Blandford, Wimborne and Poole Telegram. — 1879-04-11 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

THE BARNES MURDIR. The prisoner Church, it is said, previous to his arrest gave the following account of what he knew of the Richmond murder :—I know the woman Webster only as Mrs. Thomas, by which name she was introduced to me by Porter early last month at my bar. Mr. Porter brought her here, and he called for something to drink. Mr. Porter then said, "You see I have company, Mr. Church. This is an old r eighbour of mine Mrs. Thomas. She *9 living at Richmond. She lost her husband two yeaes ago, and has lately been trying to let apartments, but she has not succeeded, so she is going to leave the house and try to sell the furniture by private contract. Do you know any one that would be likely to buy any?" I replied, "Well, perhap!4, I could buy some if there is anything that will suit me. Mrs. Thomas then said, "1 shall be happy to show you the house and furniture if you cauld du with some of the things." After that she came a time or two, and we asked her into the parlour along with Mr. Porter, and we talked matters over. I eventually went to the house, No. 2, Mayfield-cotta,g,es, and agreed to purchase part of the furniture for £6B. I said to her when we made the agreement, " •uppose you would like to have a deposit? " and she said " Yes ; "so I give her £lB down deposit, and told her I would give her the balance—namely, £so when the goods were in the van and before they went away. She assented to that arrangement, and it was agreed that I was to have some of the things upstairs and other people were to have some, and also some of the other things downstairs. Church then showed a stamped receipt he had drawn up for "Mrs. Thomas" to sign, selling him the furniture he had bought for £54. Continuing, he said—l had the other £5O in my pocket ready to pay her when I had possession of the goods, and I have the best part of it in my pocket now. On the 18th of March I went with a van to fetch my things away, and when we had part of the furniture in the van the person came out of the next house and said she was the land lady,and she wanted to knowwhat the goods were being taken away for "Mrs. Thomas" went up to her door to speak to her, but what she said Ido not know. They were talking a good bit together, but I could not hear what they were saying. I thought there was some dispute about the rent not being paid, so when "Mrs. Thomas" came back to her own door I said, " Look here, ma'am, I think there is something wrong here, and I shall not remove these goods nor buy them unless you can show me that it is all right." I then ordered what goods we had in the van to be carried back into the house. While we were doing this she disappeared, and getting to my house berme me, she borrowed a sovereign oil my wife, and we have seen her no more since, and I have lost £l9 through her and all my expenses. Porter was with me at the time, and when we came back we heard that, while Mrs. Porter was also out, "Mrs. Thomas" went into her house, where she had been staying a few nights, took her child out of bed, dressed it, carried it to a cab at the top of the street, drove off to the railway station, and none of us have seen her since."