npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-08-26 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

LOVE AND SUICIDE.—The body of a young man named Jordua Priestly, a moulder, aged 23, was discovered in the canal at Huddersfield, on Saturday, and there is relson to believe that he committed suicide in consequence of having had a quarrel with his sweetheart, a young woman named Sarah Calvert. The young womai was coming from her work a little after two o'clock in Saturday afternoon, with some other females, wien she saw in the water something which some of tin party supposed to be a drowned dog. She, howe'er, had a different impression, and she went to the hmise of an aunt of Priestly's, and asked if they knew where he was. Being answered in the negative she said she had seen him in the canal. Some persons wert to the place indicated, and found that it was true. rise body AVM immediately got out. Since the sad occurrence the sweetheart of the de- , ceased has exhibited the greatest manifestations of mental distress, aid on Saturday afternoon was in no condition to give a distinct narrative of what took place between her and the deceased, for she had a series of tits of a severe discription.  RESCUED AT Si.—ln the steamship " Bellona," Captain Dixon, jizt arrived at this port (says the New York Times) w,re two steerage passengers, concerning whom a renarkable incident is related. Franz Meyer, aged 23, ant his wife. Anna, aged 19, from Canton Soleure, Switzerland, were passengers in the ill-fated ship William Nelson, recently destroyed by fire at sea. In the onfusion incident to the efforts to save life, the husbani and wife were separated. The husband was picked up by one of the ship's boats, which was soon fallen in with by the brig Mercury. The wife, young and enciente, was not discouraged at the uncertainty of he husband's fate, but prepared for her own safety. Self-preservation could not suppress her womanly instinct; so far as to ignore the feeble cries for help from an 'dant only 14 days old, left to perish by its distracted parents, but, regardless of her own state, she plungeL, with her self-imposed charge, into the sea. For two vvhole days did this brave young girl support herself ant the infant on the remnant of a ship's spar, without food or water, sustaining the infant's life by the na fisture from her own mouth. Late in the second day the same vessel in which her husband was saved, having ceased cruising, without , hope of rescuing more life, fell in with this heroine, and saved her and her little charge. This brave woman, who has arrived with her infant child, born on board the Bellona, is worthy of some aid from the ladies of New York in her search of a Western home. Dr. Blewitt, the surgeon of the Bellonot, has ascertained the truth of the statement above given.
The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-11-04 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE END OF A FELON'S LIFE.  On Saturday, an inquest was held at the House of Detention, in London, on Charles Gustaldi (alias Dubois, alias Durant), who, with another, had been committed from the Marlborough-street police-court for a robbery at the Earl of Fife's and Lord Eldon's, and who was well known to the police as having been engaged in all the robberies at noblemen's houses in the metropolis for sonic time past. By the evidence of the officials it appeared that on Thursday last deceased was found within half an hour after an officer had visited him hanging from the window in his celL From the examination made it appeared that deceased having made a noose in his handkerchief, had passed the other end of the handkerchief through it, thus forming a second.and sliding noos-, which he must have placed round his neck, then mounting upon the stool provided for him to sit upon, he had placed the free end of the handken.hief, in which he had tied a knot, under the " harmer" or lid of the window, which is curiously shaped, presenting the appearance of a wedge, the lower end being sunk in the wall, and the upper end projecting into the cell, and having (as before stated) a lid to it. Then to prevent the flap from rising and freeing the handkerchief he jammed a wooden spoon between it and the stonework into which the window had been let. Mr. Barnard said he visited deceased in prison as his legal adviser. On the occasion of his last vi4t he told him his case was hopeless, when ' he seemed much affected, and said " Then I shall be transported for life." Afterwarus, when told his sentence might only be fifteen or twenty years, he said, "That is equal to transportation for life, for I am fifty-five years old" (he did not look more than forty). He also said, "When I go to Newgate Mr. Jonas will know me. You remember a Frenchman making his escape from there, and letting two Englishmen out with him. Well, the Englishmen were retaken within a week, but I was not." Thus it was inferred that deceased was the man who had been in Newgate and had made his escape some time back. Deceased further said he had no answer to the charge of breaking into Lord Eldon's, and could prove that he bought the hosiery identified as his lordship's. Witness thought deceased suffered a great change in his mind after this. Dr. Smyles, medical officer of the House of Detention, said he was called to deceased, but found him dead. The coroner having explained the law of felo de se, as applied to criminals who committed suicide, the jury returned a verdict that deceased committed suicide whilst in an unsound state of mind.
The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-10-14 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

HOPEFUL CONVICT.—The chaplain of the Convict Prison at Portsmouth givem the following ac,omit in thin year'n report of "Register 8,615," which is not a page of a book, hot a living man :  Whim convicted, Lincolnshire T was over 40 years of age. lie could barely 'pill through a chapter of the New Testament. It is Just within the provinee of truth to say he coulii write, but he knew nothing of arithmetic. The eldest in a large family of a labourer, he hail noearlyopportunit leg, and lengtlumed courses of intemperance had prevented him from supplOng a deficiency whieli was felt as often as the division of the medusa prim for work he had taken with a party of mates hail to be made. When, however, be got into Wakefield prison he 111,01VV11 to employ his solitude in selfimprovement. With what assistance he could get he attacked the humbler branches of learning MIAS ill the same way as he would remove a mound of earth, and bit by bit he removed the obstruitt' , and stored lip in a workmanlike manner what materials he required or thought would he use, " „, 110011, and night. all spare time was given to study. While at exercise, the officers might observe his lips and face involuntarily working, and think that he was fretting aml muttering to himself. No. lie was refreshing and entertaining himself by repeating sotto Co, his multiplication table, tables of aliquot parts of pounds, shillings. and pence, of weights SIMI measures, and such like. S lice he has been at Portsmouth the same principles have guided him, the name industry has distinguished him. In addition to great improvement in reading and writing be has gone through one manual of arithmetic, with a useful recollection of what he has learnt., 3114 is now progressing in another of a higher class: he has made himself acquainted with the rudiments uI land surveying, and made such inroads on the mechanical studies and parts of music that he hopes by-and-by to be useful to some clergyman of a village as the leader of his choir.  The chaylain adds that he believes this convict to be now a man governed by religious principle. LIFE OF A SERVANT GIRL !—A girl has been charged at a London police-court with attempting to commit suicide. Her story was rather a strange one. She had lived in service, but had lost her situation. Her mistress refused to give her a character, on the ground, as the girl alleges, that she was always reading instead of doing her work. Out or a place, she would not go home to her friends, and for two nights slept under the arches of London Bridge. Then, she says, a young man told her if she were dressed in man's clothes he could get her work at the docks. She went to a second-hand clothes shop and changed her clothes for a man's suit. Still she did not get work, and she was about drowning herself in despair when a policeman saved her life and took her to the station-house. The magistrate gave her up to her friends.  A TA LE OF
The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-02-11 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

LOVE AND JEALOUSY.  What with one thing and another Florence is discontented, and despite three days of fine weather, the Cascine are deserted, and there is no sign of a " Corso " (say* a Florence correspondent). There is a very good oneratic company at the Pergola, and fair performers at the other theatres; but, if we except the little English theatre, where Mrs. Ritchie acted again last night, empty boxes and vacant seats offer little encouragement to managers or performers. The courts of justice are more attractive than the theatres, it seems. NVe have had two cases of jealousy that were very popular. In the first a betrayed wife tracked her unfaithful swam to the house of her rival, Insisted on his directing her to her room, which he in his bewilderment did, and then discharged her revolver, wounding the favoured "Maria," and fled. Extenuating circum• stances admitted, Aurora was pronounced "not guilty," which verdict the public received with shouts of satisfaction. _ _ . .  In the second, the' heroine was a dapper-looking peasant woman of some eighteen years of age, who, it seems, has been for some time past the apple of discord among the youths of Badial at Pino, in the district of Arezzo, and who, according to all accounts, had received more than a hundred offers of matrimony, Weary of these importunities, her father married her out of band to a young peasant named Francesco Rassi, but even this summary proceeding did not daunt her  adorers. One especially, a namesake of her husband, persecuted her unceasingly, and, despite her exemplary conduct, refused to desist, on which she administered waning exhortations • the first time beating him with a vine Pale, the second wounding him with a pistol-hot. No sooner had he recoverrd from this wound than he returned to the charge' and on the 9th of last February received a necondwounil in his shoulder which confined him to his bed for eight months. On this Lucia's husband was arrested, and after a long imprisonment was, a few days since, brought before the Court of Appeal in Florence, and accused of " unsuccessful premeditated suicide." . .  During he trial'l;;;W:s4-examined, and, nothing abashed, she narrated the story of the troubles occasioned by the zeal of her adorer, and affirmed that ate herself, and not her husband, had tired off a gun loaded with two balls united by a hairpin, and which had wounded the importunate Francesco Easel number two, however, the evidence against her husband was too conclusive, and the court condemned him to ten months' imprisonment for unpremeditated attempt at homicide.
The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-03-18 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE.  On Monday an inquest respecting the death of John Hackett, aged 32, late corporal in the (30th Miles was held in London : Mary Sullivan said : The deceased came to lodge with me two months ago. He had been a corporal in the 60th Rifles, but he was discharged in consequence of ill-health from exposure to the climate of India during the mutiny. He stated that his wife died a Month since. Ile got work at Pickle Herring-wharf. On Thursday morning he was called to go to work, and he said, "My time is not up yet; it is right enough, it is not too late." He came down and sat at the breakfast table. He took my baby and seated him on his lap. Ile then said, "Mrs. Sullivan, give me half a cup of tea, or, if you have not that, et hot water." He would not give the cup, but he held it. I raw that he had put a white substance into it, and I asked him Inuit it was. He said, quite coolly, "It is only sugar, Mrs. Sullivan." He added some rum to It, and then tasted it. I said, "You make such a nasty face, that  something must 'he wrong. I will show it to a doctor or throw it in the fire." He clenched his fist in my face, and said, " You will ! and he seized the cup and drank olf the whole of the liquid. He put down the child and staggered to the door, saying, "Let me out of your house. Oh, God ! what agony I' I raised an alarm at once. Isaac Ilunker, a fellow lodger of the deceased, proved having seen him put a powder under his pillow on the Wednesday. He said that it was something good that he wanted for his own purpose, and that he would give witness a dratu of it, hut that it would kill him.  Dr. White said he' was called in t'O—see"iii;lceased, and found him dying from the effects of a very large dose of cyanide of potassium. That poison was easily procurable by soldiers for the purpose of cleaning gold lace. A police constable said that be searched the deceased's room, and ascertained from documents that he hal been 14 years in the let battalion 60th 110les. lie fought at the siege of Delhi, and he lost his health through the Indian climate. He was discharged on the 13th December, 18114, in consequence of ill.health brought on during the Indian campaign. Ile had a pension of 7d. a day for three years. He had two clasps to his medal. He stood well with his officers, and they had induced Colonel Beresford, of the Surrey Mlles, to get him a light employment at Pickle Herring-wharf. While at his employment his manner was strange. It appeared that he had a fortnight ago provided himself with 6d, worth of poison—cyanide of potassium. . . .  . The Cor..aer having summed up, the jury returned a verdict that deceased committed suicide while of unsound mind.
The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-06-17 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

ATTACKING THE SPIRITUALISTS.—The opponents of the spiritualists are persistent in their humorous attacks (says the." Plarienr" of the 'Morning Star). I annex a copy of another bill which I have received : spititualism,—pretessorsolterino, champion medium and spirithaliet; begs to return his sincere thAnks to the nobility and gentry fortheir past patronage, and in issuing his list of novelties for the ensuing season assures than that lie will use every possible exertion to meet the wants of his numerous patrons, and to supply theta with articles of the best construction at the lowest possible prices. He has constantly in stock a large assortment of trick handcuffs, coiling, ropes, goitars, mechanical tables, ,tc ills celebratc.l Davenport noiseless boots still continue to give great satisfaction. Professor Solferino can also offer to ladies his celebrated Marshall Genuflection Crinoline, especially adapted for table rapping, concealing mechanism' knocking down china, glass, shr , in the dark • tlds crinoline is most effective. and used In connection with his patent loaded kid boots the most startling effects can be produced on weak-minded people without fear of detection dx , die. AN EARLY CHANCE —All! opera company was engaged a RilOrt ilium ago in, Paris for roSputlitAineric.an city. -When the cahntiany were •assembled, oil tabard there was a sort of emeefe among the artists, rie it appeased that the manager had engaged three principal tenors instead of one, and the three were all enraged at the deception. " Messieurs," replied the entrepre, when ft little calm had been restored, "you may upon my loyalty. Remember this during the eight days after our arrival at our destination, one iftni will be sure to (lie of yellow fever, and the other will (lie during the rehearsal. The third one who is Roared shall, I assure you, be my first tenor." c Sinvistsm SUICIDE !—The Rev. G. S. Al). bat, valor of Bt.. Mary's, Dublin, and sub-dean of the (impel Royal, committed suicide on Monday, by shooting hiraself through the head with a pistol in hiss own bedroom. Death was instantaneous. Upon his dressing-table WM another pistol loaded with balk He had officiated in his church the disk previous, and went out MI Monday morning in his timid health, and after paying a visit at the Batik of Ireland, returned home in a depressed state of mind, and almost immediately after cbminitted the fatal act. GEpMtN Tuiut oo v. --Au A inerican traveller in Germany gives in the American paPiT, the PreskyOria;ri, the following as the practised results cf. German theo- J logy ;•ft,".Pliblic worship disregarclya. In Berlin„. dat of 400,0 m 00 oit% 41.• re ile:too,opo fte never atiend any, of the thirty-tWoJciiinvlea... Di. Thraluck declares th,t mm fume ii, .01111, atjf:dle, hi the principal service *the fatted* there wyre presents f annsiyi persons ; iik another ehmirh, 'at& :t 4,ndo in,An4.lthuri" v ! I,IOA I lay holkt.ended a einion, whiot be ,was the only Thuthentres dee a* Tuft ak the chbrches are  nen*, rely first of r  one  firll%
The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-04-01 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

DISAGREEING CORONER'S JURY.—It Will, perhaps, be remembered that, about six months ago, and shortly after the failure of the Leeds Banking Com', pany, to whom he owed money, Alexander Iteinberg, a flax commission agent, of Leeds, who was in emberrained circumstances, and had lately been drinking I heavily, committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol. The coroner's jury summoned to determine the I verdict in the cave were unable to agree, seven of them being in favour of felo de se, and five in favour of an open verdict. As they were unable to agree they were brought on Monday, at the assizes held at Leeds, before Mr. Justice Willes, who asked them whether there was any point of law they required explaining ; for, if there was not, he should make a remark or two of his own upon the case : amen gave a sort of proof when he committed= set upon himself that his mind was in an unusual and extrordinary state. It was not unfair to think that he had done that which was contrary to his ordinary dtsposttion by thus killing himself. His lorthhip th-n comrienied upon certain portions of the depositions, whi h tended to show that deceased had been attended by a medical man ; that ten day. before his death he was surferieg from deli riuni tremens ; that he was afterwards drinking hard ; that he I treadta certain cells from his muditors ; and that, the night before hie suicide he hid rrceived a letter from the liquidator on the Leeds Banking Company, calling upon Wm to pay within a certain numher of days, his (lett to the hark Ills lordship next advised the jury to make up their minds upon a verdict if it were possittle for thtrm to come to an agreement, hut he added that if they were unable to agree be should feel it his duty to discharge them. After a brief consultation the foreman of the jury (Mr. W. Holt) stated that they had agreed that the deceased Alexander Reinberg, bad come to his death by shooting himself with a pistol, but as to his state of mind at the time they were unable to determine. The judge expressed his satisfaction that they had arrived at a verdict and they were then discharged.
The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-04-01 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SINGULAR DISCOVERY OF A MISSING BODY.— Several months ago we (Scotsman) reported that a girl, named Jane Foster, had committed suicide by throwing herself into the Clyde at Clydesome Green, when the river was very much swollen. No trace of the body could afterwards be found, until Friday, when it was discovered after a search which was brought about hi the following extraordinary way : A little girl who had been residing with a relative In Laeark about the New Year time, having returned home to Glasgow, diaappeared veiy mysteriously next mond, g after her &trivet Every exertion was made to effect be: discovery, and among' other means adopted was the insertion of an advertisement in one of the Glasgow im papers by her parents. A day or two after its appearance • man called at their b use, sta ed that he bad Ken he advertisement, that he • imself had bad a rei.r.eve drowned In the Clyde w.me year ago, that be had consulted • female " clairvoyant" (whoa name and address ho garerhei)nnht where the body would se found, and beat In e j Lit a would u lndicatedben. naturally rtalhley c.luapirpvoo.yeadn, t thisthe bobedny, benevolent s regardingsctorvanereg stranger elicited from the bereaved mother full tfc. her daughter's visit to Lanark. age, As., and wound up by  _ recommending an application to the clairvoyant. Hopin by this Meatus to find out the remains of their chic', the parents sent to the prophetess, who, armed of course with the informatioa afforded by her accomplice, the benevolent stranger, entered Into an elaborate history regarding the girl's disappearance, and indicated that she had stumbled into the Clyde near Lanark, and been drowned, and that is r body would be found at the foot of S'onebyres Falls. I umeled by this apparently superhuman knowledge ,which, it ;omit be seen, is nothing more nor less than Snot very shrewd pues,' the parents, timed a search to be made ov Friday, whichresultid in the discovery alluded to. "A