The Potteries Examiner : — 1875-06-12 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

MURDER AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE  AT PRESTON.  A. fearful murder was cot's nitt d at Preston about twenty minutes east el, yen oe Tu slay night, the vie. tim being Dorothy Fiddler, 2t: pars of age, the wife of Mark Fiddler, is sell-actor need' r, only two years her ! senior, aml the perpetrator of the crime. The couple ! were married four yrllll3 ago, and lived together up to ! Whitsuntide, when tIM husband, a drunken, worthless ' fellow, sold all the furniture they posse:wed, after a spree, and squandered the proceeds, about 355. only, in 1 debauchery. In coesequenee of his evil habits they had lived very unhaepily together; and when her home was ' thus broken up by her husheud, the poor woman re- ' fu:ed to live with Islets again, notwithstanding his repeated entreaties, and she tea lodgings at the house of a shoemaker named Green, living itt Bleasdale-stmet, Ribbleton Lane. About ten o'clock on Tuesday night Fiddler sent a companion to Greda's house to say that he wanted to speak with her, end the unfortunate woman obeyed the smumous. She and her husband were seen earnestly talking together a long time near the house, he apparently endeavouring to leas:lade her to something which she appeared persistently to refuse. Rebecca Pullet, a fellow lodger, went up to the de. mused and said, "Come in to supper, the potatoes are ready," when Fiddler replied, "She'll not want any. I steal to for 'MT, aud thee do for myself after." At the time above mentioned," nearly half-past eleven, Mrs. Leeming, a neighbour, was talking with Mrs. Green in the doorway of the latter, when sir heard a scuffle outside, and Immediately the &ceased staggered pest her at the door, holding her hand to her throat, which was bleeding proteuely from a frightful gash, and her hands were also cut. The deceased faintly exclaimed " Murder V' was caught by Mrs. Green as she woe falling, and in a few minutes afterwards was a corpse. Her husband had nearly severed her head from her body, and the house floor soon streamed with blood. An unfounded feeling of jealouey, and his wife's refusal to live with him again, are the alleged motives of the crime, which seems to have been del;berately committed, as he has often been heard to say that he would "do" for his wife, who, however, appears never to have feared his threats. Instantly the embolic:o deed was perpetrated, the murderer, who was quite sober at tne case, fled in the direction of Black. burn; but the pe were soon upon his track. As Fiddler bad more Si !'!! once intimated that he would destroy himself alter lee had "done" for his wife, the officers suspected he would attempt to drown himself, and they hastened to the different mill lodges in the neighbourbobi. Their suspicions weep confirmed when they learned from a persen they met thataman answer. tug the murderer's description bed been soon running towards the mill of Messrs. Lancaster and Isherwood. 00 reaching the lodge of water counected with thet establishment they saw the object of their search, in the grey dawn of morning, crouching in a corner of the lodge, at the water's edge. Seeing the officers, he val. I daily plunged lute the water, and it was at once seen that he was no excellent swimmer. He reached the I middle of the ledge directly, and he was them seen to mike is frightful gosh in his throat, probably, with the ! very knife with which he had taken the life of his wife. But it would seem that his courage had failed him ! the attempt, for the wound Ws not eevere enough to prevent him reaching the embankment of the lodge, He was dragged out of the water by Inspector Basemen, and the officers conveyed hen to the Infirmary, where he now lies in the custody of the police. The body of the murdered woman was coneeyed to the public mer. ' henry, in Tithebarn-street, there to await an hiquest. I All the neighboues concur in giving heron excellent character as a Imrd.working, respectable young woman, . Pie also was a mill operative, and earned tie. or 18s. a ' peek as a weaver. Since her marriage, her husband has worked very little,' preferring to lire an idle and dissolute life upon her earnings, and keeping her in abject poverty! as long no eke remained with him. Only an Monday night last she pledged a skirt that her husband might redocin a shirt from pawn, on his promise that he would go to werk.  AN