Year: 1859

6VIoence IN England.


The English papers contain report of the
recent trial of a young man named John Isaac
Jones, an attorneys clerk, for the wilful mur
der of Harriet Baker, at Ledbury, on the It'll
of May, 1859. The deceased, an elderly wo-
man, had the care of the premises of the enl-
| ployer of the accused at night, and was found
| On the morning of the 8th of May dead upon
The floor of her room, having, apparently, been
strangled with rope placed about her neck.
Her clothes were considerably burnt, and from
appearances it was the design of the murderer
to burn both body and building, in order to
| conceal his gcrime. The office was robbed ol
considerable money The evidence collected
against the accused was of remarkable
though wholly of cireumstantial character
1t was evident in the first place, that the
hfilding was not foreibiy entered, and the sup
position, therefore, was, that she had been mur-
desed by some one who had obtained access to
the house in a friendly way. The woman when


last seen was mending pair of pantaloons be-


longing to the prisoner. At the time there
was nothing upon the table of deceased, but
the next morning there were glasses there one
of which contained gin aud water. The pris-
oner had recently bought some gin and was
seen at ten O'Clock of the previous night going
towards the Office. The next morning the ac-
cused got up unusually early and went out
Near the spot where he was seen was found d
parcel of silver coin, among which was six
pence identified as having been stolen from the
Office on the night of the murder In the
prisoners box there was was found a bIudgeon,
such as might have caused the blow which was
on the forehead of the deceased


There were other suspicious circumstances,
such as the prisoner being " hard up - for mo-
ney before the murder, while at the time of his
arrest about $50 was found upon him, for the
possession of which he could not account
Postage stamps were also stolen, and sixty-four
were found in his possession. On the 28th Of
June some ashes were found in the prisoners
fireplace which proved to be the ashes OF
Bank of England notes and as two bank
notes were missed from Mr.. Masefields office,
it was suggested that these were the two stoien
notes, which the prisoner had destroyed. Part
Of the word &c bearer " was still visible on the
ash. 1t also appeared that when he bought
the gin it was put into green bottle, which
he promised to return. 1t was proved how
ever that in order to do this after the murder,
he exchanged a white bottle for a green one,
and washed it with gin. In an enve ope in his
possession there were found some blue stamps
which cost I'd. 1t appeared that every stamp
was marked with letters, and those found on
the prisoner were shown by the letters not to
be the duplicate with those which remained,
and therefore they might have formed part OF
the same sheet Of stamps. There was another
popularity, which seemed to show that they
belonged to the same parcel.


Notwithstanding all this cumulative evil
dence, the jury after consultation of about
three hours. acquitted the accused, who seemed
a good deal astonished at the result of the tri-
al, though he loudly declared his innocence Of
the murder-Boston Iroueler.