The Bee-Hive : — 1869-04-10 (London, England)

THE MURDER OF A SWEETHEART AT  BEDMINSTER.  Henry Jenkins, 22, described in the calendar as a shipwright, was indicted for the wilful murder of Fanny Reeves, in the parish of Bedminster, Bristol, on the 18th October last. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. _ _ . _ _  The ease, from the romantic nature of its incidents, excited an unusual amount of interest, and every nook in the court was crowded with spectators. Mr. T. W. Saunders and Mr. Bailey conducted the prosecution and Mr. Collins and Mr. Norris defended the prisoner. The deceased was a single woman, the daughter of poor 'parents, her mother being a widow, and living at Bedminster. Shortly prior to the cvent which led to her death, the deceased lived at a place in the parish called Bright Bow, in the house of a ilirs..Pearce. She was about 24 years of age, and Lad had two illegitimate children. The prisoner, who is now a married man, is the father of the elder one; at the time of the mother's death, and under en order of adjudication by the magistrate be had to pay 2s. per week towards the child's support. Latterly he had got into arrears. On the evening of Friday, the 16th October, the deceased told her mother that she was going to meet Henry Jenkins. She left her lodgings and did not return to them;: but at a little before nine o'olock on the same night she was brought home to the house of her mother, baying been got out of the river Avon on the New Cut. Medical assistance was obtained for her, but she became worse and died on Sunday morning.. the 18th. The medical gentlemen who attended her, Dr. Smart and Mr. N. U. Dobson, one of the surgeons of the Bristol Geperal Hospital, who assisted him in making a post n'tdrtem examination of the body, assigned the death to congestion of the lungs and the shock to the nervous system caused by the immersion; and the question was how did the deceased get into the water ? On the part of the prosecution it was charged that the prisoner wilfully pushed her in with the intention of drowning her, but it was admitted that unless a declaration made by the deceased shortly before her death was admissible in evidence there was no proof of that fact. There was, therefore, a great struggle on the part of the learned counsel for the defence to exclude it. Evidence was, therefore, in the first place, adduced which had reference to the state of the deceased at the time when the declaration was made. Mary Ann Reeves, the mother of deceased, was first called, and after deposing to the relationship that had existed between her daughter and the prisoner she described her illness. Deceased said he did not think she should ever get over it, and asked for a persor. to pray with her, and .a pious person named Coxwell came and prayed with her and talked to her very seriously. The magistrate and his clerk came about half an hour after Mr. Coxwell had left. It was elicited from the witness that hor daughter was a young woman of violent temper, and occasionHlly drank. She had sometimes when in a passion threatened to drown herself. She had said this repeatedly, but witness never took heed of it. The woman's dying deposition as taken by Mr. Roe-s, the magistrates' clerk, was then read, and the jury, after hearing a great quantity of other evidence, found the prisoner guilty. The learned Judge sentenced the prisoner to death in the usual form. The prisoner on hearing the sentence, exclaimed "Thank Gott I shal die happy, for I am innocent."