npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-05-27 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

THREATENING A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW. Bbenezerelements, a retired naval engineer, who resided in Bridge-street, was brought up by warrant charged with using violent and threatening language to his daughter-in-law, Julia Mary .Clements. Mr. Moore was for the wriniecntion. About six weeks ago the prieoner • was • charged with attempting to co it suicide by stabbing himself, and was untr,for trial at the sessions. At his trial be promised . to abstain from drink, and not to go near his wife again, and he was discharged 111)011 entering into his own rec,ognisances to eoniirsplor judgment should he again commit a iimijl,.r offence. 'l:lke complainant stated that on the 17th instant the prisoner called at the house and liked to see his wife and children. She told they were not in, and she did not know *here they were. She asked him why he  bothered her, and threatened that if he did not go away she would send for • polieeman. She then shut the door, and he went away. In about ten minutes he returned and kicked and hammered at the door, attracting a large crowd in front of the house. He abused her, and wanted to know how many men she had bad in the house since her husband went away. He raised his hand, and said, "Julia. as sure as I stand here and am a living man, I will be revenged on you." Complainant then Bent for • policeman. When he was in the neighbourhood she was afraid to go out of the house in consequence of the prisoner's threats to do her bodily harm. Jane Emma Penny (the complainant's mother) corroborated her daughter's evidence. Superintendent Clarke said that on the day In question the prisoner called at the police. office and asked for a constable to accompany him to the house to demand his wife to come out. The prisoner was warned not to go to the house, and he left. In a short time, however, he was brought back to the police. office for making a disturbance at the house, but on promising not to further annoy his wife and daughter-in-law he was allowed to go. He was in a very exalted state. Detective-officer Bateman said he appreheaded the prisoner by warrant in Liverpool. He denied having used threats to the complainant, and said th:t .ths wile had sent him a letter -An a lot of stuff in it about his going ,to marry another woman. He was so vexed that he tore-the letter up. In answer to the magistrate, the prisoner said his daughter and daughter-in-law were the cause of all the trouble between himself and his wife during the past twelvo months. If he got a situation in London he would go there, but failing that he would go abroad.  Mr. Moore wished the magistrate to read some letters which the prisoner had sent to his wife, charging her with having committed gross crimes, including adultery, and stating that he had offered marriage to a woman who advertised for a housekeeper's situation. The magistrate agreed to look over the letters, and prisoner was remanded till Saturday.
The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-07-01 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

THE "HARD CASE."  The " hard " case commented on in these columns last week now bears a very different aspect than it did then. Charles Frost, the man who alleged that he had been impelled to attempt to commit suicide through the misfortunes resulting from an unjust sentence of penal servitude, seems to be an idle, ne'er-do-well, though it is true that he was once wrongly convicted. He was brought before the London magistrate again on Saturday, when the chief clerk said that a communication had been received from the surgeon of the gaol stating him to be of sound mind. The magistrate, Sir Thomas Dakin, then addressed the prisoner in the following cutting terms:--" What you toll mo now ratan,i oonrma tha view I have taken that you jumped from the bridge not with, the object of committing suicide, but in order to enable you to call attention to what you call your hardships. I am not prepared to believe you, for the papers before me show that although you were set at liberty after a part of your sentence had expired, yet in each case you were assisted with money, and in 1880 a situation was found for you, and you worked at the Small Arms Factory from then until this year, when you discharged yourself. This money was given to you and a situation found ion, but you prefer idleness and to get your living by this kind of exposure rather than by honest hard work. You have been fined for drunkenness in the present year. These antecedents do not induce me to listen to your statement of hardship." The accused, thus "cornered," meekly pleaded that he left the Small Arms Factory because he was troubled with rheumatism. He was then discharged, the magistrate considering the week he had been in prison sufficient punishment for the:foolish of which he had been guilty. It is to be feared that this ease is not an uncommon one, and that there are many persons who pretend to commit suicide in
The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-06-10 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

GOING TO BED IN THE STREET.  An incident has just occurred in Liscard which is calculated to shock that quiet village out of its propriety. It appears that in the small hours of Saturday morning Police-constable Ennion, as the representative of law and order in Liscard-village, was somewhat startled at finding a man's outfit on one of the roads. The only article necessary to complete the outfit was a shirt, but a search resulted in toe discovery of one of the sleeves of that garment in a sad condition of looped and windowed raggedness. Fearing that some horrible deed suicide, or perhaps even a murder had been perpetrated, the officer, with a vigilance that is worthy of emulation, availed himself of the first opportunity to make a thorough investigation with s view of unravelling the mystery. All the pits in the neighbourhood were dragged, and a close search made in every dark spa where it was conceived that the body of the imaginary victim could have been concealed, but no clue to the mysterious affair could be obtained. The activity of the police authorities did not, however, rest here. Inquiries were instituted in other parts of the country, but the result was the same in every instance—labour lost. At the beginning of this week, however, light was brought upon the matter from an unexpected quarter, and it was discovered that the clothing belonged to a gentleman of good social position in the neighbourhood, and who is fortunately still in the land of the living. According to his own admission, this gentlemen, who resides in Wallasey, and is in business in Liverpool, became enamoured of Sir John Barleycorn, and about midnight on Friday, being possessed with the idea that he had reached his home, divested himself of his garments while in Liscard village. He made frantic attempts to throw his shirt aside, but he only succeeded in tearing away the sleeve. Having laid him- , self down on the road he was soon fast asleep, ' but in due course he awoke, and not being able to find his clothes proceeded homewards in a nude state, save from the residue of the shirt which still clung to him. His wife was naturally alarmed at his condition, and the fact that her • good man' could not give any account of himself was not calculated to allay her feelings. In more sober moments, how. ever, he had a dim recollection of his eccentric conduct on the previous night, and on his representation the police have given up custody of the clothes.
The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-12-30 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

EXMOUTH-STREET HORROR.  T EMT', 1421'0122 MB. PREEMON.  EXTRAORDINARY DISCLOSURES. Ax.the Borough Police-court, on Wednesday, Joseph Teece, fishmonger and poultry dealer, of Exmouth-street, was brought before Mr. Preston. He was charged with having shut the girl Jane Wainwright with intent to murder her, and also with having attempted to commit suicide. Mr. Moore prosecuted, and Mr. T. M. Bleakley appeared for the defence. The prisoner's head was encased in bandages, but he seemed in much better health than might have been anticipated. During the proceedings he conducted himself with great composure, his demeanour being one of intelligent watchfulness. He pleaded not guilty through his solicitor. Mr. Moore, in opening the case, gave &brief sketch of the evidence he intended to call, and read the following letter, addressed to Mrs. Tone, which had been found in one of the prisoner's pockets :—" Perhaps you will blame me for what I have done, but I am in such a state of fear I am compelled. There is a man in Liverpool named James or Edw. Fletcher, who lives in Prussia street, a milk dealer, formerly a butcher, had two or three shops in Toxteth-park. Once he had a shop in Patricroft and once in Manchester. Him and I were together in London for seven weeks. He was living as man and wife with his wife's sister, and I with his sister. (Horrible.) He told me he poisoned a child in Toxteth-park, and that be made base coin. I fell out with him, and called him poisoner and coiner, and ever since he has been on my track. The girl Jane Wainwright told me he forced her to immoral purposes, then compelled her to buy some sort of an acid, and for the last months I have been half mad, and then I believe she took the money to him, and I fear that he is going to take a room for her. I knew if I did not kill her myself he would murder me, and rather than she should go to be a p isoner I would kill her. Fletcher has served a lot of time in gaol in Manchester, and I have told two or three about him, and tley have believed I was mad. In London we lived at 85, Caledonian-road, King's-cross. He took the name of Lewis, and I the name of Fletcher. Well, now I I have no hope in this world. I am ruined, no doubt through my own folly, but I have fretted a good deal. —Yours, J.
The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-12-16 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

THE MISSING BIRKENEINAD LADY.  The sad mystery co-mected with the disappearance of a young married lady at Waterlo was --et at rest on Monday afternoon by the ft ding or the body. The unhappy lady was the wife of Mr. Leig't, stock and share broker, living at Birkenhead, and was only twenty-one years of age. Three mo,iths ago she was confined of a child, after which she fell into a desponding state, and for the benefit of company and attendance she was taken to stay with her mother at the honse of her father, Mr. John R. Pollit, br.ker, Myrtle. bank, Crosby-road, Waterloo. From there she disappeared at five o'clock on the afternoon of Thursday, the 30th ult., having neither hat nor jacket on. From the moment she WRS missed up to the finding of her dead body there hat been no relara'ion of endeavours to find her. Every conceivab!e plans in the neighbourhood—Vie canal, pits, ditches, and brooks—were searched, and enquiries made far and near, bat without result. It Was, SS a last resor, determined to bring a diver to search a pit in the grounds of Mr. Cornelius, of Park House, wnich had been repeatedly searched before with (bags without ,esult, and after two hours' labour the man succeeded in finding the body in very deep water, about fifteen feet from the bank. Ihe pit or pond is about a hundred yards distant from the lady's father's house, and although t e grounds are surrounded by a high wall the gate is always on the latch. The reason given for the body not having been recovered by the drags is that it was under some trees, and that that portion of the pond had not been dragged 1-tr fear of the irons catching the roots. Except the paleness of death, there was no change in the appearance of thy body, and there did not appear to b • anything missing of her dress or jewellery. The body was removed to the mortuary, and 11r. Driffield, the county coroner, held an inquest on Tuesday, when a verdict of " Committed suicide while in a state of temporary insani y was returned."
The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-01-14 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

THE BIREENICSAD NEWS. SIR,—I don't often trouble you, Mr. Editor, but I'm afraid the world's coming tie an end, as Doctor Cumming, the Scotch divine, prophesied long ago' though he died before it came to pass. I really think so, because the papers for the last month or two have been fall of all kinds of outrageous things occurring every day dreadful to mention, which makes the very air of my head stand up on an end— such thing as married women eloping off with their single young men lodgers; husbands with their neighbours' wives, and wives with other folks' husbands; a young married lord walked off with country gentleman's better half, just as they would an umbrella, leaving his own wife, a black diamond of the first water, tearing her air; married ladies running off to France with young earls still in their teens, before they know what's what; suicides, murders, shipwresks, and other eatastrophies fill up the catalogue, and satisfy me, Mr. Editor, that the beginning of the end is not far off. Then we have people taking leave of their senses in trying to get to Heaven in a balloon when the nights are at their longest and the wind and weather dead against them. Everybody wants to get rich in the twinkling of a bedpost, without doing aught for it. So mnoh adulteration takes place in everything we buy that I fear I shall be poisoned one of these fine days before I know it myself. When my dear husband Timothy was alive he always attended to the groceries, and bought the finest raw Jamaica coffee, which we roasted and ground in our own kitchen. The coffee I have to put up with now in canisters is more than half Mowry, and they call it French, as used in Paris though made in Liverpool, and it gives me the heartburn whenever I take it. Then, again, when I complain of more chicory than I like, the fellow offers me dandelion coffee and date coffee, which he tries to push upon me with his gammon, because they are highly recommended, he says, by the faculty, but who them fellows are / dont know, ind dont care either. Then the square pieces of white sugar sold in the shops are all made from roots in France, and never saw sugar oane. The milk I get in a morning is half water, but the girl that brings it says it isn't, or the water would swim to the bottom. My daughters' dresseeftt so tight round their legs that when one fell the other day she had to be assisted by two cabbies to get on her legs again to say nothing of the dress behind, that waddles about like the rudder of a boat. The young ladies say everything is awful—is atefttlly good, awfully lively, awfully old—the word looks ten times herder than any other— and its awful to relate, which satisfies me that the world's coming to an end.
The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1913-01-04 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

COTTON BROKER'S SAD END.  The melancholy circumstances of the death of Mr. Robert Kellock, aged 68, the well-known Liverpool cotton broker,- were disclosed at on inquest held by the Cheshire County Coroner. on Thursday. Deceased was found dead in a pond at• Great Sanghall on New Year's Day. Cecil Robert Kellock, son of the deceased, said his father, had suffered lately from depression, for which there was no cause. Witness kept his company a good deal during the last fortnight he had been at home, but he had not been watching him by the instructions of the doctor. Deceased used to imagine that things would happen which were unlikely and even impossible, but there was nothing to suggest that he might take his life. His condition was much improved on Monday, and although he was not quite so well on Tuesday he played cards and billiards. On Wednesday morning witness came down to breakfast rather late, and his mother told hini that his father had gone out, probably to the Post Office. When he had not returned in half-an-hour—the Post Office being only two minutes' walk away—his mother became anxious, and witness went in search of his father, but could not find him. He returned to the. house, and went ont again with. a search party, including his mother, and at last they found deceased's body in a pond in a field._  Henry Ciayi., joiner at Shotwic-k- Park, deposed that he went in search of deceased, and found him in a pond which was about 20 feet from the footpath. The water was Sit. 6in. where the body was. It was Boating face downwards about four yards from the bank, and deceased appeared to have dropped in head first. Witness attempted to restore animation. but without success.  The Coroner said he did not think there was any question as to the state of dee.meed'.3 mind. It was quite evident that he hati-4)esti depressed to such an extent that his friends were taking care of him. It was not likely that he had fallen into the pond, because it was 20 yards from the pathway. The presumptive evidence was that those who knew deceased best exPeoted to find him in the pond, and they went there to look for him and found him. The jury found that deceased committed suicide during temporary insanity, and they expressed their sympathy with Mrs. Kellock and her two sons. Mr. A. Morrison acknowledged on behalf of the family.  WM Ter Mena OM 60 merfram WUCIILOW'3 k slaa boa known 7, Claishea's rims. . MOOTELIXO at Mgr I•Sag tOO LW "48` STSUZ *ear:o= ttaddr LeSk 1434 i Sii lOWA
The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1913-05-17 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

FRED M. WHITE.  CHAPTER .IC%X.:7(Contini!ed.)  Du Cros was still busily engaged in swallowing that troublesome Limp 111 his throat. He stepped softly by Kate's side into the garden and breathed more freely as the road was reached. He did not trouble to inquire whether Wel!grave was following. As proximity to the dreadful thing that he had left behind him lessened, some of his courage revived. There was, he hoped, no real evidence to conneot him with the tragedy in that lonely house. The body might not be found for a day or two. No medical man could prove Lancaster's death to a few hours. It might even be conjeotured that he had committed suicide. It was just the thing a desperate man, hunted and penniless, would do. It was long odds against the police going Into that room at all. On the whole, the case did not look so black as his fears had pictured.  Du Cros was conscious of a distinct rise In his spirits. With hack he would get the better of his enemies yet. With that weight off his mind he would show Kate what he was made of. He walked with a bit of swagger and ventured a smile. "You don't object to my smoking?" "That is very polite of you," Kate said. "Such courtesy is rare. You may smoke if you please. The smell of tobacco is at least wholesome." With a bow Du Cros reached for his cigarette-case. It was not in the breast pocket where he generally carried it. He searched hi a other pockets, but the case was not to be found. The haunting fear returned in full force. What had became a the case? He had had it an hour or so before; he was certain it was in his pocket when he reached the bookmaker's residence. Could it have fallen out of his pocket in the house, in that room? He had a dim recollection in connection with the ease, but for the life of him he could make nothing tangible of it. "Worried again?" Kate asked. "I have lost my eigarette case," Du Croa muttered. "I had it in my pocket an hour &P."  "A valuable one," I presume? The kind of thing a millionaire would eatry?" "No; merely a silver ease. But I would not have lost it for ten times its worth."  "Strange how one gets attached to these trifles," Kate answered. "I dare say you will recover it if you advertise jot it. Is your name on it?" That was the source of his present vexation. His name was not on the case, but his initials were. If he had dropped it in Lancaster's house, why—
The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1913-10-18 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

USE SUNLIGHT SOAP!  L.A.=  Compensation Award.  At the Birkenhead County Court on Thursday, before —His Honour Judge itanger, an award of .21,5,compeneation and Al 5 costs was made in the case of Richard Graham, against the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. .7tLr. A. T. Miller, for the respondent, intimated that subject to his Honour's approval, MT, W. Procter (for the applicant) and he had agreed that, that sum would meet the case. The applicant would be fit for light work, and would i4l fact have been fit. for full work if he had gone IV to lieht work earlier. Judzment was entered accordingly.  The Dublin employers have issued the rethey undertook to make to Sir George Askwith's r‘port. They say they are compelled again to refuse to recognise the men's union until it is raorganised on prow lines. They Woad then withdraw their ban. Existing circuanstamoes as:copal them to insist on tbe undertaking to keep agreements being signed, and that the guarantees must be the subject of legislation, as is is of universal importance to the whole trsding connivanitY.  . Get Mr. Gargill to pray over me and sing 'Above the waves of earthly strife, my home is there, my beautiful home,' 'Abide with me, fast falls the eventide, The darkness deepens, Lord with me . abide. When other helpers fail and 'comforts flee, Helper of helpers, Lord abide with me.' Give my beat love to all." Mrs. Reeves, neighbour of the deceased, said she had never heard of the neighbours annoying her. P.C. Humphreys spoke to reeeiving the letter, cup and bottle (produced) which contained the carbolieene, from P.C. I Richardson. .  Mrs. Harriet Owens, 37, Sun-street, wife of Edward Owens, said that no one in her family. had annoyed Mrs. Richardson. • Questioried closely by the Coroner, she t admitted that there had once been a dispute between her daughter and deceased about one of witness's children, but there was no systematic attempt to annoy her. The Coroner, summing up, said there was no difficulty about the immediate cause of death,-nor in arriving at the fat that deceased .took her life herself. The only point .was what was the state of her mind when she did it. The evidence was pretty Clear that from the time of her last confinement—eight months ago—she had been depressed and to some extent affected mentally. The evidence was sufficient for the jury, if they saw fit, to say that when she did this she was insane. As lo whether or no deceased was sneered at, or interfered-with, or teased by the neighbours, it' seemed to him to be answered ;to a very conaiderabbe extent byothe evidence of those neighbours. No 'doubt something may have been said to.her,,but there was evidently nothing . in. the nature of victimiaition. There had been no attempt to make her life unbearable to her, or Mrs. Reeves, de.. ceased's own friend next door, would have known about it. Although something might ; have happened there was nothing of any serious moment. The jury returned a 'verdict of "Suicide whilst temporarily insane," and expressed ; sympathy with Mr. Richardson in his sad ; trouble.