The Sun. — 1861-06-20 (London, England)

THE KINGSWOOD NU.RDER.  KINGSWOOD, Wednesday Evening.  This morning at 11 o'clock Mr. Wm. Carter, the coroner for the Eastern Division of the county of Surrey, and a jury of the most influential residents of the district, resumed and concluded the investigation, which was opened on Friday last, at the Red Lion Inn, into the circumstances attending the death of Mrs. Martha Halliday, aged 55 years, who was brutally murdered on the night of the 10th inst., at Kingswood Rectory, the residence of the Rev. Samuel Barnard Taylor, and which is situated on the estate of Mr. Thomas Alcock,  The jury, after a short deliberation, expressed an opinion that the premises had been burglariously entered, and returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.  The proceedings were then brought to a conclusion:  REIGATE, Wednesday night.  Considerable interest was manifested in this town to-day by the receipt of information that two foreigners, confidently believed by the police to be the murderers, had been apprehended walking together a short distance from Chichester, in Sussex, and were to be brought here by the first train this afternoon for examination before the local magistrates in whose jurisdiction the murder had been perpetrated. Accordingly about one o'clock Mr. Superintendent Pratt, of the Sussex Constabulary, arrived with his prisoners who were at once conveyed to the Reigate police station. They gave the names of Jacob Zimmerman and Henry Mynfooz, and admitted they were Germans, one saying he was a native of Hesse, and the other (as we understood) of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. In most particulars their height and general appearance bore a striking resemblance to the descriptions circulated by the police authorities of the two men supposed to have committed the murder, while the younger of them closely answered the description given by Madlle. Tietjens of the person who called upon her at her residence at Groveend, St John's Wood. One, too, was rather shorter than the other, while to give greater support to the probability that they were the parties sought after, only one of them could speak English. They likewise possessed striped shirts, and three differentcoloured cloth caps, all with peaks, were found upon them. There was also a coat with pockets outside, like one of those worn by the missing foreigners, and various other matters of detail strengthened the belief entertained that the right men had been captured. The- elder of the two described himself as a sugar baker out of employ, recently residing in Whitechapel, and the younger as a waiter, but he added that he had been travelling through the country, vending dried rhubarb, a quantity of which was discovered in a box one of them was carrying at the time they were apprehended. They had very little valuable property about them, and one was without his passport, which was said to have been stolen from him by another German he met at Winchester, and who told them he had left Germany because he had murdered a man there. They answered all questions put to them with the greatest readiness' and did not seem at all alarmed. They denied all knowledge of the murder of Mrs. Halliday, and stated that on the day it was perpetrated they were at Ryde, Isle of Wight. They had afterwards, they asserted, visited Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester, and other places, and were leaving Chichester when they were taken into custody. They mentioned where they had lodged in the above towns.  Captain Hastings, Chief Constable of Surrey, and Superintendents Coward and Parr, of the Surrey constabulary, with Sergeant Robinson, of the detective police, hastened over from Kingswood, where they had been attending the inquest upon the body of the murdered woman, for the purpose of seeing and interrogating the prisoners, and several persons who had seen the two Germans while they remained in this town prior to the murder, were sent for to identify the persons in custody. Amongst them were the ostler and the female servant from the Cricketers, where they slept on the night preceding the murder, and also a person from the shop where the cord found round the murdered woman's hands and feet was purchased. They, however, failed to identify them, and the prisoners asserted that they had never been in Reigate before in their lives; in fact, they did not know this part of the country at all, and, in conclusion, mentioned the names of some persons who they said knew them in London. The prisoners were, however, put back for the purpose of being taken before a magistrate.