The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 1/2Griffiths, Arthur
History
The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 1/2
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
Next day he heard the murder cried through the streets by the bellman,
and found that it was his own case, with an exact description of his
appearance. He at once jumped out of the window--the inn was by the
waterside--and swam to another part of the shore. Thence he made his way
into the country and got chance jobs as a farm-labourer. At Oxford he
found that he was advertised in the local paper, and he again decamped,
travelling on and on till he reached his own home in Wales. His father
gave him refuge for a couple of days, but a report of his being in the
house got about, and he had to fly to Gloucester, where he became an
ostler at an inn. In Gloucester he was again recognized as the man who
had killed his wife on Hounslow Heath by a gentleman who promised not to
betray him, but warned him that he would be taken into custody if he
remained in the town. “Agitated by the momentary fear of detection,
Price knew not how to act,” and he resolved at length to go back to
London and give himself up to justice. He called first on his former
master, was apprehended, and committed to Newgate. He took his trial in
due course, and was, on “the strongest circumstantial evidence ever
adduced against an offender,” cast for death, but fell a victim to the
gaol-fever in October, 1738.
I will mention a couple more cases of wife-murder, and leave this
section of criminals. The second marriage of Edward Joines, contracted
at the Fleet, was not a happy one. His wife had a violent temper, and
they continually disagreed. A daughter of hers lived with them, and the
two women contrived to aggravate and annoy Joines to desperation. He
retaliated by brutal treatment. On one occasion he pushed his wife into
the grate and scorched her arm; frequently he drove her out of doors in
scanty clothing at late hours and in inclement weather. One day his
anger was roused by seeing a pot of ale going into his house for his
wife, who was laid up with a fractured arm. He rushed in, and after
striking the tankard out of her hand, seized her by the bad arm, twisted
it till the bone again separated. The fracture was reset, but
mortification rapidly supervened, and she died within ten days. The
coroner’s jury in consequence brought in a verdict of wilful murder
against Joines. He was in due course convicted of murder, although it
was difficult to persuade him that he had had a fair trial, seeing that
his wife did not succumb immediately to the cruel injury she had
received at his hands. He was executed in December, 1739.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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