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)
We cannot quit this subject without remarking upon the effects which
were produced by these revolting murders. It was on the 28th of January,
that Burke expiated his crimes upon the scaffold, and Parliament met on
the 5th of the ensuing month of February. On the 12th of the same month,
Mr. Warburton gave notice of his intention of bringing the whole subject
before the House of Commons. Rumours by this time had become general
throughout the metropolis that the same system which had been carried on
in Edinburgh had been discovered to exist in London; and the public,
whose fears were easily alarmed by such a statement, immediately
concluded that every report of a missing person confirmed that which now
became a pretty general belief. The daily papers were filled with
accounts of persons who had suddenly disappeared, and who were supposed
to have been "burked," the term now universally employed in the
description of the murders committed by the atrocious gang, whose
villanies had just been brought to light; and the universal alarm which
prevailed was rendered greater by the absurd practice of idle or drunken
fellows who stopped persons whom they met in lonely situations,
pretending to clap a plaister over their noses and mouths, with an
intention to suffocate them. Complaints were made to the police of the
system of creating alarm which was carried on, and their utmost
vigilance was called for to protect the public from absolute danger, as
well as from the terror which was everywhere excited. Accounts were
sometimes received of dead bodies having been discovered packed in brine
tubs, on their way to Edinburgh from London, and every case of this
description was tortured into proof of the existence of a scheme of
murder in the latter place, even more dreadful than that which had been
discovered in Scotland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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