The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1867-08-23 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

THE INQIJE.VT  was held on Tuesday morning at the Cambrian Inn, before R. Reece, Esq., (coroner) and a respectable jury, under the foremanship of Wm. Williams, Esq., (Tir-Isha). The jurymen proceeded first to view the body, which presented a very ghastly spectacle. Deceased was a fine looking man, and about 35 years of age. . .  On returning to the inn, the following evidence was taken, and the first witness examined was George Starr, who was very obtuse and guarrulous. Witness said: I am a blacksmith and lodged at the same place as deceased; the house is rented by Jas. Karrel. I went to bed at halfpast. ten on Sunday night; James was in bed then. I did not speak to him that night. The landlady called me about a quarter to seven on Monday morning. I got up, James was absent from the room; it was a double-bedded room where we slept. I had occasion after I got down stairs to go to the closet which is in the garden at the back of the house. On pushing open the door I found deceased's legs bumping against the ground; I was frightened; he was hanging , by the neck; the handkerchief by which he was hung up was partly round his neck. I fetched P. S. Baker.  Elizabeth Karral, (a very intelligent witness), wife of James Mural, said my husband is a chandler. Starr and deceased were lodging in my house; the latter has been lodging with me since June last; his habits were those of a quiet industrious man; he was very depressed at times, but I did not know the cause of his troubles; he was not living with his wife; I cannot say if that was the cause. He complained of his head, and said that he thought he should be in the madhouse; he never said anything about committing suicide. He went out of the house about half-past ten last Sunday morning, and returned about half-past two in the afternoon. As he went out I asked him to come back and have some dinner with us, he said he would. When he came back he did not go out again that day. When he finished his dinner, he took off his boots and went up to his bedroom, and came down again about a quarter to five o'clock. I asked him if he would have tea, and he said not then, and he began to read some tracts and the New Testament. He took no tea, and did not eat anything after his dinner. Deceased was a very sober man. He went upstairs again about nine o'clock, and got up about five o'clock the next morning. I did not see him but knew him by his cough. Starr came in about half-past ten on Sunday night, and asked me to call him about seven in the morning; I did so and asked him to call James. He said "He is not here, he has gone down stairs." Starr went down stairs and shortly after came and knocked at my door and said "Mrs. Karral is Mr. Karral there l" I said "Yea" He said "Don't be alarmed, there is a dead man on the premises." I said to my husband, "That's James, Karral." This was about a quarter to seven o'clock. I went down stairs and asked Starr to go for a policeman directly; he went and P.S. Baker came back with him. I had noticed something so strange about deceased that I went to the policestation and reported it last Tuesday. I did not see a policeman but a person cleaning the station-house, and I begged her to send a policeman, and she said she would; I told the woman that I thought James was gone out of his mind. P.S. Baker explained that he had never been informed of the circumstance.  P.S. John Baker deposed: I was called on Monday morning, about seven o'clock by Starr, and I went with him to Karrall's house, and proceeded to the privy where I found the deceased hanging by the neck, suspended by the handkerchief produced; it was attached to the roof of the closet; his feet were touching the ground, he was quite dead, but not cold. I cut the body down immediately and had it carried to "The Cambrian." I sent for Mr. Verity, surgeon, who said that he had been dead about two hours.  The Coroner briefly summed up, and the jury immediately returned a verdict that the deceased was found hanging and that he had committed suicide while in an unsound state of mind.