The Sun. — 1869-01-19 (London, England)

THE CASE OF WILLIAM BISGROVE.  We understand that since the remission of the capital sentence in the case of William Bisgrove, the authorities of Taunton prison have become convinced of his insanity ; and he will be removed in a few days to the asylum for criminal lunatics at Broadmoor. The remission of the capital sentence was, we believe, the result of an inquiry conducted by the Chief Constable of Somersetshire under instructions from the Home Office, and set on foot in consequence of facts coming to light of which there was not even a suggestion at the trial. In the course of the inquiry it appeared that Bisgrove, an illegitimate child, and insufficiently fed and clothed during the first years of his life, had always been of weak health and intellect ; and that for three years he had been subject to epileptic fits of frequent recurrence, and usually followed by impulses to seize whatever might be near him—a stone, a hatchet, or a knife—and attack the bystanders. It was, however, not difficult on these occasions to disarm and calm him by remonstrances, after which knives were carefully kept out of his way. He had always lived in the same neighbourho6d, where, when not under the influence of a fit, he was a quiet, good-tempered lad ; he was much liked and pitied by his neighbours, and not given to drink. The epileptic fits first became frequent while Bis,,rove was working in the Radstock Collieries, and were 'ubsequent to (if they did not originate in) two accidents, which occurred in his presence while he was in the collieries, and which greatly terrified him. One of these was the death of a man whose head was broken by a stone falling on it from the roof of the pit. In consequence of Bisgrove's liability to fits, and inability to take care of himself, he was first made to work in a safer part of the colliery, and was ultimately discharged. Soon after he had a sunstroke, which increased the frequency of the fits. In the autumn of 1867 he went to sea, the doctor who had attended him thinking he might in this way be cured. He returned in May, not cured, though the fits (of which there were at least two between the time of his return and the murder in August) were followed, not by excesses of fury, as before, but by a feeble and semi-conscious state continuing for a day or two. Those who knew him described him as having after his return lost " his bright look," and appearing " scared." The witnesses who were examined by the chief constable included the people with whom he had lived when a child and out of work, the certificated master whose school he attended, a farmer in whose house he had lived for four years, the bailiff and the manager of the Radstock Collieries, and the doctor who had attended him at the time of the sunstroke. At the trial Bisgrove was defended only by counsel assigned him at the last moment by the judge ; and nothing was put in evidence but the events of the night on which the murder was committed. But the facts since brought to light tally in a remarkable manner with the absence, noticed at the trial, of any motive in Bisgrove for the commission of the murder and with its special circumstances, and they are not less consistent with the insanity which is now proved to exist.— Daily NetcB.  A