ENGLISH NEWS

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 143, 24 June 1870, Page 2

ENGLISH NEWS

WIFE MURDER AT WARWICK,

At an early hour on Sunday, April 17, Thomas Chapman, labourer, Warwick, gave himself up to the police on a charge of having murdered his wife on the previous evening, and his strange self-accusation has been corroborated by the discovery of the dead body of his wife. Chapman is about twenty-seven years of age, has worked a good deal for the Warwick G-as Company, but appears to have been in the habit of remaining away from his home for several months at a stretch 5 sometimes working at Birmingham, and sometimes being engaged in harvest operations. The deceased was twenty-six years of age, and since her marriage had borne the prisoner six children, three of whom are dead. The eldest of the three living ones is about three years of age, the next one two years, and the last, a baby, four months old. The statements of friends and acquaintances, as to the terms upon which Chapman and his wife lived together, are contradictory. According to one side they were on " good terms," but some of the Mends of the accused man are credibly reported to have made remarks which show that there was some unhappines3 existing betwen them. On Saturday night the two left their home in Union-buildings shortly after eight o'clock, and proceeded to Leamington. The purport of that visit was the purchase a new pair of boots, of which the wife was in want. Nothing was heard of either of them until an early hour on Sunday morning, when the prisoner, accompanied by hie father, proceeded to the police-station. Constable Fletcher was on duty outside, and the two went up to him. Chapman said, "I have come to give myself up for the murder of my wife." Fletcher thinking he was joking, replied, " Oh, go on with you 3 don't come here with any of your folly." Chapman's father then said, " Its quite right; he has thrown her into the canal, near the Leam-bridge, on the old Leamington-road, and came to my house to change his clothes. What he has got on are my clothes, except his boots." Fletcher then took them both i< to the station, and asked them about the matter again. Chapman said it was quite true, and burst into tears. His father also said it was true. Fletcher then called Constable Elvins, and asked him to take down the charge. , Elvins cautioned Chapman that what he had stated would be given in evidence, and he then again confessed the murder of his wife. He said, " I have murdered my wife, and jou will find her near the Leam-bridge." He afterwards said it was through jealousy, and that the last child she had had did not belong to him. He was then locked up, and Police Constables i Fletcher, Elvins, and Satchwell dragged the canal near Mr. Field's residence. At that spot the towing-path was kicked up in several places, and there were indications of a. violent struggle having taken place near the edge of the water. At half-past six o'clock, the parties then having been dragging for upwards of an hour, Police Constable Fletcher brought the body of Mrs. Chapman to the surface of the water. The hook of the drag had caught in the stocking, and had not lacerated the body in the least. The dress of the deceased woman was torn into innumerable shreds and tatters, from which circumstance it is inferred that she must have struggled long and desperately for her life. Her shoes and bonnet were gone, and the shawl was twisted up round her body, and had a piece of small rope fastened to ■ it. The object of the rope is a mystery, except the conjecture be right that it was used by the prisoner to tie her arms. Elvins fouad the husband's cap floating on the watei', about 100 yards from the place where the body was discovered. The sleeve of a coat, an apron, and some coppers were also picked up on the canal side where the struggle had taken place. There were no marks of violence on the body, #xcept a trifling cut over one of the eyes, and an abrasion of one of the knees. It was in such a state of nudity that the officers found it necessary to borrow something to cover it before they could convey it along the road. The clothes the prisoner was weaving had been procured from the father's house, Monkstreet, and found to be saturated with water. He admits that he himself fell into the canal, and narrowly escaped being drowned. It is said that his mind has been somewhat affected at times, and that . once he lost a situation on that account.

On bhe 19th of April Chapman was charged with having murdered his wife, Ann Chapman on Saturday night, hy pushing her into the Warwick and Napton Canal. Superintendent Pickling deposed that, after the body** of deceased was found, the prisoner made the following statement voluntarily :—" Last (Saturday) night I went home about six o'clock, and gave my money to her mother. We lived with her. I stayed at home until I went out with my wife. I told her we would go to Leamington and look round there. We started a little after nine o'clock. We called at Page's, near the chapel, and I had a pint of ale. That is all I had all the night. We looked in the shop windows, and went on to the Emscoteut Bridge. I said, 'Come on this way.' She said she was all in a tremble. I Baid, • What makes you tremble ? what hare you got to tremble for ? I said, if she would go along the canal side, we could get out at the Leam-bridge, on the old Warwick-road. We were talking as we went along the cut side. I said, ' I was sure the last child was not mine.' She said, ' No, you scamp, none of them are yours ; I have deceived you a good while.' When we got under the Leam-bridge I pulled her into the water. As she was going in she laid hold of me and pulldd me into the water. I .could not get away from her for a long while, as ehe kept fast hold of me. She had liked to hare drowned We. 1 got away from her, and got out of the water. I laid down on the grass, aa I was so wet I could not walk. The water was up to my

shin ; I could ju bottom it7ln^r~r my mind to drowi her before I went onUf the house. I havbeen away from home fi» three months at a ime." w After a second sxamination, a vevdiet nf " wilful murder" las returned.