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)
The magistrate told the prisoner it would be necessary for him to
account for being possessed of the things which had been stolen; and the
prisoner said, that between four and five o'clock on the Sunday
afternoon after the murders, he saw a man get over a wall into Mr.
Smith's grounds, at Greenwich, and run. He followed him, and saw him put
down a bundle against a large tree, and leave it there, and then run
again. Curiosity induced him to go to the spot, and on his opening the
bundle he saw two watches, and a silver soup-ladle. He, however, left
the bundle and walked away, but on the following Saturday, happening to
go past the same spot, he found the bundle in the same position, and
then on examining its contents, he found them to consist of three
watches, a silver soup-ladle, a wine-strainer, four sheets, six or eight
shirts, six rings, some old coins, two two-pound bank-notes, and three
one-pound notes. He took them away with him, and he subsequently
absconded because he was ashamed of coming forward, having such things
in his possession. He declined saying any thing in reference to the
specific charges made against him, and he was committed to Maidstone
jail to await his trial.
On the 31st of July 1818, Hussey was indicted at the Maidstone assizes
for the wilful murder of Mr. Bird and his housekeeper. The dreadful deed
was fully brought home by evidence the most satisfactory and conclusive.
It was proved that the hammer with which the murders were committed had
been taken from a cooper several days before, and that it was afterwards
found in a pond, into which the assassin had thrown it. With this cooper
Hussey had been intimate, and was almost daily at the house, where he
kept his trunk until subsequent to the murders, when he had it removed
to his cousin's, Mrs. Goddard, at Deptford. It was also proved that
Hussey belonged to a "Society of Odd Fellows," and that he did not join
them on the night of the murders until near ten o'clock. The proprietor
of the house where the Odd Fellows met, being asked whether Hussey
appeared any way agitated when he saw him, replied, "He might, but I did
not observe him, for he is the last man in the world, from his general
character and habits, whom I should suspect of either dishonesty or
murder."
It was further proved that the prisoner had been originally a sailor in
the East India Company's service, from which he was discharged, and that
he then became a servant, and lived in that capacity with a Mr. Stevens
at Greenwich, not far from the house of Mr. Bird. Previous, however, to
the murders, he had been discharged, and he was, at that time, out of
place. The remainder of the evidence only confirmed the facts we have
already narrated, and the case for the prosecution having closed, Hussey
was called on for his defence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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