The Sun. — 1855-08-22 (London, England)

DAY).  OLD COURT. (Before Mr. Justice Erle.) Rebecca Turton, a middle-aged woman, was indicted for the wilful murder of her husband, Thomas Turton,  by strangling him. The learned counsel for the prosecution said that the circumstances of the case were rather of an extraordinary character, the offence imputed to the prisoner having been committed so far back as April, 1854, and he said that the delay had been occasioned by the circumstance that the prisoner immediately after the act had been committed was in a state of decided insanity, and was confined for nearly 12 months in a lunatic asylum. She was now, however, sufficiently recovered to enable her to take her trial, and the jury would have to say by their verdict whether the evidence that he should lay before them was sufficient to justify them in coming to the conclusion that the prisoner was guilty of the serious crime imputed to her by the present indictment. He then proceeded to state the facts of the case, and it appeared that the deceased was a labouring man, and he and the prisoner occupied two rooms in a house in Richard-street, Bromley. It appeared that about 9 o'clock at night, on the 21st of April, the deceased came home partially intoxicated and went to bed, no one, of course, but the prisoner being with him, and between 1 and 2 o'clock on the following morning the prisoner gave an alarm and said that her husband was dead, and upon the landlord of the house going into the bed-room the deceased was found lying upois the bed, and there was a cord mark round his neck, as though some ligature had been tied tightly around it and the death of the deceased was evidently the result of strangulation. Upon a search being made in the room, one of the braces worn by the deceased was found, and when this was compared with the mark upon the neck of the deceased, it corresponded exactly, and the buckle, in particular, seemed to have been the cause of an abrasure that was manifest upon the neck, under the left ear. The prisoner, who appeared in a very excited state, was taken into custody, and on the following morning she asked the female searcher to allow herto pray, and she knelt down, and then said it was a very bad job, and she afterwards exclaimed " What will the devil not tempt any one to do when they are in a passion !" She subsequently said, " Poor Tom is dead, and I did it." The surgeons who were examined expressed their opinion that the deceased had been strangled suddenly in his sleep, and that he was unable to offer any resistance, and there appeared to be no doubt that the prisoner's was the hand that inflicted the violence. It appeared, however, that she bad for some days before the fatal occurrence behaved in the most extraordinary manner, and on the night of the 20th April she had taken a policeman into her husband's room, telling him that he bad poisoned himself with arsenic ; but it appeared that he was perfectly well at that time and when the policeman told him what his wife had said he said that there was no foundation for her statement, and he added that he did not know what to do with his wife, and he thought she was going mad. It also appeared that the prisoner bad called out to a policeman from her bedroom window, and asked him if he was the devil, and also said that she could see the cats scratching dead bodies out of their graves. It was likewise proved that when the prisoner was committed to Newgate in May last to take her trial for this offence she was insane, and not in a condition to plead, and it appeared that she was removed to Bedlam, and subsequently to a private asylum. The learned Judge, at the close of the evidence of Mr. M'Murdo, expressed his opinion that it was unnecessary to proceed any further with the inquiry, as he did not think the jury could entertain any doubt that at the time the offence was committed the prisoner was insane. The jury said they were of opinion that this was the fact, and they at once acquitted the prisoner on the ground of insanity,