was murdered late on the night of the 3d, or early on the morning
of the 4th of November, 1831.
'The corpse was first seen by one of the undersigned, about two
o'clock, P.M., of Saturday, November 5, and by the other at a late
hour the same night.
'_External appearances._--The body was four feet six inches in
length, of rather stout make, face broad, hair light brown, dry,
neither curled nor yet matted, eyes gray, general appearance
that of a foreigner, judging more from the cast of features
than the complexion, limbs rigid, and the upper extremities
somewhat contracted, palms of the hands quite soft, face rather
swollen, eyes bloodshot, teeth extracted, gums bloody, a wound
three-quarters of an inch in length over the left brow; the neck
and throat, together with the extremities, were attentively
examined, but did not exhibit the slightest indications of
violence.
'The dissection was conducted in the following order:--
'_Head._--On turning down the scalp its vessels appeared a little
fuller than usual; the wound over the brow extended to the bone,
which was not, however, fractured, neither was there any blood
effused around the cut; higher up, over the coronal suture, there
was a patch of extravasated and coagulated blood between the scalp
and bone; the brain and its membranes appeared perfectly healthy,
and their vessels were not unnaturally full; the ventricles did
not contain more than the usual small quantity of serum. The body
was next turned on its face, the brain having been previously
removed, and in so doing a quantity of fluid blood gushed out from
the spinal canal at the occipital foramen. On cutting through the
muscles at the back of the neck coagulated blood, to the amount of
five or six ounces, was found extravasated among them; extending
from the occiput to the termination of the cervical vertebræ, and
upon removing the arches of the vertebræ and that portion of the
occipital bone which lies behind the foramen magnum, from one to
two ounces of coagulated blood were discovered within the spinal
canal (exterior to the theca) pressing upon the upper part of
the medulla spinalis; a considerable quantity of fluid blood was
likewise contained in the lower part of the canal; there was no
blood within the theca, and the cord itself retained its natural
appearance and firmness; there was no traceable injury either of
the vertebræ or of their ligaments.
'_Chest._--The pericardium contained about two drachms of serum.
The heart was healthy, rather small, quite contracted, and its
four cavities perfectly empty. This contracted and empty state of
the heart struck us at the time as a very remarkable circumstance.
Each bag of the pleura contained about one ounce of serum. The
lungs were healthy and not congested; there was an old and partial
adhesion between part of the right lung and the pleura costatis;
the pharynx, œsophagus, larynx, trachen, and bronchi, were healthy
and unobstructed.
'_Abdomen._--The stomach was tolerably full of half-digested food,
of which some fragments of potatoes formed the only recognizable
part; its contents smelt lightly of rum, its coats were healthy,
the small intestines were full of recently digested food; the
whole of the alimentary canal, and all the abdominal viscera, were
healthy, but the liver contained a little more than the usual
quantity of blood.
'The urinary bladder was contracted and quite empty.
'It is for professional and other scientific men to judge,
whether the appearances above described are compatible with the
supposition of death having been produced by drowning, hanging,
strangulation, or any other mode of suffocation.
(Signed) 'RICHARD PARTRIDGE.
'GEORGE BEAMAN.
'_December 10._
'The foregoing report, it will be observed, is signed by Mr. Partridge,
the Demonstrator of Anatomy to the King's College, and Mr. Beaman,
a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, who, in addition to an
extensive private practice, holds the appointment of Parochial Surgeon
of St. Paul, Covent-garden; their report has been submitted to Mr.
Tyrell, a Surgeon of St. Thomas's Hospital, and Lecturer on Physiology,
Anatomy, and Surgery, to that Institution. His observations on that
report are as follows:--
'SIR,
'According to your request, I have attentively perused the
statement respecting the examination of the body of the boy,
the subject of the late trial. I find that it perfectly agrees
with the evidence given by Messrs. Partridge and Beaman on that
occasion, of which evidence I, by the desire of the prosecutors,
took notes. It is my opinion, that the death of the boy could
not have been caused by any mode of suffocation, as drowning,
smothering, &c. I have no doubt that injury to the upper part of
the spine, which created the effusion of blood into the spinal
canal was the immediate cause of death.
'Yours, respectfully,
'FREDERICK TYRELL.
'_17, New Bridge-Street,
'Blackfriars, Dec. 10._
'I have thus endeavoured, as briefly as possible, to put together
a few facts and observations on the two only points in 'the
confessions' which appeared to me to call for notice. I consider
Williams's confirmation of the truth of Bishop's statement of very
little consequence, inasmuch as he was allowed to be present at
the making of it, and nothing was easier than for him to say that
he fully adhered to the statement made by his partner in crime. If
separate 'confessions' had been made, and in the absence of each
other, it is possible the wretched culprits might have furnished
something more to the world.
'I have to apologize for the length of this communication, which
has been hastily written. I hope the importance and anxiety with
which the subject is viewed by the public may be pleaded in
excuse, and also induce you to give it insertion in your columns.
I may add, that I should not have presumed to have addressed you
on the subject, had not the circumstance of the management of
the prosecution devolving upon me entitled me to be pretty fully
acquainted with all the details of the case.
'I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, 'JAS. CORDER.
'_St. Paul, Covent-Garden,
Vestry Clerk's Office, Dec. 14._'
On this statement of Mr. Corder we shall make but a very few comments.
One part of it is, however, particularly deserving of remark, in which
he states, that above one hundred persons recognized the body of the
murdered boy, as being that of a poor Italian boy, whom they had seen
carrying white mice about the streets of London. If this were actually
the case, let us put this question to Mr. Corder--Why a tithe of the
hundred persons was not brought forward on the trial to identify the
body? The only persons on the trial, who spoke with the least assurance
respecting the body, were the Paragallis; for Brin, or Brun, the man
who actually brought the boy over to this country, could not speak to
the identity of the body. But if, as Mr. Corder affirms, there were
a hundred persons who really did recognize the body as being that of
the Italian boy, he was certainly guilty of a dereliction of his duty,
in not bringing forward some of them; as it would have been attended
with the immediate good effect of tranquillizing the public mind, and
dissipating every doubt as to the real individual who had been so
inhumanly murdered.
It must also be fresh in the recollection of Mr. Corder, that the
identity of the clothes as having been worn by the Italian boy, was not
definitively established on the trial; on the contrary, by one witness
it was deposed that the clothes found in Bishop's garden did not
correspond in colour with those worn by the Italian boy, as seen by the
witness on the day on which the murder was supposed to be committed. In
other respects, however, the arguments of Mr. Corder may be considered
as carrying with them a great degree of corroborative testimony,
relative to the murdered boy being the Italian youth; and until some
more conclusive evidence presents itself, the matter must be considered
as resting on the established certainty of the identity of the body,
and, consequently, that the statements of Bishop and Williams were not
founded in truth. Their statements, however, excited so extraordinary
a sensation in the public mind that, on the 13th of December, Mr. Hunt
brought the business before Parliament. The Honourable Member said,
that he had a question to ask, calculated greatly to relieve the mind
of the country. It was with respect to the persons lately executed
for the crime of 'Burking.' According to a statement put forth in the
newspaper, they, instead of confessing three or four murders only, on
the day previous to their execution, confessed sixty; and were going on
until stopped by the Ordinary of the prison. This might be a laughable
subject, but it had greatly agitated the public mind; and was, he
believed, at present, the source of much excitement. He, therefore, was
desirous to know of Government whether the fact of this confession was
true or not?
Mr. G. Lamb did not know on what authority the statement in the
newspapers was put forth, but he (Mr. Lamb) was not aware of any other
confession than that officially published.
Alderman Waithman had seen both the Sheriffs and the Under-Sheriff,
and the latter had declared his most positive conviction, that these
men had told every thing they knew in the confession, which he
(the Under-Sheriff) had witnessed. He (Mr. Alderman Waithman) was,
therefore, astonished to see the statements that had been circulated in
the newspapers.
Mr. Hunt rejoined, that it was asserted that the confession was made to
the Ordinary of Newgate. Now it did not appear that either the Right
Honourable Secretary for the Home Department, or the worthy Alderman,
had any communication with the Ordinary.
Mr. Lamb had intended to give a satisfactory reply. No communication
had been forwarded to Government with respect to the confession in
question, and in a matter of that importance, had there been ground for
such a communication, it would undoubtedly have been made.
Alderman Waithman had communicated with the Ordinary, but had heard of
no confession of the kind referred to.
We cannot close the subject of the murder of the Italian boy more
appropriately than with the following lines, written by F. W. N.
Bayley:--
Poor child of Venice! He had left
A land of love and sun for this;
In one brief day of tears bereft,
Of father's care and mother's kiss!
The valleys of his native home,
The mountain paths of light and flowers;
The Savoyard forsook, to roam--
For wealth and happiness in ours.
And pitying thousands saw the boy
Feeding the tortoise on his knee;
And beauty bright, and childhood coy,
Oft flung their mite of charity.
And as he rested on the stone,
His organ tuned to some old air,
Men paused at its familiar tone,
And left their little tokens there.
But now, though hundreds pass the spot,
At even time, or early day,
They shall not see the unforgot,
Whose music all hath pass'd away.
Still when they learn that he hath gain'd
No riches but a grave-stone here,
From gentle hearts, by mem'ry pain'd,
The thoughts of him will start a tear.
At the very time, however, when Bishop and Williams were suffering
on the scaffold the last penalty of the law for the heinousness of
their crimes, the neighbourhood of Golden-lane, Whitecross-street, and
Chiswell-street, was thrown into the greatest state of consternation
and alarm, in consequence of a fine healthy female child, about
eight years of age, the daughter of an Irish labourer named Duffey,
who resides in Broad Arrow-court, Milton-street, having been found,
about ten o'clock on Saturday night, murdered, in a public privy in
Cowheel-alley, Golden-lane. About nine o'clock on Saturday night, the
3rd of December, a woman, about thirty years of age, named Bridget
Calkin, was brought to the station-house in Bunhill-row, and given into
the custody of Inspector Perry, of the New Police, upon the charge
of Mrs. Duffey, No. 3, Broad Arrow-court, Milton-street, who stated,
that her husband was a labourer, and she had a fine healthy girl,
about eight years old, who was remarkably full-grown and tall for
that age. The prisoner lodged within a door or two of her residence,
and had known the child for the last three years, and appeared to be
rather kind and attentive to her, and which in part won the child's
affections. The prisoner, who is occasionally a char-woman, returned
to her lodgings on Saturday night, about half-past four o'clock, and
a little after five o'clock she was seen to leave the court with the
child in her company, and to whom, it appeared, the prisoner gave a
penny, for the purpose of decoying the child. All Mrs. Duffy wanted
from the prisoner was, to know what became of, or where was her child.
The statement of Mrs. Duffy, so far as the child having been seen to
leave the court in company with the prisoner, was fully borne out by
four or five other persons. The prisoner admitted her return to her
lodgings about the time stated, but denied any knowledge of the child,
and accounted for herself by stating where and in whose company she
was from five o'clock until she was taken into custody. Inspector
Perry, seeing the case at that period enveloped in much mystery,
and well knowing the desperate characters with which St. Luke's is
infested, despatched officers to where the prisoner stated she was,
and on their return, they reported that the statement of the prisoner
was altogether a fabrication; and one of the parties (Nurse Bryant, of
St. Bartholomew's Hospital) admitted she knew the prisoner, but denied
having been out with her on that evening. Upon searching the prisoner,
Inspector Perry found a gentleman's small memorandum-book, with an
account of daily expenditure, but no name or address, so as to trace to
an ownership. In about an hour after, informations were given to Mr.
Perry that the body of the murdered child had been discovered lying
on the floor of a public privy in Cowheel-alley, Golden-lane, under
the following circumstances:--It appeared, that about ten o'clock a
little girl, the daughter of a green-grocer, went into the privy, and
trampling on the murdered child, she became alarmed, and ran back in a
fright, and apprised her brother (a young boy) of the circumstance. The
boy got a candle, and went to see what had so alarmed his sister; and
upon his opening the door of the privy, a man and a woman dashed out,
and ran away in different directions, the man having first knocked the
candle out of the boy's hand; notwithstanding which the boy thought he
should be able to identify him. In the meantime, Inspector Perry sent
for Surgeon Leeson to examine the child, whose body was not then cold,
and who thought it came to its death about half an hour before by being
suffocated. The body of the child was then conveyed to its father's,
where two police-officers were stationed in the same room; and as it
became cold, marks of discoloration were very apparent round the neck
and under the right arm.
On the following Monday Bridget Calkin was brought before the
Worship-street magistrates, on a charge of being concerned in the
wilful murder of a little girl, five years old, named Margaret Duffy.
A man named Cattle, a noted resurrectionist, who had also been
apprehended on suspicion, was placed at the bar on the same charge.
The prisoners were brought from the police-station in Bunhill-row, in
a hackney-coach, guarded by a strong body of the police, and followed
with the most appalling yells by an immense mob, hundreds of whom had,
no doubt, been witnesses of the awful exit of the murderers, Bishop and
Williams, shortly before, in the Old Bailey. The female prisoner, who
lived next door to the parents, was seen on the evening of the murder,
with the child, whom she had called out of doors, in order to give
her a penny to divide between her and her brother. The child could
not afterwards be found; and shortly before nine, the prisoner, who
denied all knowledge of her absence when questioned by the parents, was
charged with stealing her; but while that charge was under inquiry at
the police-station, the corpse of the deceased was taken there, having
been found in the place before mentioned.
Dixon, a policeman, stated, that the prisoner Calkin, when brought to
the station, before the body was discovered, declared that she left
the child in the court where they lived, and never saw her again, and
she accounted for the disposal of her time by saying that she went to
a person (whom she mentioned) in Rotten-row, Old-street, and remained
there till about seven, after which she walked about for upwards of
an hour, and was part of the time in company with one of the nurses
of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, named Bryant. Upon inquiry, both these
statements were denied; and at the hospital, it was stated by the
nurse herself, and the sister of her ward, that she had not been out
of the place all that day, nor had she seen the prisoner for two days
previously. A man, named Bailey, deposed that he was passing through
the court on Saturday evening, and saw the prisoner Calkin come
from the privy where the deceased was afterwards discovered. It was
somewhere about eight o'clock when he saw her. Mr. Twyford asked him
if he was certain it was the prisoner? He said he had no doubt of it;
he could not be mistaken, as he had known her for a length of time. A
female, named Jennings, stated, that between seven and eight o'clock
she saw the prisoner and the little girl about one hundred yards from
that spot.
The female prisoner made a statement of some length, to the effect
that she frequently took the child out, and admitted that she saw her
in their court, as stated by the witnesses, and gave her a penny. She
did not take her away from the place, but left her there, and never saw
her again until she saw the corpse at the police-station. She herself
went to Rotten-row, Old-street, and afterwards went towards Whitechapel
and walked about, and during that time met with Nurse Bryant. The nurse
came forward again, and expressed her astonishment at this statement,
which she flatly contradicted.
The prisoner Cattle is known to be a resurrection-man, and lives close
to the spot where the body was found. A man was stated to have run from
the privy, and Cattle was taken on suspicion. The little boy said, that
the man who knocked out his light was not the prisoner Cattle; and
there being no evidence against the latter, he was discharged.
The prisoner Calkin was remanded, to await the decision of the
Coroner's Inquest.
On the following Tuesday, at six o'clock, an inquiry was commenced,
before Mr. Baker, Coroner, the Churchwardens and other officers of St.
Luke's parish, touching the death of the little girl, Margaret Duffy.
The facts were proved as above stated, with respect to the child being
seen last alive in Broad Arrow-court, Milton-street, in company with
Bridget Calkin, and the finding of the body some hours afterwards in a
privy, situate in a court in Golden-lane; but the evidence as to the
circumstances which then ensued was exceedingly discrepant, and the
Jury after having been engaged between five and six hours, adjourned
until the following Friday.
Accordingly on that day the inquest was resumed at the Golden Boot
public-house, Milton-street. The privy in which the body was found is
common to the inhabitants of several intricate passages, and as there
appeared to be some confusion in the statements as to the localities
and other circumstances, Dixon, the policeman, procured an accurate
plan of the neighbourhood. Upon the return of the Jury, who went in
a body to view the spot, and compare it with the plan, the following
evidence was adduced:--
Mr. JOHN LEESON, a surgeon in Chiswell-street, stated, that he was
called in on Saturday to see the deceased at the Station-house. On
going there he saw the body lying on the floor. On examining it he
found the extremities quite cold, but some warmth remained in the
body. There was no lividity or swelling of the face; no contusion or
swelling of the tongue; or any other appearance but those indicating
that she had died of suffocation or strangulation. The deceased was a
fine healthy child. There was a mark on the neck, as also discoloration
of the skin, which led him to believe that some violence had been
applied to that part. The teeth were also clenched; and from these
circumstances he imagined that the child had met its death by foul
means, probably by suffocation, by stopping the mouth, and placing a
thumb and finger behind the neck. There was a bruise on the right arm,
apparently by the pressure of the thumb, done while alive. His opinion
was that the child had not died of apoplexy or anything of a poisonous
nature given to it.
In reply to the foreman of the Jury, the witness said there was a
slight bruise upon one of the arms, which might have been done in a
struggle. Coroner: 'And what time do you suppose it would take to
destroy life by the means you have described?'--The witness said, he
should think from three to four minutes.
Mr. W. BROOKS, surgeon, of St. Luke's, stated, that on Tuesday
morning, in conjunction with Mr. Rance, he opened the body of the
deceased. On opening the head, he found the vessels of the brain
exceedingly turgid, quite sufficient to occasion death. Believed the
deceased's death was not the result of natural causes, and his opinion
was that it had been produced by violence. There was a discoloration
from the neck downwards. It was not produced by decomposition. There
was a pressure on the breast, which possibly might have produced the
marks described. In his opinion the child had died from suffocation by
closing the mouth.
CORONER.--In what time would strangulation be produced by placing the
hand on the mouth and nose?
WITNESS.--That I won't take upon me to say--probably in four or five
minutes.
Mr. RANCE, a surgeon in the City-road, deposed to having examined the
body of the deceased externally and internally, and expressed it as his
opinion that death had been produced by violence.
Mr. WHITTLE, a third surgeon, agreed in opinion with the two former
witnesses. He perceived two marks on the neck, which corresponded with
the large vessels which return the blood from the head to the heart, a
strong pressure on which would produce death.
CORONER.--In what time would that take place?
WITNESS.--In four or five minutes apoplexy would be produced, which
would occasion death independent of suffocation, which might be
produced by pressure on the mouth.
WILLIAM DALTON, stated, that he knew Bridget Calkin, the woman who
was in custody, and saw her about a quarter past seven, on Saturday,
(yesterday se'nnight,) in Payne's-buildings, within a short distance of
the privy where the child was found, and she then had a child about
six years old with her; he had no doubt that it was Bridget Calkin.
ELIZA KENNY, the wife of a carter, stated, that about half-past five on
Saturday evening, she was standing near Prospect-place, when Bridget
Calkin and a female child passed her. She took particular notice,
because she heard Calkin say to the child, 'Don't cry, my dear, we
shall soon be at home.' She observed that the child had neither shoes
nor stockings; she knew Calkin before; the child was crying, and Calkin
seemed to be dragging her along.
MARTIN BAILEY, of Turk's Head-court, Golden-lane, labourer, said, that
about eight o'clock on Saturday evening, he saw Bridget Calkin come out
of the privy, and go through Payne's-buildings; she seemed to be in a
hurry; he had known her for some months; he was certain that she came
out of the privy; he was three or four yards from her when she came
out, and saw her by the light of a gas-lamp that was near; he saw no
child or other person near at the time; he could not speak to the time
precisely; it might have been later than eight o'clock.