npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Sun. — 1844-12-05 (London, England)

TUI.LANORE, DEC. 1.-With feelings of poignant regret I have to announce to you the shocking murders of two human beings, brothers, named Thomas and William Sheppard, on the lands of Coolfin, barony of Ballyboy, in this county, about two miles on the mountain side of Frankford. The particulars of the sad circumstance, as gathered from the evidence of a surviving brother at the inquest held yesterday upon the scene of the catastrophe, are in substance as follow: A family named Daly heretofore held a small farm, about twenty-four acres, on the lands of Coolfin, but, getting into arrear, they were ejected for nonpayment of rent, when Ambrose, Thomas, and William Sheppard (three brothers), got into treaty with the sub-agent, Mr. Fawcett, near Tullamore, for the farm. The negotiation getting publicity, a threatening notice was served at their then residence, Derrycooly, near Radian, in this county. The Sheppards, no way daunted, got into the occupation in the latter end of August last, when another notice was also served at the said place, vowing death and destruction to them should they persevere. They still treated these notices with indifference, at the same time using, as they thought, all due caution (having the house on the lands on which they then livedat Coolfin well fortified against danger, ha,ving plenty of fire-arms, with a supply of ammenition, and a fire-proof room erected therein, in which they nightly lay). Things latterly seeming to wear a friendly aspect, Ambrose weakened the garrison -by quitting the place a few days ago for Derrycooly, to bring up his wife, family, and furniture, and on his return on Friday evening last, seeing their horse walking about the place with his tackling on him, and neither of his brothers appearing, he was much astonished, and going to the door he found it partly shut; he pushed in the doer and called his brothers, from neither of whom he received an answer. He immediately ran into Frankford to alarm the police, who quickly repaired to the spot with him, and, on searching the house insid they found Thomas dead, with his head broken int o pieces, and the brain escaping ! They then made a search about the place for William, but it proved a fruitless one, owing to the darkness of the night. They stopped there till morning, and when the daylight appeared they found William lying in a field, near the house, with his head equally broken, and the brain also escaping ! No other evidence calculated to throw further light on the dreadful occurrence was obtained. It is supposed that the unfortunate men were murdered while at their work on Friday morning, as, from the caution they observed at night, it could not have occurred then without loss of life to the assailants; besides the horse being tackled, is another proof of the deed having been done in the day; and it is supposed that Thomas, on the attack, ran towards the house for the arms, and that William's retreat was cut off from it. No alarm was made until the brother's return, and the farm, too, is in an elevated position.
The Sun. — 1844-05-07 (London, England)

CONDUCT OF POLICE MAGISTRATES.  Mr. HORSMAN wished to ask the Right Honourable Ba%net if he had received any information on the subject of the conduct of a police magistrate in adjudicating upon a case which had been brought before him. The case was this:—it appeared that a private in the Grenadier Guards had accosted a female in the street, who had just left her house ,• that, being frightened, she returned towards her home ; that she was pursued by the soldier, who entered her house with her, threatened her, and assaulted her ; that she screamed " Murder," struggled, and fainted. On the investigation of these charges before the magistrate, the facts were not denied, but the man pleaded that he was intoxicated, and the magistrate, in adjudicating on the case, said that, taking into consideration the circumstance that the man was drunk, he should only impose a fine of 10s. He wished to ask the Right Hon. Gentleman if his attention had been drawn to the case ? Sir J. GRAHAM said that his attention had been called to the case, and he had referred to the magistrate, and asked for his explanation. It was true as had been stated, that the soldier was intoxicated; that some signals had passed between him and the woman ; that she had returned home and locked the door ; that he had broken down the door and offered violence to her ; that she had screamed, on which her neighbours entered and rescued her ; the soldier had been given into custody, and the charge had been brought before a police magistrate. The charge entered on the sheet was that of Mary Brown, 4, street, Westminster, for breaking in her door, value one shilling. The magistrate on hearing the case was satisfied that the man was intoxicated, and that he had misunderstood the woman entirely in consequence of what had passed between them in the street. The door was an extremely slender one, and the lock was so worn as t) offer no resistance. The magistrate was not satisfied as to the extent of the violence committed, and therefore did not feel justified in dealing with the prisoner as for a graver offence. He might certainly have committed the prisoner for an aggravated assault, but under all the circumstances of the case—especially referring to what iad previously taken place in the street, and that the actual damage was valued only at a shilling —the magistrate considered the justice of the case would be met by the penalty imposed. With respect to the charge that the matstrate had made drunkenness a plea in extenuation of the offence, the Hon. Member for Cockermouth (Mr. llorsman), taking his information from the newspapers, had been greatly misled. A statement he held in his hand from Mr. Jardine distinctly denied this, and asserted on the contrary that he (Mr. Jardine) could not allow such a plea to weigh for one moment with him in the adj udication of punishment.--([fear, hear.) Mr. HORSMAN considered the explanation of the Right Hon. Gentleman was perfectly satisfactory, and that from the latter portion of it especially great public good would accrue.  Messengers from the Lords brought down several Bills.
The Sun. — 1844-05-07 (London, England)

CONDUCT OF POLICE MAGISTRATES.  Mr. lIORSMAN wished to ask the Right Honourable Baronet if he had received any information on the subject of the conduct of a police magistrate in adjudicating upon a case which had been brought before him. The case was this :—it appeared that a private in the Grenadier Guards had accosted a female in the street, who had just left her house ; that, being frightened, she returned towards her home ' • that she was pursued by the soldier, who entered her house with her, threatened her, and assaulted her ; that she screamed " Murder," struggled, and fainted. On the investigation of these charges before the magistrate, the facts were not denied, but the man pleaded that he was intoxicated, and the magistrate, in adjudicating on the case, said that, taking into consideration the circumstance that the man was drunk, he should only impose a fine of 10s. He wished to ask the Right Hon. Gentleman if his attention had been drawn to the case ? Sir J. GRAHAM said that his attention had been called to the case, and he had referred to the magistrate, and asked for his explanation. It was true as had been stated, that the soldier was intoxicated; that some signals had passed between him and the woman ; that she had returned home and locked the door ; that he had broken down the door and offered violence to her ; that she had screamed, on which her neighbours entered and rescued her ; the soldier had been given into custody, and the charge had been brought before a police magistrate. The charge entered on the sheet was that of Mary Brown, 4, street, Westminster, for breaking in her door, value one shilling. The magistrate on hearing the case was satisfied that the man was intoxicated, and that he had misunderstood the woman entirely in consequence of what had passed between them in the street. The door was an extremely slender one, and the lock was so worn as t.) offer no resistance. The magistrate was not satisfied as to the extent of the violence committed, and therefore did not feel justified in dealing with the prisoner as fur a graver offence. He might certainly have committed the prisoner for an aggravated assault, but under all the circumstances of the case—especially referring to what had previously taken place in the street, and that the actual damage was valued only at a shilling —the magistrate considered the justice of the case would be met by the penalty imposed. With respect to the charge that the magistrate hr.d made drunkenness a plea in extenuation of the offence, the Hon. Member for Cockermouth (Mr. llorsman), taking his information from the newspapers, had been greatly misled. A statement he held in his hand from Mr. Jardine distinctly denied this, and asserted on the contrary that he (Mr. Jardine) could not allow such a plea to weigh for one moment with him in the adj udication of punishment.—(Hear, hear.) Mr. HORSMAN considered the explanation of the Right Hon. Gentleman was perfectly satisfactory, and that from the latter portion of it especially great public good would accrue. Messengers from the Lords brought down several Bills.
The Sun. — 1844-08-19 (London, England)

ANOTHER CASE OF PIRACY AND SUPPOSED MURDER.  Within the last day or two letters have been received from Dundee, communicating to the underwriters information respecting the brig Hannah, belonging to that port, from which strong suspicions are apprehended that the captain, Mr. Lowther, was murdered by the crew, for the purpose of possessing themselves of the vessel and cargo, but afterwards their plans were frustrated :by the ship becoming leaky. The particulars, it appears, were brought over by the Hibernia, steamer, from the Lloyd's agent at Quebec, and are as follows :  On the morning of Monday, the Bth of last month, when the barque Scotland, William Hamilton, bound to Quebec, was within ten hours' sail of that port, two boats were discovered several miles to the leeward. The captain, suspecting they belonged to some shipwrecked vessel, immediately bore down and picked them up, when he ascertained that they belonged to the brig Hannah, of Dundee. The boats contained seven men, and the statemelt they made to Captain Hamilton was to this effect :  They stated that on the night of the sth the Hannah encountered a heavy gale of wind, and on the following day it was found she had sprung a leak, for there was upwards of two feet of water in her hold. They all turned to the pumps, and finding, after twenty-four hours pumping, that the water, instead of diminishing, had increased several feet, they urged Captain Lowther to take to the boats, which he refused, saying there was a chance of saving the vessel, and that he should not leave her. There being nine feet of water in the hold then, they determined to leave the vessel, and launching the two boats, which was all the ship possessed, they jumped in and left her, leaving the captain, without any possible means of escape, on board. It was then twelve o'clock at night, and at daybreak the following morning they looked round, in the hopes of seeing the ship, but she was nowhere to be seen. Captain Hamilton, suspecting the truth of these statements, resolved, the moment he reached Quebec, to acquaint the magisterial authorities, upon which a brief inquiry was instituted, which resulted in the committal of the whole of the ship's crew of the Hannah to the Penitentiary, the magistrates having a strong belief that so;ne foul ple.y had been perpetrated on board. A f,!‘v days after their committal, a vessel that had put into Quebec reported that the wreck of the Hannah had been discovered on the banks of the Anticosti, and that it had, he believed, been taken in tow by another vessel, to bring her into that port. Her arrival naturally was looked for with intense interest, and on the 28th the Hannah was brought safely into Quebec, with very little damage. It is needless to say that the unfortunate master, Captain Lowther, was not to be found, nor any of the ship's papers. The ,prisoners were to undergo a second examination on the 12th inst., and in the meanwhile every possible inquiry was to be made. The Hannah was heavily laden, but the nature of her cargo is not mentioned.
The Sun. — 1844-08-19 (London, England)

MURDER AT MANCHESTER. LATEST PARTICULARS. MANCHESTER, THURSDAY.—This morning, Evans, the murderer of Jane Millen, was brought up at the Borough Court, at twelve o'clock, before Mr. Maude, the stipendiary magistrate, where he underwent a long examination, the proceedings occupying upwards of five hours. The whole of the evidence went to substantiate the facts sent yesterday. The Court was crowded the whole of the time, and the prisoner appeared to treat the whole affair with considerable indifference, occasionally interrupting the witnesses and cross-examining them. It was proved that he was in the house about an hour before the murder was committed, and that no other person had been seen or heard near the place. There were several marks of blood upon his person. An instrument made of iron, something after the shape of a life-preserver, was found in the house, and was tinted with blood. Mr. Sinclair, surgeon, who had examined the body, gave it as his opinion that the wounds on the head and neck caused death, and that they were inflicted whilst the unfortunate woman was alive, and that the iron instrument' produced would inflict such wounds as were found about her head. The husband of the decased woman thus describes her appearance when found : " When I got her out of the coal-closet she was quite -dead. She was bleeding at the nose, ears, and mouth, and her tongue was protruded very much and greatly swollen ; her neck was very much discoloured. and also greatly swollen ; her head was cut and bruised and presented an awful spectacle." At the close of the case the prisoner insisted on making his statement, notwithstanding repeated cautions of the magistrate. A great deal of his statement was quite irrelevant to the charge. Speaking of the day of the murder he said, " I got up on Wednesday morning about eight o'clock, as near as I can recollect ; I went into the back yard and washed myself. I put on my cap, and just as I' was going to the lobby to get my jacket to go out, this woman (one of the witnesses) came with the water to the door, and Mrs. Millen asked me to take in this water as she was not well. I just tipped' one of them in, and that was all. I put on my jacket, and went out. I was going to the same public-house I was at in Oldhamroad on the previous day. I missed my tobacco-box, and I returned for it. I went up stairs a.nd found it on the table. There was no person in the house. I went into the kitchen and lighted my pipe, and smoked it. No person came, and so I went up-stairs, and got what I wanted. I took whatever I 'thought proper, for the drawers were not locked. I then put them all in the lobby and went for the cab to drive me to the station." The prisoner, after accounting for the blood upon his person in his own way, said, " I know no more of the death of Mrs. Millen than any human being under the sure." He was committed to take his trial at the present Liverpool Assizes on the charges of murder and robbery.
The Sun. — 1844-08-19 (London, England)

ANOTHER CASE OF PIRACY AND SUPPOSED MURDER.  Within the last day or two letters have been received from Dundee, communicating to the underwriters information respecting the brig llannah, belonging to that port, from which strong suspicions are apprehended that the captain, Mr. Lowther, was murdered by the crew, for the purpose of possessing themselves of the vessel and cargo, but afterwards their plans were frustrated :by the ship becoming leaky. The particulars, it appears, were brought over by the llibernia, steamer, from the Lloyd's agent at Quebec, and are as follows :  On the morning of Monday, the Bth of last month, when the barque Scotland, William Hamilton, bound to Quebec, was within ten hours' sail of that port, two boats were discovered several miles to the leeward. The captain, suspecting they belonged to some shipwrecked vessel, immediately bore down and picked them up, when he ascertained that they belonged to the brig Hannah, of Dundee. The boats contained seven men, and the statement they made to Captain Hamilton was to this effect :  They stated that on the night of the sth the Hannah encountered a heaVy gale of wind, and on the following day it was found she had sprung a leak, for there was upwards of two feet of water in her hold. They all turned to the pumps, and finding, after twenty-four hours pumping, that the water, instead of diminishing, had increased several feet, they urged Captain Lowther to take to the boats, which he refused, saying there was a chance of saving the vessel, and that he should not leave her. There being nine feet of water in the hold then, they determined to leave the vessel, and launch ing the two boats, which was all the ship possessed, they jumped in and left her, leaving the captain, without any possible means of escape, on board. It was then twelve o'clock at night, and at daybreak the following morning they looked round, in the hopes of seeing the ship, but she was nowhere to be seen. Captain Hamilton, suspecting the truth of these statements, resolved, the moment he reached Quebec, to acquaint the magisterial authorities, upon which a brief inquiry was instituted, which resulted in the committal of the whole of the ship's crew of the Hannah to the Penitentiary, the magistrates having a strong belief that some foul play had been perpetrated on board. A few days after their committal, a vessel that had put into Quebec reported that the wreck of the Hannah had been discovered on the banks of the Anticosti, and that it had, he believed, been taken in tow by another vessel, to bring her into that port. Her arrival naturally was looked for with intense interest, and on the 28th the Hannah was brought safely into Quebec, with very little damage. It is needless to say that the unfortunate master, Captain Lowther, was not to be found, nor any of the ship's papers. The prisoners were to undergo a second examinatiou on the 12th inst., and in the meanwhile every possible inquiry was to be made. The Hannah was heavily laden, but the nature of her cargo is not mentioned.
The Sun. — 1844-08-02 (London, England)

SIDE. Our intelligence from Sinde at the date of last month's dispatch, extended to the 16th of May, and now comes down to the 4th of June. The news of the month is much less interesting than we had ventured to anticipate. The meeting of the Beelooche chiefs at. Hyderabad on the 24th of May went off very quietly : from 15,000 to 20,000, including at tendants, are believed to have been presents from 30,000 to 35,000 were expected. The principal object of getting them together is said to have been to warn them solemnly against persisting in the territory-appropriating practices to which they have hitherto been occasionally addicted ; spoliation requires to be practised on a large scale before it becomes legitimate, and our new subjects are required to attend to the precepts, not the practice, of their conquerors. The Governor and his unruly guests are said to have parted mutually pleased with each other. Her Majesty's hirthday was celebrated at Khyrpore in a manner similar to that in which it was kept at Hyderabad. The thermometer at Hyderabad ranged from 86 deg. to 110 deg. in the shade ; sickness had not increased this year so fearfully as last at the corresponding period. Her Majesty's 86th had lost fourteen men very lately, of whom nine had fallen victims to strokes of the sun.  From Kurrachee we have intelligence by boat to the 4th 4 June. His Excellency the Governor bad returned thither on the Ist, from the meeting at Hyderabad. ➢ir. John M‘Leod, late of the Bombay Land Revenue Department, had been appointed Collector of Sea Customs for the mouths of the Indus. The communication by sea betwixt Bombay and Kurrachee will continue closed for some months to come.  Our latest letters from Sukkur are to the 31st of May. The Beelooches seem for the present to have suspended their marauding operations around Shikarpore ; we must of course pocket the affront of the repulse at Foolajee, or be prepared for worse. The Bengal 64th were at Shikarpore, still sulky and discontented. One sepoy had lately shot another, and his comrades had refused to surrender the murderer to justice. The mutineers were detained at Sukkur. The 7th Cavalry, which had just come down from Ferozepore, had crossed the Indus from Roree, and were about to proceed to Shikarpore. General Hunter had arrived on the 7th at Sukkur. and taken command. General Simpson continued at 'Shikarpore. Shere Mahomed was said to have still a larger number of men and amount of money at his disposal than could have been imagined. Sir C. Napier was said to have solicited from Lord Ellenhorough active employment in the Punjaub ; and to have proposed moving a force into Mooltan simultaneously with the advance of the main army on Lahore. The recal of the GovernorGeneral is likely to have given the death-blow, for the present, to the system of general aggression and periodical war known by the name of " Peace in Asia."