npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Workman's Advocate. — 1866-01-13 (London, England)

SUICIDE OF A LAW-STATIONER.  An inquiry was held on Saturday afternoon at No. 1, Coiebrook.row, Islington, by Dr. Lankester, relative to the death of Mr. Thomas Rice Steele, aged a ty -one, a law-stationer, having chambers at No. 89, Chancery-la.ne. It appeared that on Wednesday last, a clerk named Mills, in the employment of the deceased, found him dead in his office. It was at firs thought that he died from natural causes, but on a post-mortein examination being made, a small punctured wound was found under the left nipple of the breast. The wound communicated with the pericardium and went, as the medical man said, with anatomical precision through the left ventricle of the heart. A law-stationer's bodkin was found by the side of the deceased, and the doctor stated that the wound was such a one as would be produced by the bodkin. The bodkin, when found, had no stin der o blood upon it; but the vest and shirt worp. y ceased had been opened by him previous to hiacommitting the deed. The evidence of the brothern-1 _ aw of the deceased went to show that the latter was of a ent, and had trouble about t lately been in much state o very nervous and excitable temp 121 °rah f his ble•i f the utility f illustration o e ituyo in noidea up, remarked nhad been strat'dthmeincads. vost-inortem examinations,t a A. e was ee an coroner,iamp time h body was examined entertained up to the t away turned. with himself. mind" was returned. verdict eofa ece a "Suicidesed h awdh eadoef  Action against M. Thiers, the Historian.— Count de Moynier has brought an action against M. u Tillers for having attributed to General Count de soar a feat of arms which occurred before Rheims in the campaign of 1814, consisting in the defea of division of the allied army and capture of eleven gr the honour of which exploit the count claims fo: lie father. The case was to have been pleaded on Saturday in the First Chamber of the Civil Tribunal, but M. Baze, counsel for M. Thiers, obtained a postponement.  (Continued from page 5-) clothing and good cloth garments for children and men, whose friends may have to wonder painfully whence came the poison, to which they, like Alton Locke's cousin, have succumbed." The public ought not to lose sight of the fact, that woollen cloths retain the infectious virus when once contaminated, for along time, and, therefbre, spread disease and death in ever-widening 'circles. The condition of the working tailor is, therefore, a question for the general public as well as one affecting; the general interests of the trade. I may add that the head of this princely firm has sat in the House of Commons as member for a Liberal constituency. Such, sir, are some of the means by which men in this happy England of ours ascend to wealth, honour, and power, to make laws that are to govern the toiling masses.—' remain, sir, yours, A
The Workman's Advocate. — 1866-01-13 (London, England)

EXECUTION AT STAFFORD.  - -Charles Christopher Robinson was executed on Tuesday in front of the county gaol at Stafford, and in the presence of a concourse of 4,000 spectators, amongst whom his youth (he was in his nineteenth year) occasioned a large amount of sympathy. Before his death be acknowledged the justice of his sentence. On the scaffold he exclaimed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He appeared to die hard. He made a statement to the chaplain, but wished it to be kept from the public. The facts of the murder may be briefly told as folows the afternoon of Saturday, the 26th August, Mr. and Mrs. Fisher went out for a drive into the country, leaving Robinson and Harriet Seagar alone in the house, with a young man named Wilson, a companion of Robinson's, in the garden. Paring the afternoon the girl was seen .by a servant girl of Mr. Fisher's brother, who had gone to the house on an errand, to be crying as she stood cleaning knives in the brewhouse, and Robinson stood leaning against the door. Shortly afterwards a nephew of Mr. Fisher's, a little boy, saw Robinson strike eagar with his open hand in her face because she would not allow him to kiss her. The yoniv man alluded to left at about four o'clock, and Robinson, who had been shooting sparrows with him in the garden with a small gun, went into the house. At about a quarter past four the neighbours were alarmed by a cry that Robinson had shot Harriet, and, npon entering the brewhouse, the poor girl was found lying on the floor in a large pool of blood, with her throat out from ear to ear, the wound being so deep that the upper portion of the vertebral column could be seen at the back of the neck. Life was quite extinct—indeed, death must have been almost instantaneous. At the time the neighbours entered upon the scene of the murder, Robinson was observed to come downstairs with an open razor in his hand. He was then in his shirt sleeves, for he had not washed or dressed himself during the day. He went into the scullery where his victim lay dead on the floor, and, standing in the front of a looking•glass that was hanging upon the wall, he deliberately out his throat three times with the razor. At this juncture he was secured, a surgeon was sent for, and his self-inflicted wounds were sewn up after some resistance on his Part. After his committal to prison, Robinson did not seem to entertain any expectation that any other fate awaited him than that which he has now suffered. The defence upon the trial, however, was, first, that Seagar had committed suicide, and that the prisoner' in grief attempted his own life; and next, that he was  insane when he comniitted the murder, insanity being hereditary in his family, as was shown by the fact of his half-sister being then in a lunatic asylum. It could not, however, be shown that he was insane either before or after the murder.
The Workman's Advocate. — 1865-11-25 (London, England)

CHARGE OF ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.  John Murray was charged, at the Thames Policecourt, with using threatening language towards a female named Jane Allen, of Turner-street, Commercial-road, and with attempting to commit suicide in the King David-lane station-house, Shadwell. The prisoner is a man of good education, and he had lately come to London. He met with a female, with whom he made a short stay, and on whom be had squandered all his money. When that was gone she dismissed him very cavalierly. He went home to her house on Friday night, and not meeting with her, he abused the landlady and threatened her, and made so much noise and disturbance that the police interfered and took him into custody. In the course of the night a police constable, hearing a noise in the cell in which he was confined, opened the door and went in. The prisoner was on the floor quite black in the face, and froth oozing from his mouth. There was a stocking round his neck with three knots in it, which pressed on his throat. The police immediately relieved him, and after some time left him in a composed state. A police constable was stationed at the door of his cell all night. At three o'clock, on Saturday m uming, the cell was again entered by a constable, and another stocking was found round his neck with two knots in it. He was nearly dead, and the attendance of several persons was necessary to -estore him. The prisoner was labouring under some illness, and was very weak. . .  The prisoner said he was going to sea again very shortly, and hoped he should be released, on which the magistrate ordered him to enter into recognisances to keep the peace, but on hearing the second and third charges, demanded of the prisoner what he had to say for making such rash and wicked attemptA on his own life.  The Prisoner: I did it. I wished to be rid of life, to end my anguish, my pain. Mr. Partridge: Why? The Prisoner: Because I was in misery and pain to think I had been duped, deceived, taken in by a girl in London. Mr. Partridge remanded the prisoner for a week, and directed that inquiries should be made about him.
The Commonwealth. — 1866-11-10 (London, England)

SAY MARKETS. Smithfield. I 9. s. d. 70 oto 90 0 990 115 0 3(10 44 0  Cumberland. 1 s. d. ... 11.1 70 0 to 92 0 900 115 0 380 45 0  Whiteohape 5. d. Es. . 70 0 to 90 900 115 0 360 44 0  hfeadow Hay Clover Straw  Suicide iri a Pond.—On Monday an inquest WAN held at H &yes, on the body of Simon Bash, a gardener, aged 47, who was found drowned in a pond near his dwelling. The deceased had previously been subject to fits of delirium, and it is supposed that in a paroxysm of insanity he found his way to the pond, having escaped by his bedroom window. A. verdict of Insanity was returned. Tne Bishop ut Lichfield on the Sunday Qu. stion. —in a letter to the Elev. W. C. Dowding, the Bishop of Lichfield writes:—" The question to which you have called ray attention, and in which you take so warm an interest, is one of no common difficulty. I hardly know, indeed, any practical difficulty gvater than this question ; the question as to by no means SO assured as you tho right observance of the Christian Sabbath. For thatarhe relaxation of which you are dethe puritan observance oh it I nave no liking; nor do I believe that it has tended to the increase of true religion. But, on the other hand, I should be r.trieved to see the lax contintoenstanlbod7vance of it introduced into blessings which the pre,ent&f:b. tsathpri ups noe appear ,r 1 t 1 country.lao places beesge amusements, and the openjugdescorAtion of the d%y arid to the loss of many of the iirthivountry brings with it. I admit, : ery mighta I on oo ft :been Sabbath atbob a theth however,`that there is a great deal to be said en your aide of the question. I eatiuot, occupied as I am, now go into the discussion of it.  In Consequence of the Reduction in Duty, Horn:man' eesrw no supplied by the kgents ErencrvencE per lb. cis &Krim. Every Gonuin• Packet is signed " Horniman & Co."
The Commonwealth. — 1866-03-03 (London, England)

SUICIDE OF A YOUNG WOIIAN THEOUGH POISON.—On Tuesday. Mr. Richards, deputy-coroner. held an inquiry at the Monmouth Arms, Singleton-street, Hoxton, respecting the death of Mary Ann Hut3hens, aged 23, who, as the evidence showed, had committed suicide after a quarrel with her sister. The father of the deceased, a bootmaker, 50, Singleton-street, said that deceased was 'a chenille•net maker, and she lived with him and her eldest sister. She was very passionate, and she lived uncomfortably with her sister. On Friday morning last his eldest daughter came and told him that the deceased was going to run away from home. He went downstairs, and the deceased told him she would take a room if it was only to poison herself in it. She was half out of doors, and he used force to pull her back as he was afraid of what she might do. Ultimately, to calm her, he let her go oat to take a room. She returned in ten minutes, and shortly afterwards he found her on the stairs poisoned. He took her into the parlour and sent for a doctor. The sister, Elizabeth Hutchens, confirmed her father's account of the conduct of the deceased, adding that a quarrel arose out of an invit, tion to go out to tea, and the deceased not being invited got into a furious passion. On Thursday night she renewed the quarrel, and threatened to poison herself. On Friday morning she tried to julep out of window, but was prevented. Ultimately she got out, and returned in ten minutes. She went into the parlour, and after staying there a short time she returned to the kitchen, saying, "I have done it." Witness said. "You never mean to say you have taken poison ?" She answered, "I have taken enough to settle me." Witness called her father. She tried to walk upstairs, but she fell, and had to be carried up. The medical evidence showed that she had taken oxalic acid enough to kill six persons. The coroner having summed up, the jury re'urned a verdict of "Suicide while in a state of temporary insanity from violent and excessive passion."
The Commonwealth. — 1866-10-20 (London, England)

EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL OF A TURKISH STUDENT AT BRUSSELS.  M. Lauchaud, the well known advocate, who distinguished himself on the occasion of the trial of Madame Lafarge, is to plead at the trial of Riek Allah Effendi, at Brussels, for the supposed murder of his pupil at an hotel in that city. The press in France and Belgium has been for some time occupied in pieparing the public for the denoueineat of one of those romantic dramas which large cities occasionally afford. The career of Risk Allah Effendi has been full of incident. The gay circles of London abounded at one time with gossip relating to the then young Turkish student., who was following the lectures on medicine at the London University. His Oriental costume, Me prepossessing appearance, and the fluency with which he spoke most languages, rendered him a general favourite. He received from the Ottoman Embassy in London the title of medical attaché. After paying attention to several ladies of fortune, he eventally attached himself to a fair dame who, having been twice the widow of men of fortune, was possessed of considerable wealth. The world said they were not so happy as they might bo, and after a short residence at Boulogne the lady died, bequeathing the greater portion of her wealth to her husband, Risk Allah Effendi, but a sum of money was left to a young lad, a relation of a former husband, on his attaining his majority. Risk Allah was by will appointed his guardian, and was to possess the amount be. queathed by this legacy if his ward died before coming of age. Risk Allah took the young man to Turkey, whore he assumed the rank of bey or colonel. It was said that the youth escaped from various dangers whilst in the East. Together they eventually returned to Europe. As it may be remembered, a great sensation was produced by the accounts in the journals of Brussels of the suicide of a young lad in that city towards the end of last year. This was the young man to whom Risk Allah was guardian. A judicial inquiry took place, and Risk Allah Effendi was placed in confinement for several days, but there was a want of evidence that he was in any way connected with the death of the youth. He 011210 to Paris after the investigation, where he was received by numerous friends, anxious to show their sympathy for a person accused of a crime of which he was declared to be altogether innocent. He at this period published a volume, containing a narrative of his life and adventures, which was eagerly read by a wide circle, for he had many acquaintances. In this way he penetrated certain circles in Paris, and was regarded as an amusing person. Not very long since he returned to London aaain. Meanwhile the Belgian police had got hold of some correspondence of a Turkish servant of Risk Allah's connected with the death of the youth, who was found dead in bed with tho pistol by his side which had inflicted the mortal wound. The Belgian minister at London was ordered to demand his arrest for a criminal offence, and he is now in prison at Brussels waiting a second trial, which comes off at the end of this month.
The Commonwealth. — 1866-12-01 (London, England)

WIFE MURDER AND SUICIDE IN BIRMINGHAM. A shrieking ease of murder and suieide occurred in Birmingham on Friday morning. John Wallace Hampton, 39 years of age, an engraver, lived with his wife and four children at the back of Park-place, Nareery-terrace, Hunter's-lane, Handsworth. He , and his wife had lived together most unhappily for some years. He suspected her of infidelity. The , police have, during the, last three or four weeks, been ailed in to-settle their quarrels. On Thursday night Hampton and his family retired to rest as usual—the four children in one room and the father and mother in another. Nothing transpired till about half-past six o'clock on Friday morning, when a heavy discharge of a firearm was ,heard. The eldest son (18 years of age) went into parents' room, and there saw his mother lying dead on the bed, and his father beside her, with blood flowing from his breast. A boy's cannon lay across the mother's body, and was pointed at the father's breast. The boy asked his father what he bad done. The father pointed to a box in which were two lettets!, which are now in possession of the police, and which it is understood were addressed to the woman by the man of whom her husband was jealous. Hampton's own statement is that at about ono o'clock in the morning he extracted from his wife a confession of her infidelity, and he at once strangled her by grasping her around the neck and pressing his fingers on her throat. She was a weak woman, and had been in delicate health dace her last ccnfluement. Having committed this awful mime, the husband aid himself down by the dead body of his wife, and remained by her side till she was quite sold. The poignancy of his reflections during those moments can never be described. That they were such as to do. ermine him to take away his own life is all we know. He rose from bed, wrote a letter to his children eoneseing what be had done, and wittily latnented thst he could not restore to animation the frame which had been shattered by him in that fearful paroxysm of pession which sue •eeded the assured knowledge of his wife's infidelity. The letter he wrote to his children is in the bands of the police. Havirg completed it, he took a cannon which belonged to one of his boys—the kind of firearm that is often used on Guy Faskee' Clay end loaded it with ponder and a Minnie rifle ball, which, as a volunteer, he had by him, lie laid the cannon across his wife's body, aid hhnself down almigsido her, and plaeing the muzzle of the cannon as close to his heart as he could, he applied a lighted candle to the nipple, and the ball peered wholly through his body. Had it not been that, his heart was depressed by his lying down, ho would have been killed inetanteneously. He vas, as speociily as possible after being found, z ()moved to the General Hospital in a deplorable state.
The Commonwealth. — 1866-07-14 (London, England)

THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING MEN'S ASSOCIATION.  The members of this Association mustered again in large numbers to hear the adjourned debate on Nationality and the present War. As some of the members speak French and are not able to follow the English speakers, and as the majority of the English-speaking members cannot follow the French-speaking members, a resume of the English speeches is given in French and vice versci. This arrangement, while prolonging the duration of the debate, has the advantage of securing a real interchange of thought between the members cf the various nations constituting the European family. The resolution of Cit. Bobczynski, published in our last and which we here repeat, was seconded by Cit. Carter. Bobczynski-Carter Resolution : "That the London members of the Inter"national Working Men's Association consider "the present conflict on the Continent to be one "between tyrants, and advise working men to be "neutral, but to associate themselves with a "view to acquire strength by unity and to use "the strength so acquired in striking a final "blow at all the tyrants of Europe and . pro" claiming their own liberty.". Cit. Cremer presented the followinc, series of resolutions which were seconded pro forma by Cit. Dutton.  1. That the war now being waged in Europe between the Prussian and Austrian governments is a war for Empire, and as such is not calculated to benefit the peoples, as whichever becomes the victor it will be but the substitution of one despot for another. 2. The Council regrets that the Prussian people should have allowed their energies to be diverted from the extension and consolidation of their liberties by the war policy of Bismarck who has thereby succeeded in rivetting s;ill stronger their political fetters. 3. The Council also expresses a hope that the Italian people, while endeavouring to give liberty to the Venetians, will not 'enter into an unholy alliance with the Prussian government, and so be guilty of moral and political suicide by at the same time fighting to rescue the Venetians and assisting the Prussian government to enslave the German people. 4. That as all wars not waged on behalf of liberty and justice are cruel and unjustifiable, we therefore recommend the peoples of. Europe to abstain from taking any active part in the present unrighteous struggle. Cit. Fox gave notice of the following resolution : _  "That the Prussian government is responsible "for the miseries caused by the present_war on " the Continent." An article was translated from the last number of the Rive Gauche as containing the sentiments of Cit. Lafargue, a member of the Council, on the attack ot the king of Italy upon Venetia, and its reaction upon French politics. Cits. Bobczynski, Cremer, Fox, Hales, and Eccarius spoke, and the debate was adjourned until Tuesday next.
The Commonwealth. — 1866-09-08 (London, England)

MURDERS OF 1865.  The police returns state that 135 murders were committed in England in the year ending at 'Michaelmas, 1865; 128 persons were apprehended in the same period charged with murder, 80 men and 48 women. 66 of the men and 43 of the women were committed for trial. No returns give the means of further tracing them. The criminal tables are, for the year ending with December, 1865, and they do not account for any such number; they state that only 60 persons were committed for trial for murder in the year 1865, 37 men and 23 women. Against eight no bill was found; 11 proved insane; 21 were found not guilty; 20 were convicted and sentenced to death, the lowest number upon record; 12 of them were reprieved and the sentence commuted. The motives that brought these 17 men and three women under sentence of death cannot in every instance be traced; as usual, some of the murders were the doing of wild ungovernable men in a fury, and three occurred in drunken brawls. Two of the murders were done for revenge, three from jealousy, two probably for the sake of money. One was the murder of a child by its mother, driven to despair by want. Five of the men murdered their Wives—one from jealousy, two from drunkenness and habitual quarrelling, one (a man of weak understanding) from fear of poverty (agreed with his wife that both should commit suicide), and the fifth was the case of an idle, profligate man, who had abandoned his wife. There were 80V311 men executed; another, who would otherwise have been executed, committed suicide in prison. There were 19 executions in 1864, 22 in 1863, 14 in 1862 (the person who was to have been fifteenth committing suicide) ; the average fer the preceding 20 years was under 11.