more speedy apprehension of the murderer, for it appeared as if one only
had been engaged in the diabolical acts; but several days passed before
any suspicion of a tangible nature could be said to attach to any one.
Stacey, the barber's apprentice, during the week had pursued his
ordinary avocations with his accustomed coolness; and, although the
murder had been made the subject of conversation in his presence, had
exhibited no agitation or feeling which could indicate that he viewed
the circumstance in any but the most ordinary light. On the Friday,
however, he complained of a sore hand, and claimed exemption from work;
and on the Monday following, he became very free with his money. His
wages as an apprentice amounted only to two shillings and sixpence per
week; but on this day he was observed to quit Portsmouth in a hired
chaise, with two women of the town, on a "lark" as he expressed himself.
Some suspicion in consequence attached to him, which was strengthened by
the discovery of a knife which corresponded in every particular with one
which was known to have belonged to him, at a short distance from the
scene of the murder, and in a direct line between that place and his
father's residence, smeared with blood and hair. The instrument with
which the throat of the unfortunate Mrs. Joliffe had been cut could
nowhere be found in the house; and it was at once concluded that the
weapon which had been discovered was that which had been used for that
horrid purpose. Upon inquiry, it turned out that young Stacey had been
absent from his master's house on the afternoon of the murder, with a
fellow-apprentice named Connamore, the brother-in-law of his master, and
had been at his father's house, in Charlotte-row, during a considerable
portion of that evening. It was, in consequence, thought advisable that
he should be at once apprehended; and the result proved the propriety of
the adoption of such a course. He was discovered by the constables at a
house at Porchester, in company with the females who had quitted
Portsmouth with him; and immediately on his perceiving that he was
pursued, he became agitated, and exclaiming, "I am done!" endeavoured to
conceal himself in a barn. He was soon discovered, however, and carried
back to Portsmouth, where he was examined before the magistrates. The
testimony of young Connamore proved to be most important. From his
statement, it appeared that Stacey had told him that old Langtrey had
desired him to purchase for him a tract called "The Book of Martyrs;"
that Stacey having no money, had requested him to advance the necessary
means for this purpose; and that he himself purchased the tract, and
handed it over to his companion. On the Sunday, the 1st of March, Stacey
and he went from their master's house to visit the father of the former,
taking the tract with them, which Stacey expressed his intention to
carry to the old man. They remained together during the greater part of
the day, but at about twenty minutes before six in the evening, young
Stacey went away, carrying the tract with him. It was nearly eight
o'clock before he returned, and then on his knocking at the door, the
witness let him in. He passed rapidly by him, and rushed up stairs, at
the same time calling to his father that he wanted him. The latter
directly followed him, and they remained in close conversation for a
considerable time. Shortly afterwards, Mrs. Stacey, who was young
Stacey's step-mother, joined them, and then Connamore heard something as
if some clothes were thrown into a tub of water and washed. Immediately
after this, old Stacey sent him off to a distant shop to purchase some
bread and cheese, and on his return, he found his fellow-apprentice
sitting by the fire, without his shirt, which his step-mother was drying
by the fire, after it had been apparently washed, and which was
subsequently ironed before he put it on. At about half-past nine
o'clock, he returned home with young Stacey, and on their way the latter
said that he had been fighting, and had got some blood about his
clothes. The witness examined his coat, and found that a portion of it
was so completely covered with blood as to require a knife to scrape it
off. It further appeared that a copy of the tract, called "The Book of
Martyrs," was found close by the bloody knife which had been discovered,
and the additional testimony of a witness having been obtained of the
prisoner having been seen getting over the railings of old Langtrey's
house on the night of the murder, he was committed for trial. His father
also, of whose knowledge of and acquiescence in the murder there could
be no doubt, was also secured, and committed to take his trial on the
minor charge of harbouring his son, at the same assizes.
In the interim the additional evidence of the identity of a glove which
had been found in the house of Mr. Langtrey, and which had been left
there by the murderer, was procured, from which it appeared that it was
one of a pair which had been given to young Stacey by a gentleman, and
both of which he wore on the day on which the murder was committed.
During his confinement, young Stacey exhibited little contrition; but
after having been visited by his three sisters, he appeared to become
sensible of the awful nature of his position, and confessed to a
fellow-prisoner that he was guilty of the crimes imputed to him, and
communicated the manner in which he had murdered the poor old people. He
said, that he had presented himself at the door with the tract in his
hand, and that having gained admission to the house, he seized Mrs.
Joliffe by the throat with an intention to strangle her, but that
finding she resisted, he took the candlestick which she held in her hand
from her, and beat her over the head with it until it was bent in all
directions. She at length fell down, and then he seized the handle of a
broom, with which he beat her, until she ceased to move, and he thought
she was dead, the broom, however, being broken in the struggle. He then
went up stairs to the old man, and seizing him by the collar, demanded
his money. He made some resistance, and struck him with his stick; upon
which he knocked him out of his chair; and taking up a tiling hammer,
which he saw in the room, he killed him. Returning down stairs, he
thought Mrs. Joliffe moved, and he struck her also repeated blows with
the hammer, and at last took out his knife and cut her throat. Whilst
engaged in this act, some one knocked at the door, and he became
terribly alarmed; but he heard the person go away, and then he commenced
his work of robbery. He was too hurried, however, to secure more than
the bag containing 600_l._; but before he took this, he cut the old
man's throat, in order to be certain that he was not watching him.
On the same day on which this most fearful detail of his crimes was made
by young Stacey, his father also made a confession, pointing out the
place in which he had concealed the bag of money. The turf had been cut
out, and the bag placed beneath it, in such a manner as to have rendered
it exceedingly doubtful that it would ever have been discovered, but for
its being pointed out. The whole of the money was recovered, with the
exception of about 30_l._, which had been spent by the younger prisoner
in the purchase of a watch and seals, and some articles of clothing.
The trial of the prisoners came on before Mr. Justice Burrough, at
Winchester, on Thursday the 30th of August, in the same year, when a
verdict of guilty was returned upon the facts which we have detailed
being proved in evidence.
The learned judge at once passed the sentence of death upon the younger
prisoner, who was ordered to be executed on the following Monday, and
his father was sentenced to be transported for life.
The day fixed for the execution being that upon which Magdalen Hill Fair
was held, the concourse of people assembled was immense. The wretched
criminal met his fate with sulky resolution, and declined the services
of the chaplain, whom he had dismissed on the previous day. His parting
from his father is related to have taken place without the smallest
exhibition of regret or feeling on either side; and the miserable parent
had so far overcome the ordinary sensations of paternal affection, as to
request to be permitted to witness his son's execution,--a request which
was granted; and of the accordance to which he took advantage. The
miserable youth appeared to suffer but little after he was turned off.
Upon the scaffold he declared that he was assisted in the murder by an
associate of his, whom he named; but who, subsequently, distinctly
proved his innocence.
The execution took place on Monday, the 2nd of September 1829, at
Winchester, opposite the jail.
RICHARD GIFFORD.
EXECUTED FOR FORGERY.
In the termination of the career of this unhappy young man, the direful
effects of dissipation are clearly evidenced. Having received an
education in Christ's Hospital, and backed by interest calculated to
procure for him advantages of a first-rate character, his weakness of
mind led him step by step from a position of respectability through the
various grades of dissipation, until it involved him in a system of
crime, for which his life was taken away by the laws of his country.
Gifford's father was originally a butler in the family of Mr. Abbott,
afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons, and finally Lord Colchester.
His mother was also a servant in the same family. On Mr. Gifford's
marriage, Mr. Abbott obtained for him a situation about the House of
Commons; and when they had a family, care was evinced for the welfare
and advancement of the children. Richard Gifford was the eldest son and
child, and when he arrived at an age fit to be sent to school, admission
into the admirable institution of Christ's Hospital was obtained for
him. After quitting the Blue Coat School, he had some occasional and
temporary occupation as a writer in the Parliament offices. Eventually,
through Lord Colchester's influence, a situation was procured for him in
the "National Debt Office;" and the death, advancement, or removal of
those above him were most favourable to him, and he rose rapidly. For
some time he gave satisfaction in his office; but, at last, the fatal
peculiarities which ruined him--the love of drink, and low and abandoned
company--broke out with undisguised violence, and he neglected both
office and home. His inattention to business led to three or four
several suspensions from his office; and it was only by the most
powerful and influential intercession that his friends could have him
restored: but, at length, his conduct was so outrageously bad, and his
absences so long and continued, that he was finally dismissed. It was
long before his friends could find him, and apprehensions began to be
entertained whether he was still in existence; however, at last his
mother (who was most tenderly attached to him) discovered his retreat.
Having found him, she succeeded in getting him out of his infamous den,
and in taking him home with her. On his part, contrition or concern
about the past was not visible, and though the kindest efforts were made
to keep him in the house, in the hope of estranging him from bad company
and diverting him from infamous ways, to succeed his parents were
obliged to keep him without hat or money, and almost without clothes.
Eventually, it was supposed, or hoped, that he was somewhat changed, and
that his disposition was a little mollified, which induced his mother,
in particular, to take him out occasionally. He, however, finally
absconded from his parents' roof, revengefully announcing, that "he
would make them remember their conduct to him--he would do for them
yet," and other such language. What became of him they knew not; at
last, he was heard of as living in a respectable style, appearing
well-dressed, at a house near the Waterloo-road. To account for the
change, he gave it out that he was married, and that his wife had money.
Almost the next thing heard of him was, his being before the Lord
Mayor, undergoing examination on charges of forgery on the Bank.
He was placed upon his trial at the Old Bailey sessions, in the month of
October 1829, when he pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with
having personated William Green, of Crucifix-lane, brazier, and thereby
having obtained 125_l._, being the value of stock standing in his name
in the Bank-books. On the 6th of March the prisoner applied to Mr.
Linton, a stock-broker, in Shorter's-court, requesting him to sell out
the stock standing in the name of William Green. The broker declined
selling the stock, on the ground that he did not know the prisoner; upon
which he replied, "Your father knows me well, and has frequently seen me
at the National Debt Office." The broker's father was sent for, and on
seeing the prisoner, said that he recollected him somewhere, but could
not tell where. The broker was satisfied with this partial recognition,
and made out the necessary documents for the transfer. The receipt for
the transfer was signed by the prisoner in the name of Green, and on
comparing it with one which had been previously given on the receipt of
the dividend upon the same stock, the hand-writing was found to
correspond.
He also pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with having
personated Richard Mann, and thereby obtained 27_l._, being the dividend
due on 300_l._ Consolidated Bank Annuities, of which Mann was the
proprietor. A few days after the fraud on Mr. Green, the prisoner went
to the Rotunda, in the Bank, and introducing himself to a broker as Mr.
Mann, requested him to witness his receipt of the dividend. The broker
asked for a reference, and the prisoner named Mr. Linton, who happening
to be close by, was instantly appealed to, and at once recognised the
prisoner as being the person who had imposed upon him in the name of
Green. The prisoner refused to withdraw his plea of guilty, although
advised by the judge to do so.
Upon this sentence of death was at once passed; and upon the recorder's
report being made to his Majesty, the unhappy prisoner was ordered for
execution.
Monday the 19th of October, was the day upon which the sentence was
directed to be executed, and the convict upon being led out from his
cell was totally unnerved, and glanced about him with a fearful and
hurried look. He appeared deeply and bitterly to repent his crimes; and
the wretched course of life he had adopted, in spite of the anxious
solicitude of his parents.
He was executed with two other men, who had been convicted of
house-breaking, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, on the 19th of
October, 1829.
JAMES BELL.
TRANSPORTED FOR BURGLARY.
The great singularity of the offence, as well as of the apprehension of
this fellow, induces us to lay their short particulars before our
readers. The prisoner was of that class called "Resurrection men," and
the crime of which he was convicted was committed by him and three of
his associates in this horrible traffic.
Bell on the 17th December, 1829, was placed at the bar at the Maidstone
Assizes before Mr. Baron Garrow, under a charge of burglariously
breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Daniel Redday, at Deptford,
and stealing therein a shirt, a worsted comforter, and the body of a
black man whose name was unknown.--It appeared that Daniel Redday was a
lodging-house keeper at Deptford; an unfortunate black man had come to
lodge in his house shortly before the 20th of November, and on the 19th
died suddenly. His body was laid out in a back room with the shirt on,
and the comforter round his head, until a coroner's jury could sit on
him. In the course of the night of the 20th the prosecutor was alarmed
by a noise in the room of the dead man. Not choosing to examine into the
cause from within, he went out of the house, and soon perceived a ladder
placed up against the window of the room in which the corpse was
deposited, and four men, of whom the prisoner was one, on the ladder. In
his hurry to apprehend them he ran against the ladder, and the whole
four, with the corpse, the comforter, and the shirt, came to the ground.
Three of the four men made a successful retreat, but the prisoner was
taken into custody.--The jury found him Guilty, and Mr. Baron Garrow,
after having commented upon the heinous nature of his crime, aimed as it
was at the best interests of society, sentenced him to be transported
for life.
WILLIAM BANKS.
EXECUTED FOR BURGLARY.
We do not recollect that we have ever met with an instance of a burglary
having been committed attended with greater violence or atrocity, than
that for which this man underwent the punishment of death.
The Reverend William Warrington, it appears, was a gentleman of large
property, residing at Grove Cottage, West Moulsey, in the vicinity of
that well-known spot, Moulsey Hurst, Surrey; and on the night of
Wednesday, 19th of November, 1828, his house was entered by four
burglars, and a great quantity of valuable property carried off. Mr.
Warrington's house adjoined that of Mr. Jeffs, a magistrate of the
county, and a ladder, which had been accidentally left in the garden of
the latter gentleman, was employed by the thieves in effecting an
entrance to the house, which they had determined to rob. The
circumstances attending the burglary are as follows:--
Between one and two o'clock on Wednesday morning, Mrs. Warrington was in
her bed-chamber engaged in writing, and Mr. Warrington was in the same
room in bed, asleep, when the former was terrified by hearing some
persons at the back part of the house attempting to force a window on
the first floor, which opened to a staircase and to a passage leading to
the bed-room. Before she had time to alarm her husband, the fastenings
of the window were wrenched off, without breaking the glass, and as she
opened her bed-room door, she beheld four men, who had entered at the
window by means of the ladder before-mentioned, in the act of ascending
the stairs and approaching her chamber. Her fears were so excessive,
that she was struck speechless for a few seconds. When she recovered,
she shrieked, and exclaimed, "Good God, we shall be murdered; there are
thieves in the house." Her husband was awoke instantly by her cries, and
he had just time to leap from his bed and proceed in his shirt to the
mantelpiece, on which he constantly kept a loaded pistol, before the
four villains entered the chamber. He seized the pistol, levelled it at
one of the thieves, and fired, but without effect. The first man who
entered the room, a dark, ferocious-looking fellow, however, in turn
drew from under his coat a pistol, and presented it at Mr. Warrington.
The villain pulled the trigger, but the powder did not ignite. He
recocked it, and pulled it a second time, and it flashed in the pan.
Mrs. Warrington fell upon her knees, and in the most earnest and
affecting manner implored the villains not to murder her husband, but to
take all the property without interruption. The thieves then produced
some cords (which they had stolen from Mr. Jeffs' garden), and tied Mr.
and Mrs. Warrington's hands and feet. Their hands they tied fast behind
their backs, and cautioned them to be silent as they valued their lives.
They left Mr. and Mrs. Warrington in their bed-room for a few minutes,
and proceeded up stairs to the servants' sleeping apartments, and there
they bound two female servants (the only persons in the house beside Mr.
and Mrs. W.) with cords, in the same manner in which they had previously
bound the others. After they had bound them, the four robbers carried
them down stairs to a vault which was under the house, and fastened them
in that cold place, with scarcely any covering. The villains then
returned to Mr. Warrington's bed-room, searched his clothes, and broke
open his desks and drawers, and, in truth, ransacked the house
completely. They took cash to the amount of about 30_l._, and jewels and
plate of considerable value, with which they decamped. The servants had
been confined for several hours in the vault, when one of them, after
much exertion, released one of her hands from the cord, and forced her
way through the door of the vault. After ascending the steps, she found
another door fastened, and she had to break through that before she
could assist her master and mistress, who were in the most deplorable
state of agitation. She unloosed the cords which secured them, and
having released her fellow-servant also, they alarmed Mr. Jeffs' family
and the other neighbours. Mr. Warrington found that not only all his
portable property of value was carried off, but that the villains had
actually stolen a horse, value 80 guineas, from the stable, and had
taken his phaeton from his chaise-house, and by these means had carried
off their booty. Mr. Warrington sent information of the robbery to Mr.
Cooke, constable of Kingston, who set off in pursuit of the robbers. He
was able to trace the phaeton and horse and two of the robbers from the
house of Mr. Warrington, by a very circuitous route, to Walton-bridge,
and from thence through several by-roads to Knightsbridge.
[Illustration: _The Burglars._
_P. 202._]
On the same day Mr. Warrington also gave information of the robbery at
Bow-street, and Ellis, Ruthven, and Bishop, were directed to institute
an investigation with a view to the apprehension of the thieves.
Upon the arrival of the officers at the house of Mr. Warrington various
minute circumstances transpired, which induced a strong belief in their
minds that the robbery had not been committed by experienced thieves;
and that it had been "put up," or sanctioned by some person in the
house. The clumsy manner in which the boxes and drawers had been opened
seemed to point to the first impression, and the undoubted circumstance
of six buck-shot having been withdrawn from Mr. Warrington's pistol
which had been lying on the mantelpiece during several days, led to the
latter conclusion. Suspicion seemed to attach to one of the female
servants, who had been familiarly accosted by her name, "Fanny," by one
of the robbers, and who had been the first to secure her escape from the
cords by which she had been confined, and she was taken into custody.
After a few days' imprisonment, however, the officers declared
themselves unable to produce any positive evidence against her, and she
was discharged.
From this time the most anxious exertions were made by the
police-officers to secure the robbers. Every means in their power was
tried; but although they succeeded in tracing them by witnesses to
London, where Mr. Warrington's carriage and horse were found, they were
unable to discover who were the persons by whom the burglary had been
perpetrated.
In the month of July 1829, however, the long-pending mystery was solved.
A man named Barnett, a Jew, had been convicted of a burglary in the
house of Mr. Colebatch, in Thames-street, for which he had been
sentenced to transportation for life; but anxious to save himself from
the infliction of this punishment, he tendered information as to the
parties who had composed "The Moulsey Gang," as they were now called,
upon condition of his liberty being restored to him. The proposition was
at once accepted, and he immediately impeached Banks, and four other men
named John Smith, William Johnson, James Taylor, and William Potts,
_alias_ Emery. The officers instantly set about endeavouring to procure
the apprehension of these persons, and Cragg, a resolute officer of
Bow-street, was directed to proceed in search of Banks. This fellow was
a notorious thief, and was suspected to have been concerned in many
robberies which had recently been committed; but Cragg had heard that he
had frequently declared his resolution not to be taken alive. The
officer, however, was determined in his object, and attiring himself in
the garb of a butcher, he proceeded in search of him. Many days elapsed
before he could find him, but at length meeting with him, he rushed at
him, and presenting a pistol at his head, called upon him to surrender
himself a prisoner. Banks appeared astounded at this salutation and made
no resistance, but exclaimed, "I am a dead man." On his person being
searched, a loaded pistol was found in his pocket, and on his back was a
coat, which was a part of the produce of a robbery in which he had been
recently before concerned, in the house of Mr. Campion, at Waltham
Cross.