The Blackpool Herald. — 1879-02-21 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

CONFESSION OF THE WHALLY BRIDGE MURDER.  It is now said to be known as a fact that Peace has confessed to have murdered Police-constable Cock at Whally Range, Manchester. His plans describing the locality of the murder, upon which he has been working some days, have been forwarded to the Home Secretary, together with a written statement from Peace. He states that he was at Whally Range in August, 1878, for the purpose of committing a burglary, that he was followed into the grounds of a house there by a policeman, and that in attempting to escape he came across Cock standing outside. He told Cock to stand aside or he would shoot him. This the constable would not do, but made towards him as if he would apprehend him. Peace, according to his own statement, then fired of one of the barrels of his revolver to frighten him, but as this did not deter the officer, he was compelled to shoot at him. He further says he did not desire to kill the constable, and that if he had only allowed him to escape he would not have fired. Peace was present when Hebron, charged with the murder, was sentenced to death. In reference to the above, it will be recollected that on August Ist, 1876, a county policeman named Nicholas Cock, was shot at Whalley Range, Manchester. He was a Cornish miner by trade, but had gone from 'Durham to Manchester to join the force. He was on duty near Manley Hall, with anotber officer, when he saw a man cross the road, and he followed him into Seymour Grove. The other officer (Beanland) went into the grounds of Mr. Greatorex close by, and examined the doors and windows of the house, fearing that the man, unknown intended burglary. Finding all safe, he turned to leave the grounds, when he heard two shots fired, and saw two flashes. At the same time he heard someone shout, "Oh, murder, I'm shot." Op running back he found Police-constable Cock lying on the kerbstone bleeding from a wounded breast. The injured man was removed in a cart to Dr. Gill's surgery in Lower Chorlton-road, and he died soon afterwards. A gunshot wound was found in the breast. The ball had struck the fourth rib, shattered the bone, and gone clean through the right lung to the spine, where it lodged and caused death by hemorrhage. Three brothers, named Flabron, in the employ of a market gardener at Chorltou, were suspected of complicity in the murder, as they had been heard to threaten the officer and two of them had been summoned by him for drunkenness. Mr. Superintendent Bent and other officers arrested the three brothers whilst they were in bed, and charged- fhem with the murder. John Hebron, who had been told either the day or the time the murder was committed, put up his hands and said, " I was in bed at the time." William's boots were muddy and corresponded with certain footprints found at the spot where the constable was shot. Two of the prisoners were tried at the Manchester Assizes, and a verdict of guilty was returned against William Hebron, bnt on account of his youth, being only 18, the sentence of death was commuted to penal servitude, the prisoner maintaining at the same time that he was innocent. The plans on which Peace is now working show that he remembered the precise spot where Cock was shot, and all the road in the vicinity. He says he was in Manchester at the time of the murder, having gone there to escape the warrant taken out against him by Mrs. Dyson, and also to "do a little burglary." He had his revolver and housebreaking implements with him, and the circumstances under which the constable was shot bear a very close resemblance to the scene enacted at Blackheath when Peace shot at and was captured by Police. constable Robinson. He was in Manchester when the brothers Hebron were tried for the murder of Which he was guilty, and early the next morning he went to Sheffield, and, calling on his mother in Orchard-street, threw a Manchester paper on the table, and said, " There ; that's where I've been."  matad