They Hanged My Saintly Billy (58 page)
Therefore
let
it
be
your
most
bounden
duty
to
come
forward
and place
yourself
in
the
witness-box
and
on
your
oath
speak
these
great truths.
Then
rest
assured
you
will
lie
down
on
a
downy
pillow
and get
to
sleep
happy.
Bear
in
mind
I
only
want
the
truth.
I
ask
for
no
more.
Yours
faithfully,
Wm
Palmer
P.S.
Newton
no
doubt
calculated
upon
my
coming
by
the
luggage train,
but
this
had
been
discontinued
more
than
a
month—thus my
reason
for
going
to
Stafford.
Dear
Jere,
Do,
for
God's
sake,
tell
the
Truth—if
you
will
only
consider
I am
sure
you
will
recollect
meeting
me
at
Masters'
steps
that
night, Monday
the
19th
of
Nov.
I
returned
from
London
and
you
told
me my
Mother
wanted
to
see
me.
I
replied:
'Have
you
seen
Cook?
And how
is
he?'
You
said:
'No.'
I
then
said:
'Let
us
go
upstairs
and
see him.'
We
did
do
so.
When
upstairs
Cook
said:
'Doctor,
you
are
late! Mr
Bamford
has
sent
me
two
pills
which
I
have
taken.'
And
he
said to
you:
'Damn
you,
Jere,
how
is
it
you
have
never
been
to
see
me?' You
replied
that
you
had
been
busy
all
the
day
settling
Mr
Ingram's affairs
and
we
then
wished
him
good-night
and
went
to
my
Mother's.
Yours
ever
faithfully,
Wm
Palmer
Jeremiah
Smith
did,
indeed,
vouch
for
these
facts
under
oath when
called
by
the
Defence.
The
Crown
lawyers
played
much
the
same
trick
with
Allspice as
with
Cockayne
and
Saunders,
though
they
did
not
subpoena him.
They
merely
arranged
for
his
temporary
dismissal
from
The Junction
Hotel,
and
his
employment
by
Mr
Bergen
of
the
Rural Constabulary
in
a
remote
situation.
Serjeant
Shee
dared
not
accuse the
Attorney-General
of
sharp
practice
in
spiriting
away
his
witnesses,
because
to
do
so
and
thus,
by
inference,
reproach
the
Lord Chief
Justice
of
condoning
a
felonious
act,
would
have
ruined
him professionally.
Shee
was
aiming
at
a
judgeship,
and
had
perforce
to
swallow
his
discomfiture.
As
it
was,
the
Lord
Chief
Justice rebuked
him
pretty
sharply
for
a
delay
of
ten
minutes
in
producing another
of
his
witnesses
and,
we
may
be
certain,
would
not
have waited
until
Saunders,
Cockayne,
and
Allspice
had
been
routed out
and,
despite
all
the
efforts
made
by
the
Stafford
Constabulary to
detain
them,
brought
up
to
London
from
the
Midlands.
Now,
if
anyone
asks
us:
'Do
you
really
believe
that
Mr
Stevens, a
retired
merchant
of
modest
fortune,
was
powerful
enough
to force
diese
extraordinary
and
disgraceful
tactics
on
Messrs
Chubb, Dean
&
Chubb,
the
Crown
lawyers?',
we
shall
unhesitatingly answer
'No,
Sir!'
But
to
the
next
question:
'Whom,
then,
do you
suspect?',
we
shall
reply
with
all
possible
circumspection,
as follows:
'The
jurymen
were
warned
before
the
trial
began
that, if
any
of
them
happened
to
be
shareholders
of
certain
powerful insurance
companies,
they
must
retire
as
interested
parties.
But what
of
the
Crown
lawyers?
Has
anyone
dared
inquire
into
their impartiality?
If
Dr
Palmer
had
been
found
innocent
of
poisoning Cook
(as
the
Stafford
Grand
Jury
found
him
innocent
of
poisoning
his
brother
Walter),
would
not
the
companies
have
been
liable in
consequence
to
pay
the
Doctor
the
thirteen
thousand
pounds
of Walter's
life
insurance?
And
what
of
the
Stafford
Police?
Are none
of
them
venal?'
We
will,
however,
say
no
more,
for
fear
of
libel,
but
simply invite
our
questioner
to
decide
whether
it
is
impossible
that
representatives
of
the
insurance
companies
privately
acquainted
Messrs Chubb,
Dean
&
Chubb,
and
Captain
Hatton,
with
their
strong interest
in
the
prisoner's
condemnation.
It
is
perhaps
a
not
very
remarkable
circumstance
that
the Judges,
the
Lord
Mayor,
the
Sheriffs,
the
Aldermen
and
(we
are told)
the
jury,
the
majority
of
them,
were
united
in
a
fond
love of
the
Turf.
We
believe
that
most
loyal
Turfites
would
feel
a hundred
times
less
aggrieved
with
a
man
who
garotted
a
fellow-criminal,
an
unwanted
child,
or
an
ailing
relative,
dian
with
one who
poisoned
racehorses—as
Dr
Palmer
was
suspected
of
doing. The
Doctor's
reputation
at
Tattcrsall's
was
bad
enough
to
condemn
him
for
any
crime
charged
against
him:
from
petty
larceny to
High
Treason;
and
if
Serjeant
Shee
had
pleaded
that
his
client bought
the
strychnia
from
Messrs
Hawkins
for
the
purpose
of
poisoning
one
of
the
Earl
of
M
's,
or
the
Duke
of
D'
swiftest
and
noblest
horses,
such
a
plea
would
necessarily
have been
construed
as
an
invitation:
'Pray,
hang
this
villain!'
Be
that as
it
may,
a
tacit
agreement
was
reached
over
the
nightly
turtle-soup
and
pineapples
consumed
at
the
Guildhall
during
the
trial, that
no
person
of
honour
could
dare
support
Dr
Palmer,
even
in the
name
of
abstract
justice;
for
surely
a
man
capable
of
doctoring a
gallant
thoroughbred
would
not
hesitate
an
instant
before
murdering
a
score
of
plebeian
bipeds?
To
poison
foxhounds
was
an equally
grave
crime;
and
this
explains
why
Serjeant
Shee
respected the
feelings
of
all
good
fox-hunters
in
Court
by
referring
to
'the dogs'
in
his
cross-examination
of
George
Bate,
as
though
diey were
not
foxhounds,
and
therefore
sacrosanct,
but
common
and savage
mongrels!