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
Next day he heard the murder cried through the streets by the bellman,
and found that it was his own case, with an exact description of his
appearance. He at once jumped out of the window—the inn was by the
waterside—and swam to another part of the shore. Thence he made his
way into the country and got chance jobs as a farm-labourer. At Oxford
he found that he was advertised in the local paper, and he again
decamped, travelling on and on till he reached his own home in Wales.
His father gave him refuge for a couple of days, but a report of his
being in the house got about, and he had to fly to Gloucester, where
he became an ostler at an inn. In Gloucester he was again recognized
as the man who had killed his wife on Hounslow Heath, by a gentleman
who promised not to betray him, but warned him that he would be taken
into custody if he remained in town. "Agitated by the momentary fear of
detection, Price knew not how to act," and he resolved at length to go
back to London and give himself up to justice. He called first on his
former master, was apprehended, and committed to Newgate. He took his
trial in due course, and was, on "the strongest circumstantial evidence
ever adduced against an offender," cast for death, but fell a victim to
the gaol-fever in October, 1738.
Mention of two more heinous cases of wife-murder may be made. The
second marriage of Edward Joines, contracted at the Fleet, was not
a happy one. His wife had a violent temper, and they continually
disagreed. A daughter of hers lived with them, and the two women
contrived to aggravate and annoy Joines to desperation. He retaliated
by brutal treatment. On one occasion he pushed his wife into the grate
and scorched her arm; frequently he drove her out-of-doors in scanty
clothing at late hours and in inclement weather. One day his anger was
roused by seeing a pot of ale going into his house for his wife, who
was laid up with a fractured arm. He rushed in, and after striking the
tankard out of her hand, seized her by the bad arm, twisted it till
the bone again separated. The fracture was reset, but mortification
rapidly supervened, and she died within ten days. The coroner's jury
in consequence brought in a verdict of wilful murder against Joines.
He was in due course convicted of murder, although it was difficult to
persuade him that he had had a fair trial, seeing that his wife did not
succumb immediately to the cruel injury she had received at his hands.
In December, 1739, he was executed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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