The Sun. — 1862-06-12 (London, England)

THE DOUBLE MURDER. AND SUICIDE IN BLACKFRIARS•ROAD.  The following are some further particulars relative to the melancholy affair in the Btackfriarsroad, reported in our yesterday's impression : For the last four years, or nearly so, a married man, named Joseph Mockford, has occupied apartments at 189, Blackfriars-road, the other portions of which are in the occupation of a gentleman named Pearce, who entertained the highest respect for his lodger, and who now speaks of him in the highest terms of praise as a steady and respectable man, a loving husband, and a doating father. He filled a confidential situation in the service of Mr. Meredith of the saw mills, Bankside, with wages and perquisites averaging £2 ss. per week. He had three children, two girls and a boy, an infant ; and he lived a happy life enough until the end of April last, when his wife died after a very brief illness, and he at once became an altered man, moody, miserable, and gloomy, and frequently, in vague terms, expressing an intention of making away with himself. To these threats, however, his friends attached no very serious importance, supposing that time would reconcile him to the loss of his wife, and that he would gradually resume his former habits. Upon the death of his wife, his sister resigned a situation in the City, and at his desire went to keep house for Mockford, and take care of his two elder children. The youngest, an infant, about six weeks old, he committed to the charge of its grandmother by the father's side. This arrangement appears to have worked to his entire satisfaction, and on Sunday last it was agreed that Mockford, with his two eldest children, should take tea with the mother of his late wife, that he should sleep at her house that night, and that the children should be left there for a day or two, while his sister was to go to her mother's, and stay there for a similar period. The sister accordingly went on her visit, and it was supposed that Mockford and his children had gone on theirs. According to this arrangement, he shotild have returned home to sleep on Monday, but did not do so, and as, when Tuesday came, he still remained absent, Mr. Pearce thought it only prudent to send to his sister to ascertain when he would be likely to return. The reply was that the sister had not seen him since she left home onn. Sunday, but that she would immediately go to his father-in-law's, to inquire there. She went herself, and found, to her great surprise, that Mockford had not been there at all. Upon this, the whole family became greatly alarmed, and making their way to the Blackfriars-road, the father and mother, sister and sister-in-law, roused up Mr. Pearce, who had gone to bed, and obtained admis, sion to the house, with the result already repoeLed. Upon a more minute inspection of the ar:atment it became apparent that Mockford had acted with full deliberation in taking the lives of his children and himself. The children, it is kn.own, were rather partial to castor oil as a medicine, and on the chair before referred to as having a carving knife upon it (there was also a fork) was a teacup, containing a little castor oil, with some sediment at the bottom, the remains, it is presumed, of poison, which had been administered in the oil. There was also a phial lying under the table, which it is presumed had contained that poison before it was mixed with the oil, although the exact nature of it has not yet been discovered. The two poor children were named respectively Catherine and Emily—the former being seven and the latter four years old. When their bodies were discovered one was lying on her face and the other on her left arm. The action of the poison seems to have been rapid, and so great was the change from their natural appearance, that Mr. Henderson at first imagined them to have been dead for three or four days. By the side of their bodies two pillows were found lying—one with and the other without a case, the latter being completely saturated with blood; and this, together with the general appearance of the room, leads to the supposition that Mockford was kneeling on the pillows, looking at his children, when he inflicted the stabs which brought about his death, and that he afterwards dragged himself to the chair by the window, and sat there till he bled to death. The stabs must have been inflicted with the utmost coolness and. deliberation. He had on only his trowsers, shirt, and flannel shirt. The first were loose about him, and the shirts—which have no perforation over the stabs—must have been lifted and held up with one hand, while he struck the knifeeinto his abdomen five or six times with the other; so that every appearance warrants the conclusion that he had long contemplated the terrible deed. It should be added that under the table was found a chamber-utensil containing apparently some vomit matter, and it is thought probable that he in the first instance attempted to poison himself, but that, throwing up the poison, he then had recourse to the carvingknife.Z.The vomit matter was at once sealed up by the dizection of Mr. Henderson, who is engaged with another medical man in making a postmortem examination of the bodies. The inquest will, it is expected, be held this day. Mockford was 35 years old, and up to the death of his wife, on the 27th of April last, a strong and healthy rasp.