The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1849-10-09 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

DREADFUL MURDER IN QUEEN'S COUNTY. —An inquest was held on Saturday week, at Tolerton, in Queen's County, on view of the body of a man then unknown, which had been found, dreadfully mutilated, in the wild and lonely bog of Rossmore. The murdered man, Patrick Moore, was husband of the murderess, Catherine Moore, and the tragedy was participated in by her daughter, Bridget Thompson, Catherine Thompson, an interesting peasant girl, married some time ago a person in her own class of life--Patrick Moore. The marriage was an unhappy one, and a separation took place. The husband went to live at the house of a relative named Brennan. He contemplated going to America, and went to Liverpool, but having a hankering for home he returned to his old locality. On the 2nd September a message was sent to him through a girl, from his wife, to the effect that she wanted to see him that evening. He attended to the assignation. Between ten and eleven o'clock on that night he was seen by two men leaning against a ditch at the back of his mother-in-law's house, in company with his wife. After this night he was not seen or heard of in the neighbourhood. He did not return to Brennan's ; but a rumour was set afloat that he had left for America; and the following Sunday Mrs. Moore left Tulla for the ostensible purpose of joining him in Liverpool-, in order that they might proceed together to New York. After she left, vague reports were circulated through the village, and people surmised strange things, and asked why the wife did not accompany her husband. These reports reached the ears of the subinspector, Mr. Warburton, and the coal pits in the neighbourhood were searched for the body, but in vain. Whilst thus engaged he received a letter from a brother of Mrs. Moore, to the effect that his sister and her husband had gone off from Dublin to America, and that they were quite reconciled. This allayed suspicion at the time. On Wednesday week, however, the body of a man, or something like it, was found in a hole, in the centre of the bog of Rossmore. Dogs had devoured a portion of it, and one of the arms was uplifted. The nose and one of the cheeks had been cut off, the eyes were gone, and the face otherwise fearfully mutilated. On examination the limbs were found to be very much mangled. The remains were identified and removed. At the inquest several witnesses deposed to the fact stated. On the same morning when it was held, who should return from Liverpool but Catherine Moore; she had come home with a pitiful tale of how her unnatural and brutal husband had deserted her on the quay of Liverpool, leaving her a lonely and unfortunate woman to beg her way home. Her astonishment—her horror on hearing of the discovery of the mutilated remains of her husband, operated so strongly on her feelings, that she confessed her guilt, and all the circumstances connected with it. It seems that Moore's brains were beaten out on the night he was last seen with his wife; and that on the next day the wretched woman and her motherdislocated the limbs, so that they fitted on an ass's car ; being concealed by straw, they then proceeded to Rossmore bog, which was seven miles distant; and, in the loneliest part of that lonely place, they flung their gore-clotted burden into an unclean hole. The jury, after some brief deliberation, found a verdict of wilful murder against Catherine Moore and Bridget Thompson, mother and daughter. It further appeared, that Mr. Warburton, not being able to discharge from his mind the impression of Moore's murder, wrote to the man wi; h whom he had stopped during a previous trip to Liverpool, and who had been a friend of his, to ask if he and his wife arrived safe, and inquiring if he was aware of their getting off to America, as the neighbours were anxious to hear of their welfare. Mrs. Moore happened to be at the time an inmate of this very lodging-house at Liverpool ; the man read the letter for her. She expressed her uneasiness, and said she should return home, as something must have happened to poor Pat. She accordingly left Liverpool for Tolerton, and reached at the very crisis when her presence was so necessary for the fulfilment of the ends of justice.