The Potteries Examiner : — 1878-10-12 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE REVOLTING MURDER AT BURSLE M.  Of all the foul and revolting murders ever perpetrated in North Staffordshire, and of all bad deeds that under the co fer of the night have been committed in this district, the dastardly crime which took place in the lonely Grange Fields last Saturday night, bears away the palm for being the foulest and most cruel. The medical evidence has exposed the fallacy under which numbers of people were labouring, and that the death of the victim did not occur through natural causes has been demonstrated by proof as to the accuracy of which there cannot be the remotest shadow of a doubt.  It cannot be denied that the character of the woman was far from what it might have been, but sympathy must be felt for and accorded to the unfortunate though erring woman, who has been cut off in the midst of her career, and who without an opportunity for prayer or repentance, has been launched into eternity, after undergoing agonies as painful as it is possible for the human mind to ima.  That the fell crime was premeditated, is our firm opinion; and we are inclined to believe that the design of the murderer was to throw the bLood-stained corpse of the woman down one of those disused coalpits which, to the standing disgrace of the district, are left uncovered, thereby offer ing temptations the most attractive for child murder, or assassination, and thus, as he thought, effectually to conceal all evidence of his guilt. That the murderer and his victim were cohabiting together is beyond question, and therefore it cannot be supposed that the solitude of the Grange Fields was sought for any purpose.of immorality; but it is highly probable that the unhappy woman was induced by some specious pretext of the prisoner's to go to that unfrequented locality in order that his wicked purpose should be effected. It is not unlikely that the crime had been contemplated for some time. The prisoner, doubtless weary of the woman, and annoyed by her constant importunities to make am honest woman of her, determined no longer to endure her complaints, and instead of leaving her and the district, decided upon satisfying his bloodthirsty disposition by committing an atrocity as hideous as the worst deeds of Bulgarian butchery. He furnished himself with a knife, which, to have made the wound it did, must have had a keen edge and sharp point, and had probably been prepared and well whetted for the occasion; and if it had not been for the prompt and unexpected appearance of several persons upon the scene, he would have disposed of the blood-stained corpse, and would himself have decamped from the scene of the slaughter. His detection and denunciation by Mr. Clarke, however, seemed to have stupefied hint, and be remained a callous spectator of the course of events. The chain of evidence, circumstantial though it may be, has been woven so closely around him, that he cannot possibly escape the just punishment of humanity outraged, and law trodden under foot. He was seen to go to Grange Fields with the woman; he was identified by several persons, who saw them both bat a very little time previous to the committal of the crime, he was discovered endeavouring to carry the corpse of his victim away, and the body of the woman, when examined by Dr. Oldham, offered incontrovertible proof of the magnitude and the devilish nature of the deed. _  The body itself is a silent witness against the wretched man, and, although no mortal eye saw the foul wound inflicted, still there is intrinsic evidence of so pronounced a type as not to leave open a loophole for his escape; and it is established without a doubt that Eliza Bloor fell a victim at the cowardly and brutal hands of her paramour.