Widnes Examiner. — 1892-11-26 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

THE ISLE OF MAN MURDER. RESULT OF THE TRIAL.  The trial of George Barker James Cooper, of West Clyne, Old Trafford, for the murder of his wife at Douglas was concluded on Monday amid great excitement. Sir W. Drinkwater, the first Deemster, a judge in his 81st year, summed up the evidence in this protracted inquiry. His Honour's charge was throughout in favour of the prisoner, and says the " Manchester Guardian," our correspondent says that alter its delivery no other verdict than one of" manslaughter" appeared to he possible. The crime was committed lathe Regent Hotel, Douglas, on the morning of Saturday the 3rd September. The prisoner and his wife arrived by the Fleetwood boat on the previous night, and Mrs. Cooper's face then bore the marks of severe blows. A barmaid asked the prisoner what he had been doing to his wife, and he replied that he had given her a good thrashing, and that he would " pay her out "—using one of the coarse expressions which were habitual with him. Next morning the couple were quarrelling in their bedroom, and a heavy fall was heard. After a considerable interval the prisoner was summoned by the manager of the hotel to open the door of the bedroom, which was found to be locked, and the persons who entered found Mrs. Cooper on the floor, quite dead, and with a deep and wide wound in the left breast. The prisoner said sho was "in a faint ;" then he said he "found her like that" on his return from the bank ; immediately afterwards he said it was "a sure case of suicide ; but after a considerable time had elapsed he put forward the defence that he had quarrelled with his wife, that she struck him on the face, and that in the heat of passion he struck back, not knowing that he had a cornknife in his hand. The wound bled profusely, but he thought it was not a serious one. He locked the door of the room and endeavoured to "bring her round." This was his last line of defence, and it was disclosed by or suggested to him very opportunely at the conclusion of the case which was brought forward by the Crown at the third preliminary inquiry. To prove that the deceased was a "violent, drunken woman," and one who would be likely to strike him when her temper was roused, evidence was given by several persons who are in the service of the prisoner or his father. It was also necessary to show that the prisoner had a peculiar habit nf holding nail-knives, and his statements on that head were supported by several witnesses. The cause of the quarrel which ended so fatally arose from the prisoner's relations with a woman, formerly one of his employes, with whom he had lived in' America and this country, and whose husband had publicly horsewhipped him. It was on record also. that the prisoner had been tried ten years ago for attempting to shoot his first wife, and the nature., of the evidence on which he then obtained an acquittal is even yet fresh in the public mind. He had been repeatedly thrashed for assauting his unhappy wife. This was the, career with which the Deemster had to deal in laying.the case before the jury. He advised them to be cautious in accepting the prisoner's.version of the tragedy,. and remindectthem of the false statements he had made, but seemed to be of the opinion that the deceased was really a druniten woman. He suggested that the woman Rowles and the other servants had perhaps gone a little too far in their endeavour to save their master's son. His Honour at great length laid before the jury the whole of the sordid and miserable story, and reminded them, that the prisoner had practically pleaded guilty to the crime of manslaughter. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter, and the judges retired to consider their sentence. On their return into court Sir W. Drinkwater intimated that the judges did not disagree with thel " most merciful" verdict, and he sentenced the prisoner to penal servitude for ten years. The verdict and semtende.caused tremendous excitement in Douglas, and the crowd outside the court hooted the jurors most vigorously as they left the building. It was, in fact„ found necessary to employ the police for theirs protection,. and they were pursued with "howls of indignation." Cooper was "immensely relieved" by the verdict and sentence,  Trials for murder are, happily, very rare in the•blifrof Man. The last case before that of Cooper was that in which a man named Kelly was indicted for the murder of his wife. The couple had quarrelled, and Kelly took up a razor and nearly severed his wife's head from the ' body. This in the opinion of a Manx jury was merely manslau2hter—that is, they believed Kelly cat the woman's throat without any felonious intent. The man received the same sentence as that passed upon Cooper. In capital cases the jurors are selected in equab numbers from each electoral distriit of 'the island, and their names are announced in the press a week or two before the trial. They are thereby exposed to influences of all kinds.