Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1893-01-07 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

MRS. MAY BRICK. INSANI IT OR MALINGERING?  Monday's St. Ja»ie3's Gazette says: As sonw d tllat has been thrown on the state:tent as to tin true cause of Mrs. Maybrick's recent illness, we may point out that the m-dical and prison authorities have not published any correction or refutation of it. Those authorities have no doubt whatever that the p. isoner's malady was caused by her own acts, and by injuries inflicted on hers,ll by needles, or pins, which she hal socrotel. This having been prevented, there is understood to be nothing seriously wrong with Mrs. Maybrick's health. The prison authorities keep th.ir own counsel as to whether the attempt was caused 1:). suicidal tendencies on Mrs. Maybrick's part 01 was a mere case of delihrrate malingeling. We believe that Mrs. Maybrick sliews no other symptoms of disordered intellect.  The Daily Chronicle says: The news about Mrs. Maybrick, which the St. James's Ga:ette says it states upon authority, to the effect that her illness is the result of malingering, has more importance than would attach to the actions of most convicts. For the agitations for the release of Mrs. Maybrick have followed two different lines, one being based upon the alleged inadequacy of the evidence, and the other upon the more common and promising ground of her alleged extremity of illness. The latter of these had obviously more chance of succeeding than the former, as it is a well established practice to allow long-suffering convicts to die outside the prison walls But if it be true that Mrs. Maybrick has swallowed needles or stuck them into her flesh to produce the symptoms upon which the sympathy of a section of the public is based, then her only chance of release may bo regarded as gone. Therefore we think it would be well for the authorities to abandon their usual silence, and merely say whether this assertion is true or not.  A London correspondent of the Liverpool Courier says: The artful device has been discovered, and the fair convict is under close surveillance. The plan resorted to is not an uncommon one, and frequently has another motive which is common amongst men-of-warsmen and soldiers who prefer hospital to hard work. Little interest is now taken in Mrs. Maybrick, and there is no genuine public desire for her liberation.  The Liverpool Post's London correspondent says. There is little doubt that the prison officials very soon made up their minds as to the nature of tht prisoner's illness, and thus it was that Mrs. Maybrick was not relt ased, according to custom. in order to die in the home of a friend. She may well pray to be saved from her friends. Their advised endeavour to bring pressure to bear on thiHome Secretary has defeated its end, and has certainly retarded the release of the convict by many years.  Some amhlement has been caused at the Court of The Hague by the decidedly characteristic Christmas present which has been sent to the little Queen Willielmina by the Emperor of Germany. The gift is contained in a number of large boxes, and consists of lead soldiers representing all the regiments in the German Army.  At Croydon, on Tuesday, James Peckham, aged 53, of Quadrant road, Thornton-heath, was brought up char,!ed with the wilful murder of his wife by a shot from a double-barrel gun. The prisoner is a man of respectable appearance, and was formerly landlord of the Cakiield Tavern,Croydon, but transferred his licence a few months ago. Since then he has been living at Quadrant-road. At 6 o'clock on Monday evening he returned home, and some words passed between himself and his wife. A shot was heard by an officer on duty near, and the. prisoner then came up to him and said he had shot his wife. The officer, Police-constable Windus, went into the house,and there found the unfortunate woman lying in a pool of blt. with one side of her head blown clean away.----410 me6otier was remanded pending the invglro Cna.ies William enariwood, an undertaker, of East Grinstead, was brought up on remand at the South-Western Police-court on Saturday on the charge of being concerned with Dr. and Mrs. Francis, who stand committed to take their trial in the wilful murder of Ellen Matilda Franklin,who died at the residence of Dr. Francis, 54, Chelverton-road, Putney, on October 11th. A second charge of conspiring with Dr. Freeman to perform an unlawful operation on the same woman in May last at Tunbridge Wells was preferred against the accused. On this charge, however, he was acquitted, but was committed for trial on the original charge.