Reports of Trials for Murder by Poisoning;: by Prussic Acid, Strychnia, Antimony, Arsenic, and Aconita. Including the trials of Tawell, W. Palmer, Dove, Madeline Smith, Dr. Pritchard, Smethurst, and Dr. Lamson, with chemical introduction and notes on the poisons usedBrowne, G. Lathom (George Lathom)
Science
Reports of Trials for Murder by Poisoning;: by Prussic Acid, Strychnia, Antimony, Arsenic, and Aconita. Including the trials of Tawell, W. Palmer, Dove, Madeline Smith, Dr. Pritchard, Smethurst, and Dr. Lamson, with chemical introduction and notes on the poisons used
Browne, G. Lathom (George Lathom)
Medical jurisprudence -- Great Britain; Poisons; Trials (Murder) -- Great Britain; Trials (Poisoning) -- Great Britain
“I am a sergeant of police on the Great Western Railway, at Paddington
Station. On the 1st of January, in consequence of a telegraphic
communication, I observed the prisoner get out of a carriage and get
into a New Road omnibus. I put on a private coat, and acted as guard.
He got out opposite Princes’ Street, near the Bank, about a quarter
past nine. I opened the door on purpose to look at him; he went
towards the Wellington Statue, and then crossed over to Birch’s, the
pastrycooks: he stood a moment, as if he was considering; I watched
him from behind the statue. He then went towards the Jerusalem
Coffee-house, and I followed him; he then went down a court into
Birchin Lane, and from thence to Scott’s Yard, in the Borough, where
he lodged, where I left him. On returning there next morning he was
gone, so I went to the Jerusalem, and an officer (_Wiggins_) went
in and took him into custody. Wiggins said to him that he was last
seen in the house of a woman at Slough who was found dead, when he
replied that, ‘I was not at Slough yesterday—I know no one there.’ I
then remarked that I had seen him get off the train from Slough, and
that he had given me sixpence after riding in the omnibus from the
Paddington station. ‘You must be mistaken,’ he replied; ‘my station in
life must rebut any suspicion that might be attached to me.’”
_Wiggins_, an inspector of the Metropolitan police, gave a graphic
account of the arrest.
“On Thursday, the 2nd of January, I went into the Jerusalem
Coffee-house with the last witness, and asked the prisoner if his
name was Tawell; he said, ‘Yes.’ I then asked him if he had been at
Slough last night, and he said, ‘No, I did not leave town all day
yesterday.’ I then opened my coat, showed my uniform, and said, ‘I
want you concerning the woman you were with last night.’ He said,
‘I don’t know anyone there.’ I said, ‘There was a woman found dead
there, and you are supposed to be the last person who was seen with
her alive.’ He said, ‘Thee must be mistaken in the identity, my
station in society places me beyond suspicion.’ I then took him down
to Salt Hill, to the ‘Three Tuns,’ where the inquest was being held.
I searched him, and found £12. 10_s._ in gold and £1. 1_s._ 6_d._ in
silver, a gold watch, and a letter addressed to him, which he said he
had received from his wife. On the second day of the inquest I saw him
again. After consulting with his lawyer, he said to me, ‘I took thee
for a gentleman in the railway carriage.’ I said, ‘I told you I was an
officer.’ He replied, ‘Yes, but that was afterwards.’ The first day of
the inquest he said, ‘Mind, I have disclosed nothing.’”
In _cross-examination, Mr. Kelly_ failed to get the witness to say that
when asked about Slough the prisoner said he came from Berkhampstead,
and only led the witness to reiterate that he stated “that he had not
been at Slough that day.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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