npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-12-18 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SINGULAR DEATH AT HUDDERSFIELD.—On Wednesday Mr. Barstow, coroner, held an inquest at the Nag's Head, Paddock, touching the death of Joshua Clegg, aged 58, joiner and cabinet maker, Paddock, Huddersfield, who met his death on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway at Springwood, on Monday morning. From the evidence it was adduced that for about fifteen or sixteen months deceased had not followed any regular employment, and had been dependent for his livelihood on his son and daughter, but for about six or seven months he had been living at his brother-in-law's at Paddock. He had been suffering from rheumatism, and was sent to 'a hospital at Buxton, but he was sent back, as he was told that the place was not for people who were deranged, and that he was not suffering from rheumatistn, This, together with the loss of his wife and want of employment, had somewhat preyed upon his spirits, but he had not been so bad as to need any special care. He left home on Monday morning about half-past seven, as he often did, and twenty minutes later he was found on the Holmfirth branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, with his right forearm broken, his right shoulder blade broken, and four or five ribs smashed. There is a bridge near the spot where he was found, 42 feet from the ground, with parapet 4 feet 3 inches high, and it was thought he might have jumped over there. Dr. Osborne, who examined the deceased, was of opinion that he had been struck by a passing train, as the injuries he had received were not consistent with a fall pure and simple. Death resulted from internal hemorrhage, caused by the perforation of the lungs, resulting from the injury to the ribs. The jury, after considerable consultation, found that the deceased had committed suicide whilst in a state of unsound mind, but whether by jumping from the bridge on the line or being hit by a passing train there was no evidence to show. The jury added a recommendation to the effect that the parapet of the bridge might be properly protected, so ea to prevent accide4tg,  .
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-10-30 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

TRAGEDY IN FINSBURY PARK.  On Friday in last week, shortly after noon„ in Fins. bury-park, London, a man shot a woman and at. tempted to commit suicide. It appears that at the time mentioned a very respectably dressed man in company with a woman entered the Finsliury-park and Wok the path which runs near the Great Northern Railway. Before they had gone man-s yards they were heard to have high words, and directly afterwards the man was seen to take from his coat pocket six-ohambered revolver, point it at his companion and fire it three times. The woman fell to the ground, after which he fired the weapon at himself, falling down upon the grass. Several persons at once rushed tip to the woman, and found that she was bleeding from a wound in thebreast. Mr. Cochrane, the superintendent of the park, at °ace fctched a doctor and a police-constable, and the formei ordered the woman to be removed to the Great Northern Hospital. There, on being examined by Dr. W. H. Barry, she was found to be dead, and a further examination showed that one of the three shots had penetrated the heart. Another shot had been prevented from entering the body by the stays the deceased wore. The man was next removed. He was able to walk to the nearest cab stand, where a conveyance being procured, he was taken to the Holloway Police station. There he was examined by Dr. Barry, who, finding that a bullet had entered his cheat, and that he was bleeding internally, ajvised his removal to the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's-Inn-road. The surgeon whilst examining him, remarked that the bullet was deep in the wound. The man exclaimed, "What a pity it is I did not put two bullets instead of one into myself, or that this one did not g,-) to the heart. You don't knowpny troubles." He was then taken to the Royal Freellospital, and on his arrival there he was seen by the resident medical officer, Dr. Cor den, who thought the bullet had entered the left lung. The man complained of being in great pain, but continued to be conscious. In reply to questions, he said his name was William Herbert, that he had no home in England, and that he was an independent gentleman. Whilst Dr. Corden was dressing his wound Herbert said, "I have killed the best friend I had in the world, and I am sorry I have not killed myself; but if I had been allowed another minute I should have been able to have done so." He further stated that he had been in England for about eight months, having come from Ballarat, in Australia, where he had left his wife and family, and that the deceased woman was his sister-in-law. He also muttered something about knowing that he would have to "swing for it" if he lived.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-11-27 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

EXECUTION AT BRISTOL.  At eight o'clock on Monday morning, William Joseph Distin, was executed at Bristol for the murder of a woman named Daniels with whom he cohabited, in the presence of the governor of the gaol, two inspectors, the prison warders, a visitor, and two reporters. Marwood was the executioner, and used the long drop, the pit being ten feet deep, and the scaffold eight feet high. The fortitude which the prisoner exhibited during his trial and up to within a few days of his execution had latterly utterly forsaken him, and he had adopted a penitent mood. He slept very little during last night, and when he was roused on Monday morning he burst into a paroxysm of grief, which it required the uso of stimulants to overcome. He continued groaning during the whole time the pinioning was being done, and he had to be supported from the cell to the scafold by two warders. On reaching the scaffold he was scarcely able to stand, and almost at the last moment he had to be given something to drink; then heaving a deep sigh he muttered, "Lord have mercy upon me!" and, while the chaplain was reading the Lord's Prayer, Marwood speedily completed his task. A few hundred people assembled outside the gaol, but quietly and quickly dispersed when the black flag was hoisted. The crime for which Distin was executed was committed in August last. He and Mrs. widow woman, with whom he cohabited, had Daniels,irequently quarrelled, and on August 27 he stabbed her fatally. An attempt was made to obtain a reprieve on the ground that he had repeatedly endeavoured to commit suicide, and was therefore presumably of unsound mind when he stabbed his victim, but the medical gentlemen sent down by the Home Office could find nothing in the present condition or past history of Distin upon which to recommend a ae priev e, and the Home Secretary refused the prayer of the memorialists.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-12-04 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

INSURANCE APPEAL.  The Court of Appeal had before them on Monday the cause of " Winspear v. the Accident Insurance Company (Limited)," and it was an appeal from a judgment of the late Lord Chief Baron and Baron Huddleston on a special case, and involved the construction of the terms of a policy of insurance. The plaintiff was the executrix of one William Wins pear, deceased, with whom, on the sth bf February, 1879, the defendant company executed a policy of insurance containing the following proviso : "The insured shall not be entitled to make any claim under their policy for any injury from any accident unless such injury shall be caused by some outward and visible means of which proof satisfactory to the directors can be furnished, and this insurance shall not extend to death by suicide, whether felonious or otherwise, or to any injury caused by or arising from natural disease or 'weakness or exhaustion consequent upon disease or by any medical or surgical treatment or operation rendereti necessary by disease, or to any death arising from disease, although such may have been accelerated by accident."  While the policy Was in force, on the 26th of May, 1879, the insured, while crossing and fording a stream or brook called the River Res, in the parish of Edgbaston, in the borough of Birmingham, was seized with an epileptic fit, and while in such a fit fell down into the shallow water and then and there was drowned. The insured did not sustain any personal injury to occasion death other than drowning. The Exchequer Division having decided in favour of the plaintiffs, the defendants appealed. Mr. Cohen, Q.C., and Mr. Gainsford Bruce argued for the defendants; Mr. F. 0. Crump for the plaintiff.  Mr. F. 0. Crump, for the plaintiff, was not called upon to argue._  Lord Coleridge : I am of opinion this judgment should be affirmed. The insured died from drowning in the brook while in an epileptic fit. Drowning has been decided to be an injury—that is to say, an injury causedby anaidental external and visible means. The cause of death was not an injury caused by or arising from natural disease or weakness orexhaustion consequent upon disease. The death was caused by the accident of drowning, and the words of the proviso have no application to this case. The defendants are clearly liable, and the judgment of the Exchequer Division must be affirmed.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-07-11 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

RELEASE OF AN OLD BRIGAND.  The other day, writes the Naples correspondent ef the Daily Netes, after 60 years of imprisonment, put of which was passed in the prison hospitaV,the brigand chief Domenico Nocchia was liberated, and passed through Naples to Rome, where it is probable, as he has no living relative, that. he will be placed in some asylum, for he suffers from asthma and a disease of the leg. This old brigand elder was born 83 years ago, near Viteibo. At 14 years of age he killed the syndic and his brother,a priest, because they wanted to have him arrested. After the murder he fled and joined a band of brigands, leading the life of a highwayman and housebreaker for many years, during which more than a million francs passed through his hands. He used to dress like a superior officer, and quietly frequent the towns of Piedmont, Tuscany, Sic. Of the Neapolitan provinces only the Abruzzi were favoured by hi. 'visits. It was & sweetheart of his who finally enabled the gendarmes to arrest him, without shedding of blood. The price that had been set on his head was 35,000 fr., which the gendarmes gained. He was taken, together with five companions, who were all beheaded; but Nocchia was saved by Prince Orsini, president of the Senate, because, when the prince had once been stopped and robbed by the band, Nocchia had set him free and restosed all that had been taken. Nocchia was, however, condemned to prison for life, but did not cease to commit crimes. In 1841. being vexed with the reproaches of the chaplarn because he refused kneel and kiss the crucifix, Nocchia killed the priest by a stratagem. On July 2nd, 1835, ho had been irritated by a dentist failing to extract a torturing tooth, and had treacherously sharpened a large nail, and killed the dentist with two stabs, and if he had not been disarmed, as be said himself, who knows how many others he might have killed. In 1666, having made a complicated calculation of all the expense of the Crimean War within 10 days, while his prison companions had not been able to manage it in a month, he gained a prize of 50 scudi froin the commanding colonel. Twice L. tried to commit suicide; once at Pesaro, when he swallowed a blister that had been put on a companion's arm. Int,t, he said, without result, as it was as if he had merely eaten a pasty. The second time he had cut a vein in his arm, but this, too, failed. All these things he related with surprising vivacity for an old culprit of 83 years of age.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-05-02 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

FRENCH "BECKY SHARP."  A remarkable adventuress named Dolphin° Geyler, whose notoriety is of long date, and who practised her arts with varying success in Paris, London, and other European capitals, has, telegraphs the Paris correspondent of the Dail!' Telegraph, been condemned at Pau to six months' imprisonment, the sentence being afterwards increased to two years by order of the Paris Court. This new Becky Sharp was born of respectable parents at Nantes in 1829, and received a good education in a convent at Algiers. After two years or so of wedded life in the African Colony she became impatient of domestic ties and went off to Paris , with a clever young fellow who afterwards reset 3 be a noted statesman. In 1863 the Geyler was wandering about France as a Countess. She lived in great style, but came to grief at Lyons, where she had her first experience of the dock and the prison, having been condemned to one year's unprisonment for obtaining goods under false pretences. On her liberation the passed through various cities, from time to time acting as a governess, music-teacher, or (lame de cm?pagizie, in which last capacity she is said to have been employed for a while in London. A few years ago she came to Paris, where she obtained a considerable sum of money from the vicar of a Metropolitan parish, whose church she promised to get her buiband to restore. The said spouse was represens?d to the estimable ecclesiastic as a wealthy English lord. Delphine Geyler was arrested lately at Lourdes, where she was engaged in perpetrating frauds on several pious and opulent pilgrims to that c,lebrated shrine.  A remarkable suicide on the railway near 'Coventry was investigated on Saturday by the coroner. A machinist named Tom Stearland, 30, lodging in the Fox Inn-yard, Coventry, was seen to throw himself on the London and North-Western line, and was ordered off by a foreman platelayer. Stearland went away, but almost immediately appeared upon the parapet of the bridge and shouted, " I'm coming," and jumped on to the line, a distance of 29ft. His head was terribly cut, and he died soon afterwards. It was stated that the deceased had been drinking heavily, and was suffering from depression.—The jury returned a verdict of suicide while temporarily insane. .
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-08-01 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

ATTEMPT TO KILL FRENCH MINISTERS. An unpleasant sensation has been produced in Paris by a mysterious attempt, through ingeniously devised infernal machines, to accomplish the death of M. Constans, Minister for the Interior; M. Etienne, Under-Secretary for the Colonies; and M. Treille, head of the medical department of the Colonial Office. On Thursday morning M. Constans found a letter on his desk, lying upon what was apparently a Roman Catholic prayer book. Recognising the writing on the envelope as that of one of his grandnieces, he appears to have concluded that the book as well as the letter had come from her,and sent both to Madame Constans. On Madame Constans passing her fingers along the gilt-edged leaves of the book, she found that they were stuck fast together. She accordingly handed the volume to her father and asked him to open it for her. He was proceeding to prise the mysterious missal open with a chisel when a servant, who :was standing near, suddenly cried out: "Stop! stop! I see a fuse! " The book was thereupon despatched to M. Goron, chief of the detective department, who caused it to be examined at the Municipal Laboratory. There it was found that the leaves of the book had been hollowed.out in the centre in such a manner as to form a sort of box, and that in the cavity had been placed 200 grammes of an explosive powder, together with about 20 revolver cartridges wrapped in paper. The powder proved to be fulminate of mercury—an explosive so powerful that when a few grains were placed on a table in the laboratory and struck smartly with a mallet they exploded with a report as loud as would be made by 50 or 60 pistol shots. Inside the book was written, "I warned you that I should be revenged." A book similarly prepared was also sent to M. Treille,who was in the act of opening it when some grains of powder dropped out. This circumstance aroused his suspicion. He recollected that he, in common with M. Etienne and some others, had recently received threatening letters from a retired naval surgeon of Bordeaux with a grievance, and it occurred to him that the box might perhaps contain an explosive. He immediately communicated with M. Etienne, who he found had received a box exactly like his own. Both packages were at once placed in the hands of the police, and on being examined at the laboratory proved to be in every respect counterparts of the deadly machine which had been sent to the Minister for the Interior. The author of this diabolical plot had evidently calculated that the slight effort required to open the book would produce a fatal explosion, and it is considered nothing short of a miracle that this did not occur. The three books had all been despatched from Toulon,and M.Goron has left for that town in order to investigate the affair. He has as yet found no clue. A navy surgeon, who committed suicide at Toulon a few days since,may possibly be concerned in the attempt.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-05-23 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

HUSBAND POISONING.  Madame Weis, who, acting on the advice of her lover, a young engineer named Rogues, tried to. poison her husband near Tlemcen, in Algeria, will be brought up for trial before the Oran Assize jutlges on the 28th inst. Rogues, the engineer, sent the lady poisonous preparations, which she put in, her husband's tisane from time to time. One evening a letter, in which she asked her lover for "more poison supplies," was intercepted by the Vicomte de Guery, who holds an official appointment in Algeria under M. Weis. The Vicomte had strong suspicions before he took this step, as he had noticed that M. Weis became very unwell after having swallowed the medicaments prepared by the lady. The epistle having been handed to the• magistrates, Madame Weis was arrested at once andi Rogues committed suicide in Spain. The accused woman, says the Paris correspondent, is 24 yearsold. She was born at Nice, her mother being a. Russian Nihilist and her father a Parisian. Under the tutelage of a Muscovite grandmother the future Madame Weis was initiated into the mysteries of Monte Carlo and other spots frequented by fast, loose people. She had several lovers, but in 1844.• she met M. Weis, tluni artillery officer in Paris. As he had no dowry M. Weis left the army, obtained a Government appointment in Algeria, and then married her. Two children were born of the union, and all went on well until M. Rogues appeared on the scene. Since her incarceration Madame Weis has been preparing her "Memoirs," in which. she throws all the blame of her crime on her departed lover, who, according to her own showing, exercised a kind of mesmeric influence over her. The "Memoirs," by the way, are not only composed of mere diaries and chronicles of evens in the writer's life, but are full of ethical reflections an& philosophic apophthegms, which shew that Madame. Weis is a cultured, if a flighty, person, whose trial will make as much sensation as that. of the morbid moralist Chambige, who was contiemned to penal servitude, in Algeria, about a year ago, for having: been concerned in the death of a married woman!. whom he loved nactsionately.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-09-26 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SUICIDE OF BALM ACEDA.  News has reached Valparaiso to the effect that 4he ex-Dictator Balmaceda committed suicide on Saturday morning at the Argentine Legation in Santiago, where he had taken refuge on finding that it was impossible for him to escape from Chili. Later intelligence from Santiago confirms and gives details of the suicide. It seems that Balmaceda left Santiago on August 29th, in the hope of escaping from Chili, but finding every retreat cut off he returned there on the 2nd inst., and went direct to the Argentine Legation. His intention had been to board the Alrnirante Condell, which he expected to find at San Antonio Bay, and he was much chagrined to find that she had sailed. After his return to the Legation he was extremely nervous, and none but Senor Uriburu, the Argentine Minister, and another man who was devoted to Balmaceda, were permitted to see him. Senor Uriburu went to the theatre in the evening, ane on his return had a long talk with Balmaceda on the subject of the latter's ideas, which had previously been broached, about the advisability of surrender to the Junta. Both retired at midnight. Some time after 8 o'clock on Saturday morning Senora Uriburu heard a pistol shot in Balmaceda's bedroom, and immediately informed her husband, whc thereupon ran to the house of Senor Carl Walker Martinez, and brought him to the Legation. When the door of Balmaceda's room had been forced open they entered and found the ex-President's body still warm, with a gaping wound in the temple. The body was undressed and lay on the bed, the right hand holding a revolver. Senor Torro, Batmaceda's brother-in-law and Uruguayan Minister, soon afterwards reached the house. The Junta was informed, and a Commission, comprising SeIIOITE ! Martinez, Melchor, and Concho, and Judge Aguerra, of the Supreme Court, was immediately appointed to proceed to the Legation and view the body. They there drew up a piwas verbal certifying the facts. The German Minister accompanied the Commission as an old friend of Balmaceda.  The excitement in Santiago was indescribable. Great crowds gathered in front of the I eation, cheering and hooting continually, apparently quite frenzied over the death of the ex-President.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-09-26 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

THE ROUMANIAN ROYAL ROMANCE. • A Paris paper on Friday published a telegram from Milan stating that Mdlle Vacaresco attempted to commit suicide on the night of the 14th inst. at Milan, where she is staying with her mother. She came to this decision in consequence of her separation from the Queen of Roumania, and that she cannot marry Prince Ferdinand. Mdlle. Vacaresco swallowed the contents of a phial supposed to be laudanum. Immediate medical assistance, however, saved her life, and she is now quite out of danger. It is also stated that Mdlle. Helene Vacaresco will write a history of the recent events. This book will throw an entirely new light on the matter, which will be shewn to be not quite so simple as is believed.  The Vienna correspondent of the Daily News describes the departure of the Queen of Roumania from the Venice Station for Pallanza, on the Lago di Maggiore. He describes her condition as most pitiable. She was carried from the gondola to the saloon carriage in a chair, on cushions, with her head reclining on a white pillow. Her hair, cut short, is quite grey. The pained expression of her pale face was heightened by the anxiety she seemed to feel at the mode of her departure. Her eyes had a feverish light in them, her head never moved, but one of the white hands, on which she were no gloves, was waved in sign of adieu to the friends who had come to bid her good-bye. The Queen was lifted into the carriage by the railway guards, and before the train started a large provision of ice was packed into the train. The Minister who is with the King, on being questioned about the Queen's illness, answered that it was the King's and the physicians' secret, but he believes that her nervous system is entirely shattered. At the hotel absolute silence was maintained continually; the slightest noise brought on terrible attacks. During the last few days she would not have a person about her except the King; and her brother, to whom she was formerly much attached, was not allowed to enier her room, as the sight of him convulsed the Quo. M.. She refused to take what was ordered her, and asked for all sorts of things that could not be refused, as the fear of exciting her was too great. Thus she ate lobster in the middle of the night.