Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1886-08-07 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

DISCOVERY OF A STARED  SKTILETON.  In excavating a trench for the purpose of laying a main for the Commercial Gas Company the workmen of Messrs John Aird and Sons a few days ago made a remarkable discovery. At a point where the Cannon-street-road and Cablestreet, in St. George's-in-the-East, cross one another, and at a depth of six feet below the surface, they discovered the skeleton of a man with a stake driven through it, and some portions of a chain were lying in close proximity, to the bones. The Citizen says—" The presence of such an object naturally caused discussion in the neighbourhood, and with the aid Of some of the oldest inhabitants, whose recollection carried them back three-quarters of a century, the person whose remains heve thus so strangely been brought to light is, by common consent, declared to be the principal in some tragic ma carrenoes which took place at the close of the year 1811, and of which we will endeavour to give our readers a brief outline. Shortly before twelve o'clock on Saturday night, Dec. 8, in that year, the servant of a, Mr Mart, a silk mercer, residing at 29, Ratelifthighway, was sent out to purchase some oysters and to pay a bill. On her return—in about twenty minutes—it then being Sunday morning—she was unable to gain admittance to the house, the shutters being closed, the door fastened, and all the lights being out. With the aid of Mr Murray, who lived next door, an entrance was obtained through the back door, which was open, and it was then discovered that the whole of the inmates of the house had been murdered. They consisted of Mr and Mrs Mart, their infant child, aged fourteen weeks, and an apprentice named james Gohen, aged fourteen years. The two former had not been married two years, and were each wider twenty-five years of age, and apparently nothing Vq.B taken from the house, for cash to the amount of nearly £IP was found in a tin box, or on the person of Kr Marr. The murderers left behind a large shipwright's maul or mallet, the head weighing two or three poands, and the handle being about three feet long, an iron chisel eighteen inches long, and a wooden mallet about four inches square, with a handle of about eighteen inches in length. These were the only traces left with which to unravel the mystery, the_perpetrators having left the house by the back door on to a piece of write ground belonging to the London Dock Company. So things remained until Thursday night, Dec. 19, between eleven and twelve o'clock, when the neighbourhood of New Gravel-lane was alarmed by a cry of ' Murder ' at No. 81, the King's Arms public-house, and a man quite naked was seen descending from a second floor window by the aid of [wine sheets knotted together. His name was Turner. He lodged in the house, and his evidence was to the effect that after having gone up stairs to bed he heard a cry, We shall all be murdered,' which induced him to cautiously go down again, and looking through the glass window of the tap-room he saw s powerful man, 6ft. high, dressed in a drab, shaggy bearskin coat, stooping over the body of Mrs Williamson, the landlady, apparently rifling her pockets; he then returned to his bedroom and let himself down from the window. The front door having been broken open, it was discovered that Mr Williamson had been murdered in the cellar, and the servant girl was lying dead by the side of her mistress, the vacant piece of land belonging to the Dock Company having evidently again been used by the murderers to escape. Strong evidence induced the authorities to apprehend an Irish sailor named John Williams, alias Murphy, who lodged at a public-house called the Pear Wee, kept by Mrs Vermilloe, and at which house there had been left by John Paterson, s ship's carpenter, a chest of tools. The maul found in the house where the first murder was committed was identified as belonging to this set of tools, and a woman who had washed Murphy's linen stated that a shirt of his was bloody and torn when it came into her bands. There was other evidence pointing to him as the murderer, or, at all events, one of the murderers, supposing he had accomplices, and he was remanded to Goldbath Fields Prison. On Dec. 27, upon his cell being opened, it was discovered he had hanged himself with his pocket-handkerchief, and it is believed the remains now discovered at the croes-roads are those of this unmitigated scoundrel. There were strong suspicions against two men, friends of the suicide, named Aliblass and Hart, as being implicated with him in these. murders, but we believe after several examinations they were discharged, the evidence against them being too weak for conviction. But as regards Williams, alias Murphy, there. is no doubt he was ju_stiy anaccrovertwhheee' iv4aung.ce The story rhyinliebeinttertinagg from more points than one, combining, as it does,. barbarous mn:::lers of unexampled atrocity, and a barbarous custom then in vogue. when a corooaes jury returned a verdict of fele de se."  A DVICE TO MoTHERS.—Are you broken In your rest by a sick child suffering with the pain of cutting teeth? do at ones to a chemist and get a bottle of kiss Winnow's Soctrwuto