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    ¦ No. 395, October 17, 1857.] THE L,E A ...

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    Attempted Murder and Suicide.—A woman ju...

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    Our Civilization. —*—A Mysterious Murder...

    that of a man . " In pursuing my examination of the remains , " continued Mr . Paynter , " I found some stray hairs adhering to the flesL . They appeared to have fallen there . Some that I now produce seem to "be hair from the head of a man . It is not black , though very dark . There are likewise some dark hairs from whiskers . I also found a few hairs which , from , their length and fineness , must ha-ve heen a woman ' s . I have no doubt the dark short hair belonged to the deceased . I think the body was not cut to pieces until the rigidity of death had set in some time , because , in fitting together the

    portions of the right leg , I found the right knee-joint and hip-joint firmly fixed , so that the thigh must have stiffened completely at right angles with the rest of the body . The right arm had also stiffened with the forearm under and pointing towards the body . The decomposition I observed in the left hip-joint could not have been produced in less than a week before I saw the remains . " Mr . Paynter added that he should not be surprised , from the appearance of the remains , if it was found that they biad been partly boiled . He imagined ao from the extraordinary tightness and rigidity of the tendons .

    The amount of evidence tending to throw light upon the committal of the murder is very scanty . On the night of Thursday week , about half-past eleven , an elderly woman , rather short and stout , came from the direction of the Strand towards Waterloo-bridge . She carried a carpet-bag , long , of rather peculiar shape , and having a large bright flower in the pattern on the side . It appeared to be very heavy , and the woman , after paying her halfpenny to the toll-collector , had some difficulty in getting it through the turnstile . In endeavouring to do so , she turned the stile twice , and the tollcollector said , " "Why don ' t you ask people to lift up your bag for you ? See what you have done ; you have made me lose a halfpenny . " She muttered something

    in reply in a gruff , and rather masculine , tone of voice , apparently simulated . Errington , the toll-collector , then stooped down and lifted the bag over . In doing so , he observed that it had leathern sides , handles , and bottom ; and the bag found by the lads on the abutment in all respects corresponded-with the one carried by the woman . The woman ' s hair looked as if it had been powdered , and plastered thickly dowu on her forehead . She seemed agitated , as if in a hurry ; and Errington conceived she was desirous to catch the train which was to start from the Waterloo station at a quarter to twelve . He has no recollection of her going off the bridge again at the same end . Besides the carpet-bag , she carried a brown paper parcel , supposed to contain the head , & c .

    It has been suggested that the ' elderly woman' was in fact a man in disguise ; but to this it has been objected that , if she was short for a woman , she must have been a dwarf for a man . Errington stated on the inquest ( which stands adjourned to next Monday week ) that she seemed , at a rough guess , to "be about five feet three inches in height . la that case , the individual might well have been a man ; and several of the circumstances seem to point to that conclusion . Some further details are thus given in the daily papers : — " The police , under the directions of Mr . Superintendent Durkin , are engaged in active search for any due -which may lead to the detection of some one of tho persons ( for there is no doubt that there were

    several } who have been concerned in the murder . As yet , only very slight traces have been obtained . Kilsby brought to the station on Monday the missing sock and part of the neckerchief of the deceased , which were overlooked when the contents of the bag were first emptied out into the bargfe . The sock is , of course , the fellow to that in the bag , and both , there is not the slightest doubt , are of German manufacture . They are cotton , ribbed in a very peculiar manner , and such , it is stated , as are only made in Germany . This quite benrs out the opinion expressed by tailors who have seen tho clothes of the deceased , that at least

    the grcator part were made abroad . Of course , with a foreigner who may have had but few friends in London , or possibly was only here on a short visit , this still farther diminishes the chance of his clothes being recognized . The half of the necktie which has been found in the barge is a black silk one , with a smallpatteraed blue silk end . As with the other portions of the dress , it has been cut in half at the back , and only on * half appears to have been put into tho carpet-bag . * rom the make of the deceased ' s shirt , it is evident thnt « e must have worn his shirt-collar turned down over the necktie , which again conftrma the suspicion that ho was not a native of tMs country . "

    Among the several guesses , more or less probable , wnloh have been put forward , it has heen suggested that the mnrder was committed in Germany , and tho body brought over here , to be more snfely ' got rid of ; thnt the murdered man was n refugee , killed for political rcaflotu by flonio of hia comrades ; and thnt ho was a stranger in London , and was decoyed to some infnmous « en , under pretence of being taken to a respectable loaging for tho night , and there slaughtered for the flake « Li t m ° nOy # No coina wcre foun ( l in tho clothes , tho pocketa of which were turned inside out

    . kJ 2 * !? ag VUh itH contollt » weighed about a quarter of a ,. ™ weight . Tho motive for lowering it by tho wing over tho side of the bridge was probably to avoid

    the splasli in the water which would have flawed had 5 t been tlirown over , and which would have" attracted the attention of the Thames police . Had the bag been let down directly over one of the arches , it would of course have gone into the water ; but the person concerned , by a singular blunder , chose one of the recesses over the piers , and the bag was thus deposited'on the abutment . On its reaching this , and there resting , the operator no doubt supposed that it had gained the surface of the water , and so let go the string . Every effort haa been made to discover the missing parts of the body ; but to no effect . The police , however , have several times been put on false scents . A carpet-bag was washed ashore at Lambeth last Saturday ; but it was found to contain only a pistol-case , some bullets , and one or two articles supposed to have been used in a recent burglary . A report was also brought on Saturday to the police-office , to the effect that the head of a man had been found slightly concealed under the soil of the enclosure in Sussex Gardens , Hyde Park . On inquiry , it was found that two heads had been turned up there , one of a man , the other of a woman ; Tmt it was soon made evident that they had been used for anatomical examination . Among these false tracks would seem to be a statement made by a Mr . Taylor , who is connected with the wardrobe department of the Adelphi Theatre , and who said on Saturday at the Bow-street station that on the Thursday night , between half-past eleven and twelve o ' clock , he was proceeding homewards from the Adelphi Theatre . " He saw at the corner of the Belvidere-road , " say the daily papers , " two persons walking together , one a tall , stout man , carrying a carpet-bag , and the other a shortish , elderly woman carrying a parcel , which she carefully enveloped with a shawl . The man appeared to have some difficulty in carrying the bag , which w as a very long one , and appeared to be bulky . Every now and then he bumped' it on the ground , as though for the purpose of temporarily relieving himself from the burden . As there was a strong light at the time from several lamps , particularly from one opposite , at the Crown Hotel , Mr . Taylor had no difficulty in seeing the persons . He felt some surprise that persons of respectability should have been put at that time of night with luggage ; but he passed on , and thought nothing more of the matter until he saw the report in the newspapers . The time mentioned by Mr . Taylor as that of his seeing these persons does not , however , tally with the statement of Errington , the toll-collector . " Mr . Taylor was not able to identify the carpet-bag , when shown to him , as that which he states was carried by the man whom he had seen . " Another person who came forward last Saturda } ' was a man who is known as ' Bill , ' u sort of hanger-on at the New Inn , opposite Astley ' s Theatre , and he stated that on the same night ( Thursday ) he was standing at the corner of the Belvidere-road , after his labours of the day were over , when a man and woman came up to the place where he was standing , and hailed a cab . The man , he says , had in his hand a long and bulky carpet-bag , but he does not remember that the woman had a parcel . He perfectly recollects that the man was fussy and iidgety about his bag , and that when he attempted to take it from him , in order to put it in the cab , the man said , 'lean do -very well without your services , and prevented him from taking it . The man then gave him a penny , and the woman went away alone in the cab , taking with her the bag , the man giving directions that she was to be driven to Regent-circus . As soon as the cab had left , the man walked down the Belvedere-road , but shortly afterwards returned ; nnd , hailing another cab , drove off in another direction—that is , towards the York road , where he was lost sight of , and it is supposed from this that the woman proceeded to the Middlesex side of Waterloo-bridge , while the man went on to the hridge at the Surrey end . ' Bill' says further that the woman had a veil over her face , so that he could not see her features , and that he thinks she was about five-and-twenty years of age . He should not know the man again if he were to see him . " These stories seem to have very little bearing on the case , but arc interesting as showing the fever of speculation into which people are thrown on the discovery of any great and mysterious crime . It has been presumed that , the bag being heavy , i t must have been conveyed to tho bridge , or its vicinity , in a cab or some other vehicle . The police , however , cannot discover that any one with a carpet-bag was set down in the neighbourhood in question on the Thursday night , at tho hour fixed by the toll-collect or . The murdered man appears to have been attacked when partly undressed ; for the waistcoat is not pierced , though the breast of tho shirt is , and tho trousers are only pu-nctured in one spot , though tho lower part of the shirt shows marks of threo stabs . Tho trousers must therefore have been partly open in front . A great number of persons have been to tho station , to see if they can identify the clothes , but have always failed . It would seem from these numerous applications that mysterious disappearances nre of frequent occurrence in tho metropolis . Tho Government has offered a reward of 200 / . to nny one giving such information as shall lead to the npprobension and conviction of tho murderer or murderers ; and 10-OZ . to whoever shall givo auch information « 5

    shall lead to the identification and apprehension of the person or persons placing the carpet-bag in the place where it was found . A pardon is also offered to any accomplice , not being the person actually committing the murder , who-will give such evidence as shall lead to the conviction of the guilty parties . Mr . Richards , chief of the Stafford police , states that a Scotchman , of the name of Paterson , was in that town on the 29 th ult ., and that he had a carpet-bag corresponding with the one found at Waterloo-bridge . Some of his clothes , also , were similar to those discovered in the latter bag . He had just returned from Melbourne , Australia , and said that his bag contained 3800 / . in gold . He intimated his intention of going to London , and thence to Scotland , and of being back in Stafford in about three weeks . His shirt-collar he won

    turned down , as the murdered man would seem to have done ; and the opinion of those who saw him is that i is he who has been murdered in London . The London police are of opinion that this story offen an important clue to the mystery ; but the gentlemen or whom Mr . Patterson called in the metropolis think that the remains and the clothes now lying at Bowstreet are not those of the person alluded to . A young maa iu the employ of a grocer at Sawbridgeworth , and who recently came to London to see hi £ sister , is also missing , after having gone to a coffee-house in the Borough . His sister says that the clothes are like those found in the carpetbag ; and he likewise carried a carpet bag with him . Another missing person is a tidewaiter , said to be of intemperate habits , and a frequenter of disreputable houses on the Surrey side of the water , in which locality it is now generally thought the murder was committed .

    ¦ No. 395, October 17, 1857.] The L,E A ...

    ¦ No . 395 , October 17 , 1857 . ] THE L , E A D E R . 993

    Attempted Murder And Suicide.—A Woman Ju...

    Attempted Murder and Suicide . —A woman jumped into the river Ribble at Preston on Thursday week , with her child in her arms , and was on tie point of drowning when a ship carpenter went into the water after her , and seized her round the body . The child was still in her arms , but at that moment she relaxed her grasp , and suffered it to fall into the river . The man brought her ashore , and then went after the child , which he recovered only just in time to save its life . The mother is the wife of a spinner , from whom she is separated ; and family differences are supposed to have led to the crime . She is kept in custody . The Bramalio Mubdjek . — James Henderson was finally examined on Friday week before the Stockport magistrates , and committed for trial at the next Chester Assizes .

    A Clever Rascat ,. —John Williams , a middle-aged man , welt known to the police , has been examined at the Worship-street police-court , and committed for trial , on a charge of defrauding numerous tradesmen by an ingenious trick . He was in the habit of going to shops , and ordering certain articles to be sent to the houses of neighbouring tradesmen , and then of returning in a great hurry , saying he had forgotten to give some other order , which he would then specify , and taking with him the goods originally applied for . He has only recently come out of prison , where he was undergoing a sentence for robber v .

    Manslaughter . —Henry Welsh , the stoker at the London Gasworks , Vauxhall , has been committed for trial on the charge of killing his wife . Exasperated at finding her intoxicated , and neglecting the children , he struck her with his open hand , and she fell , her head coming with violence against the door-post . After lingering for some days , she died . Murder , and Attempted Suicide by a Maniac . — Ever since the late murder in Leigh Woods , a groom and his wife , named Andrew and Sarah Border , living in tho parish of Batliford , a few miles from Bath , have been in the habit of taunting a labouring man , one Thomas Miller , with being like Beale , the supposed murderer in the case alluded to . This appears to have preyed on Miller's mind , and to have produced a species of

    insanity , during which he was subject to strange delusions . On Friday week , he seemed to be ill , and on Suturday evening ho was visited by Andrew and Sarah Border . They found him sitting In tho kitchen of hia cottage , and , on asking him how he did , ho jumped up , rushed towards them , and stabbed them fatally . The husband , who received a severe gash in the abdomen , ran into an adjoining ; lane , where he was afterwards found in a dying state . The woman dropped a few yards from tho door , and appears to have died at onco from a stab in the left breast and a fracture of the skull . Miller waa afterwards found at the end of the garden with his throat cut , but not dead . His mother waB partly a witness of the murders . Andrew Border lingered for about two hours , and then died . An inquest has been opened , but is adjourned .

    Thk MuiiDicit NKAii Nottingham . —A man named John Rogers , forty-three years of age , was wpprehondod lit Doncaster , on Friday week , on suspicion of having murdered tho boy , John Wesley Atkinson , in Nottingham Forest , und ntolcn hia boots . The prisoner was sent in custody to Nottingham for examination . lloiA'WKi . i .-STRKKT . —Mr . Jnrdinc , tho Bow-street magistrate , gave judgment on Tuesday on tho six summonses against printscllera in Holywell-stroet , whoso books , prints , & c , were recently seized . In only two cases the defendants appeared , and attempted by counsel

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 17, 1857, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17101857/page/9/