The Potteries Examiner : — 1879-12-27 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

WIFE MURDER.  0-1 ' - - Francis .trateg at  Air,'  Toni murd,  accused is  the wilful • are of a r.  • . about  thirty' • _ su indvpend,nvy of Se, I tl I all, LI tried Lis cousin, who was Iwi y, • _ t and was a lady w' .1. - - v At•,•111 . _ s . , nets ; . , ' • ludo". • , :  hint t, • . is. Cl/-, .1 . and 11.1 Ara in I hl t n servant into a corni.r, and threat.. mid to shoot hint if he dared to move. On another occa.ion his wife ran it a SlOt  out of the house and took refuge - Atom's , but the husband imagined that she wan Collet-31,1 iII the garden. and tired ss vend shots into the lushes with the view of diseovssring her Tet r,,t. Twelve months since, when Mrs. West was expecting to be confined, the accused toll ht.r he was going to shoot her, and on leaving the room told her she hal lot twenty minutes to live. Mrs. West jumped from the bed-room window to the verandah, and having thus escaped she went to her parents' home in Cornwall. Frequently on recovering from his excesses Mr. West expressed himself ashamed of his conduct and by promise of amendment and professions of deco. tion induced his wife to return to him. More than one person appears to have questioned her prudence but Mrs. \Vest remaiked that if it was her fate to be shot she supposes! she should be; tut she loved her husband so dearly that she would. rather die with him than live apart. The violent and strange conduct of the husband was so frequent that parties in She neighbourhood at last took but little notice of it. On Thursday some things were got in for Christmas, and the accused drank a good deal between that time and Saturday. On Saturday evening, although tinder the influence of drink, he was lively and good tempered; and about midnight retired to the bed-room with his wife. For some time afterwards they appeared to be engaged in good-humoured conversation; but half an hour after midnight Mrs. West was heard to exclaim, "Oh, don't, Frank," and immediately afterwards there was a report of a rifle. The servants, having been warned never to leave their bed-room unless their master called them, remained in bed, and although the:, score frightened, yet, as this was not the first time ticv hart heard firearms at night, they did not think that Cselv whereas had been shot. Two hours afterwarsls Mn. \ called the girls, and told them to be sate and get up at six o'clock in the morning and at the some tissue lie went downstairs with a glass Mill a lay in his hand, as if he intended to draw some beer. Ile afterwards returned to the bedroom, and remained there until half-past seven, when ho went iota a workroom in which he amused himself and locked the door. On the nurse girl going to her mistress's bed room with a cup of tea she found her half-reclining on a chair, with her head on the window sill. She had a bullet hole through her neck, and was quite dead. On the chest of drawers there was a breach-Imiding rifle, loaded with ball cartridge, and an empty cartridge lying on the floor. The ;husband, when called, refused to make any answer, until the arrival of the superintendent of police, and he then surrendered himself without any remark. Before leaving he asked the servant to take care of the children, both of whom are remarkably pretty. The eldest, a girl, is two and a half years of age ; the youngest is a fine little boy aged twelve months. The Prisoner, on being brought before the Magistrates, was formally remanded until after the inquest.