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the wound in his neck.--Beside this testimony, which included all that
related to the prisoner, it appeared that the deceased’s portmanteau
had been cut; that there was a knife upon the table, which was by no
means bloody; that in his left-hand pocket he had a knife and a key,
the latter of which opened a drawer, wherein were several pieces of
French coin and three guineas; that the deceased had been possessed of
a very considerable property in France, and upon emigrating to this
country, an agent in the city had allowed him twenty pounds per month:
but affairs taking such a turn there, that pittance had been stopped,
and he was so reduced, that a friend had forced upon him the loan of
four guineas; he having no other clothes than those on his back. The
prisoner denied the charge generally, and called three persons to her
character, one of whom said she was of so humane a disposition, that
if a worm lay in her way, she would turn aside rather than do it an
injury. The jury returned a verdict of guilty. She is aged 63.--Richard
Ludman, Ann Rhodes, Eleanor Hughes, and Mary Baker, were likewise
indicted for the murder of George Hebner. This murder was committed
in King street, East Smithfield, in one of those obscure receptacles
of debauchery with which this metropolis abounds. The body of the
deceased was found on the morning of Sunday, the 22nd of May, suspended
by the neck from a bed-post, in a room on the second floor, with his
hands tied behind his back. It was proved that the four prisoners were
in the house (which belonged to Eleanor Hughes) on the evening of
Saturday, the 21st, and next morning. They were seen, and some of their
conversations heard, by two women who lived in an adjoining house;
this house was separated from that in which the deceased was found by
only a lath partition, perforated in several places, and the holes and
crevices affording a distinct view of almost all the apartments of the
latter.--The manner in which the hands of the deceased were bound with
a piece of tape was described in the court. The knot that had been
used was what seamen call a timber hitch, and it was obviously such
could not have been done by himself. There was no direct and positive
proof of the guilt of the prisoners; but there was a chain of most
suspicious circumstances pointing strongly against Ludman and Hughes.
The lord chief baron summed up the evidence with great precision,
candour, and humanity. It was on the expressions used by the prisoners
that the proof chiefly rested, and his lordship nicely discriminated
between those which seemed to arise from surprise, on the discovery
of the situation of the deceased, and those which could be supposed
to proceed only from a knowledge of the murder. The jury returned a
verdict, finding Richard Ludman and Eleanor Hughes guilty. Ann Rhodes
and Mary Baker not guilty.--Eleanor Hughes pleaded pregnancy, to stay
the execution of her sentence. On which a jury of matrons was collected
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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