npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Sun. — 1842-04-11 (London, England)

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT. OLD COURT.  Alexander Francis Lillie Nicholson, aged 31, postman, was indicted for stealing three post letters containing money, he being at the time employed in the Post-office. The-Attorney-General, Mr. Adolphns, and Mr. Sheppard appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. Clarkson defended the prisoner. It appeared that the prisoner was engaged in the Pest-office for the purpose of taking tie letters from the stampers' table to the sorters table. On the Ist March last the prisoner was observed to select three letters from a bundle %shier had been stamped, and which were lying on the staenpers' table. The prisoner was given into custody, and searched, and the three letter s were found upon him, all of which contained money. Mr. Ca A ARSON addressed the Jury for the pr:snner, and observed that the case was too clear and plain for hire to advance any defence upon it. He should however call witnesser, who would prove that the prisoner was subject to fits of insanity, and that he had on several occasions attempted suicide. On one occasion the prisoner had hanged himself with a pocket handkerchief, and it was with the utmost difficulty that animation hid been restored. On another occasion the prisoner had attempted suicide lay cutting his throat. The witnesses would further state that the prisoner's father, his brother, and his sister, bad all died _by their own hands. He ( Mr. Clarkson) stated these facts, and would call witnesses to substantiate them. for the purpose of mitigation of punishment ; and lie hoped, anal felt confident that they would receive the fullest consideratien of the Jury and the Court. The prisoner's sister- in-law, together with ether witnesses, were then caled, all of whom corroborated the statement of the Learned Counsel. The Learne 1 JUDGE then summed up the evidence, and the Jury immediately returned a verdict of Guilty. Mr. Justice Euser N n then addressed the prisoner in a very impressive manner, and said that for the sake of public justice, and as a warning to others, it became absolutely necessary to inflict a most severe penalty. He earnestly entreated the prisoner, wherever he should be placed, to wait with patience till that time when the Almighty should in the course of nature deem it fit to call him hence. It appeared that the prisoner had been providentially saved from self-destruction on more than one occasion, and it was by the merest chance that he was not then standing before that awful tribunal, to which we must all one day go, and there receive the doom that awe ted that crime which the Almighty had so expressly forbidden. His Lordship, in conclusion, intimated that it was not probable the full sentence of the Court would be carried into effect, but still is was necessary that that sentence should be passed in order that it might act all a warning to others. The sentence of the Court was that the prisoner be transported beyond the seas to such parts as her Majesty should, with the advice of ' her Privy Council, think fit, for the term of his natural life. (Before Mr. Justice
The Sun. — 1842-08-27 (London, England)

MELANCHOLY SUICIDE OF A ; GENTLEMAN AT CANTERBURY. FRIDAY EVENING.—An inquest was held this . morning, at the King's Head public-house, on the body of a gentleman unknown, who was found under a tree on the Dane John, on the previous evening. His dress from his hat to his gloves, was of the best kind, and his age from '25 to 30 years of age, but nothing on his person could lead to any information as to his name or connections. His great appearance of respectability brought numbers of persons from the inns and hotels in the neighbourhood, with the waiters and drivers of hackney coaches, to see the body with a view to its identity, but without effect. The whole of the evidence consisted of- the deceased person having been seen by two persons, Emma Goldsmith and Anne Haveley, lying upon the Dane John at half-past three on Thursday afternoon, and their subsequent discovery that he was dead, when they called the aid of the surgeon, D. B. Major, Esq., who gave his evidence as to the finding an empty bottle of prussic acid on his person, and affirming, frOin a post nzortem examination, that his death had been caused by this means. This being7the whole of the evidence, the Jury decided upon posponing their inquiry till seven o'clock on Mondity eyening. Since the above was written the clerks at the postoffice have informed us that they believe the body to be that of a person who applied at the office for a money-order for 10s., on Friday evening. It being past time, they informed him he could not obtain one before the morning, when he exclaimed, in an almost frantic manner, " Good God ! could my poor wife get ' the money to-morrow, it would save her from having her things taken from her," The manner in which he expressed himself, and the respectable way in which he was dressed, caused them to speak to him, when he told them that he was a chemist, had obtained money from the club, and had but one penny left after sending the money to his wife. They told him if he came at nine o'clock on the following morning he could send it by the day mail. Accordingly, at the appointed time he again presented himself at the Posta-lee window, when he gave his name Joseph Bridges, and his wife, Elizabeth Bridges, who, it is supposed is residing in the neighbourhood of Shoreditch.
The Sun. — 1842-07-23 (London, England)

CORONER'S INQUEST. SUICIDE BY A CHILD NINE YEARS OF AGE.  Last evening an inquest was held at St. George's Hospital, before Mr. Higgs, on the body of Emily Cowdroy, aged nine years. Mrs. Thomas, of York-terrace, Chelsea, a married woman, stated that she resided at No. 6, Church-terrace, Chelsea. Deceased and her parents occupied the second floor. There were five children of them altogether. On the 15th instant, about eleven o'clock in the morning, the mother of the deceased was in her room, and some of the children called out that Emily had broken a mug. Witness told the mother not ' to beat her, and she said she would not.. The deceased was that \ on the stairs, and seemed distracted about the accident, went upstairs and was shortly afterwards followed by the mother. There was a screaming then by all of the children, and the mother came down stairs again. In a moment or two 1 the screaming was resumed more violently, and in a minute or two afterwards witness heard that the deceased had thrown her\ self out of the window, and saw the landlady of the house carrying the child up stairs in her lap. The children were not treated harshly by the parents. A little girl, a sister of the deceased, about six years old, stated that the deceased asked her to undo her dress, which She took off and threw into a corner, and said, " Thank you." She then kissed her little brother, and got up on the windowseat, and opening the window, was getting out, when she (the sister) attempted to prevent her, but she kicked her from her, and threw herself bead foremost into the area. Their mother was then down stairs. The father of the deceased, who was affected to tears, stated that the deceased was a most affectionate and sensitive child, The mug in question was a mere child's plaything, but the de, ceased set great store on it, as it belonged to one of her sisters. The deceased was quite naked when picked up in the area. Several other witnesses were examined from whose testimony it appeared that the mother entered the roam at the ' instant the child was in the act of getting out of the window, ' and franticly rushing forward was only just time enough to ' catch hold of the deceased's hand, but was not able to retain her hold of her. The reason assigned for her undressing her. r self was, that she was ashamed of her clothes which were very shabby. It also appeared that she had been impressed by the I father, although not intended by him, in a serious way not to [ break that mug.—Verdiet, " Died from having thrown herself , from a window while in a state oi mental excitement."  TO
The Sun. — 1842-01-13 (London, England)

MERCHANTS' POLICY. " The company not liable for suicide, desertion or natural death ; but liable for risk or emancipation, detention or seizure by Foreign Powers." The Companies have refused to pay in each case. Three or four of the most distinguished legal gentlemen in New Orleans have offered to undertake the conduct of suits against them for .5 per cent., if the money shall be recovered, or nothing if unsuccessful., This would indicate that they think something of the chances ; but really, the prospect based on the above extracts looks at least very doubtful. . _  ( Fmr oomN Di hAey ,S e7cOon, d aL—The 800 W Storm of _.. C P. odc itKi,onAo.f the Albany Advertiser.) Thursday and Friday last, seems to have been one of the most severe and extensive on record. In all directions the usual avenues of communication were blocked up, and for several days we have suffered in this city from an almost universal dearth of news. Thus, up to seven o'clock this morning,  we had nothing later from New York than the papers of the Wednesday ev-ning previous—while from the West our latest Bufra!o dates were only up to Tuesday, and Roche-ter of Wednesday. The Eastern mails, however, fared rather better ; those from Boston having been delayed. bur a few hours, while the Hartford papers brought us our earliest advices from the South. The steamer De Witt Clinton, which left New York with passengers and the mails on Thursday evening, met the storm in Newburgh Bay, and was compelled by its violence to anchor and remain there during the night of Thursday, and the greater part of the following day. The land mail from Hudson, which left that city on Saturday morning, and was due here the same evening, did not reach here until the afternoon of Sunday ; the snow-drifts along the road rendering them almost impassable. On the west side of ti.e river similar obstacles delayed the Catskill mail until late at night, the driver being compelled to dig a road through the snow.
The Sun. — 1842-04-04 (London, England)

NAVAL AND MILITARY.  The total augmentations of the army for foreign service will amount to at least 15,000 men. LietitAtant General Sir Benjamin D'Urban goes to India as Commander-in-Chief. On the Ist inst. Lord Greenock retired from the command of the troops in Great Britain, and was succeeded by Major-General Sir Neil Douglas. His Lordship had been in command of the district for five years. The 11th Hussars are under orders to march from Hounslow to York, on Thursday or Friday next. A grand •military fete was g►ven by the officers stationed at Plymouth, on Tuesday last, to Lieutenani: General Ellice, on his retirement from the command of the Western district. Above 400 persons of rank were present: Sixty men of the 53d regiment, now in Edinburgh Castle, have volunteered into the 10th regiment, under  orders for India, and have marched to join that regiment iIOW lying at Airleiiciter. :0'44 tri . The se3sions of the Central Criminal Court comtnenco this day ; then) arc upwards of 200 charges of felony, a7,nocl lome serious misdemeanours. The murderer Wilkes was executed at eight o'clock on .7;aturday morning in front of Stafford gaol, and Williams At twelve on the same day at Shrewsbury. According to the official account of the accident on he South Western Railway, near Winchester, on Saturday, six labourers were buried by the fall of loose chalk, two of vhom were taken out unhurt, and the other four were killed on the spot. The line was to be resumed this morning. At Liverpool, on Saturday, an action was brought by L'he Phoenix Banking Company, of that town, to recover a large sum of money from the British Silver, Lead, and Copper Mining Company. The case was not of an interest to justify a statement of it in detail, but in the result twenty-one of the twenty-three defendants were ixed with the liabilities of the Company, and a verdict was returned against them, and those who had allowed judgment to go by default, for 6,5981. Robert Pierce, who was found guilty of different attempts to poi-on his wife at the North Wales circuit on Friday last, was discovered to have committed suicide in Flint gaol on Saturday morning last by suspending himself from the prison bars.
The Sun. — 1842-01-20 (London, England)

SUICIDE IN THE REGENT'S PARK.—Yesterday an inquisition was taken before Mr.Wakley, at the Marylebone Infirmary, on the body of Thomas Davis, aged 28, who committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree in the Regent's-park, under the following painful and melancholy circumstances :—Garret Percy, police,serjeant, 1) 3, said that on Monday morning, about eleven o'clock, he was on duty in the Regent's-park, near the Zoological-gardens, when a man came running to him, and stated that there was a man hanging on a tree... He went with the man in the direction he had pointed out, and on arriving near North-gate he discovered he deceased suspended by a silk handkerchief from the branch of a tree in the shrubbery. He could reach the branch from the ground, and with the assistance of the mAn alluded to, he untied the handkerchief, and got the body down. He was quite dead. Oa searching his bcdy.he found a silver watch, two gold seals, a purse cons tning 7s. sid., a bunch of keys, four handkerchiefs (two silk and two cotton), a letter, and a memorandum book. The contents of the letter were not permitted by the Coroner to transpire, but it is said to have been addressed to a young woman to whom the deceased was paying his addresses. Mr. Bransden stated that the deceased was groom to Mr. Dowbiggn, the upholsterer, of Mount-street, Grosvenor-square. 110 saw him last alive on Monday, sliortly before o'clock, when he came home with the horse andog:s, having driven his master into the City. He was.in s. r industrious man. Verdict—" Temporary Insar: This day will be the anniversary' o of ike most important events that occurred during oingn century—the acknowledgment of the the .)asthe independence of aoward. thudis.tdb deathAlner oc America, ,Ginarrli7cBk3.inltl 7w7i 9l alsoand of fe jtohhenanniversar :the tinguished philanthropist, in 1790:- en . • invi e y her sia. The Nu-ble has title, during the ye our The Earl of Aberdeienna. Majesty the Queen to IV gingonofof aFrtulty llext• Ind of his Majesty the INTO town for Wiodlior
The Sun. — 1842-09-30 (London, England)

FRANKFORT.  SEPT. 19.—The news from the East is looked upon here as favourable to the interests of civilization and of the stability of peace. The fall of Izzett Pacha, which the Austrian Observer connects with the concessions to Persia and the facilitation of the trading connexion between the Porte and that empire, seems to announce a disposition to return to the new system of financial management from which the late Vizier had departed, and by so doing impeded the rwgeneration of the tottering State. Had this revolution in the capital taken place sooner, it might have prevented that in Servia, which is much to be regretted. The news of the flight of Prince Michael from Belgrade to the Austrian side of the Save reached this city but a few hours before the arrival of one of the principal actors in the drama—no less a personage than Prince Milosch himself. The peace which Servia has for some years now enjoyed was obnoxious to the Turkish party, par excellence at Constantinople, whose organ Izzett Pacha was. In Russia the notion of a principality enjoying independence without protection was also an unpleasant one. Lord Palmerston thought, of course, the same, and called away Colonel Hodges, in order that the Servians might feel how much they were abandoned to their fate, when a Vizier like Izzett should take it into his head to undermine or threaten their privileges. Letters, bearing date the Bth inst., from the north of Turkey, mention the arrest of two Russian emissaries by the Turkish authorities in Bulgaria and Macedonia, who are accused of inveigling the Rayas to rebellion against the Turks. It is well known that a spirit of insubordination has for some time prevailed among the clergy of the Greek Church in Bulgaria, who have refused obedience to the Patriarch of Constantinople. The arrested party (one has escaped) can perhaps throw light on these proceedings. Will these facts at length open people's eyes on both sides of the water, or is this timely detection to pass over with a suicide or a purchased bowstring and a disavowal ? Or will the civilized States of Europe acknowledge it to be to their interest to advise the Turks to allow fair freedom, civil and religious, to the principalities and provinces on the Danube, and on these terms to guarantee to the Porte the undisputed sovereignty of lands which she can hold by no other means ?  The same accounts mention that the Servians, who probably immediately felt the absurdity of the position into which they had been hurried, were negotiating with Prince Michael for his return.  The King of Prussia is holding Court at his restored Castle of Stolzenfels, near Coblentz. Prince Metternich is doing the same at Johannisberg, anti has a large diplomatic circle round him, including the Eng • lish and Russian Ambassadors. It is thought that, besides commercial questions, others of a delicate nature are discussed there, amongst them the marriage of the Queen of Spain.
The Sun. — 1842-11-21 (London, England)

SUICIDE OF A FEMALE.—On Saturday morning, about five o'clock, a Dunstable white straw bonnet, under which was a pair of white whiskers, with a pink flower, was found tied to the side, by the banks of the Canal which passes by Bow-common, and near it, on the ground, was a rich black silk scarf, with a fringe attached. Rolfe, lock-keeper of the Ben Johnson lock, being informed of the circumstance, immediately dragged the canal near the spot, when he found the body of a female, who was elegantly dressed, and who was taken to the Gun-maker's Arms, Bow-common. In her bosom was a letter addressed to Mr.Benneston, No. 23, Seymour-street, Euston-square, with a signature supposed to be " Rahere," in which she states that she 'had committed suicide, and requests that her fate might be advertised in the London journals, so that her husband, who is residing in Lyons,in France, may become aware of it. She appears to be a French woman, and about 30 years of age. She is about the middle height, and rather stout. She had on a black silk shawl and red silk scarf, an Orleans gown, green colour, two flannel and two white petticoats, a pair of stays padded at the breast, a chemise, a pair of white stockings, which were marked with the letter " V," and a new pair of cloth laced boots, galoshed. The inquest has been appointed by Mr. Baker, the Coroner, for Tuesday afternoon. On Saturday, a fire broke out in the naphtha manufactory of Mr. Teepe, at Bow, and owing to the inflammatory nature of the spirit, the premises were in a very short time destroyed. Several engines arrived about ten o'clock from the metropolis, but their assistance was not required, in consequence of the rapid destruction of the property. The fire is supposed to have been caused by a leakage in the funnel of the gas-still, and which, having communicated with the fire of the furnace, produced the immediate conflagration of the whole of the naphtha in the retort, amounting to about thirty gallons. Fortunately there was no au in the wore at the tlialc.
The Sun. — 1842-07-05 (London, England)

CORONER'S INQUEST.—SEDUCTION AND SUICIDE. —An inquest was held on Saturday afternoon last, at the Nine Elms Tavern, Nine Elms, South Lambeth, before Wm. Carter, Esq., the coroner for Surrey, on view of the body of Elizabeth Bevan, aged 19 3-ears. It appeared from the evidence adduced to the Jury, that the deceasel had neither father,;mother, nor relative but had been for several months past in service in a respectable family in Westminster, where she was much liked for her good conduqt. Yesterday week she went out for a holiday, having stated to her mistress that she was going to a friend of her mother's, a little way out of town. She, however, did not return at night, and the following morning on coming back she was dismissed from her situation. A private soldier of the Ist, or Grenadier Guards, stated that he had been a sweetheart of the deceased, and that she had remained in his company during Monday and until the following morning, when be lett her, advising her to go back to her situation. Nothing more was heard of the wretched girl until about four o'clock on Thursday morning last, when she was seen wandering across Battersea-fields, her hair dishevelled about her face, and her dress in a dirty and disordered state. In six hours afterwards her lifeless body was found in the liver, near to the steam-boat pier of the London and Southampton Railroad. There were no marks of violence about it, nor had she any money in her pockets. The Coroner most severely censured the heartless villany of her seducer, in which the Jury acquiesced. After a very lengthened deliberation the Jury returned a verdict" that the deceased was found drowned, but how she came into the water there was no evidence to prove."  A. very loquacious female witness, whom the opposing Counsel could not silence, so far kept him at bay, that by way of brow-beating her he exclaimed, " Why, woman, there is brass enough in your face to make a kettle !"—" And sauce enough in yours," site instantly r2plied, " to fill it."
The Sun. — 1842-05-13 (London, England)

SUICIDE THROUGH DISTRESS. —Between nine and ten o'clock on Wednesday night, a poor old man named John Hannell, who for several months past had occupied an attic at No. 6, King's Head-court, Tuthill-street, Westminster, a common lodging-house of the lowest description, was discovered to have terminated his existence by suspending himself by the neck with a piece of cord to one of the rafters of the ceiling. The body was quite cold, and he had evidently been dead two or three hours. He had stood upon a stool to tie himselup, and had then kicked it from under him. He was last seen alive about three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. He was by trade a shoemaker, but an affection of the eyes had of late years prevented him from working at his business, and lately he had become exceedingly distressed, so much so, that he frequently went for two and three days together without tasting food. The attic he occupied was in a most wretched state, not a vestige of furniture in it, the ceiling and roof broken through so as to admit the weather, and a heap of dirty rags serving the wretched man for a bed. The only food found in the room was a very small piece of stale bread, and half a cup full of cold tea. The deceased on Wednesday morning remarked to a female who lodges in the same house, that the distress he was in, and what he suffered from hunger, would very soon induce him to make away with himself. An inquest will he held on the body this afternoon. ‘Ye have reason to believe that her Majesty's Ministers are in possession of a late dispatch, forwarded by Major Pottinger to the authorities at Calcutta. The dispatch in question, we understand, adds nothing to what was previously known of the state of affairs in Affgbanistan ; but it completely exonerates General Elphinstone, assigning the blame of the late disaster tea different quarter, or rather to different quarters .—for the councilof war comes in for a share.—. Evening Paper.