FINDING SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN MURDERED

[SRD]

I havn't read it all through but I take it he was murdered on Nov 15. 1867, and the trial started in Jube 1868, so this burial in June 1867 can't be right.

But here is his burial (bottom of page)

http://www.british-jewry.org.uk/betholomrowcemetery.php

But this one fits,
Deaths Mar 1868.
Zusman Barnatt. 48. Madeley. 6a. 433.

Although I would have thought it quite possible for a murder not to come to trial for 8 months, googling 'zusman murder trial' (UK sites only) throws up this. Not much more evidence but I think it probably pins the death to 1868.

[MarkCDodd]

Plenty of newspaper articles.

You have to remember that time of death and the issuing of a death certificate can be many months or years apart when a Coroner's inquest is involved.

Body was found on the Friday, 30th November 1867 by a hunter's dog.

First inquest was held the following Monday, 2nd December 1867.

Police had been looking for Mr Bernard Zusman as his employer, a jeweller called Isaac Cohen of St Likes Road Brimingham, had reported he has stole a large quantity of jewelery that he was delivering.

Bernard is described as a commercial traveller and a hawker, not a jeweller.

It appears he was shot in the head from behind by a "fowling piece" (a type of shotgun).

He was buried for only three or four days before discovery.

THe ransacked case used to carry the jewellery was founds about 150 yeards form the body.

The field in which he was murdered is used by hunters, therfore a gunshot would not have been reported.

[gardener]

Thanks for writing out the time sequence Mark.
Zusman was last seen by Aron Gothmeir on November 15th 1867.
There is the death certificate date

Deaths Mar 1868.
Zusman Barnatt. 48. Madeley. 6a. 433.

and the Jewish burial entry in Birmingham

Bernard Zusman, July 6th, 1867. Aged 49.


I think these are so similar that they have to be the same man. The inquest was held in January 1868 so I suppose the death certificate was issued after that, in the March quarter of 1868. I don't understand the burial entry date though. the year is correct, the age close enough, but the date?

All that aside, what do you think after reading the articles Mark? Is this part of the family story mentioned in the first post? Or just a red herring? There seem to have been some horrific murders in that part of the country. This one is described somewhere as a "travelling jewellry salesman" which could easily become "jeweller" in a re-told family story. Can anyone find any other murders which might also be of a Jewish jeweller in the Dawley region?

Not that it fits the rest of the family story

[MarkCDodd]

Too many coincidences. Must be him.

He is what we would call a jeweller today. i.e. somebody who sells jewellery.

He was not a jeweller at the ime of his death as he didn't make the pieces he sold. He was a hawker (seller) of the items made by Mr Cohen.