npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Express. — 1853-10-10 (London, England)

EXTRAORDINARY AND SUSPICIOUS DEATH  OF A WIFE.  On Saturday afternoon Mr. Payne held a long inquiry at the Vestry-hall, Fair-street, Honleydown, on the body of Ann Roberts, the wife of a greengrocer in Bermondsey-street, who, it woos at first sapposed, had committed suicide, but concerning whose death reports were subsequently in circulation of a more serious character. On Friday morning the deceased was found in her bed room hanging by a gauze veil, and in nearly a kneeling posture. See was quite dead. Her husband gave the alarm. He had slept on a sofa, having come home the previous night very drunk. When he called in a lodger he said, " Good God, I shall not be long after her." lie had only a short time before come out of gaol, where he had been undergoing imprisonment for illusiag his wife. Mary Duke, who occupied a room underneath, deposed to hearing the deceased groan is the night. The sister of the deceased thought she had not laid violent hands upon herself, as she was always greatly terrified at death. Ellen Cooke, the daughter of the deceased, produced a bundle of letters which her mother had given her. A short time sizes her mother told Roberts that he would soon go back again to gaol for his ill usage of her. He made use of some very filthy expressions, and replied that the next time he went it would not be for twelve ;months, but for two or three years, and perhaps he might go on to a scaffold for her, as he meant to have her life, at the same time using most violent language. That was about three weeks ago. The Coroner then read three letters sent by a woman alluded to in the course of the investigation, signed lilies Roberta," thereby assuming the name of the wife, one of them being addressed to Roberts. In this letter she entreated Roberta to come to her without delay, stating that she had got an order for the play. He was to make any emu* to deceive his wife, and if he found any difficulty in doing so that he must "cook" her, as they had agreed upon, and then when she was gone they could live happily together. The two other letters to the wife were couched in the most foul and filthy language, taunting her with having lived with her husband whilst she was in the work, house, and that he had spent many pounds upon her, but having lost his situation at Somerset-house he had returned to her for convenience, but that she had made up her mind ( to have her life, if she should be hanged for her. Dr. Milliee said he should have great hesitation at the present moment in stating the cause of death. The features were exceedingly placid, and there was no bloodshot about the eyes, as was common where death occurred from strata. gulation.  - The inquiry wu then adjourned for a post martens examination to be made.
The Express. — 1866-05-31 (London, England)

SUICIDE OF • YOUNG W0D1AN..... An adjourned inquest was held in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, on Tuesday night, on the body of Elizabeth Oliver, a young women who had been found lying dead on her face in a shallow brook near the town, on Sunday morning. From the evidence it appeared that the deceased was the daughter of a respectable farmer living near Newtown, and that she had gone to Liverpool es domestic servant in a gentleman's family. A short time ago she had an attack of fever, and on Friday she left Liverpool to return home, and was noticed in a railway carriage by a witness from ber wild appearance sad strange behaviour. She was next seen walking along the line about a mile outside Newtown, and on being warned bythegatekeeper of her danger, she stared vacantly at him and asked for " something to drink." His wife gave her a cup of milk, end, noticing her strange looks, asked what had frightened her. She slid not reply, but started to go along the hue again, and on the gatekeeper asking her where she wanted to go to, she said "There," pointing towards Castell-y-dale, and added thas she was coming back again. He prevented her from walking along the line, and put her on the Llanidloes turnpike road, up which she walked at a rapid rate. Nothing more is known of her movements till Sunday morning, when a man passing by Dulais-brook found her lying on her fax in the water. In consequence of the long drought the brook is almost empty, and the deceased must have committed the act with singular determinatiois, as the water just covered her face, and did no more than wet the edge of her bonnet. From letters addressed from Liverpool to her relatives it seemed that the deceased I:ad been ' sent away from Liverpool in charge of the guard, as she was delirious. The coroner commented in strs eg terms upon this extraordinary proceeding, and adjourned the inquest till Friday for further inquiry.
The Express. — 1866-07-26 (London, England)

BERL/N, JOLT 25. It is rumoured that the Grand Duke of Oldenburg and the Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha will receive an increase of territory under the proposed new Confederation. The Prussian Chambers will probably be opened by the Minister of Finance, as the King and Count Bismarck are detained at the head-quarters of the army by the important negotiations which are taking place. The address signed by the principal inhabitants of the town of Leer, soliciting the annexation of East Friealand to Prussia, arrived here to-day.  WIESBADEN, Joni 25.  The agitation for the union Of the Duchy of Nassau with Prussia has greatly extended since the departure of the Federal army. A deputation of the principal manufacturers have proceeded to Berlin with reference to this question.  BERLIN, Juts 26, Evintro. The semi-official Norddeufacke AUgenteine Zeitung of to-day contains an article pointing out the peaceful tone assumed by the Vienna press. The article adds :—" It appears that among the advisers of the Emperor only a small coterie, the soul of which is Baron von Beust, endeavoured to dissuade his Majesty from consenting to the preliminaries of peace, but its efforts will probably be unsuccessful." The same journal says :—" In consequence of the attitude of a portion of the Saxon civil authorities, and the contumacy of the commandant of Komigatein, radical changes will shortly be effected by Prussia in her relations with the Saxon administration." A Prussian marine depot has been opened at Geestemtinde, in Hanover.  PARIS, JULY 25, Evanwo. ' The Menikair du Soir states that Austria did not accept without pain and hesitation the bases of peace involving her withdrawal from the Confederation. The same journal says :—" It is asserted that one of the burgomasters of Frankfort committed suicide yesterday in order to avoid furnishing the Prusaisuis with information which would facilitate the collection of the oontribution laid upon the inhabitants by General Manteuffel."
The Express. — 1866-10-29 (London, England)

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 29, 1866.  POLAND. IMPORTANT PROPOSALS OF RIIIIEJA. The Posen Journizl of the 26th publishes in large type a piece of news which, if found to be correct, may lead to most serious consequences. It appears from information which the Posen Journal has received from Vienna, and which it says is entitled to all confidence, that the cabinet of St. Petersburg, feeling uneasy at the recent attitude of Austria in Galicia, has within the last few days proposed to the government of Berlin to give up to Prussia the left bank of the Vistula, provided Prussia consented to the annexation of Eastern Galicia by Russia, and allowed the cabinet of St. Petersburg freedom of action in the East. The Posen Journal calls on the lnralide Bum' and the North German Gazette to deny the news, of which it itself asserts the perfect correctness.  THE CLERGY AND THE PLEBISCITUM IN  The Nazionc of Oct. 26 contains the following remarks on the conduct of the Venetian clergy in connexion with the recent vote : One of the most remarkable circumstances connected with the plebiscituru in Venetia has been the ardour with which the clergy have participated in this final act of the popular widl. They came in crowds to vote " yes" themselves, and by their example and influence they stimulated the patriotism of others. In some instances they headed their flocks like good pastors, and led them to the voting urn. The bishops exhorted by pastoral letters their diocesans to vote, and the patriarch of Venice, in the enthusiasm of these memorable days, demanded oblivion for the past, pardon for his many and grave mistakes, and declared he wished to be in future a good Italian and a faithful subject. Monsignor Zinelli, of Treviso, a prelate famous for his reactionary fanaticism, andfor the wantonness of his attacks, who emulated the most violent champions of ultramontanism in France, not being able on account of illness to go personally to vote, deputed, by special license, another to perform this duty for him, and wrote to the mayor a letter full of patriotic sentiments. Finally the monks, over whom the sword of Damocles is suspended in the measure for the abolition of religious corporations, wore on their breasts tricolor ribbons, and placed their " yes" in the urns. These facts are worthy of serious attention. We do not believe that we are maliciously disposed because we hesitate to trust in the sincerity and cordiality o' certain singularly strange conversions. Without wishing to search with inquisitorial indiscretion into the inward thoughts of the Venetian Monsignori, we may be allowed, however, to suppose that a reason, which is not yet known, but of the existence of which we cannot doubt from the effects produced, has guided their conduct and led them unanimously into the new path.  B. IT. W.  DISTRESSING SUICIDE OF div
The Express. — 1866-04-30 (London, England)

FOUND DROWNED IN THE THAMES.  INQUEST.-(THIS DAY.)  -- This morning an inquiry was held at the Essex Head, Essex-street, Strand, by Mr. W. J. Payne, the coroner for the Duchy of Lancaster, touching the death of a woman whose name was unknown. John Morrissy, Thames police-constable, No. 2, said that on last Friday morning he was on board the Royalist, the Thames police-station, near the Temple-pier. He saw the body of a woman floating in the river, and he got a boat and towed it ashore. She was a woman of above 25 years of age, and the only clothes she had on were a black alpaca dress and white petticoat, and a pair of leather boots and white stockings. From her appearance witness thought that she was a married woman and the wife of a river bargeman. She wore a gold ring. Every inquiry had been made by the police, but no clue could be obtained as to her identity. Dr. John Walsh said that the deceased had not been dead more than five days when she was found in the river. The cause of her death was drowning. There was a mark under her left eye, as if she had received a blow before she had fallen into the water. That blow might have been received by the deceased striking her head against some hard substance whilst leaping from a bridge into the river. Witness believed that the deceased was not a female of the lower class of society, but that she had moved amongst the respectable classes. Her hair was done up in the fashionable style, and she bad a very ladylike appearance and her skin was remarkably white. She had on her finger • gold keeper ring. She had been a mother. _ . .  Joseph White, coroner's officer, said that the friends of two young women, who had been missed in London within the last week, bad called to view the deceased's body. One party stated that on Tuesday evening a young woman, named Elizabeth Helston, living in Bethnaloven, ran down the steps on the city side of London-bridge and leaped into the water ; before she could be rescued the tide carried her away, and she waa drowned. When shown the body of the deceased, he said that she was not his friend. The friends of the other young woman who was missing also failed to identify the deceased.  A juror said that the deceased had evidently committed suicide by leaping from one of the bridges. The Coroner said that as there was no legal evidence as to how the deceased woman became drowned, the jury must return an open verdict. The jury returned a verdict " That the deceased female, unknown, was found drowned in the Thames, but under what circumstances she came by her death there was no evidence to show."
The Express. — 1866-04-23 (London, England)

SINGULAR INQUIRY.—On Saturday last, a singular inquiry took place before Mr. Whitehead, deputy coroner, at a small village near Rochdale. About 50 years ago, a person, named James Wild, whom his family and relations described u of a miserly and greedy disposition, built a cottage at a village named Gravelhole, about three miles from Rochdale, and carried on there the trade of a grocer and fanner. He married and had six children. In 183 d, he died very suddenly, and hi/eldest son, who is blind, and named Francis Wild, stated at the inquiry that his father left the family ten cottages and a share in the farming stock. After his father's death his mother frequently stated that her husband must have concealed money, and brooded over not finding it very much, until at last she committed suicide. Shortly before his father's death his mother asked him what had become of souse money he had received for some fustian pieces he had sold. He replied, " Oh, it will turn up some time." He himself was of opinion that his father used to hide money secretly in the house. The Coroner—Why? Witness— Because it is a family complaint. (Laughter.) He had an uncle, named Abraham Wild, and after his death a large sum of money was found concealed in the ceiling over the pantry, and it was divided among his relations. (Laughter.) The old house at Gravelhole is now occupied by a relation named John Wild, who is a widower with two children and a labourer. The other day the stairs over the pantry were pulled down to make some alteration in the premises. A. large quantity of mortar and bricks fell out. While one of the youngest boys, named Robert Wild, nine years of age, was clearing it away, 1 he found a purse, containing, it is stated, 112/. or 11Y. The I young urchin, who evidently is troubled with the family oomOaint, hid the purse until his father returned home in the evening. The elder Wild opened it, and soon afterwards I visited a public-house, where he boasted of his treasure, and proclaimed he was the richest man in Gravelhole. When the inquiry was first made by the deputy coroner, he was ordered to attend, but he refined. A. summons was then is sued against him, but he still persisted in not attending. At last he was brought up on • warrant. After being sworn, and giving an amount of how the parse got into his posaesion, he gave evidence very reluctantly and stated that there was only 2911_ in the purse, which he had spent in paying debts and buying clothes. But it was proved that he had given 601. to his employer to keep for him, besides debts that he bad paid. The jury gave a verdict to the effect that the money was not treasure trove,aud did not belling to the crown, but should be handed over to the babe-at-law of the deceased James Wild. MNTROPOLITAN Fass Hoortai., DWOMeßnti&Masa, 0117.—The aggregeternanber ape pstimits relieved during the week ending April 21, waa—medical, 941 ; surgical, 569 ; total, 1,510, of which 496 were new case,.
The Express. — 1866-11-02 (London, England)

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 2, 1866.  For the defence was called, first, an officer of the army of the name of Cassitur, who officially had frequently been called on to examine the suicides of soldiers. This gentleman tried an experiment which converted him from the belief in murder, which he had first entertained, and to the theory of suicide. He purchased a sheep, shaved the wool from its neck, laid it on its back on a table, placed a pillow under its head, then adjusted a gun with the butt resting on a chair, and the muzzle about a foot from the head. Fired in this position the death of the animal was immediate, the gun violently recoiled, and would have overturned the chair had it not been held ; the pillow was blackened, but not burnt, and the head was turned over to the further side. The witness further explained that when a shot is fired close to an object the report is but slight ; and instanced a case in which a corporal had shot himself without the report being noticed by his comrades in the same room. To illustrate this exposition more precisely, the actual bed on which READLY died was sent for to the court, and M. CHARRIN, after a alight protest that he should not be held to be compromising his dignity as an officer, lay down upon it, and showed how with his arms under his clothes he could press the trigger with the ramrod, and how, if loaded, the recoil of the gun would upset the chair on which the butt was placed, and carry the piece itself to a distance from the bed. Then the question was put to each of the experts whether they now believed that death was the result of suicide or murder. Two declared themselves certain it was suicide, two that it was possibly suicide, one that it was suicide if movement after death was possible, and one that it was murder. Thus, there was a clear majority in favour of the suicide hypothesis. But it need not be remarked that a jury would be bound to give effect to the doubt which even a minority might support in favour of such an explanation, and consequently it was matter of course that the accused should be acquitted.  The evidence was greatly complicated and confused by intermixture with testimony bearing on a perfectly separate charge of forgery, which was included in the indictment, and on which also the prisoner was acquitted. On this we shall not trouble our readers with any comments. But besides the scientific evidence which led to acquittal from the charge of murder, it is only right to notice several points which must have weighed with the jury in wholly exculpating the prisoner from any imputation of guilt. Many witnesses were called who bore evidence to his good character, to his kind behaviour to his wife, and to his real affection for
The Express. — 1866-04-27 (London, England)

STRANGE AND DETERMINED SUICIDE.  INQUEST.—(THIS DAY.) This morning Mr. John Humphreys, Middlesex coroner, held an inquiry at the Masons' Arms Tavern, Watney-street, Commercial-road, respecting the suicide of George Tattendell, aged S 5 rears. Catherine Tattendell, 8, Watney-street, the daughter of the deceased, said that her father had been an excise officer, but was latterly a wool sorter in the London Docks. On Saturday last he said that be had got a cold, and he kept his bed. On Sunday morning when she went into his room she found him hanging by the neck to a clothes line, one end of which he hail tied to the post of the French bedstead and the other fastened around his neck. He had evidently tied the rope while in bed, and then flinging himself out on the floor had hanged himself, while his body lay nearly prostrate on the boards. An iron hammer lay close by, and it was clear that he had made an attempt to beat his brains out with it, for his head was bruised and cut all over, and the bed clothes were sprinkled with blood. The deceased used to drink hard at times, but be was not intoxicated on Saturday. Mr. J. W. Churchill, a farmer, landlord of the deceased, said that he had often seen the deceased after his drinking bouts sit alone in his room for an hour at a time gritting his teeth. When asked what was the matter, he used to " I will commit suicide," but when he was sane he would say " The man that commits suicide is a fooL" Mr. L. Mahoney, M. it-C.8., said that the deceased died from strangulation. His head bore severe bruises and wounds, which he had evidently inflicted upon himself with the hammer found on the bed by his daughter. He was no doubt of unsound mind at the time. An uncle and an aunt of the deceased's were in Colney-hatch. The Coroner having summed up, The jury returned a verdict of " Suicide while in a state of unsound mind."  Mr. Kinnaird intends to ask the President of the Poor Law Board on Monday if the promised measure for amending the administration of the Poor Law Board in the Metropolis will give proper controlling power to the Poor Law Board over the parishes at present governed under local acts; whether it will abolish the elections of guardians for life ; and if he knows whether the guardians of Clerkenwell have discontinued that ill-treatment of paupers which has been repeatedly commented on in the public press
The Express. — 1866-04-12 (London, England)

MURDER AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE IN SOUTH WA RK.-( THIS DAY.)  This morning, at an early hour, the neighbourhood of Kent-street, Southwark, was thrown into great excite_ ment, by the discovery of the murder of a female and the attempted suicide of the murderer, in a house in Etham. street.  Police-constable 133 31 was on duty in Bent-street a little after 7 o'clock, when his attention was called to 19, Etham-street, and he was then told that a double murder had been committed therein. He entered the house in question, and found in the first floor front room a female lying on the boards with her throat cut in a dreadful manner. He traced blood to the back room upstairs, and there discovered a man lying by the side of the bed with his , throat cut also. He was sensible, and in answer to the officer he said that he had cut the female's throat first, and then cut his own. Drs. Tumner and Evans were instantly called in, when they pronounced the female to be dead. The man was attended to and removed, by the order of those gentlemen, on a stretcher to Guy's Hospital, where he now remains in the custody of an officer in a very precarious state. From what the officer could glean from the wounded man, it appeared that be cut the woman's throat first upstairs, when she got away from him and crept downstairs to the room where she was found, when he cut his own throat. Inspector Wise, H division, immediately attended, and from inquiries made by him it appears that the female was the wife of a seaman and had female twins 11 years of age living. Her husband had been some time away from her, and it was not known when he was. She, however, was well known to the Police, and bore a very indifferent character. The man lying at the hospital is a lightermsn, and had cohabited with her for a considerable time, and had been frequently in the habit of quarrelling with her. A razor, the blade of which was open and covered with blood, was found lying by the ride of the man and was taken Possession of by the constable. The name of the man is Daniel Beloe, and that of the woman Sarah Ann Giles. C:owds are collected round the spot, and various rumours are afloat as to the cause of the deed, but it is thought to be jealousy. The inquest on the body of the female will no doubt be held to-morrow, and there is little likelihood of the man surviving the extensive injuries inflicted on himself.