Nantwich, Sandbach & Crewe Star — 1890-02-22 ()

TIM CREWE TRAGEDY.  A LETTER FROM THE PRISONER TO  HIS MOTHER.  The widow of the murdered man and mother of the two prisoners, George and Richard, now lying at Knutsforel gaol, has received a touching letter from Richard, begging her to speak the truth as to the treatment she and the family received from Davies, the murdered man. It will be remembered that Richard in his confession, after stating that he and his brother George made it up to kill their father, said, "the cause they had for it was because he was such a bad father and a bad husband to mother, for mother and they bad been very nearly starved sometimes, for he would buy neither coal for the fire nor meat to eat." In her evidence before the coroner and magistrates, however, the mother and daughter represented that they had all lived happily and comfortably at home. It is notorious that for years past matters in the Davies. household have been anything but comfortable. Of course there is some sympathy expressed with the widow in desiring to hush up domestic squabbles now her husband is dead, but in fairness to her two sons, who are awaiting trial on this most terrible charge, she will be pressed at the assizes to disclose the actual treatment she and the family received from deceased. The receipt of the letter has excited some . very strong comments in Crewe, and the harsh character of the deceased was well known, and people have on every hand been expressing their *pinions that the family led a most unhappy and deplorable life in consequence. The Press Association's Crewe Correspondent says :—lt is notorious, in spite of the evidence of ths mother, that the Davies family have not lived amicably, and many of the neighbours say that the `father was a brutal and unnatural parent. -One neighboar who had known the family well states that the spirits of the two lads had been subdued to abject tameness, and the crime is the result of the re-action. It is stated at the Hough, where the family reside, ; that they have waited for the hens to lay in the morning, and with the eggs have purchased ' bread for breakfast. The prisoner Richard, I speaking to a friend last Christmas, said, " you don't know what we have to suffer at hGme when father loses money at betting." Perhaps no fact could be more eloquent of the sad neglect in which this family has been notoriously reared than that George's first ride in a railway train I was to Stafford Gaol to await the term of his , remand. There Richard said to his brother "Soe, George, this is the first time you have had a ride in a train, isn't it? " and George's eyes filled as he replied "Yes." k theory has been propounded in reference to the tree bough which was found in the road after the murder smeared with blood, that it is not supposed that it was used as a weapon, but that it was thrown across the road to stop the pony. It this theory is correct Richard must have been responsible for it, as he walked home, whilst. George rode in the trap. The feeling in Crewe is very much one of pity for the prisoners on account of the sad domestic life in which it is well- known they have been reared. Dick wrote to his mother, some days ago, from Stafford Gaol, when he was passing the period of his last remand there, asking her to arrange for their defence. Nothing :definite has, however, been don :I in this direction, and it is stated the family are much reduced for want of means, the murdered man's property beinr, heavily mortgaged. fCorrespondent says it was the intention of the widow to continue the Crewe business, but that intention has been abandoned, and the stock will be disposed of.