The Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester Telegram. — 1878-12-20 (Weymouth, Dorset, England)

BLOODTHIRSTY LOVER.  At the Central Criminal Court, on Wednesday, Andrew Wyness 33, hairdresser, was indicted for shooting John Jeffries, with intent to murder him. The cireurnstances were remarkable. The prisoner was tried in February, 1877, for the murder of a man named CJle. but was acquitted. C ,le's widow, for whom the prisoner was said to have an infatuated affection, though it was not returned in any way, then married the presantprosecutor, and the prisoner WP s now accused of attempting to murder him also, and the attempt was only defeated by the merest accident. The principal witness was Jane Jeffries, the wife of the prosecutor. who said on the evening of the 26th of November the prisoner eame to the house when she was alone. She asked him what he wanted, and be replied, "You.' She replied, "Then you will not have me." She requested him to go away, but he refused. He then pulled out a revolver, and said he had a great mind to lay her dead at his feet. She begged him not to shoot her and ordered him t go away, as she had suffere I enough through him. The prisoner said that she would never slip him again. She said she expecte i her husband home to supper; upon which the prisoner said, referring to her husband, that he would never h we another supper there. At his urgent request and being terrified of him, she accompanied him to a neighbouring beerhouse, where they had some beer. The prisoner there again pro limed the pistol from his breast-p oek )t, and said that either she or her husband or he himself must die that night. Ultimately she escaped and got home, and found that her hueband had gone out for the supper beer. Fearing he might meetlthe prisoner, she went after him and cautioned him against the prisoner and asked her husband to shake hands with him, which he declined. The prisoner then said he was going to Colchester nex day to j oin the Artillery, whereupon her husleaud said he di.i not know about that, as he intended to give him int ) custopy of the first policeman he saw. Upon that the prisoner took the pistol from the waistband of his trousers and fired two shots at her husband. He was about to fire agsin when she knocked his hand away. She then seized the pistol and held its muzzle point upwards until assistance came, when the prisoner was disarmed. In cross-examination by the prisoner, she denied giving him any encouraeemet whatever, saying, on the contrary, she had too mech horror of him, as he killed her first husband. He had annoyed her very frequently, and she and her husband had lam obliged to change their lo iginge over and over again to escape his annoyance. John Jeffries, the husband, gave corroborative evidence. He was not wounded seriously by the shots, but he was probably saved by one bullets coming in contact with a button. Other witnesses were called, who stated that after the shots were fired the Prisoner replied, "I have done it, and I will not run away. I worked hard for her for two years, and I will die for her*" Upon him 41 ball cartridges were found, and on his being arrested the prisoner said, "I am the man who shot her husband ; what she teld me I went and did like a man. That woman should have been shot long ago, and I'll carry the game out, and when I am gone another shall take it up." He also said. "I den,t want others to suffer by it. I w irehip every hair of her head, and if she has got a wound she led me to do it.'' The prisoner, in his defence, made a long, rambling speech, asserting that the wife of the complenimant was constantly running about, and had thus driven him nearly out of his senses. The jury found the prisoner guilty of wounding with intent to murder. Baron Huddle ston expressed concurrence with that verdict, and sentenced the prisoner to be kept in penal servitude for 20 years.