The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette. — 1862-04-15 (Dorchester, Dorset, England)

LAW AND CRIME.  &MANGE STORY.—On Thursday, George John Whitebait!, • tall well-built MU of 32, who has lost one of his arms, was chargedbefore Mr. Knox, upon his own confession, with murdering his wife, at the Wership-stteet Police Court. Iddiard, 340 N, stated, that while on duty at the Hackney station at a quarter to 2 that morning, the prisoner knocked at the door. On being admitted, he said, "I have some here to give mynelf up for the commission of a very serious °geom." Witness linked him what the offence was, and he replied, " I stabbed my wife about-a month ago at Guildford with a knife, and she died, mut I have had no peace of mind time." He seemed perfectly sober. Sergeant. • Busaine, 2,5 N. said that the prisoner was brought to him by the last winsome. Hs said that he wished to give himself up for killing his wife. Alter he had been cautioned be star that he committed the let four weeks agnon .a. kdneedat. He at that, time went to Giaildford; an Alicoverea that his wife, Margaret Matilda, was livlag with 1%, Captain—at the Raffway 'Tavern, He went into • bedroom, and, ending his wife Wed the captain in bed together, he 'took up • earring-I'oWe front the table, stabbed Insr in Ilse cheat With it, End killed her. The captain and be then agreed to bosh the *fair up, and bury the body, so that the pallid might think she had committed suicide, He was Induced logo to.Gittildfqrd, he added, In consequence of his wife having left him about nine or ten dsys. 'Witness took dosen this statement, and, the prinoner ' having tiers! it, WU detained. The prisoner here said that he - did Make the stStement the last witness produced, but that it was not true, and there was no fonedition whatever for it. SergeanaMajo: Platt, of The Corps; of (..'omniissioueires, clermtW to the prisoner joining that corps in August, 1859. when he was placed Ms duty at the Sonth-Western Railway terminus, where his conduct was irreuromliable, and he was afterwards •taensferred to another station. His conduct then seemed to change altogether; be was guilty of drank• minim and other misconduct, ind'stas at last antnmarily dismissed the force. The Witiees 'aniat that he (the prisoner) had a wife, Wheal he la men in .oefolser, ' 'when she was *bout to go, he believed, to Dublin, Although Intpoolor Sordid. orklgove Vag'ROt  taken, it may be 'dated that. having learnt the prisoner had a sister living in Jernsalem-gardene, Hackney, he went there and eaw her. She told hint that her brother, the prisoner, lied been there at three o'clock that morning, and had had an interview with her husband, which, however, she was not present at. The inspector then proceeded to the address given by the prisoner, nemely, the Comaisaionaire Berracks, hue Eschangemourt, Strand, There he had a conversation with klajor Brett, who told bhn that Whitehead bed joined them as a teetotaller, and until removed to Cork his condect was unexceptionable. That on being Bent back, Captain Waken., *hid of the eommiesioners, gave hint another trial, and that he remained until Monday, when he was discharged for drunkenness. Several of the men in the 'wreaks mentioned a strange oireurnatanee, namely, that Whitehead hid lately spoken Of his wife thus : "Nobody knows where she hormobaly ran lied her." An examination of the coinmiasionaire's books showed another remarkable incident, namely, that Whitehead was absent on the 12th, nth, and titli of Mare% ; the drst.inentioned being the date when the self-accuser averred that the deed wee dotta. The prisoner had been, by his own statement to the iespeobor nine years and eight months a quartermaster lath. Royal navy, and lost his arm at the eeptnie of Rangoon, in Burwell, when he retired from the service on a pensioa of is. 2ul. a day. He was married, on the 6th of January. 1861, at the Old Charlton church, to Margaret Retitle Adams. She, after his appointment at one of the stations on the Smith-Western line, ob!ained • situation ins find-class waiting-room at Guildford as an attendant, and there, he asserts, she first became acquainted with —. She left her husband suddenly, and he knew not her wiseseaboutsiintil the reeeiprof a letter confidentially stating that she was cohabiting with • person at the Railway Tavern spoken of, upon which he started off, and entered the tavern about six o'clock On the 12th of Ilseph.; that the body wee buried on the Saturday ; and that he returned to the berracks mi Monday. This date also tallies with the arnounte there kept. He was remanded. '