Glasgow Courier. — 1862-07-03 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

SHOCKING MURDER OF A YOUNG LADY.  A murder, revolting in the extreme, was perpetrated at Fordingbridge, Hants, on the 22d ult. The particulars are as follow :—Mary Ann Susan Hall, aged 23, was the only daughter of a Mr Hall, of Midgham Farm, distant about a mile from Fordingbridge. It was Miss Hall's custom to walk to the church at Fordingbridge every Sunday morning, tor the purpose of attending Divine service, and on the morning in question she left her father's house about ten o'clock, and went through the fields that led to Fat dingbridge. Nothing more was heard of her until 4 o'clock in the evening, when a man named Gilbert, alias Philpott, informed the police-constable at the town that, as he WAS crossing a field called Harding's field, he saw the body of a woman lying in a gully or ditch that separated Mr Hall's farm from Harding's field. The constable, a surgeon, and several people at once went to the spot, accompanied by Gilbert, which is situated about half a mile from the town, where they discovered the body of Miss Hall lying against the side of the ditch, quite dead, the hands outstretched and clenched, the clothes fearfully torn and covered with the mud and filth of the ditch, through which evidently she had been dragged. On her breast was her church service, and in her hand her hymn-book. From information received by the police-constable, he was induced to arrest Gilbert on the charge of having committed the murder, and from what transpired at the inquest held on Monday, there seems every probability of their connecting him in some way with the committal of the deed. Gilbert bears a very bad character, having been transported on one occasion for rape, besides being committed on innumerable occasions for minor offences. He is now out on a ticket-of-leave, and has resided in Fordingbridge for the last twelvemonths, working as a labourer, although recently he has been unemployed. He is unmarried, aged about 35, and resides with his sister in e small cottage about 500 yards from the spot where the body was found. It would seem that the murderer met his victim as she was walking to church, and there attacked her, evidently with a view of criminally assaulting her, as there seems to have been no attempt at robbery. Here there are evident traces of a struggle having taken place, and of the mastery being gained by the murderer, who, it would seem, dragged the unfortunate girl about 15 yards up the gully or ditch. Here it was that the second struggle took place, the girl having been evidently placed against the side of the ditch, with the lower part of her body trailing in the mud and filth, whilst the brute attempted to carry out his object. This he would appear to have failed in, according to the medical evidence. From this spot, then, he dragged his victim by the legs for the distance of 140 yards through the water, filth, and weeds of the ditch, screened from all human observation by the overhanging bushes, finally placing the now lifeless body in the place and position in which it WAS found. From the medical evidence at the inquest, it appears that the deceased was alive when her inhuman murderer immersed her in the poisonous water of the ditch, for some of it was found in her stomach. Her inside clothes were torn to rags, and the weeds and mud had even penetrated under her stays. Mr Hall, the father of the young lady, is so ill from the calamity which has befallen him that he is not ex-4Ati to live.