The Sun. — 1855-09-20 (London, England)

HOMICIDE AT BRISTOL.  BRISTOL, Wednesday.—Quite a sensation was produced this morning throughout the city by a report that a man named John Hale, a seaman, engaged on board a coasting vessel called the Cardiff Trader, had been murdered by a seaman named George Newman, who is also engaged on board of the same vessel.  Information of the homicide was promptly conveyed by the police to the coroner, J. B. Grindon, Esq., when that gentleman lost no time in issuing his warrant for an inquest on the body, which was commenced this day at the Old Duke Tavern, King•street, Queen-square. The evidence adduced was of a contradictory character. Jane Hale, the widow of the deceased, deposed that she and her !husband, and Newman and his wife, were with some other parties at the Prince's Head Tavern, Welsh Back, when witness had a noggin of gin and peppermint given to her at the bar. She was in the act of giving a glass of it to Mrs. Newman, when her husband, who objected to any intimacy between them, knocked the vessel out of her hand. Newman said it made no odds to him (Hale), as the liquor was paid for by the two women at the bar, and be also called Hale a had name. Deceased then crossed and asked witness to go home, upon which Newman raised his hand and struck him with it on the forehead, and made his nose bleed a good deal. Deceased hung forward his head, and did not speak ; indeed she never heard him speak afterwards. Deceased left the house, and the others went after him, but witness was afraid to go until a woman called her, and said her husband was being killed, when she went and found him on a doorstep bleeding from his head, and a policeman in the act of cutting his hair off. She went to Dr. Davis, in Queen-square, and asked him to come to him, but as she had net 5.. to give him he refused to do so. Her husband was then carried home by our men, and she washed his head with brandy, and stayed up with him till three o'clock, when she lay down by his side and fell asleep. At half-past six she awoke, and fund him dead and cold by her side. Alfred Crook, a waiter at the Old Duke Tavern, deposed that at about half-past eleven he heard some one say " Here's the villain George," and on looking towards the corner of King-street saw a man in the act of falling, and two Land Transport men and another man near him. The Land Transport men said, "Kill the vagabond," and the man raised the fallen man three times to a height of two feet from the ground, and each time dashed his head down on the stones. He was in the act of repeating this fOr the fourth time, when, a policeman coming up, he let him fall altogether. This evidence was contradicted by that of the Land Transport men referred to, William Jones and James Lenkin, and two women, named Griffiths and Bryant, who stated, that after the dispute about the gin and peppermint, Newman was sitting on a table talking to Mrs. Hale, when Hale took the kitchen poker, which he concealed behind him, and then going up behind Newman, struck him with it a heavy blow across the head, which cut open his head and staggered him off the table. Hale then ran away, knocking down and kicking a young woman in his progress, and was running, pursued by the other into King•street, when he ran his head against some railings and fell backwards into the middle of the street, his head striking against the pitching. Newman then came up and was in the act of raising him from the ground, when the policeman came up, and he let go his hold of him and he fell.  The Jury expressed their disbelief of the statements of the Land Transport men, and  The Coroner adjourned the inquest till to-morrow for the purposes of a post-mortem examination, and to afford the police time to make further inquiries.