Mexborough and Swinton Times December 15, 1906

Murdered While Asleep!
The Conisborough Tragedy.
Love a Neighbours Wife
Death Sentence Passed.
The Judge Affected.

The final stage in the Conisborough murder trial was reached at Leeds Assizes on Wednesday last when the prisoner Dagnall was condemned to death. The case was tried by Mr Justice Bingham and a jury.

Joseph Dagnall is 38 years of age, and described as a miner and bookmaker. He has served for 17 years in the Yorkshire Light Infantry, and seen active service on more than one occasion. He was charged with the wilful murder of James Dalton, also a miner at Conisborough, on 30 August and also with wounding Connie Dalton with intent to murder her.

Mr C Lowenthal and Mr Coutts Trotter prosecuted, while Mr J.O. Adams defended.

The prisoner, who looked in the best of health, appeared in the dock attired in a light lounge suit with a neat collar and necktie. Answering the usual question, he pleaded not guilty in a steady voice. He followed the evidence throughout with the deepest interest, and when Mrs Dalton was in the witness box, requested her to speak up so that he might the better hear what she says.

A Very Grave Case Indeed

The case as set forth by Mr Lowenthal, revealed a sad story of jealousy and immorality.

“I am afraid,” said council”, that upon the evidence I shall put before you, a very grave case indeed will be established against the prisoner, if you believe that evidence.”

Council then told the story which led up to the crime. James Dalton said the man with those murder the prisoner was charged was a bookmaker who lived his wife Annie Dalton at Conisborough. In October 1904 Dalton broke his leg and went to the hospital and during his absence there his wife Annie Dalton went to keep house for the prisoner, who was a widower with four children living at New Conisborough. Dalton was discharged from the hospital about November 1904 and almost immediately after his discharge he was arrested upon certain charges against him. He was tried upon those charges in January 1904, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. His wife Annie Dalton still continued to keep house with the prisoner. About January 1906 if not before, Annie Dalton and the prisoner began to live together as man and wife, and unquestionably the prisoner had become exceedingly fond of Annie Dalton, and exceedingly jealous of the notion that when her husband came out of prison he would take her back again. The time for the release of Dalton from prison was 24 August 1906.

The Husband’s Return.

“As that time approached,” said Counsel, “the prisoner wanted to know from Annie Dalton whether or not she was going back to her husband. She said she thought she would not. He said that if she did he would put her out of action. On 24 August, Dalton was released, went home, and found that his wife was still keeping house for the prisoner. He then went to the prisoner’s house.

Some quarrel, continued Counsel, appeared to have taken place, and Dalton wanted to satisfy himself whether or not the prisoner and his wife had been living together as man and wife. They both absolutely denied that anything wrong with taking place. Dalton was satisfied with that denial, and stayed that night with his wife in the prisoner’s house. On 25 August Dalton took his wife away to Mexborough to seek for lodgings and he remained there until 28 August. Between the 25th and 28 August the prisoner was undoubtedly drinking heavily. The evidence will go to show that he was not taking his food properly.

“Undoubtedly,” said Counsel, he was lamenting the loss of Dalton’s wife, with whom we have been living for at least a year. On 28 August Dalton and his wife returned to the prisoner’s house to fetch their clothes, and said they had found lodgings elsewhere. Prisoner said he had bought a bed for them, and wanted them to stay in his house. They apparently decided to stop that night at least, but nothing very material took place then.

The Night of The Tragedy.

“On Wednesday 29th of August”, continued the Counsel, “ the deceased and his wife being still there the prisoner said to Annie Dalton that he would give her a week and if she was not back in a week he would put her hand himself out of action. On the same day in the evening Dalton and his wife went out to a public house, and while they were there the prisoner was on the steps reading a newspaper. He told me in and said to one of the witnesses that if he had a revolver he would shoot them. Later he said to another witness I shall put Dalton to sleep tonight. Dalton and his wife returned, nothing material happened and they went to bed in the prisoner’s room upstairs, the prisoner sleeping on the sofa.

Gentlemen there was the prisoner and his wife sleeping upstairs and Dagnall downstairs on the sofa. Between three and 3:30 o’clock in the morning according to the case I have support before you, the prisoner must have gone up to that room, discovered the husband and wife asleep, and while Dalton was asleep cut his throat with a razor. From the wound Dalton died a few days after. Dalton awoke, finding the prisoner stretched across him, and his wife, and aiming at him also with the hatchet.”

Did Not Know his Throat Was Cut.

He did not appreciate for the moment that his throat was cut. He discovered that shortly afterwards and upon the floor a razor belonging to the prisoner covered with blood was found. His wife awoke, and shrieked murder and that sort of thing and asked the prisoner what he was doing. The prisoner said I had come to finish you. Then when the wife awoke and called murder other people came up and to some of them the prisoner said “I have done him and I will do you, referring to Annie Dalton. She puts sheets around her husband’s throat. The husband said the prisoner has cut me while I was asleep and he tried to cut Annie as well. Subsequently the police arrived, the prisoner was taken downstairs and asked by the police what he had to say. Pointing to the wife, the prisoner said she was the cause of its. The Sergeant of police arrived and found the prisoner in custody downstairs. Prisoner said I have lived with her for nearly 2 years and we have been all right until he came back. Pointing to the hatchet he added I did not use that. He did try to use it as I told you, but used only the razor. Then Mrs Dalton came down trying, and referring to her husband, said he is dying. The prisoner said all such vermin should die. What about me?”

On 31 August, counsel said, in conclusion, pneumonia set in, and Dalton died on 3 September. Prisoner when charged on the same day said, I can say nothing against it now.

The Dead Man’s Statement

The statement of the deceased man before his death at the Doncaster infirmary was produced and read. Dalton said he was a bookmaker, of Mexborough, and had been at Wakefield prison, serving a sentence for the last two years, and found Joe Dagnall and his wife Annie Dalton staying at a house on Park Road Conisborough. He stayed there on the Friday night, and on Saturday night 25th of August he went to get lodgings at Mexborough. When he went back to Conisborough to fetch his clothes from the house where Dagnall and his wife were living Dagnall and he had drink together and everything was as quiet and peaceable as possible. “We were all three drinking,” were the words which the deceased man used. “We have three or 4 quarts of beer, but no one was drunk.”

Coming to the events of the night of the tragedy Dalton related how, about 3.30 o’clock in the morning he was awakened and found Dagnall all over him. He said “What brings you here?” “I have come to finish you,” was Dagnall’s reply, and he then struck at him with the hatchet as he lay in bed. Dagnall was sitting on the side of the bed next to Dalton.

“It was then getting light,” the deposition proceeded. I warded off the blow with my arm and then grappled. I think he must have struck me before I awoke, because when I grappled with him, I found that was throat was bleeding from a wound which I then noticed for the first time. I held him there until the men came in stop my wife shouted “Murder! And “Police!” He did not strike me any more. I saw a razor on the floor as I held him in the bed. The hatchet was wrong with about 18 inches of the handle, and about six or 8 inches in the head; the razor was one with a black shaft, and was the prisoners. I use it myself to shave on Saturday last.

No Quarrel

Dalton further said that he had no quarrel with Dagnall when this happened. Dagnall was not properly sober when he (Dalton) went to bed, but he knew what he was doing. He did not know whether the cut his wife had on her arm was got in the scrimmage or not.

Mr Willy, house surgeon at the Doncaster infirmary comedy poster Dalton dying at the infirmary on 3 September from septic pneumonia, due to the injuries in the throat, the blood having entered the lungs.

Mrs Annie Dalton, the widow of the deceased said she had lived with her husband, who was a collier at Denaby and Conisborough, for about 12 years. She had kept the prisoner’s house about 18 months, she said, before anything occurred between them

The Judge: What size was the house? – Two rooms up and two rooms down.

Witnesses husband was arrested for larceny and assaulting the police, after coming out of the hospital, and witness continued to keep house with the prisoner.

Counsel: ultimately did you begin to live with him as his wife? – Yes sir, I did.

She thought it was about March 1906, she first began to live with the prisoner as his wife. About three months before Roseman came out of prison he said that if her husband came to take her away from him, he would, “put him out of action.” Witness said, “If he comes right for me, I shall go back with him, and if he doesn’t I shall stay where I am.”

When you said that, did you say anything in reference to yourself? – Yes, he said he would put me out of action too, if I went back to my husband.

“You dirty non-descript”

she told of her husband on one occasion coming into the house, going over to where the prisoner was lying with his face covered, pulling the covering off, and saying: “Get up out of that, you dirty non-descript.” When the prisoner said there had been nothing wrong between witness and himself, witness backed him out, and the deceased was quite satisfied.

Coming to the events on the night of 29 August, she said that when they were in the house and whilst her husband’s back was turned, the prisoner shook his face threatening at her. She however, took no notice. On the night the prisoner and her husband had gone out to the Fox to have drinks together, the McHale’s, who were also living in the house participated in the drinks which were brought in.

On the Wednesday night they all had supper together, and on that afternoon the nurse and her husband out to the Fox and the husband sent back to Dagnall a gallon of beer. When they returned to the house, Dagnall complained that he was ill and they got a noggin of brandy for him. It was the prisoner who suggested that she and her husband should sleep in his bed that night.

When she went to sleep she never heard anything until she was awakened by a cut on her arm between 3.00 and 3.30. a.m. She screamed “Murder!” She saw prisoner Joseph Dagnall in the room lying across the bed. She hardly had light to see. The judge: Did you feel that somebody was lying across you? Yes sir she replied. “And when your brother brought in the light did you see that it was the prisoner. Yes she replied

Head Nearly Cut Off

The prisoner, continued the witness was lying across her husband, who had his head nearly cut off his body and was trying to get to her. Her husband had one hand across his throat, and with the other was holding the prisoner back from him. Witness got out of bed and held the prisoner as well as she could. Prisoner said, “I’ve done him and I’ll do you too. When she came downstairs she saw that the prisoner’s throat was also caught. When the policeman took Dagnall off the bed he had appeared to be perfectly sober.

Cross-examining Mr Andrews the wife said that when went to the hospital she lived about five doors away from Dagnall. It was robbery from the person of the man that her husband was sent to jail. He had broken the collarbone of one of the policemen and was a very violent man.

How long had Dagnall known your husband? – all his life.

Was your husband tried at these Assizes for stabbing his brother. – Yes

Did not your husband say that if you you were living with Dagnall he would make a clean job of it like the Mexborough job.

That was another local murder? – Yes.

Did you tell Dagnall what your husband had said? – No sir.

Did your husband find out that you have been living with Dagnall ?- He never did find out

You kept it from him? – Yes sir

You never heard Dagnall stretching your husband? – Yes sir. I have.

To his face? –No sir, behind his back.

She had, she said, known Joseph Dagnall all his life, and had always known him to be a quiet man. When they left for bed they left Dagnall lying on the sofa, wide awake with the gas burning. When she woke her husband was lying on his back in bed with the clothes removed a little from the upper part of this body, and the prisoner lying across at the foot of the bed.

Answering the judge, witness said both the hatchet and the razor were kept downstairs.

Mr Andrews: during the time Dagnall lived with you yes always been kind to you? Yes sir.

Served In The South African War

Has he been in the army? Yes.

And served throughout the South African war? He says so.

Has he told you that he served 17 years? No sir.

Has he told you that he was servant of Col Clifford at Johannesburg ? No sir.

Has he shown you his medals? He could not show them to me because they were in the pawnshop. (Laughter).

Patrick McHale, a collier and the brother of the last witness, said he and his wife and family have been lodging with the prisoner since last July. He had heard the prisoner say that if Mrs Dalton went with her husband after he came out of prison “ he would put her out of the mess.” On the occasion when Dagnall was reading the newspaper at the doorstep, he heard him say that if he had a revolver he would shoot Dalton.

Witness went on to describe the scene in the bedroom on the morning of the tragedy.

Answering Mr Andrews, in cross examination, he said he had always known Dagnall as a quiet and industrious man. He was aware that he had a good record in the army.

Afraid of Dalton

As for Dalton, he had a violent temper, and witness had at times been afraid of him. When he heard the row in the bedroom, he thought at first it was Dalton and his wife and he was afraid to go there. On the day preceding the tragedy the prisoner never ate anything.

When the prisoner spoke about the revolver did not he laugh? He did.

Andrew treated the matter as a joke,? Yes sir.

Theresa McHale, the wife of the last witness deposed to advising the prisoner not to let the Dalton’s bother him, when he had threatened to shoot Dalton, if he had a revolver. On the Wednesday night, Dagnall threatened that he would put Dalton to sleep that night. Witness, however, did not take that seriously. At 3:30 o’clock on the Thursday evening she was awakened by the alarm clock, and later heard the screams of Mrs Dalton. She rushed out into the street taking her children with her. Returning 20 minutes later she found Dagnall on the sofa, and asked him what ever he had been doing. He asked if Dalton was dead and she said it would be a bad job for him if he was. Prisoner said it would be a good job if he was dead.

Prisoner Troubled

Cross-examined, witness said the prisoner seemed troubled all the week, and did not eat anything. He had been troubled and drinking ever since Dalton’s wife had left him.

Dr Craig, who was called in about 4 o’clock on the Thursday, describes the wounds which he said, could be done with a razor .

The Judge: There is no dispute about all this; don’t let us waste time.

Answering Mr Andrews, the doctor said Dagnall’s throat was slightly cut in the front.

PC Thomson described the scene which met him when he was called into Dagnall’s home on the morning of the tragedy. Prisoner made no reply to the charge of attempted murder and suicide. Later, when he charged him with murder, after Dalton’s death, Dagnall said: “I can say nowt about it now.”

In cross examination the constable described prisoner as a quiet man, and said the deceased had a violent temperament.

Sgt Horton, of Conisborough, stated that the prisoner and said to him after the occurrence: “I have lived with her nearly 2 years. We were all right until he came.”

No evidence was called for the defendant

Mr Loventhal, addressing the jury, said they had indisputable evidence that the deceased met his death through the agency of the prisoner. The whole of the evidence was contradicted in this case. His learned friend had suggested the same motive for this act as he suggested. He was afraid jealousy was responsible for a lot of crime. He submitted that their duty could only imposed one verdict in the case.

For the prisoner, Mr Andrews agreed with his friend in part, but surely, he said, the prisoner was not guilty of the charge brought against him, that of murder. Before they found him guilty of murder, they must be sure that it was premeditated, and he asked if as reasonable men, they could say that there was premeditation in this case. It was admitted that the prisoner was in love with this woman and whether that was in his favour or not, it was not for us to judge; but they had the fact that she was taken away from him, he grew worse, and did not take his food. He was not going to ask them to find a man insane, but he asked them to remember the state of mind in which the poor man was when the act was committed.

Fight for the Woman’s Body

“Suppose,” suggested counsel, “Dagnall thought he saw or heard something going on upstairs that morning, knowing Dalton’s character, he might possibly take the hatchet with him if he was going to fight this man for the body of the woman. You might very well think that he took the hatchet to defend himself if Dalton had been as violent as he was in his past life. If you did that you did not go with the intention of murdering Dalton with the hatchet, and in regard to the razor, it was an extraordinary thing that the windpipe of both men were opened”

If Dagnall had cut his own throat, asked Mr Andrews, and they were on a coroner’s jury, would they find a verdict of “felo de se,” or “suicide during temporary insanity?” He had no doubt that the latter would be the verdict. Speaking of the motive for the crime, Counsel pointed out that Dalton had the deceased in his house on the night previous to the crime, and could have slain him then. But no, he did not do it until his whole system had been completely unhinged by reason of the fact that he had been without food for days and days, and drinking in commiseration of the fact that he had lost this woman. The prisoner had been for 17 years in the Yorkshire light infantry, and had an unimpeachable character from that period. He had served in Afghanistan, and in South Africa. And as you have heard, added Counsel, “of the rewards which the country had given him in the shape of the medals which are in the pawnshop as they almost always are.”

By a verdict of wilful murder, he asked if they would hurry this man to doom he would eventually have to meet when he came to a period in his life when he would have to go before the divinity that would judge us legend saying all? He asked them to bring in a verdict of wilful murder, and that they would leave it to his Lordship to give the prisoner that punishment which he so richly deserved.

The judges charge.

Charging the jury, Mr Justice Bigham said that jealousy or drink were no excuse at all for crime, unless the man was so drunk that he was unconscious of the act are incapable when he committed the act of distinguishing between what was right and wrong. In order to be certain that they must look at the circumstances and then ask themselves, “ did the prisoner intend to kill the deceased at the time he made the attack upon him?” During the husband’s absence, the prisoner became as they could very well imagine he would under the circumstances, fond of this woman. Then happened which must have been foreseen. The deceased came back in search of his wife. The prisoner had evidently dreaded such contingency, and he told the woman what he would do in the event of what he dreaded happening.

His Lordship did not think there could be any doubt that when the husband did return they had a drunken carouse which lasted some days. “It is quite true” said the judge, “that the people who heard the threats did not take them seriously but you will be able to look at them in the light of the events that happened afterwards” if they found the man expressing in plain words and intention to do something of this kind, when the act was done, it was not reasonable to suppose that there was the intention.

As Lordship went on to describe how the prisoner whilst the deceased and his wife were asleep, crept up the stairs in his stocking feet taking with him the hatchet and the razor, which were kept in the kitchen. In such a way that he did not even arouse the daughter. He made the attack on those people, and to see the expression of the mother nearly severed the head of the body. If this man, who had been lying for some hours at all events downstairs, without drink, crept up the stairs with those horrible things in his hand, let then ask themselves if he went up to do that which he did. He called the attention of the prisoners language after the occurrence, and asked if that was the language of a man who was capable of forming an intention. It did not follow he said that because the man was drunk he could not form an intention. There might be an intention formed, which was fatal as the intention formed in absolutely sober moments what was called a drunken intention and the man who carried that intention out was guilty. Concluding the Lordship asked the jury to remember that the crime was not committed in a quarrel.

The Death Sentence.

The jury retired, and after an absence of exactly 12 minutes, returned, when the foreman announced that they found the prison that guilty with a recommendation to mercy.

The judge then assumed the black cap and sentence was passed in the usual manner. His Lordship was visibly affected and at one portion of the sentence completely broke down and was unable to proceed for a few seconds.

The prisoner, who was utterly unmoved, was hurried away to the cells beneath.