The Road murder : being a complete report and analysis of the various examinations and opinions of the press on this mysterious tragedy / by a Barrister-at-Law.

  • Barrister at law
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Road murder : being a complete report and analysis of the various examinations and opinions of the press on this mysterious tragedy / by a Barrister-at-Law. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    16/70 (page 12)
    : T'° flueshon has been asked again aud again.—Mr. Ludlow: Have you wi W\r‘ tb®,Prisoner respecting any conversation you have had with her?—The witness finonwWnh Mr--.Fdlm rem°nstrated with the Bench for putting a question in relation to a matter Pi2r TJi t ie ®yidence was silent. He appealed to them in the interests of humanity not to do so. iir. imdiow: Hie Bench were only anxious to get out the facts.—A conversation took place Detween the learned counsel and the Bench, and the witness, at the close, was ordered to withdraw. ., ■y:r- ,os u*a Parsons, surgeon, of Beckington, deposed to the state of deceased’s body when he saw it the day of the murder, and added, on making a postmortem examination of the bodv, I saw no reason to suspect the administration of any narcotic or poisonous drug. I consider the incision of the throat was the immediate cause of death. I think the stab was made by along pointed knife. I accompanied Mr. Superintendent Foley in searching the house, and examined Miss Constance s,ro1orn> a so ,er drawers and a nightgown, which were on the bed, as well as the bed linen, the whole was perfectly free from any stain of blood. The night dress was very clean, and I could not say how long it had been worn. Miss Constance was not there. I was present during the exami- nation of the nightgown by Mr. Foley. There was nothing on it that attracted my attention par- ticularly. I cannot say it was more clean than others. Cross-examined by Mr. Edlin : I saw no marks at all on the bedgown. The gown might have been worn for nearly a week by a young lady sleeping alone. I knew the poor little boy that was killed. He was a very heavy child for his age. I did not know the back staircase, but I went down it once with Mr. Kent on that day. I don’t remember whether it was narrow and winding. I think the stab in the side was made by a pointed knife—such as a dagger or carving knife. I come to the conclusion from the way in which the clothes were cut, which nothing but a direct point would do. It would require very great force to inflict such a wound to penetrate through the flannel and night- dress into the lungs. The knife, though pointed, could have pushed away the heart, because the ribs of the child are pliable, and the heart might thus have been caused to diverge from its natural position. I examined the drawers in Miss Constance’s room, and I believe I saw a clean night- gown there Louisa Hatberell, the daughter of a farmer at Oldbury-on-the-hill, Gloucestershire, said—I know the prisoner, with whom I was at school at Beckington ; I left school on the 15th of June last; I was intimate with the prisoner as a school-fellow, and she has spoken to me of the younger children, to whom partiality she said was shown by the parents. She spoke of her brother William being obliged to wheel the perambulator for the younger children, and that he disliked doing it; and of her father comparing the younger son with the elder, and saying what a much finer boy he would be. She told me nothing else to my recollection. She said nothing particularly about her little brother, the deceased. I did not hear her say anything about the holidays. In answer to the bench, Mr. Edlin declined to put any question whatever to the witness. Sarah Cox, housemaid to Mr. Kent, repeated the evidence she gave at the inquest. By Mr. Edlin : On Saturday, the 30th June, I took down a clean night gown of the prisoner's to be aired; and another the following Saturday. I am perfectly clear as to the airing of two gowns, and the one put into the basket would make three, which I am clear were Miss Constance’s bedgowns. I did not observe any mark or stain on the bedgowm I put into the basket; it was dirty, as one usually is when worn a week. During the time I have been in Mr. K,’s service I have never seen anything in the conduct of the prisoner towards the deceased that was unkind or unsisterly. I have never heard her say anything unkind towards him, or ever show any ill feeling towards him. Mrs. Holley is the washerwoman to whom the clothes were sent the Monday after the murder. The things were not sent to her on the 9th July, because she would not have them on account of some dispute about a night dress. On Tuesday evening after the murder a message was sent by Mrs. Holley’s daughter, which I received myself, to the effect that there were three night dresses put on Mrs. Kent’s book, but only two sent, and her mother said that it was Miss Constance’s that was missing, and that I must send another, as the policeman had been there that day to know if she had the same number of clothes sent as she always had, and her mother told him she had; and she must have another sent, as she was afraid the policeman was coming again, and if I did not send one her mother must go to the policeman about it. I told her she must have made a mistake, as I was certain I put three night dresses in the basket; that I was quite sure one of those was Miss Con- stance’s. After seeing Mrs. Kent, who told her, in the presence of Miss Kent, that the bedgown had been put into the basket, the girl went away, saying she should send her mother, who subse- quently came, and stated that the night dress had not been sent to her house. I told her that I was sure it had, as I had put it into the basket myself. I did not observe anything uncommon in the manner of Miss Constance on the morning of the murder, beyond grief, which affected other members of the family. By the Bench: I am certain I put the nightgown into the basket, but I cannot swear it was there when the baskets left the house, as I was not present. He3ter Hollev, laundress, of Road, deposed: I have been in the habit of washing for Mr. Kent ever since he lias been here till within the last three weeks. I recollect going for the clothes on the Monday after the murder, about 12 o’clock ; 1 went by myself, and saw the cook, with whom I went upstairs to the room where the clothes is generally placed ; there were two baskets, and I took one and the cook the other ; on coming down stairs I tucked it round secure, and then went out and called my daughter, Martha Holley. The baskets were in the same state I always found them. We went straight home, 1 carrying one basket, and the other being carried between us. Within five minutes after getting home,’we opened the baskets; this was not our general customs ; my reason for doing so was because on Saturday I heard a rumour.—[Mr. Edlin objected to the- question as to the nature of the rumour as inadmissible on the part of the prosecution —The Chair- man said the Bench were investigating the case, and not prosecutors.—Mr. Edlin contended that the magistrates were asking questions as prosecutors, and requested that if the question were put, a note might be taken of his objection.]—Examination resumed: On inspecting the baskets, I took