A CANDID WIFE SMASHER.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 750, 15 December 1870, Page 3

A CANDID WIFE SMASHER.

(From the Pall Mall Gazette.)

At the Guildford Assizes last week one of thoses cases came under the consideration of the judge and jury which never fail to excite the deepest commiseration and bring forth the warmest sympathies of which Englishmen are capable. A poor man, named Mahoney, one cf 'the working classes,' was indicted for feloniously killing his "wife at Camberwell. A more unjust aspersion was never cast upon a deserving individual. The only evidence against Mr Mahoney was that he was seen dragging his wife by the hair of her head and beating and kicking her violently. She was on her hands and knees, (a witness said) bleeding from the mouth and eyes, and frightfully swollen and bruised, with two wounds on the left temple, which wereboth Weeding. She was somewhat officiously helped by a neighbor, who certainly had no right to interfere, into her house, and there she vomited blood. We conclude she had not been behaving quite well, for as she was in that condition Mr Mahoney seized her by the hair of her head and shook her violently. She lay there three days very ill, her left eye especially in a shocking state. After lingering some little time she died of lockjaw, and the poor fellow in the dock had actually been called away from his occupation on account of this trifling affair. Although his wife, evidently an artful woman, attempted to screen him, Mahoney, in all the proud consciousness of having acted only under a sense of duty, scorned concealment, and admitted at the. police office "having struck his wife more than once (though with his open hand)," and also having " put his foot to her cheek "

when he said " she screamed "—although she must have known that men detest noise, which sadly interferes with their employments. The jury, after much deliberation, found that Mr Mahoney actually had killed his wife, but, of course, a nominal punishment met all the requirements of the case ; and so the judge, after feelingly observing that the prisoner " had not intended to kill her;" that " her death was in a sense the accidental result of the violence inflicted ;" thi't as, however, such violence "was considerable and unprovoked, a sentence of some severity must be passed," let the poor fellow off with eight months' hard labor. Mr Mahoney will, we hope, not think the law has been too severe upon him. Wo must take some notice of these wife-smash. ings. We are obliged even to hang people sometimes when they kill strangers or enemies, so that eight months is not inuc'i for a wife. It will soon pass away, even if Mr Bruce does not remit the sentence altogether.