Swansea Journal and South Wales Liberal. — 1895-07-06 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

TRAGIC AFFAIR AT SWANSEA. A Sailor Makes a Desperate Attempt on His Life, • There were rumours of murder in Swansea on Sunday afternoon and as they emanated from a district well within what has been sensationally described as the "murdercircuit," they obtained ready credence. The rumour, too, had more than a moderate amount of basis, for in a dingy little tenement in Carmarthen-road there was enacted a really tragic affair, an Irish sailor, after seriously threatening his paramour, having made a desperate attempt on his life. Dan O'Shea was the man's name, and he now lies at the Hospital with two bullet wounds in his head. For some time past O'Shea who has been a soldier, and who has a wife and four children living in Ireland, has cohabiting with a woman named Donovan, who is also married. His paramour seems to have tired of the cohabitation lately, and this week she told him that her husband was coming home, and he must leave her. This seems to have nettled him, and on Saturday afternoon, when he was rather the worse for beer, as he not infrequently has been, he beat the woman, who retaliated by shifting all the furniture out of the house. This further incensed him, and on Saturday night O'Shea was seen in one or two public-houses with a revolver and a handful of cartridges, with which he threatened to do" forsomebody.Little notice was taken of this, but on Sunday he went to Scyborfach-street, to the house where the woman Donovan was staying, and put the revolver to her ear and threatened her. She returned with him, but they quarrelled again, and then the prisoner, pulling out two halfsovereigns gave the woman one of them and told her to go about her business. The woman went, and the man shut the door. About 5.30 a neighbour heard two pistol-shots. and he went at once and informed P.C. Lloyd and P.C. Davies, who were on duty in the district. They went to the house, and found it locked. They knocked, and O'Shea thrust his head through the window and asked them what they wanted. They asked him to come down, and he, bleeding profusely, crawled over the stairs, and opened the door. The policemen asked him what be had done, and he replied, "She did it," meaning, perhaps, that it was through the woman the deed had been done. The police found two bullet wounds in his head, and requested him to come with them to the hospital. He said he was weak in the lags, and they got him a conveyance. Police-constable 92, on proceeding upitairs, found in the front bedroom a six-chambered revolver, with two chambers empty. On arrival at the hospital the injured man was attended by Mr. P. G. Burton, assistant house-surgeon, and Dr. Brook subsequently arrived. They found two bullet wounds in the head, and during the evening performed the operation of extraction. On inquiry at the Swansaa Hospital, on Thursday morning, our reporter was informed that Daniel O'Shea, the man who attempted to take his own life on Sunday evening last, was on the high read to recovery. He is, thanks to the treatment he has received at the hands of the doctors at the hospital, already well enough to leave his bed, and it is expected that in a comparatively short titne he will leave the hospital for the dock of the Police-court, there to answer for his rash act.— It may be mentioned in connection with this case that, on Thursday morning, at the Swansea Policecourt, a woman named Alargt. Price appeared to make a charge against O'Shea of having assaulted her. There was, of course, no appearance on the latter's part, and the hearing was adjourned for a fortnight.