npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Northern Times. — 1857-07-13 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

DREADFUL MURDER BY A LUNATIC.  On Saturday morning Richard Empson, a keeper in the lunatic ward in St. Martin's workhouse, London, was murdered by J :hn Peon, a young man, aged 20, one of the lunatics codfined in the place. The circumstances are as follow  On Thursday evening the accused, who is a person Of rather prepossessing appearance, accosted a policeman of the F division in the Strand, saying that he had been challenged by several persons with having been guilty of unnatural offences, and wished to get into prison. The constable said he could not take him into custody, when he said he would do something which shouid compel him, and, going up to the door of a tailor's shops he caught up a figure with a coat upon it, and walked away. The officer immediately stopped him, and took the property back, when no oharge of felony was preferred ; but as he seemed to be wanting in intellect, he was on that charge detained at the station-house. On Friday morning, he was taken to Bow-street Police-office, where Mr. Henry, considering from his manner that he was no doubt deranged, sent him to the workhouse. There he refused to do some slight work he was put to, and became so outrageous that it was deemed advisable to put a strait-jacket on him. Upon examination of the prisoner, at Marlborough-street, on Saturday, it was stated that two persons, George Dixon and the murdered man, Richard Empson, were appointed to take charge of and to watch the prisoner. About twelve o'clock in the day the prisoner asked for his bible and his crone. George Dixon went away to get the bible, when the prisoner tried to make his escape. The prisoner was brought back and secured with a straigt-jacket. The deceased Empson afterwards unloosed the fastenings, when bed-time came and went to bed in the same ward. The prisoner about five o'clock asked for some water The deceased requested Dixon to get some, and to loosen the other fastenings which secured the prisoner and prevented him from doing mischief. Dixon went out to wash himself. In a few min tres he heard the cry of murder• He ran into the yard and found the nrisoner there. who rushed at him with a shovel, struck him four or five times, and would nave knocked him down, but he wrestled with the prisee.er, got away, and fastened the door of the ward• On looking about he found Empson lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Empson was not then dead, but died in a few minutes. The deceased had two wounds on the left temple, and a poker, with which the wounds were indicted, was lying in the room. William Doering, a pauper, saw the prisoner struggling with the deceased, and afterwards beat over the head with a poker. Some further evidence was given, and the prisoner was remanded till Thursday.  The bill prom .ted by the directors of the Great Northern Railway to throw the cost of Redpath's frauds on the preference shareholders, has passed the committee of the House of Lords, to the astonishment of its opponentst It will thorefore be forthwith brought up for its third realing. MR. BAss, M.P.,
Northern Times. — 1857-09-04 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE KNIFE AND THE TOE.—Lnne Kelly, a resident of Perry-streer, was charged with having stabbed Julia Copley of the same street. The parties had a falling out about a child, when the prisoner struck the complainant a blow with a knife in the hand, which inflicted a serious wound. Surgeon Pope, of the Southern Hospital, said the wound was an inch and a half long and deep, and although the complainant would not lose her hand, she would lose one of her fingers. The prisoner was sent for trial, but on the application of her .advocate, Mr. Barker, she was admitted to bail.  The next case put forward was that of William Crone, the third mate of the American ship Independence, who was charged with having violently assaultei James Millar, the second mate of the same ship, in the BramleyMoore dock. Tne complainant seemed to have received some severe injuries He said about six o'clock in the morning the prisoner came on board, and met me as I was coming out of one of the closets. He at once, and without any provocation on my part, or my speaking a word to him, ern& me a violent blow, and knocked me down. He then kicked me desperately about the head and face, and I lost my senses for some time, and when I came to, he swore if 1 did not leave the ship he would fling me overbo ird. The policeman who ha•l charge of the case said he heard the prisoner say he would certainly murder the complainant, and that was after he had him in custody. In reply to Mr. Mansfield, the complainant said he never gave the p:isonsz the least cause for such an attack, nor did he know what it was for. The doctor who dressed the complainant said there ware several severe contused and lacerated wounds on his head and face, and at least three weeks must el ipso before he could do any business. The prisoner refused to say anything in reply to the charge, and he was sent for trial.'  THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD DO IT, BUT THEY COULDN'T ! Two fellows, named Thomas Banford and Richard Reeves, were charged with having stolen a beautiful greyhound, value £5O, belonging to Mr. Jones, of Chalk Farm. The dog was missed on Sunday last, and every exertion was made to recover it, but in vain The owner, however, heard that the animal, or something like it, was in possession of the prisoners, who were working in a quarry in the locality. He weltt there, and the prisoners actually had the audacity to make him pay 23. 6(1. to look at the most beautiful dog in the world. He paid the money, and at once recognised his hound aid demanded it. Tne demand was rejected 'with contempt, as the fellows said they intended to make a trifle by the exhibition of the dog at 2i. 63. each visitor. The next visitor they had was a policeman, and they looked rather "sheepish" when in the clutches of that gentleman. It was clearly proved that they stole the dog, and they were sent to gaol for two months each, so that perhaps they won't try to "do it again" when they " come oat."
Northern Times. — 1857-10-29 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.  MONDAY. The October session of the Central Criminal Court was opened on Monday morning More the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, the Reco der, Alderman Hale, Alderman Lawrence, and Mr. Allen, the newly-appointed Sheriffs, Messrs. Millard and Parker, Under-Sheriffs, bee. The first edition of the calendar contains the names of 155 prisoners. The Recorder, in his charge to the grand jury, said that although there had been a longer period than usual since the court was last assembled, that was not sufficient to account for the number of prisoners that ware contained in the calendar, and he was also sorry to say that not only in respect of number but also with regard to the gravity of the charges contained in it, the calendar of the present session was unusually heavy. There were no less than five charges of murder and two of manslaughter, together with a number of other serious cases. The first case of murder before hint was that of a woman named Bridget Ravennah, who was charged with destroying her child by administering some narcotic poison to it, and it would seem that the prisoner was proved to have purchased laudanum and to have administered something to the child from a bottle, and that death appeared to have been undouetedly occasioned by laudanum ; and if these facts should be made out to their satisfaction, he apprehended they would feel it to be their duty to return a true bill for murder. His lordship then referred to the other charges of murder, and said that in one cf the cases, in which a woman named Maria Clerk was charged with the murder of her child by drowning it, there might be a question whether the prisoner was in such a sta'e of mind at the time as to render her criminally responsible. The grand jury, however, was not the proper tribunal to take that subject into consideration, and it appeared to him that if the frets were laid before them, as they appeared in the depositions-, it would be their duty to find true bills ire all the cases. The only remaining else to which he considered it necessary to allude, was a charge of misdemeanour agaiest a per on named Thomas Pint Fto-e, who was charged under the statute of the 6th and 7.h Victoria, with having, during the progress of the last election for the offire of Lord Mayans in the city, endeavoured to extort money by a threat of publishing a certain printed paper, with intent to ob•ain money from the gentleman who was d sirous of being elected to the office. His lordship then called their attention to the terms of the statute, and said that before the grand jury would be justified in find ng a true bill against rho defendant, they must be satisfied that his o',ject was to extort money or to procure some effi'ee, and if they should thiule that he was merely actuated lay a feeling of disappointment and revenge at not obtaining the office of agent at the election,• that would not amount to the offence comternplated by the statute, and they ought to ignore the bill. The grand jury then retired, and the court proceeded to dispose of the'husiness of the orrsion. ~
Northern Times. — 1857-06-09 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

MAKING FLOUR.—Tha Echo Agricole, one of the most respectable and influential Parisian newspapers, recera to a new process of ne,kinz flour, invented by Si. Blencourt, at Marseilles. It is asserted that the grain of wheat dissolves in a few minutes by means of a chem'co; agent, and becomes converted into the purest weite flour. Every particle of the wheat, e:en the bran— that is, the husk—is tren fot.med into flour. What this chemical agent, and what the flour tons produced is composed of--the properties and qualities of the bread made of it—remains for the present a mystery to the public. According to M. Blancourt's assertion, the conversion of wheat into flour can be effected by simple amale,amalion, without the aid of mechanical assistance. A commission has been nominated at Marneiles to investigate the merits of the new scheme. Shoeld it prove practicable, a compleai revolution in the art of floor making would follow in fact, the old process of grinding grain Into flour would be superseded, and all the existing don- mills obliged to adopt the new method, which promises to produce out of every 1001 b. of wheat 11301 b. of pure floor. Canto IN Faaerce:—Tae Court of Assizes of the Rhone three days ago tried a 1_ easare named Galllemet, of saint Igny re V.rs, for the manslaugter of his son aged about 14, so far back as August, 1853. On the 10th of that month it was noticed that the boy had disappeared, and nothing was so-n or heard of him until the igth, when his den I body wa, found in an advanced :state of putrefaction in a hedge near his father's house. It was not possible. from the decomposed state of the body, to see whet her or not it bore traces of violence, but as the min had for a long limo treated the bey with great brutality, little doubt was entertained by his neighbours of his having murdered him. Strange to say, however, no investigation was instituted, ana nothing was thought of the matter until February last, when the man, having teen arrested on some other charge, of which, however, he turn d oat to be innocent, manifested such profound terror at the idea that his arrest might cause inquiries to be made respecting the death of his son that the matter was investigated. The result was that a labourer named Chnseville came forward and said that on the 9th of August, 1853, he had seen the bay lying beneath a tree covered with blood, and that the boy stated in answer to his inquiries that his father had just beaten him most cruelly ; also that the next dal, as he (Chuzeville) was passing near the house of Gnillemet, c e saw the boy parcel in a cherry-tree eating cherries, and that his father, having come np at the moment, threw a large piece of wood, which, striking the boy on the head, caused him to fail senseless to the ground; that the father then taking him up in his arms carried hen into his house. This was the last time the boy was seen alive, so that there was no doubt that the blew had killed him. The jury declared the prisoner guilty, ant with extenuating circumstances, and the court sentences him to six years' hard labour.
Northern Times. — 1857-09-16 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

DELIBERATE MURDER IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.  Some months ago Wm. Holland, of Girton, a village about eight miles from Newark, purohased a crop of clover growing in a field occupied by James Wright, of North Searle. Subsequently, Wright proposed to reeurn £5 which had been paid for the clover, and give et'l compensation, in order to annul the bargain. To this Holland agreed, but as the money was n t paid he, of course, con tinued to fetch away the clover as he required it. At the Lincoln County Police Court, yesterday week, a son of Holland's was charged by Wright with stealing clover fom his field, bat on it b in g satisfactorily proved that he was acting on his fether's authority, and that the clover really belonged to Mr Rolla, the magistrates dismissed the case, and ordered the p:osccutor to pay the costs. On the following evening Mr. Hoilaed and one of his sons went to the field for the purpose of carrying away some of the clover. Upon their getting there they observed Wright in an adjeinieg field, with a gun in his possession. He aeked them to be gone, or he would " blow theirheads off " This the elder Holland declined to do, and was proceeding to gather some of his clover when Wright called out that, if he did not go away he would shoot him Holland then became frightened, and proceeded towards where Wright was standing, for the purpose, we suppose, of asking au explanation of his conduct. On his coming up, Wright stepped back a few yards, and, saying " D you, shot you," fired At Holland, and wounded him frightfully on the kne'. Wright expressed no regret for what he had done, but repeatedly said, "I have done what I meant to do. .If I cannot get the clover by the laws of my country, I will have it by my osn law." Mr. was taken home, and a surgeon was sent for, but he saw at once the hemorrhage could not be stopped without sacrificing the limb. Two other surgeons were called in, and, as they all agreed that it would be necessary to emputive the limb, the operation was performed. Mr. Holland, however, died half an hour afterwards, being about five hours after he had been wounded. His death may be sacrib. d to the effects of the surgical operation, but the surgeons declare that it would have been ime possible for him to have lived even had the limb been, allowed to remain, It appears that Wright was discovered standing near the clover field, with a gun in his hand, as early as five o'clock in the morning of the day on which the crime was committed, and that he had said to a person who then happened to pass him, that it was his intention to shoot Holland if he meddled with the clover. These are the facts of the case as adduced at the inquest. The re-ult was that the jury returned a verdict of " Wilful Murder" agrinst Wright, and he now lies in Newark gaol, committed to take his trial at the next Northamptonshire assizes.—Nott's Observer.
Northern Times. — 1857-09-30 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

TIMES.---LIVERPOOL, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30. 1 57.  MURDEROUS ASSAULT IN A BROTHEL.  At Marlborough-street Police-court, London, on Saturday, Henry Lanning, a journeyman tailor, residing in Buckingham-street, Fitzroy-square, was charged before Mr. Bingham with being drunk and attempting to murder Floey Clarendon, by cutting her throat with a claspknife. The prosecutrix, whore throat was covered with bandages, belongs to the class termed "unfortunate," and up to a recent period got her living by figuring at a " poses plastique, ' in the neighbourhood of the Strand. She was a married woman, but was living separate from her husband. Her evidence was given with the greatest reluctance. On being sworn, she said : I have two children to support, and am obliged to resort to my present loose way of 1 fe. The prisoner cut my throat last night, but Ido not wish to punish him. Mr Bingham: The particulars must be given. How was it done ? Prosecutrix : I met the prisoner at half-past twelve on Friday night in Bond-street, and, at his solicitation, accompanied him to a house in Union-street. He gave me half-a-crown. I said, "It is not enough; I shill not stay with yon, and wish you good night." He said, "You are not going like that, exactly," and caught hold of me aad threw me back, and forced my head back on the bed. He then demanded his money back again. I refused. lie forced my head back again, and put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a clasp keife an I stabbed me in the throat and drew it across. I put up my hand to save my throat, and he seized me by the wrist with his teeth, and bit me very much. There was a great deal of blood fl swing from my throat. I screamed out as loud as I could, and the people of the house came and assisted me The prisoner ran out of the house, and I was subsequently conveyed to the hospital, where my wounds were dressed. A surgeon's certificate was produced, describing the nature of the wound. The latter was several inches in length, and an inch in depth. Mason, 12 C, said : About two o'c!ocli this morning I was in Oxford-street, when I heard cries of Police ! " and " Murder ! " I went in the direction of the sound, and saw the prisoner run out from 15, Union.street, as fast as he could. Several females followed, calling our, " Stop him." I pursued him and overtook him in Broad-street, where I saw him throw away a knife, whch I picked up, and now produce. The blade and handle were covered with blood. I took the prisoner to the station house, when, on the charge being read to him, he replied that the woman had robbed him. He was the worse for liquor at the time. The woman was perfectly sober, and bleeding copiously. Mr. Bingham asked the prisoner what he had to say to the charge ?—The prisoner replied that he had nothing to say. Mr. Baegham : Then you are remanded for a week.
Northern Times. — 1857-09-29 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

LETTER FROM GENERAL NEILL.  TheAyr Observer has been favoured with the following extract of a letter from General Neill, dated Cawnpote, August 1 : I left Allahtbad on the 16th and joined general Havel Rk's force on the 21st, and found poor Major Renaud had been severely wounded. His horse was first shot under him, a bullet then hit him above the knee, forcing part of the scabbard of his sword into the wound, and causing much suffering. Amputation seemed to afford great relief, arid be appeared doing well; when he suddenly expired, comparatively free tem pain. Ho had done right well, and will b 3 sircerely mourned in the regiment (the Fas,leers), in which he was much respected and esteemed. Since I arrived hero I have been hard at work to get order re established. I hive now put a atop to the plundering I found going on, by re-organising a police. lam also collecting all the property of the deceased, and trying to trace if any have survived, but as yet have not succeeded in finding one. Man, woman, and child seem all to have been murdered. As soon as that monster, Nana Sahib, beard of the success of our troops and of their having forced.the bridge about 20 miles from Cawnpore, he ordered the wholesale butchery of the poor women and children I find the officers' servants behaved shamefully, and were in the plot, all but the lowest caste ones. They deserted their masters and plundered them. Whenever a rebel is caught, he is immediately tried, and: unless he can prove a defence he is sentenced to be hanged at once ; but the chief rebels or ringleaders I make first clean up a certain portion of the pool of blood, still two inches deep, in the shed were the fearful murder and mutilation of women and children took place. To touch blood is most abh3rent to the high caste natives ; they think by doing so they doom their souls to perdition. Let them think so. My object is to inflict a fearful punishment fur a revolting, cowardly, barbarous deed, and to strike terror into those rebels. The first I caught was a subadar or native officer, a high taste Brahmin, who tried to resist my order to clean up the very blood he had helped to shed ; but I made the provost marshal do his duty, and a few lashes soon made the miscreant accomplish his task. When done, he was taken out and immediately hanged, and after death buried in a ditch on the road-side. No one who has witnessed the 'scenes of murder, mutilation and massacre can ever listen to the ward mercy, as applied to those fiends. The well of mutilated bodies —alai, containing upwards of 200 women and children—l have had decently covered in, and built up as one large grave. lam in the entrenched camp—a most miserable position. None but Englishmen could have held it for a day, and yet how nobly did poor Sir 11. Wheeler Mold out here. On the 29th General Havelock moved on towards Lucknow. He had not gone far before he came on a strong post of the enemy— about 20,000, with guns. He defeated them gallantly, and took all their guns, but sustained comidemble loss, Amongst the ntunbor,