A Sevenfold Murder.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 44, 14 September 1870, Page 6

A Sevenfold Murder.

[Home .VeiM, June 17.] The month has been stained by a crime almost unparalleled in its lieree blood-thirstiness. The little village of Dunham, in Bucks, has been the scene of the murder of a whole family—a man named Marshall, his wife, his three children, his mother, and his sister-in-law. It was observed on Sunday that the shutters of the cottage in which they lived had not been opened, and that the following day they remained closed ; aud as none of the family were seen, it was concluded that they had gone out for a holiday. Late on Monday night, a young woman from a neighboring town went to the cottage with a new dress for Mrs Marshall’s sister, who was to be married the next day. Receiving no answer to her summons, she made enquiries, and on- the nature of her errand becoming known, a policeman came aud forced the door of the cottage, and the most horrible discovery was made. Marshall’s wife and her sister were lying in the front room, partly on each other, with their heads beaten in. His mother and three young children were lying in their night-clothes in a pool of blood, their heads also being all battered in. Marshall himself, with his smith’s dress on, but without his shoes, was found in an out-house with his head battered to pieces. At first it was thought that he had murdered his family, and committed suicide afterwards ; but there is now no doubt that be himself was the first victim. His skull was so battered that the brain protruded from the case ; his jaw was broken in two places ; his hands were scratched ; and there were signs of a violent struggle having taken place in the little forge adjoining the house. Suspicion was not long in attaching itself to a man named John Jenkins, a Staffordshire tramp, recently released from prison. Marshall had given the evidence leading to this man’s conviction, but the object of the murderer does not appear to have been vengeance. Improbable as it may be thought first sight, the real explanation seems to be that the man entered the house for the sake of some petty plunder, and being disturbed, struck down his victims, one after the other, iu a paroxysm of .murderous rage. He is now known to have left* Uxbridge, where he lodged on the Saturday night, and on the Sunday morning early he was Seen to come from near the cottage with a carpet-bag in his hand. The Sunday night he spent in a brothel in Uxbridge, where lie behaved with great violence, drawing a loaded pistol and threatening the inmates with death. He-made no effort to conceal the things ho had taken, and lingered about Uxbridge until the noon of Monday, when he went on to Reading by train. He was arrested next day. He had changed his clothes before leaving Marshall’s cottage, and left his own behind there. They were soon identified, and various other facts all tend to fasten on the prisoner the • "kivictiou of guilt.