Penistone, Stocksbridge, Hoyland & Chapeltown Express, etc. — 1900-08-17 (Penistone, South Yorkshire, England)

SWINTON MAN HANSED.  Vaster. lay. Beujamiu Backbottae, •  roans married miner, of Piccadilly, mar Swinton, •  prof with his life the penalty impueed upon him for the niurder of Police Constable John William Kea. at Piccadilly, on the 10th of July. His younger brother, Frederick Lasater Baekhouse. single man. aged 21.) years. was indicted and iwnteticed to death at Leegs Aware, by Justice Ridley, on the same charge, taut some of the jury, in hind _ in both the prisoner+ guilty, wished for the I younger our to be recommended to merry. Th Judge promised he would forward the trcom luendation to the proper quarter. and on Tuesday the Governor ut Gaul. Mr. J. H. Shepherd. received an intimation that Her Majesty bad been graciously pleased to give effect to the recoinMetidati .... of pier, y. :mil that in the ca•ie oft he younger brother a frpnwer Wa4 granted. . .  The crime is of so recent • seurrence that the details are still well remembered by most people living in this district. Police Constable ICew who was the only officer stationed at Piccadilly, re. ceived information ..0 Tuesday night. the 10th ot July. that the brother. Backhouse had in theii possession a loaded revolver. He went to them as they were stood together in a yard near the house where they lived, the younger Beckhouse being a lodger with his brother. According to the evidence fur the prosecution. what then happened was that Charles Bathhouse stepped back' two paces and bred. afterwards handing the re ;elver to Frederick, who tired a second shut. The policeman was wounded in two places'. and died next day in the Itotherham Hospital. At the inquest which was he:d on the 13th July. the atcurled were committed for trial on a coroner's war. rant on a charge of wilful murder. Then followed the peooesdiegs at the Rotherham West Riding Police Court, on the 16th and 18th of July. On the 27th of the same month the trial took place at Leeds Assizes, so that only five weeks and • day elapsed between the firing of the shuts and the amiss out of the death sentence. Neither at the inquest nor the police court did either of the young men put forward any excuse or defence, but at the Assizes they were defended met brilliantly by Mr. A. E. Mitchell Innes, who endeavoured to show that the revolver was bought with the intention of committing suicide, and that when the policeman tried to secure it the weapon was accidentally exploded. If the jury had toned in favour of that supposition Charles I could not have been found guilty of the capita 1 crime, and consequently Frederick could not have been said to have aided and •abetted him in the commission of it. as the shot fired by Frederick was not the actual cause of death. Throughout the whole proceedings all the eye witneaser de- . dared that both men were sober when tbe deed was done, but from an exclamation made by one of the primmer' at the inquest it was evident that they disputed that statement, though the opposite statement to the etfect that they were drunk at the time was never put forward either by way ot defence ,or in the hope of mitigating the penalty. From the letters written since the men were sen• tented, which we print below. it will be seen that they both state they were under the influence of drink at the time. CHARLES RAC/Olin:SE