Hide Article Text (OCR)
k’s News. - - - 233 .■JL -- 1 — -- -- - wmmmm+m*--r nr :~rr — f.....trnHrndd+iUmannounced his intention of resigning his seat for the district of Westminster, owing to ill-health. Mr. Sheriff Bennett took his seat as successor to the Rev. Mr. Rogers.Criminal Occurrences.MURDER IN LAMBETH.A shocking crime was perpetrated in the Belvidere Road, Lambeth, between one and two o’clock on the morning of Saturday, February 17. The victim was George Merritt, a stoker employed at the Lion Brewery, which is situated between Waterloo and Hungerford Bridges, who at that time was going to his work. He was stopped by a man whom he did not know, and fired at with a revolver twice, the second shot taking effect in the back of his neck, and proving fatal. The murderer is an American physician named William Chestor Minor, thirty-seven years of age. A police constable heard the shots fired, and making his way in'the direction of the report met Minor coming on the opposite side of the road. He went over to him and asked him who it was that had fired. He said he had; and asking him who he had fired at, he said, “ A man. I should not be such a coward as to shoot a woman.” The constable seized hold of him, and took a revolver from his right hand. It was quite warm. He then took him to the station, where a bowie knife was found concealed under his coat. The prisoner, it is stated, was very cool and collected, and did not appear the least excited from drink. The coroner’s juryj after hearing the evidence of the constable, and the testimony of Mr. Williams, one of the house surgeons of St. Thomas’s Hospital, who gave a detailed result of the post-mortem examination, and stated that two bullets were found in the man’s body, either of which would have been sufficient to account for death, returned a verdict of ‘‘Wilful murder” against William Chestor Minor. The prisoner has also been brought before the magistrate, and remanded to Horsemonger Lane Gaol. At this inquiry he seemed quite unconcerned, and asked no questions.The circumstances connected with the terribly sudden death of the poor man, Merritt, are peculiarly distressing, and call loudly for public sympathy. He lived in a small house at the end of Cornwall Place, a narrow and confined court in Cornwall Road, Stamford Street, and worked at the Lion Brewery for many years. He leaves a wife, and seven children, the eldest of whom is not yet thirteen years old. The poor woman herself had only been six months at home since her recovery from mental derangement that had cqmpelled her to be kept in a lunatic asylum.i P^oner’s antecedents very little is known. When he tooklodgings at 44 Tennison Street, soon after Christmas, he stated that he had just arrived from Liverpool, and that he had been a surgeon in America, serving in that capacity in the army during the war. He was, however, curiously particular as to the state of his apartment, which was furnished to serve both as sitting-room and bed-room. Itwas found that he had brought an ample stock of clothes of good. quality, and during his whole stay his manners and language^ wer£ those of a gentleman. While at home his time was chiefly occupied ill drawing and in painting water-colours. His days were spent in seeing the sights of London. On one day he visited the South Kensington Museum, on the day before the murder he had been at the Zoological Gardens, and he was particularly fond of attending concerts. Some-times he would remain away from his lodgings for two or three nighty but would look in during the day and change his dress. On several of these occasions he took home bills from the Charing Cross and other hotels, which he left open in his room, as if to indicate where he had been staying. No impropriety of any kind is alleged against him. He ! was not addicted to excessive drinking or to smoking, and he never appeared to be the worse for liquor. On the Saturday, a week before the murder, he called the landlady to his room, and said he had overturned his chocolate. He had, in fact, thrown it over the walls of the room. During the week following he did not sleep at home a single night, though he came occasionally to change his clothes and take a meal. No one ever called to see him, nor did any letters or communication of any kind ever arrive for him. Feeling this to be rather strange, he was asked whether it would not be better for him to see some of his friends. He replied that all the friends he had in London could be counted on the fingers of one hand. About nine o’clock on Friday evening he entered his lodgings, and was served with refreshment. He said he had been at the Zoological Gardens. Nothing extraordinary was observed in his demeanour, nor was there anything that excited much surprise, when, after the family had gone to bed, he was heard leaving the house by the street door. Later than that he returned, but went out again, and soon afterwards the murder was committed.There seems to have been an entire absence of motive for the crime. Money to the amount of more than 100/. was found in his boxes at his lodgings, and he had about' him when taken into custody 61. io.r. and a valuable gold watch.Murderous Attack on a Bank Manager.—Soon after six o’clock on the evening of February 16 a'young man went into the bank of Messrs. Goode, Marr, and Co., at Birmingham, and asked for change for a sovereign, which was supplied to him by Mr. Marr, who was then alone in the office. As that gentleman went from the counter he was stabbed in the back, and on turning he received another thrust in the breast. The knife, however, fortunately glanced off from his coat-button. He cried for assistance, and his assailant was secured after a great struggle. The man, named Frederick Parley, is a plumber, and he had been seen lurking about the bank for the last few days. Mr. Marr is not dangerously wounded, but two men named Gilliver, who v/ent to his assistance, have received some severe wounds on their heads from a hammer. The weapon with which he struck Mr. Marr consisted of a handle about a yard and a half long, into the end of which two spikes were driven and fastened with string—one being about three inche^s long and fixed straight into the handle, and the other from ten to twelve inches long, and stuck in at an acute angle. The implement, a most formidable weapon, was wrapped up in brown paper, tied withr string, the paper on the long spike taking off like a sheath. A butcher’s knife, recently sharpened, was found concealed in his clothes, while the hammer with which he struck the .Gillivers was bound round with paper, evidently for the purpose of preventing it slipping out of his hand. It is supposed that he intended to rob the bank and to carry out his purpose by murder. The sum of 25s. and a return ticket to Westbromwich were also found in the prisoner’s pocket:A Domestic Mystery.—A woman named Mary Pennell was charged at Lambeth Police-court on February 17 with having stolen a large quantity of plate and other property, including a valuable diamond snuff-box, the gift of King Louis Philippe to Mr. Turner, the painter, and forming a portion of the estate of the late Mr. Jabez Tepper, to whom the prisoner had been housekeeper. Mr. William C. Turner, cousin to the deceased, said Mr. Tepper died while witness was absent from the house for a short time. His solicitor asked the prisoner if she had found a will, and told her that witness was the nearest relative in England, and his executor. She said she had not found a will, but one had been burnt. There were, she added, still three wills, and the last was a most unjust one. She said she was married to the deceased six years before, but did not produce a certificate when asked. She had ransacked the two houses in which the deceased lived. Some evidence having been given as to the large amount of property included in the charge, Mr. Poland applied for a remand, which vfras granted.Murderous Attack.—An extraordinary case was investigated before the Notts magistrates, on February 21, when a man named Jonathan Munk was brought up on suspicion of having unlawfully wounded Clement James Beacher. Mr. Beacher stated that he is a student residing with the Rev. Mr. Stork, at Colwick Rectory, near Nottingham. Between six and seven last Saturday evening he was on his way home from Nottingham. He had crossed Colwick Park and was passing by a small “spinney ” when a man suddenly sprang from behind a,tree, and saying, “I’ve got you at last,” struck at him. Mr* Beacher held up his left arm and caught the blow there. The man then exclaimed, “ I am wrong, by God ! ” and ran off in the direction of Nottingham. Soon afterwards Mr. Beacher discovered that he had been stabbed, his shirt and coat sleeves having been cut through, and a wound about an inch long inflicted on his arm. He could not swear the prisoner was the man who attacked him. Mr. Patchitt, the magis-trates’ clerk, asked witness if he could explain how it was that, while the cloth of the coat and the shirt sleeve had been cut through, there was no corresponding hole in the lining of the coat sleeve. The garments having been shown to witness, he said he had no explanation to offer—be had only spoken the truth. He had not wounded himself. Mr. Patchitt said the wound could not possibly have been inflicted in the manner described by the witness, and it was for the magistrates to decide whether he should be proceeded against for wounding himself,
Newspaper Details
London Week News
London, Middlesex, GB
Sat, Feb 24, 1872
Page 21
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 07 Apr 2025
Other Publications Near London, Middlesex
Bingleys Journal
Arminian Magazine
London Daily Mail
London Stars and Stripes
London Daily Universal Register
