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
The inquiry soon revealed the colossal character of the frauds. Warrants
were issued for Redpath's arrest, but he had flown to Paris. Thither
police officers followed, only to find that he had returned to London. A
further search discovered him at breakfast at a small house in the New
Road. He was arrested, examined before a police magistrate, and
committed to Newgate. Great excitement prevailed in the city and the
West End when Redpath's defalcations were made public. The Stock Market
was greatly affected, and society, more especially that which frequents
Exeter Hall, was convulsed. The Central Criminal Court, when the trial
came on, was densely crowded, and many curious eyes were turned upon the
somewhat remarkable man who occupied the dock. He is described by a
contemporary account as a fresh-looking man of forty years of age,
slightly bald, inclined to embonpoint, and thoroughly embodying the
idea of English respectability. His manner was generally self-possessed,
but his face was marked with "uneasy earnestness," and he looked about
him with wayward, furtive glances. When the jury found a verdict of
guilty he remained unmoved. He listened without emotion to the judge's
well-merited censures, and received his sentence of transportation for
life without much surprise. Redpath passed away into the outer darkness
of a penal colony, where he was still living a year or two back. But his
name lingers still in this country as that of the first swindler of his
time, and the prototype of a class not uncommon in our later days--that
of dishonest rogues who assume piety and philanthropy as a cloak for
their misdeeds.
In Newgate Redpath is remembered by the prison officer as a difficult
man to deal with. From the moment of his reception he gave himself great
airs, as a martyr and a man heavily wronged. By-and-by, when escape
seemed hopeless, and after sentence, he suddenly degenerated into the
lowest stamp of criminal, and behaved so as to justify a belief that he
had been a gaol-bird all his life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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