The Sun. — 1859-03-29 (London, England)

WIFE MURDERED IN THE STREET AND SUICIDE OF THE HUSBAND.  For some years the, town of West Bromwich has not been in a state of such intense excitement as existed at a late hour on Friday night last, on its becoming known that a young collier named John Corbett had cut his wife's throat in Reform-street, and directly after inflicted two such deep gashes on his own throat that it was thought he could not live many hours. The circumstances under which this double murder, as it may well be called, occurred, stand thus. For a period of five years the unhappy pair lived together in Walsall-street, and there is no question that, although they had two fine little boys, the issue of the marriage, yet jealousy on both sides prevailed, and mutual accusations and suspicions led to frequent quarrels, and sometimes to blows. Two weeks ago they separated, Mrs. Corbett and the children going to the house of her father, John Bird, of Reform-street, and her husband taking:lodgings in Gad's-lane, near the Shoulder of Mutton public-house. It would seem, from circumstances, that the 'man himself desired to make matters up ; at all events, the murdered woman went to him at, his lodgings on Sunday last, and .passed the night in his company. 'Since the period of his separation Mrs. Corbett 'Worked at "nailing" with her sister, Sarah Bird, inn shop at the back of the Hen and Chickens beerhouse, kept by Mrs. Lydia Biddlestone. Corbett himself was employed at - the Messrs. Dawes's new pit near Bromford Works. There he was at his labour as usual until- half-past six on the night of the fatal occurrence. We have no particular account of him further until about eight o'clock ' the same evening, when he was seen in Reform-street, proceeding in the direction of the nailing shop where his wife worked. If he had been drinking at all in the interval, we are assured that at this hour, although in a state of some excitement, he was quite sober. However, some person heard him remark, " There will be murder done this night." At twenty minutes past eight, his wife, accompanied by her sister, left the workshop. They had net proceeded many yards up Reform-street, on their road to their father's, when Corbett, who had hid himself behind a low wall just opposite the Hen and Chickens, sprang out into the road, and in an instant, putting his left arm round his wife's neck, inflicted a fearful cut on one side of her throat, with a large clasp knife which he held in his right hand. The poor creature screamed" Murder," but instantly seizing her again in the same manner, Corbett made a fearful gash with the knife on the other side of her throat, a third in the direction of her bosom, and instantly ran off. A woman named Weaver, coming up at the moment, by her aid and that of her sister, Corbett was led, or rather carried, bleeding profusely as far as Mr. Grainger's, the Globe Tavern. This is within a few yards of her father's house, and being taken there, the poor creature died from loss of blood and exl;austion, at a quarter to nine, less than half an hour after her throat was cut as above described. Messrs. Keyte, Cotterill, and Manley, surgeons, were sent for by Major M'Knight, who was soon on the spot, and these gentlemen promptly attended, but they arrived only in time to hear from the poor sufferer the deep long-drawn sigh, which closed her life. The sister of deceased says that the tragic scene she witnessed was enacted without the murderer speaking a word, but Mrs. Weaver states that Corbett, asking his wife, " Will you come and live with me ?" and receiving the word " No," in answer, said, " Then you shall live with no one else," and then did the murder. We have said that Corbett ran up Reform-street with the bloody knife still in his hand, as seen by his own sister, Mrs. Harris, whose garden looks into this street. Arrived at the top of Bull-street, the wretched man pointed the fatal weapon at his own throat, and by a desperate cut separated his windpipe, and fell, bleeding and senseless, to theground. Major M'Knight, accompanied by Inspector Holland and Police-constables Barnes and Moss, came to the spot where Corbett lay with the knife still in his hand; and whilst officers remained With the ,poer wretch, who was taken to Mr. Broom's beerhouse close by, the medical gentlemen referred to also arrived. The wounds which the murderer had inflicted upan himself were sewn up ; and although Mr. Keyte and Mr. Cotterill certified that he might be removed to his brother-in-law's (John Harris), Walsall•street, which was done in the course of Saturday morning, yet they consider his recovery impossible. Corbett was about 27 years of age, and his wife three years younger, and the scene of wretchedness presented at the houses of the parents of the wife, and at that of the husband's sister was most distressing, enhanced as it was by the presence of the two little boys referred to, one three and the other six years of age, now without a mother. There is a collateral circumstance in immediate connection with this tragedy which we publish, as the name of the party implicated was voluntarily and freely communicated to us. Corbett, as previously stated, worked in a pit at Broniford, and the doggy of the pit is said by Corbett himself, when he left his work, to have repeatedly, during the day of the murder, jeered him before the men in the pit with reference to his wife's leaving him. He was unmanly and base enough to avow that he had been improperly intimate with her during the week, and made other statements which were well calculated to cause the deepest feelings of anger and revenge in a husband against a woman who could thus act.—Birmingham Daily Post.