Newspaper Extract
John H Wood charged with murder of John Coe, 8th March, 1880
On 19th February, 1880, John Henry Wood, a labourer from Whiston, was committed by Rotherham Magistrates to Leeds Assizes for the wilful murder of John Coe aged 27 at Rotherham. During that day the men were drinking together at Whiston and Rotherham, and were last seen close to midnight near the scene of the murder. Medical testimony showed that death must have occurred about that time, and the prisoner's stick was found close by the dead body.
At York before Justice Stephen, on 23rd April, 1880, John Henry Wood, alias Greaves, 27 years of age, was charged with the wilful murder of John Coe at Rotherham on the 19th February.
Mr. Lockwood, Mr. Fenwick, and Mr. Ellis were the counsel for the prosecution, Mr. Lawrence Gane appeared for the prisoner.
Mr. Lockwood, in opening the case for the Crown, said it was needless for him to impress on the jury the gravity of the crime with which the prisoner was charged, or to invite them to give their whole attention to the evidence which would be laid before them.
He would show that on 19th February, a man named Hawksworth was going to work at 8.20 a.m. along a road leading from Catcliffe, where he lived, to Rotherham where he worked. Near a stack which stood by the roadside, he saw the body of a man lying on the ground; he did not touch it, but it seemed he was dead. Shortly afterwards P.C. Morley came from Rotherham and made an investigation which showed the man was dead. The face was covered with blood and there were 2 severe wounds one on the left temple, the other in the middle of the forehead. A broken stake was found nearby. The body was identified as John Coe who lived with his parents at Brinsworth.
Shortly after 6 o'clock, in the evening, the prisoner, who lived at Whiston, entered the Chequers, the deceased and his uncle were still there. While Wood was there, John Coe took half a sovereign out of his pocket to pay for the drinks. There was also a man named Wilkinson, and he would tell the jury that he had a peeled stick with him, such as would be cut out of a hedge, and that he it to John Coe in exchange for an unpeeled one. This peeled stick was later found near the dead body and it would be shown that it got into the hands of the prisoner before the night was out. At 7.15 p.m. the two Coe’s left the Chequers, and were followed by John Wood.
David Coe then left the other two who went to The Belvedere Inn on the road to Rotherham. They then went to The Butchers Arms, kept by Mrs. Oates, and subsequently to the Pack Horse Inn in Rotherham where they met a man named Wright. With him they went to The Mail Coach, and left here at closing time in the company of two women named Saunders and Wilkes.
The whole party adjourned to the house of the farmer and took with them a gallon of beer for which John Coe had paid, as he had done for most of the drink which had been consumed while he had been in the company of the prisoner.
Before 11.30 p.m. Coe and the prisoner left Mrs. Saunders house, the woman Wilkes had noticed that Wood had in his hand a peeled stick. At 11.40, the prisoner and deceased were seen by a cabman named Holmes, who was waiting for a fare outside a club in High Street, Rotherham. The same man later saw them walking in the direction of the stack where Coe's body was found.
The prisoner was next seen the next morning walking in the direction of the Stag Inn, and away from the spot where the body was found. He was met by a man named Wadsworth who noticed he was wearing a watch with a steel curb chain. At the Stag Inn the prisoner told the landlord he had been so drunk the night before, and had slept in a shed belonging to Leedham's, not far from the Stag Inn, but in the opposite direction to that from which the prisoner was seen coming in the morning.
The news of the murder came to the Stag Inn shortly before 11 o'clock, on which the prisoner made an observation to the effect that the murdered man was a relative of a man named Cliff, who had lost one hand. Coe had an uncle named Cliff, who lost a hand, but when the prisoner made the remark, no information had been received at the Stag Inn as to who the murdered man was.
After leaving the Stag, the prisoner met a man named Poynter and told him in conversation that he had plenty of and besides that a watch he could sell and eventually he lent the watch to Poynter. Poynter would prove that the watch the prisoner gave him was a silver Geneva watch with a steel curb chain attached, on which was hung a seal and watch key. Inside the watch, the inner case of which had been forced open with a knife, he founds the word 'Needham, Rotherham'.
Later on in the day, the prisoner told a man named Ellis that he had not heard of the murder and when the details were related by Ellis he said, 'It's Jack Coe. I left him last night in High Street then turned back. Several other statements were made to various persons about the same time by the prisoner more or less inconsistent with each other.
After the 21st the prisoner disappeared, being only seen by a man named Rimmington, who gave him some food on the 23rd. He was eventually apprehended eight or nine miles from Whiston on the 27th, at which time he said, 'I know the job you want me for, but I never had a watch in my life.'
Subsequently when in the lock-up, in answer to a remark made by a fellow prisoner to the effect that the watch would 'do him', the prisoner replied, 'That's all right; if it all turned against me it will only be a month for manslaughter.'
Witnesses were examined in support of the opening statement of Mr. Lockwood, and the case was not concluded.
