Murder of Shilbottle Pitman

[janwhin]

The moral of this story is, never go drinking in Alnwick.
Shields Gazette, 30 March 1874:
"One of the most atrocious and diabolical outrages ever committed in Alnwick occurred at the Fleece Inn on Saturday night last, about half past eight o'clock, when a miner named James Wilson, living at Bebside Colliery, caused the death of William Buglass, a miner, residing at Shilbottle Colliery, by stabbing him in the left breast with a pocket knife. It appears that Wilson and another man from Bebside were in company in the house in question. They were not observed to be quarrelling, but previously Wilson had been showing his knife, and saying "That if anyone touched him he would make him feel that," or some expression of that kind. The immediate cause of the outrage has not been explained; but there is little doubt that Wilson followed Buglass out and stabbed him with his pocket knife, which he then threw away. Buglass was taken to Dr Candlish's where he died about twenty minutes afterwards. The prisoner was at once apprehended by P. C. Tate. The deceased was about 35 or 36 years of age, and leaves a wife and six children. A post mortem examination will be made, and an inquest held today."