that he had never been implicated in murder. He made a full confession
of the habits and practices of persons engaged in his horrid trade, and
his punishment was eventually commuted to transportation for life.
We have already alluded to the doubts which existed as to the
ingenuousness of the confessions of the prisoners Bishop and Williams.
The general suspicions which were entertained upon this subject, were
still further excited by the publication of a report, that another
confession had been made, in which the convicts had admitted their
participation in upwards of sixty murders. We are inclined to believe
that no such confession was actually made, although there is good reason
to believe that the wretched malefactors concealed much of their guilt,
while they admitted so much only as they knew must eventually be
discovered. The idea that their confessions did not contain the whole
truth, received confirmation from the circumstance of their denying that
the remains found were those of the Italian boy. The evidence of the
identity of the body was too clear to leave any room for doubt, and it
is a remarkable fact that no information of the loss of such a boy (as
they described) from Lincolnshire, ever reached the metropolis.
Subsequently to the coroner's inquest and before the trial, two poor
people did arrive in London from Lincolnshire, who had lost a boy, and
to whom the body of the Italian boy was shown; but, so far from
recognizing it as their child, they said, that not only the hair, but
the eyes were of a different colour. The whole object of the prisoners
seems to have been to mystify the case so as to give them a chance of
escape, and having set out with falsehood, they adhered to that course
throughout. We have heard that some jealousy was entertained by certain
individuals towards Mr. Corder, who conducted the prosecution, and who
refused to avail himself of the professional assistance tendered him,
and that some of these persons did not disguise their prophecies that
the case would "break down," and the prisoners escape for the want of
proper evidence of identity. Even Bishop himself offered a bet, before
the trial, that he would be safe, as it could not be proved that it was
the Italian boy who had been found in his possession. It was not then
known that, to meet this difficulty, the count for the murder of "a boy
unknown" had been introduced; and when this fact was disclosed, all hope
on the part of the prisoners and their jealous friends was abandoned.
Mr. Corder received a deserved compliment from the judges for the
admirable manner in which he had collected and arranged his evidence,
notwithstanding, as he admitted to their lordships, he was "not indebted
to any professional man in the progress of his labours." This gentleman
subsequently published a letter, urging conclusive reasons for the
belief that it was the body of the Italian boy which was found; and,
from the testimony of the surgeons who made the _post mortem_
examination of the body, showing the utter falsehood of the statement of
Bishop, "that he had been killed by suffocation in the well," instead of
by positive violence. The extravasated blood on the brain, and the
effusion of blood in the spinal canal, obviously produced by external
violence, were the best proofs that, in this respect, Bishop was
deceiving his auditors: and, detected in one lie, little reliance could
be placed on what followed. It appears, too, that Williams was present
while Bishop was telling his story, and simply confirmed him in his
narrative. Had they been called upon to make separate confessions,
neither knowing what the other had said, some estimate might have been
formed of the degree of confidence to be placed in their confession.
But, as it was, we think the public are far from having got at the
truth; and from the blunders and jealousies of the "officials," we
suspect much useful information upon this most dreadful subject was
lost.
ELIZABETH ROSS.
EXECUTED FOR A "BURKING" MURDER.
The period of the actual occurrence of the murder for which this woman
was executed, was antecedent to that of the crime of Bishop and
Williams; but the inquiries which took place in reference to her case,
rendered the delay of her punishment necessary until after those
atrocious malefactors had expiated their offences on the gallows.
The discovery of this murder took place in the month of November 1831,
when a young woman, named Baton, made a statement at Lambeth-street
Police-office, which induced a supposition that her grandmother, an aged
woman named Elizabeth Walsh, had been unfairly dealt with. An
investigation was ordered to be commenced by Lea, the officer, into the
affair; and he succeeded in making discoveries which excited the
strongest presumptions of the guilt of a woman named Cook, _alias_ Ross,
of the crime of murdering the old woman. Mrs. Walsh, it was elicited,
was aged and decrepit, and was reduced to obtain a livelihood in the
streets by the sale of bobbins, stay-laces, and other similar trifling
articles. Mrs. Ross was known as a "cat-skinner," and collector of
hare-skins; and she lived with a man named Cook, in Goodman's-yard,
Minories, who had obtained an equally unenviable notoriety as a
"body-snatcher." Mrs. Ross, having become acquainted with old Mrs.
Walsh, had been known to express a strong desire that she would go to
lodge with her; but Mrs. Walsh, whose connections were somewhat
respectable, had been repeatedly cautioned to have nothing to do with a
person whose pursuits and associations were so disreputable. The poor
old woman, however, was over-persuaded by the specious arguments of her
wily friend; and at length, on the 19th of August 1831, she took up her
abode with the supposed Mr. and Mrs. Cook, at their residence. Mrs. Cook
occupied only one room, which formed the habitation of herself, her
paramour, her son (a boy about eleven years old) and her new lodger.
Mrs. Walsh was observed to go out only once after she took up her
residence in Goodman's-yard--and after that she was never seen alive.
The circumstances of the case were thus far known when the
grand-daughter of Mrs. Walsh made her statement to the magistrates; but
the inquiries of Lea soon brought other facts to light, which amply
proved the guilt of Mrs. Ross of the crime imputed to her. Lea, as a
preliminary step, took Cook, Mrs. Ross, and their son, into custody;
and, on Wednesday, the 2nd of November, they were conveyed to
Worship-street Police-office. During the period which elapsed between
the apprehension of the boy and his examination at the police-office, he
was observed to be exceedingly agitated and uneasy. The master and
mistress of the parochial school at Aldgate, which he had attended for
two or three years, were, in consequence, sent for; and he made a
statement to them upon the subject of the death of Mrs. Walsh, the
substance of which he subsequently detailed before the magistrates.
On the same afternoon Cook and the female Ross were placed at the bar;
and their astonishment, on perceiving that their own child was about to
be admitted as a witness against them, was quite apparent.
The magistrate asked the boy if he was quite willing to make a full
disclosure of what he knew as to the disappearance of the old lady,
Elizabeth Walsh? And, having answered in the affirmative, he was sworn,
and made the following statement:--He recollected the old lady,
Elizabeth Walsh, coming to his father and mother at No. 7,
Goodman's-yard, Minories, about ten o'clock on a Friday morning. She
brought some bread in a basket, a part of which she gave to him for his
breakfast; she went away shortly afterwards, and returned about tea-time
in the evening, when she, as well as his mother and himself, had some
coffee; his father was not present at the time, though he was when she
came in the morning; they had coffee about half-past nine on the same
night for supper. He (witness) took part of it, and it made him sleepy,
but not sick; the old woman also took some of it, and it seemed to make
her drowsy, as she shortly afterwards stretched herself on his father
and mother's bed, and placed her hand under her head. She did not at the
time complain of illness; on the contrary, she appeared in good health.
Sometime afterwards he saw his mother go towards the bed, and place her
right hand over the mouth of the old woman, and her left over her body
[the boy here burst into tears, and said he was sorry to be obliged to
state such things against his own mother]. When his mother placed her
hand on the old lady's mouth her arm fell down, and she lay flat on her
back on the bed, and his mother continued to keep one hand on her mouth
and the other on her person for at least half-an-hour; the old woman did
not struggle much, but her eyes stared and rolled very much. He
(witness) stood by the fire at this time, and his father, who was now in
the room, stood looking out at the window; his father stood so all the
time, and he was sure he never once turned round to see what was going
forward, and that he had nothing to do with it. In about an hour
afterwards his mother raised the body of the old woman from the bed, and
carried it down stairs, but where to he did not know; the body was not
undressed at the time; he and his father went to bed some time
afterwards, and he could not say what time his mother returned, as he
did not see her again on that night, after she left the room with the
body in her arms. On the following morning he got up about seven
o'clock; his father and mother were then up, and in the room; he had
occasion, previous to going to school at eight o'clock, to go into the
cellar to the privy, and while searching through the cellar for some
ducks which he was told were there, he saw the body of the old woman in
a sack, which was placed underneath the stairs; a portion of the head
was out of the mouth of the sack, and the body appeared to be partly
bent, and reclining against the stairs; there was sufficient light in
the cellar for him to discern the colour of the hair on the head; it was
partly grey and black, but he could not say whether or not the body was
dressed or otherwise; the sack in which it was, was one belonging to a
person named Jones, with whom his father worked; he had frequently seen
it in their room, and he thought it was there on the night before. He
went to school shortly afterwards, and never mentioned a word then or
since about what had occurred, or his seeing the body in the cellar; on
returning home at twelve o'clock in the day, he found his father beating
his mother; he thought the cause to be, that the latter had been out
drinking with a young woman, the grand-daughter of the old lady, who had
called to inquire after her; his mother, he believed, while his father
was beating her, called him a villanous murderer, but he had no
recollection of her threatening to give any information of him. He
(witness), after getting his dinner, went out to play, and did not come
home until late; himself, his father, and mother supped together on the
Saturday night, and at about ten o'clock his mother left the room; in
about half-an-hour afterwards he was standing at the window, and saw her
go past with the body in the sack on her shoulder; it was in the same
state as he saw it on that morning, except that the mouth of the sack
was tied; the body appeared to be partly bent.--[The female prisoner, in
an audible voice, exclaimed, "Good God! how could I have borne a son to
hang me!"]--The lad again burst into tears, and said he could not help
it--that he was telling the truth. He then proceeded with his statement.
He did not know at what time his mother had returned on Saturday night,
as he and his father, who remained in the room, went to bed, and he was
asleep when she came in; on the Sunday morning his mother told him that
she had taken the body to the London Hospital. The boy here, as in many
parts of his statement, said his father had nothing whatever to do in
the business. The magistrates examined him very minutely as to what had
taken place on the Friday night, and what conversations (if any) had
taken place between his father, mother, and himself, previous to and
after the horrid deed had been perpetrated. He said that no words or
quarrel had taken place; the old woman and his father and mother were on
good terms, and nothing particular had occurred during the evening,
until his mother placed her hand, as he had before described, on the
mouth of the old lady; nor did she say a word to him or his father while
she so held her hand on her mouth. He recollected she had been saying
something to him about taking the body to an hospital. He did not see
his father lay a hand on the old woman.
The magistrates expressed some surprise that the prisoner should, for a
whole day, leave the body in the cellar of the house, which was
accessible to all the inmates; but this was satisfactorily explained by
the landlady, who said, that in consequence of its being so dark, and so
infested with rats, the lodgers very seldom indeed entered it.
This was the substance of the boy's statement, and in many particulars
it was distinctly and amply corroborated by the concurrent testimony of
other witnesses. In some points, however, he was contradicted. It will
be observed, that he stated that the body was carried away by his mother
alone; but a man named Barry, whose evidence appeared to refer to the
same transaction, declared that he had seen the boy in company with her,
and assisting to carry the sack; while another negatived the possibility
of the truth of one of his declarations--that his mother had carried the
body in her arms, and with great facility--by stating that the deceased
was a very tall woman.
The prisoners, upon the proofs which had been adduced, however, were
remanded, and subsequent inquiries terminated in the production of
further evidence of the guilt of Mrs. Ross. This consisted of the
declarations of several persons that she had sold articles of clothing
to them in Rag-fair, which were identified as having belonged to the
deceased; and, more especially, that she had actually disposed of the
stock-in-trade of the poor old woman. All exertions to discover the body
of the deceased, however, proved unavailing; and, after several
examinations, the prisoners, Edward Cook and Elizabeth Ross, were, on
the 24th of December, committed for trial upon the charge of murder.
The intermediate occurrence of the case of Bishop and Williams, the
details of which we have already described, and the violent alarm
created in the public mind by the frequent reports of mysterious
disappearances, and "burking" murders, excited a great degree of
prejudice against these unfortunate prisoners, and it was not until the
6th of January 1832, that their case came on for final investigation at
the Old Bailey. Ross was then indicted for the wilful murder of the
deceased, while the charge made against her paramour, Cook, was that of
having aided and abetted his fellow-prisoner in the commission of the
offence.
Mr. Adolphus conducted the case for the prosecution, and Mr. Barry and
Mr. Churchill appeared on behalf of the prisoners. The defence set up
was,--Perjury on the part of the boy, and the possibility that Mrs.
Walsh was still living, arising upon the non-discovery of her body. The
jury, however, returned a verdict of "Guilty" against Mrs. Ross, but
acquitted Cook.
The convict was immediately sentenced to be executed on the following
Monday: her body to be given over to the surgeons for dissection.
On Monday, the 8th of January, the wretched woman was hanged, in
pursuance of her sentence. After her conviction, as well as before, she
persisted in the strongest declarations of her innocence. Her statement
was, that she had left the old woman with Cook on the night of her
supposed murder, and that having then gone out, she did not return for
several hours. On her going back she was told that the old woman had
quitted the house. She maintained an extraordinary degree of firmness of
nerve; and, up to the last moment of her existence, continued uttering
protestations that she was not guilty, and ejaculations of her misery at
quitting her own country (Ireland) to be hanged. She mounted the
scaffold without assistance, and was turned-off at the customary
signal.
HENRY MACNAMARA.
TRANSPORTED FOR FELONY.
The offences of which this person was guilty attracted considerable
observation at the time of their discovery. He was taken into custody on
the morning of Sunday, the 29th of April, 1832, at the New Hummums
Hotel, Covent-garden, on a charge of robbery, committed under somewhat
remarkable circumstances; and, on the following day, he underwent an
examination at Bow-street, before the sitting magistrate.
From the statement which was then made, it appeared that the prisoner
had gone to the New Hummums on the previous Saturday night, and had
requested to be accommodated with a bed. His appearance was such as to
lead to a supposition that he was a person of respectability, and there
was no hesitation in complying with his desire. His luggage, which
consisted only of a carpet-bag, was conveyed to the apartment assigned
to his use, and, having partaken of a handsome supper, with its
concomitants, he retired to rest. The New Hummums, like its brethren
under the piazza, was a hotel much resorted to by single gentlemen, or
casual visitors to the metropolis; and, on the night in question, its
accommodations were as much in request as usual. Major Hampton Lewis
occupied a sleeping apartment on the floor beneath that in which the
prisoner's room was situated; and, on the same corridor, were four other
bed-chambers, all of which were also in use. In the middle of the night,
when the house was wrapt in quiet, Major Lewis was suddenly awoke by
hearing some person in his apartment; and, on looking up, he saw a man,
attired only in his shirt and trousers, as quietly as possible making
his way towards the door, carrying off his gold watch, chain, and seals,
and his purse in his hands. He jumped up and pursued the intruder, but
did not succeed in catching him until he had reached the passage, when
he seized him by the shirt and braces. The fellow struggled hard, and
succeeded in extricating himself, and ran off up stairs; but the noise
had by this time alarmed the other inmates of the house, and instant
search was made for the thief. Every room was examined; and at last the
constables, who by this time had been called in, arrived at that to
which the prisoner had been conducted. They found him in bed; but, on
their calling him up, they perceived that he still had his trousers on,
and his braces and shirt were torn. The detached remnants of these
articles were found, on examination, outside the door of Major Lewis's
room, having evidently been torn off in the scuffle; and the watch and
purse of that gentleman were also discovered on the stairs leading to
the corridor in which the prisoner's apartment was situated. This was a
chain of circumstances so conclusive, as denoting the guilt of the
prisoner, that he was carried off in custody to the station-house. The
uproar and confusion naturally created by a nocturnal event of so
extraordinary a character, had, however, scarcely subsided, when four
other gentlemen, who slept in the apartments adjoining that of Major
Lewis, discovered that they too had been robbed. One gentleman missed a
shirt-pin; another some English and French money, amounting to about
3_l._ 15_s._; a third a loaded pistol, which he carried for his
protection, and his purse, containing a considerable sum in gold and
notes; while the rings and purse of the fourth had been purloined from
his dressing-table. In a room opposite to that in which the prisoner had
been placed to sleep, and which had not been occupied for several
nights, the whole of these articles were found strewed indiscriminately
about the floor, under the bed; and with them was also discovered a key,
which, on examination, proved to fit the lock of the prisoner's
carpet-bag.
These were the circumstances which were proved in evidence on the day of
the first examination of the prisoner; but the extraordinary nature of
his proceedings in this case, struck the attention of the magistrate so
forcibly, that he determined to remand him, in order that, if any other
charges of a similar description existed against him, he might be made
liable for them too. The prisoner was ordered, therefore, to be again
brought up on the following Friday; and on that day a host of persons
was in attendance, each more anxious than the rest to detail the
circumstances of some robbery of which the prisoner had been guilty.
The evidence of the robberies at the New Hummums having been first gone
into, and the prisoner having been ordered to be indicted upon three of
them--at the prosecution of Major Lewis, Mr. Courthold, of Barking, in
Essex, and a young gentleman named John C. Millenden, who had put up at
the hotel on his way from Bordeaux, where his parents lived, to
school--the other new cases were taken.
The first of these was preferred by a gentleman named Heath; and, from
his evidence, and that of two other witnesses, it appeared, that at a
late hour on the night of Friday, the 27th of April, the prisoner went
to the Swan-with-Two-Necks, Lad-lane, and asked to be accommodated with
a bed. His request was complied with, and he retired to his room, which
was situated in a corridor built in the old-fashioned style, round the
inn-yard, and which was near to that to which Mr. Heath had been
previously shown. In the course of the night, Davy, the porter at the
inn, was disturbed by the loud barking of the watch-dog; he went to him
to quiet him, but the sagacious animal was aware that there was an
intruder stirring upon the premises, and conducted Davy to a dark
kitchen, or cellar, where he found the prisoner. He pretended to have
come from his room for a necessary purpose, and was allowed to return to
his apartment. Soon afterwards, however, he escaped over the balustrades
of the corridor, and from the yard, leaving his boots behind him. On the
following morning Mr. Heath discovered that his money had been stolen
from his room in the course of the night. Both the porter, and a witness
who had seen the prisoner quit the inn-yard, and had aided him in
adjusting his cloak in the street, were able to speak positively to his
identity; and he was committed for trial upon this charge also.
Many other cases were, at subsequent examinations, brought against him,
which, however, were so similar in their character to those which have
been already detailed that it would be useless to enter into their
history or description. The prisoner was recognised as having been
guilty of almost innumerable offences, within a very short period; and
he was also identified by one of the keepers of Maidstone jail as having
made his escape from that prison, where he had been sentenced to be
confined for three months as a pickpocket.
On Monday, the 21st of May, the prisoner was tried at the Old Bailey
upon the charges preferred against him, and verdicts of "Guilty" were
returned. The crimes which he had committed rendered him liable to
capital punishment; but the ends of justice, it was felt, would be amply
satisfied by the permanent removal of this offender from the scenes of
his former exploits, and from the opportunities of renewing his
depredations.