The Sun. — 1859-09-06 (London, England)

THE LEEDS MURDER.-STARTLING DISCLOSURES.  Some startlinc, inforn, ation has come to the knowledge of the Leeds police. On Saturday night James Smales, a collier, from Whitwood, near Nor. mantown, went to the shop of Mr. Barrass, the pawnbrOker in Dyer-greet (the shop where the watch of the murdered man Broughton was pledged) and tendered a ticket for the watch. Mr. Barrass It once took him to Mr. English,the chief constable. Yesterday morning Mr. English went over to Whitwood, and saw John Fawcett and Andrew Battye, both colliers. They stated that on the Monday after the murder they net a young man at Castleford, named Charley Normington, in the street, and adjourned to a beer-house. Normington said he came frep. the York-road, in Leeds. The new friends had some beer together, and subsequently Fawcett employed Normington as his hurrier in the pit at Whitwood. Normington worked part of the day on Monday, and was in the pit also during part of Tuesday. On the Monday night he offered to sell a ticket for a German silver watch to James Worsman, and he subsequently managed to sell it on the Wednesday night for ss. to Smales. Normington said that the watch had been in pawn previously for 265., and he told another witness, Betsy Fawcett, that he had previouSly offered it to Mr. Topham, pawnbroker, Leeds, as that gentleman stated in his evidence before the Leeds magistrates. Mrs. Dixon, the woman with whom Normington lodged at Whitwood, observed him on one occasion in the act of washing a handkerchief, but when she apt preached him he appeared confused, and thrust it, ! wet as it was, into his breast. The water in which he had been washing was very much discoloured. His shirt also bore several marks, as if it had been stained with blood and had been hastily and inefficiently washed in Cold water. On the Thursday morning Normington disappeared, leaving behind him the shirt in question, and this is now in the possession of the chief constable of Leeds. Normington stated that he had previously worked at Messrs. Lassey and Wilcock's, of the Rock Colliery, York-road, and this is only about a mile distant from the scene of the murder. Normington is a native of Bradford, but has been residing for some years with his father in Leeds. He is thus described by the several witnesses from the colliery village, and it will be observed that the description exactly tallies with that furnished by all the witnesses who have been previously examined in the case :—He is twenty-two years old, about five feet in height, strongly built, round shouldered, stoops forward in walking, is bow-legged, and turns in his tees ; has a rotind full face, a small mole on one cheek, with a few hairs on it ; has light brown hair, which curls a little on each side; has a good set of teeth, and talks quickly and distinctly. He was dressed in a faded black cloth coat, short cut, with a black cloth patch on each elbow, sewn on by grey thread ; a dirty pair of black and white check trousers, with stripes down the sides, tight from the knees upwards, but slack at the bottom of the slops, and has several patches on the seat of the trousers. He wore brown cloth cap, with peak ; and a pair of clogs were on his feet, adorned with two rows of eyelets. There are stripes on his back where he has been flogged. He told Fawcett that he left Leeds on the evening of the murder, and slept at Wakefield on that and the following (Sunday) night, and walked over to Whitwood on the Monday morning. The Leeds magistrates, at a meeting held on Sunday afternoon, determined to augment the reward, and only stipulate, in a placard which appeared yesterday, for the apprehension (not the conviction also) of the suspected man.