npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1880-10-16 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

MYSTERIOUS DEATH ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY.  On Monday evening Mr. Langham held an inquiry at the King's College Hospital, London, touching the death id Kirwan Joyce Percival, aged bit years, a next-of-kin agent, lately residing at 8, Hanover Street, Battersea Park Read, which occurred on the previous Thursday, under a tunnel near the Temple station of the Metropolitan District Railway. inspector (Radon appeared on behalf a the railway authorities.—John Chorley, signalman in the employ of the District Raihipy Company, deposed that shortly after nine o'clock on the night of Thursday last he had just finished duty at the Temple Street signal-box, and was rooming the inner line in the tunnel when he stumbled over some object lying in the four•foot, which he eventually discovered to be the body of the deceased. Witness was about to remove the deceased from his position when he observed a Charing-cross train coming along, and he was obliged to leave him. Witness then went and told the station inspector what hehad seen. Upon returning to the spot he found the deceased in the same place and insensible. His clothing was in a state of great disorder; his waistcoat WU torn open—Mr. Pengilly, a solicitor, stated that he had known the deceased for WJIMI years. The deceased called at his office on ' Thursday forenoon, and asked him to accompany him to Brookley, where he had business to transact. The witness did no, and they returned to London Bridge shortly before seven o'clock. The deceased then proceeded to the Mansion House Station, took a ticket for Victoria, and the witness saw him off in the train. He would have no occasion to get out at the Temple station. The deceased was perfectly sober when witness left him, and his clothing was in perfect order. The deceased had never threatened to commit suicide. There were several working men in the same compartment as the deceased.— Police Constable 8011, . 278 E, deposed to • •  , searching the clothing of the deceased at the hospital, and finding in an outer pocket of his great coat the sum of £l7 its, in gold, in an inner pocket Lila. in silver, and in the waistcoat pocket 41d. in bronze. The pockets were much torn, and his waistcoat and trousers unfastened. The witness also found a railway ticket from Temple to Victoria, dated Oct. 2. (The deceased was found on the 7th.) The ticket had not been clipped. In the tunnel where the deceased was found two distinct pools of blood were discovered, one about eight yards from the other.—Dr. John Phillips, the house surgeon at King's College Hospital, said that the deceased was admitted in an insensible condition, and died about twenty minutes later. He had sustained a broken leg, fractured spine, and other very severe injuries The jury returned a verdict, " That the deceased met his death on the District Itsaway, but there {Yak no evidence to show how he CULLIO on the line."
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1880-12-11 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

MULATTO STABBED BY A WO34AN.  At the Greenwich Police Court, Ellen Connor' 47, garden woman, of Marsh Lane, East Greenwich, has been charged, on remand, with unlawfully stabbing, with a felonious intention, John Taylor, a mulatto, living at Magdala Terrace. It seemed that the parties were employed by Mr. Shepherd, market gardener, East Greenwich, and on November 24 were engaged trimming celery in a shed. Taylor accused the prisoner of taking a bottle of brandy from bee pocket, which led to words. Prisoner became very much enraged, and threw a small table at the prosecutor, following it up with a piece of burning coal and a brick, which, however, he warded off with the table. He gave her a "shove," whereupon she picked up a trimming knife the blade of which was about a foot long, and ihrew at him, striking him in the loin. Ile reeled across the shed, and then fell, the knife remaining in his flesh, and being pulled out by another woman. The prisoner went to the Park Row Police Station, and gave herself up to Inspector Stent, who took down her statement, and detained her.—Mr. Percival, surgeon, said on attending the prisoner he found him in a dangerous condition, there being considerable internal hasmorrhage. There was a wound in the right lumber region, about three inches deep and an inch wide. He was now recovering.—Prisoner, in defence said Taylor called her names, and she threw the knife on the impulse of the moment.—Mr. Marsham committed her for trial on the charge of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.  At Colbridge, Stoke-on-Trent, on Thursday, a potter's oven OD the premiset of Messrs. W. E. Brownfield and Sons tell to the ground, killing two men and injuring several others.  Lieut.-Colonel Fraser has accepted Griffith's valuation from the tenantry of his Limerick estates. There are now 60,000 Turkish troops in Thessaly and Epirus, and by March next the.numbor will be increased to 100,000.  From Athens it is announced that the Greek Chamber has at length passed all the supplementary votes, including 50,000,000 drachmae required by the Ministry of War and Maxine.  One of the Caannia puotmen at present or; strike at Bristol has L.ommitted suicide by blowing his brains OUt with a pistol. He had been out f eraulovmatt for some time.  I,rd Roden has made an abatement ot to per eons. upon the 4alf -year's rents hie on Michaelmas Day. The redaction is to be permanent den* the cone tin uanee ef Una existing leases.
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1880-06-19 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

EMPTED SVICIDE.—A woman named Caroline Humphreys was charged with attemting to commit suicide.—A, young man named William Simpson, living in Edensor-road, stated that on Monday, about four o'clock, he saw tho prisoner in water ins marl hole, in the read in which ho lived. There were one or two others standing near, and witness asked one of them to go in and fetch her out, bat he refused, and witness than went into the water about four yards and fetched her oat, when she said, " Why didn't you let me die. It is trouble, this is." Witness then took her home, and in the house found her husband, who was not quite sober from what he could see of him.—ln answer to the charge the defendant said she slipped into the water by accident while running after her little girl. The Men who were standing near before the last witness came up advised her to paddle about to keep her head above the water.—The defendant's husband being called, denied most positively that he was drunk when found in the house, and said that he had only been to sleep. He knew no more of the occurrence to his wife than what ehe had told him since. His wife had been attended by Dr. Dawes since the occurrence. It was entirely without his knowledge that eh° was out of the house after the child.—Some conversation arose with reference to the witness Simpson, who stated that in consequence of his having to come sway from his employment as a placer at Messrs. Cartwright and Edwards, to give evidence, the men who worked with him as • placer had refused to allow him to return to his work that day, whereby he would lose a day's wages, which amounted to about ss.—The Stipendiary said he he had no power to pay the witness for coming there, but would give him 2s. 6;1, on account of his act of humandy.—Mr. Hawley, Town Clerk, gave Simpson another 2s. 6d., and remarked that this was another example of the tyrrany which existed all the world ever.—The witness Simpson thanked the magistrate and Mr. Hawley; and after considerable consultation, when other more had been proceeded with, the Court dealt with the woman Humphreys, and the Stipendiary remarked that ,he scarcely believed her statement as to the Affair being an accident, as no one had beard of the child, He gave her a severe caution; and, saber pro. miring not to attempt to commit such a rash act again, she was discharged. Dmounitm.v
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1880-11-27 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, 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. The execution took place 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 dunng his trial and up to within a few days of his execution, had latterly forsaken him, and he had adopted a penitent mood. lie slept little during Sunday night, and when he was roused on Monday morning, he burst tests a paroxysm of grief, which it required the use of stimulants tQ overcome. He continued groaning during the whole tire() the pinioning was being done. fie had to be supported from the cells to the scaffold between two warders. When ho arrived there he was scarcely able to stand, and almost at the last moment he had to be given something to drink. Then, heaving deep sighs, 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 dispersed when the black flag was hoisted. The crime for which Distin was executed was committed in August last, lie and Mrs. Daniels, a widow woman, with whom ho cohabited, had frequently quarrelled, and on the 27th of August 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 gentleman scut down by the Home Office could find nothing in the present condition or past history of biotin upon which to recommend a reprieve, and the Home Secretary had to refuse the prayer of the memorialists.
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1880-09-18 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

CONFESSION OF MURDER BY A MOTHER.  At the Portsmouth Police Court, before the Mayor, Mr. Alderman Cudlip, and other magistrates, Fanny Stow Gooding, a single woman, 39 years of age, has been placed in the dock on a charge of attempting to commit suicide. The prisoner had tried to drown herself from the pier at Portsea. On being I ' taken to the police-station she was questioned as to ' what she had done with her child, a little girl two years and a half old, who had been placed by her under the care ef a person living in Hawke Street, Portsea, to whom she paid 48. a week. Prisoner had been in service at an hotel in Southsea for 12 months, and, prior to that, in London. She had left her situation shout a week ago, and went to her father's at Landport, and on Wednesday morning she proceeded to the person who had charge of her illegitimate child and took it away. When questioned by the police, prisoner denied having had the child, but eventually said, 'The child is some distance from here—at Gosport; it is dead." She added that she had for some time thought of making away with herself, but that before she did so she would make away with the child, because if she did not it would be thrown on her father's hands, and she knew he could not afford to keep it. She further said, "1 held it under the water until it was dead. The water was very shallow, and there was not, enough to drown me." On a search being made at daylight the body of the missing child was found by a man named Churcher on the shore at the back of the Goaport Gasworks. It was at once removed to the policestation at Gosport to await the coroner's inquest. On the application of Chief-constable Jervis, the prisoner, who said she was very sorry, was discharged on the charge of attempted suicide, and ordered to be handed over to the county police for the purpose of being taken before the magistrates at Gosport on a charge of wilful murder.  it is strange how often it oscura mat the person who thinks he knows most about a business is one who has never been engaged in it. The Earl of Derby has seats cheque to the secretaries for £2O, " to mark his sympathy" with the Free Library movement in the parish of St. Pancras. Prince Bismarck has been definitely appointed to the post of Prussian Minister of Trade and Commerce, held until recently by Herr Hofmann. Advice. from Russia state that the approaching retirement of General Itilutine, the Russian Minister for \ Var, is owing to differences between the Minister and the Cmrewitch.  Ten convicts who escaped from Aew Caledonia have been arrested in Queensland, and will be sent back to the French convict settlement. On their arrival in Queensland they represented themselves to be Communists; but the Governor received information of their being ten of the worst of crinainals. Eight other convicts have made their escape from New Caledonia, and are ;11pp:we4 te have lauded on the Australian onset.
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-01-08 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

SAD SUICIDE AT LONGTON.  Liglatwood Pool has again been the scene of an act of pelf-destruetion. It appears that Austin Barker, aged thirty years, a potter by trade, has been in a low way for the last few days, and was particularly so on Sunday last, on which day he visited the grave of his father at Normacot churchyard, and. on returning home he was notieed to go into the front room and remain there some ten minutes or quarter on an hour. He subsequently went into the kitchen, appearing greatly distressed ; still nothing in his manner indicated the fearful end he intended to make of his life. He was last seen alive by one of the neighbours—at one o'clock on Monday, when he seemed to be going in the direction of Normacot. Not returning home on Monday night, the family became alarmed and a search was instituted, but in vain. Two brothers of the deceased went round by the church and past the very pool in which the body-of the deceased lay. One strange feature of the sad case is that the deceased had left his watch, knife, and money on the kitchen table before going out on the Monday, and it was this incident, coupled with his absence during the night, that gave the family ground for supposing that he had made away with himself. Some time ago the deceased, in referring to the pool, in which he corn'flitted the rash act said that it aught to be "bricked up," little thinking that he would add another name to the ghastly list of those who had been helped out of the world by the pool. The body of the deceased was found by two lads, and the information conveyed at once to the police station. There does not appear to have been any cause, other than those stated, for committing selfdestruction. He was steady in habits, and greatly respected by all who knew hill,.
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-01-08 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

ROMANTIC SUICIDE.  An inquest has been held at Swindon on the body of Frederick Day, aged 55,-who committed suicide by shooting himself in the head near his wife's grave, in the churchyard of St. Mark's, New Swindon. There was no doubt as to the identity of the de• ceased or that he premeditated the fatal act. The following letter, apparently written not long before he shot niniself, was found on him: "New Swindon. lam tired of life and seek rest. My poor old girl (his wife) died here last April. I cannot live without her, and I thought of being a little nearer to her by doing this. I am quite aware that my head is not quite so clear as it might be; at the same time . I should like to be buried in the same grave as she is. My life is insured, and Mr.- Percy Bunting, 18, Endleigh Gardens, Bie,ton Square, London, holds my policy, and he will pay the funeral expenses, &c., which need not be much. I may as well be buried as you find me (clothes I'm in). I don't want a lot of old women to mess nie about. Old Dick Hinton (the sexton) can identify me. Relations I have none that I acknowledge. Friends are scarce,, very scarce. Now, don't make a great bother about this little affair. I sha'n't. —FnED.DAy." This letter was written in a bold and good hand. Witnesses were called whose evidence tended to show that ho felt the death of his wife, which took place in May last, very acutely, and his manner was very strange at times. The jury cturned a verdict of "Suicide whilst in a state of tk porary insanity."  On Monday morning a mason employed on tho Great Southern and Western Railway at Cork, who is accused by the members of his trade with having violated some trade rule, was attacked while on his way to work by six men, and dreadfully beaten. His assailants deliberately threw him from the ground over the entrance to a tunnel on to the lino —a fall of 30ft.  Great damage has been done to St. John's Roman Catholic Church, Gravesend, by fire. The clothes of the man found on Clifton Suspen. sion Bridge have been identified as thoseof an artisan named Thomas, living at Bath. Their Royal Highnesses the Duke a Connaught, and the greater portion the Prince and Princess of Wales. hay ham for London.  A labourer, named Muffle, in Great Western Railway Company down by an up train, beiv,ree Kentbury Stations, mid killed in, - to have been frightfull
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-03-19 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE ASHANTEE DIFFICULTY.  The British and African Company's steamer Ma. lemba, which has arrived in the Mersey, brings farther details of the Ashantee matter and the arrival of the embassy from King Mensah. The messengers arrived at Elmira on the 18th February, and told the Government that the King was greatly surprised at the British preparations for war, as he had no intention of quarrelling, and that the axe had been stolen from rioomassie. The general impression, however, is that the statement was altogether inaccurate, and that, but for the prompt action of the Government, the difficulty would have become serious. The nature of the Governor's message in reply to the King's was not known, but it was thought not improbable that he would make a demand from King Mensah for a further portion of the indemnity which was levied on the Ashantees at the close of the last war, and of which only about one-third has yet been paid. The messengers further stated that the mother of King Mensah had threatened to commit suicide if he declared war, and this would probably lead to a civil war and the banishment of the king. The Gold Mining Company at Tacquah has suffered serious inconvenience by the panic caused by the report that the Ashantees were on the march. All the French and most of the English workmen deserted, and took refuge at Axim, but before they went they took away as much of the machinery as they could, and buried the remainder. The English miners, however, went back afterwards. The detachment of Hussars and guns which were sent to the Prah have been recalled, owing to the distance from the supports. The castle and the buildings all along the coast had been considerably strengthened with earthworks, &c., and native contingents are being formed.
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-05-28 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

TEXAS MOTHER-IN-LAW.  A tall woman, wearing a sun-bonnet, came into the office of the Galveston Chief of Police, and sitting down hard on the end of a bench, wiped her nose, batted her eyes a time or two at the Chief of Police, and asked in a voice that reminded one of sharpening a saw— "Be you the galoot what locks folks up ?" "I regret to say that I am occasionally obliged, to resort to extreme measures with refractory persons." "I know all about that; but be you the galoot ?" "Yes, madam." "Why didn't you say so when I asked you ?" "I did." "You are J liar, and if you don't treat me like a lady, I'll fold you up and sit down on you." And she batted her eyes some more like a terrier. "What do you want ?" asked the 'official, looking as if he needed reinforcements right away, and plenty of them. "I want that dirty little whelp what married my darter. I want to talk to him on business, but he evades me. If I could only get a chance to caress him once more 1" and she breathed hard and gritted her :teeth until the official felt .in his pocket far a police .ashistle. "What did he do ?" "He told my darter that he ,r7ould give 320 acres of land, with a gold mine on it, toa.nybody who would amperate my jaw with a baotjack. He said my mouth was like the gates at the fair ground.l;." mHe meant, I suppose, it was never shut. I don't see how be came to make any such ridiculous comparison as that. Did you remonstrate with bim ?" "You bet I did. I drawed him across the kitchen table by the hair with one hand,aahile I bashed him with a long handled skillett, and yonahould have heerd him'calling me 'mother darling' end-' pet,' but Providence was agin me. His bar gave Avaly, and he lit out before I could reason with him any more. Just as like as not we will never meet ago*" and she sighed heavily. "Be calm, madam; do not excite yourself too much.' "I am calm. I like to talk about these•family secrets. It calls up sacred recollections. It makes me think of my darter's fast hasband. It was real fun toxemonstrate with him. His har didn't give. He was game. He sassed back, but ,lor 1 what a time they had holding the inquest. That was at Arkansas before I moved to . Galveston. There was some of his remains in one corner of the yard, and a few more remains hanging on the fence, and there was right peart of :him wrapped round the axe handle. The jury knew me, se they brought in a verdict of justifiable suicide or sometbinp like that. And now to think of this pesky little, wrthless, spindle-shanked, gogle-eyed whelp getting clear Off, excepting a few pounds of hat. I want you to find liLim for me. You can know him by the brands I made on him with the hot skillet. Wanted to amperate my jaw, the little brassy whelp! Said my mouth was like a gate, did he ?" The official said he would hunt for him and let her know. As she went out, she batted her eyes significantly and remarked" You had better find that gon or thar'll be MUSiC at these headquarters,"  something  t.r7. .3  1  ELECTRIC LIGHTING FOR DOMESTIC  , bpuur he fbi cil .ame :ained