The Daily Telegraph
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1888
Page 3
THE SWANSEA TRAGEDY. - Mr. Coroner Strick resumed the inquest, at Pontardawe, yesterday, on the body of John Harper, aged five years. Thomas Lott, a youth, was in custody charged with the murder. Evidence was given of the finding of the little fellow's body in a wood by Constable Hopkins. Dr. Price Jones said he saw the body lying, face downwards, in the grass. It had evidently been dragged eight yards from a spot where there were bloodstains. There was a large wound in the throat and a small stab on the upper part of the abdomen. Lott, who was last seen with deceased, told the police that the knife would be found on a windowsill in the slaughterhouse where he was occasionally employed. He was committed for trial on the charge of murder.
CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT - OCT. 25.
(Before Mr. Justice CAVE.)
WIFE MURDERS. - Levi Richard Bartlett, 57, general dealer, was accused of the wilful murder of his wife Elizabeth, 58, on Aug. 19 last. - Mr. Poland and Mr. Charles Mathews (instructed by Mr. Frayling) prosecuted on behalf of the Treasury, and the prisoner was defended by Mr. Geoghegan and Mr. Lawless. - Bartlett, a drunken, dissolute, quarrelsome man, kept a milk and general dealer's shop in Manchester-street, Poplar. He frequently quarrelled with his wife. At last, on Sunday morning, Aug. 19, having been drunk all the previous day, he killed his wife with a hammer, afterwards attempting suicide. - The jury, after deliberating for two hours, found the prisoner guilty. - Mr. Justice Cave passed sentence of death. - John Brown, 45, was indicted for the wilful murder of his wife Sarah, aged forty-five, in their house in Regent's-gardens, Westminster, on the night of Saturday, Sept. 29 last. - Mr. Poland and Mr. Charles Mathews prosecuted, and the prisoner was undefended. - Brown, the prosecution admitted, is undoubtedly insane. He was under the delusion that his wife was unfaithful. - The jury found that the prisoner was insane at the time he committed the murder, and he was ordered to be detained during her Majesty's pleasure.
POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
WORSHIP-STREET. - VESTRY PROSECUTORS. - A number of summonses taken out by the vestry authorities of Bethnal-green against shopkeepers and street traders of the parish came on for hearing before Mr. Montagu Williams, Q.C., Mr. Voss, solicitor, attending, with the vestry clerk, to support the proceedings. - In the case of William Agas, bird-dealer, of Hare-street, Bethnal-green, summoned for having birdcages exposed "outside" his shop over the footway, the street inspector said that the defendant had on Sunday, the 30th ult., a number of cages on a small board "over the shop," the birds and cages attracting a crowd on the pavement. - The magistrate said that the defendant could not be held responsible for the crowd. Did the cages obstruct the footway? - The solicitor said he did not allege obstruction. Under the section of the Act of George III. any goods hung outside were mentioned, and the owners were liable after notice. The defendant had had notice. - The Magistrate: But all over the metropolitan area drapers and others hang out their goods to the infringement of the public right. - The solicitor said that Bethnal-green prosecuted them. - The vestry clerk, said that he should like to inform the magistrate that prior to 1869 the task of regulating street trades was undertaken by the police, but Sir William Harcourt, when Home Secretary, sanctioned an order casting the duty upon the vestries. The vestry of Bethnal-green had adopted, with some small amendments in favour of the traders, the regulations made by the police, with the addition that it was thought advisable to have the streets cleared after eleven o'clock on Sunday mornings of street traders and things that hung from shops over the footways. It was not sought to have the shops closed. - The Magistrate: I think it is a great pity these matters have not been left in the hands of the police, and I think when the matter is considered - as it probably will be - it will revert to the police again. - The vestry clerk would be very glad. - The defendant said he had had his shop front altered, and did not now put anything outside. - The magistrate said he had better comply with the regulations of the vestry. Perhaps a change might take place. - The defendant was ordered to pay 2s costs, and the same result attended the hearing of the other cases, fines in addition being inflicted in one or two. - After the hearing of the cases the solicitor requested permission to say a few words as to the matter before the Court on Monday, in the course of which a Mrs. Donovan alleged that the brokers had been put in by her landlord owing to her inability to pay her rent through being prevented, by the Vestry seizing her barrow, from going out to earn her living. It had been thought right to have inquiries made into that statement, and it was found to be utterly without foundation. - The magistrate said that Mrs. Donovan was not now present to make any reply to that assertion. - The Solicitor: Her statement has gone forth and caused a good deal of comment. - The Magistrate: I dare say yours will now, but she is not here to reply to it.
Page 4
Levi Richard Bartlett was convicted at the Central Criminal Court yesterday of the wilful murder of his wife, and was sentenced to death. John Brown, who was charged with a similar crime, was admitted to be insane, and was ordered to be detained during her Majesty's pleasure.
Page 5
REVOLTING MURDERS IN MORAVIA.
[TELEGRAM FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
VIENNA, OCT. 25.
A horrible double murder, recalling in some of its revolting details the Whitechapel mysteries, is reported from Leskau, in Moravia. The bodies of two young girls, aged respectively seventeen and nineteen, were found a few days ago in the Forest of Leskau, frightfully mutilated. A gamekeeper named Schinzel lived there, with his two daughters, in easy circumstances. The man is highly respected by his neighbours, and his daughters were remarkably well brought up. They lost their mother some years ago. Two brothers, the sons of a local merchant, had for some months past been regarded as the accepted suitors of the two girls, who, by the way, were both of them renowned for their beauty. The parents of the young men were frequent visitors at the gamekeeper's house, and no doubt was entertained that a double marriage had been satisfactorily arranged. Lately there appeared on the scene two gentlemen of distinction, a civilian and an officer, who were observed by the villagers to pay conspicuous attention to the gamekeeper's daughters, and were seen in their company constantly. They went to Leskau partridge-shooting, and shortly after their arrival the merchant's two sons ceased their visits to the gamekeeper's. A few days ago there was a hare battue, to which both the two strangers and the merchant's sons were invited. The latter, however, refused. After the battue was over the gamekeeper's daughters were seen in the Leskau Forest in company of the two strangers, but they never returned home, and for four days nothing was heard of them. On the fourth day a peasant discovered their bodies in the forest. The elder sister was shot through the temple and her two breasts were cut off. The younger sister was shot in the breast and neck, while a wooden stave pierced the lower part of the body, running into the ground. The merchant's elder son has disappeared. He is suspected of having committed the crime out of jealousy. His brother has been taken into custody.
