The Herald of Wales. — 1888-02-11 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

NTECI DENTS OF THE MURDERER. David Davies the young aailor,who so cruelly murdered his ;Me in Hall street on Tuesday slept the following night for the first time within the walls of the Swansea prison. After the proneedings in the police court he was taken down in the prison van, and will, according ,c, present arrangements, be conveyed in the P.M e vehicle to the Waunwen Inn, when the inquest will open at two o'clock this afternoon, before Mr T. N. Talfourd Strick, the deputy coroner for the district. Davies, like his victi-n, oelongs te an old Swansea family. His grand-fatlaer was a wellknown Peninsular veteran and was a pengioner. He was known as "Will veteran, Soldier," and his appearance will no doubt be familia to old reeddents who knew Swansea a third of a century or more ago. His son, the father of the prisoner, was a wild, harttm-soarum sort of man who was called after his sire "Young Will the soldier," or "Wißthe Round House,' the latter name from the fact that he kept the Round House, in Greenhill, which was not, as some may imagine, a tavern, but a greengrocer's shop. He paid:but little attention to the business, the greater part of his time,aocording to one who knew him well, being spent in idling shout. Occasionally he took too much to drink, and on such times he was mad, and became dangeroue, though he never appesrs to have got into any trouble with the police. He was blessed with an excellent wife, "one of the most industrious little women that ever , breathed," says a person who knew both. She was a Perkins, one of the old Swansea Perkins' family, which has been located in , and about Stransea for the last two hundred years. She stuck to the business closely and by ' dint of hard work not only maintained her : children respectably, but kept her husband as , well. Wm. Davies, the prisoner's father, died : about 17 or 20 years ago, leaving five ciildreN, three sons and two daughters. Two of the ) . risutzl p er's brothers, possibly .by the instinct of ' her , found that • eividan's life had no ' charm /or them and joined the Marines. One we und ad is at present in the service, but the , other was Invalided home some time ago. His i discharge, it is said, was due to oonduct will& , was considered somewhat more than erratic. the prisoner, David Davies, also found work ' on shore irksome, and took to the sea, and has been sailin; in and out of Swansea for some , years past. Ile has hitherto been considered a quiet and fairly steady young fella w,and his shipmates speak well of him. He is not a drunkard, ' and although he sometimes took a drop too much ' he never displayed any tendency towards violence. Latterly he had been more morose than usual as though something preyecl upon his mind. His friends have notioed this and when questioned as to why be was so this, he would reply, "I must get a ship," meaning that he , must go to sea again. He appears never to have suggested any criminal intent on his part to any one, though it is possible that something , may come out in the evidence at the inquest , to-jay, which will show that he had been meditating the crime some days previous to its comtnision. It seems also evident that he , meditated suicide on Monday, and bad fixed up a rope in the back kitchen, using a rater as a cross-beam for hie scaffold.