WIFE-MURDER AT OXFORD.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1372, 9 July 1878, Page 2

WIFE-MURDER AT OXFORD.

THE MURDERER IN CUSTODY.

Oar Oxford correspondent; sends particulars of a shocking occurrence which took place at Oxford yesterday. It appears that about half-past eleven in the morning the house of a German, .named Kofi, was observed to be on fire. Immediately on the alarm being given, the mill-hands hurried tothehor.se to put out the flames, the first to reach the place being Mr John Lee, junior, a millowner. On his arrival he saw the wife of the man Hoff lying on the ground within a few feet of the fire. He at once tried to lift her up, when he was horrified to discover a fearful gash upon her head, from which the blood and brains were exuding, the woman being of course quite insensible. Dr. Weld was immediately sent for, and on his arrival soon after pronounced the woman to be in a dying state. Within a short time the police reached the spot, and a report was then circulated that Hoff had been seen rushing about the bush iD a demented state, with a gun or pistol in his possession. The constables immediately set off in pursuit. A litter was then made with sacks, and with the help of a number of the bystanders the poor worn an was carried down the hill, as steadily as the rough nature of the ground permitted,*to Ferguson's Hotel, where she soon afterwards expired. The opinion of the doctor was that the wound which had proved fatal was distinctly a cut. At a later hour in the day the man Hoff was arrested. He does not appear to have made any real attempt to escape, or even to deny that he had killed his wife. He came openly into the public-house with another G-erman, who treated him to a glass of beer. Hoff then said that that would be the last glass he should have in Oxford. His companion asked him why so. Hoff then made a statement to the effect that his wife had struck him in the face with the back of her hand, and that he had retaliated by striking her with the tomahawk. The above are all the certain particulars which have as yet reached town regarding this sad affair. It is conjectured that subsequent to striking his wife, Hoff set fire to his house, but full details will, no doubt, be forthcoming in the course of the day, and in the meantime it is useless to notice the various rumours as to the causes of the quarrel between the murdered woman and her husband.