Cook, John Parsons, -1855; Palmer, William, 1824-1856 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder) -- England -- London
Now, it is said that that very attentiveness is evidence of the
prisoner’s guilt. What, as my friend here (Mr. Grove) says, what is a
man to do? Here is a young fellow’s health in very considerable danger.
Cook, having a joint interest in racing transactions with Palmer, thinks
it convenient to stop at Rugeley, where he has no friend but Palmer.
They are not flush of money, and Palmer has a house and an establishment
on a moderate scale immediately opposite the inn in which Cook is
staying. He is enabled to send such things over as can be got in a
private house, not at hotel prices, but at a very trifling expense. He
was on a visit to Palmer, and he knew nobody there but Palmer. He was
ailing; and as it is very dull for a man who has no intellectual
pursuits to be alone all day when out of health, Palmer goes over and
talks to him, and attends to him, and gets him what comforts he can.
That is what a man would do to a friend; it is precisely what a man
would do. If he had not done it, but merely attended to him at night
when he was taken ill on the Monday night, without visiting him during
the day, it might have been said that he was neglecting him, and only
attended to him when he wanted to give him another dose of poison. That
is the way the Crown would have put it then! He is laboriously attentive
to him under circumstances which can well be accounted for by the reason
that he had actually, if not a sincere friendship for him, at least a
friendly kind of liking for him, and an interest with him on betting and
racing transactions, and could supply him with several things from his
house at little or no expense. If Cook had been well he would probably
have had his meals at Palmer’s house. He was ill, and Palmer sends Dr.
Bamford to him. He saw him at eight o’clock on Sunday morning, and again
at six or seven o’clock. Cook told him his bowels had been moved twice
or thrice. That is what he told to Dr. Bamford; it may have been known
to Palmer that it was oftener, and that the truth was he was slightly
suffering under some symptoms of diarrhœa, as he afterwards stated in
the letter to Jones. It was Cook himself who told Dr. Bamford about his
bowels having been moved; and on the same day Palmer wrote a letter to
Jones, intending to bring Jones there, he being about to go to London,
and stated “Cook had been suffering from diarrhœa.” It was at
Shrewsbury, where everybody else had diarrhœa. He took the pill and
black draught, and their effects continued, probably to some extent when
he was at Rugeley. It is absurd to pretend that the suggestion of
diarrhœa could have any sinister object, as Jones must have
ascertained the truth as soon as he arrived at Rugeley.
[Sidenote: Serjeant Shee]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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