Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1888-09-08 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

WREXHAM SENSATION.  A terrible crime has been enacted in a fashionable suburb of Wrexham, when a retired gentleman named A. Wilson Edwards, a justice of the peace, brother of Mr. Edwards, J.P., of Newcastle-uponTyne, attempted to murder one of his servants and afterwards shot himself. The first intimation of the occurrence was given about seven o'clock in the morning by a female servant shouting out that her master had shot the cook. Mr. Wilde, the deputy chief-constable, and Police-constable Roberts, accompanied by Mr. Davies, went to Mr. Edwards's house, and on arriving there found the entrance gate locked. Climbing over this, Mr. Wilde and Dr. Davies made their way into the house and to Mr. Edwards's bedroom, where they found that gentleman lying insensible on the floor with bullet wounds in his right temple. Lying near him Mr. Wilde found a six-chambered revolver, on examining which he ascertained that three chambers had recently been emptied, the other three being still loaded. Dr. Davies did what was possible for the unconscious gentleman, and Mr. Wilde proceeded to the servants' bedroom, where he discovered a woman named Mary Stevens, aged about 40, lying apparently lifeless on the floor. She was placed in bed, and the efforts made to restore consciousness met with a certain amount of success; but pain and fright combined rendered her delirious, and her contortions rendered it impossible for the doctor to ascertain the precise nature of her injuries. From the statement of the housemaid, Annie Smith, who gave the alarm, it appears that about half-past six o'clock in the morning Mr. Edwards entered the bedroom where she and Stevens were sleeping, carrying a revolver in his hand. Stevens sat up in bed and said, " What's the matter, master ? " when he fired two shots at her, both of which struck her in the body. He then went out of , the room, and Smith, who had pulled the bedclothes I over her head when she saw the revolver, jumped out of bed, hastily dressed herself, escaped from the house, and ran, as already described, for doctor and police. Mrs. Edwards, an elderly lady of 70, who has been ailing for some time, stated that she noticed her husband come into her bedroom early that morning with a revolver, and on her speaking to him to her horror be placed the revolver against his temples and fired, the bullet piercing the skull. No adequate cause for this sad affair seems to have existed. It is true Mr. Edwards has been much depressed lately and complained of money difficulties, but these would appear from what can be ascertained to have been I more imaginary than real. Mr. Edwards occupied a prominent position in the town, and was highly respected by all sections of society; and the attempted murder and suicide have created the utmost excitement. Mr. Edwards was a magistrate for the borough, a vice-chairman of Wrexham Board of Guardians, a director of the Wrexham Waterworks Company and Wrexham Gas Light Company, a member of the Free Library Committee, the Wrexham School Board, the Wrexham British Schools Committee, the Union Assessment Committee, and other public bodies.