Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth centuryGriffiths, Arthur
History
Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth century
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
that execution may without delay be awarded against him." This letter
is dated the 6th November; he was arraigned on the 10th, found guilty,
and sentenced the same day. His execution took place on the 16th
November, just one month after his escape. He exhibited great coolness
and effrontery during his trial. He told the court that if they would
let his handcuffs be put on he by his art would take them off before
their faces. The largest crowds ever seen in London paid testimony to
his notoriety as he passed through the streets; and Westminster Hall
had not been so densely thronged in the memory of man as at the time of
his trial. No pains were spared to ensure his safe custody in Newgate.
He was chained to the floor in the condemned hold, and constantly
watched night and day by two guards.
But up to the last Sheppard entertained schemes for eluding justice.
He had obtained a penknife by some means or other, and he had intended
to cut his cords while actually in the cart going to Tyburn, throw
himself in amongst the crowd at a place called Little Turnstile, and
run for his life through the narrow passage, along which the mounted
officers could not follow him. But this plan was nullified by the
discovery of the knife on his person just before he left Newgate. It
is said that he had also hopes of resuscitation, and that friends had
agreed to cut him down promptly, and to apply the usual restoratives.
This scheme, if it had ever existed, was probably rendered abortive by
the proceedings of the mob after the execution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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