry, had found theme. Ivo, compelled to convict him of the crime of wilful murder ; and as to the act itself, there Mae no doubt that he had committed it, and the only defence  that was set up for him was that at the time he was labouring under the delusion, which had impelled him to commit the crime, and that he was, therefore, not responsible. It was not contended that he did not on ordinary occasions fully appreciate the difference between right and wrong, but it was said that he was labouring under a delusion, and the effect of thiii delusion was to induce him to commit the act. The jury had carefully considered the matter, and they , had arrived at the conclusion that they were not justified under the circumstances in acquitting him on the ground of insanity; and it therefore became his ditty to pass nil sui him the gentence of the law for the crime 01 111 /11, Ler . His Lordship then passed sentence of death in the usual form. The prisoner, who throughout the trial and sentence held down his head and continued to sway his body backwards and forwards, in a manner most extraordinary, was then removed by the turnkeys.