GAINSBOROUGH POISONING CASE.
At the Gainsborough Police Court, on Monday, before Mr. Francis Gamble, Alexander Morgan, a Gainsborough and Grimsby fish dealer, was charged on remand with having wilfully murdered a Hull grocer, lately resident in Gainsborough, named Tom Morley. Morley and Morgan had been drinking for a long time, and on August 16th Morley died in the Newcastle Arms public-house, Gainsborough, in terrible agony, having evidently been poisoned by strychnine, which he declared had been given him by Morgan. It has transpired that Morgan, on the 13th of July, was found wandering in the streets of Sheffield, and was sent to the Fir Vale Workhouse, being then apparently in an unsound state of mind, and after detention for five days he was discharged. The evidence given chiefly related to conversations Morgan had with various people about the matter. He told some folks that he gave Morley the stuff as an emetic to settle the drink, and said he took more of it than Morley did. To Police-constable Chapman he remarked, “I gave him the powders to sharpen his appetite.” When in the guard-room prisoner further said, “It’s a queer thing when a man gets so that he does not care for his own life or anyone else’s.” Prisoner afterwards said to Police-constable Holliday, “Hallo, old chap, shall you come and see me ‘topped?'” and pointing to his neck – “I mean here.” Prisoner was again remanded.
(Leeds Times, 10th September 1892)
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