Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-02-21 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

THE INQUEST.  Ile inquest on the body of the woman Frances Cole was opened on Saturday by Mr. W. E. Baxter, at the Working Lads' Institute, Whitechapel. The summonses to the jury described the deceased as "a woman unknown." Police-constable Ernest Thompson deposed that he went on duty at 10 o'clock on Thursday night. His beat was in Chamber-street and Preston-street. He went down one of the passages about 2.15 on Friday morning, opposite the Schools in Chambersstreet, and found the deceased lying in the roadway. He had heard footsteps when going up Chamber-Street. They were going in the direction of Mansell-street at a walking pace, but he saw no one. He was then 80 yards from the arch. Nobody was going in the opposite direction. He could no,t, say if the person whose footsteps he heard had come from the arch. As soon as the constables came up the doctors were sent for.—Police-constable Frederick Higham deposed that he heard a whistle blown about 2.15 on Friday morning. He was then about 250 yards from the arches. He ran to the spot and saw the last witness with the deceased, who was lying in the centre of the roadway. He went for Dr. Oxley, who came shortly afterwards. Witness afterwards searched the vicinity, but saw no person who was likely to have committed the deed.—Police-constable Elliott deposed that he was on duty in plain clothes on the night in question in Royal Mint-street. Shortly after 2 o'clock he heard a whistle blown, and on going to Swallow-gardens saw a constable with his lamp turned on the body of a woman. Had a cry for help been raised he must have heard it, but everything was very quiet till he heard a whistle. —The case was then adjourned.  Mr. Wynne Baxter on Tuesday morning resumed the inquiry.—Superintendent Arnold watched the proceedings on behalf of the police; Mr. Charles Mathew appeared on behalf of the Public Prosecutor; John Thomas Sadler, who is in custody charged with the wilful murder of Cole, was not represented. Very few people were present during the proceedings. James William Cole, an inmate of the Bermondsey Workhouse, was the first witness called, and deposed that he went to the mortuary on Saturday night and identified the deceased as his daughter, Frances, aged 26. He last saw her alive on Friday, 6th February, when she came to the workhouse. She said she was living at 32, Richard-street, Commercial-road. He had since found this to be untrue. She worked for a wholesale chemist in the Minories. She had a mark on the ear for three or four years as though it had been torn by an earring. When she went to the workhouse she promised to see him again on the following Sunday. Mary Ann Cole, single, living at 32, Mare-street, deposed that she went to the mortuary on Saturday last and identified the body as that of her sister. She had last seen her on the Friday after Christmas. At her request witness gave her something to eat and drink. She saw the deceased at the mortuary onSunday. Some of the underclothing worn by her was given her by witness. The hat was trimmed with black crape, and she wore a black long jacket. She did not know the deceased had left her employment. Peter Lorenzo Hawkes, assistant to his mother, a milliner in Nottingham-street, Bethnal-green, said that between 7 and 8 o'clock on Thursday a woman came into his mother's shop. He had since, on Friday last, identified the deceased as the woman. She asked to be shown Mlle hats, and witness sold her one, price is. which she paid for by a two-ihilling piece. After she got outside she went away in company with a man .•,-ho had been looking in at the window. He had I,een to the mortuary and identified the hat which he Raw there as the