npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-11-20 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE CASE OF DISTIN.  The Lancet says :—" It is impossible not to feel that a grave public scandal will be created if Distin, the convict awaiting execution at Bristol, is hung without a medical inquiry. This maa nas, it seems, attempted suicide on no less than seven several occasions, once by taking vermin-powder, twice by trying to drown himself in the harbour, once by jumping over a bridge, once by .jumping out of a window, once by hanging, and once by cutting his throat. Had he died on either of these occasions the verdict would doubtless have pointed to "temporary insanity "as the cause. Is there no ground for suspecting insanity now that he has, in a fit of jealousy, killed his paramour? There is also a history of injury.to the head, and it seems his mental soundness has been actually suspected, as he was once submitted to medical examination by a surgeon now deceased. In the face of such a tale as this, we will not question the common sense and humanity of Sir William Harcourt by supposing that he will hesitate to interpose. Without waiting for any agitation or pressure, it is the plain duty of the Home Secretary to order a medical instuiry, whatever the result anticipated may be."  On Monday, Mr. S. Morley, M.P., and Mr. Fry, M.P., met at Clifton a 'deputation representing the promoters of a memorial to the Home Secretary praying for a reprieve of the condemned man, William Distin (under sentence of death for the murder of Emily Daniels). Mr. Waterhouse, solicitor, of Bristol, introduced the deputation, and laid before the hon. members the grounds upon which the memorialists asked for a medical inquiry into the state of Distin's mind. Messrs. Morley and Fry promised to co-operate with the promoters of the memorial and make prompt arrangements for presenting it, when signed, to the Home Secretary.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-05-08 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE SHOCKING SUICIDE OF A TRADESMAN'S WIFE AT OLD HILL.  A.n inquiry was held on Saturday, before Mr, E, Hooper (district coroner), at the British Oak Inn, Old Hill, touching the death oi Emma Weston (27). Deceaeed, who was the wife of Thomas Weston, grocer and pawnbroker, Black Vt aggen-street, died the p:evioua Wednesday night, from the remit of self-inflict •d. From evidence tendered by deceased's hu-band and a neighbour named .Joseph Joeee, it app ared that on the night in question Mr. Weston left home and returned shortly after eleven o'elock, when tie nurse in the family, in reply to his question, sail his wife had gone to bed. On going upstairs he failed to find her in bed or in the. room, and, becoming alarmed, he then aroused Jos. ph Jones and a Mrs. Shakespeare, two neighbeurs, both of whom entred the house and assist-el in the searcla Blood was found at the back ot deceased's bedsteads upstairs, and also on the room door, that on the ft.bor having the appearance of having been wiped up with an apron which was found saturated with b:ood. Nothing, however, was then ,een of he decrased, and after the house bad been searched through: ut, even to the back pie mise-, the a ater istcr., ant the waehtubs, Jones and Mrs. eehakespeare returned upstairs, when the former lifted the valance of the child's cot; and there discovered deceased lying underneath with her head resting iu her hand, and Iv r throat eut. She was not then dead, Hit died about half an hour later. A media: man having in the meantime been called in, Mr. Weston said his wife had .ately suffered from seams and crimp, and since her last confinement had appeared desebrelent in her mind. The fact of her mother having married again had also seined to affect her spirits. Was smiatied that his &I's injuries were self-inflicted. Two of deceased's relit yes had suffered frem insanity, and one, an aunt, had attempted suicide by cutting her thro it.—Police-constable Johnson, who was called to the house when deceased was found, ch scribed he position in which she lay, and said upon. searchmg he yoom he feund the knife produc.e.; (a large shop knife) smeared with blood ; it had been - pushed between the bed and the mattresses, - the point being outwards. Full enquiries hail been made into the matter, but there were no suspicious circumstances attending the affa h The Ceroeer, in summing up, remarked that there appeared to be little doubt that the, ased destroyed her own life, mid also that she suffered temporarily from insanity, especially when it was remembered that o-her members of her family had been similarly affected.—The jury retuined a verdict of "Suicide whilst in a state of temporary insanity."
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-09-11 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUCCESSFUL HOAX.  The New York Times of the 20th of 'August gives an account of a curious hoax perpetrated in that city on the previous day. Somebody wrote a letter to a morning newspaper, which was printed, saying that he desired to give notice of his intention to commit suicide in Central Park, Thursday afternoon, at precisely three o'clock. He invited the world to come and see him shoot himself through the heart and then dive into the water of the lake. He even selected the spot, which was "the rock near the summer-house on the opposite side of the lake, just. across from the terrace, on the right-hand side as Toil stand on the terrace and look across the water." The letter was signed, "A man who has nothing left him but to leave a world that will not let him exist." The New York paper continues : When Captain Beatty of the Park Police, was on his way to the station in the Arsenal early in the morning, he was saluted on all skies with " Goin' to be at the slmotin'," and "Give the old man a chance." The captain had not seen the remarkable letter, and was puzzled at these remarks. - He was annoyed beyond measure when he did read it. . . . . He called out his reserve force of officers, and the letter was read to them. While he did not, he said, believe that the writer intended to kill himself in the way described in the letter, yet it was his duty., as captain of the police, to take all precautions to prevent any such tragic exhibition in the park. He thereupon detailed men to guard all the pathways leading to the lake, and to especially keep a sharp look-out for any one who might appear on any of the rocks close to the water. The officers carried clubs, and it would have been a sorry day for any man to have climbed on one of those rocks yesterday. Men and women who stood on the terrace, or who lingered near the edge of the lake, we seen to cast wistful and hurried glances at the rocks. They would not admit, of course, that they were awaiting the appearance . of the man who was to blow out his so-called brains and then plunge into the lake; yet it was perfectly plain to every caleful observer that many were there to see this  man. Men and women watched each other suspiciously, and the measure of every new corner was carefully taken. The reporter heard one man quietly inform a policeofficer that he was satisfied he had discovered the man; he had watched him for two hours There was a constant fumbling of watch-chains, and those who had watches attached stared at the hands until three o'clock was marked. Then they pocket-A their watches, and rivetted their attention upon the rocks across the lake. Some of the spectators seemed to hold their breath, and were motionless, as though anticipating an explosion. But there was no man, no pistol. and no explosion on any of the rocks. The crowd lingered for nearly an hour, and then, with disappointment written all over their countenances, men and women began to stroll away. _
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-10-30 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

TRAGEDY IN FINSBURY PARK.  On Friday in last week, shortly after noon, in Finsbury-park, London, a man shot a woman and attempted to commit suicide. It appears that at the time mentioned a very respectably dressed man in company with a woman entered the Finsbury-park and took the path which runs near the Great Northern Railway. Before they had gone many yards they were heard to have high words, and directly afterwards the man was seen to take from his coat pocket a six-chambered revolver, point it at his companion and fire it three times. The woman fell to the ground, after which he fired the weapon at himself, falling down upon the grass. Several persons at once rushed up to the woman, and found that she was bleeding from a wound in thebreast. Mr. Cochrane, the superintendent of the park, at once fetched a doctor and a police-constable, and the formei ordered the woman to be removed to the Great Northern Hospital. There, on being examined by Dr. W. H. Barry, she was found to be dead, and a further examination showed that one of the three shots had penetrated the heart. Another shot had been prevented from entering the body by the stays the deceased wore. The man was next removed. He was able to walk to the nearest cab stand, where a conveyance being procured, he was taken lo the Holloway Policestation. There he was examined by Dr. Barry, who, finding that a bullet had entered his chest, and that he was bleeding internally, advised his removal to the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's Inn-road. The surgeon whilst examining him, remarked that the bullet was deep in the wound. The man exclaimed, "What a pity it is I did not put two bullets instead of one into myself, or that this one did not g•-) to the heart. You don't know my troubles." He was then taken to the Royal Free Hospital, and on his arrival there he was seen by the resident medical officer, Dr. Corden, who thought the bullet had entered the left lung. The man complained of being in great pain, but continued to be conscious. In reply to questions, he said his name was William Herbert, that he had no home in England, and that he was an iadependent gentleman. Whilst Dr. Corden was dressing his wound Herbert said, "I have killed the best friend I had in the world, and I am sorry I have not killed myself; but if I had been allowed another minute I should have been able to have done so." He further stated that he had been in England for about eight months, having come from Ballarat, in Australia, where he had left his wife and family, and that the deceased woman was his sister-in-law. He also muttered sonaething about knowing that he would have to "swing for it " if he lived.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-11-27 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

EXECUTION AT BRISTOL.  At eight o'clock on Monday morning, William Joseph Distin, was executed at Bristol for the murder of a woman named Daniels with whom he cohabited, in the presence of the governor of the gaol, two inspectors, the prison warders, a visitor, and two reporters. Marwood was the executioner, and used the long drop, the pit being ten feet deep, and the scaffold eight feet high. The fortitude which the prisoner exhibited during his trial and up to within a few days of his execution had latterly utterly forsaken him, and he had adopted a penitent mood. He slept very little during last night, and when lie was roused on Monday morning lie burst into a paroxysm of grief, which it required the use of stimulants to overcome. He continued groaning during the whole time the pinioning was being done, and he had to be supported from the cell to the scaffold by two warders. On reaching the scaffold he was scarcely able to stand, and almost at the last moment he had to be given something to drink.; then heaving a deep sigh he muttered, "Lord have mercy upon me!" and, while the chaplain was reading the Lord's Prayer, Marwood speedily completed his task. A few hundred people assembled outside the gaol, but quietly and quickly dispersed when the black flag was hoisted. The crime for which Distin was executed was committed in August last. He and Mrs. Daniels, a widow woman, with whom he cohabited, had frequently quarrelled, and on August 27 he stabbed her fatally. An attempt was made to obtain a reprieve on the ground that he had repeatedly endeavoured to commit suicide, and was therefore presumably of unsound mind when he stabbed his victim, but the medical gentlemen sent down by the Home Office could find nothing in the present condition or past history of Distin upon which to recommend a reprieve, and the Home Secretary refused the prayer of the memorialists.  PRICE OF WHEAT IN OLDEN TlMES.—Wheat, the price of which necessarily varied, averaged in the middle of the fourteenth century tenpence the bushel, barley averaging at the same time three shillings the quarter. With wheat the fluctuation was excessive; a table of its possible variations describes it as ranging from eighteenpence the quarter to twenty shillings ; the average, however, being six and eightpence. When the price was above this sum, the merchants might import to bring it down; when it was below this price, the farmers were allowed to export to the foreign markets ; and the same average continued to I hold, with no perceptible tendency to a rise, till the close of the reign of Elizabeth,
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-12-04 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

INSURANCZ APPEAL.  The Court of Appeal had before than on Monday the cause of "Winspear V. the Accident Insurance Company (Limited)," and it was an appeal from a judgment of the late Lord Chief Baron and Baron Huddleston on a special case, and involved the construction of the terms of a policy of insurance. The plaintiff was the executrix of one William Winspear, deceased, with whom, on the sth of February, 1879, the defendant company executed a policy of insurance containing the following proviso "The insured shall not be entitled to make any claim under their policy for any injury from any accident unless such injury shall be caused by some outward and visible means of which proof satisfactory to the directors can be furnished, and this insurance shall not extend to death by suicide, whether felonious or otherwise, or to any injury caused by or arising from natural disease or weakness or exhaustion consequent upon disease or by any medical or surgical treatment or operation rendered necessary by disease, or to any death arising from disease, although such may have been accelerated by accident." While the policy was in force, on the 26th of May, 1879, the insured, while crossing and fording a stream or brook called the River Rea, in the parish of Edgbaston, in the borough of Birmingham, was seized with an epileptic fit, and while in such a fit fell down into the shallow water and then and there was drowned. The insured did not sustain any personal injury to occasion death other than drowning. The Exchequer Division having decided in favour of the plaintiffs, the defendants appealed. Mr. Cohen, Q.C., and Mr. Gainsford Bruce argued for the defendants; Mr. F. 0. Crump for the plaintiff.  Mr. F. 0. Crump, for the plaintiff, was not called upon to argue. Lord Coleridge : I am of opinion this judgment should be affirmed. The insured died from drowning in the brook while in an epileptic fit. Drowning has been decided to be an injury—that is to, say, an injury causedby accidental external and visible means. The cause of death was not an injury caused by or arising from natural disease or weakness or exhaustion consequent upon disease. The death was caused by the accident of drowning, and the words of the proviso have no application te this case. The defendants are clearly liable, and the judgment of the Exchequer Division must be affirmed. Lords Justices Baggallay and Brett concurred.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1875-01-09 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.  "Social fusion" is a new name for marrkge out West. Sometimes it means social confusiou. For sport, go to Texas. They have panthers there thirteen feet long, and exceedingly vigorous ; and if you have no sport, the panthers certainly will. A young Paan. charged with being lazy, was asked if he took it from his father. "I think not," was the reply. "Father's got all the laziness he ever had."  An American, speaking of spiritualism, says, `f We don't believe in any medium except the eirculating medium,' and that has become so scarce that our faith in it is shaky."  A lady, who has been reading law, is in the most fearful and agonizing doubts regarding the legality of her married condition. She says, "Lotteries are illegal, and marriage is the greatest lottery in life."  An American says that, from his late experience of English weather, he should imagine that "Rain, Britannia !' oucht to be as popular in England as "Hail, Columbia !" is In the States.  A local editor in Pekin, 111., introduced himself to the public a few days since as follows :—" Sensational, distressing details of revolting murders and shocking suicides espectfully solicited. Bible class presentations and ministerial donation parties will be done' with promptness and despatch, Keno banks and their operations made a speciality. Accurate reports of Sunday school anniversaries guaranteed. The local will cheerfully walk seventeen miles after Sunday school to see and report a prize-flght. Funerals and all other melancholy occasions written up in a manner to challenge admiration. Horse races reported in the highest style of th report.' tut are. I,roils sod c011i.1.6.1 infelicities sought for with untiring avidity. Police court proceedings and sermons reported in a manner well calculated to astonish the prisoner, magistrate, and printer. Promptpaying subscribers and good advertisers, when stricken with mortal illness, will be cheerfully interviewed, when lying at death's door, with a view to obtaining obituary items ; and the greatest pleasure will be taken in exposing your private affairs to the critical gaze of an uninterested public.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1875-07-03 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE LATE STABBING CASE AT THE LYE. At the Worcestershire Midsummer Sessions, on Wednesday last, before G. W. Hastings, Esq., Williem Woo'. dritlge, sea., and VI illiam Forrest, were indicted fur maliciously inflicting grievous bodly harm on James Newey and Samuel Wyatt, at Wollescote, on March 15th Mr. Streeteu and Mr. Amphlett prosecuted; Mr. Jeff defended Wooldridge and Mr. Godson, Forrest —James Newey, miner, said that on the evening of March 15th he was returning from the Lye to his home at Cradley, and several other men were with him. On arrived at Charless Green, at about half-past ten, he saw the prisener, who commenced usiag abusive language to him and Wyatt. Forrest laid hold of his jacket, and Wooldridgt struck him with a knife under the eye. Forrest demanded money, and prosecutor gave him sixpence, which was all he had. Wooldridge then threw him into a gutter, aud stabbed him in the shoulder. Forrest jumped upon him, and one of the prisoners exclaimed. • lie's dune for now." Prisoners then left him, and he managed to reach the house of a man named Taylor. lie had had no quarrel with prisoners, and did not give them any provocation. Samuel Wyatt, chainraaker, gave corroborative evidence, and said Wooldridge stabbed himin the shoulder. Mr. Jelf and Mr. Godson respectively addressed the jury, contending that there was a general melee, pointing out discrepancies in the evidence, and submitting that the charge of stabbing had riot been clearly brought home to the prisoners. The jury found prisonera guilt,. The same men, together with Wm. Wooldridge the younger, and James Brettle' were thee charged with maliciously wounding Samuel Wyatt and Joseph Brettle. The offence was allotted to has,: been committed a short time alter the one described above.  Mr Jelf appeared for the younger Wooldridge, and Mr. Selfe for Brettle.  Samuel Wyatt stated that he was going along the Holloway with Joseph Brettle and William Pearsons, when be was attacked by three men, struck, kicked and cut upon the bead. Money %ilia demanded from him. Jo .eph. Bradt) said he wai struck on the he .11 by Wooldridge, senior, and Forrest also laid hold of him.  Other eiidense was given with a view to connecting the prisoners Brettle and Wooldridge, the younger, with tL • assault; but it was held to be insufficitnt, and the ViceChairman dire cted an acquittal. Wooldridge, ten., and Forrest were found gui yof a common assault. The ViceChairman chaltieterisud the offences as very aggravated For the first prisoners were sentenced to 15 Mouths', and for the second to three month.' hard labour.  DREADFUL SUICIDE AT CHURCHILL' INQ r 4iN 4. B
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1875-08-14 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

HABITUAL DRUNKARDS.  During the sitting of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh, a discussion arose on the control of insane drunkards, on which a paper was read by Dr. Peddie, Edinburgh, the conclusion of which was that, as the State regarded the suicide either as a criminal or as insane, the dipsomaniac having also lost his reason in governing his will, must therefore be regarded as under a mental malady, and treated as such. Dr. G. F. Boddington read a paper "On the control and restraint of habitual drunkards." He considered that the general opinion among medical men was that a remedy was .requisite for this crying evil, which medical men could not only fully appreciate, but which they were powerless to remove. Could the pubfic fully recognise the degradation and misery resulting from drunkenness, indignation would at once mount up, and medical men would be saved any further trouble by the country insisting on remedial measures. Professor Christison said that therewas no doubt a well-considered resolution on the subject treated of in the last two papers, put forth under the auspices of the association ought to have great weight with the Government. They must therefore be careful what they said. He proposed a resolution, which , was as follows :—"That excessive intemperance ism many cases a symptom of a special form of insanity which requires special treatment, with a view,—first, to the recovery of those affected, and secondly, to the protection and advantage of them and of society; that in the present state of the law such treatment is not attainable; and that it is desirable that legal provision be made to render it attainable." Dr. Husband, of York, seconded the motion. Br. Morris. Baltimore, stated that, though he lived in a country where personal liberty was greatly prized, yet there was a law in some parts by which they could confine confirmed drunkards. Dr. Playfair said that he had been on the Committee on Habitual Drunkards, and although at first of opinion that education alone could prevent drunkenness, the evidence adduced before the committee led him to sign the report recommending restraint for habitual drunkards. The motion was then put to the meeting and carried unanimously.