npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1889-05-25 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

BRIEN. AND THE YENIANS. Mr. William O'Brien was 'next called and examined by Mr. Reid. He said he was triern-` ber for 'North-East Cork; and knew the district of Mallow since 1868. That district was always very much disturbed. Witness was not a Fenian in the sense of having taken the oath, though he had sympathised deeply with the cause. About 16 or 17 years ago he endeavoured to re. Ilemelie the various differences which existed be tween the sections ot tne temans, ant failed in that, and since then he had had no connection with the body. The Fenians never had even the slightest connection with agrarian outrage. He then detailed many instances in • which as a • journalist he had inquired into the differences, between landlords and tenants sinbe 1868, which had resulte4 in agrarian outrages and murders; and said he was sure that there was net the slightest connection between the Land League and crime. He remembered, well in 1870 being presented to Mr. Isaac Butt, who had spent his whole day in 'defending a man charged with shooting his landlord. That gentleman then said his day's work was an epitome of the unhappy history of Ireland. He had spent Iris day in trying to save a man from the gallows, and he was then addressing a lot of young men who were trying to get sent to penal servitude. He-said the object of his life was to give the Irish peasant some BETTER HOPE THAN THE BLUNDERBUSS, and the young men of Ireland something better than penal servitude. In 1874 at the Kingston estate there had been a prolonged and angry struggle between the landlord and the nants, and on one occasion the police and the driver of an escort Were killed and the agent left dangerously wounded. In 1877 he went down to the estate to inquire into the matter, and he visited 300 tenants personally. He then entered minutely into the circumstances of the case, and said the impression that was left on his mind of the wretchedness and the in. dustry of these poor people was one may had never - left him. Before the Land League agitation there was dreadful trouble between Mr. Bridge, the landlord of the Kingston estate, and his tenants, but when the Land League was formed the rents were voluntarily lowered, and he had had no more trouble since. The whole of the disputes were no doubt caused by an attempt on the part of the landlords to take advantage of a couple of good years Ito raise the rents and to get the tenants to contract themselves out of the Land Act of 1870. In 1879 witness went to the West of Ireland and found the condition of things appalling. I The universal feeling was that the old famine times were coming back again, while the young men were desperate, as they stated they would not have a repetition of the old scenes. He felt quite sure that if the Land League had not sprung up to restrain the landlords, and to assist the people, there would have been a
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1889-09-21 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

MENTAL.  1. He moat be sane.—l would sternly forbid all the interne. and those predisposed to insanity to marry. If insanity is in the family we ought not to marry, for the affliction will be banded on to the children with deadly oertainty. There is no escape, and insanity cannot die out till all subject to it by heredity die out childless. The marriage itself could be permitted, but the procreation of children must be forbidden. If men care to be the husband of insane wives, or wives predisposed to insanity, that is their affair; but, if they mean to become fathers, then, that is our affair. In the name of 'be 'pate we forbid the further introduction of the insane among us. In Sparta, all feeble children were at once destroyed. We cannot commit murder in the name of the state, but we can forbid the appearance of children predisposed to insanity. In Sparta, only the strong and the physically eymniet• Heal were permitted to marry. All others were forbidden by law. If we cannot go that length we can go some length. No idiot ought to be permitted to marry, but as there are many degrees of idiotcy the law thus framed would raise many nice points of degrees of idiotoy, and thus many who think themselves safe might find themselves involved. There is one kind of vice that young folks soon get rid of, and that is—advice, and therein many prove themselves idiots enough. A doctor offered to shoot a partridge for I his wife, who replied, "No, dear, send it a prescription, and that is far more likely to kill it." No doubt some kind of advice is fatal, especially when offered to idiots.  I would be very unwilliog to allow *illy people to marry, and yet bow many silly people are married? Do you ask where all the silly boys awl girls come from? Look at their parents I Lablache was introduoed to King Humbert, and while waiting for the audience) the usher came for the great singer, who, in his confusion, put his own hat on his head, and took the bat of another gentleman in his hand, and thus entered the audience chatober. The king remarked, "What, two hats!" "Yes, your majtsty, two hats are not too many for a man who has lost his head," !deny, somehow, lose their heads when they think of marriage. It seems bard to forbid men who really love, to marry. The prohibition is enough of itself to turn the heads of many, and hence it ought not to be lightly made, but on the other hand we must consider the unborn children, and the claims of the state. The degeneracy of the race arises in part from men and women of poor intellect intermarryine. It is bad when husband, or wife has a predisposition to insanity, but the case is cruel, and insane to the highest degree when both Lave insanity in the blood. Such weddings are a disgrace to us.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1889-11-16 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

TIIE MURDER OF A TOURIST.  TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF LAURIE. In a crowded court at Edinburgh on Friday, before erd.kingabiiigh,.Lord.,Tnstice Clerk; -Jan Watson Laurie, described as a joiner, of Glasgovrovas placed. on his trial on the charge of Murdering Edwin Robert Rose, a tourist,•of London, in the isle of °Arran, in ,July. The Solicitor-General for Scotland Prosecuted, and the prisoner, who was attired with great care and shewed little concern, was defended by the Dean Of Faculty. Evidence was given by the police and others as to the disappearance of Rose, the formation of the search parties, the quest among the hills, and the discovery of the body at the. foot of a precipice in Glen Sannox. 'rile body was concealed in a cavity, behind a large boulder, I and many stones had been heaped about to hide it from view. It was doubtful, indeed, whether the remains would have been found had not a shred of wearing apparel been left exposed. One officer stated that he buried a pair of Rose's boots on the beach, thinking that they would not be needed at the trial. The Dean of Faculty, by his cross examination, sought to indicate that the tourist's death was accidental—that Rose slipped over the cliff while wearing iron-heeled boots, and that he sustained the injuries in his fall. Dr. Gilmour, however, had no hesitation in certifying that the fractures in the head—which was fearfully sniashed-ivere not caused by a fall from the cliff, but by direct blows with some blunt instrument, probably a boulder. Other medical evidence was given shewing that it was impossible for the injuries on Rose's head and body to have been caused by a fall. After witnesses had been called to identify wearing apparel owned by Rose but found in Laurie's lodgings the court adjourned. On Saturday, further evidence having been given for the prosecution, three medical gentlemen were called in support of the theory of the defence that the injuries on the head and shoulder of Rose were the result of an accidental fall. An Italian guide was put in the box to prove the unlikelihood of Rose and Laurie having attempted to descend the mountain in the direction of the boulder under which the body was found, and evidence was given to sliew that Latirie retnaided cheerful after •the, event. In the course of a speech lasting an hour, the Solicitor - General for Scotland, appearing for the Crown, submitted 'that it was only on the hypothesis that Rose was murdered that Laurie's conduct after his disappearance could be explained. Mr. J. B. BalfOur, on behalf of the prisoner, argued that the balance of the medical testimony was on the side of Laurie's innocence, and that the prisoner's conduct throughout was compatible with that view. His lordship concluded his , summing up at 9.40. The jury, after a consultation lasting 43 minutes, found a verdict of guilty. The , sentence of death was then pronounced. After being sentenced Laurie was removed to Calton Prison. The prison-van was followed by a crowd , hooting and yelling.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1889-04-20 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

NATURE OF THE " TIMES' " ALLEGATIONS.  Sir Charles Russell, rising to his feet immediately the judges entered, at once plunged into the conclusion of his summary. The Times charged the leaders of the Land League that theydeliberately based their movement on a scheme of assassination and outrage. The charge had from the first been not a charge of constructive or moral guilt, but a deliberate charge that the leaders of the Land League deliberately used outrage and murder as a means by which their political ends.were to be attained. It was not a charge of making speeches at times and under circumstances of excitement, but it was a charge that the authentic utterances of the leaders of the Home Rule party were meant to be, and were, a direct incitement to outrage and murder. Well, he had gone into the question of the letters fully already, and he felt that he was now somehow flogging a dead horse. But he would ask them to take away the letters, and, if their lordships were sitting in a criminalcourt,whicla of them, he,asked—in a case where penal consequences would be the result of a verdict of guilty—would think it was a case fit even far the consideration of a jury? The learned counsel then dealt with the charges one by one, and contended that, there were only twth specific.and definite charges. . The forged letters formed one such charge and the charge that Mr. Parnell by an opportune remittance•enabled Byrne to escape from justice to France formed such another. The first charge had been exploded, and with regard to the second, he would give the Court the facts from reliable . written records. The• English branch of the League, of. which Byrne was secretary, frequently received monetary assistance from the Irish branch. The' story began in December, 1881, when Byrne, the secretary, was away ill • and at a meeting of the executive it was ;fated that Byrne had applied to Mr. Parnell for a cheque for £lOO to assist the funds, which were in very low water. . No answer was received, and Byrne again wrote to Mr. Parnell for a sufficient sum of money to meet the pressing requirements of the branch,consisting, of rent and other matters,pending their re-organisation on thelinesof the Irish Land League. Mr. Parnell wrote to the Irish League, stating the circumstances, and a few days. later, at the meet-. ing of the Irish League in Dublin, a resolution was passed that the application for a grant of .£lOO,, made by Mr. Parnell on behalf of the Land and Labour League of Great Britain, (which was the name of ' the organisation.: of which Byrne was the secretary), be acceded, to, and the cheque was sent. .A letter from Byrne was then received, in 'Which he acknowledged the receipt of the money, and enclosed a balance - sheet of the society, which shewed bow the Rimy had . been disposed of. What did these facts disclose? A plain, straightforward, innocent transaction, which was free from any imputation of guilty connivance at the escape of a guilty criminal.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1889-02-09 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

GALLAGHER WAS BETRAYED. The witness, being recalled, said in 1882 he travelled. with Alex. Sullivan to Milwaukee and back again, and during that journey spoke with respect to the failure and arrest of Dr. Gallagher in London. Sullivan stated that the campaign would be carried on in England with activity,but with more caution. In a secret circular he received from the executive body of the United Brotherhood, the "senior guardians" of the organisation (of which witness was one) were directed to discover men who were fit for private work of a confidential or dangerous character. He attended the Convention held in Philadelphia in April, 1883, and was with Egan every day. Egan did not attend the secret meetings, as he said he did not think it advisable. Asked by Mr. Davitt who were present at his conversations with Egan, the witness specified Alex. Sullivan, Lawrence Sullivan, and others,and added: "You might include from time to time every gentleman you know in Chicago." Further pressed, both by the President and the Attorney-General, to define the " programme" alluded to, he • declared that nothing more definite was given than that "the prowramnie would be perfectly satisfactory to all  Nationalists." He next produced a repiirt of the proceedings at the Convention,, at which it was, proposed that Mr. P.A.Collins should be temporary chairman, but there was a great outcry against him that he was accused of treason to the organisation, because when chairman of a branch of the open movement he had offered a reward for the apprehension of the Phcenix Park murderers. To the Philadelphia Convention of 1883 Mr. Parnell sent a telegram, advising the leaders that their programme should be so flamed as to enable him and his party to continue to accept help from America, and at the same time to avoid offering a pretext to the British Government for entirely suppressing the national movement in Ireland. In one of the circulars issued by the executive body of the United Brotherhood a great deal of reference was made to informers, and the fate that awaited them. It went on to say that no corner of the earth was too distant, or hole in the earth too dark,to save them from the avenging hand of Irish nationality. In reply to the Attorney-General, the witness further stated that Sullivan told him in 1883 that the "active work" of the dynamite conspiracy was proceeding in a very satisfacibry manner, but that in future men would be selected for the dangerous work who were without family or dependents, and only old and tried members of the organisation would be chosen for the work. At the end of 1883 there was a split in the ranks of the United Brotherhood of America, and a second revolutionary organisation was formed under Sullivan, known as the " U. S." He could not tell the Court the names of the officers of the "U. B." after that period. In 1884 a demonstration was held at Chicago to welcome the Brothers Redmond. That WWI got up entirely by the leaders of the "U. S." revolutionary movement. The witness had not concluded his evidence in chief when the Court rose.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1889-07-20 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

PRISONER AND HIS PET.  At Bow-street Police-court, a man giving the name of W. Shrimpton, has been charged as a supervisee with failing to report himself to the police under the provisions of his release after conviction. It transpired while the evidence was being given that the defendant Ip:.d in his possessiori a tame mouse. It was placed in his coat pocket, where it rested comfortably during the proceedings. The defendant had been imprisoned for six months for an assault on the police. About a month after his imprisonment he was annoyed by a mouse under his pillow, and after an effort extending for upwards of an hour and a half he caught it. He did not kill it, but gave it some portion of the porridge that had been supplied him for his supper. He then conceived the idea of taming the mouse, and with the object of "making it more tame," he cut off its tail close to the root. This he explained was an infallible receipt for the taming of mice, and he spoke with pride on what he asserted to be a fact—that he was the only man who had ever succeeded in taming a house mouse. Having gained the confidence of the mouse, he proceeded to teach it little things, and conveyed it every morning at exercise time to the courtyard of the prison in his pocket. The fact came to the knowledge of the governor at Holloway, where the defendant was then incarcerated, and he showed his kindness of heart by permitting the prisoner to retain what he had come to regard as his pet. Being in a very delicate state of health he was compelled to remain in his cell, and he declares that many an hour has passed pleasantly away with his companion. As their acquaintance extended, the mouse became daily more tame, and would at breakfast time take its place on a _small brush such as is supplied to prisoners, and would eat out of its tamer's hand. The accused appeared to be particularly attached to his pet, and out of a small piece of coloured matting had made it a tasteful little collar. It spent most of the day, he said, in cleaning itself with its paws. It would scarcely leave its tamer, and knew him so well that, when accidentally dropped, although in a dark cell, he returned at the sound of his voice. Its owner expressed some apprehension of losing his pet, as he might be confined in another prison under a different governor. Shrimpton was remanded, being consoled by the ass/trance that he would be 4.llowed to retain possession of his pet.  At the Maryborough assizes Lawrence Hickey has ban found guilty of the murder of Denis Daly. I Mr. Baron Dowse, addressing the county Tyrono ' grand jury at the opening of the Assize Commission, congratulated them on the peaceful and satisfactory state of the country. He had only to repeat to them what he had said in addressing the grand luries on the circuit—that crime is steadily decreming, owing, he believed, to the rigorous and yet merciful administration of the law.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1886-01-23 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

ANOTHER PARIS TRAGEDY.  Paris has scarcely recovered from the shock an sensation caused by a series of crimes, culminating in the murder of a prefect at Maisons Lafitte, when another startling tragedy is announced. A woman named Marie Aguetan, living at No. 52 in the Rue Caumartin, close by the Boulevard Haussmann, has been murdered in her bedroom by some person unknown, but believed to be a man whom she had taken home with her. The house where the murder was committed stands in the centre of a populous and opulent district, scarcely a stone's throw from where Madame Cornet, the Credo lady, was murdered last year by the valet Marchandon. According to the evidence of the porteress of the house in which the woman Aguetan lived, the latter was in the habit of going every evening to the Eden Theatre, where she had once been employed as a danseuse. She was 27 years of age, and lived with a man who was employed in a Franco-American club. It was her protector who, on returning home at 3 o'clock in the morning, found the woman lying on the floor literally bathed in bles d. het throat being cut from ear to ear. The man informed the police, who came to the house and took the evidence of the concierge, the man who lived with the deceased and the latter's servant. Both the servant and the concierge, or porteres3, stated that the deceased returned from the Eden Tin atre at a ,late hour over night, accompanied by a tall man, who wore a black moustache, and was seen by the concierge to go out about 20 minutes afterwards. It is supposed from the nature of the wound and the position of the body that the woman was seized by the murderer from behind as she was going to bed. Her head was then nearly severed from her body by one deft sweep of some finely-edged weapon. Aguetan had plenty of money and jewels in her wardrobe, and the murderer succeeded in Faking away with about £250 in bank notes, besides jewels. He did not see, however, a packet of securities amounting to about £1 000. The room in which the murder was committed was full of curtains and portieres, which would partly account for the servant, whose room was only divided by a thin partition, not hearing any noise. It is, moreover, evident from the appearance of the corpse that the murderer had gagged his victim while cutting her throat.  The police authorities have received information of an attempted burglary at the parish church, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire. An iuspection of the edifice revealed the fact that admittance had been gained by the breaking of one of the north transept windows ; and an attempt had been made to f. roe the locks of certain drawers erroneously thought to contain the communion plate. The vestry was also found in confusion.  The schooner Iris has been towed into the Tyne water-logged. The vessel was on a voyage from Uddewalla to Leith with pit props, when she experienced heavy weather and became water-logged on the 13th inst. The crew experienced great hardships, having to remain on deck without ,covering foi two days and nights.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1892-10-29 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

THE WEEK.  A HUMAN TIGER.  IT may be presumed that no well-meaning person will start an agitation for the reprieve of Thomas Neill. If this criminal were a woman, of whom a fascinating photograph could be reproduced in the Revtew of Reviews, there might be some chance of a throbbing sympathy with such a gallows-bird. Being a uniquely unsavoury villain, Thomas Neill is in a fair way to get the full value of his letestable career. There is no point about the man that is not revolting. Apart hem his murderous craving he has led a life of consistent depravity. He has no counterpart in sepal existeuce, and we have to seek the pages of fiction for his parallel. He is the Edward Hyde oi Mr. Stevez;son's romance without any Jekyll. His antecedents reek with nameless vice. For years he has been one of the night-prowlers of London, a notable specimen of the human vermin that emerge when darkness falls on the great city, and pursue obscene orgies in scarcely credible filth. To this foul', as came in time the added zest of murder—the murder of wretched women, doomed to die a horrible torture by this devil, who gave his victims strychnine pills with a callousness unsurpassed in the history of crime. Fortunately for society, Thomas Neill is a fool. When the two or ,ree of his murders had been noised abroad, he came upon a quick-witted woman who pretended to take his poison, and then found he bad spread the report of her death. ro this crazy folly he added the madness of imputing his crimes to people of unquestionable character, and demanding hush-money in a fashion that would have excited suspicion even amongst idiots. Never did a murderer stick his neck into the halter with such blatant recklessness. - If there were any ground for supposing Neill to be insane it would be found, not in his ferocious thirst for human lives, but in his startling stupidity. There is not, however, any danger, we presume, that the opponents of capital punishment will strive to save this carrion from the gallows Nothing can satisfy public justice except the removal of the monster from the face of the earth. In many cases the death penalty is a dubious expedient for the vindication of social morals. But with regard to a wild beast like Thomas Neill there can be no misgiving as to the necessity of killing. It is difficult to breathe till we know that this noisome creature no longer poisons God's wholesome air. To send him to prison for life would be an outrage on the convicts with whom he would associate, and to immure him in solitary confinement would be like shutting up a festering pestilence within four walls. Better for every reason that he should be launched into eternity v•ith the utmost despatch, aril a shuddering :,rld rid of a fiend who turns humanity to a mocking curse, and "sweet religion makes a rhapsody of words." A