The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: 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)
knocked him down; that they then struggled together, and he tried to cut
his throat with a pen-knife; but that eventually he had killed him, by
driving the barrel of the pistol into his forehead, and then turning it
in his brains. Mr. Gurney then continued to state, that a few minutes
before the time at which the murder must have been committed, a gig was
heard to pass Probert's cottage at a rapid pace, and the servant boy,
who was in momentary expectation of his master's return, imagined that
it was he. He found, however, that he did not arrive at the cottage, and
he proceeded about the work on which he was before engaged. In about
five minutes after this, some persons who were near the road distinctly
heard the report of a gun or pistol, and then voices, as if in
contention. Groans were next distinguished; but they became fainter and
fainter, and at length they altogether died away. The spot from which
these noises proceeded, was Gill's Hill Lane, near the cottage of
Probert. At about nine o'clock Thurtell arrived at the cottage, and
although he had started from town accompanied by a friend, he now was
alone; but he had with him the double-barrelled gun, the carpet bag, and
the backgammon board, which Mr. Weare had taken with him from his
chambers. He gave his horse to the boy, and it had the appearance of
having been sweated; but it was now cool, and it appeared as if, after
having been driven fast, it had been allowed to stand. The boy inquired
after his master, and was told that he would soon arrive, and then
Thurtell went out again. His meeting with Probert had been already
described; and Hunt having been again taken into the gig by the latter,
from Phillimore's Lodge, they all returned to Probert's cottage
together; Thurtell walking by the side of the gig. Probert on his
arrival immediately went into the parlour, and acquainted his wife with
the circumstance of Thurtell and Hunt having come down, as they were not
expected; and presently on their joining him, Hunt, who was a stranger
to Mrs. Probert, was formally introduced to her. They then supped on
some pork-chops, which Hunt had carried down in the gig from London; and
afterwards they all three went out together, professedly with the
intention of calling on Mr. Nicholls, a neighbour, but in reality to
visit the body of the murdered man. Thurtell conducted his two
companions down the lane, and having led them to the spot where the
murder was committed, they dragged the body through a hedge into an
adjoining field, and there rifled the pockets of his clothes. Thurtell
had already taken away his purse and watch, and they now secured a
pocket-book, and any other valuables which he had in his possession.
They then went back to the cottage, and Thurtell, with a sponge which
was in the gig, endeavoured to remove some marks of blood which were on
his clothes, many of which were distinctly seen by Probert's boy; and
having been partially successful, they all proceeded again into the
parlour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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