The Potteries Examiner : — 1877-03-03 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

MURDER AND SUICIDE IN BIRMINGHAM. LVERDICT OF "POLO DE at"] Mr. Hawkes, borough coroner, held an inquest en Tuesday afternoon, at the Queen's Hospital, touching the death of John Nicholson, about 30 years of age, grocer, of Louth, Lincolnshire, who murdered Mary Fantham, with whom he lived in a house of ill-fame, in Navigation Street, and then committed suicide, on Friday sight week.—The coroner, in summing up, pointed out that there was nothing in the evidence to show that the deceased was of unsound mind, or that he was not in any way rational. On the contrary, the facts tended to prove that the act of homicide and self-destructiou was deliberate, and not done in the heat of passion. In the face of this evidence he could not ask the jury to In violence to their oaths, for if they came to the conclusion that deceased killed himself whilst in full posse-sion of his faculties, then the act was a felony, and an offence against the laws of God and the country. , —The jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of "Polo de se."—TheCoroner,in receiving the verdict, said he should give directions to have the &ceased interred in theceinetery at Witton that night after sunset. —ln accordance with the instructions of the borough coroner the arrangements were carried out with great , despatch and proprietyby Inspector Willis, the coroner's ' I chief officer, assisted by Strgeant Gosling. Between I nine and ten o'clock the body of the deceased, having ' been decently prepared in the mortuary of the Queen's ! Hospital, was placed in a deal coffin. This receptacle ' for the dead was not elaborately padded and trimmed in ! the orthodox fashion, although there was some slight ornamentation on the lid, in the centre of which WM a plate, hearing the name and age of the deceased, and the date of his death. The funeral cortege consisted of a hearse and one mourning coach, each with two horses, and se the vehicles were drawn up in front of the institution few persons were attracted; but the news of the event quickly spread in the neighbourhood, and a large crowd collected. There was no mourners to follow the unfortunate man to the grave, for his friends, even if they knew of the burial, did not put in an appearance, and it is stated that his aged father, who came to Birmingham to attend the inquest, left town "broken-hearted." The hearse, followed by a mourning coach, with the coroner's officers, reached the cemetery about eleven o'clock, and the subordinates of the superintendent were not a little astonished at the sudden and unexpected arrival of the cortege at that unreasonable hour of the night, for there hail been no time to give them notice. However,aft,cr some little explanation, one of the gravediggers was aroused, and after a lap-e of ten minutes the hoarse and its burden were admitted to the cemetery. The driver of the hearse was about to direct the heads of his horses as if mechanically towards the church, hut he was reminded that " the parson would be dispensed with to-night." On a space in the unconseerated ground were some hundreds of graves having no tombetones, but small stakes, bearing numbers painted in black. In the front of these were some twenty-four ready-dug graves, and before one of these j the coffin was placed. Mr. Willis then handed the ' aerlifieate of the coroner, "authorising the burial of John Nicholson, as felo.dc.., after sunset," to Mr. W. A. Aston, the general superintendent of the cemetery, I and the remains of the suicide were hastily lowered into the grave be the us lertakee and his assistant. The coroner's officer and the undertaker threw a handful of soil upon the coffiu, and fern few moments a deep silence I revelled, which was broken by the sexton observing to ! one of those present, "Go'! forbid, sir, that you or I I should come to be buried like this." The greatest decorum was observed.  . , HORRIBLE STORY OF CANNIBALISM i