THE MANCHESTER COURIER
Saturday, 25 February 1854
On Tuesday morning last, Mr Rawley, the city coroner, held an inquest on the body of Joseph Goden, aged forty-eight years, who resided until a few weeks prior to his death with his sister at Chapel Alley, Bolton.
The deceased was discovered on Monday night at a lodging house where he had boarded on Lomax Street, Manchester, by Mr Greene, the proprietor. Assistance was obtained but life was quite extinct. The deceased had taken arsenic whilst intoxicated.
Enquiries were made with several apothecaries in the vicinity as to whether the deceased had recently purchased arsenic from their premises but each, upon viewing the body, answered in the negative and could offer no clue to his identity.
However, upon questioning, a fellow lodger gave information that he had witnessed the deceased the previous evening in the Bull’s Head Public House, London Road, in the company of the Master of New Bridge Street Workhouse. After viewing the body, the Master identified it as that of Joseph Goden, a resident of Bolton.
Mr Goden’s sister revealed he had been much troubled in his mind and had been drinking a good deal of late.
Dr Croft, of this Borough, was present at the inquest and a post-mortem examination of the body having been made, the effects of the deadly drug were plainly visible.
The Jury returned a verdict that the deceased came to his death from poison administered by his own hand whilst in an unsound state of mind.
After reading the article several times, Sally tore the newspaper into tiny pieces and threw them on to the fire. She stared at the grey ashes for an age and closed her eyes.
In the solitude of her kitchen, she sent up a thank-you to the Almighty.
Then she issued another, to Nancy.