Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 12 April 1895
LONDON AND PROVINCIAL NEWS. Strange Charge of Murder.
At Hayward's Heath Police Court, on Saturday, Jeremiah Minahan, an ex-member of the Metropolitan Police, was charged with the wilful murder of his wife on Friday, in Ashenground Wood, and a remand till Monday was granted. Subsequently Mr. Hillman, the coroner for East Sussex, held an inquest on the body of the woman.
Evidence was given to show that the couple went for a walk, and Minahan returned to dinner alone; he made some extraordinary statements, among other things saying he was the King of England. His behaviour was also strange in other respects. Subsequently the woman's dead body was discovered amongst some bushes. Minahan was arrested after a desperate struggle, and has been acting, it is stated, in a strange manner ever since. It appears he spent six months of last year in the county asylum*, but since his release he had been quite rational.
The evidence of a nursemaid and a young lady with her seemed to point to the deceased having had a fainting fit, and Dr. Newthaster having made a post-mortem examination, gave evidence fully bearing out this theory, with the result that the jury returned a verdict of death from natural causes.
* now Princess Royal Hospital East Wing