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
King were quite dead, and in his confusion staggered against the
wainscot and hit his head so as to raise a great bump over his eye.
Gardelle now seems to have considered with himself how best he might
conceal his crime. There was only one other resident in the house, a
maid-servant, who was out on a message for him at the time of his fatal
quarrel with Mrs. King. When she returned she found the bed-room locked,
and Gardelle told her her mistress had gone into the country for the
day. Later on he paid her wages on behalf of Mrs. King and discharged
her, with the, explanation that her mistress intended to bring home a
new maid with her. Having now the house to himself, he entered the
chamber of death, and stripped the body, which he laid in the bed. He
next disposed of the blood-stained bed-clothes by putting them to soak
in a wash-tub in the back wash-house. A servant of an absent
fellow-lodger came in late and asked for Mrs. King, but Gardelle said
she had not returned, and that he meant to sit up for her and let her
into the house. Next morning he explained Mrs. King’s absence by saying
she had come late and gone off again for the day.
This went on from Wednesday to Saturday; but no suspicion of anything
wrong had as yet been conceived, and the body still lay in the same
place in the back-room. On Sunday Gardelle began to put into execution a
project for destroying the body in parts, which he disposed of by
throwing them down the sinks, or spreading in the cock-loft. On Monday
and Tuesday inquiries began to be made for Mrs. King, and Gardelle
continued to say that he expected her daily, but on Thursday the stained
bed-clothes were found in the wash-tub. Gardelle was seen coming from
the wash-house, and heard to ask what had become of the linen. This
roused suspicion for the first time. The discharged maid-servant was
hunted up, and as she declared she knew nothing of the wash-tub or its
contents, and as Mrs. King was still missing, the neighbours began to
move in the matter. Mr. Barron, an apothecary, came and questioned
Gardelle, who was so much confused in his answers that a warrant was
obtained for his arrest. Then Mrs. King’s bed-room was examined, and
that of Gardelle, now a prisoner. In both were found conclusive evidence
of foul play. By-and-by in the cock-loft and elsewhere portions of the
missing woman were discovered, and some jewellery known to be hers was
traced to Gardelle, who did not long deny his guilt. When he was in the
new prison at Clerkenwell he tried to commit suicide by taking forty
drops of opium; but it failed even to procure him sleep. After this he
swallowed halfpence to the number of twelve, hoping that the verdigrese
would kill him, but he survived after suffering great tortures. He was
removed then to Newgate for greater security, and was closely watched
till the end. After a fair trial he was convicted and cast for death.
His execution took place in the Haymarket near Panton Street, to which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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