spread so far; but while lying concealed in a haystack, where he slept
during the night, he learned from a woman, who was conversing with a
boy, that Morrin was dead. He proceeded on his flight, as soon as he
conceived that a good opportunity was afforded, and disguised in some
clothes, which he took from a scarecrow, he at length succeeded in
reaching Newcastle, where he considered himself safe. Having there seen,
and narrowly escaped being apprehended by a police-officer, who he knew
was acquainted with his person, he again set out on his way from
detection and reached Edinburgh in safety. Here he continued during a
considerable period, and never ventured out unless in disguise; but
having at length attracted the attention of a constable, who he was
persuaded recognised him, he determined to quit so dangerous a vicinity;
and, having gone round by the north and west of Scotland, to go to
Ireland. The attraction of Edinburgh was too strong for him, however,
and he once again entered that city before paying his proposed visit to
the sister Kingdom; but he was again scared away, by his seeing bills
posted up offering a large reward for his apprehension. At Dunkeld,
Dundee, Kenmore, and Cupar-Fife, which he visited in succession, he was
successful in obtaining considerable booties, and he at length
prosecuted his intended journey to Ireland; but having landed at
Belfast, he was there seized on suspicion of being the escaped murderer
from Dumfries, upon the information of one Robert Platt, who had been in
that jail at the same time with him. Assuming a rich brogue, and
asserting that he was a native of Armagh, he somewhat puzzled the
magistrates, but notwithstanding his deceit, they were little disposed
to part with him so easily. He was therefore committed to the custody of
two yeomen, but having plied them plentifully with drink, he watched his
opportunity, and giving them the slip, he jumped out at the window and
once again obtained his liberty. Dublin was his next point, and there he
fell in with a pickpocket, named O'Brien, and they agreed to go in
company. On the quay of Dublin they saw some persons looking at a number
of horses just arrived in a vessel from England; and amongst others, a
man whose dress and appearance bespoke poverty and meanness. Haggart was
not a little surprised to hear him offer eighteen guineas for a horse,
and immediately began speculating on what part of his person this sum
might be deposited. After some experiment, he found it in a greasy coat
pocket, which hung behind unprotected, the frail duffle of his coat
having given way to the rough hand of time, and having made prize of the
purse, it proved to contain ninety-five guineas in gold, beside
bank-notes. A few days afterwards, they took fifty-four pounds at the
theatre door; after which they changed their dress, and, in company with
two girls, hired a jaunting car, and a boy to drive them, and took a
tour through the counties of Fermanagh, Cavan, and Derry. They were a
month on their excursion, and spent upwards of 190_l._ On their return,
being much reduced, Haggart started for King's county on foot, leaving
his clothes in Dublin.
At Mullinger market he picked a farmer's pocket, and would have been
apprehended, but for the connivance of a constable. At Tullamore fair he
picked the pocket of a pig-drover, who afterwards accused him of the
fact, but Haggart having concealed the property very securely, took a
high ground, and insisted on his going before a magistrate for the
accusation and assault. The poor drover was outwitted, and, alarmed lest
he should get into further trouble, he apologised and was permitted to
go.
It was Haggart's fate to commit only one more robbery, which was at a
fair near Downpatrick, for which he was instantly apprehended and
committed to the county jail to await his trial at the next assizes. The
society and practices of this place it appears were horrible beyond
description. Having received their supply of provisions for three days,
the male prisoners blocked out the jailors, by digging up the stones of
the floor, and placing them against the door, and then they broke their
way to the wretched women in confinement, with whom they remained two
days, giving way to every kind of wickedness. After spending this time
in the most riotous manner, they were secured. Haggart was locked up
closely in his cell, and kept in confinement till the day of trial. On
the 29th March he was arraigned, and after a trial, in which it is
evident that he was mistaken by the learned judge for some other person,
and in which the judge himself offered to give evidence, that he had
been before convicted before him; he was found guilty and sentenced to
seven years' transportation. On his being carried back to the jail, he
was recognised to be the man who had escaped from Belfast, and removed
to Kilmainham jail, and there loaded with fetters. He soon thought of
making his escape by digging through the back wall, with the assistance
of several others, having first secured the entrance of their apartment;
but some of the prisoners gave information, and Haggart being the first
man who made his appearance through the hole, he got a severe blow; the
others rushed after him, but having still a high wall to get over, they
were all secured by a party of soldiers, and locked up in their cells.
He was subsequently guilty of some other misconduct in being insolent,
and otherwise infringing upon the rules of the prison, in consequence of
which he was handcuffed, and confined with a horrible iron instrument
fitted on his head, from the front bar of which an iron tongue entered
his mouth and prevented his speaking. This, which was certainly an
arbitrary and cruel exercise of power, excited only opposition, and the
moment it was removed, the prisoner took his seat on the window of his
cell, and remained there during the rest of the day, singing the most
profane songs he could think of. Even the fear of the iron helmet of
Kilmainham could not keep him quiet.
But something awaited him far worse, and which, had he known, would have
made his heart tremble, hard and wicked as it was. Next morning the
prisoners, consisting of some hundreds, were taken down into a yard, and
ranked in companies of twenty each. In a few minutes, John Richardson,
the police officer from Scotland, made his appearance, accompanied by
the two jailors and turnkey; a terrific sight to Haggart! He passed
through all the ranks, and the second time stopped, and taking Haggart's
hand, said, "Do you know me, David?" He again attempted to escape by the
assumption of the Irish brogue, but it was of no avail. He was too well
known, and being taken to the condemned cell, he was there loaded with
irons, and subsequently carried off to Scotland. An iron belt was fixed
round his waist, with his wrists pinioned to each side of it; a chain
passed from the front of the belt, and joined the centre of a chain,
each end of which was padlocked round his ancles, and a chain passed
from each wrist to each ancle. In this dreadful (but by his own hardened
and daring conduct necessary) state of torture and confinement, he was
conducted to Dumfries. The officers treated him with the utmost
tenderness and humanity, but he obstinately kept up his pretended
ignorance for a considerable time.
On their approach towards Dumfries, which was in the dark, there were
many thousands of people on the road, many of them with torches in their
hands, waiting his arrival; and at the jail it was scarcely possible to
get him out of the coach for the multitude, all crowding for a sight of
Haggart, the murderer. Some discovered sorrow, and some terror; but
whose could equal his own? He plunged through them all, rattling his
chains, and making a great show of courage, but he afterwards owned that
his heart was shaken at the thought of poor Morrin. As he went up the
stairs to the cells, he had to pass the very spot where he struck him;
"and oh!" confessed the guilty murderer, "it was like fire to my feet!"
After remaining at Dumfries three weeks, where the greater part of his
Irish irons were removed, he was carried to Edinburgh, to be tried for
the murder, with which he stood charged. He was immediately found guilty
upon satisfactory evidence, and ordered for execution. During the next
fortnight he exhibited the utmost indifference for his condition; but at
length he was brought to a just sense of the manifold wickednesses of
which he had been guilty; and he declared on the morning of his
execution that he would not wish to escape, if the prison doors were
open, as his death was the only atonement he could make in this world
for his violations of the laws of God and man.
Early on the morning of his execution, Haggart joined earnestly in
devotional exercise with his ministerial attendant. After the chaplain
of the jail had prayed, one of the officers of justice appeared, and
requested all strangers to retire, as he had something to communicate to
the unhappy prisoner. Haggart immediately exclaimed, in a hurried tone,
"Oh! I suppose it is the executioner." His firmness for a moment
abandoned him, and he walked rapidly across the cell with his arms
folded, and with deep despair strongly painted on his countenance. He
speedily, however, regained his composure; and when the executioner did
appear, at once allowed his arms to be bound. He was then removed to a
hall in the lower part of the lock-up-house, where he was received by
two of the clergymen of Edinburgh and the magistrates. After prayers the
procession proceeded to the scaffold. The conduct of the unfortunate
youth there was in the highest degree becoming. While the beneficial
influence of religion was apparent in his whole demeanour, his natural
firmness of character never for a moment forsook him. He kneeled down,
and uttered an earnest prayer; and after addressing a few words of deep
and anxious exhortation to the great multitude by whom he was
surrounded, he met his fate with the same intrepidity which
distinguished all the actions of his short, but guilty and eventful
life, having just completed his twentieth year. He was executed at
Edinburgh, July the 18th, 1821.
Haggart, after his condemnation, wrote the history of his short and
wicked life, which was subsequently published for the benefit of his
father, who he requested might receive any profit arising from it, for
the purpose of educating his younger brothers and sisters. The foregoing
particulars are taken from this singular auto-biography, which evinced a
strong, though uncultivated mind, which, if it had been directed to
laudable pursuits, could not have failed to place the writer in an
honorable station in society.
DANIEL DOODY, JOHN CUSSEN, _alias_ WALSH, JAMES LEAHY, MAURICE LEAHY,
WILLIAM DOODY, DAVID LEAHY, DANIEL RIEDY, WILLIAM COSTELLO, AND WALTER
FITZMAURICE, _alias_ CAPTAIN ROCK,
CONVICTED OF ABDUCTION.
It was the opinion of Dr. Johnson that many of the romantic tales of the
middle ages had their origin in truth, and that the absolute distress of
females might, in all probability, have called for the institution of
"knight errantry." To protect the defenceless is a natural impulse,
which has its foundation in the sympathies of our nature; but when a
female, young, beautiful, and innocent, is the victim of oppression,
there is no man, with common feelings, who would not risk his life to
snatch her from despair and misery. In this happy country there are few
instances of abduction; but in Ireland this unmanly crime is too
prevalent. The disturbed state of certain parts of the country gives aid
to the schemes of unprincipled ruffians, acting on the presumption that
injured females, when degraded and dishonoured, would, of necessity,
save the violators of their innocence from ignominy by a marriage--the
only means, they suppose, left them to escape from unmerited shame. The
persons thus forcibly carried away are generally the daughters of
opulent farmers--a fact which clearly shows the mercenary views of
those who commit so base and cowardly an outrage on the most defenceless
part of the creation.
Among the numerous outrages of this nature was one on the person of Miss
Honora Goold, a young lady remarkable for her personal beauty. She lived
in the house of her mother at Glangurt, in the county of Cork, and had
two sisters older than herself, she being scarcely sixteen, and a
brother. On the 4th of March 1822, about twelve o'clock at night, their
dwelling was attacked by an armed banditti, who, on threatening to burn
the house, were admitted. One of the ferocious ruffians burst into Miss
Honora's apartment, and asked if she was the eldest Miss Goold. She
replied in the negative, and said that her sister was on a visit in
Cork. The inquirer then withdrew, and having searched several other
apartments, returned, followed by five or six others, and repeated his
interrogations, but on this occasion answered them himself in the
affirmative, and then ordered her to rise and dress herself, and to
accompany them. At the suggestion of one of the party, they withdrew
from the room; but Miss Goold was scarcely dressed when they returned;
and one of them seizing her round the waist, carried her screaming to
the outside of the house, where she was received by a stranger on
horseback. She was placed in front of the horseman, and then the party,
in spite of her cries and entreaties, set off in the direction of the
Galties, a range of hills between the counties of Cork and Limerick. At
the distance of several miles they halted, and there, having procured a
pillion, their captive was compelled to ride behind the leader of this
atrocious band. In her eagerness to escape she fell several times during
their progress; and having continued her screams all the time, one of
the ruffians threatened to murder her unless she desisted.
By daylight they had entered the recesses of the Galties; and several of
the party having occasionally dropped off, she was conducted by the few
that remained to the house of David Leahy, a substantial farmer.
The leader of this outrage was a young man named Brown, of a respectable
family, and who had received an education which should have rendered him
incapable of such base and unmanly conduct. The elder Miss Goold was
entitled, on her marriage, to a large fortune; and Brown, hoping to
possess himself of it, resolved to carry off the young lady. Being
disappointed by the precipitancy and mistake of his assistants, he
determined to make sure of the lovely victim who had fallen into his
power, knowing that the opulence of her family could make him
independent, provided he could insure the consent of the astonished girl
he had forcibly carried off. With virtuous indignation, however, she
repulsed his advances, and begged the protection of Mrs. Leahy, in whose
parlour she now was; but, strange to say, this woman, who was herself a
mother, connived at the ruin of her unprotected guest.
Foiled in his direct attack, Brown had recourse to an expedient which,
for the honour of human nature, we would wish never to record, did not
impartial justice demand an honest discharge of our duty as faithful
narrators of criminal occurrences. It was proposed, immediately after
breakfast, that Miss Goold should take some rest. A bed was in the
parlour, and she was directed to repose upon it. This, indeed, after the
fatigue of the night, was most desirable; but to her utter astonishment,
the family in which were two females, left the room, at the same time
locking the
[Illustration: _Abduction of Miss Goold._
P. 66.]
door upon herself and Brown. The monster, in spite of her entreaties and
screams, proceeded to undress her, and insisted on lying beside her. The
reader need not be told the rest--the purity of female innocence was
grossly violated in the person of this young and lovely creature; and
her destroyer arose from his bed of lust, the polluter of one whose
peace of mind neither the world's sympathy nor the world's wealth could
restore.
The friends of Miss Goold, who comprised the wealth and respectability
of the county of Cork, instantly set about recovering the injured lady.
The pursuit was continued from day to day for three weeks; and the
vigilance of her friends was only evaded by her being removed from house
to house, and from cabin to cabin; and even once, by her being exposed
for a whole day and night to the inclemency of the weather on a bleak
mountain, when she had the agony of seeing her friends at a distance,
but was prevented from calling to them, or flying to join them, by a
ruffian, who stood sentinel over her with a loaded pistol. At length,
however, her sufferings were to be terminated. Though weak and almost
exhausted by opposition to her foul abuser, she still remained firm in
her virtuous resolve to be no consenting party to the violence offered
to her, and at the conclusion of three weeks, she was placed by her
ferocious guards in a poor cabin on the roadside, where her friends
might find her. When discovered she was in a condition of the greatest
misery, being so weak as to be unable to walk, stand, or sit. Seventeen
hours were occupied in removing her thirteen miles, to her mother's
house, but when once restored to home and its enjoyments her recovery
was rapid, and in a short time her health was re-established, as far as
it was possible under all the frightful circumstances of her affecting
case. From the description, which she gave of the perpetrators of this
act of violence, several of the party were apprehended. Brown, the
guilty contriver of the plan, escaped from the country; and Fitzmaurice,
alias Captain Rock, evaded the pursuit of justice for a considerable
time, but at last surrendered to a magistrate. The men whose names head
this article, except Fitzmaurice and Costello, were brought to trial on
the 29th of July 1822, at Limerick. Miss Goold appeared to give
evidence, and her narrative, which she delivered with modest dignity,
procured her the willing sympathy of a crowded court. The prisoners were
found Guilty--Death; but the three Leahys and Cussen were subsequently
discharged, on a point of law operating in their favour.
On the 23rd of August following, Walter Fitzmaurice, better known at the
time as Captain Rock, pleaded guilty at the Cork assizes; and, along
with Costello, who was found guilty on the solitary evidence of Miss
Goold's brother, who swore to his having seen him on the night of the
abduction, received sentence of Death.
On the ensuing Saturday, Costello underwent the awful sentence of the
law, but Fitzmaurice was respited, something having arisen in his
favour, principally on the ground of his having pleaded guilty in
consequence of the judge refusing to put off his trial in the absence of
a material witness. Costello, to the last, declared his innocence, not
only of the crime for which he was convicted, but of any connexion
whatever with the White Boys.
PHILIP STOFFEL, AND CHARLES KEPPEL.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
On Tuesday night, April the 8th, 1823, a most inhuman murder was
committed at Clapham, on the body of Mrs. Elizabeth Richards, a widow of
seventy-five years of age. The unfortunate lady had resided for thirty
years in the same house at the above town, where she was greatly
respected by the neighbours. She kept no servant, and had no inmate but
an elderly lady named Bell. The latter was in the habit of going out in
the evening to attend a place of religious worship. A little after eight
o'clock on the evening in question a neighbouring woman calling to see
Mrs. Richards found her dead, lying on her back in the parlour, with an
apron stuffed into her mouth. On examination it was found that robbers
had perpetrated the dreadful deed, as the pockets of the deceased had
been violently torn from her side, her watch and some money taken, as
well as several articles of wearing apparel. The villains, however, had
missed the principal object of their attack, for a large sum of money
had escaped their search, which was concealed in an upper room. Upon an
examination of the person of the deceased lady, it appeared that she had
been smothered. She had been left by age only two teeth, and one of
these was forced down her throat by the violence with which the wretches
had thrust the apron into her mouth, with the view, no doubt, of
preventing her from giving alarm. A paper parcel was found in the hall,
on which was written "Mrs. Bell, _hat_ Mrs. Richards, Clapham."
The sensation produced by this unprovoked murder was so great, that a
public meeting was called in a day or two at Clapham, and a reward of
two hundred guineas offered for a discovery of the murderers. The active
officers of Union Hall police-office in the course of a week apprehended
a suspicious character, Philip Stoffel, nephew to Mrs. Richards, a
ruffianly-looking fellow of about twenty years of age. When brought to
the police-office he denied all knowledge of the crime with which he was
accused; but, being requested to write "Mrs. Bell, at Mrs. Richards,"
&c., he wrote the word _hat_ for at, in a hand precisely similar to that
in which the superscription on the parcel found after the murder was
written. Seeing himself detected, he exclaimed, "It is of no use--I was
at the murder!" He then, unsolicited, gave a full account of the whole
transaction, and acknowledged who were with him at the time. Previously,
however, to this confession, another of the gang, named Thomas Scott, a
rat-catcher, was in custody, and had been admitted king's evidence. In
his confession, which gave a minute account of the whole transaction, he
stated that the robbery was planned by Stoffel, who called in the aid of
himself, Keppel, and one Pritchard, but that the murder was the act of
Keppel alone, Stoffel particularly desiring that they would not hurt his
aunt. Whilst Scott was giving the parcel to Mrs. Richards, who went into
the room to read the direction, Stoffel walked in gently and said, "My
good old lady, we don't want to hurt you; we only wish for you to be
quiet." She exclaimed "Oh Lord! oh dear!" when Stoffel put his hand upon
her mouth, and the other two men coming in, he desired Keppel to hold
her whilst he went up stairs, as he knew best where the money was, but
not to hurt her. They then proceeded to rifle the house of all they
could get at, but did not break any locks, for fear of alarming the
people in the next house. Though Mrs. Richards did not move, Scott
declared that he did not think she was dead, but only that she had
fainted.
In consequence of the information contained in Scott's confession, the
officers went in pursuit of Keppel and Pritchard; and after having
travelled from Gravesend to Portsmouth, they succeeded in apprehending
Keppel, who was disguised in a smock-frock, &c. Keppel and Pritchard
were by trade bricklayers, but had led a most abandoned life among the
lowest prostitutes about Westminster. Pritchard, we are sorry to say,
escaped the pursuit of justice, as he was never apprehended. Keppel
denied all knowledge of the murder, and behaved in the most hardened
manner.
Stoffel had every expectation of being admitted king's evidence; but he
was not so fortunate, and he was arraigned along with Keppel at the
Croydon assizes, July the 25th, for the murder of Mrs. Richards. The
evidence against them was conclusive; for the confession of Stoffel, and
the corroborated testimony of the accomplice, Scott, left no doubt
whatever of their guilt.
Having been declared guilty by the jury, the learned judge (Mr. Serjeant
Onslow) put on the black cap, and passed the awful sentence of the law
upon the prisoners. Keppel, whose conduct throughout the whole
transaction had been most thoughtless and hardened, then directly
addressed the court in the most abominable language. He told the judge,
that he was a bloody old rogue, and damned him and his laws together;
and was only prevented from continuing his abuse, by his being forcibly
removed from the dock.
The unhappy wretches continued, up to the day of their execution, which
took place at Horsemonger-lane jail on the 28th July, 1823, to exhibit
the utmost levity of demeanour, but were at length brought to a just
sense of their condition on the morning of their death, and were turned
off, professedly lamenting their past misspent life.
JOHN THURTELL AND JOSEPH HUNT.
CONVICTED OF MURDER.
For cold-blooded villany in its conception, its planning, and its
perpetration, this murder must be allowed to stand unparalleled. The
sensation which it created throughout the country was such, as was
probably never exceeded in any previous case.