npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-03-03 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE NEW COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL.  The Lord Chief Justice of England is to be the chief of the new Court of Criminal Appeal which the Attorney General's Bill proposes to establish, all the judges of the High Court and the Appeal Court, save the Lord Chancellor, being members of this new Court. In hearing appeals the Court is to be constituted of three or more judges up to seven, as the Lord Chief Justice may, in each case direct. To this Court an appeal is allowed for any one who is convicted on indictment of a criminal charge. In capital cases the appeal is unrestricted, and may be based on any quession of law, or of fact, or of both. On other indictable charges the appeal is unrestricted, as regards questions of fact or of mixed fact and law; but as regards questions of law, the leave of the Court of trial, or of the Attorney General, is requisite. Questions of law reserved by the Court of trial are to be decided by the Court of Criminal Appeal. And where a question so reserved appears to be of sufficient importance, and it would be unjust to the defendant, or inconvenience to the public interest to proceed with the trial before the decision of the question, the trial may be adjourned and the jury discharged, if the defendant be willing. A man will not be entitled to be present at the hear ing of his appeal unless the Court directs it so for special reasons. But he may, of course, appear by counsel; and he may also submit a written statement in support of his appeal. With regard to the proceedings at the hearing of the appeal, the notes taken by the judge at the trial may be used as evidence; and, if the Court thinks fit, it may also receive affidavits in relation to any matter incidental to the appeal, even though it has not arisen at the trial. As additional information is sometimes forthcoming after a trial, this is provided for by the direction that, if it be deemed essential for the purpose of doing justice, the court may call any one before it and let him be examined by counsel even though he was not a witnses at the trial.  Nearly all these provisions, itgvill be noticed, are in favour of the defendant; no appsEal is allowed against an acquittal. Want of unanimity on the part of the Judges will not, however, acquit a defendant, for it is the opinion of the majority that will prevail; the judgment standing good in case of an equal division of opinion. In such a case, however, it will be open to the Home Secretary to intervene, as he probably would where a man was going to be hanged for murder. And to make doubly sure as to questions of law, a further appeal to the House of Lords is with regard to them still allowed in all cases, both to the Crown and the defendant if the Court of Criminal Appeal give leave.'
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-04-21 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

REMARKABLE CASE.  At the Hertford assizes, on Friday in last week, before Mt. Justice Williams, Edna Mary Reed, 21, was indicted for the wilful murder of her illegitimate child, Henry Reed, on the 21st of February last. Mr. Wightman Wood appeared for the prosecution; and Mr. Earle defended the prisoner.  This was a remarkable- case both on account of the singular coincidence that after all hope of discovering the body of the deceased had been abandoned, and it was anticipated that there would in consequence be a failure of justice, the body unexpectedly came to light at the very time that the grand jury were engaged in conconsidering the bill against the prisoner, and also because the trial led to an important judicial decision against the admissibility of a confession obtained through the interrogation of the prisoner by a policeofficer. The prisoner left her home at Hertford on the 21st of February, taking the child with her. Having returned without the child, suspicion was excited, and she was invited to the police-station, where on being questioned by the superintendent, she made a statement which was ruled inadmissable by the Judge, but in consequence of which she was taken into custody on the charge of murdering her infant. The trial was fixed for Friday morning, though the body of the missing child had not been found, the learned Judge having charged the grand jury that it was not necessary in point of law that anyone should have seen the dead body of the child, but that it would be an important question whether there was satisfactory proof that the child was in fact dead. On Thursday afternoon in last week, however, two men in a boat on the river Lea picked up the floating body of a child in an advanced stage of decomposition 400 yards below the Rye-house-bridge. Upon this fact becoming known Mr. Justice Williams, on the application of the counsel for.the Crown, postponed the trial until Friday afternoon in order to allow of a post-mortem examination being made. •  Mr. Justice Williams, in summing up to the jury, said that the case was one of a very remarkable description. The inference to be drawn from the medical testimony that the child found was the prisoner's was very strong, but, even if it did not satisfy them, the case was not necessarily to be determined in favour of the prisoner. He did not believe that Lord Hale ever said what was attributed to him, and, if he did, then he was clearly wrong, as many persons had been convicted in cases in which the bodies of their victims had never been recovered, and such a case had occurred in his own short experience as a Judge. The jury found a verdict of Guety, the foreman, who was much affected, adding that they strongly recommended her to mercy. Mr. Justice Williams passed sentence of death with considerable emotion, and stated that he would forward the recommendation ot mercy to the proper quarter, and would also strongly support it.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-12-08 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SHOCKING MURDER OF A WOMAN.  In London, on Saturday, at the Marlborough-street Police-court, William Crees, described as a harness. maker, of No. 55, Greek street, Soho, was charged before Mr. Mansfield with the wilful murder of a woman named Crees, supposed to be Ws wife, on the 30th of November. The prisoner appeared in a bad state of health, and was allowed a seat in the dock, havir,g his head from time to time covered with a damped cloth, and appearii g unconscious of what was going on.  Police.constable Henry Der, 126 C, t att. d that while in Moor-street, Ln Saturd niornirp, t'e prisoner came up to him and seized him by the arm and danced round him, stating that the doctor told him to do it. He went to the prisoner's address, and in the room the prisoner lived in he found a woman lying on the floor covered with blood. A knife and a poker were on a chair close by. Witness sent for Dr. Matheson, of Soho square. Mr. Kemp, divisional surgeon of the C Division, stated that he saw the prisoner at the Vine-street Police-station, and could not succeed in getting any• thing in the way of answers from him, neither would he give any account of himself, his only answers to questi ,ns he put to him being "It's on the mantelpiece." Witness had come to the conclusion that the prisoner was of unsound mind, and from the condition of the prisoner's eyes, the pupils being much dilated, he believed the prisoner had suffered from a considerable amount of brain irritation, but there were no symptoms of suffering from delirium tremens. Dr. Parker Matheson stated that he was called to No, 55, Greek-street, and saw a woman in a pool of blood. She had a large gash in the throat, the windpipe being divided, and also the jugular vein and other arteries. There was a large wound on the back of the head and another on the face. The woman had been stunned first, and the wound or wounds in the throat inflicted afterwards.  Mrs. Briquet, lodging on the same floor as the prisoner and the deceased woman, said she heard the prisoner and the deceased quarrelling. The prisoner took the key from outside the lock cf his door and put it into the lock of the room, saying, "I'll give it you." There was a fight in the prisoner's room, and afterwards all was quiet. There had been some quarrelling between the prisoner and his wife at times, but not much. I nspector Elliott stated that he had ascertained that the prisoner had been attending two hospitals—the Westminster and the Charing-cross for some time, his bead being affected.  The prisoner, who put no questions, and at in the dock apparently not knowing what was going on, was committed for trial.  At the coroner's inquest, held on Tuesday, at St. Ann's, Vestry Hall, Soho, on the woman, whose name turns out to be Eliza Ann Horsman, a verdict of wilful murder was returned against William Crees, the man with whom she had teen living as his wife.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-11-17 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUPPOSED MURDER ON TRE GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY.  On Monday, Mr. George Collier, deputy coroner, opened an inques: at Elim Hall, Church-road, Tottenham, upon the body of Virginia Elfz tbeth Ball, aged 29, which was found on the Great Eastern Railway, Derr Tottenham Hale Station, under very mysterious circumstances. The evidence showed that shortly after six on Friday morning in last week, a man named Alfred Haggar, platelayer, in the service of the corapany, on crossing the line found the remains of a woman lying on the four-foot up road, with her face downwards No stranger had a right to be where the body was discovered. There were marks on the permanent way as if the body had been dragged thirty or forty yards, and one boot had been drawn off, but there were none of the usual injuries where a person had been knocked down and killed by a train. The body, which was well dressed, was removed to the pariah mortuary, where the clothing was searched with the view to identification. A purse was found containing sixpence in silver, 20, in bronze, and a pawn. broker's ticket relating to two brooches. This ticket was placed in the hands of a constable, and by its means he traced the deceased to be a single woman, th 3 daughter of a well-to do man residing in Tollingtonpark, Islington. She left home on the previous Wednesday, and was seen the next day by her brother at the house of a friend at Holloway. None of her relations knew anything more of her until a police officer called at her father's house on Saturday evening and gave him such information as convinced him that the body found on the railway was that of his daughter. It was admitted that she was not always of sober habits, and that she sometimes left home without letting her friends know where she was going, but it was presumed she visited her mothfr, who lived apart from her husband. Iho evidence of Dr. Cmaar was of a remarkable character, unmistakably suggesting that the deceavd had met her death by foul play. He stated that he had examived the body, and found on the back of the head, towards the right ear, two wour,ds, which must have bsen caused by a blunt instrument. There was another wound behiod the left ear, a large bruise over the right shoulder blade, a small one in the middle of the back over the spine, one on the front of the right foot and on the right leg with a deep wound, which coald not have been caused by a train. On the left leg he found a bruise, and under the left jaw was a deep cut. There were other cuts and bruises. In his opinion death arose from the wounds on the heal, and his firm opinion was that they could not have been self-inflicted or have been caused by a train. Being asked whether, in his judgment, the wounds on the head could not have been occaeioned by the chains of coupling irons on the train, he said he did not think they could, because if they had been they would have been jagged, while the wounds were straight cuts. The case having assumed &serious aspect the inquiry was adjourned to enable a post-mortem examination to be made.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-09-22 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE ALLEGED MURDER IN LONDON.  In London, on Tuesday, at the Clerkenwell Polka. court, William Scully, 17, bat maker, was charged on remand with having wilfully murdered George Henry Neal, by stabbing him in the back en Saturday night, the Ist of September. Mr. Sims, solicitor, instructed by the Treasury, appeared for the prosecution; the prisoner was undefended.  The alleged murder was the result of jealousy, a young woman named Mary Cannon having given up the prisoner to keep company with Neal. Mary Cannon stated that the prisoner had on one or two occasions previous to the occurrence threatened and struck her for walking out with Neal, and on one occasion he said, "I will either do for you or for him if you go out with him." On the night of the occurrence witness had been with Neal and a party of friends to a music-hall. She got back to the court at ten minutes to twelve. The prisoner was sitting on the windowsill of her house. He rt• v:A her in the face with his open hand for being with Neal. She said nothing, but went indoors.  John Fury, 4, Type-court, Milton-street, St. Luke's, said he knew both the prisoner and Neal. Early on Sunday morning, the 2nd of September, be heard Neal cry out "Jack, Jack." Hs ran up into the court, and found Neal bleeding freely from a wound in the neck. Neal did not speak again. Witne.s picked him up and amisted him towards his house. When they had gone a little distance they met a friend of Neal coming towards them, and witness having become sick at the Bight of blood handed Neal over to his care.  Edward Lambert, 12, Type court, said he was a lodger in the same house as Neal, who was partly deaf and dumb. Early on Sunday morning, September 1; witness heard cries at a little distance from the house. He ran out, and met the witness Foy carrying Neal, Fury turned sick, and witness took Neal from him. Neal gave utterance to some inarticulate sounda, and appeared to be choking. A constable came up, and witness went with him to the hospital, carrying the injured man. Witness remained in the hospital with Neal until he died, an hour or two aftnlvards.  Police-constable Hopewell deposed that be apprehended the pridoner as he was turning into Anchor. yard. He asked the prisoner if he knew that Neal had beer stabbed, and the prisoner said, "I didn't do it." Witness then enquired if be had a knife, to which the prisoner replied " No." Upon feeli.ig in his pockets, however, a large c 1.193 knife was found (produced). It was quite clean. The Inspector at the Old•atreet Police•atation stated that when the charge was read to the prisoner he said,. "He interfered with me first." Dr. Batten, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, gave evidence as to the nature of the wound, which he said might have been caused by the knife produced. The prisoner, who had remained perfectly quiet throughout, said "No, sir." when asked if he had anything to say, and &IL Hosack formally committed him for trial.  A
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-09-04 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY, WHITECHAPEL. The church of St'. Mary, Whitechapel, London, which was burnt down on Thursday afternoon in last week, was of some antiquity. It was originally a chapel of ease to the parish of Stepney, and was once commonly known as St. Mary Matfelon. •` About the year 1428, the sixth of King Henry VI., a devout widow of that parish," writes Stow, "had long time cherished and brought up,. of alms a certain Frenchman or Breton born, which most unkindly and cruelly in a night murdered the said widow sleeping in her bed, and after fled with etch jewels and other stuff of hers as he might carry ' • but he was so briskly pursued that for fear he took the church of St. George, in Southwark, and challenged the privilege of sanctuary there, and so abjured the:King's land. Then the constables (having charge of him) brought him to London,intending to have him conveyed eastward; but as soon as he was come into the parish, where before he had committed the murder, the wives cast upon him so much filth and ordure of the street, that (notwithstanding the best resistance made by the constables) they slew him out of hand; and for this feat it hath been said that parish to have purchased that name cf St. Mary Matfelon; but I find on record the same to be called Villa beatm Maria de Matfellon, in the 21st of Richard IL" Richard Brandon, the supposed executioner of Charles 1., was buried in the churchyard on the 24th of June, 1649. From a tract preserved in the British Museum, "The Confession of Richard Brandon, the Hangman, npon his Deathbed, concerning the Behea'dirig Of his late gajesty," it seems that he lived in Rosemary-lane, that on the night eXe'CUtion he returned home and gave his wife the sum he had had for performing his Ace, and that for three days before his death he was speechless. He is supposed to have been assisted on the scaffold by Ralph Jones, a ragman, also of Rosemary-lane. At his burial, we are told, "a great multitude of people stood wayting to see his corpse carried to the churchyard, some crying out, 'Hang him, the rogue, bury him in the dunghill! Others pressing upon him, sayiag they would quarter him for executing the King, insomuch that the churchWardens 'afid inkster.s of 't4l pft'vish wee fain to Come for the euppressOn of them, and with great difficulty he was at last carried to Whitechapel churchyard." ' In the east of London, it is clear, the name of Cromwell bad less influence than in most of the Courts of Europe. In 1673 the building just destroyed was erected in place of the old chapel of ease. The remains 9( Parker, the ringleader in the mutiny at the lore Weielourleci in t4e feAllt.e lere at the cost of his widow. 'Four or five years ago the church was carefully restored, only; however, to meet with a fate from which churches are comparatively exempt, The Times.  ADVENTURES OF A SHIPWRECKED
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-01-24 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

EXECUTION IN PARIS.  The Paris Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, writing on Monday night, gives the following account of the mutt tion of Prevost- :  "The long expected execution of Prevost, the murderer of the travelling jeweller Lenoble, and the girl Adele Blondin, took place this morning, in the Place La Roquette. The enormity of the double crime was such as to remove all hope of a reprieve, _even in this country, where murderers have of late been treated with singular leniency. It became known in the Quartier late last evening that the guillotine would be required in the morning, and by midnight a large crowd had already collected. The cold proved, however, very trying to the patience of the would-be spectators of the morning's tragedy, and many gave up the attempt of witnessing it. At four o'clock, Diebler, the executioner, arrived outside the prison with his cart containing the materials for erecting the scaffold. The hammers quickly went to work, and the uncouth structure was soon completed. A strong body of police kept order, and a company of the Garde Republicans were also present to represent authority. At half-past five a cab bearing the fatal number '148,' that has become legendary in connection with such scenes, drove up in the dark. ness to the prison door, and the chaplain of the Rouquette, Abbd Crozes, alighting, passed into the building. The arrival of the gendarmerie of the Seine at half-past six announced that the hour for the execution had come. At the same moment the door of the condemned cell opened, and Pre., vost saw that he was in the presence of the executioner and the Commissioner of Police for the Qnartier. He rose from his seat and murmured, 'Ah, then, it is this morning.' He was recommended to be courageous. 'I shall be so,' he replied. Being asked if he had any further revelation to make, he said, 'lt Is quite enough to have committed two great crimes, I acknowledge them, but have nothing more to say,' He then listened to the exhortations of the venerable abbe, and proceeded to dress. Seven o'clock struck, and the great door of the prison opened, the gendarmes raised their swords, and all eyes were turned towards the tall form of the culprit, which could be detected advancing through the obscurity. Although perfectly livid, Prevost walked firmly to the scaffold. There Cho ohaplain gay* him tha nriatnmary kiss, the signal for the executioner to seize him and plum him under the knife. A few secoilds afterwards the triangular steel descended with a dull thud and the head of the murderer rolled into the basket prepared for it. The remains were hastily put together in the cart, which drove off rapidly to the cemetery of Ivry. No sooner was the form of consigning the body to the grave gone through than it was lifted out again, replaced in the cart, and driven to the Clinical School of Medicine, where it was subjected to various galvanic experiments."
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1875-11-13 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

TRAGEDY ON BOARD SHIP.  The annexed report of the master of the Siamese ship Queen of England was received on Monday at Lloyd's, from Hongkong : "Left Hongkong on the Bth of August, bound for Bangkok ; had a continuation of south-west monsoons, and was beaten down to lat. 10 N., long. 113 E. "At 2 a.m., August 9, when on the poop on watch, a seaman named Noan came up, I thought for a lamp, but he jumped up, seized a belaying pin, and attempted to strike me. I caught hold of him and grasped a knife in his hand, cutting my arm. The man then jumped on the main deck. I cried out for the mate, but he gave no answer; so I went down, but stopped at the wheelhouse, where I found the helm deserted. Went below, and found the chief mate with-his throat cut and his head nearly severed from his body. I reprimanded the man for leaving the wheel, and asked his reason for so doing. The man replied that Noan had threatened to kill him, therefore he left the helm, and fell down on the deck, pretending to be dead. Seeing the state of affairs, I went to the cabin, procured my revolver and returned to the main deck. The night being very dark and squally, I could not see the murderer. Through loss ot; blood I became insensible, fell to the deck, and in falling the revolver discharged, the ball passing through the knuckl-ejoint of the fore finger on the left hand. I remained insensible till daylight, and being thirsty, asked a Chinaman standing by to get some water, which he did. I then asked him where the eerang was, and he replied that he was forward. The serang was called and asked where the man who had attempted to murder him was. He answered the man was aft, and had thrown overboard compasses, chronometers, charts, instruments, clothing, lamps, &c., and had broken and was still breaking up the furniture in the cabin with a handspike. I asked the serang why, if there was only one man mutinous, the crew did not seize him, and they immediately got different implements and attempted to secure the murderer, who, upon seeing them coming towards him, jumped overboard from near the wheelhouse. The Chinese supercargo received a cut on the right side of the nead from Noan, who was not seen again after he had jumped overboard. The charts, chronometers, &c., being lost, and the ship having been left without a helmsman for some time, her position was not known; but, after making several observations, I ultimately succeeded in making for Lyeemoon Pass, and anchored inside Green Island at seven p.m., on September 26.  "The man Noan, by whom the tragedy was committed, was saffering from a disease known among the Malays and Siamese, as gillah, or SMOCArae. It take the form of ringworm, and is attended in every case by madness of more or less severity."