The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2Griffiths, Arthur
History
The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
Greenacre, when tried at the Old Bailey, admitted that he had been
guilty of manslaughter. While conversing with Mrs. Brown, he declared
the unfortunate woman was rocking herself to and fro in a chair; as she
leant back he put his foot against the chair, and so tilted it over.
Mrs. Brown fell with it, and Greenacre, to his horror, found that she
was dead. But the medical evidence was clear that the decapitation had
been effected during life, and the jury, after a short deliberation,
without hesitation brought in a verdict of wilful murder. The woman Gale
was also found guilty, but sentence of death was only passed on
Greenacre. The execution was, as usual, attended by an immense
concourse, and Greenacre died amidst the loudest execrations. Gale was
sentenced to penal servitude for life.
CHAPTER VIII.
NEWGATE NOTORIETIES (_continued_).
Increase in crimes of fraud--Edward Beaumont Smith--Casting away
ships--The 'Dryad'--Wrecked by the Wallaces--Another
clergyman-forger, Dr. Bailey--The Barber Fletcher frauds to obtain
unclaimed stock in the funds--The Bank of England robbed by one of
its clerks of £8000--Other daring robberies--Burglaries at Windsor
Castle and Buckingham Palace--Ingenious plate robbery at Lord
Fitzgerald's in Belgrave Square--Stealing plate from clubs by a
member--A large parcel of rough diamonds stolen--More murders--The
valet Courvoisier murders his master, Lord William Russell--His
trial and sentence--His confession, attempted suicide, and
demeanour at the scaffold--Daniel Good murders his wife--Strange
discovery of the crime--Pursuit and arrest of the murderer--Hocker
kills Mr. Delarue--Murderer cannot tear himself from the scene of
his crime--Epidemic of murder in 1848-9--Rush--Gleeson Wilson--The
Mannings and their victim, O'Connor--The cold-blooded scheme--How
carried out, and how discovered--One of the first instances of the
employment of the electric telegraph to arrest the murderers--Their
trial--Violent conduct of Mrs. Manning--The execution at
Horsemonger Lane Gaol--Charles Dickens on this execution--Other
murderers--Robert Marley--Cannon, the chimney-sweep, who makes a
murderous assault upon and nearly killed a policeman--Mobbs, the
brutal husband--Barthelemy--Series of gigantic frauds, commencing
in 1850--Walter Watts, the inventor of the new crime--The two lives
he led--Immense defalcations--Sentenced for stealing a bit of paper
value one penny--Commits suicide--The forgeries of R. F.
Pries--Those of Joseph Windle Cole--Raises funds on fictitious
dock warrants--The bankers Messrs. Strahan, Paul, and Bates tried
for disposing of securities they held on deposit--Systematic
embezzlement by Robson, a clerk in the Crystal Palace
Company--Lionel Redpath carries on still more audacious frauds--His
way of life--A patron of art, and foremost in all good works--His
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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