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)
At the sessions held at the Old Bailey on the 31st of October, the
prisoner was indicted for the offence with which he stood charged, and
the jury returned a verdict that he was guilty. His defence consisted
only of a denial of the facts alleged against him, and he heard the
finding of the jury delivered without much emotion. At the conclusion of
the session he received sentence of death, in common with the other
capital convicts; and he then urged upon the court the improbability of
the charge, and suggested that his condition was such as to render it
most unlikely that for the profit which he should derive, he should
commit so diabolical an offence. The unfortunate man subsequently made
representations to government, with a view to procure a commutation of
his sentence; but although considerable exertions were made in his
favour, an order for his execution on the 2nd of January 1827 was
received at Newgate on the 20th of December. The wretched man, who had
been constantly attended in jail by his young wife, was dreadfully
affected at receiving the fatal intelligence.
The subsequent conduct of the convict was such as ill befitted his awful
situation. The bare contemplation of the moment of execution completely
unmanned him, and instead of applying himself to religious exercises, he
sat day after day brooding over his past life, and occasionally starting
upon his feet, bitterly inveighed against his sentence. He had from the
time of his trial persisted in denying his guilt; but at length he
confessed that he was rightly charged and convicted, pleading in excuse
that he was of unsound mind at the time. On his finding that his
execution was inevitable, he had recourse to many ingenious measures to
procure his escape, and it was discovered that he had some powerful
auxiliaries, both among his fellow-prisoners, and his friends without
the jail. Ground for suspicion of the design was first given by an
intercepted letter; and at this time the prisoner occupied a cell which,
from its position, was most favourable for his project. It was situated
close to the outer wall of the prison, and could he but have removed the
iron bars of the window, he might easily have reached the parapet, by
means of a rope ladder, and descended into Newgate street. A ladder was
actually made of black sewing-thread, firmly and curiously wattled,
which must have been the work of very considerable time: but the
difficulty of removing the window-bars was found by the prisoner to be
insurmountable without the aid of instruments. It is almost needless to
say, that on the discovery of the scheme, the most minute watch was kept
over the movements of the prisoner and his coadjutors. Frequent and
anxious inquiries were observed to be made by White for a pair of shoes,
which did not appear to be wanted; and when they arrived, they were
examined; and spring saws, capable of cutting through iron bars without
making any noise, were found sewed up between the upper and lower soles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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