The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette. — 1862-04-15 (Dorchester, Dorset, England)

LAW AND CRIME.  STEAM:HI StoRY.--Ou Thursday, George John Whitehead, • tall well-built man of 32, who lu lost one of his orals, was charged before Me. Knox, upon his own confession, with murdering his wife, at the Wership-street Police Coort. Lidiard, 340 N, stated, that while ca duty at the Hackney statism at a quarter to 2 that morning, the prisoner knocked at the door. On being admitted, he paid, "I have mine here to give myself up for the oeminiadon of a very serious offence." Witness asked him what the offence was, and he replied, "I stabbed my wife about • month ago at Guildford with a knife, and she died, and I have had no peace of mind sinew." He seemed perfectly sober. Sergeant Ensaine, 25 N, said that the prisoner was brought to him by the last witness. He said that he wished to give himself up for killing his wife. Alter he had been cautioned he stated that be eommitted the act four weeks ago on a Wednesday. Ha at that time went to Guildford, and discovered that his wife, hlsmaret Matilda, was living with a Captain—at the Railway Tavern, lie went into a bedroom, and, finding his .if. and the captain in bed together, he took up • carrier knife from the table, stabbed her in the chest with it, . . . .  and killed her. The captain and he then agreed to hush the affair up, and bury the body, so that the bh" I took some *cable to see the seutot4.,,oolthtr nubile might think she had committed suicide. Re was 9: Chinese use ter'faoe' tee." ivrifeg _dlr. Mk; (pap induced logo to Guildford, be added, in consequent* el to).hinh6.ll/9 knee Iket bisitlett/ftffartss., purposely his wife hawing left him abont nine or ten &Ye. .. 1 OW dfialtereeof admired * itiTatiland. Islyil-qttaa- Witness took down this statement, end, the prisoner tay of Pretrial blue 'add jippludy they Imbibe. 'TO 161 having simied it, was detained. The prhomr here said P"ndt a let, the amikraiir at the tilingpane. appUed that he did make the statement the last witness rather more that, 'oeie Attie Y the ;74f 67,,Pleged princi I to Auk Ike fisottartess foundation whatever for it. Sergesnt.tdajoe Platt, of ow,„,Zinf',l; 4ul , Ottgritt, and ;re tit!, colour ; the Corps of Commissionaires, deposed to the prisoner ~„ " ...?" whott,_ ." . /ref 'hr . itusegl, the ' eon- Joining that corm in August, 1869, when he was pieced CO clijuke ukoie than li Nu=pnvid of Pros- on duty at the South-Western Railway terminus. where wan blue h • ta "t° "Pltlal, cOdidlyintil of tea, his londaot was irreproachable, and he was afterwards Yet, tell the dUnriltlf itdo * that ihe;Chtpese transferred to another station. Hifi conduct thee eat 'cat and doge, and they will Solilii ',heti ba. In seemed to change altogether; he was guilty of drunkya.,...'"'"lnen4, "41146Y-tive- peer to-Osa oozier and other misconduct, and wm at last summarily umeoloi. - tines M."; Published th above „work &solo- dismissed the force. The witness added that be (the Mug eOis cl Otit/114Adt 11414#‘011. _ prisoner) had • wife, whom Ise had see* in October, lecluntlY have far - when she WAS about to p, be believed, to Dahlia. the Pure ' *v*l,o s.l "• . ' ' 1' Although laopeogor Bowler's wridowa was aal - • -........ . - '...-) t.,,,,... . , "N'. . •  •  taken, it may he slated that. having learnt the prisoner had a sister living in Jeresalele-gardens, Hackney, he went there and saw her. She told hint that her brother, the prisoner, had been there at three o'clock that morning, and had had 1111 interview with her husband, which, however, she Was not present at. The inspector then proceeded to the address given by the prisoner, namely, the Commissionaire Barracks, in Exchntwe-court, Strand, l'here he hail a conversation with Mijor Brett, who told him that Whitehead had joined them as a teetotaller, and until removed to Cork his conduct was unexceptionable. That on being sent back, Captain Walters, chief of the commissioners, gave bun another trial, and that lie remained until Monday, when he was discharged for drunkenness. Several of the wen in the barracka ineutioned a strange circumstance, namely, that Whitehead had litely spoken of Ilia wife thus : " Nobody knows where she is—nobody can find her." An examination of the coinmisaionaire's books showed another remarkable inci. dent, namely, that Whitehead was absent on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of March ; the first-mentioned being the date when the self-accuser averred that the deed was done. The prisoner had been, by his own statement to the inspector, nine years and eight months a quarternese:ter. in the Royal navy, and lust his arm at the captnte of Rangoon, in Berm iii, when he retired front the service on is pension of Is. 2d. a day. He was married, on the 6th of January, 1854. at the Old Chsrlton church, to Margaret Matins. Adams. She, after his appointment at one of the stations on the South-Weatern line, obiained a situat'on in a first-elass waiting.room at Guildford ice an attendant, and there, he seserta, she first became acquainted with —. She left her husband suddenly, and he knew not her whereabouts until the receipt of a letter confidentially stating that she was cohabiting with a person at the Railway Tevern spoken of, upon which he starta.d off, and entered the tavern about six o'clock on the 12th of March ; that the body was buried on the Saturday; and that he returned to the barracks on Monday. This date also tellies with the accounts there kept. He was remanded.