Mar 14 1835 Murder #3 PIERSON - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

Mar 14 1835 Murder #3 PIERSON

The Times, Saturday, Mar 14, 1835; pg. 6; Issue 15738; col D

                              NORTHERN CIRCUIT.
               CARLISLE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11.
            CROWN SIDE. - (Before Mr. Baron PARKE.)

                                         MURDER.     [continued]

Sarah WHARF. - I went to Randylands about 1 o'clock on the 14th of October. I
was there all the afternoon. I saw the deceased lying dead on the bed. I helped
to lay the body out. It was all bruised over. Her head and neck appeared to be
the worst. The face was black, as if from blows. The body was very dirty; her
back and arms with blood and dirt together. Her hair was full of dirt and blood.
The bed-clothes were bloody.

George GILL. - I made a post mortem examination of the deceased. It was
externally almost literally covered with contusions and scratches; an incised
wound on the right side of the forehead an inch and a quarter long; a very
extensive contused wound on the back of the head, with a separation of the scalp
to a distance of three inches. The skull was laid bare. I examined the head
internally. There was a quantity of blood effused between the membranes of the
brain, and in the ventricles of the brain about two table spoonsfull. From the
back and the left hip the cuticle was almost entirely rubbed off. In my judgment
the wound on the back of the head caused her death. It must have been produced
by some blunt instrument. The wound might have been made by the stick now
produced, if forcibly applied. I am a member of the Royal College of Surgeons,
and was a house surgeon in Edinburgh. I was led to conclude that she had been
dragged upon the ground, I think feet foremost.

John THOMPSON. - I received the stick now produced from Joseph HOLMES. It is in
the same state now that it was then. The clothes, pillow, shift, and cap, were
produced saturated with blood.

Hugh HEWARD, called on the part of the prosecution, but examined on behalf of
the prisoner. - I saw the prisoner on the night of the 13th October, in a field
to the south of the Randylands, between 8 and 9 o'clock. My son was with me, we
were going from New Town home from work. When we came near opposite Randylands,
there were a reticule basket and a man's hat standing in the dike gutter on the
other side of the hedge from the Randylands field, about 70 yards from the
house. I did not see her there that night. I saw neither man nor woman there. We
went on, and heard a noise of people talking at Randylands. I gave a shout, and
prisoner answereed with a shout. I asked if any person had lost anything. He
said "Yes; stop and I will come." He came, and said "What have you found?" I
said "What have you lost?" He said "I don't know, but something." He came
rushing through a very high place of the dike, and fell with a branch in his
hand. He said "I am very drunk, but you must forgive me." We turned back. I
lifted up the basket and gave it him, and put the hat on his head. He was
without one. He asked me where I came from and my name, and who was with me. I
told him. He said the first time he met me at a public-house he would treat me
for my kindness.

Robert SLOANE. - I took the prisoner into custody on the 14th of October; his
hands were dirty, I think not bloody; I think his shirt was bloody; he had not
changed his dress till delivered into custody at Carlisle gaol.

Francis CARRICK, turnkey of Carlisle gaol, produced the shirt the prisoner had
on when taken into gaol, saturated with blood.

Rachael WHITEHEAD recalled. - I never knew any thing of any improper connexion
of the deceased with any other man. The prisoner did not mention any man's name.
I don't know if his statement about that was true or false.

This closed the case for the prosecution.

The prisoner being called on for his defence said - We left the
Abbey-bridge-end, between 7 and 8 o'clock, both tipsy. I gave her my hat to
carry, and she had a small basket. I lost her, and afterwards went in search of
her, and found this man (HEWARD) in the field. He said he had found the basket
and the hat, but had not seen her. I went home, and next morning found myself in
bed with her; the bed was covered with blood; I do not know what had become of
me during the night; in the morning I got up, and went out to try if I could
find out who had done it; I went up to the bridge, and afterwards to
Haydon-gate; I know nothing more of it.

The learned BARON then summed up the evidence to the jury, and, in the course of
explaining the distinction between murder and manslaughter, observed that the
first point for the jury to consider was, whether the prisoner was the person
who inflicted the fatal wound; if so, it must be taken to be wilful murder,
unless circumstances appeared which would reduce the offence to manslaughter.
The prisoner's defence is, that he was excited by the infidelity of his wife, of
which no proof appears, nor would that circumstance be sufficient, unless the
fatal blow was given in the moment of passion; but if, from the lengthened
violence and its nature, the presumption is fully rebutted, it could not amount
to less than murder.

The jury retired for about 10 minutes, and returned with a verdict of guilty of
wilful murder.

The learned JUDGE then with great solemnity passed the awful sentence of the law
upon the prisoner, and, after imploring him to seek repentance and mercy through
the merits of his Saviour, directed him to be executed on Friday morning next.

The court was crowded during the whole of the trial, which lasted between six
and seven hours.

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