Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1864-05-20 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE RUDGWAY MURDER.—The man Gough, suspected of Vie murder of the blind woman. named Mary Curthoys, at the village of Rudgway, near Thoroboiry, was apprehended last week by Police-constable Briers, of the Gloucestershire constabulary, at a beerhouse at Cambridge, near Dursley. On 'being arrested, and charged with the crime, the prisoner admitted his guilt saying, " I am sorry for doing it, and I hope the Lord will have mercy on my soul, and hers too." Gough is apparently from fifty-five to sixty years of age, with a mild expression of countenance. The motive suggested for the murder is that of revenge. The murdered woman, who blre the reputation of being a well-conducted person, had recently succeeded in obtaining fan annuity of .ElO from the Bristol Blind Asylum, which was paid to her weekly, and of which she had only been in the receipt for a month. Gough, it seems, was a frequent visitor at the cottage, and had proposed to live with her, but she refused, fearing, it is supposed, that the charity which was freoy extended to her on account of her affliction would be withheld if she consented to become the paramour of Gough.— On Saturday afternoon. Lewis Gough, the alleged murderer of the blind woman, Mary Curthoys, at Rudgway, near Thornhury, was brought up on remand at the Thornbury Police-court. The court and its precincts were densely crowded. During the prolonged investigation the prisoner did not exhibit the slightest emotion. After the examination of some important witnesses, Police.constal2le Briers said : This morning  I was on guard over the prisoner in his cell, when he made a statement to me; it was entirely voluntary on his part. He said—" I went to her door on Monday evening, and I knocked. She came out and said she'd go and fetch the constable. She'd locked the gate leading into the garden, and she brought the key to unfasten it. When she came out with the key she said she would go and fetch the constable. She stooped down to unlock it, and as she was in the act of rising up I hit her with the hammer, and stunned her I then took the razor from my pocket, and cut her threat. I left the woman there, and went hack again to my lodgings, and S it before the fire till between two and three the next morning. I then went hack to the house, and looked at the woman. I saw she was dead. and, then made oft" Mr Superintendent Rawle said the prisoner had also made an admission to Police•constable French. —P C French deposed : Yesterday afternoon, after the prisoner had been brought back from the inquest, he said. "What Mrs Rosser said respecting the hammer is false. That was not the hammer I was using on Monday to nail my boots; it was a small hammer. The razor she could not say anything about, for she had never seen it. The poor soul gave me the razor three months ago —Mary. It was one that was her husband's About ten o'clock last night I went to the house and knocked at the door She opened the door and came out. I wanted to go in, and she said she would Work murder, and she went towards the gate to call Mr John Jones. She took the stick in her hand, and said she would holloa murder. She unlocked the gate, and said ' I will holloa murder' I said, I will give you murder,' and then I struck her on the nose with the hammer. Between two and three o'clock I went back and saw she was dead, and then I made off." The Magistrates committed the prisoner for trial it the nest Gloucester wine,