The Pontypridd District Herald and Rhondda Valley, Llantrisant, Caerphilly, and Mountain Ash News. — 1892-09-24 (Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

TRAGIC AFFAIR AT ABERGAVENNY.  An inquest was held at the workhouse at Abergavenny on Saturday on the body of Mary Connody, who was found in the Hatherleigh-road, off the Brecon-road, with her throat cut. The coroner said it would be impossible to complete the inquiry that night, but he proposed to take sufficient evidence to enable the body to be buried. Superintendent Freeman deposed to having been called to the spot where the body was lying, when he recognised it as that of Mary Connolly. Police. constable Thomas said he examined the ground in the neighbourhood at five o'clock that morning, and found traces of blood leading from a spot 50 yards from where the body was discovered to a small shed in a garden, about 220 yards distant. He also found in the shed a hat, which had since been identified as belonging to the deceased. The shed stands about six yards from the road, in a cabbage patch Witness found that a number of the cabbages were bespattered with blood, and that their was blood also on the wire fencing bounding the cabbage patch. Dr. Elmes stated that he saw the body at about 9 o'clock at night. It was lying in the gutter with the face upwards, the left arm being extended above the head, and the right arm down by the side. There was a large gash in the throat, and the clothing was saturated with blood. The deceased had not been dead long; he thought about two hours. The gash in the tlr oat was a very deep one, and in the opinion of himself and Dr. Stcele it was self-inflicted. The jury were then bound over, and the inquiry adjourned. On Sunday a labourer, named Thomas Edwards, about thirty years of age, surrendered at Abergavenny police-station, and said he cut Conolly's throat with a razor, and the police, acting upon information which he gave, found the razor hidden by the roadside, not far from Abergavenny Junction. The livliest satisfaction is manifested at the supposed murderer being in custody. The adjourned inquest was held at the Abergavenny Police-station on Monday evening, before Mr. J. B. Walford, coroner, and a jury of thirteen. Dr. E. Y. Steele said he had made a postmortem examination, the result of which was that in his opinion there was nothing to account for the death of Mary Conolly, except the wound in her throat. Twelve witnesses gave evidence as to seeing the deceased in the company of Edwards on Friday night. The prisoner himself had signed a written confession in the court, in which he stated that he had been in the Army, and that some six or seven years ago Major Findall had been murdered in Birmingham by one of the loose girls. In consequence of that he bad made up his mind to kill as many of her class as he could. He met Mary Conolly, and she spoke to him. He gave her Is., and she took him to a shed in a garden in Hatherleigh-road. He there cut her throat with a razor which he had with him, and left her lying on the ground. He would have killed one before if h 3 had had a good chance, and he meant to go on to Newport and kill one or two more, but he had not the means to go with. He had known Mary Conolly before, and she had robbed him of £2. He further stated that he had served with the Shropshire Regiment in the Egyptian Campaign, but had been invalided home in consequence of a bad fever, since which time he had suffered from pains in his head. He was suffering from these pains just before he committed the crime with wnich he is charged. His mother was in the Abergavenny Asylum, and had been an inmate there since he was a child. He did not know what he was about when he killed Mary Conolly. The coroner told him that the jury had nothing to do with the question df sanity, but that suggestion would be duly considered at his trial. After &short deliberation the jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Edwards.