The Express. — 1862-12-15 (London, England)

MURDER.  Williams &hold, an old awn, whole age was stated at 69, was indicted for the wilful murder of his wife, Sophia Ochold, at Oldbury, in this couuty, on the Bth Yovember hat.  Mr. Richards and Mr. Griffiths conducted the prouecu• tiou, and Mr. Benson, at the request of the learned judge, defended the prisoner.  The prisoner and the deceased had been married just half a century, and the old man carried oo the business of a tailor, in which hie wife 'waisted him. Theydid not live very happily together ; the primmer accusing his wife of intemperance, and frequently beating her. The deceased bad for some time pest suffered from disease of the kidney; and on Friday. the 7th November, was ill from that cause. On that evening a young woman named Maria Grazebrook, • servant at a public-house near, who was very intimate with the Ocholds, called in to see the old people (whom she called her grandfather anti grandmother, although not related to them), and found the prisoner seated on a table at work at his trade, and the deceased lying on the around apparently in great pain. The young woman offered to get the deceased some tee' but she declined, and the prisoner also said, " No; the wants to go to bed and groan, and keep me awake all night, as she did last night ; but she shall not keep me awake again to-Dight." Soon after the son and daughter of The deceased came in, and after giving her some tea, put her to bed. She was unable to walk. rind her son carried her up. stairs. About 3 o'clock on the following morning, ea policeman Hutchins was passing the house, he lament a noise which be thus described in his evidence. Police-constable Daniel Hutchins depose(—l was ou duty between 3 and 4 o'clock on the morning of the Bth November, and passed tbs prisoner's bonze. Heard the prisoner doweetairs cursing and swearing and making • greet noise. He seemed to be cursing at Nome one upstairs. Heard groans upstairs. I went away sod iu about ten minutes returned, when I heard some ace whom I believed to be the prisoner go to the foot of the stairs. I listened and heard the prisoner mock at the groans. He said, " Yon old me„, you're very bed. I dare say, but I sever knew yogi when you were good." He also said, " your old eyes, if you don't come downstairs —" Did not bear the rest of the sentence. Remained in the street till 4 o'clock, and beard the prisoner repeat his mocking end swearing. Had often beard it before. Jeremiah Bradley was at hie 'tables, about 10 yardarm= the prisoner's house, about 4 o'clock on the same morning, and heard the prisoner use very bad language to his wife.  Beard the demand my, " Oh, Bill, dop:t kill me ; my heed is reedy to split." It did not strike him that he ought to interiors.  Ortuiebrook deposed that on going again to the prisoner's house on the morning of the Bth, and asking after his wife, thel prisoner said she bad hero drinking with on• Jack Hadley on the previous night. (This statemeet was afterwards disproved.) He objected to her going upstairs to see bar, but she persisted in going, and then found her lying dead on the floor with her face covered with blood. There was a broken mopstick in the prisoner's room down stairs. There was also blood upon the stairs, and witness picked up a quantity of the deceased's hair. Mr. Cooper, surgeon, of Oldbury, made a post-mortem examination, and found several brumes on the body, but the chief injuries were in the head. There was an extravasation of blood on the brain. The right temporal muscle was re. duoed to the conristanoy of a puce of liver by roust violence • and on dissecting it down to the cheek bone be found the arch of the cheek bone broken. The other cheek bone was healthy. This injury could not have been caused by a fall, but might have been produced by blows from some hard substance, not the fist. Mr Benson, for the prisoner, made a powerful defence, and urged that the crime was one of manslaughter, not murder.  ffie lordship carefully summed up, sad rather favoured the same view.  The jury, however, after being locked up for au hour, found the prisoner Guilty. His lordship then proceeded to pies sentence of death upon the prim ner in the usual form, and in reference to a recommendation to mercy made by the jury on account of his advanced age, said that recommendation should be forwarded to the proper quarter.