Sheffield Independent – Monday 18 August 1890
An Important Witness
The police did not know at first that anyone saw the deceased fall, but a man living near acknowledged yesterday (Sunday) that he happened to be in the yard just as the deceased entered it from the house. He saw the pistol placed in front of the face and then fired, and the young fellow instantly dropped. The deed was done too quickly for the neighbour to interfere.
Edith Tye, a child, living next door, will be called to give evidence. She stated to our representative i — ” I was in the house time the shots were fired. I was minding the baby. The deceased entered by the front door, and Rebecca Beckett was in the kitchen at the time washing the baby’s bottle. The deceased walked through the sitting room into the kitchen. He seemed strange. He said he was going into the Star Inn for another pint. He sat down in a chair in the sitting room, with one arm on the side and his hand over his eye, as though he was crying. He then got up and walked towards the kitchen again. He took his purse as though he was getting money out. The woman was coming out of the kitchen at the same time, and she looked very much agitated. She saw what he was doing. She raised her hands to her ears and cried, ‘ Oh, Jesse, don’t ! ‘
I saw him fire twice, and then I ran screaming out with the babe in my arms. The woman came running out about the same time. The other two shots must have been fired at her as she was leaving. While I watched the deceased he seemed very strange, and his eyes looked as though they would come out of his head.” The little child added that it was the first time she had seen anything of the sort, and she hoped it would be the last.