The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1869-02-13 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

EAST LONDON.  A terrible double murder was perpetrated on Sunday evening last, Which in some respects is remarkable for atrocity even in the annals of the most savage crimes. (line of the victims was an old man, deaf and nearly blind, who had reached the extreme limits of the &Area in of human life; and the other, his granddaughter, a young woman twenty-six years of age. The supposed murderer is JOhll William Cooper, an engineer, out of work, twenty-six years of age, who has lost the thumb of his left hand, and eho is so well  known that his arrest, if he ha.s not committed suicide, cannot long be delayed. Ile lived with his wife, Sarah Ann Cooper, at No. 2, Russell-place, Poplar, immediately facing West India Docks, a low building containing six rooms. In the , same house were also living a man named Peter l'earson, aged 86 )ears, who was very deaf and nearly blind; his ' daughter, Eliza Taffe, mother of Mrs. Cooper ; and her hueband, George Taffe. These five persons occupied the whole of a six-roomed house. Cooper, the suspect.' murderer, it Is said, lived on very indifferent terms with his wile and her parents and grandfather. At about half-past five o'clock Mrs. Taffe went out to see her sister, Sirs. Gooch, who lives in the East India-road, and Mr. Taffe went to church, the husband of the murdered woman mit being in the house. Mr. l'affe did not start for church till nearly half-past six, and when Mrs. Taffe returned , home at about eight she could not gain an entratice to the house as usual. Mrs. Taffe, naturally becoming alarmed, went back to Gooch's house, and lie rammed with her, lint finding no entrance was attainable the front way he got over the back wall, and, on entering the room in which they had all been sitting, and hail had their tea, found poor old Pearson and Mrs. Cooper lying dead on the floor. Mrs. Cooper was lying underneath, and old Pearson partly over , her, their throats being cut in a most savage and determined manner, so that life must have been extinct immediately. There was a long sprilig-back clasp knife lying on the floor by the side of the bodies, and, from its appearance, the fearful deed had 'men committed with that weapon. The floor and almost every article in the scantily-furnished apartment were covered with blood. That a desperate striggle had taken place was manifest, a kitchen thole having been knocked down and the legs broken, anti the remnants of a table-lamp being scattered over the place. 'There was jib. Iv} if water in the kitchen which hail been used by the murderer after he had butchered his wife and her grandfisthem in washing the blood from his hands. After the murders were perpetrated the murderer must have lighted a candle and proceeded up-stairs, for what purpose is not defined, for a candlestick was found with marks of blood upon it; and the Imprint of his hand (in blood was recognised on the wall of the staircase. The police were at once sent for amid the excitement that speedily prevailed in such a locality, and on Inspector Smith going to the spot he called in Dr. Brownfield, the divisional surgeon, who, with assistance, examined the bodies, in which no signs of life remained, and they were therefore left until the inquest, the police taking charge of the premises. During the whole of Monday Inspector Smith, and Inspectors Thomson and Meiklejohn, of the detective department, Scotland-yard, were actively engaged in making , inquiries, and endeavouring to trace the supposed murderer.