The Sun. — 1859-05-11 (London, England)

THE WESTMEATII MURDER.  The announcement on Thursday by some of the Dublin papers of the death of Thomas Jessop was premature, as it was not until Friday that he breathed his last. An inquest was held on Saturday by Mr. T. Fetherston, one of. the coroners for the county of Westmeath, when the fads respecting the assassination, which we have already published, were fully detailed. The evidence of Mr. T. Claffy, one of the most respectable farmers of the neighbourhood, is especially worthy of notice, as depicting the state of terrorism which prevails in his part of the county. He deposed that he left Kilbeggan in his tax-cart at half-past three o'clock on Saturday, the 31st ultimo ; that he was immediately followed by another farmer, Mr. Patrick Fay, on a jaunting-car ; that when they had proceeded about a mile and a half from Kilbeggan they heard two shots in rapid succession a short distance before them, and that they saw the smoke of firearms ; that on arriving nearer the spot they saw a man holding a horse attached to a cart ; that Thomas Jessop advanced towards them from behind the cart with a pistol in his hand; that witness was at once struck with a conviction that Jessop had been shot for taking Kelly's farm ; and that his (witness's) first impulse was to turn back to Kilbeggaia and give information to the police, but that he was dissuaded by Fay, who said it would be better to acquaint the Ballinagore police on their way home (Ballinapore being about the same distance as Kilbeggan) ; , that meanwhile Jessop continued to walk towards thorn, and, having rested for a short time against a wall, he sank on the roadside; that two women came from an adjoining house and stood beside the wounded. man ; that witness and Fay drew up, the latter conversing for some time with the women ; that they (witness and Fay) then drove homewards, giving notice to the police as they passed through the village of. Ballinagore. On being asked by the coroner why he did not assist the wounded man to his own house, Mr. Claffy replied that he thought he was dead. " Why, then (said the coroner), did 'ou not call here (at the temporary barrack in which the inquest was held) and give information of the murder to the police ?" The witness replied that he was so confused in his mind that he did not know what he was about. The other farmer, Patrick Fay, did not appear, and consequently had no opportunity of explaining his reasons for adopting the same line of conduct as Claffy. The medical attendants, Drs. Walsh° and Dorgan, having made a _potmortem examination of Jessop's body, gave evidence as follows :—There were no fewer than six external gunshot wounds situated on the right lumbar region. Some of the shots penetrated to the abdomen, and one pistol bullet traversed that portion of bone known as the "spine of the ilium," fractured the "tranversc process," of one of the vertebrae, and lodged beside the navel. It is needless to state that the wounds were necessarily mortal. How the poor fellow was able to walk home—a distance of upwards of half a mile —without assistance, and how he lived six days afterwards, are facts almost beyond comprehension. One of the women alluded to above was produced as a witness, but she could not, or would not, give any information. She swore that she did not know that Jessop was wounded ; that she did not recognize him at all ; that she thought he was some drunken man returning from the market, who had fallen on the side of the road. For some unexplained reason —probably because a meeting of magistrates was held on the same day in Kilbeggan—the men who have been arrested on suspicion were not produced at the inquest, and the verdict of the jury was accordingly " Wilful murder against some person unknown." The Lord Lieutenant has offered £lOO for the conviction of the murderer.—Dublin Post.