As you study the 19th century newspapers, you become aware that it didn’t take much for an argument between to people to erupt into fatal violence.

One such case was featured in The Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury on Saturday the 27th of March 1847:-

ANOTHER MURDER IN LONDON

On Thursday, Thomas Brooks, a young man of very miserable and emaciated appearance, was charged, at the Worship-street Police-office, with the wilful murder of William Gobart, umbrella-maker, in Hare-alley, Shoreditch.

RICHARD EATON’S TESTIMONY

The first witness called was a young man named Richard Eaton, who stated that at ten o’clock on the preceding night, he was requested by the deceased to accompany him and other two young men to the lodgings of the prisoner, at No. 3, Hare-court, to demand the restoration of some articles which belonged to him, and were in the prisoner’s possession.

The deceased remained at the end of the court while the witness went to the house to call the prisoner, who accompanied him back, and on the deceased demanding the property in dispute between them, the prisoner told him he should not have it until he paid him what he owed him, not perhaps even then.

Without any further observation being made by either of them, the prisoner told Gobart, “If you wait here for a minute, I will put a bullet through your head;” and so saying, he instantly hastened back and entered his own house.

“HE HAS SHOT HIM”

The witness upon this advised the deceased not to remain any longer; but Gobart said he had nothing to fear and persisted in doing so; upon which the witness told him that he should not himself remain to be shot, and proceeded to his own house, about twenty yards off, but had only been there a few minutes, when he heard the loud report of a gun, and directly afterwards a lad, whom he had just left with the deceased, called out to the witness, “Dick, Dick, come down, for he has shot him!”

The witness thereupon ran down the court, and upon entering the passage of the prisoner’s house, found the deceased lying in a pool of blood, and to all appearance entirely lifeless.

THE EVIDENCE OF CHARLES EATON

Charles Eaton, brother of the last witness, and cousin to the deceased, confirmed the preceding testimony, and added, that a few minutes after the prisoner had uttered the threat of shooting the deceased, and entered his own house, the witness accompanied the deceased to the prisoner’s door, which Gobart was about to enter; but he had only got his foot upon the threshold, when the prisoner, who had been secreted behind the door, suddenly presented himself, and discharged some fire-arm into the deceased’s face.

The act was so instantaneous, that the witness could not see the piece, but the flash was immediately followed by a stunning report, and the deceased fell forward upon his face in the passage.

JAMES BADKINS’ TESTIMONY

James Badkins, who was also present at the occurrence, confirmed the evidence of the last witness in all its leading particulars, and stated that the only ground of provocation he could assign for the commission of the act, was a threat of the deceased to strike the prisoner.

THE POLICE CONSTABLE’S EVIDENCE

Police-constable Lock, 201, H, stated that he found the body of a man lying at the foot of the stairs, and the ramrod of a gun close by it.

On asking a woman who lodged upstairs who had committed the offence, she told him that it was a man living on the third floor, and accordingly proceeded to that apartment, where he found the prisoner with the gun in his hand, which the witness immediately wrested from him, and took him into custody.

The prisoner’s father, who was also present, made Some observation upon the dreadful consequences of his son’s violence, and in answer to that the prisoner replied, “I have had revenge, and if I had not taken his life he would have taken mine.”

“IT WAS LOADED WITH SMALL SHOT”

The prisoner was then conveyed down the stairs, where a surgeon, who was in the act of examining the body, inquired of a bystander if the gun had been loaded with ball, to which the prisoner spontaneously answered, “No, it was loaded with small shot,” and on the witness searching the prisoner he found a quantity of loose shot of that description in his waistcoat pocket.

THE SURGEON’S EVIDENCE

Mr James Hancorn, a surgeon, in High Street Shoreditch, deposed that, upon examining the body of the deceased, he found a circular orifice in the left side of the neck, which was sufficiently large (nearly an inch in diameter) to enable him to probe it with his finger, and to trace the injury as far back as the spine, where the shot or ball appeared to have lodged.

Such a wound might have been caused either by a bullet or small shot concentrated, and which, upon striking the spine, must have produced instantaneous death.

REMANDED UNTIL NEXT TUESDAY

Inspector Harris deposed to a confession of the crime by the prisoner, whilst at the police station.

The magistrate ordered that the prisoner to be remanded until Tuesday next.

LABOURING UNDER AN ENTIRE PROSTRATION

During the whole of the examination, the prisoner’s head was hanging helplessly against the bar of the dock, and he appeared to be labouring under an entire prostration of his faculties, and wholly unconscious of everything that passed around him.

On Tuesday, the prisoner was committed on a charge of “wilful murder.”

TRANSPORTATION FOR LIFE

At his subsequent Old Bailey trial, Thomas Brooks was found guilty of manslaughter and was sentence to transportation for fifteen years.