The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.
Pelham, Camden
Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England)
The real fact, however, was subsequently discovered; and Dramatti being
taken before a magistrate, to whom he confessed his crime, the body of
his wife was found in a ditch between Hyde Park and Chelsea, and a track
of blood was seen to the distance of twenty yards; at the end of which a
piece of a sword was found sticking in a bank, which fitted the other
part of the sword in the prisoner's possession. The circumstances
attending the murder being proved to the satisfaction of the jury, the
culprit was found guilty, condemned, and, on the 21st of July, 1703, was
executed at Tyburn.
WILLIAM ELBY.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
This young man was born in the year 1667, at Deptford, in Kent, and
served his time with a blockmaker at Rotherhithe, during which he became
acquainted with some women of ill fame. After the term of his
apprenticeship had expired, he kept company with young fellows of such
bad character, that he found it necessary to enter on board a ship to
prevent worse consequences. Having returned from sea, he enlisted as a
soldier; but while in this situation he committed many small thefts, in
order to support the women with whom he was connected. At length he
deserted from the army, assumed a new name, and prevailed on some of his
companions to engage in housebreaking.
Detection soon terminated his career, and in September 1704, he was
indicted for robbing the house of ---- Barry, Esq. of Fulham, and
murdering his gardener. Elby, it seems, having determined on robbing the
house, arrived at Fulham soon after midnight, and had wrenched open one
of the windows, at which he was getting in, when the gardener, awaking,
came down to prevent the intended robbery with a light in his hand.
Elby, terrified lest he should be known, seized a knife and stabbed him
to the heart, and the poor man immediately fell dead at his feet. This
done, he broke open a chest of drawers, and stole about two hundred and
fifty pounds, with which he repaired to his associates in London.
The murder soon became the subject of very general conversation, and
Elby being at a public-house in the Strand, it was mentioned, and he
became so alarmed on seeing one of the company rise and quit the house,
that he suddenly ran away, without paying his reckoning. The landlord
was enraged at his being cheated; and learning his address from one of
his companions, he caused him to be apprehended, and he was eventually
committed for trial on suspicion of being concerned in the robbery and
murder.
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