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
On being removed to Newgate from the court Mrs. Manning became perfectly
furious. She uttered loud imprecations, cursing judge, jury, barristers,
witnesses, and all who stood around. Her favourite and most
often-repeated expression was, "D--n seize you all." They had to
handcuff her by force against the most violent resistance, and still she
raged and stormed, shaking her clenched and manacled hands in the
officers' faces. From Newgate the Mannings were taken in separate cabs
to Horsemonger Lane Gaol. On this journey her manner changed
completely. She became flippant, joked with the officers, asked how they
liked her "resolution" in the dock, and expressed the utmost contempt
for her husband, whom she never intended to acknowledge or speak to
again. Later her mood changed to abject despair. On reaching the
condemned cell she threw herself upon the floor and shrieked in an
hysterical agony of tears. After this, until the day of execution, she
recovered her spirits, and displayed reckless effrontery, mocking at the
chaplain, and turning a deaf ear to the counsels of a benevolent lady
who came to visit. Now she abused the jury, now called Manning a
vagabond, and through all ate heartily at every meal, slept soundly at
nights, and talked with cheerfulness on almost any subject.
Nevertheless, she attempted to commit suicide by driving her nails,
purposely left long, into her throat. She was discovered just as she was
getting black in the face. Manning's demeanour was more in harmony with
his situation, and the full confession he made elucidated all dark and
uncertain points in connection with the crime. The actual execution,
which took place at another prison than Newgate, is rather beyond the
scope of this work. But it may be mentioned that the concourse was so
enormous that it drew down the well-merited and trenchant disapproval of
Charles Dickens, who wrote to the 'Times,' saying that he believed "a
sight so inconceivably awful as the wickedness and levity of the immense
crowd collected at the execution this morning could be imagined by no
man, and presented by no heathen land under the sun. The horrors of the
gibbet, and of the crime which brought the wretched murderers to it,
faded in my mind before the atrocious bearing, looks, and language of
the assembled spectators. When I came upon the scene at midnight, the
shrillness of the cries and howls that were raised from time to time,
denoting that they came from a concourse of boys and girls already
assembled in the best places, made my blood run cold." It will be in the
memory of many that Mrs. Manning appeared on the scaffold in a black
satin dress, which was bound tightly round her waist. This preference
brought the costly stuff into disrepute, and its unpopularity lasted for
nearly thirty years.
I will briefly describe one or two of the more remarkable murders in the
years immediately following, then pass on to another branch of crime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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