The Horrible Murder at Mosborough
Inquest and Verdict
The tragic shooting fatality at Owlthorpe on Saturday night, of which Emily Bird, wife of Henry Bird, of Mosborough Moor, was the victim, was the subject of a coroner’s inquest at the British Oak inn, Mosborough Moor, yesterday morning.
Mr. G.B. Busby, the coroner for the Hundred of Scarsdale, conducted the inquiry.
The prisoner was taken in a closed-in wagonette from the Eckington police cells to the British Oak.
He seams to be feeling his position more acutely, and looked very pale and dejected throughout the inquiry, and at times seemed scarcely able to control his feelings, and almost broke down when the jury were considering their verdict.
The affair has caused much excitement amongst the residents of the small village of Mosborough, and a large number of them assembled round the doors of the inn, many of whom were colliers who had no doubt worked in the same pit as both the prisoner and Henry Bird the husband of the victim.
Many of these waited outside the inn in the rain from the time of the inquest commencing, at 10:45a.m., until it ended at 3:30p.m.
The first witness called was Henry Bird collier of Owlthorpe hill, Mosborough moor, who said the deceased woman, Emily Bird was his wife.
She was 46 years old.
On Saturday he was at home all day.
He saw the prisoner, Christopher Taylor, about eleven o’clock on Saturday morning.
He was standing at the door of his home with a gun in his hand, and was looking for some of the birds which come for berries.
His garden faced witness’s house, and was about 70 yards distant.
Witness was about 20 yards from Taylor who did not speak to him or take any notice of him.
Witness did not speak to Taylor and saw nothing more of him until about a quarter to eight in the evening.
He (witness) and the deceased went into the house of his son-in-law, George Staniforth, about four yards away.
George Staniforth was at home, but his wife (witness’s daughter) had gone to Mosborough, and had asked the deceased to make some pastry for her.
He was sitting by the side of the fire looking at some war pictures, and his wife was mixing some pastry when he heard Taylor and his wife coming up the lane.
Taylor was “shouting and gawping,” and making a noise.
Witness heard a voice, which he recognised as Taylor’s shouting his name, and saying he’d “blow his (expletive) head off.”
Taylor’s wife tried to get him to go home.
Witness opened the door shortly afterwards, and saw Taylor leaning on the garden wall.
As soon as he opened the door Taylor said “I’ll blow his (expletive) head off. I’ll burn his (expletive) house,” and repeated that several times.
Witness said to him “What are you talking about? If you don’t mind I’ll take you somewhere else.”
Taylor got into the garden, came across it, and stood within two yards of him.
Taylor’s wife came up and asked witness to take no notice of him.
Witness said “I don’t but look how he’s trampling my flower plants down, He’ll have to pay for them.”
George Staniforth came to the door then, and Bird told prisoner to be careful, as he had got a witness.
Taylor got over the wall again, and took his coat off.
The Coroner: Had he any gun in his hand then?
Witness: No, sir. If he had I should not have been here now.
Witness continuing said that he went back int the house.
Shortly afterwards there was some shouting outside, and he heard Taylor say “I’ve lost my (expletive) jacket. Bring a (expletive) light,” and this he repeated several times.
The deceased, who was near the door, said she would fetch their stable lamp.
This she did and shortly, afterwards she returned to say the jacket was found.
She went to take the lamp home, but almost immediately she rushed back into the house, fastened the door, and said “Oh dear! He’s coming down the hill with the gun in his hand, saying he’ll blow your (expletive) head off.”
She seemed very frightened, and stood with her back close to the door.
Witness then heard Taylor catch his foot against a stone. Not more than a second after he said “I’ll blow your (expletive) head off,” and the gun went off instantly.
Witness saw smoke pass the deceased’s ear.
He was standing within half a yard of her, and saw she was falling.
He caught her and screamed out “She’s dead! She’s dead!
Taylor then made his way home.
Witness saw the hole in the door made by the bullet.
His wife was wounded at the back of her neck, and her hair was full of chips of splintered wood.
He went to steady her, and put his hand on the back of her head right on the wound from which she was bleeding profusely.
(At this point witness completely broke down, and Taylor, who had seemed to feel his position keenly, bowed his head in his hands apparently deeply moved.)
Witness said that as soon as he could put the deceased down he went out to fetch his daughter and the police. He could not see anything of Taylor.
The Coroner: When you met Taylor was he sober?
Witness: No, he was in drink.
Have you ever had any quarrel with Taylor?
No; I never had an angry word with him. His wife said she did not know whatever he had done it for, and I am sure I didn’t.
In answer to Superintendent Talbot witness said that he did not hear Taylor make any threats immediately after the shot was fired, but later he walked up and down his garden saying he would “blow the first (expletive’s) head off who came near him.”
After that Taylor ran his wife down the lane with the gun.
Replying to jurymen witness said he thought it was Taylor’s intention to kill him instead of his wife.
He must have been aware she was just behind the door because she had only just bolted it.
Taylor was asked if he wanted to ask witness any questions, and he replied, “No, I don’t know that I do. I don’t know a deal about it. I was stupid drunk.”
George Staniforth said he was a labourer living at Owlthorpe, and was son-in-law of the last witness. He lived about 200 yards from his father-in-law.
Witness first saw Taylor at about 20 minutes to eight, and at that time deceased and her husband were in witness’ house.
Prisoner was then shouting, and Bird went to the door.
Taylor was then in the lane, and witness heard him threaten to shoot Bird.
A short time after Mrs. Bird was going to take lantern she had had to look for Taylor’s jacket into her own house, but she had not been a minute before she came running back.
She appeared to be very frightened, and she locked the door on the inside, and stood with her back against it.
Her Husband was then standing about half a yard from her.
Just at this time witness heard footsteps outside, and, from the outside, Taylor repeated his former threats.
At the same moment the report of a gun was heard, and the bullet passed through the door, and the deceased died immediately.
The police brought Taylor into witness’ house shortly before ten o’clock, and he called Superintendant Talbot an Irish (expletive).
He also said, “Well, if I’ve to be hung. I’ve only to be hung once,” and added that if he was not hung he would shoot old Bird as soon as he came out.
Prisoner was not sober when witness saw him about eight o’clock.
Witness had never heard any quarrel between the parties, but, on the contrary, they always seemed to be on friendly terms.
Superintendant Talbot: You were in the inside of your own house and heard the gun fired.
After you heard the report did you hear any remarks or threats used?
Witness: Not after the report of the gun.
Did you hear any bad language used by any person outside?
I can’t say that I did.
You heard the prisoner use threats just before you heard the gun go off?
Yes, sir.
You were present when I charged the prisoner?
Yes
You saw me write the charge and the prisoner’s statement in my pocket book?
Yes, in our house.
A Jurymen: Was Taylor in a violent temper during the time, or was he very drunk?
He seemed in a very violent temper.
Another Juryman: Has he ever threatened Mr. Bird before?
Not to my knowledge.
Did he throw a challenge out to fight Mr. Bird when he took his coat off?
I never heard him.
Another Juryman: Still you heard him say that if he came back again he would shoot Mr. Bird?
Yes, sir.
You say he was worse for drink; was he really drunk?
I should say he was about half and half.
The Coroner: Drunkenness is no excuse for a man to commit a crime.
Henry Jowett, farmer, of Mosborough Moor, said that he lived about 400 yards from Owlthorpe.
About 8:30 p.m. on Saturday he was in the yard when he heard two voices as though quarrelling, which was then followed by a gun shot.
Afterwards he heard someone running on the road, and going out met Henry Bird who was crying.
When asked what was the matter Bird said “Chris Taylor’s shot my wife.”
Witness drove to Mosborough and reported the matter to Police-constable Adlington, who returned with witness in the cart to Owlthorpe.
They went towards Taylor’s house, and by a light from the house they saw him walking in the garden with a gun in his hand.
They got at the back of the hedge, and Taylor said; “I can hear the (expletive) sticks cracking. Who the (expletive’s) there? If you don’t (expletive) come out I’ll put some (expletive) lead into you.”
He went towards them, and they went farther down the lane.
He followed them, and when they got at the back of the wall by the side of Bird’s gateway Taylor called out, “If you don’t come out I’ll put some lead into you.”
He went up the lane again and went into his house.
He came out in a few minutes and said “I’ll burn all up. I’ll have a bonfire with oil and paraffin”, and then added, “See how it blazes,” but witness could not see anything burning.
Eventually the prisoner was arrested by Superintendent Talbot and his men.
In answer to Superintendent Talbot, witness said that after hearing the gun fired he heard a voice, which he recognised as belonging to Taylor, saying: “Thou canst come out. I have got another barrel waiting for thee.”
At this point the inquiry was adjourned for half an hour, and when it was resumed.
Dr. West Jones, a surgeon, said he was called to Owlthorpe on Saturday, and he went into Staniforth’s house.
He found the body of deceased lying on the floor in a pool of blood, quite dead.
The front of her clothing was saturated with blood, and there was a wound on the right hand side of the neck at the back.
It was a jagged wound, and one that would probably have been caused by a gun-shot.
Witness made a post-mortem examination on Sunday.
Above the right shoulder-blade were some slight wounds, evidently caused by shot.
In the jagged wound he found a large number of fragments of bone.
He removed the skull cap, and found the base of the skull intact, but on passing the finger through the neck it was evident that the two upper vertebrae were shattered all to pieces, and the spinal cord cut through close to its junction with the brain.
Death must have taken place instantaneously.
Witness saw the prisoner on three occasions on Saturday, and he appeared to be perfectly sober.
Police-constable (273) Adlington said that about ?? minutes past eight he went to Staniforth’s house in company with the witness Jowett.
He there saw the body lying on the floor in a pool of blood after following Taylor about for a considerable time, witness met Superintendent Talbot and Sergeant Hughes, and they all went up to Taylor’s house.
Witness fetched a gun, and after the Superintendent had fired it in the air outside the prisoner’s house, they rushed through the door. The Superintendent went in first, and witness and the sergeant followed.
The prisoner was sitting by the bedside in a room ??? his bedroom door.
He had a gun in his left hand and a knife in his right.
The Superintendent ??? the gun away from him, and witness and the sergeant forced the knife from him.
He was handcuffed and taken to Staniforth’s house where Superintendent Talbot, who was in plain clothes, charged him with killing and slaying Emma Bird, by shooting her.
He replied by threatening to do some injury to Mr. Bird.
He was afterwards taken in Eckington, and locked up.
Prisoner: I should like to ask the constable whether he got that knife out of my hand or off the table. It is the knife that my misses always carved with.
The Constable: I took it out of his hand.
Superintendent Talbot: said that he was called to Owlthorpe, and from the information he received he went to ???? Taylor.
He sent for a gun, sent Constable Roland to the back of prisoner’s house, he fired the gun into the air and rushed into the house, followed by Constable Adlington and Sergeant Hughes, and they arrested prisoner in the bedroom.
All three of them were close together, the men having followed him very well.
He gave a similar account of conveying prisoner to Eckington to that given by P.C. Adlington.
The Coroner said that the case was a very curious one indeed.
There did not appear to have been any ill-feeling between Bird and the prisoner Taylor before Saturday, and even in the disturbance the bad language appeared to have been all on one side.
The prisoner was said to have been in drink, but that was, he might point out to them, no excuse for the crime committed.
They must remember that if they returned a verdict of “wilful murder” it did not necessarily mean that he would be convicted.
The fact that when charged by Superintendent Talbot the prisoner replied, “They can’t do more than hang me, can they?” did not look as if the affair had been an accident.
They must remember that if Taylor went to the door intending to shoot Bird, but shot the deceased instead, it was just as much murder as if he had shot Bird.
After the jury had considered their verdict in private, the foreman, John Drabble, said “We find that the evidence given in this case is so straightforward that there is no doubt but that it is a wilful act of murder, and we are all unanimous that prisoner should be sent for trial on the capital charge.”
A verdict of “Wilful murder” was returned against the prisoner, who was retained in custody by the Eckington police, and was removed to the police cells at Eckington, and will be brought before the magistrates again in the morning.
At the close of the inquest one of the jurymen proposed and another seconded a resolution that their fees for attendance should be paid over to the prisoner’s wife, and this was agreed to.
The Coroner then pointed out that the woman by all accounts had done all she could to get her husband away before the crime was committed.
He must add that the police had done all they could to secure the prisoner, and he must give them credit for it, and to Police-constable Adlington for sending so smartly for his Superintendent.
The funeral of the victim
The funeral of Emily Bird the victim of the tragedy, took place yesterday afternoon at the Eckington Cemetery, while the inquest was still in progress.
There was a large attendance of sympathising people from the neighbourhood, and a constable was present on behalf of the Eckington police.
