npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Commonwealth. — 1866-07-07 (London, England)

PROSPEROUS MAN AND HIS FANCIED POVERTY.  In the London Court of Probate, the case Hill v. Hughes was decided on Saturday. This was a suit to establish the will of Richard Hughes, a hairdresser, at Manchester, who committed suicide on the 12th of October, 1865. He had made a will in 1856, and to that he added a codicil in 1863. The will and codicil were then delivered to his banker for safe custody, but were returned to him at his request upon the 14th of September, 1865. At that time and until his death he was of unsound mind, being under the impression that he was a ruined man, when, in fact, his business was in the same state that it had been for some time previously, and he was worth about .£3,000. This fact was proved to him from his books by an accountant employed to look into his affairs, but he would not understand the truth, and while still labouring under the delusion as to poverty, he cut his throat and then threw himself into the river. The will, which was known to be in his possestion on tho 14th of September, could not be found after his death, and the presumption was that he had destroyed it while of unsound mind, in which case the draft of the will would be admitted to probate.  The defendant admitted the unsoundness of mind, but pleaded that the evidence was not sufficient to show that the will was destroyed after the commencement of the mental illusion.  Dr. Spinks api)eared for the plaintiff, and the Queen's Advocate and Mr. Thomas Jones for the defendant.  The jury found that the will was in existence on the 11th of Septewber, after which date the insanity was proved. The court, therefore, declared in favour of the validity of the will, with costs out of the estate.
The Commonwealth. — 1866-07-07 (London, England)

MURDER OF TWO CHILDREN AND SUICIDE OF THE MURDERER.  On Saturday night, a horrid tragedy took place at Lee Bank, Halifax. A carpet weaver named Ephraim Smith, about 40 years of age, murdered two of his children and then cut his own throat. The youngest child, named Emma, five years of age, appears to have been suffoeated in bed. The next child, aged ten years, and called Elizabeth, had her throat cut. After which the father must have cut his own throat. All wore quite dead when found. The family occupied a single room,being the top of a three- storey building—a room sometime since used as a Wesleyan Sunday•school—access to it being obtained from Old Bank, in Lee Bank. The family consistedof the father, a weaver at Messrs. Crossley and Sons, carpet manufacturers. His wife is an inmate of the Wakefield Lunatic Asylum, where she has been two years. There were three children—namely, Emma (aged five years), Elizabeth (ten years), and William (thirteen). The boy William had been to Halifax fair, and did not return home until eleven o'clock at night. He was surprised to find the house door fastened, and knocked frequently for admission. As no response was given., he threw open a window, put his arm through, unlatched the door, and entered, and was horrified to find his sister Elizabeth behind the door, and apparently dead. There was no light in the house, and he ran out and gave an alarm. Two men, named Broadbent and Walton, the latter an ex-policeman, entered with a candle, and the full horror then burst upon them. The father was seated upon the floor, with his back against the wall, under the front window, his head almost severed from his body. Around him a was a pool of blood, and upon the floor, at the distance from him of about half a yard, was an open razor besmeared with blood. Behind the door was lying the girl Elizabeth on her right side, also in a pool of blood, her neck and throat having been out on the right side. She probably struggled hard, for the knuckle of the third finger on the left hand has an 'incised wound. She was naked, except a chemise upon her. The child Emma was found dead upon the bed, with her face downward. She was dressed. There was no blood about her, nor marks of violence. The opinion of those who found her was that she had been smothered by the bed•clothes. One neighbour only appears to have heard any noise in the house, and he did not imagine that murder was being committed. That was about ten o'clock. The father has been known as a steady man, his general conduct being such es to cause the greatest surprise that he should have been guilty of murder.
The Commonwealth. — 1866-06-30 (London, England)

LOVERS' QUARRELS.  Matilda Naylor, a pretty, fair-haired girl,- with great nimplieity of manners, was brought before Mr. Paget, at the Tbaraes-stre at Police-court, on Tuesday, charged with attempting 40 commit suicide in ,the waters of the Regent's Canal at Limehouse. A police.constable of the it division stated that he was on dulyat the top. of Salmon's,lane last night, and heard that a female had plunged into the canal from the bridge. Ha fotuid the prisoner on the bank. She had just been taken out of the water, and was nearly insensible. She said she had been quarrelling with her young ,man, and that caused her to make the rash attempt on her life. Mr. Paget asked the prisoner if she.had anything to, say, and she ,replied in ;a r simple and artleas.manner, • "I quarreapd ,witbthe,young man, I have been keeping company with." _  M. Paget: And that caused you to commit thia wicked act?  The prisoner: Yes, sir. John Wallace, a youth, said he had been keeping company with the prisoner for three months. He left her at the corner of the Dog-row, 31ile-enl, last night at a quarter past ten o'clock. They had some ,words, and she would not let him see her home, and said she could go home by herself. The mother.of the prisoner was, desired to enter the. witness-box,,and• she said, I know nothing about it at all., My daughter left home very corafertahly yesterday afternoon, at half-past two o'clock." Mr. Paget remanded the prisoner for a week to the Clerkenwell House of Detention, where she would have the benefit of the spiritual 801V103 and consolation. of the worthy chaplain. Mr. Paget,at the same time directed the mother of the girl to attend the court when her daughter was again, brought up. The mother: Please, sir, can I see my daughter? Let me see her.  Mr. Paget: Yes, you can see her. Speak to the gaoler. The prisoner was removed from, the court crying for her mother, with whom Roche, the gaoler, soon arranged an interview.  Attempting to Set Fire to a Woman.—At Manchester a woman named Maria Lumm was charged with assaulting a widow. named Mary Meeham by attempting to sot fire to her clothes. The proseoutrix stated that on Sunday morning she was at Patricroft, near whore the prisoner lived, and observed the latter ranniug after her. The prisoner had in her hand some matches, and with one of them, lighted, she tried to light witness's dress. Assistancewas. at hand, the mataes were taken from her, and no more damage than a little scorching was, fortunately, done. The ,prisone: had so conducted herself at times as to prove that she was, totally unaooountable for her actions. Die magistrate said she was undcodly ineark,T2Al rein-nezZ her.
The Commonwealth. — 1866-08-25 (London, England)

OOO. The workpeople were at the mill when the flames were observed, but they all escaped without injury, notwithstandir, g the alarm and confusion which followed the eiscovery of the fire. The adjourned inquest on the body of the boy Jefferys, woo was found hung in a cellar in St. Giles's, ...as resumed on Wednesday. A letter WAN read from Howe Office, explaining that the Government old not offer a reward for the apprehension of the boy's father until the jury had returned a verdict of wilful murder against him. The jury then found a verdict of wilful murder against Richard Jeffery, the boy's father. A Fatal Mistake.—A boy named Thomas Hey, of Leed,road, Huddersfield, employed at Messrs. Joshua Schofield and Sons, manufacturers, got out of the ueaer storey, the other day, intending to go down by the hoist. He got hold of the iron at the top of the hoist, which is a circular one, and then dropped down, but instead of going dawn inside as no intended, he fell outside, a depth of five storays, and died from the injuries in 15 or 20 minutes. The deceased was 15 years of age. Whitebait in the River Liffey, Dublin.--Yr. W. Brabazon, author of "The Deep Sea and Coast Fisheries of Ireland," has made the agreeable discovery that whitebait in abundance is to be found in the River Liffey, Dublin. I; appears that boys have been up to the present in the habit of catching them with a mianow hook, that they are to be felted in large enantities along the banks of the river, and that the fishermen, always lookiag upon them its fry, have not even attempted to tike them. Singular Case of Suicide at Etruria.—A young man named Abraham Powell, 18 years of ace, shot himself in the head in Etruria Woods on Sunday evening. He left the home of his father, a commission agent at Hanley, in July last, and nothing was heard of him by his parents till Monday morning, when they received a letter adaressed by him from Liverpool appointing to meet ),im in the woods. It appeared he arrived at Etruria by a train from Liverpool late on
The Commonwealth. — 1866-04-07 (London, England)

SHOCKING SCENE AT THE SCAFFOLD.—The law provided the inhabitants of Exeter with a revolting spectacle on Wednesday. Mary Ashford first intrigued with her husband's journeyman and then poisoned her husband. It was an atrocious case, and the convict before her death had some idea that it was so. Since her trial she suffered the acutest mental torture. In one of her paroxysms she reproached herself ior what she had done, saying, "flow could I have done what I did to so good a man ?" In another she attempted to commit suicide. She contemplated her approaching end with the greatest horror. The last scene was painful enough. She was too faint to walk to the pinioning-room : when got there she was almost insensible. Three warders carried her to the steps of the gallows, and then under the fatal beam. They had difficulty in keeping her upright, and to hold her head whilst Calcraft put the rope round her neck, had to hold the wretched creature till the bolt was withdrawn. "The lower portion of the wretched woman's face," says the local reporter, " could be observed to become almost immediately blackened, and the body twisted, so that for a momeet the convict's back was turned towards the crowd of hushed onlookers. Her neck, however, was not broken by the fall, and, notwithstanding that her arms and feet were secured; she on swinging round caught at one of the planks which by accident were left level with her hands. Both planks were immediately removed, and the unhappy woman clasped her hands, let them fall, raised them quickly and apart, and one hand seemed to travel rapidly, as high as the pinioning would allow, towards the rope above it. Such prolonged .suffering excited the greatest horror in those who beheld it, and Calcraft, finding that she continued to struggle, seized her bound legs, and instantly weighed her body down, so that after about half a minute, during which her hands moved twice upwards to her breast, but without their former vigour, they dropped and remained upon her lap. Thus at eleven minutes past eight o'clock the last penalty had been exacted. The portion of the awful ceremony in which the culprit had actually taken part on the gallows occupied precisely seven minutes."
The Commonwealth. — 1866-09-22 (London, England)

ENGLISH GIRL IN FRANCE. The Temps gives tho following account of an extraordinary suicide committed by a young English girl in France: 7 M. and Madame S--- residing in the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honor 6, engaged, as governess for two young daughters, an orphan girl, Lucy B—, a native of Liverpool. She was well acquainted with the English and French languages, drawing, and music. Possessing a sweet temper and engaging manners, she was greatly respected and belayed by M. and Madame 3-7, When they went to their country seat, in the beginning of summer, she went with them. There she became quite melancholy, and though every means were employed to divert her, she continued in this atate and refused to give any reason for it. At length she attempted to commit suicide by means of the fumes of charcoal, but she was discovered in time to prevent the completion of her design. A- physician was called in, who directed that she should be carefully watched. This was done; but one day Lucy B— suddenly disappeared, and no one was able to tell where she had gone. Fifteen days passed from the period of her disappearance. At the end of that time a disagreeable smell was noticed in the house, and it was traced to a room which was merely used as a lumber-room, and was scarcely ever entered. A. large chest resting on a box containing books was found there. The chest was opened, and in it was discovered the half.decomposed body of Luoy. She held fast in her right hand a photograph of M. S—, which she asked for a few days before, and on the back of it was written the following words :—" M. s—, I ask your pardon for my death. I loved you. Not dclring to tell you, and too weak to leave you, I thought that I must die. I also ask pardon of Madame S—, who was so good to me." The post-mortem examination proved that she must have made several attempts at suicide, for in her stomach were found pine, nails, and poison.
The Commonwealth. — 1866-09-22 (London, England)

SUICIDE AT MILLBANK PENITENTIARY. Mr. S. F. Langham, the deputy-coroner for Westminster, held an inquiry, on Monday, at Millhank Penitentiary oa the body of John Crawley, aged 23, who cut his throat on Friday last about noon, under the following most remarkable circumstances :—Captain Henry Wasiak, deputy-governor, said that the deceased prisoner had been a soldier in the Royal Artillery, and was sent to Millbank under sentence of a general court-martial at Woolwich for five years' penal servitude, for insubordination and striking his superior officer. He was received on the 3rd of March, and transferred to Pentonville on the 21st of Arril, as Protestant soldiers were not detained at Millbank. He became a Roman Catholic, and was re-transferred to Millbank on the 22nd of August. The system and dietary were alike at each prison. He was not reported or punished at all at Millbank, or as far as he (Captain Wallack) knew, at Pentonville, and the transfer was solely on the ground of religion. On Friday last he was passing through the wards just about twelve, when Mr. Ward, the Catholic schoolmaster, raised an alarm that the prisoner in No. 3 had cut his throat, and the deceased was found with a fearful gash nearly dividing the head from the trunk, the injury having been done Nvith a matmaker's knife. It was produced, and was il a formidable weapon in a wooden handle, tse, blade I being abrut nine inches long and two inches wide. The deceased prisoner had been perfectly contented aud cheerful in the prison. Some other evidence confirmatory cf the above facts was taken, but there was nothing to show the state of mind of the unfortunate deceased at Via time he committed the rash act. The i jury, after some _consnitation, returned a verdict, ' "That John Crawley did feloniously kill himself by cutting his throat in Millbank prison with a matmaker's knife, be being at the time in a state of temporary ineanity." The proceedings then terminated.
The Commonwealth. — 1867-01-05 (London, England)

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.  --....m.  France and PruEsia.  It was with tact tempered by wit that M. de Bismarck set forth the relations bet,veen France and Prussia. He does not intimate, but declares, as explicitly as can be expected from a Minister, that the great aggrandisement of Prussia is due to the policy pursued by the French Government. According to him, France and Prussia have the same interests. The greatest danger for our neighbours would be the extension of Austria to the Rhine. The extension of Franoe to that river would not afford adequate compensation. Thus, it is to protect our frontiers that M. de Bismarck has absorbed so many smaller States. We like this style of reasoning. The present French Government, the Prussian Minister goes on to state, has not acted like its predecessors—ever hostile to the aggrandisement of Prussia. M. de Bismarck not only congratulates himself on the efforts made by Franca to keep on good terms with Prussia, but he feels it necessary to give her a compensation. :And here we see M. de Bismarck's wit. French policy is founded on the principle of nationalities. Well, though the sacrifice is painful to our feelings, we will make a concession to the views of France. We will allow the inhabitants of North .Schleswig to vote, and to vote freely.—.L'Aveitir National, a Paris paper.  Mr. Newdegate on Non-intervention; Mr. Newdegate is rather unhappy about our policy of non-intervention, on the ground that if we have no allies en the Continent, in case we should be suddenly attacked, there will be nobody to "stir up our opponent behind." We, like Mr. Newdegate, du not believe very much in an ultra non-iatervention policy. If clear injustice is done on a great scale, every great nation is interested in putting an end to it; and it is moral suicide for any member of the society of European nations to say that it is indifferent to her whether a reign of conquest and plunder is to bogin without her resistance. But we confess that we do not believe at all in Mr. Newdegate's notion that long, chronic) alliances with special nations, in time of complete peace, are any safeguards. War is, perhaps, more likely to spring oat of some really unjustifiable act of a weak ally than oat of any gross act of aggression or injustice, and these chronic alliances of the kind Mr. Newdegate admires to implicate us in it. For our own parts, we hold with the late Sir Cornewall Lewis, that the evil of providing against possible evils in the future is often much greater than the evil of meeting them when they come. Alliances should be as short and as special in their purpose as possible, and never of the nature of permanent chronic obligations.— Spectator.
The Commonwealth. — 1867-03-23 (London, England)

THE PROSECUTION OF COL. NELSOIV AND LIE UT. ERAT.W.  It is stated that the Jamaica Committee have resolved to prosecute Colonel Nelbon and Lieutenant Brand for the murder of Mr. S. Clarke and Mr. Lawrence, in addition to the murder of Mr. Gordon. It will not be necessary for this purpose to repeat any of the proceedings at Bow-street, because, as the prisoners are already in custody for the murder of Arr. Gordon, additional indictments may be preferred against them without any preliminary proceedings. The reasene for bringing in the came of Clarke and Lawrence are, first, to provide for the contingency of the prosecution in Mr. Gordon's case being defeated On some merely technical greund; secondly, to show that the illegality of what ras done in Mr. Gordon's case does not wholly arise from the fact that be was arrested out of the district in which martial law prevailed; and thirdly, because, in the easespf Clarke and Lawrence, the reeponsibility of their illegal execution rests solely upon Colonel Nelson and feeurtreende to ot Bn dr aonpdp, rothveed sbeyntmenrrEsnr oe t. bTahvemega s ebse eont Clarke and Lawrence are in some respects even more remarkable than that of Mr. Gordon; both having been executed, not only without any proof of guilt, but after a proclamal lon of amnesty had been issued by Mr. Eyre, all disturbances having ceaeed for about three weeks.  Tlo AlleAed Attempt to Poison Three Children.—A report recently appeared of the suicide of James 'Aqaba; of Wheatley Bottom, Halifax, who, it was alleged, had attempted to poison his three children previous to deetroying hie own life. An inqueat which has been held on the body of the unfortunate man has put a totally different complexion on the sad affair. It seems that the children had been ailing, and the father himFelf, V•iiig rather unwell, he went to procure some medicine for their use. "Where it .was got has not been ascertained, bat doubtless, by mistake, the article supplied to him proved to have been a verrain•killing powder, and hence arose the trasio remit. A verdict of accidental death was r stun, ea. Nothing Impossible.—The greatest and most useful nvention of the day,
The Commonwealth. — 1867-06-22 (London, England)

HEALTH OF SCOTLAND.  The deaths of 2,411 persons were registered in the eight principal towns in Scotland in May, being 173 above the average of the month for the 10 previous years, but 107 below the high mortality of May, 1866. 42 per cent. of the deaths of last month were of children under five years of age. Zymotic diseases caused 207 per cent. of the mortality. This rate was exceeded in Edinburgh from the prevalence of measles, and in Leith from measles and typhus. Typhus occasioned 56 per cent. of the total mortality, 9.9 per cent. in Leith. Measles caused 4'5 per cent. of the mortality of the eight towns. There were 10 deaths from diphtheria, 62 from scarlatina, 37 from diarrhcea, 2 from cholera—viz., a child in Dundee and a young person in Glasgow in the list of persons between five and 20 years of age. There were 332 deaths from consumption, 72 from whoopingcough, 29 from croup, and 423 from inflammatory affections of the respiratory organs. There were nine suicides, two deaths from delirium tremens, and one by the direct effects of intemperance. The births in the month wen 3,539 in number, three less than in the corresponding month of 1865 and of 1866, but considerably above the number in previous years. The marriages, 436 in number, were slightly under the average. The month was cold and wet. In low, mean temperature, 47.4 (at Aberdeen 451), there has not been anything so severe since the May of 1856; the thermometer at Paisley fell to 28.2 degrees, and at Edinburgh to 32, but at Glasgow, Dundee, Greenock, Aberdeen, and Leith it did not go down to freezing point. In wet or depth of rain, 3.31 inches (at Greenock 4.12), only one of the last ten years, 1862, has been greater. In east wind there has not been so high an entry in any of the last ten years.