npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1875-10-16 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SHOCKING OCCURRENCE AT BRIERLEY HILL.  A painful sensation was created in Brierley fill Police Court, on Monday, when it came known that during the proceedings a priscaer had committed suicide in an adjoining cell. At about midday Police-constable Holland left the Court for the purpose of bringing into the dock a prisoner named Thomas Pearson (40), carpenter, and a native of North Wales. When he entered the cell he found Pearson lying motionless upon the floor, with his head in one corner and his feet near the door. An alarm was raised, and Mr. J. H. Houghton (Dudley) and Mr. Hodgson (Cradley Heath), surgeons, who happened to be in attendance as witnesses, at once left the Court ; but-upon Examining the lean, they pronounced life extinct. Around the neck of the deceased was a narrow piece of sacking torn from that which is used in the cell as a pillow. Another piece was hanging from the grating of the ventilator, near the ceiling of the cell. Deceased had evidenty jumped from the cell closet, and it is surmised that the sacking broke after death had ensued. It appears that some time ago Pearson obtained a situation under Mr. Edward Lucas, landlord of the Whittington Inn. Kinver. He worked for a month, and on the 20th September was seen upstairs, under auspicious circumstances. Ile left the premises, and Mrs. Lucas afterwards missed a cash-box, containing 1:25. On the 4th October he returned to the Inn, and information was given to Sergeant Stevenson, who arrested him. On Monday week he was brought before the magistrates and remancied. Inquiries were subsequently made respecting him at Lougton, where his wife and family .reside', and it was ascertained there was another warrant against him for stealing a quantity of brasses on the Ist October from the Lane End Ironworks, belonging to Messrs. Thomas Goddard and Sons. He was also " wanted " for other ofiences. Police-constable Lowe and John Bland, foreman at Messrs. Goddard's works, came to Brierley Hill on Monday morning as witnesses in the charge of stealing brasses. They asked to go into the call for the purposes of identifying the prisoner. When they inquired if he knew them htt became pale, dropped his head, and turned away. The cell was visited afterwards by Police-sergeant Rienarda. who saw nothing about Pearson to create suspicion; but in twenty minutes, however, the other officers found him dead. An inquest was held on the body. at the Bell Hotel Brierley Hill on Wednesday, before Mr. Phillips, Coroner, and a verdict, of felo de se was returned, auct the body was interred at midnight.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1875-10-02 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

REMARKABLE CASE OF SOMNAMBULISM.  A remarkable case of somnambulism is reported from Great Bend, Pennsylvania. An old gentleman named Stephen Howe, highly respected by his neighbours and fellow-citizens, but suffering from dropsy and in a most feeble condition, was missed by his wife on the morning of the 23rd ult., when she awoke. To add to her anxiety, the clothes he had worn on the previous day were lying where he had placed them on retiring to rest, and it was feared that he had dragged himself somewhere and committed suicide to get rid of his sufferings. Mrs. Howe, after thoroughly searching the house, proceeded to the barn, the door of which she found open, and a look inside revealed the fact that the horse also had disappeared during the night. Mrs. Howe immediately aroused a neighbour, Mr. Schouten, ~who, on examining the ground, found horses tracks leading to the road in the direction of a village called Harpersville. Another neighbour named Pintz coming to Schouten's assistance, the two started to follow up the horse's tracks, and see whether they were in any way connected with the disappearance of the old gentleman. The horse was traced to Harrersville and from thence to other villages, the trail being kept as far as Colesville, Broome County, where it led to a house in the village and stopped. Inside the house was found Mr. Howe, who had arrived there on horseback at six in the morning with only his night clothing on. On entering the house Mr. Howe had said, "I am very tired, and want to go to sleep," and it being apparent that he was in a state of somnambulism, he was at once put to bed. When Schouten and Pintz arrived he was still fast asleep, but soon awakened, and expressed much surprise on being told where he was. He had no recollection of anything since retiring to bed the night before. He was carried home in a waggon none the worse for his unconscious ride, but, on the contrary, much the better, for by latest accounts he was more nimble and active than he had been for many years, and, moreover, feels "exceedingly well," though rather stiff.— Pall Mall Gazette.  'A Canadian Indian has accomplished the feat of running twelve miles an hour. His wile chased him the first two, however.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1875-03-06 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUICIDE OF AN OXFORD UNDERGRADUATE. On Saturday afternoon an undergraduate of University College, Oxford, Mr. William Ernest Keats, who only matriculated last Term, left his rooms after luncheon with the object, as was supposed, of taking a walk. At seven o'clock in the evening the Master of University received intelligence that his body had been found on the London and North-Western Railway, at Goiford, a few miles from Oxford, in a frightfully mutilated state. In his pocket was found a few hastily-written lines, directing that his remains should be borne to University College.  The inquiry respecting the death of Mr. Keates was held on llonday afternoon by one of the University coroners, Mr. F. Symonds, in the hall of University College. john Lee, an engine-driver on the London and North-Western Railway Company's line, said he drove the 2.30 train from Oxford to Bletchley on Saturday, the 27th of February. About four miles from Oxford he saw the deceased on the up line about 50 to 90 yards distant. The train was then travelling at, the rate of 30 to 35 miles an hour. Witness blew his whistle, but the deceased stood quite still, with his back towards the engine. He was struck by the buffer and thrown forward, and the whole of the train passed over the body. The Master of University College said that he knew the deceased well. He was extremely reserved and shy, fond of solitude, of blameless character, very studious, and a regular attendant at chapel. Witness had no suspicion that his mind was affected. In a letter written by the deceased to his mother on the same day he said that "nothing could alter it," and that "life had become hateful to him." Deceased had been reading hard, and was subject to tits of intense depression. He was greatly attached to his mother. He was not pecuniarily embarrassed. A gauger, in the employ of the Railway Company, deposed to seeing a sealed packet and four small cards near the body. On one card was written "Take me and this packet to the Master of University College, Oxford."  The coroner said that this was ene of those cases in which there must have been what is called tubercular disease, which had been slowly but quietly going on for a long time. Had it attacked the chest instead of the brain he might have died of consumption. The jury returned a verdict of "Suicide while of unsound mind."
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1888-03-31 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

RIDGE OBSERVER.  have gone further when meting about for financial game in the preserves of the Stock Exchange, and made a really heavy haul out of each "cover," or other purely gambling transaction, he might have done the State good moral service. Bicycles and kindred machines for recreative use are t o be left alone for the !present, but Mr. Goschen has his eye on them, and he or his successors in time to come may levy tribute on the steed of flying steel. There is to he a new scale duty as regards the carriage tax, and among other minor manipulations of sources of revenue the small relief to income-tax payers under Schedule A, relating to lands, is noticeable; as is also the remission of the hawker's license. The lessening of the direct incometax by one penny in the pound, bringing it down to the easily calculated sixpence, is regarded as no more than the country had a right to expect at a time of prolonged and profound peace. Mr. Goschen extends no grievance to the brewer with his Bridget, nor any to the publican ; so he will have no great drink trade storm to stand against. He has not touched the poor man too pea' ly in any important particulars, so the milli in will refrain from condemning him. And then the richer folk if they wince a little at the saddling of their horses and taxing of sparkling wines, have something to be thankful for in the vay of relieved local :)ressure, and has not Mr. Go'sc';en left the around rents alone ? The Ch-Lneelior has not to contend either against insurmountable oppo3ition from any commercial or financial clique with whose monies he has ventured to interefere, so that on the whole hernay be congratulated on having come out of an unusually difficult • undertaking with flying colours, and on having added ?:o his prestige as a master manipulator of fig-area.  oner eommeiH n severe terms upon the ignorance of the hu ' -cl and the other pe-sons in neglecting to take woman out of the cistern at once. There was no ( nee to show that she was dead when Doherty i liscovered her. The husband' plea that hl ws iMs and confusei did not seem to be a sufficient ne.—A verdict of "Suicide whilst temporarily of uu-ound mind" was returned.  The Countess of Stamford has appointed the Rev, A. Phillimore. Vicar of CAstle Bromwich. to the Rectory of Enville. The population is 725, and the living is valued at £979. The living of Castle Bromwich has been given to the Rev R. Rigden, Curate of Penkridge. DnoNirstirrstss.—John Stevens was charged with drunkenness at the Police Court, Thuasday, before Mr T. D. Thomas. and fined lOs and costs Th. following were also summoned for drunkenness and fined, Thomas Chandler, at Hay Green, lOs and osts ; Joseph Powell, near Junction Station, 5s and costs; Henry James Edwards, 2s 6d and costs. A
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1888-06-16 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

MURDER AND SUICIDE.  Information reached Moate on Sunday morning that Sergeant M'Crowan, of Walderstown Police. station, had been murdered by Constable Simpson. & body of police on'arriving at the barracks found the place closed, but saw Simpson, who should have been on guard, walking about. They forced an entrance, but as they did so heard a shot. They found M‘Gowan dead from a bayonet wound, and Simpson also dead, having apparently stabbed the sergeant and then shot himself. The details of the tragedy (says a correspondent) are of a very shocking nature. Walderstown is a small police-station in county Westmeath. Constable Simpson had been left in charge of the station in the absence of other policemen who were discharging duties in another district of the county. Sergeant M‘Gowan returned to the station alone, and immediately on his entering the day-room• Constable Simpson fired upon him no less than four times, once with a gun and thrice with a revolver. The savage attack did not end here, for Simpson took a bayonet from the wall and stabbed Yrnowan, who was bleeding profusely from his wounds. He then seized another bayonet and pierced him again. A constable who was sick upstairs was threatened by Simpson if he gave the alarm, but the sick,..man succeeded in leaving the barracks, and the news was conveyed to a neighbouring police-station. When the police arrived Simpson was found locked in the day-room, and, simultaneously with their demand for admittance, he shot himself. The murderer is stated to be of intemperate habits, and Sergeant M'Crowan had reported him.  A DAIRYMAN was spoken to by a custonier for • having rendered an account for milk with the entries twice charged. "Well," the dairyman replied,, "I have asked several accountants lately, and they say everything is now done by double entry." "WHY should you object to marry an auctioneer, my dear? He's wealthy and respectable7,-wha t else do you want?" Cecile (secretly engaged to Gam-, boge, the artist) : "I don't like his appearance, ma 'Ore I An auctioneer is always for bidding."
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1888-06-16 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

JOURNALIST'S SUICIDE.  On the arrival of the fifteen minutes past five train from King's-cross a.. Peterborough on Saturday morning, the body of a gentleman, about 40 years of age, was found in a firstclass carriage, shot through the heart, with a revolterlying by his side. On him was found two cards vith the names "Robert M. K. Tickell, Dublin Eming Mail." At the back of one was written, "Wire George Tickell, Evening Mail, Dublin, 'Your son shot himself while travelling from London towards Peterborough this morning. He is dead." And at the back of the other, "On the road from London to Peterborough an ill-spent life is Ati p terminated by a enwardly act.—Robert Tickell, June 9, 1888."  A Dublin correspondent telegraphs: The sad death of Mr. Robert Tickell had elicited general sympathy for his family. Mr. Tickell has been for several months a sufferer from some disease in the throat, which deprived him of his voice. He went to London only a fortnight ago, accompanied by a younger brother, to consult Dr. Lennox Brown, the eminent specialist on throat diseases. Dr. Brown found that there was a dangerous growth and that an immediate operation was imperative. This announcement was unexpected and must have had a depressing effect upon Mr. Tickell. Anxious, however, not to neglect medical advice, he submitted to operations on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Tuesday last, and considerable portions of a large growth were extracted and pronounced to be malignant. Nevertheless the telegrams and letters received each day from the unfortunate gentleman were reassuring, and no immediate anxiety was entertained, although Mrs. G. Tickell, his mother, and a medical relative of the family started for London on Saturday morning. Mr. Tickell's relations with his family were one of the happiest and most affectionate character. His father, Mr. George Tickell, J.P., and the deceased gentleman's young wife, who is only now recovering from a lengthened indisposition, had been engaged during the week in making every arrangement for his comfort and care during the critical period which all recognised was at hand. In Mr. Robert Tickell Irish journalists have lost a colleague who had in every way endeared himself to all. Bright, genial, witty, and endowed with an unusual share of talent, he seemed destined to achieve distinction in any walk of life.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1888-05-05 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

DISAPPOINTED POETESS.  A mysterious case." So said Coroner Nugent as ,urned away from the bedside of a sad-faced young Tmn, perhaps 35 years old, who was found dead , dingy back room on the top floor of a French . . .  urant and furnished room house in New York. had 4was  Sh 4 had died of asphyxiation from illuminating gas. It was a clear case of suicide. The wan, wasted features of the unfortunate bore evidence of disease. Her rich, black eyes were but partially closed, and her heavy black hair struggled over shoulders of a marble whiteness, revealing the heavily embroidered yoke of a night dress which was tastefully confined at the throat with a knot of wide pink ribbon. But the grim hand of wasting disease had robbed her features of former beauty, of which, however, traces still remained. Who was she? A weary, broken-hearted woman, evidently. Her story remained to be discovered. Some time an inmate of a convent, perhaps a governess or a seamstress, a stranger or a discouraged toiler in the city, there was an air of mystery about her which raised unusual interest. One day she locked herself in and sat down to write. She took from her pocket a number of sheets of poetry and spread them over the washstand, and then wrote two letters, both of which, after finishing, she tore up and threw so near to the grate that the remnants of one of them were charred so much as to be unreadable, save one line, which says :—" My poems are unappreciated." The second letter was so badly mutilated by her nervous hands that it could barely be deciphered. An imperfect copy was made of it as follows :—" Would you muse upon me, darling sister —upon the poor dead face of one who suffered and endured the butts and sneers of a world in which I could have held sway as a queen and woman, never forgetting the former and ever seeking to fill the latter to the letter. (Here the letter was so badly torn that several lines were lost.) I, the offspring of a proud and noble house, should fr. two yrs. drg. my life out in N.Y. as a menial—(an other blank)—gong on—(blank)—for it was pure and I honourable. But the great—(blank)—would seem at times nearly to burst the fetters that bound as fate inevitable, (Blank.) I am going to take my life or, at least, to lie down never to awaken. The idea of its being a—(blank)—has never entered my head. I love my God—(blank), I have lived a good and honest life here in N. Y. I am so tired. My little poems will speak volumes." This letter was addressed to no one, and there was no signature. It was written in a bold, masculine .hand, which corresponded, it was found later, with that in which the poems were written. Before her epistolary labours were concluded she wrote the following address on one of her envelopes:
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1888-05-05 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE CASTELNATJ CASE.  A remarkable trial has just come to a conclusion before the Assizes et Versailles. The chief prisoner, Dr. Castelnau, is a remarkable person. He was a man of considerable scientific attainments. About two years ago a Republican apothecary, Martinet by name, formed an alliance with Von Scheurer, an insurance agent,who conceived the idea of an ingenious fraud, namely, to insure his own life for a large sum, and then, by procuring a false register of death, and, with the complicity of Martinet, getting a corpse that could be produced as his own, to pocket the money to be paid by the insurance companies. Martinet, in order to carry out this fraud, persuaded Castelnau to take a small house at Meudon, and to that house there was presently transferred a poor patient of Castelnau's, in the last stage of consumption. He was induced to personate Von Scheurer by the promise of good treatment and the payment of a small sum daily. To establish the spurious identity requisite for the completion of the fraud, the false Von Scheurer, during the week or two he had to live, was shown to a local practitioner at Meudon and to other persons, so that when he died he was registered and buried under that name. The Insurance Companies, after some demur, could not resist the evidence, and handed over the insurance— over twelve thousand pounds sterling—to a girl, the mistress of the real Von Scheurer, who palmed herself off on the insurance agents as his widow. Von Scheurer took the lion's share of the spoil, and gave a thousand pounds to Martinet, who allowed Castelnau only four hundred. They quarrelled some twelve or fifteen months ago, and the whole story then came out. Von Scheurer and his mistress got away, but in the course of last year, being traced by the insurance companies, he committed suicide, and now Castelnau was brought to trial. He fully confessed his share in this transaction. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty, with extenuating circumstances, and Castelnau was condemned to eight years' imprisonment, and Martinet to five years. Mariette Pronteau was acquitted.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1888-05-26 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.  A Blue-book has been published containing a return of accidents reported to the Board of Trade as having happened on the several railways of the United Kingdom during the year 1887. In more than one particular the year compares unfavourably with its predecessor. The most important item in this list of casualties is always to be found in the accidents to trains, rolling stock, and permanent way, and it will be found that 25 passengers were killed (all on one English line) and 538 injured from these causes in 1887, against eight killed and 615 injured in 1886, while eight servants of companies were killed and 109 injured, as against four and 81 respectively from the same causes in the year before. Thus the deaths from collisions and accidents of the kind were 33, and the injuries 647, whereas only 12 were killed and 696 injured in 1886. By accidents from other causes 96 passengers were killed (as against 87), and 759 (as against 727) were injured. Servants of companies also from the same undefined accidents died to the number of 414, which differs very little from the 421 of 1886; while the 1929 injuries to servants in the latter year increased to 1966 in 1887. If we.include, with the classes mentioned already, persons passing over railways at level crossings, trespassers (including suicides, of whom there were 70) and other persons, we find that the total number of killed was 919, which number is less by 19, and of injured was 3590, which is greater by 51, than in 1866. The numbers, it will be seen, do not differ very much in the aggregate. That to them have to be added accidents which occur on the premises of railway companies, but not caused by the movement of the companies' vehicles. If the whole list be taken together, it will be found that the total number of personal accidents reported to the Board of Trade by the several railway companies amounts to 977 persons killed and 7747 injured.