The Sun. — 1844-06-07 (London, England)

DREADFUL MURDER.  On Wednesday the pleasant little watering-place,Westonsuper-Mare, 21 miles from Bristol, was the scene of as barbarou s *murder as has been recorded for a long period—viz., the murder of a wife by her husband, a man moving in a respectable sphere of life, possessed of a small independence, and carrying on a prosperous business in the town of Weston. We have ascertained the following to be:the particulars connected with this horrid transaction :—The unfortunate victim is Mary Fisher, the wife of (the murderer) Joel Fisher, who keeps a house called the Devonshire Inn, in High-street, Weston. The deceased, it appears, was formerly married to a man named Hyatt, who, however' left her with two children, and was absent and supposed to be dead for about ten or twelve years, during which period the deceased was married to the man Fisher, with whom, it seems, her life was anything but a happy one. In consequence of his penurious disposition there were frequent quarrels between them, and on more than one occasion she has left him, but has subsequently-been induced to return. On the evening preceding the murder her husband and she had a desperate quarrel, arising from the circumstance of a lodger having left the house, on account of (as was alleged by Fisher) her conduct to him. The quarrel continued up to the period of bedtime, and her husband frequently threatened her, that he would "do for her." The consequence was, that she refused to sleep with him, and at about eleven o'clock retired to bed with a female servant. After she had retired to bed her husband was still heard about the house in a state of great excitement, uttering horrid threats, to the effect that he would murder her, and that that night should be her last. From the appearance of his bed when examined in the `morning, it was evident that he had not slept in it all night. Shortly after five o'clock yesterday morning, the servant girl was alarmed by his bursting open the door of the bed-room where herself and mistress were sleeping in one bed and two of his children in another. On seeing him rush into the room the children, although only of the respective ages of ten and twelve years, began screaming, and the servant girl begged him to withdraw. He was then armed with a square iron bar, with which he had forced the door, and having jumped upon the bed, he instantly struck hisunfortunate victim with it upon the head. The servant and children begging him to desist, he coolly replied that he would not injure any of them, and in the most fiendish manner struck the unfortunate woman two or three more blows with the bar, which literally smashed in her skull, after which, as though to render his butchery doubly certain, he left the room, but in less than a minute returned with a carving-knife, with which he cut her throat in so dreadful a manner as to nearly sever her head from her body. Being thus satisfied of her death he immediately went into the bed-room of one of his lodgers —a young man—whom he informed of what he bad done. The servant in the meantime had alarmed the neighbourhood and procured a policeman' who, upon his arrival, was coolly shown upstairs to the chamber where the corpse lay by the murderer himself. There is but little doubt that the first blow caused the death of the unfortunate woman, as the servant girl states that her mistress never spoke and scarcely moved after it was given, but that the man Fisher jumped upon the deceased and placed her head in such a position as to be able the more easily to effect his murderous purpose. On his being arrested by the police he was quite collected, and accounted for his having cut her throat by stating that he thought it better to put her out of life as quickly as possible. The deceased was t 1 itifty years of age, and her murderer perhaps a year jr t ( older.