The Sun. — 1870-06-02 (London, England)

BRUTAL MURDER AT WAKEFIELD. About half-past seven on Tuesday morning a woman was found, quite dead, with her throat cut, in a thorough fare called Hudson's-yard, Wakefield. The victim turned out to be a woman who has only lately come into the town, whose name, from letters found upon her, appears to be Emma M`Lavery. A great deal of mystery surrounds the affair, and the best idea of the facts connected with the case will be obtained from the evidence which was given at the inquest held on the body the same night, before Mr. Taylor, the district coroner. Mrs. Harriet Padley, wife of a lodging-house keeper living in Providence-street, said that about seven or eight weeks ago the deceased, whom she knew only by the name of Emma, or Ellen, took lodgings with them along with a man, who was a plumber, and who was said to be her husband. At the end of a week the deceased dislocated her right shoulder, and was taken to the workhouse, and her husband left the town. The deceased came out of the workhouse on Thursday, and remained at witness's house until Sunday. In the afternoon of that day she went out, and did not return until Monday morning, about eight o'clock; she was then tipsy. Witness told her that she could not do with people who stayed out at nights, and sent her about her business. The deceased and Welsh, a female lodger, left together, and she did not see them afterwards. Witness had not seen the deceased's husband after his wife went into the workhouse. He left her because he said he could not do any longer with the latter's dissipated habits. Welsh deposed that the deceased took her to a publichouse in Kirkgate, and paid for two gills of beer, and then left to keep an appointment with a man who she said was a widower with two children. Witness, after getting drunk, and being locked out, spent the night in an outhouse. On emerging from the place in the morning, she met a navvie, named James Johnson, who pawned his shirt to pay for some beer for her, and on whose head were the marks of some cuts, about the infliction of which he told her various stories. The man had been apprehended, and she identified him at the police-station. William Sims, a private in the 25th Regiment, who, with some ten members of the same regiment, had escorted a number of prisoners from Portsmouth to Wakefield, deposed that he and Corporal Southam left Johnson and a woman, who was identified as the deceased, standing near the parish church at half-past twelve on Monday night. Dr. Wade, the police surgeon, who saw the body, stated that in the neck was a deep wound, some four and a half inches long, penetrating to the bone. The wound must have been inflicted by some one from behind with a sharp instrument, at one stroke, although from marks on the vertebrae, the weapon had been inserted at least twice afterwards. From the small quantity of blood at the place where the body was found, and the appearance of the body, he was of opinion that the body had been dragged there after death. The woman was between two and three months advanced in pregnancy. The person who committed the murder must necessarily have been covered with blood, and the drops of blood on Johnson's smock were fully accounted for by the wound on the head.  Field, a police-officer, saw the deceased in Westgate, followed by Johnson. He told the woman to go to her lodging, and sent the man off in an opposite direction, towards Sharlston, where he said he lived. The inquest was then adjourned.  EMBEZZLEMENT OF £lOOO BY A