The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1903-05-27 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

THE MYSTERIOUS DROWNING CASE. OPEN VERDICT.  On Tuesday afternoon the Birkenhead Coroner (Mr. Cecil Holden) concluded the inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of John Clark, aged 50 years, of 37. Rydal-street, Liverpool, an army pensioner, and for the past sixteen or seventeen years employed at the London and NorthWestern Hotel, Liverpool, as a COMMi6biwire. He left home before dinner on Sunday-, and early on Monday morning was found floating in the Mersey at the entrants to the Morpeth Dock. Dr. H. R. Preece said he made a surerficial examination of the deceased inan's body, on the 12th May, and subsequently made a post-mortem examination. He found several injuries on the head, bruises ou the back of both wrists, and a cut on the under surface of the fourth finger of the left hand. None of these were of a serious nature, and he did not think they would have been sutfieient to cause unconciousness. They might have very easily been caused by the stick , found on the dock wall, and as a matter of fact the stick fitted into the largo dingo, in the top of the hat found with it. Three hairs were found on the stick, correspondiug with the deceased's man's hair in colour, but there was no blood on the stick. Be found the stomach full of water, but all the organs of the body were perfectly healthy. The brain was not damaged in any way, and the cause of death was suffocation, consequent upon immersion in the water. The injuries to the body must have been reeeitved before death. They might. have been caused by the deceased man falling against something on the ground. In his opinion, deceased had been conscious when he went into the water, otherwise the stomach would have been empty. P.C. 24D (Clafke) said that about two o'clock on Monday, the 11th May, he was informed by a dock-gateman that lie had seen a man under the influence of drink on bridge No. 7, but when witness went there, he saw no one. About a quarter to four the same morning witness met a man named Harry Lockwood, who said he had found a hat and stick on the dock wall, near to the gun, and had given them to a dock-gateman named Williams. Witness searched the spot and subsequently saw the body floating face downwards in the entrance to the Morpeth Dock. It was taken to the mortuary in Livings:tone-street. :John Henry Clarke, sou of the ,deceased man, said his father had lately been much troubled with rheumatism, which affected very much the way in which he walked, and witness had known him to have falls recently. Evidence was also given by Joseph Woodward, of Bulwer-street, Liverpool, James A. Johnson, of 17. Sidney-road, Tranmere (a conatable at Woodside Ferry), who saw prisoner in Liverpool and Birkenhead respec• 84 the evening of the Sunday On which he left home before dinner, and by Edward Shakespeare, of 47. Craven-street, the dock-gateman who saw the deceased man about midnight, and Harry Lockwood, a lairage labourer, who found the hat and stick. .  P.C. 33E (Willoughby). the Coroner's Officer said he had made exhauetive enquiries into the muse, but could not discover anything further than was brought to light in the evidence.  The Coroner said the case was a most peculiar one. The circumstances as disclosed in the evidence were circumstances of great suspicion. There were wounds on the deceased man's body in positions which rendered them most unlikely to have been caused by accident, and another peculiar circumstanoe was that of the hairs found on the stick. There was no evidence as to why anybody should have assaulted Clark, or why he should have committed suicide. With regard to his condition, the evidence showed he had had more drink than was goclo for him, and he might have fallen into the water entirely by accident. The jury returned an open verdict.