The inquiry into the death of Mr. Frederick Graves Moon,
son of Alderman Sir Francis Moon, which took place under strange and suspicious circumstances at 23 Newton Road, Bayswater, on Wednesday week (24th May), has been one of the two English interests of the week, and in conjunction with the great Tichborne case, which still drags its slow length along, has to some extent divided the attention of society with the terrible scenes enacted in Paris. The deceased came by his end through a wound in the side which he received while sitting in the dining-room of the Newton Road house with a Mrs. Flora Davy, alias Newington, the wife of a solicitor of the name of Newington, from whom she has long been separated, and of late generally styled Mrs. Davy. It appears that Captain Davy and Mr. Moon had both a liaison with this woman, and both visited her at this house, of which Captain Davy was the tenant. Mrs. Davy, or Newington, is charged with the crime of murdering hirn,—the coroner's inquest having found a verdict of wilful murder against her,—and she is still in prison under remand, though not yet committed for trial. It appears from the evidence that Mrs. Davy had been ill for some time, and under medical care for a derangement of the nervous system due to excess in drinking ; that she had been con- sidered convalescent for a few days ; that she was to have left for Homburg with Mr. Moon's sanction on the day after his death occurred ; and that, by her own account, there was an after- dinner quarrel between her and Mr. Moon, due to some expres- sion of his concerning her daughter, which resulted in a scuffle, in the course of which she took up a poultry knife which, whether by her intention or not, inflicted the wound resulting in his death within a few minutes. Mrs. Newington's own account of the matter was, "I am afraid it is I who have done it ; I really think I did, but I don't know how." She stated that she jumped up with the knife in her hand, that they struggled and fell, and that then she saw the blood pouring out, but could not tell how it came. The medical evidence goes to show that the deceased might possibly have fallen on the knife and so met his death, but that this is not very probable. The most serious evidence against Mrs. Newington is that of Captain Elliott and Mr. Pickford, both of whom testified to her having more than once threatened to stab Mr. Moon ; and the former that on one occasion, according to the statement of Mr. Moon himself, she had actually stabbed him through the coat.
