Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1873-10-11 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

ODCO-Irall to the pub Lie-house, into Y-1,;,1a Ile had tle,en the fatheieof th'd Vinceletdd girl enter, to give the alarm. In a few minutes the whole of the peoplailt tle-idightioutinittif had crowded into the house to look upon the body of the poor .creature. Oue Of the first to arrive,however, was Sergeant grown, Who, hiving ascertained that Mrs Thompson was beyond all hope of recovery, took instant meneures for the apprehension of the murderer. Haying ordered the body to be covered with a sheet, a short, energetic inquiry discovered to the officer the fact that Thompson had a brother residing at Dipton. Thither he proceeded, accompanied by a man named Thomas Palmer, and taking a route straight across the country, he reached the house indicated, where he found Thompaon, who was now dressed in a black cloth 'Coot sna cap belonging to his brother, and who, it was evident, would have soon been again in flight but for the quick pursuit of Sergeant Brown. The latter at once charged him with the murder of his wife and handcuffed him to take him to the police station at Consett. Thompson wept hhitterly during the jonyney, and appeared to suffer terithly from remorso, and he remarked repeatedly that it was a bad job, saying, " He could not tell , whatever had made him commit the crime." On examining the body Dr Hunter found life totally , extinct, the weapon used, a table knife, which was found, covered with blood, at the spot where the lad Scullen saw the murderer come from behind his victim, having almost severed the head from the body. On examining the house which they occupied, and which consisted of two rooms, one above the other, the supper things remained on the table of the downstairs apartment just as they had been laid by deceased ; the chairs were standing in their regular places, and not a broken bit of crockery ware, or the faintest trace could be found to indicate the occurrence of a struggle ' having preceded the murder. It is surmised that a sudden impulse had seized Thompson to pick up the knife and attack his wife. The latter seeing his murderous intention at once dashed out of the door, but on reaching the footpath outside, her husband overtook her, and thrcwing his right arm over her right shoulder, he passed his hand beneath her chin to the left side c her neck ; he then thrxist the end of the knife he held into her neck, about two inches behind the left ear, ' and drew the weapon towards him, severing the muscles and arteries to within a quarter of an inch of the right ear. So nearly severed was the bead, that when an attempt was made to raise :the body, it fell backwards Mid rested between the shoulders, being held to the 'body, bY-the vertebrm alone. One peculiar feature in the case was, that although the poor women was killed to all intents and parposes some yards from Mrs Parker's door, she had, apparently by the mere' force, of muscular action induced by excessive panic", staggered a considerable.diatance before nature gave way and she dropped to the ground. Another 'Mations circninstaitete• is, that although the carotid and other arteries were severed by the weapon, and a large quantity of blood was found on the woman's clothes and where she was stabbed, not one drop of blood appears to have reached the gpmeuts of the murderer. The news of the tragedy created profound excitement throughout the dist*ict, and the scene of the murder was on Sunday visited by large crowds of people.  t