The Sun. — 1863-11-11 (London, England)

MURDER IN LIVERPOOL.  On Monday afternoon a number of bailifs and others interested in the sale of furniture were assembled in the auction room of Mr. Archibald Ballantine, 44, Byrom-street, where a sale was about to take place. Among those present were Wm. Tarr, a bailiff in the employ of Mr. Ballantine, and several other bailiffs, including John Brannan, Michael M'Kenzie, and James Carney, and a woman named Eliza Davies, who resides in No. 2 Court, Beresford-street. It appears that the bailiffs have a practice of casting lots for a job when one turns up, and about the time referred to several of them were taking their chances in this way, and ameng,et them was Branuan, who was unsuccessful, and seemingly annoyed. Some angry words passed between him and Tarr, when Brennan struck Tarr a violent blow behind one of his ears with his flit, and repeated the blow with the same amount or violence, when Tarr fell down in the shop in an insensible state. Brannan then walked quietly out of the shop, none present offering the slightest impediment to his departure, and the last that was seen of him was when he was going up Byrom-street from the shop where he had knocked Tarr down. Seeing that Tarr was in a dangerous state, one of the persons in the -hop went to Great Crosshall-street for Dr. Whittle. That gentlemen not being in, his assistant attended on the injured man, but his services were of no avail, as Tarr died in a few minutes after the assistant's arrival. It is a remarkable circumstance that, although there were several persons who witnessed the affair and saw Brannan leave the shop, the police were not informed of it until the unfortunate man Tarr was dead, when police-constable 149, who was on duty in the neighbourhood, was called in and told what had occurred. Dr. Whittle himself called at the shop, and saw that the man was dead. He made an examination of the body, but did not give any opinion as to what had been the cause of death. The body of the deceased was then removed to his house in Hope-court, Cartwright-place, at the corner of which latter place the shop of Mt. Ballantine stands. The deceased has left a widow and two children. The man Brannan  we believe, is unmarried. He is a man very well known, but has only recently returned from America, where he had been for about seven years. He is said to have been in the Confederate army, to have been wounded while in that service, and to have been in the hospital at New Orleans when that  city fell into the hands of the Federal troops. He is described as a man of about 28 or 30 years of age, and about sft. 10in, in height, with a long face, sallow complexion, high cheek bones, no whiskers, straight brown hair, and stoops a little.  IISTRESSING SUICIDE,  Yesterday Dr. Lankeater, the coroner for Central Middlesex, held an inquest at University College Hospital touching the death of a boy named William Frederick Knapton, aged 13 years, who came by his death under very painful circumstances. The first witness examined was Charlotte Knapton, who stated that she was wife of Thomas Knapton, a pianoforte-maker, living at No. 7, Fitzroy-row, Easton. road. The deceased was her son. He was a boy-of very violent disposition. On Friday last he threw a fork at one of his sisters, and it stuck in her back. His father threatened to chastise him if he committed any similar act in future. On Saturday, when the family were at dinner, his father being absent at the time, he threw a piece of bread at one of his sisters. She was drinking out of a cup, and the bread struck the cup, breaking it, and causing it to cut the girl's month. Mrs. Knapton remonstrated with the boy, and ordered him to leave the room. He then went out and sat on the stairs. One of her daughters said he ought to be ashamed of his conduct, and in reply he abused tier, after which he ran up to a bedroom and slammed the door after him. As it was his custom to lie down on a bed and sleep off his bad temper, his mother thought that he was acting in accordance with that habit, and she prevented one of his younger brothers from disturbing him. She then left the house for the purpose of visiting a neighbour with whom she had business, but was recalled in a few minutes by the screams of her children. On going up to the bedroom she found the deceased boy hanging by a cord from a hook behind the door. She lifted him off, and afterwards cut the cord and conveyed him in a cab to the University College Hospital, but he showed no signs of life when she removed him from the hook, assd he was certainly quite dead on her arrival at the hospital. Emma Knapton, daughter of the last witness, corroborated her mother's testimony, and added that it was she who discovered the body hanging from the hook behind the door. When her mother left to visit her neighbour one of her little brothers told her that he wanted something in the bedroom, but was unable to open the door. She then forced the door open, and found that it had been fastened with a pair of pincers. Dr. Sydney Ringer, resident medical officer of University College Hospital, stated his opinion that deceased had been dead a quarter of an hour before his admission. Unsuccessful endeavours to restore respiration were made for three-quarters of au hour after. The coroner, in summing up the evidence, said this was the most painful case that had ever come before him. Every one who nad heard the facts and had witnessed the mother's grief must sympathise with that poor woman. The only comfort he could offer her was contained in the reflection that if a boy of such violent temper had lived to a more advanced age it was very probable he would have taken life inflicted serious personal injury on anotker person, and so havF. :ed h e broughtewas :i w disgrace on a respectable family, i db yhci which, oh, t perhaps accountable to Gode fhoardthdeehpry deed in a moment of madness, he of life. The jury found that the deceased had committed suicide while in an unsound state of mind,