The Express. — 1861-09-21 (London, England)

THE ATTEMPTED DOUBLE MURDER AHD SUICIDE AT GOOLE.  At an early hour ou Wmluesday morning Goole was thrown into a state of intense excitement by a tinalotr that a woman lout been administering large doses of opium to her children as well as to herself, and on inquiry the **port turned out too :true, for one child was already dead, and the other in such a drowsy state that it was almost linpoesible to keep it awake, awl, but for the untiring efforts of Sergeant Greenwood, the child could not have recovered. The prisoner, Mrs. Torkingtoo, is the wife of a police-officer residing at Stockport, but was on a visit to her mother, Mn. Scholar, Lower Bridgeetreet, Goole, where she has been living since the 14th of July last. At the inquest, which was holden on Thursday afternoon, at the Sydney Hotel, Guile, before J. H. Simpson, Pp., M.D., the coroner for Pontefract, the following particular, were elicited : Mr. R. P. Sell said I am in practice as a surgeon in Goole. About 2 o'clock on Wednesday morning Mrs. Scholes called me up to attend her daughter. 1 went at once, and found a young child apparently in a profound sleep. The mother was sitting in a chair in the salmi room, talking in a wild and wanderiug way, and was making efforts to vomit. I examined the child and found its pulse feeble and intermittent, and its skin cold and clammy, with the eyelids abut and the pupils contracted. I asked the grandmother what they had been giving to the child, and she replied, "My daughter says she has given them a pennyworth of opium." lat once gave an emetic, but this had no effect. I gave a second with the like result. 1 then used the stomach pump, but I was still unable to give relief. In passing the tube the child vomited a small quantity of mucus. The child died about 7 sm. When I was first called in the child was in a very dangerous state, and there was no possible chance of saving its life. I applied every remedy I knew without effect. I have performed a post-mortem examination on the body. I produce the contents of the stomach, and on examining it l found a strong smell of opium. I fount a brown _powder secreted among the mucus Lilco from the stomach. I am sure that powder was poison, and that the child came to its death from as overdose of opium or some other narcotic poison such as opium or laudanum. I have tested the contents of the stomach by test paper, and hod au acid reaction. I heard that the prisoner had soother child, and when I inquired for it she said it was upstairs all right. 1 mot her to fetch it downstairs, and then sew that it was suffering from the effects of opium. It was then staggering, and in a very nervous state. I gave him an emetic, and one to his mother, and afterwards repeated them, which caused free voruiti4. I ordered them some strong coffee, and had them walitiag about for some time. The boy was kept in motion from my tint visit until 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening. He ss now better, and the mother has also hoovered from the effects of the opium, but she is in a very unsettled state of mind. The prisoner told me that she had bought a drachm of opium, which cost her 34d., and that they had all taken it.  Mrs. Mary Scholeu, the prisoner's mother, said—Mary Torkington, the deceased, is my grandchild, and was a year and seven months old. My daughter came to me cm July Ili last. I warn over at Stockport on July 8, and told her husband to bring her, as I thought she was "silly mad." and the change might do her good. Os the 18th instant my son-in-law mane home about 2 o'clock a.m. and I got up to let him in. At that time I heard the child moaning. I was in the min, bed with it and its mother. I took hold °tithe child, and thought it was ill, and went at once for Dr. Bell. He pee it medicine, and used the stomach pump, but it died about 7 o'clock the same morning. I asked my daughter what she had twee doing to the child, and at first she said, " Nothing." I said, " If thou doesn't tell me I will knock thee down." She then said, "We have all had a peanyworth of opium, and shall be deed directly." She seamed quite in high spirits over it. I sent for Sergeant I;reeevrood, and, in company with my daughter, we went to the shop where she mid she had puiehmed the opium. I did not know of her buying any, and believe she was not in the habit of taking it. She was very fond of her cbildreu, and always afraid thyme should injure them. My daughter was in the Stockport Infirmiu7 in June last. She had then been attempting to hang her. self. I have often taken her children away from her, but she has found and brought them back. II she went up. stairs I was forced to follow her, for fear she should do herself an injury. Mr. William Steele, assistant to Mr. th druggist, proved that the primes? applied to him s of opium, and that his cantioned bar several times asked if the koew that it was a dewily poison. She said she did, and from her appearance ho thought, she was in the habit of taking it. The jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of "Wilful murder" against the prisoner. She had been remanded by the magistrates, sad will be brought before them in a day or two.  THE LArs