The Sun. — 1829-08-21 (London, England)

MIDLAND CIRCUIT—COVENTRY, Ace. 19. Elizabeth Carter, aged 51, was indicted for the murder of a little girl named Elizabeth Wiles. The prisoner, it appeared, was a woman who took in washing, and resided in an obscure street in the parish of St. Michael, in this city. Elizabeth Wiles' mother was her neighbour, and the child was in the habit of occasionally going to her house. On the morning of the 17th of June last, the prisoner called upon Mrs. Wiles, and requested that the little girl might go and mind her house, whilst she (prisoner) went to spread some clothes on the lines. The child accordingly Went to her, and in the course of about an hour afterwards the prisoner entered the house of a man named Coleman, who lived near her, and kept exclaiming, " I'm no more, I'm no more, I'm no more." She offered Coleman the key of the door, and told him to go into her house and up stairs, and he would there see somebody. Her manner was hurried and agitated. Coleman at first refused the key, but at length took it, and handEd it to his wife, who carried it to Mrs. Wiles. lh.?. latter immediately went to the door, and called her daughter; but receiving no answer, she went up stairs, when the first object she beheld was the lifeless body of her child, with the head nearly severed from the trunk. The unfortunate mother rushed down stairs in a distracted state, and the alarm being given, a constable came and examined the premises. In a closet, the door of which was only fastened by a wooden button, he found a razor, the blade of which was still wet with blood. He also found a checkered apron, which the prisoner had worn that morning, and it too was stained with blood, as was the button of the closet door. As soon as Mrs. Coleman went back to her husband, she told him, in the prisoner's hearing,that she had cut tho. fihild's throat; to•which the pri soner replied that she had, but she could not help it. Surgeons were called in, who expressed their opinion that the child's throat had been cut with a razor. After examining the corpse, their attention was next directed to the condition of the prisoner. They found her in a state of high fever, her pulse being full and quick, her eyes restlessly directed to every object around her, her language incoherent, and, in shorts 'evincing all the symptoms of inflammatory action of the brain. When asked to account for the dreadful act she had perpetrated, she said she could tell nothing about it. She complained of pain about her temples, which is of itself a symptom of diseased brain; and all the indications of organic derangement satisfied the medical gentlemen that she was sincere in this respect. They said that the state of her pulse could not have been produced by fear of the consequences of her crime, because the emotion of fear renders the pulse quick and weak, whereas her pulse was quick and full, which is the effect produced by inflammatory organic action. They were therefore convinced that she was decidedly insane, and she was accordingly treated, when sent to the hospital, as an insane person. It further appeared, that about ten years ago, she was sent home from the regiment to which her husband belonged, in consequence of the deranged state of her mind. Under these circumstances the Jury acquitted the prisoner pn the ground of insanity. The LORD CHIEF BARON directed that she should remain in prison to abide his Majesty's pleasure.