npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1883-06-09 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

SHOCKING DISCOVERY AT  GLOUCESTER.  ALLEGED MURDER OF CHILDREN.  A horrible discovery was made at Gloucester on Sunday evening. Some residents in New Street, a street near the outskirts of the city, complaining of a dreadful stench coming from a garden, the police investigated the matter, and on digging below the endue found the bodies of eight infants in a decomposed state. The garden belongs to a house occupied by a family named Rees, and the mother is a monthly num. Rees and his wife were brought before the Gloucester magistrates on Monday. The police superintendent stated that he had received private information that the female prisoner had told a neighbour that the dead body of the child of a woman she attended as nurse had been put away by the doctor's orders, and on applying to the doctor he denied all knowledge of the matter. Search was made for Mrs. Rees on Friday, but she eluded the police until Sunday afternoon, and then attempted to escape, but was caught. Being charged with unlawfully disposing of the dead body of a child, she took the polies to her garden, and there, embedded in quicklime and charcoal, the police found buried a newly-born male child, quite naked. The garden was then dug up, and the bodies of two other children recently born, and five other bodies much decomposed, were found. The male prisoner said he knew nothing of the affair, and his wife was aware he was innocent. —The female prisoner had nothing to say.—Both prisoners were remanded on the charge of wilful murder of one child. On Monday night the city coroner opened an inquest on the body of one of the children found in a garden. A policeman stated that on arresting Mrs. Rees she said, "Oh dear! What shall I do? What will be the end of it What will become of me ?" —Mrs. Holder, a neighbour, said on Monday, the 28th ult., she saw Mrs. Rees going in and out of the house of Mrs. Hanoox. On Wednesday Mrs. Rees requested her not to tell the police about the affair, and also asked her if she thought she had been killing the children, to which witness replied that things looked very black indeed. An Friday evening she gave information to the police.— George Haim; husband of the woman confined, said Mrs. Rees attended his wife as midwife, and no doctor was engaged. Mrs. Rees told him the child was born prematurely, and was dead, and she promised to see it buried. He gave her a halfcrown to pay for the burial.—Mr, Carter, surgeon, who made the post-mortem examination, gave detailed evidence that the child was fully grown, and must have been born alive. All the appearances were utterly inconsistent with the statement that it was a premature birth; and his opinion was that the child lived several minutes, and died from hemorrhage.—The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Mrs. Rees, and in the case of seven other bodies returned open verdicts.
The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1883-01-20 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

MANUSCRIPT XXIX. "An army of phantoms vast and wan, Beleaguer the human soul." Pursued as by a thousand demons, I dared not pause or rest anywhere. Rest? for me there was none; by day and by night in hourly dread of capture, in dread of the phantom that never left me! how could / over again know what rest or peace meant? I had flung them behind me once and for all:  Holland was too near; and I fled to Baden for no particular reason, with no particular plan, save the instinct of preservation. The same instinct drove me still onward, to a capital where my trail could be lost in the multitude. I assumed a new disguise, and fled to Vienna, but I dared not stop even there —his blood rose up from the earth, and cried aloud, "Thou art accursed for ever !"  And I fled helve the nntse as before a living thing. Disguised so that I might hope to baffle even Guido di Schiara himself, I left Vienna, and made my way, my escape into Switzerland; and then leaving all frequented routes, I turned aside on foot into the mountains, seeking there some obscure hiding-place, where I might be safe for at least a time. I had money that would last me a long time, and I hoped vaguely to be able to communicate with my mother, and when pursuit was given up as hopeless, escape into some far-off land. Let me pass on quickly. Late onenight I arrived, worn and weary—oh! how weary—at a small hospice, far away up in the mountains, a lovely secluded spot, to which I had strayed, and where ly they would never think of looking for me. even if they had traced me through all my disguises, from Vienna, or beyond the Austrian frontier. So remote was this hospice, that the good monks might almost have been in another sphere so little did even a whisper from the outer world ever reach them. 1 say good monks, and I mean good, though some violent Protestants may smile if they read this. There were only ten of them, old men; but as far as ever I saw, they lived in peace with each other, and in fulfilment of the ministering duties they had undertaken, simply and sincerely; and to me they were ever kind and courteous hosts during the whole twelve months I boarded in their hospice. An atheist I came there, and an atheist I left, anceringt scoffing in secret at their credulity and blind religion, at what they believed their deity and faith; but though of course it was impossible that they should not find out ray scepticism, [took care it shouid never offend their prejudices. If they had known, if they had only known that they were sheltering a murderer, would they not have cast me out from amongst them? • • • * * * I look back with an intense and sickening horror to that period when Time itself seemed to stand still, and leave me to the awful monotony-of Solitude, to the fearful companionship of Remorse. At first I had been stunned, blinded; hurried on irt my frantic flight from thought; but here—here! .
The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1883-11-24 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1883.  JURYMEN are as a rule a very long-suffering race, or they would ere this have struck against that impressive and tyrannical system which compels them to devote their time to what is very often a most irksome and unpleasant duty at a considerable loss to themselves. It is bad enough when a juryman resides in the town where he has to sit, but how much worse mast it be for the struggling tradesman or agriculturist who has to travel, often from a remote part of his county, to leave his business to take care of itself, to leave his family whether well or ill, and to spend—we were going to say waste—several days in trying some miserable cases of petty theft, or other wretched crime, which Magistrates in Petty Sessions might very well have dealt with. It is really almost as bad as the conscription, and the only wonder is that Englishmen have born the evil so long. The fact is that this precious jury system is out of date in this advanced age. If we do not like to abolish it altogether, we ought certainly to amend it so as to make it more in keeping with the times. The other day a trial for murder collapsed because a juryman was seized with an epileptic fit; in another capital case a juryman said he had conscientious objections to trying a man for murder where the sentence was death; and other cases might be mentioned to show either how trivial a matter upsets trial by jury or how many excuses jurymen frame to get off. Then again it is now and then a toss-up as to what verdict a jury will give, and the present writer remembers a verdict being given dead against the evidence and solely in response to the persuasive pleading of a well-known advocate, thereby causing the Judge to remark in his most solemn manner, "Young man, the jury have acquitted you, and I hope it will be a warning to you." Reform in the jury laws and customs is urgently needed, and while not wishing to abolish the system altogether, we do certainly hope that it will be materially altered, so as to press less harshly on the lower middle classes. Jurymen ought to be paid a reasonable sum for their time and expenses when away from home; the exceptions ought to be done away with; and a man ought to be excused if he provides an efficient substitute. Above all we should like to see Grand Juries abolished. They are absolutely useless, and in some cases—more particularly at Quarter Sessions their duty is simply idiotic. Finally so long as three-fourths of the jury are agreed, their verdict of the majority ought to stand good; and so long as nine men out of twelve remain alive or able to perform their duties, the case ought to go on. Perhaps some of our readers who have experienced the hardships of serving on juries will give us their opinions.
The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1883-08-25 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

THE WALTHAMSTOW  MURDERS.  -At the Stratford Petty Sessions on Saturday, William Gouldstone was charged on remand with murdering his five children at Coartenay-place, St. James's-street, Walthamstow, on the 8;h inst. Since he was last brought up a coroner's jury has returned a verdict of wilful murder against him. The evidence of Mrs. Hamilton, the nurse who had attended Mrs. Gouldstone, given on a previous occasion, was read over. It was ta the effect that Gouldstone returned home earlier than usual on the day of the murders. He entered his wife's bedroom, and Mrs. Hamilton went down stairs, when she heard cries of murder proceeding from Mrs. Gouldstone, and on running back to the bed room Mrs. Hamilton found that the prisoner had struck his newly-born twin children on, the head with a hammer, inflicting injuries from which they died. The prisoner said to his wife: " I have killed my children; I am a happy man now. Your other children are in the cistern." He then left the room, and was afterwards found laying out on the floor the dead bodies of his three other children, whom he had drowned in the cistern. He was given into custody. Before being taken away by the police he said to his wife, " I have killed all the children; I shall be hung, and you will be single. You wished the children dead, and now they are dead."  Mrs. Hamilton was now recalled. She said that she lived in the same house as the prisoner, and up to the day of the murders he had been very kind to his family, and he was not given to drink. Since the birth of the twins on the Ist of August he had appeared very absent-minded. P.C. Cheeseman said that when he was called in on the day of the murders the prisoner, who had his coat off and his shirt sleeves tucked up, said, "Good evening, policeman; I have done it. Now I am happy; I am ready for the rope." On the way to the station the prisoner said, "When I took my money last week I thought of buying a revolver to do it with; but I altered my mind, as I thought it would make too much noise." He also said, "I had a hard job with the two biggest; but the other little --, I soon settled him. I thought it was getting too hot, for I have had five kids in three years and a half, so I thought it time to put a stop to it." At the station he said, " I did it like a man."  _ Medical evidence was next given as to the state of the children's bodies when the doctor was called in. —lnspector Tolkard, who took the charge at the police station, was then called ; and after some further evidence the prisoner was committed for trial at the Central Criminal Court.  DEATH FROM THE STING OF A painful occurrence has: taken place at Harlow. Miss Arkwriglit, of tlfil%rk Hall, 56 years of age, was on Saturday stung in the throat by a wasp, and in the apace of a felt sainhtes, before medical aid could be procured, ebb expired.   Be,erses eir Th. TRY BECKErps :re la intaUlabodr "eedthgy pie i.;:ationer."—N;eootbriodel
The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1875-04-10 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

WARWICKSHIRE EASTER SESSIONS.  The Quarter Sessions of the. Peace for Ibis county were commenced at the Shire Hall, Warw:ck, oi Tuesday, before Mr. W. Dickies, Chairman, and the other magistrates present were Mr. T. C. S. Kynnersley, Deputy Chairman ; Lord Leigh, Lord Lieutenant; Lord Dormer, Lord Brooke, Sir C. Mordaunt, Bart., Colonel Gee, Colonel Maihen, Major Hatherell. Cap' thin Vaugbton, the Rev. H. Mill,i. the Rev. W. S. Miller, Mr. C. N. Newdegate, M.P., Mr. W. Bromley. Davenport, M.P., Messrs. A. R. Adams, Q.C., H. W. Cole, Q.C., A. Hodgson. J. J. Bradshaw, W. H. Dawes, J. Smallwood, T. Avery, E. F. Flower, B. Wheler, 3. Jafh-sy, A. Nes on, T. Lloyd, George Wise, J. Y. Robbins, C. M. Caldecott, J. Staunton, J. W. Greaves, J. Mordannt, J. Cove Jones. H. H. Chattock, Dickins, H. Hunt, J. Sale, W. H. Child, J. A. Campbell, K. Greenway, G. Unett, A. Thereby, W. A. Pennington, and Darwin Gee.  Tun Cession TO rue GRAND Juity.,,The Chairman, in charging the Grand July, said he was happy to tell them that the calendar which would come before them contrasted very favourably indeed with the corresponding Sessions for the past six years. At the Easter Sessions for 1874 there were no less than twenty prisoners for trial, while there were now but eight names in the calendar. With respect to the offences, there were one or two eases en which he would make an observation. The first ease in the calendar was one which was not often met with in courts of justice. He did not remember a case of this description since 1835. The prisoner, John Connor, was charged with sending a threatening letter. He had not seen the letter, and did not know what were its contents. It was described in the depositions in the terms of the Act of Parliament, which provided, " Whosoever shall maliciously send, deliver or utter, or directly or indirectly caused to be received, knowing the contents thereof, any letter or writing, threatening to kill or murder any person, shall be guilty of felony." The prisoner was seen to post the letter at Stretton-on-Dunsmore on the day on which the letter in question was posted. The jury would have to be satisfied that the letter was in the prisoner's handwriting or authorised by him, and also that he was well acquainted a:th the contents. There was another case, in whiolc a young man, Henry Harborne, of the age of seventeen, was charged with felony, but it turned out that he was running away with another man's wife. The woman took away certain articles the property of her husband; but, as far as she was concerned, she could not in law be guilty of felony in taking away the goods of her husband. If a man was accessory to, or participated in, the carry. ing away of the goods, he could be indicted as a particep. Trinsinia. There was also a charge against a late member of the county constabulary, Herbert John Ellis, of embezzling the money of his employers. —The Grand Jury then retired, and the Court proceeded with the transacted of the County business.
The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1891-07-25 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

MANSLAUGHTER.  At Southwark Police-court, on Friday, James Kelly, an ex-soldier, was charged with the manslaughter of Mary Tobin, 49, a married woman and his aunt.—Michael Tobin said deceased was his mother. She went out on Saturday afternoon. the 27th ult., and was brought home on Sunday morning shortly after 12 o'clock. Be asked her what was the matter, and she replied, "Oh, I'm all right," but pressed her hands to her bead as if in pain. The next morning he found his mother lying in a pool of blood. The landlady was called, and she said, "I'll lay my life Jim has done thiS," referring to the accused. Witness went to the Kellys' house, where she saw:Mrs. Kelly, who told him "Jim did it with that iron pot," producing an iron saucepan which lay on the floor. She added, "he broke it over her head."— aura Smith, of Globe-street, said the prisoner lived in her house with his mother, and little brother and sister. About 12 o'clock on the night in question the prisoner's little sister came running to her shouting "Oh. Mrs. Smith, Oh, Mrs. Smith, come upstairs, there is murder!" She met deceased and prisoner 's mother, and noticed that deceased was bleeding from the left side of the head. The prisoner's mother said "Oh, Jim! what have you done to your aunt?" and the prisoner replied, "Why didn't you let me alone?" The prisoner's mother took the deceased away.—Mary Ann Kelly, aged 10, a sister of the accused, said she remembered her aunt coming to their house at nearly midnight. Witness had had a lit on the way home, and on the deceased mentioning the fact the prisoner said "It would be a good job if ahe was a corpse." The deceased told him he ought to be ashamed of himself, and the prisoner replied, "Ought I?" and ordered her out of the rooni. At this witness ran out of the room, and did not see what took place. She denied that there was a saucepan about the place, and said she did not tee a tumbler on the mantelshelf . —Catherine Kelly, the prisoner's mother, said when she met Mrs. Smith on the staircase she shouted upstairs calling her son names,and he shouted back, "Why can't you let me alone ? " She saw the prisoner take up some instrument, but she didn't know what it was, or what he did with it. He took a' glass from the mantelpiece and "aimed" it, and she next saw it in pieces on the floor. Witness added that she did not see the prisoner strike the deceased with the saucepan, and was positive that he didn't. She might have pointed it out to Michael Tobin the next morning, but she did not tell him that' her son struck his mother with it.—Dr. Herbert Daniel, of Guy's Hospital, said the woman died in that institution from laceration of the brain, which might have been caused by a fall. The police evidence having been given the prisoner was committed for hiaL
The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1891-05-09 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

JOHN GUI  A. CHILD FOUND IN THE C,  Preffts  for the  [Ail.  On Sunday the body of a female child, abont a month old, was found ii, the Coventry canal near the Cotton-factory. The body was tied las. bag, inside of which WAS a large ItOne. ISA Rollins conveyed the child to the Respite& mortuary.  TIMM 111401141 was held on Tuesday all-moon at fit. Mary's. hall, before Dr. life. Mr. W. EL Foster wss tom man of the jury. The finit witness was Alfred Large, watch movement naker, 42c. 211. Sponstreet, and he stated thst on Snnday shout 13 o'clock mid-day he was w ilking on the towing patb, and had with him a fox-terrier dog. The animal jumped into the water, dived underneath, and took hold of something like a bag. He called the dog away, hut it returned to the water and "hooted." Witness then pulled the hag on to the path and walked en. Shortly afterwards he heard cries of " " and on turning back saw that two boys had opened the bag, attached * which was a large stone (produoed) weighing mum (The bag produced appeared to be the lining of a pair of trousers). The child appeared to be Wont six weeks old. He believed Ihe body had been in the water nearly 24 hours.—William Henry Young, 16 Chauntry-place, deposed to being on the towing path of the canal on Sunday. Be saw thnsal catch hold of the bag, and he and a boy a Harper palled it out of the water. On opening it a baby tumbled out.—P.o. Rollins said he received information of the oocturr_nce and on going to the canal side he saw the baby and the bag and stone. He took the body to thi Hospital mortuary. Inspector Golby said he hal made enquiriee as to the identity of the child, b it could not disoover its parents. He was of opitdon that the child had been imported from aclistaum.—Drs. Phillips and Hewlett reported that they had made a postmortem examination of the body. It was fairly well nonrithed and developed, weighed 61 pounds, and measured 20 inches. The hair was an inch long and the hands closed, the skin of which was soddened and orinkl 4. From appearance, they were of opinion that the child efrom suffocation, but whether from drowning or exclusion of air by other means, they could not determine. Decomposition had not set in, and the body had been in the water less than three days. —The Coroner, in summing up, characterised the case as a very disreputable one, indeed. Whether the child was pit in the wstar dead or alive, them was not sufficient evidenca to show, and therefore he did not advise the jury to return a verdict of wilful murder. He was inclined to believe that the child was put in the witer after death, for the sake of the parents getting rid of the responsibility of interment.—The verdict was "That a female child was found in the Coventry canal, but there was no evidence to show how it got there." —ln reply to a juror, Inspector Colby said there was a quantity of stone, similar to the one found, in the neighbourhood of the Cotton Factory.  THE KRNMWORTH ADVERTISER SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1891 _ mem
The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1890-04-19 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

MURDER AT BRIXTON. hands.—John Moorer, a bey, spoke to finding FurA murder was committed on Saturday afternoon longer's body in the furnace-room.—lnspeetor at Messrs. Nevill's bakery, Milkweed -road, Brixton. Tunbridge, Scotland-yard, stated that on Sunday Shortly after half-past three o'clock a lad named he saw a number of men employed at the bakery, John Moorer discovered a man named Thomas including the prisoner, and took statements from Furlonger, one of the bread-packers, lying in No.l them as to their movements on Saturday. He furnace-room in a pool of blood. Moorer ran for handed in a statement made by prisoner, which, assistance, and upon the arrival of the foreman it however, was not read. Witness wrote down seven was seen that the man bad sustained shocking , statements from different workmen. When injuries. Dr. (Jarnham, of Milkwocd-road, was! arrested prisoner said the marks on hi:, throat might summoned, and found Furlonger lying on the have been done with his nail, and those on his floor of the furnace-room quite dead. On making i hand by striking against a trough. He was an examination of the body, four deep wounds I remanded till next Monday. were found on the deceased's head near the top, I two on the right side and two on the left, which were probably caused by blows with some I sharp and heavy instrument. The deceased's ; hat, which was lying beside him, also testified to the violence used, as the brim On! tale right side was cut clean through in two places, and on the back were also marks of blows. Upon the body )eing raised, underneath the left arm was found a piece of iron I I about a foot long, the remains of an old furnace bar, which vies sharp at one end, and with this it is believed the injuries were inflicted. The police authorities at the Camberwell-green Police Station were communicated with, and Inspector Fry, accompanied by several of his men, went to the bakery. They were informed by the foreman that the deceased received his week's wages, which amounted to £1 3s. 3d., with the rest of the men at half-past twelve o'clock that afternoon ; when he was discovered no money was found on him, and his right-hand trousers pocket was turned inside out. The deceased was seen alive about a quarter of an hour after he received his I money by Alfred Spurgeon, an engineer, and shortly after two o'clock Alfred Daniels spoke to him in one of the sheds. He was then all right. That is the last that was seen of him. The deceased was sixty years of age, and had been employed for many years at Messrs. Nevill's bakery. At the Lambeth Police Court, on Monday afternoon, Daniel Stewart Gerrie (30) was charged with the murder of Furlonger.—Mr. Sims, of the Treasury, prosecuted, and stated that the prisoner had been arreAed by direction of the Police Commissioners, he having been found on Saturday in possession of a sum of money in excesa of his wages, whilst when questioned as to the murder he gave contradictory accounts of himself. The prisoner had a wound on his throat, and on the back of his