The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1867-12-21 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE SEACOMBE MURDER.  At the Chester assizes on Saturday, before Mr. Justice Keating, James Markey, twenty-three, labourer: Liverpool, was indicted for the wilful murder of Ilugh M'Kewon, at Poulten.cum-Seacombe, Birkenhead, on the sth February last. The particulars of this murder will be in the recollection of our readers, and we therefore only give the following brief outline :  The deceased man was a marine-store dealer by trade, and was a person of somewhat peculiar habits, carrying about with him at various times large sums of money, for the purpose of making purchases in the trsde which he carried on with the captains of ships. He preferred the gold to notes, and would, when the latter were paid to him immediately change them into specie. Ile had lost his right arm, and whatever money he had about him he deposited partly in the left hand trousers pocket, and partly m• the inside right hand pocket of his waistcoat, a natural arrangement, so that he might easily get at the money with his left hand. About one o'clock, on the day in question, a man, named Richard Salisbury, a carter in the employ of Messrs. Evans and Sons, coal merchants, found the dead body of deceased upon a line of railway iii Di.l, 4. Riekenhead, which railway is used for the purpose of carrying coos is ch. works in the neighlourhood of Seacombe. It was lying in a pool of blood, underneath a waggon, upon its right aide, and appeared to have received many and recent injuries about the head. On being searched, £92 in gold was found in the right-hand pocket of his clothes. At the spot where the body was found a police-officer noticed a track as if a body, the heels being allowed to rest on the ground, had been dragged about ten yards. to the place where it was found. Deceased appeared to have bled from wounds on the head and neck, but no blood was found along this track. Five °rah( days before he met with his death the deceased was seen to have in his possession from £230-to £240 in gold, so that if he had not spent any of this money (and he was known to have paid for purchases as much as £lOO at a time), the assumption was that he had been robbed of the difference between £230 or £240 and the sum of #192 found upon the body. The habits of deceased were probably known to prisoner, for he had formerly lodged with Hugh Whewon at deceased sister's house, sleeping in the same room with him.  Witnesses spoke to having seen the prisoner in deceased's company up to within half or three-quarters of an hour of the time when he was found ;lead. Three witnesses positively swore to prisoner as the man they saw with deceased, yet they described his dress and appearance differently. One of them, a Mr. Lawrence, had no particular reason why he should notice prisoner with deceased, only "he believed he was directed by the Lord to notice him." He spoke of having seen the prisoner and the deceased man together at the Pool Inn just before the murder. The deceased stood outside while the prisoner went in. On coming out, the prisoner said to Hugh M'Kewon, "He is not here, we will go down to the ship." One of the witnesses said positively the prisoner had a moustache, while two others were not certain whether he had or had not; one of them described him as wearing a tall hat, "like that worn by Welsh women twenty years ago," while another was not certain that he had not a bilycock hat. The further evidence was that before the murder prisoner was in a destitute condition, while after the death of M'Kewon he was spending money freely, and had been seen with as much as twenty or thirty sovereigns at a time and there was against him the additional fact that he had changed his name from James Markey to James and sometimes John Martin. The prisoner was not apprehended till the 6th September last, when he was taken at Dundalk, where he warn staying with an uncle, who was a small farmer in that neighbourhood.  The trial occupied from ten o'clock in the morning till half.past eight o'clock at night, when the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. The verdict was received by a crowded court with loud clapping of hands, which drew forth a severe remonstrance from his lordship. When discharged from Chester Castle the prisoner Markey was apprehended for felony.