Transcription
SECOND EDITION,
Murder. About four o'clock on Saturday morning,
(March 12) the watchman on the Netherbow
station found a man lying on the High Street,
insensible, and bleeding severely. On in-
quiry, he found that he had just been thrown
from the window of a house of an infamous
character, three storeys high, and on pro-
ceeding up to which he found four women
and a man, who were immediately taken in-
to custody. The unhappy victim was re-
moved to the Infirmary, where it was found
his skull was fractured ; he lingered until a-
bout midday, when he died. As he continu-
ed insensible up to the time of his ueath, it
became, of course, impossible to ascertain
from him the cause of this revolting crime;
but the following particulars, which we lave
reason to believe authentic, may tend to
throw some degree of light on the proceed-
ings. The room in which the parties were
assembled was rented by a girl named Chr-
lotte Dundas ; but we believe that the othrs,
Elizabeth and Margaret Henderson, Cate-
rine Hay, and Archidald Allan, resided thre
also, at least occassionally ; though how thy
contrived to do so, is not easily to be un-
derstood, as the room itself is hardly so large
as on ordinary-sized beb-closet. The de-
ceased himself, whose name was Stewart,
was also frequently there, and cohabited
with Margaret Henderson. This much is
certain, that, at eleven o'clock on Friday
night, he was met going down stairs, out of
the house, by a women living in the same
Irnd. He was then without his hat, and it
is remarkable, that when found by the watch-
man, there was no hat lying near him ; but
on going into the house, a hat, which Allan
had on at the time, was identified as Stewart's,
but the cap or bonnet usually worn hy Allan
was nowhere to be found. After having been
seen by the woman at elevec o'clock there
was no farther trace of him that we are a-
ware of till the time of the catastrophe.
About four in the morning, a shoemaker,
who lives below the room, heard a quarrel a-
mong the inmatos. and scuffling: he also
states, that he heard the body in the act of
falling, and the crash on the pavement.
This might well be; for the front of the
house is scratched in various places, evi-
vidently caused by the rubbing of somebody
against it ; and a piece of old wood, which
projected a very short way from the house,
was broken by the descent. There are two
windows near the place, one in the room
itself, and one on the staircase or landing;
and it is supposed to be from the latter that
the deceased was thrown, in a direction slant-
ing down the street, a, the scratchas already
alluded to run in that direction, till they
reached the broken wood, whence the fall
seems to have been prependicular. There is
a family that lives on the same staircase, who
had sub-let the room to Dundas, and who,
it would appear, must have heard something
of the struggles and fighting, but they deny
all knowledge of the matter. The prisoners
have all been remitted. Stewart, we believe.
war about twenty years of age, and the pris-
oners are none of them much older.
Sanderson, Printer, Edinburgh
View Commentary | Download PDF Facsimile
|
 |
Probable period of publication:
1830-1839 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.74(195)
View larger image
|
