npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-01-06 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

DEVIL RIGHT.—Dr. n., who is pastor of an Orthodox church, had been for some time annoyed by the forwardness of a lay brother to "speak "whenever an opportunity was offered, to the frequent exclusion of those whose remarks had a greater tendency to edification. This had been carried so far that thepastor, whenever he stated that an " opportunity would now be offered for any brother to give an exhortation," had always a secret dread of the loquacious member. On one special occasion, the latter prefaced a prosy, incoherent harangue with an account of a controversy he had been carrying on with the great adversary. "My friends,' said he, "the devil and I have been fighting for more than twenty minutes; he told me to speak to-night, but I determined I would; he said some of the rest could speak better than I, but still I felt that I could not keep silent; he even whispered that I spoke too often, and that nobody wanted to hear me ; but I was not to be put down that way, and now I have gained the victory, I must tell you all that is in my heart." Then followed the tedious harangue aforesaid. As they were coming out of the session-room, the good pastor inclined his head so that his mouth appi °ached the, ear of the militant member, and whispered,. "Brother, I think the devil was right !"  The engagement of Princess Dagmar, of Denmork, with the present hereditary Grand Duke of Russia is now regarded in Germany as a settled thing, though not yet officially announced.. On Monday a case of suicide occurred at Rochdale. A man named James Wild, a cloth dresser, residing in Robert-street, had been in a depressed state of mind nom pecuniary difficulties, consequent., upon his having ..become bond for a friend, who had - failed. ''On Monday 'afternoon he was found -quite dead, sitting at the bottom of his 1)i-A with a silk handkerchief attached to the curtain rail, and tied round his throat.
The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-05-19 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

NEAR HOLYLAKE. —No light has yet been thrown upon the mysterious disappearance of Mr. Blum (not Blun, as already given), of the Bradford High School. rhe friends of the deceased are in communication with Sir George Grey, and active efforts 3re being made to discover a clue to unravel what seems at present shrouded in mystery. It is suggested that Mr. Blum was induced to leave Bradford to meet at Leeds some strange person from Hamburg; but from subsequent correspondence, he may have gone not to Leeds, but to Liverpool or Birkenhead. On examininc, Mr. Blum's correspondence, a letter, written tO him by a lady in London, was found to make rderence to °a certain stranger," and to express surprise that he should "know more of deceased than he knew of himself." On the lady being asked to exploit. this remark addressed to Mr. Bluinhe sent the following extract from a letter written to her by that gentleman, under date of Tuesday, April 24 :--- I had a strange letter, from Leeds, from a stranger who is staying there on business. He corn as from Hamburg, and wishes to see me. As it is impossible for me .to go to Leeds until Saturday, I must consider in the meantime what to do. A strange" thing, Is it not ?" Mr. Blum was a German by birth, but had been brought up in England,. and could not even speak the German language. It is•surmised that upon the invitation of this "stranger" from Hamburg, Mr. Blum, without taking counsel from his friends at Bradford, started off on Saturday afternoon, the-28th.ult., to meet the stranger, that he thus fell into the toils of an assassin, and that ultimately, in a day or two after, in a lonely spot on 'the shores of the Mersey, he met with his doom from the hand of one who had, perhaps, an ulterior object to servein respect of property which may be diverted into another channel by the victim's death. N o letter from the stranger, however, has been found; and it is supposed that Mr. Blum would no doubt take that in his pocket, and when he was disposed of, the letter, like his gold watch, his purse, hat, &c., would be at the command of his murderer, who would, of course, at once destroy. it. Two detective officers from Liverpool arrived at, Bradford on Thursday afternoon.  + Stumm-- oi  zwrumL---tion----- Colonel HobbErleft Jatniicit for' England 141- the packet Tyne, but before :_arriving at St. Thomas he committed suicide
The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-01-27 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

WHOLESALE POISONING OF FOWLS AT SOUTHPORT.—On Saturday, at the Ormskirk county court, Howarth v. Tong came on for hearing. The, amount. claimed by the plaintiff was £49 15s. for damages which he alleged he had sustained in consequence of the defendant poisoning 66 of his fowls, and also for the price of 66 fowls at is. .6d. each. The parties concerned are neighbours. On the 24th September plaintiff let his fowls out, and on the morning after he found that eight of them were dead. Plaintiff let them out again on the Ist of October, and on the 2nd he found that several others had died, and they continued dying for a fortnight, until he had lost 66 of them. On the 28th of October plaintiff saw the defendant at Southport, and asked him if he had any poison, to which defendant replied, It serves you right, you should have kept then up. Plaintiff had had them analysed, and strychnine had been found in the bodies. The defendant denied ever having poisoned the fowls.—His Honour gave a verdict for the plaintiff, £25 damages, with costs.  (The following paragraphs were omitted in our last.)  The death is announced of Sir John Macgreggor, K.C.8., who was formerly inspectorgeneral of army hospitals, and honorary physician to the Queen. He was 74 years of age. John Hall, bricklayer, who recently attempted to murder his paramour, Susannah Hall, in Birmingham, and afterwards tried to commit suicide, was on Wednesday committed for trial. The births of 967 girls, in all 1928 children, were registered in London last week. The number of deaths registered during the week was 1506.  The six men charged with mutiny on board the Scotland were brought before Sir Thomas Henry at Bow-street on Wednesday. It appeared that the vessel had not yet arrived, and another adjournment was ordered. A few evenings since a man was discovered in the act of forcing a desk in a French railway station, and to prevent arrest he blew out his brains with a double-barrelled pistol. • A clerk in the booking-office of the Manchester,. Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway, at Grimsby Station, named Brady, has absconded, taking with him the whole of the proceeds of the sale of tickets on Saturday and the mid-day train on Sunday.
The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-10-27 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

MELANCHOLY SUICIDES AT PRESTON.—On Monday afternoon inquests were held on the bodies of Captain Anderton, of Highton Hall, near Preston, and Mr. W. W. Riley, solicitor, of Chapel-street, in that town, both of whom committed suicide on Saturday. Relative to Captain Andetton the evidence went to show that during the past fortnight he had been suffering from nervous prostration brought on by mental anxiety. Shortly before nine o'clock on Saturday morning Captain Anderton went down stairs into his private sitting-room, and in a few minutes after the report of a gun was  heard. Some of the servants ran into the room and found Captain Anderton lying on his back, with his head under a small writing desk. He was quite dead. The roof of the orbit of his head was shot away, and a portion of the right side of his brain was thrown upon the floor at some distance. Near him was a double barrelled gun belonging to his brother. One of the borrels was loaded ; the other had been exploded. There was also a small cane near the gun, and it is supposed he had pulled the trigger with it. The deceased, who was thirty-one years of age, held the commission of Captain in the Ist Lancashire Militia. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased c.mnmated suicide whilst in a state of temporary insanity. The deceased was highly respected in the district, and his unfortunate death has caused much sorrow in the locality. With reference to Mr. Riley, the evidence showed that he was connected with the Lancaster court of Common Pleas, and transacted legal business in connection with it; that four or five months ago it was proposed to transfer the business from Preston to Liverpool or Manchester; that the deceased became impressed with the idea that if this were done it would take a way his means of subsistence; that on Sunday morning he went to Mr. Eddleston, solicitor, on a very slight matter, stating that he thought it very complicated, and that before he left he said he was broken hearted, and afraid his mind was going. It was also proved that he afterwards went to the office of Messrs. Wilson and Deacon, the deputy under-sheriffs, where he gave up some legal documents regarding the transfer; that he then went into his own office, and after giving directions to his clerk not to cali him whoever came, took a rope out of a drawer, and went down into the cellar and hanged himself. The deceased gentleman was a Sunday-school teacher, and was highly respected not only in Preston but throughout the country. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased committed suicide whilst temporally insane.  Horniman's Pure Teas Rt E. SANSOM'S, Chemist, ilixdpool-read.  •  ,  .amINI■•
The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-03-31 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

BARROW HERALD, SATURDAY MARCH 31, 1866.  • EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE.—A SELF-MADE ! GUILLOTINE.— On Tuesday, a remarkable instance of self-destruction occurred in a small room attached to the basement of the Sussex Hotel, Bouverie-street, Fleet-street, London. It seems that for nearly two years a German named Vellens, by trade a carpenter, and of eccentric habits, had been lodging there. Of late his trade has served him but little, and his condition is reported to have been misdrable in the extreme. His absence for some days had been remarked by some of the other lodgers, and that morning the manager of the hotel determined on endeavouring to ascertain the cause. Accordingly, police-constable Gale was called in, and the door of the room in which the unfortunate man lived was forced. open, when a sickening spectacle presented itself. The lifeless body of the man was seen partially lying on a form, face upwards, with one leg hanging down, he head being nearly severed, the right hand clenching a razor. The floor was covered with dry clotted blood, from which it is supposed that the act was committed nearly a week since. The arrangements for effecting his own death must have taken deceased some time to accomplish. A wooden bedstead and a form were the chief articles of furniture in the room, in which was a small cupboard. The door of the cupboard was found open with the bedstead placed near it, the forms being fixed alongside. The poor fellow had employed a hatchet, used in his trade, in which he bored a hole, but findinc, the leverage not suited to his purpose, he made another higher up the handle. This he fixed to the bedpoast by a screw, and a piece of strong rope was then procured, to which was attached a heavy stone. The rope was then thrown over the cupboard door—the end being fastened on the one side and the stone hanging over the other. He must then have placed himself on his back on the form, raised the hatchet and put his head so as to meet it when it fell. In this position he cut the rope with the razor, and the stone falling on the hatchet his death must have been instantaneous, Before forcing open the door the constable tore down a piece of paper attached thereto, on which was written—` Saturday—Gone out; will not be in until the afternoon. Leave your address in the bar, please."
The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-11-03 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

MURDER AND SUICIDE NEAR HUDDERSFIELD.-011 Saturday night, George Earnshaw, a slubber, living at Swan-lane, Lockwood, near Huddersfield, attempted to destroy his two children—Ellen, aged 14 years, and Mary Ann, aged four years—under the most demoniacal circumstances. It appears that his wife had left home in the afternoon of Saturday, on a visit to her daughter at Dewsbury, and the only other person in Earnshaw's house besides herself and two children was a lodger, who had gone to bed. The children had also gone to bed, when at about a quarter-paht nine Earnshaw was left sitting on the hearth, a kettle of hot water being on the hob, with which he said he purposed bathing his Peet. About eleven o'clock the neighbours were aroused by cries from Earnshaw's house, and on admission being obtained it was found that he had tied a rope round his neck and was doing his utmost to strr,lo himself; but the cord was cut by one of the neighbours. The elder girl was scalded severely about the face and neck and the right arm of the younger child was badly scalded. Earnshaw, it is said, had poured the boiling water from the kettle into one of Ellen's ears, and the water appears to have run down on to one of Mary Ann's arms. Information was given to the police ; and on his way to the county police-station Earnshaw admitted that it was his intention to destroy his children by pouring boiling water in their ears, and then commit suicide. Earnshaw had himself partaken of a quantity of the hot water, and his throat and mouth are said to be dreadfully injured. He was removed to the Infirmary, where he now lies in a precarious condition. The children are being attended by medical men. The man appears to be perfectly sane, and why he should have perpetrated such a deed is most inexplicable.  When an important article of domestic consumption commands a lasting preference, it is evident that its intrinsic value is highly prized by the public. To this cause is attributed the unequalled demand of Horniman's Pure Tea; which preference, we submit, is a further confirmation of the fact, that "the public are real judges of good tea." Horniman and Co., from highly favourable imports, together with the recent reduction in the duty, are enabled to lower their prices Bd. per pound; that is, about twenty per cent. cheaper to the consumer, and the quantity passed for duty, as published by the Custom House, shows, in consequence of this reduction, a consumption hitherto imparalellerl in the annals of the tea trade. This marked preference has attracted a host of copyists ; the public will do well to observe that all genuine packets bear the signature " Hornirnan and Co., London," original importers of Pure Tea. Agents in every town, and those in the district are advertised in our columns.—Advt.  Prescriptions and Family Recipes, accurately prepared at E. SA.Nsoks, Chemist, Hindpoolroad.
The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-11-03 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

SUSPECTED MTJ ER AT 11,9 C HD ALE. —On .Iforiday, at the Rochdale police-court, Bridget Elliugworth,- Mary Leaney, and Thomas lieape were charged with having caused the death of Mary Mllowny. Ellingworth keeps a disreputable lodging-house, and the deceased, the prisoner Leaney, and a' witnesa named Smith lived-there. Last Sunday week, the deceased who was 26 years old, came home in the evening in a state of drunkenness, and went ups'airs with some man. After the man had lc. t: house Leaney and Hea,pe, who is a married man, also went upstairs. After they came down the deceased was found lying on the floor with a large wound on the left side of her head, from w,rich injury she soon died. Smith deposed to having overheard Leaney tell Ellingworth that when he and she went up stair the deceased persisted in stayire, on the bed, in consequence of which she staying struck her a heavy blow with a candlestick. Thomas Mills, who was brought up for neglect of family, was recognised by the prisbner Heap() as the person who went upstairs with the deceased, and he was also detained in custody. 8 INGMAR ATTEMPTED SUICIDE OF AN OFFicER.—On Monday morning an inquest was held at the Loudon Hospital on the body of Major Thomas Clark, aged 43 years. From the evidence of the brother of the deceased it appeared that he was a Major in the 24th. :Regiment of Foot, and recently came to England on leave. As the expiration of his leave approached he expressed apprehensions that he should die if he returned to India. He became subject to great mental excitement in consequence, and Dr- Allingham was consulted. Dr. Alliughain deposed that he found the deceased was not in a fit state to be left alone. He remained with deceased in the drawing room pending the arrival of a keeper who he had sent for. Deceased kept walking up and down the room in an excited state, arid suddenly rushed to the window and leaped out. The doctor cauzlit hold of his legs, but subsequently changed his hold to the coat tails in consequence of the unfortunate man kicking so violently. The coat, however, " peeled ' off his back and he fell to the pavement. He was removed to the hospital suffering from a broken arm.. He went on well at first. Upon the slightest thing being said to him ho used to become most excited. He used to say " I wish I was dead." lie expired on the 28th inst. A post-mortem examination proved that he had got over the shock to the system which he had received. The cause of death waa severe bronchitis accelerated by the fall.
The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-03-17 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

SHOCKING SUICIDE AT NEWTON, NEAR DALTON.  Yesterday an inquest was held at Page Bank, in the patish of Aldinghain, before Dr. Hall. deputy coroner, on view of the body of George Jackson, labourer, of Newton, near Leece. The jury having viewed the body, the first witness called was  Elizabeth Backhouse, who said: The deceased was my stepfather, and he was about 54 years of age. He has been unwell since the latter end of January, having had an attack of tyhus fever, but was getting better, when his wife (my mother) was attacked and is now bedfast, which has made him in a low desponding way. On Wednesday morning last he seemed more unsettled than usual, and kept going in and out of the house, and lighting his pipe very frequently. About twenty minutes past ten o'clock he went out and remained longer than usual. I went into the lane and fields to look for him, but I could not see him. About four o'clock I went to look in the pig-stye for a hen, when I saw him lying on his back. I called out "George," but he never spoke. I then took hold of his leg and shook him, but he did not stir. I then ran to Page Bank, and fetched Joseph and Edward Backhouse, and they came with me, and pulled him out of the pig-stye. I then saw his throat was cut, and he was • covered with blood. He was quite dead.. Joseph Blackburn, sworn, said: I reside at Page Bank and am a farmer, . About 4 o'clock on Wednesday last the last witness came to out house and something was wrong with George Jackson. I immediately went to the house along with my brother. We found Jackson in the pig stye. He pulled him out and then found his throat was cut, and he was covered with blood. I sent my brother to Leece for a Policeman, and Miller came. I saw the policeman pick up an open razor near, where the deceased lay, and it was covered with blood. R. Miller said that berween 4 and 5 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon the 14th inst. He received information that a man had cut his throat at Newton. He went then and fonud Joseph Jackson the deceased lying on his back with his throat cut and quite dead. He examined the pig stye and found the razor produced just as it appears now, covered with blood. And this morning I searched his pockets by order of Serjeant Massey, and found the razor case now prnduced. There was nothing else of any importance in his peckets. I have no suspicion that any one besides himself cut his throat.  A verdict in accordance with the evidence was returned.
The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-01-13 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

EXECUTION OF THE WOLVERHAMPTON MURDERER.— Charles Christopher Robinson was executed at eight o'clock on Tuesday, morning in front of Stafford Gaol, for the murder of his sweetheart,. Harriet Seager, at Wolverhampton, on the 26th August last. The circumstances connected with the crime for which Robinson suffered were these : He lost his mother when he was six years of age, and was then entrusted to the guardianship of Mr. Josiah Fisher, of 'Albion-street, Wolverhampton. In Mr. Fisher's house a young girl, a relative of the Fishers, nineteen years of age, named Harriet Seager, lived, and betwe en him and this girl a courtship had sprung up. On the 26th of August Mr. and Mrs. Fisher went out for a drive, leaving young Robinson and Harriet Seager in the house. While they were thus left alone, it appears by the evidence subsequently adduced, and by Robinson's own admission, he cut the girl's throat with a razor. He afterwards attempted to cut his own throat with the same weapon. Since his condemnation a number of Robinson's relatives and friends have visited him in gaol. The interviews were of a very distressing character, the murderer himself being on each occasign the least effected. As the hour approached for the execution, numbers of people began to crowd the thoroughfares in the neighbourhood of the scaffold. • The crowd, which was not nearly so numerous as on similar previous occasions, was, on the whole, remarkably well conducted. Thc culprit slept soundly for about four hours, and between four and five o'clock the sacrament was administered to him, after which he said "if they knew all they would be sorry for me." Shortly before eight o'clock the wretched man, having been pinioned without betraying any emotion or making any observation, left his cell supported by one of the turnkeys, and escorted by the two chaplains, Mr. Hand, the Under-sheriff, and the prison officials, proceeded towards the drop. The usual preliminaries were speedily gone through, and the bolt was drawn, The murderer seemed to suffer terribly, owing probably to his being of short stature and slightly built, together with the fact of the knot having been adjusted at the back of his neck instead of under the ear, in consequence of the wounds on his neck and throat caused by his attempts to commit suicide with a I azor. The body having hung the allotted period was cut down and removed into the interior of the prison, where it was interred.  John Stackhous:V Esq., of Millom, has been appointed magist -ate for the county of aCumberland.  RETURN OF LAD/ EGERTON TO HOLKER ln of Lord and Lady 11