[From the London Daily Telegraph, April 18.]

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 153, 20 June 1876, Page 4

[From the London Daily Telegraph, April 18.]

According to a confession which Fish has made, the murder took place be--4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon of the 28th ult. Fish, haying got the little girl into his company, sent her to buy some tobacco for ,him. On her return he took her up in his arms, and carried her into the front room over his j shop, and there he outraged her, having first placed a gag over her mouth to j prevent her screaming. Having done this, he ruthlessly cut her throat with a razor, preventing the blood from ;flowing on to the floor . by covering /the child's head with her clothing. When life was extinct, be battered her brains but and dismembered ber body, wrap-, ; ping up portions for removal the next; , day, and placing the head and other parts on a fire which he made in the room. While the remains were burning he went downstairs, and actually ! shaved some of his customers with tbej razor he had ..just, used in the murder.: When 1, all. this was done he locked up - the shop, and went to spend the evening! at,the Amphitheatre, thinking, there, as; he says, to "drown the remembrance of, this horrible crime. During the whole of that night the dead body of the child remained stowed away in a cupboard of his locked-up shop. In the intense excitement .caused by this iearful crime Fish's antecedents have .naturally been inquired into. Not much that is favorable is known of the man. He has had at least two enforced sojourns in the House of Correction for felony * he seems also to have been at times, addicted to acts of cruelty. It is said that on one occasion he hung four kittens by the tail until they died. In appearance..be ia.very sharp.-featured, and, for bis years, old-looking. His eyes, are light grey. Since his arrest his features have been deadly pale. Tbis morning the wretched man was visited at the police-station by his wife, and a most painful meeting ensued. Thr prisoner burst into tears, and, after shaking hands with the poor woman, who was also weeping bitteriy, he took h s child aud kissed it very earnestly. During. the interview, which lasted about 20 minutes, Mrs Fish begged her ■husband to prepare himself for the fate that awaited him, at the same time telling him* not to disturb bis mind with thoughts of herself or their little children, as she would always see in the future.that the latter were cared and provided for. Shortly after her departure a clergyman visited Fißb, and prayed'and read with him for some time. The unhappy, man evidently realises the awful position in which he stands, entertaining no hopes for mercy being shown him. Meanwhile he is never let alone, two constables being always with him in bis cell. ■ Some very curious stories are curTent amongst Fish's neighbors. Ie is said tbat' he was always exceedingly reserved to bis customers, and unlike most of his craft, was taciturn and uncommunicative. Whilst in the service of Mr Bramwell, he sometimes would not speak.a word for a week. At this ■ time he attended St Paul's Sunday School, and afterwards St John's. When he got married, five years ago he joined the religious sect of his wife, who is a Primitive Methodist. Contiguous to his shop is the Fishers' Arms Public House, but there he never visited,' however, professing to be a teetotaller. His wife has been known to fetch him of a night port wine as a stimulant, though only half-a-quartern or bo at a time. He frequently -visited a slaughterhouse in the neighborhood, where he siw cattle slaughtered, and their carcases cut up, and no doubt he used the lesson learnt there in the dismemberment of the child's body, the opinion. of the surgeons.being that it was cut up by some one who had a slight knowledge of anatomy. The story that he shaved gome of his customers after the murder is believed by the police, but they cannot of course, say whether he used the identical razor with which he cut the child's throat. Mrs Fish is a decent, hard-working woman, and, as may be imagined, her grief at first was poignant in the extreme. She exhorted her husband to tell the truth, and to reveal tbe secret if he could. After he made the confession, a messogre was despatched to her to acquaint her of the fact, when she exclaimed, "I am very thankful, let him be.hanged; ior if he is the guilty one, bangiog is too good for him." It is believed that the prisoner inteuded to consume the whole of the body by fire, but was prevented from doing it. Whilst he. was away at the theatre many of the neighbors noticed a very large fire in the prisoner's room, remarking that it was strange there should be so large a fire in a shut-up shop. When he relumed he found the

fire was low, and then he took tbe calcined skull and put it up the chimney, where it was found by the bloodbound employed to track the remains. The callousness of the prisoner directly after ths discovery is remarkable. His shop was crowded with customers during the uncertainty which prevailed after the murder,, and he was in the habit of -freely with them aud asking how the investigations were progressing. He was not, however, free from open annoyance, for ou one occasion a woman looked into the shop, and on Fish asking her what she wanted, Bhe replied, "To look at a murderer."' the bloodhound, is being petted by thousands of the people of Preston. Many stories are being told of his wonderful capabilities. He, is the property of a beerhousekeeper named Parkinson.