They Hanged My Saintly Billy (36 page)

The
learned
Attorney-General
then
read
extracts
from
certain letters
that
passed
between
Mr
Pratt
and
Palmer
in
September
and October,
snowing
the
manner
in
which
Mr
Pratt
was
pressing Palmer
for
the
payment
of
various
overdue
bills
and
the
interest upon
them.

Gentlemen
,
on
the
6th
of
November
two
writs
were
issued
for four
thousand
pounds,
one
against
Palmer,
the
other
against
his mother.
Mr
Pratt
wrote
on
the
same
day,
informing
Palmer
that he
had
sent
these
writs
to
Mr
Crabb,
but
that
they
would
not
be served
without
further
direction;
he
therefore
strongly
urged Palmer
to
raise
the
money,
and
also
to
visit
him
in
London
and make
an
arrangement
regarding
a
bill
for
one
thousand
five hundred
pounds,
which
would
fall
due
in
three
days'
time.
On
the 10
th
of
November,
the
day
to
which
Pratt
had
said
he
would delay
the
service
of
the
writs,
Palmer
visited
London
and
paid
Mr Pratt
a
sum
of
three
hundred
pounds
which,
with
two
sums
of
two hundred
and
fifty
pounds,
already
paid,
made
up
a
total
of
eight hundred
pounds.
Mr
Pratt
deducted
two
hundred
pounds
from this,
for
two
months'
discount,
thus
leaving
six
hundred
pounds to
the
credit
of
the
two-thousand-pound
bill
falling
due
on
the
25th
of
October.
On
the
13
th
of
November,
which
is
a
very important
day,
for
it
is
the
one
on
which
Polestar
won
at
Shrewsbury,
Mr
Pratt
writes
a
letter
referring
to
The
Prince
of
Wales policy,
and
saying
that
steps
will
be
taken
to
enforce
its
payment by
the
company.

That,
gentlemen,
was
the
state
of
things
in
which
Palmer
was placed
on
the
1
3
th
of
November.
You
will
find
from
this
correspondence
that
Mr
Pratt,
the
agent
through
whom
this
bill
had been
discounted,
held
at
that
time
twelve
thousand
five
hundred pounds
of
bills
in
his
hands,
minus
the
six
hundred
pounds
which had
been
paid
off
on
this,
the
whole
of
which
bore
the
forged acceptances
of
Palmer's
mother:
acceptances
either
forged
by
him or
by
someone
at
his
desire,
and
for
which,
in
consequence, Palmer
was
criminally
responsible.
You
will
also
find
that
since The
Prince
of
Wales'
Office
declined
to
pay
the
sum
for
which Walter
Palmer's
life
had
been
insured,
namely
thirteen
thousand pounds,
Mr
Pratt,
who
held
that
policy
as
a
collateral
security, would
not
have
been
justified
in
furdier
renewing
these
bills.
He had
therefore
issued
writs
against
the
mother,
which
were
forthwith
to
be
served
in
case
Palmer
could
not,
at
all
events,
discharge part
of
his
debt.

Now
we
come
to
the
races
at
Shrewsbury.
Mr
Cook
was
the owner,
as
you
are
aware,
of
a
mare
called
Polestar,
which
he
had entered
for
the
Shrewsbury
Handicap.
She
was
very
advantageously
weighted.
The
race
was
run
on
the
13
th
of
November,
the very
day
on
which
Mr
Pratt's
last
letter
was
written,
which would
reach
Palmer
on
the
next
day,
the
14th.
Polestar
won
the race.
Cook
was
entitled
in
the
first
place
to
the
stakes,
wh
ich amounted
to
£424,
subject
to
certain
deductions,
leaving
a
net sum
of
£
381 19s.
to
Cook's
credit.
He
had
also
betted
large
sums upon
the
race,
partly
for
himself
and,
I
am
told,
partl
y
on
commission.
As
a
result,
his
betting-book
showed
a
winning
which amounted,
together
with
the
stakes,
to
two
thousand
and
fifty pounds.
Cook
had
also
spent
the
previous
week
at
the
Worcester Races,
and
by
the
end
of
the
Shrewsbury
Meeting
had
a
sum
of seven
or
eight
hundred
pounds
in
his
pocket,
mainly
from
bets paid
there
on
the
course.
Other
bets,
which
he
was
entitl
ed
to
be paid
at
Tattersall's,
on
the
ensuing
Monday,
amounted,
as
we
shall afterwards
find,
to
one
thousand
and
twenty
pounds.
He
would receive
the
stakes
through
Messrs
Weatherby,
the
great
racing agents
in
London,
with
whom
he
kept
an
account,
as
many
betting men
do.

Now,
within
a
week
of
that
time,
Mr
Cook
died,
and
the
important
inquiry
of
today
is
how
he
met
his
death;
whether
by natural
means,
or
whether
by
the
hand
of
man;
and,
if
the
latter, by
whose
hand?

Chapter XV