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
that too much reliance cannot be placed upon his confession. His last
statement contains the words, "The public now think I am a liar, and
they will not believe me when I say the truth." This was no doubt the
case, but this much truth his confession may be taken to contain: that
Courvoisier was idle, discontented, ready to take offence, greedy of
gain; that he could not resist the opportunity for robbery offered him
by his situation at Lord William Russell's; that when vexed with his
master he did not shrink from murder, both for revenge and to conceal
his other crimes.
Courvoisier wished to commit suicide in Newgate, but was prevented by
the vigilant supervision to which he was subjected while in gaol. The
attempt was to have been made by opening a vein and allowing himself to
bleed to death. The Sunday night before his execution he would not go to
bed when ordered. The governor insisted, but Courvoisier showed great
reluctance to strip. The order was, however, at length obeyed, and the
whole of the prisoner's clothes were minutely searched. In the pocket of
the coat Mr. Cope, the governor, found a neatly-folded cloth, and asked
what it was for. Courvoisier admitted that he had intended to bind it
tightly round his arm and bleed himself to death in the night. The next
inquiry was how he hoped to open a vein. "With a bit of sharpened stick
picked out of the ordinary firewood." "Where is it?" asked the governor.
The prisoner replied that he had left it in the mattress of which he had
just been deprived. The bed was searched, but no piece of sharpened wood
was found. It was thought that it might have been lost in changing the
mattresses. The cloth above referred to belonged to the inner seam of
his trousers, which he had managed to tear out. There is nothing to show
that Courvoisier really contemplated self-destruction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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