Glasgow Courier. — 1857-12-15 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

HORRIBLE MURDER AND SUICIDE. On Saturday morning an inquest was held at the Wheat Sheaf Tavern, Thornton Heath, before the coroner for Surrey, Mr Canter, on the bodies of Mrs Mary Smithers, a lady of independent property, and her two sons, William aged 33, and Charles, aged 18. The death of Mrs Sinithers and her youngest son, Charles, had been caused by poison, administered by William, who afterwards committed suicide by the name means. The facts of the melancholy and distressing affair were as follows :—For some years past the deceased lady and her two sons occupied the house 49, Thornton Heath, and the family were remarkable for the love and affection which seemed to subsist between them. William Holton, the elder son, has been a clerk in the Bank of England, and Charles has been engaged in the factory of Mr Burnett, engineer, at Deptford. William had been remark. able for his steadiness and general deportment, until very recently, when, unfortunately, a total change came ever him, and recently he had been known to drink brandy to excess. This change, there Gan be no doubt, has been occasioned by his becoming a speculator on 'Change, and the ill-luck which attended these speculations. His losses were considm able, and from some wipers found it appeared that assignments were prepared for the disposal of some life policies, and also a bill for £lOO for acceptances. It had been his (William's) custom to sleep loan stairs, but for some cause or other, he for several nieht preceding the occurrence, slept with his brother on the first floor—s proceeding objected to by his mother, a ho insisted on his resting in hisown bed. On Wednesday night the unfortunate lady called out to her younger sm, and asked •if William had gone to his own roam?' and the answer, though not true, wits in the affirmative. Nothing, however, occurred on that night to excite suspicion or alarm; the mother and brothers went to bed as usual, and on the following morning, about seven o'clock, the female servant, having waited some time beyond the usual period at which the family came to breakfast, went to the bedroom of Charles, and listened for a moment or so, but hearing no noise, she pushed the door open, and the first thing which caught her view was the face of her young master, with a dark froth about the mouth and nostril,. The sight so alarmed her that she returned from the room, and at once ran to the house next door for assistance. Returning with the servant maid, they entered the bedroom, where they found both the brothers perfectly lifeless, and a phial and a wine glass on the foot of the bed. The servant of Mrs Smithers summoned resolution and proceeded to her mistress's bed-room on the sante floor, and on entering it she found the unfortunate lady quite dead. She lay on the bed with her head resting on her right hand, the bed perfectly unruffled. It also appeared from the evidence that Mrs Smithers had been ailing for some days, end that her son Wildam had been in the habit of giving her the medicine prescribed for her illness, and by this means had been enabled to give her tbe fatal dose which must in a moment have terminated her existence, and that the fatal drug must have been poured into the mouth of the youth Charles while he lay on his back, and that the sudden shock to the circulation had caused the froth about the month and nostrils. The quantity of Prussic acid taken by the unfortunate murderer himself was no great that his death was immediate.