Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1882-07-29 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

NOT GUILTY ON THE GROUND OF INSANITY..  At the Dorthester Assizes before Lord justice Lindley, Joseph James Kingsford, alias Henry WHOA, SS, was charged' with tbe wilful murder of Dennis Kiley, at Code Cootie, on May 29. Mr. W. Molerworth St. Aubyn and Mr. Budge prosecuted; Mr. Charles Mathews defended the ;prisoner at the request of the learned Judge. The prisoner and the deemed were travelnne hawkers. On May 27 and 28 they loked at a bones in Swann's. About nine a.m. on May 29, they started off on the road to Code Cleetle. A man named Seymour saw there returning towards Swanage abont.thiee ; they were wrangling, - and the prisoner Weak the deceased with his fist. Seymour interfered, when the prisons, said be would "do " for the deceased "by-and-by." Between three and four, Snook, a carpenter at Code, hearing a noise, looked out of his workshop, and saw the prisoner sitting on the grass, about twenty yards off, and heard him say he would "do " far the deceased by-and.by. No one else was there then, but about a quarter of -an hour later the deceaeed came up, and the twe were heard quarrelling. They then proceeded oa the road,towassie Swanage,,the prisoner being about tea yarde lt front. Ths, deceased want off Ms road and lay .down op the grail sear a stabs wall. He lay down tat ,witti.hiejsce downwars;tkiesting on his hands. The be& ot,bio 4441674= and his hat was off. The Wegner looked saw him lying thus; he rpm forward about tin,yereis,. took a stone from the.wall,..asid rot-mini-to mhos* the demiated was lying. Ile held stratoor botli Amidst above his head, and thaw It with lids. two, ea* the back ef the deceased's. heeds e picked ft np again with both hands, and hit the deceased en the head with it several times., ,The ,witn.4l.F4ll but one Smith had got there Ards end they teeX Mil _Prisoner to the police. As they were going to thi policestation, in reply to a remark that he had killed the man, the primmer said, "It served him well right." The deceased was the worse for drink, and the prisoner had been drinking. Smith was called, and gave a similar account to Oast given by the witness Snook, he having been looking out of a window in a hones at Corfs Castle, and having been the first to dem the prisoner after the attack upon the deceased. The deceased man was taken to a publichouse in Corte Castle, where he died within five minutes. When charged by the policeman, the prisoner *aid, "U he is dead, he Is dead; he will die but once; I did give him a crack on the head with a stone, and I am only sorry it was note bigger one. What I am saying b quite true ; I tare only known him a fortnight, and I would do the same to any man who tried to beet me." The stone was produced, and weighed 141 b. ; it fitted into a hole in the wall from which Wised been taken. The Medical evidence showed that death had resulted from the injuries to the head. The prisoner the same night was-seen- by - tba doctorochet in aroseexamination, -said he thought, tim ,suffering from delirium tremens as-he was very-axe:flied- and his pules was at 140. He admitted the aosuracy of some remarks in "Taylor's ?dedioal Jurisprudence" on hereditary insanity and homicidal and concurred in them from his own experience.  The surgeon of the gaol, Mr. Good, gave it as his I opinion that the prisoner was perfectly sane. He had had him under his inspection Aimee June 2. r The Governor of the gaol, Captokin Frith, stated that he thought the priaoner'smind wadi unhinged, and this view was also adopted by, Mr. Raikes, the gaol chaplain, who had seen the prisoner more often than any one else. They spoke of a constant twitching of the prisoner's face, an irritability of meaner, and other eyruptoms, which the doctor from Cork on being recalled, said were all consistent with insanity. _  A nun named Brockman, living at Ramsgate, was Galled, and said that the prisoner's mother was connected with his Wife, and that her mind had been deranged On three aconsions she had attempted suicide; a keeper had been eawloyed to look after her, and she was ultimately removed to a lunatic asylum, from which she was subsequently released, but finally had to be sent to the lunatic ward of the Ramegate Work. house, where she died. This witness also proved that the father and mother of the prisoner's mother bad both died in lunatic asylums. He also stated that the prisoner's mind had never been right, and that housed to be kniown by the nick.name el "Mad Joe" when he lived at Ramagate. • 1., * _ _  A former employer of the prisoner at Ramsgate said he had always been very peculiar, so much so that he had to oischarge him. He oonaidered his brain was ideated. This was when the prisoner was a youth. The prisoner's eldest brother was called, and stated that the prisoner's mind was never right. A very long statement made by the prisoner before the magistrates was put in and read, in which he said he had killed the deceased because he would not share "the books and money" with. him. Mr. Charles Mathews then addressed the jury, eon. tending that the prisoner was insane. The jury, in the result, found the prisoner Not uiU, on the ground of insanity, and he was ordered to be detained during Her Majesty's pleasure.