The Sun. — 1861-12-17 (London, England)

MURDERS AT BIRMINGHAM. John Thomson, 42, wire-drawer, was indicted for murdering Ann Walker, at Birmingham, on the 29th of September last. Mr. bpooner and Mr.. Palmer were for the prosecution ; Mr. O'Brien defended the prisoner. The prisoner had cohabited with the deceased for about three months before the murder. On the day in question the two came together from Sutton in order to visit the fair, and having delayed until it was too late to return, they went to No. 8, in Tanter-street, which is kept by a woman named Beresford, and is inhabited by several prostitutes, and there got a bed. Next morning they had breakfast in the house at about eleven o'clock, and about noon they went out together. The woman returned by herself at three o'clock, and was at that time visibly the worse for liquor ; indeed, so marked was her intoxication that she had been hustltd in the street in consequence. She asked permission to go upstairs and lie down on a bed for a few ;minutes, and this being granted she immediately went up. Soon afterwards Thomson came in, and went upstairs to her. It should be stated that while out Mrs. Walker had mot in the street a man with whom she had formerly cohabited, and that he threatened to ill-use her, and thus gathered a crowd around them. Thomson and Walker had not been long together upstairs before the women who were down below heard a noise of quarreling, and Beresford, the keeper of the house, went up and found that Mrs. Walker had knocked her arm against the wall in some way, and that Thomson was rubbing it. She heard him say. " Will you go home to Sutton now ?" to which Mrs. Walker replied, "No, I will not." Seeing that the two were moderately quiet, Beresford went downstairs, but no sooner had she sat down again than she heard a stifled scream. A young woman named Elizabeth Green, an unfortunate, living in the house, went this time, and was horrified by seeing Thomson, who was then leaning over Mrs. Walker on the bed, stab the unfortunate woman in the neck With an open pocket-knife, and then drag her off the bed. Green ran downstairs screaming violently, while Beresford ran up and saw Thomson, who seemed to be quite cool:deliberately cutting the throat of his miserable mistress as she lay on the floor. When apprehended the .prisoner said it was all through drink. Mr. O'Brien contended that there was no evidence of premeditation on the part of the prisoner, and that the jury would not be justified in bringing in a verdict of guilty of murder. The judge said he could not see how cutting a woman's throat could be made manslaughter. The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder. His lordship then passed upon the prisoner sentence of death, telling him there was not the slightest hope of a mitigation of punishment. John Grayson Farquhar, 38, was indicted for feloniously, wilfully, and of malice aforethought, shooting Elizabeth Brookes, 'at Small Heath, near Birmingham, on the 29th of August last, being charged with her wilful murder, on warrants of the borough coroner and the stipendiary magistrate of that boroUgh. • Mr. Adams and Mr. Palmer prosecuted ; Mr. Macaulay, Q.C., and Mr. O'Brien defended. The prisoner lived in a retired manner at Small Heath, near Birmingham, on an income of about