The Sun. — 1837-03-10 (London, England)

CROWN COUILT.—John Dimsey, aged forty years, was charged with having, on the night of the 12th of December last, murdered William Marshall and Deborah Elizabeth. Hutchinson, of Kirton, in this county. The two murdered persons stood in the relation to each other of brother and sister, and had resided, up to the time of this foul transaction, at Kirton, the brother at the time he was murdered being sixty-Nine years old, while his sister, Mrs. Hutc'ainson, was seventy-four, and, in addition to her`great age, she was very infirm, so as to be incapable of rising' from her seat without assistance. Marshall carzied on the trade of a market-gardener, the house tlie old people lived in being the property of his sister, upon which however there was a mortgage to the amount of tiOOL, the half-year's interest for the same amounting to 15/.., having to be paid the day after the committing sof the crime in question, which circumstance was supposed to have acted as an inducement for its perpetration, that fact being no doubt well known, and the money, it might be reasonably supposed, would be in the house. Monday, the 12th of December last, Kirton fair was held, and on the Evening of, that day, about five o'clock, Elizabeth Beck, who acted as the daily servant of the deceased persons, had left tlie house, having first put a pot of potatoes on the fire to boil for the pig, leaving the old people in the house sitting opposite each other at the side of the fire-place. A friend named Humsby called in about six o'clock the same ' evening, he being the last person who saw them. alive. On the Tuesday morning, at about eight o'clock., the servant came, as was her custom, to do her daily work. She found the house shut, but the door was simply on the latch, as she had left it the previous evening. She entered, went to the windqw, opened the shutters, and as the light streamed in upon the room, she saw her mistress's bonnet lying upon the floor, she stooped in order to pick it up, and then for the first time beheld the feet of her mistress, the unfortunate woman's head being covered over with some sacks ; she was lying cross ways on the floor, The servant thinking she might have fallen, went and took her by the hand, but upon finding it stiff and cold, became alarmed, and ran out of the house, when, assistance having been procured; a full examination of the premises took place, and it was found the two poor old people had been foully murdered. The following were the causes of suspicion against the prisoner :—He had formerly lived at Kirton, and been employed upon the premises of Marshall ; so that they were well known to him. He left Kirton in April last, since which time he had resided at Sheffield. A few ,1 days before the commission of the murders he proposed to I take a journey to Kirton, in order to collect in some money, and to sell some property which he stated he had there. He accordingly left Sheffield with only 3d. in his pocket, and arrived at Kirton on the Friday preceding the murder, when he took up his lodgings at a person's of the name of Mackaw, and never left his llama until half past 6 on the Monday evening, that being the night of the murder. He was seen shortly after that time near the murdered people's house, after which. ' ha was,not seen again till he arrived at Gainsborough, wher e he stayed that night, and the next day returned to Sheffiel.d. On the Thursday the Kirtoa constable took him. into custe.dy„ and, on his clothes being examined, several spots of blood were found on the left area of his jacket, also stains of blood in one of his pockets. The blood he ac,:ounted for by saying he was in the habit of buying sheep's and bullock's heads, and in chopping the same up he said the blood might easily have come upon his clothes.  The Learned JUDGE having summed up, the jury, after five minutes' deliberation, retwzned a verdict of Not, Guilty.  NORTHERN Manciz S.