The Sun. — 1857-02-20 (London, England)

EXHUMATION OF THE BODY OF BACON'S FATHER. STAMFORD, THURSDAY EVENING. It would be difficult to describe the excitement that prevails in this town. and neighbourhood at the present time, consequent upon the decision which the jury came to last evening respecting the death of Mrs. Ann Bacon, the mother of the wretch Thomas Fuller Bacon, who was committed by the magistrate at Lambeth policecourt yesterday, to take his trial for the murder of his t wo children. It seldom happens that, however bad a man may be, or whatever crimes he may be accused of, but that he has some few persons at least to speak somewhat in his favour; but the present instance seems to be a great exception. Every person with whom our reporter conversed express their entire satisfaction at the result of the inquiry, and the only surprise to them was, that the magistrates for the Stamford division of the county had not long since taken the initiative in bringing the man to justice, as it was not only patent to every one, but a byword in the town that Bacon was a murderer, a forger, guilv of arson, had committed a rape, defrauded his creditors, caused his wife's insanity by his brutality, and the perpetrator of numerous other crimes, more or less heinous. Had it not been for the almost superhuman exertions of Mr. Reed, the chief constable of Stamford, this most atrocious culprit would still have been at iarge. From the first moment that he heard of the murder of the two children in Walworth, he arrived. at the conviction (from his knowledge of the antecedents of Bacon) that he was the perpetrator of the crime, which fact he immediately communicated to the proper authorities, and the result was his apprehension. After he was in custody Mr. Real informed the magistrates of Stamford that he had every reason to believe that Bacon's mother had been poisoned by her son, but na steps were taken by the magistrates to arrive at a satisfactory elucidation of the case. When Mr. Elliott, the magistrate at Lambeth, suggested that the body should be exhumed, the magistrates of Stamford still exhibited the same supineness, and excused themselves from interfering on the ground that the body was interred out of their jurisdiction. Mr. Reed, however, still persevering, furnished the whale of the facts connected with the death of Mrs. Ann Bacon, and transmitted them in depositions to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and air G. Grey at once sent instructions to Mr. Hough, the coroner for Rutlandshire, for the exhumation of the body. But even here there was another difficulty ; for, notwithstanding the Secretary of State's letter, the coroner did not like to act without the authority of the magistrates, and those learned savants declined to interfere. The next difficulty that presented itself was the extraordinary pertinacity with which Dr. Barber adhered to his original certificate as to Mrs. Bacon's death, and he assured Mr. Reed and Inspector Young that if the body were analysed a thousand times over they would not find a grain of arsenic. However, his evidence yesterday proved he was in error. The disclosures that were taking place in the examinations at the Lambeth Police Court at length induced the authorities to bestir them'elves and the body was exhumed, and with what result our readers are now fully aware.