The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1873-01-03 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

MURDER OF A POLICE CONSTABLE  AT CARDIFF.  On Tuesday morning last at a little after eleven o'clock, a police constable named Win. Perry, was wain g along Wharton-street, with a pork butcher, named John Jones, who carries on business in that street. Just as they got to he Westgate Hotel, Jones—who had been talking in a seemingly friendly manner to the policeman—whipped out a butcher's knife, and plunged the weapon into his companion. The blade entered near the heart, and, almost instantaneously, took fatal effect. Jones then rushed inside the Westgate Hotel, sayifig, " I have done for him, and now I'll do for myself." He pulled off his coat and waistcoat and stabbed himself several times in a deliberate manner. He then laid the knife upon the bar, and sat down upon a chair. The body of the murdered policeman was conveyed to the mortuary, and 1 that of Jones to the Infirmary. It is thought that the latter will recover as his wounds are not of a very dangerous character. Perry leaves a wife and two children to mourn his premature decease, and, as is natural, great smypathy is felt in Cardiff towards the bereaved relations. No satisfactory reason can be assigned for the cold blooded action of the murderer, but it is supposed that he bore a grudge against Perry, and took this means of satisfying it. The Western. Mail says :—The deceased man Perry was a well-known and very efficient officer. He joined the borough polies force on the sth of July, 1865, and from that time had always conducted himself in a praiseworthy manner, he having attained to the position of a first-class constable some time ago. Previous to 1865 he was employed in the Merthyr division of the county police. Be was 36 years of age. The superstitious will probably feel interested in the following story, which our reporter heard last night from the lips of the widow herself. Strange as it may seem, it is no less strange than true and mournful as the circumstance is in itself, those who believe in the efficacy of dreams as prognosticators of future events, will, perhaps, derive sonic gratification from it. On Sunday night Mrs. Perry (who resides at Melrose-cottage, Heath-street, Canton), had a dream, which but too faithfully predicted the sad tragedy of yesterday. In the midst of her sleep she saw, to use her own words, a large crowd following her husband down the Cowbridge-road, in the direction of the Westgate hotel, where the murder was committed. She saw, in the horror of her dream, a knife plunged into the breast of her husband, and drawn out again, blood-stained and grimy, by some cruel but unknown hand. She saw, too, the murdered form of her husband borne away, and little thought, when brooding over her awful dream, that it was a "(lark presage," and the precursor of what was soon to be a terrible reality. The dream occasioned her great uneasiness, but she mentioned it to no one until the dreadful tidings of her husband's death reached her yesterday morning, when the circumstance forced itself vividly upon her recollection.  The brutal murderer of Perry has been committed for trial by the coroner, and it is expected that he will be in a condition to be taken before the magistrates next week. The wretched man it seems was a slaughterman formerly in the employ of Mr. Hollingsworth a butcher at Wolverhampton, with whose wife he eloped some years ago. Since then he has been living under the name of John Jones, but his real name is said to be Benjamin Swan..