Cook, John Parsons, -1855; Palmer, William, 1824-1856 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder) -- England -- London
circumstance that the man is seen with a glass and with a fluid which he
is mixing up and holding to the light, and shortly afterwards his friend
who is drinking with him or drinking at the same table at which he is
drinking, who, if Myatt be telling the truth, was somewhat in liquor,
and ought not to have been pressed to take brandy and water--Palmer
says that he will not take anything until Cook has exhausted his
portion--and then immediately afterwards the man is taken ill. These are
circumstances not altogether incapable of producing certain impressions
upon one which it is difficult to shake off.
[Sidenote: Attorney-General]
Nevertheless, I pass on from that, and go to Rugeley. From the Saturday
morning until the Monday morning I find this poor man suffering under
the influence of constant vomiting; that was not the Shrewsbury
disease--he had got rid of it; he was well on Thursday and he was well
on Friday. On Saturday morning, after dining at Mr. Palmer’s, he is
taken ill; and then we have the fact of Mr. Palmer administering his
food, administering his remedies, sending over toast and water, sending
over broth; and, no sooner has this poor man taken those things than he
is seized with incessant vomitings of the most painful description. What
about the broth? The broth is said to-day by Smith to have been sent
from the Albion. Yes; and where does it find its way to? It is taken,
not to the Talbot Arms, but to the prisoner’s kitchen. After that,
instead of leaving it, as one would suppose he would leave it, to the
woman to take to the Talbot Arms, he takes it himself from the fire,
puts it into the cup, gives it to her, it is taken over, and the man
vomits immediately after he has drunk it. On the Sunday the same thing
is done again; the broth is brought from the same quarter, and attended
with the same results. Of that broth the woman takes a couple of
spoonfuls, and she is sick for several hours. She vomits twenty times,
and is unable to leave her bed for some hours. My learned friend said
she did not state that before the coroner. Nevertheless, it is sworn to
by the other servant that the woman was ill. I can quite understand why
the woman did not state it before the coroner. It shows the honesty of
the woman’s character. It did not occur to her to connect the sickness
from which she suffered with the taking of the broth; but afterwards,
when the story of the antimony came up, and Cook’s sickness was
connected with it, then she remembered perfectly well, after the
evidence had been given, how she, having taken the broth, immediately
became ill. The fact is not one capable of dispute, although it may be
that she did not mention it before the coroner. And I think you will
regard it as a very important and significant fact in the case, that, on
the Monday when Palmer is absent, Cook is better. On the Tuesday he
vomits again, though not in the same degree. But after death--now comes
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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