One hundred years ago
A MURDER near Crewe has in- terested the public this week, because it seemed at first sight to be a revival of the old practice of highway-robbery by force. A well-to-do slop-seller of Crewe, named Davies, who was accus- tomed to drive to his house outside the town every evening, and to carry his money with him, was on Saturday night stopped on the road and brutally mur- dered with some heavy instrument, and the money in his pockets, £10, taken away. His son George, a boy of sixteen, was with him in the pony-trap, but evaded the murderers, and ran away home for assistance. This at least was his story, which was at first believed; but an Inspector who returned to the scene with this boy and his elder brother Richard (aged twenty), noticed that the latter had no overcoat on. He asked why, and was told it had been left at home. As the night was a bitter one, this seemed odd, and the policeman quietly walked to the house, and found the overcoat covered with blood. Other evidence soon came in, and the two sons of the murdered man were accused before the Magistrates of the crime. The prima-facie evidence against them is heavy, and it is said they have virtually confessed, each son relating his brother's share in planning or executing the parricide. The motive is supposed to have been the desire to acquire the business, but there is a report of other and long-standing differences between the father and his family. A crime of the kind is of extreme rarity in England, though not in France, almost the only parricides recorded here being murder- ous assaults committed under the influ- ence of drink.
The Spectator, 1 February 1890
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