npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Sun. — 1846-03-17 (London, England)

ADELPHI.  Honour to Mr. Stirling Coyne for writing. honour to the Adelphi management for producing, one of the most glorious farces that has ever been acted, Read-r, are you getting plethoric, fat, heavy, and stupid?—has your medical man prescribed for you with a view to shake your sides, and to srimuhtto your absorbents?—do you wish to enjoy yourself, to laugh, to scream for halt an hour ? Go and see the new 'Adelphi farce. It is Al, although it is entitled, Did you ever send your wife to Camberwell? A question as dull as ever counsel put to witness, but the answer to which affinals matter for infinite mirth. Mr. Chesterfield Honeybun (Mr. Wright) did send his wife to Camberwell—a wife whom he had married without tbe consent of relations—a wife, moreover, young, preitf(MiSs Wkiilgar acted the part), and j aloes ; and during their absence from their Mrs. Crank (Mrs. F. Matthews), with her habY, takes pos• essio.i of the said attic. Mrs. Crank, imagining that the attic is the lodging of her husband, Mr. Isaac Crank (Mr. 0. Smith), clockmaker of Stoke Pojis, who has come up to London on busines, she leaves her child in the bed, and goes out to seek her husband. .Crank, hearing a child cry, enters the room, and recognising his own blessed " babby," which he had thought safe and sound at Stoke Nis, incautiously becomes jealous. No sooner has he left than Honeybun enters, and, finding the baby in his bed, and fearing his wife's jealousy, hides it behind a Chet of drawers. As he leaves, his aunt enters to bring about a reconciliation, fancies it is a juvenile Honeybun, and takes it away to adopt it. Crank returns, meets Honeybun, accuses him as the seducer of his wife, seivs him by the throat, throws him against the drawers, which fall, and, as Honeybun believes, " squashed" the child. Afraid of being accused of murder he gets out on the roof of the house, and Mrs. Crank entering tired by her walk very quietly ensconces herself in Honeybun's bed. Driven in by a shower of rain, Honeybun finds her there, and at the same time hears his jealous wife ascending the stairs. Fancy Wright in this quandary. Words cannot do justice to the rich humour with which this scene was given. The ,dialogue, what we could catch of it, was pointed, keit the shunts of laughter were so loud, and so continuous that it was impossible to hear two consecutive sentences. To increase the confusion Crank enters and finds Honeybun on his knees before Mrs. Crank. He is imploring her forgiveness for what he calls babycide; he is, however, relieved by the entrance of Aunt Jewell with the baby, and then it comes out that Crank lives on the floor below, and that Mrs. Crank has mistaken the room. The piece ends with a declaration on the part of Honeybun of his intention to send his wife to Camberwell every night, a promise which, we doubt not, he will keep for some fifty nights ha come. The artistes, baby, and all were called for at the fall of the curtain, and in this instance most certainly the honour was richly deserved.
The Sun. — 1846-11-05 (London, England)

HORRIBLE ASSASSINATION OF THREE PERSONS. (From the Gazette de Tribunauz.) A terrible and mysterious crime has just been committed at Six-Fours, near Toulon. The victims are a man named Corneille and his wife, each about fifty years of age, and their mother, aged ninety-four. They were in easy circumstances, and inhabited a farm in the neighbourhood of the above place, together with a son and daughter, about twenty years of age. The latter had passed the night in a neighbouring village, at a relation's, and on returning, the next morning, were astonished to find the doors and window-shutters closed, and smoke issuing from the crevices. Alarmed at this, they quickly opened the parlour-shutters, when, to their horror, they saw their father stretched on the floor in a pool of blood, having evidently been shot full in the face, so that his death must have been instantaneous. He seemed to have been called out of bed to open the door to some one, as he had on his trowsers, but neither shoes nor stockings. On the first floor was found the body of Madame Corneille, who had been killed in the same manner as her husband. As she harl on merely her night-gown and an undergarment it is thought that she had been shot while getting out of bed to go to the assistance of her husband. In the next room was found the body of the poor old grandmother—almost a centenarian—stretched lifeless ,on the bed ; her skull and breast fractured, and her right arm broken. In order to efface all traces of their crime, after having taken a hundred francs and a few gold trinkets, the murderers had coolly taken measures for ensuring the complete conflagration of the house and its contents. Under every bed, and in almost every piece of furniture, were found large quantities of straw and linen stuff, arranged so as easily to take fire ; these had been also set fire to in five different places. The murderers must have been known to M. Corneille, for he appears to have opened the door to them, which being shut at eight o'clock, all access was impracticable from without. On the next day the door was found locked, the assassins having taken the key, in the hope that all entrance to the burning house being rendered impossible. the deaths of their three victims would be attributed to the fire. Their own excess of caution, however, has led to their discovery ; for all the apertures having been thus carefully closed, the fire had gone out for want of air, the straw and linen alone being destroyed, while the bodies of the murdered persons presented but slight , burns. It was affecting to witness the grief of the two survivors, so suddenly rendered orphans. The son has almost lost his reason: he carries a crucifix on his heart, and affirms that the image of Christ has revealed to him the names of the assassins of his father, beseeching the Procureur du Roi to allow him to do justice on them himself. Two persons have already been arrested on suspicion.
The Sun. — 1846-06-29 (London, England)

LATEST INTELLIGENCE. SATURDAY MORNING, TEN O'CLOCK. An express just come from Fort Peddie, brings us the following important intelligence All is here excitement; Kaffirs in large bodies around the T'Slarabie tribes. For the last few nights we have been under arms, while the women and children have been placed for security in the barracks. Yesterday the Fingoes and the Newton Dale Settlement had sharp fighting with Pato's Kaffirs, and which continued the whole day. Towards after. noon firing was heard from Fort Peddie, and soon the war cry was heard in all directions. Captain 11PLean (resident agent) immediately sent Mr. Shepstone (Kaffir interpreter) forward to ascertain the true state of affairs. Ile was accompanied by Mr. Tainton and Mr. S. Lucas. By the time they had reached the scene of conflict the Kaffirs had hurryingthree ofteethe Fingoe cattle. gallant associates, instantly;t gainedsir Shepstone rallied day, tahnae dn Fingoes, ni sssg' oe twoe e, anodhen made a dash on ther Kaffirs to retake the cattle. At this crisis Mr. Shepstone and his companions displayed equal decision and bravery, for making a dash to the rear of the Kaffirs he threw them into confusion, and after firing a few shots he succeeded in recapturing the whole of the cattle, and in seeing them again in the possession of the Fingoes. At this time a detachment of the 7th D. G. came up, and the Artillery, but too late to take a part in the affair. Fani, a Kaffir of Pato's tribe (very strongly suspected of being the murderer of the Rev. E. Scholtz), came to Captain M'Lean and asked for protection on the Fingoe Settlement. Captain M'Lean remarked, " I look on all Kaffirs with suspicion at this moment—prove the sincerity of your intentions. To this Fani made no reply, except that he wished to belong to the settlement. Captain M'Lean rejoined, "Go and tell Pato that 1 must see him before noon to-morrow as a friend, and that if he does not come I will consider him an enemy ; I want to inform him of his daring attack on the settlement this day, and moreover, I wish him to be informed that I have ordered all spies to be at once shot." Two large bodies of Kaffirs were within two miles of Fort Peddie last night. Another hand writes :--" e are in a state of great anxiety, surrounded by Kaffirs. We have not had our clothes off since Monday, and have only had two or three hours sleep each night. * * We are afraid that Pato and Umhala will both join the war party, and will probably proceed into the colony." SATURDAY, Noox.—A report just brought in that a body of about 200 Kaffirs had made their appearance at the foot of the hills below Mr. Fuller's, about three miles south of town. A party of mounted Burghers hurriedly collecting to move upon that point. Reported that the country along the whole of the Kerreiga and Kowie Rivers, was lit up last night by farm-houses fired by the ruthless enemy.
The Sun. — 1846-05-25 (London, England)

HORRIBLE TRAGEDY IN SPAIN. BAYONNI, MAY 15.—One of those rugged and solitary valleys, formed by the spurs of the Navarrese Pyrenees, has just been the scene of a shocking tragedy, which, if possible, excited increased horror in the neighbourhood, from the fact of its having occurred within a short distance of the spot where the famous Christino Guriello Elorrio was assassinated only a few days ago. A. fortnight has not yet elapsed since a woman entered an isolated house, situated in the above locality, and begged its inmates, consisting of a peasant, his wife, and their infant, to give her shelter for the night. No sooner was the prayer made than it was granted with that hospitality for which the inhabitants of northern Spain are proverbial, and the stranger sat down to rock the baby's cradle whilst the patrona lit a candle for the purpose of preparing supper. She and her husband then observed that the new corner, whose rough voice had previously excited their attention, bad a very m isculine aspect, and they were not long in finding out that a man, disguised as a female, was beneath the roof One rapid glance exchanged between the dismayed couple sufficed to show that each had made this alarming discovery at the same time, and the peasant, under pretext of looking after some pigs, went out to seek the assistance of his nearest neighbours. No sooner was he gone than the pretended weman, assuming a ferecious aspect, approached his trembling companion, who precipitately shut herself up in an adjoining room. The robber, f r such he was, tried to burst open the door, but, finding it resisted all his attempts, desisted, threatening that if a sum of money received the day before by the peasant for some maize was not immediately given up, he would kill the child which was sleeping near the miscreant. The poor women, half dead with fright, and not imagining that such a threat could be put into execution, refused to leave her place of refuge, and in a minute afterwards the screams of the little innocent and its .subsequent silence, sudden and profound, told its agonised mother that the monster had murdered it. This deed of blood consummated, the wretch strove to break through the mud wall separating him from his other victim, and in a short time he made an orifice sufficiently large to admit his head and shoulders, through which he strove to make his way; but the peasant's wife, rendered desperate by the death of her child and her own danger, caught hold of a sickle, and seizing the assailant by his hair, hacked at his neck with such energy that she severed his head from the trunk. This done, she fell to the ground in a fainting fit, just as the peasant returned with aid, whose horror and consternation may be imagined on discovering his infant dead and weltering in its blood, the body of a decapitated man extended on the floor, and his unfortunate wife in a swoon, with the robbers head at her feet.  A
The Sun. — 1846-02-23 (London, England)

CRIMINAL COURT.-(THIS DAY  • The fifth Session of the present Mayoralty was opened this morn lag by the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, the Recorder, and Aldermei Hunter, Challis, and Hughes.  The grand jury having been sworn, the Recorder charged them as follows :- Gentlemen of the Grand•Jury,=The present calendar contains a list of no leSs than 120 prisoners, but that number will no doubt be augmented before the termination of your labours. The number is not so great as in -some of the previous sessions, but the crimes charged are of no common magnitude. There are three charges of arson ; several of making and uttering counterfeit coin ; three of ' rape ; several cases of misdemeanour of the worst character; three charges of murder, two being committed -in one county and the third in another. The Learned Recorder then read the statute which related to arson, and after explaining the degrees of that crime, he went on to direct their attention to the murder which had been committed in Drury-lane. If (continued the Learned Judge) the evidence which shall come before-you is the same that i hive read in the depositions, I would advise you to put the case hi course of further investigation. The second case of murder is a charge against parents, of causing the death of an infant by administering poison ; and they are charged also with concealment of birth. With respect to the first of these charges, 1 de not think, after a careful perusal of the evidence, that the crime is °came home as against the soother; but of course that point will be for you to determine. With respect to the second charge, Ido not think that it can at all be substantiated, for as a surgeon was tailed in the concealment is at an end. You may be all more or less acquainted with the circumstances of this case from the statements which have-from day to day appeared in the public prints. Whether those statements have answered a good end or an evil one, I am not here to say;- whether the publication of the facts connected with it have assisted the truth or thrown difficulties in the way of justice, I shall not pronounce an opinion on ; but whatever, Gentlemen, - may have been your previous impressions, you must now "  behind you. and look only  to the evidence which shall be brought before you. If you find that the child died a natural death, then, however morally guilty the prisoners may be— however abhorrent the intercourse that touk place between them—into that connexion you have no right to inquire. They are freed from the charges preferred against them, and your duties, as regards them, are at an-end. The Learned Recorder then referred to• the charges of rape, and concluded by expressing his deep regret that a calendar so limited, in point of numbers, should be so fruitful in offences of the highest order. He was sure that they would give -to every case its duo consideration ; and without further detaining them by any lengthened remarks, he would at once dismiss them to their duties.
The Sun. — 1846-02-23 (London, England)

CRIMINAL COURT.-(T HIS DAY  The fifth session of the present Mayoralty-was opened this mording by the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, the Recorder, and Aldermen Hunter, Challis, and Hughes. The grand jury having been sworn, the Recorder charged them as follows :  Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,—The present calendar contains a list of no less than 120 prisoners, but that number will no doubt be augmented before the termination of your labours. The number is not so great as in some of the previous sessions, but the crimes charged are of no common magnitude. There are three charges of arson; several of • making and- uttering counterfeit coin ; three of rape ; several cases of misdemeanour of the worst character; three charges of murder, two being committed in one county and the third in another. The I earned Recorder then read the statute which related to arson, and after explainirb, the degrees of that crime, he went on to direct their attention to the murder which had been committed in Drury-lane. If (continued -the Learned Judge) the evidence which shall come before you is the same that I hive read in the depositions, I would advise you to put the case in course of further investigation. The second case of murder is a charge against parents, of causing the death of an infant by administering poison ; and they are charged also with concealment of birth. With respect to the first of these charges, 1 de not think, aftet a careful perusal of the evidence, that the crime is borne home as against the mother, but of course that point will be for you to determine. - With respect to the second charge, I do not think that it can at all be substantiated, for as a surgeon was called in the concealment is at an end. You may be all more or less acquainted with the circumstances of this case from the statements which have from day to day appeared in the public prints. Whether those statements have answered a good end or an evil one, I am not here to say; whether- the publication of the facts connected with it have assisted the truth or thrown difficulties in the way of justice, I shall not pronounce an opinion on ; but whatever, Gentlemen, may have been your previous impressions, you must now throw them behind yeu, and look only to the evidence which shall be brought before you. If you find that the child died a natural death, then, however morally guilty the prisoners may be--however abhorrent the intercourse that took place between them—into that connexion you have no right to inquire. They are freed from the charges preferred against them, and your duties, as regards them, are at an end. The Learned Recorder then referred to the charges of rape, and concluded by expressing his deep regret that a calendar so limited, in point of numbers, should be so fruitful in offences of the highest order. lie was sure that they gt its hdeunee dc ornesmi daerrkast: ohne ;waonudl Withoute fortdiun h se rs them to their duties. dweotualindignigventeomnevbyeryanTiee  Tho grand jury thenretiredcand the petit jury was sworn in.
The Sun. — 1846-10-21 (London, England)

WORSHIP-STREET. Anne Sinner, alias Rnffey, alias Turner, the wife of a .German eating-house keeper in Keate-street, Spitalfields, was placed at the bar before Mr. Broughton for final examination, charged with the wilful murder of a young Irish labourer named Daniel Crawley, by stabbing him with a carving-knife. The evidence now given, which was of a much more conclusive character than any before elicited, was to the effect that as George Brown, an acquaintance of the prisoner, was assisting her in her business, at eleven o'clock on the night in question, the deceased entered the shop, and requested to be served with a quarter of a pound of meat, which witness supplied to him and told him it came to 2id. The deceased offered 2d., saying that he had no more, and witness handed the money to the prisoner, who objected to receive it, as it was a halfpenny short of the price. The deceased, however, in sisted upon having the meat for the money. he had tendered, when the prisoner wrapped it up in some paper, and, placing it on a shelf behind her, called the' prisoner a blackguard, and told him to leave the shop, as she did not want his custom. During this altercation another man entered and likewise called for some meat, which the prisoner was in the act of cutting for him, when the deceased, who was leaning forward upon the counter with his head resting upon his arm, continued his importunity, and the prisoner, who was much excited, suddenly seized a large cutting-knife, and exclaiming. " There, you —, that's your halfpennyworth !" stabbed him in the breast with it. The prisoner instantly flung the knife out of her hand upon the floor beyond the counter, and the deceased, who screamed out " Oh ! I am stabbed to the heart, save me, save me !" and who tightly grasped his side with both his hands, through the fingers of which i the blood was flowing in great profusion, was n the act of reeling to the ground, when the witness carried him to a chair, in which he was supported until the arrival of the police and a neighbouring surgeon. The surgeon at once pronounced the wound the deceased had received to be mortal, and directed his immediate removal to the London Hospital. Francis Van Spielenberg, a German skin-dresser, corroborated the last witness's evidence in all its essential particulars, and deposed to some expressions towards the prisoner from the. deceased, which, though not of such a nature as to induce her to lose all control of her temper, were of certainly an aggravating tendency. Mr.. Holman, a surgeon of the London Hospital, described the nature of the injury deceased had sustained, from which he gradually sunk for the period of a week, and then. expired.. The knife had caused an incised wound, dividing the cartilage of the sixth and seventh ribs, and puncturing the pericardium so seriously that it exhibited. extensive inflammation and was filled with fluid. The cavity of the chest also was gorged with blood, from three pints to two quarts; and all the other
The Sun. — 1846-12-09 (London, England)

EXTRA STOCK.-PEGS.  250. The Right Hon. the Earl of Radnor, of Coieshill, near Faringdon, Berks, a 45 weeks and 1 das old Coleshill pig, bred by his Lordship, and fed on 16 bushel, of barley meal mixed with whey, and 1 bushel of potatoes. (51.) Silver medal.  253. Mr Edward Whitfield, of Snaresbrock, Waustead. Essex, a q 8 weeks air; 9 days old .Ei,ex and Suffolk pig, bred by tiimse!f, and led ti iddlif;gsp. barley-meal, and rnAk. (45.) oommendt.A.  triIIIIINALS I N rt 1.,(.ER1A We read in a litter .from Aig;pr:=7., tlie Constitutionnel—" F, r Acrw- c.:71c,; 117ve Iron committed here which have c tmeasit,ecs to the inhzibitants. One night in particular lament:1110 ; cries ware !ward in the nue Bab Az-ma, iu iln.s heart, of the city, where two or three pi..rsons w: re en.tar-ed- in a desperate struggle with several a-ssailants. Ou, arrivirg at the spot, three ,ice ho ha,! a were found lying on the gr,,und, stabbed in so cent places by some thieves whi,in they had attempted to arrest. The police endeavoured in vain to trace the offenders, until an unexpected incident occurred to aid them. Some time ago information was received that a murder had been committed during the night, on an Italian named Caesar Poggio, who kept a public-house. The officers of justice proceeded to the house, and there found an immense quantity of objects which had evidently been stolen, with false keys, crow-bars, and other instruments used by burglars. It was inferred that ' Poggio had quarrelled with some of the malefactors, and that they had committed the murder. The police began by arresting his brother-in-law, a man of bad character. This led to further discoveries, and it was ascertained that there was an organised band of at least sixty • ' thieves or receivers, forty of whom are now in custody for trial. They consist of Italians, Maltese, and Spaniards, of the class who quit their own country where they are too well known, and rush to a new colony to com- mit further depredations." In the- same letter we ' find the following curious statement:—" About ten years ago there lived at Oran, a Spaniard, of excessively mild manners, full of snbmission to the authorities, in fact, a highly-respectable man in every respect, in appearance, except that he exercised no known profession. Every year he was absent tor three months, and it was noticed that on his return he had always plenty of money. This circumstance at length having excited suspicion, he was summoned before a magistrate, when, without hesitation, he recounted the secret of his existence. He stated that he had been a convict at Cadiz, and having served his time, had come to Africa to live tranquilly. When his purse was nearly empty, he embarked for Spain, where he committed robberies, and having got enough to supply him for the remainder of the year, returned to Oran. An expulsion to Algeria put an end to this mode of existence, which would make another chapter for the adventures of Gil Bias or Guzman d'Alfarache."