Notable English Trials

William Palmer

Trial of
William Palmer

EDITED BY
George H. Knott
Barrister-at-Law

EDINBURGH AND LONDON
WILLIAM HODGE & COMPANY

PRINTED BY
WILLIAM HODGE AND COMPANY
GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH
1912

To
Sir HARRY BODKIN POLAND, K.C.,
WHO BEARS THE NAME, AND HAS CONTINUED THE REPUTATION,
OF ONE OF THE DISTINGUISHED COUNSEL IN THE TRIAL HEREIN
CONTAINED, AND WHO ALSO FOR MANY YEARS WAS THE REPRESENTATIVE
FIGURE IN THE COURT WHERE THAT TRIAL WAS HELD,
THIS BOOK IS, BY HIS KIND PERMISSION,
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY THE EDITOR.

PREFACE.

In preparing this report of a trial more than half a century ago, the chief difficulty one might expect would be to obtain an accurate contemporary account. A State trial one knows where to find; but how could newspaper reports of a trial lasting twelve days, and involving the most technical evidence on anatomy, physiology, and toxicology, be relied upon for anything like accuracy? Fortunately, if this trial was not a State trial in the ordinary sense, it so seized the minds of the country at the time that a complete record is to be found in the “Verbatim Report of the Trial of William Palmer, Transcribed from the Shorthand Notes of Mr. Angelo Bennett, of Rolls Chambers, Chancery Lane,” and published in 1856. A copy is not easily met with now-a-days. Official verbatim reports of criminal trials, that is made by an officer of the Court itself, were not then known. I suppose, though it is not so stated, that Mr. Bennett’s notes were taken by him on the instructions of the Treasury for reference each day by the Court and Counsel. They are the basis of the following report. Medical and medico-chemical evidence constitutes the greater part of this trial; it is also far the most important part; and in dealing with it I have had the benefit of the professional skill of Dr. William Robertson, of Leith, who has read the proofs. Some of the evidence, as it stood, showed that it had been a little too much for the erudition of the shorthand writer, and needed editing. I hope that, with the aid of Dr. Robertson, this appears now as it was intended to be by the experts who gave it.

The question of portraits has caused some difficulty. Photographs were not common, to say the least, in 1856. Most woodcuts met with seemed not worth reproduction. This accounts for the few portraits which appear; though the number of Judges and Counsel was exceptionally large. Palmer alone is shown more satisfactorily than any of the others in the well-known figure at Madame Tussaud’s. Their modeller was present in Court and I have seen his casts of Palmer’s head and face taken after execution. The striking sketch of Palmer by Mr. Joseph Simpson, the well-known artist, has been made from a photograph of this figure, and from a contemporary print.

Palmer has the distinction of an article in the Dictionary of National Biography. Many of the contemporary accounts cannot be relied on; they are too evidently sensational and designed for excited and morbid imaginations. By the kindness of Dr. George Fleming, J.P., of Highgate, London, who is a treasury of Palmeriana and of Rugeley tradition, I have been able to use his collection of “Jane” letters. The substance of these letters appears in the Introduction. They reveal a sinister episode in Palmer’s career not to be found related elsewhere. Moreover, it was a real link in the chain of circumstances that led to Palmer’s crime and his trial. The letter from Palmer to his wife was kindly lent for reproduction by Dr. Kurt Loewenfeld, of Bramhall, Cheshire.

G. H. K.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

WILLIAM PALMER.

INTRODUCTION.

Sir James Stephen, in his “History of the Criminal Law,” observes that he was present at the trial of William Palmer, and that it made an impression on him which the subsequent experience of thirty-four years had only confirmed and strengthened. He considers that the trial, as a whole, was one of the greatest trials in the history of English law, and eminently deserving the attention of students of the law, and we may add of students of human nature.

Palmer was convicted, but there has always been a certain amount of doubt and mystery about the trial. We can hardly imagine a reader not being satisfied morally as to the guilt of Palmer, but were he to take the medical and chemical evidence alone, which forms so large a part of the following report, we could at least imagine him holding his judgment in suspense. He might well believe that Palmer administered poison to Cook, whom he was charged with murdering, without admitting that the poison was strychnia. And there remains the ambiguous language of Palmer himself, who neither positively admitted nor denied his guilt, but declared, “I am innocent of poisoning Cook by strychnia.” Sir James Stephen, who will not allow that the defence was impressive, is yet struck with this defect in the evidence, and suggests that Palmer may have discovered a method of administering strychnia so as to disguise its normal effects. If this is so, his secret has never been disclosed. Perhaps it is equally probable that he selected some poison allied to strychnia—bruchsia, for example—and that the medical and chemical experts of sixty years ago were not sufficiently acquainted with the strychnoid poisons to trace all their differences. The evidence of the chemical witnesses suggests something of this kind, so inconsistent were their opinions; and this remark applies even more strongly to the evidence of the doctors as to the difference between the disease of tetanus and the effects of strychnia. This is one of the great subjects of interest in the report of the trial. A constant and alert attention is needed in reading it, and it is a professional discipline for either lawyer or doctor.

Our personal opinion is that, had it not been for one or two definitely known cases of strychnia poisoning in the human subject, the prosecution would have failed, in spite of all the experiments on animals from which analogies as to Cook’s symptoms were attempted to be drawn. There had been no trial for poisoning by strychnia before Palmer’s. But it happened that while the Palmer case was pending Dr. Dove, of Leeds, was accused of poisoning his wife by strychnia, and the symptoms of poison were more certainly ascertained. Yet Dr. Nunneley, of Leeds, who made a report on this case, was called for the defence, not for the prosecution.

In this preliminary sketch I shall not attempt to convey any idea of the chemical and medical evidence by a formal summary. It would be impossible, as Sir James Stephen remarks, to treat satisfactorily such an extensive, so technical, and so contradictory a body of testimony, and only such a general statement will be made of the circumstances as will enable the reader the easier to follow the case of the prosecution.

In the English procedure counsel’s speech for the prosecution begins the proceedings. In the Scottish the evidence is led at once. The trial is treated in this respect as if it were a Scottish trial on account of its extreme bulk, as it extended over twelve days. Neither in the Scottish series, which are already published, nor in the English series, now beginning, is there a trial of equal length; nor do I know any other murder trial so long, with the exception of that conducted by Browning in “The Ring and the Book.” In this trial, as in every English trial, the opening speech was intended to inform the jury merely of the facts and prepare their minds for the evidence, and lucidity of statement, at the most, is the only forensic effect aimed at. I accordingly omit the Attorney-General’s speech qua speech, and found this preliminary statement on it. The point of interest as regards forensic oratory is reached with the speech of Serjeant Shee, the leading counsel for the defence. He analyses the evidence led for the prosecution, challenges its cogency, outlines the case in reply which will be an answer to every point made, appeals eloquently and pathetically for the prisoner, and, we may add incidentally, asserts his absolute belief in his client’s innocence, thus bringing on himself the presiding judge’s reproof for transgression of the rules of advocacy. The culmination is attained in the reply of the Attorney-General. Nothing, unless it is of the most temporary interest, is omitted in these two speeches, and every reference and argument in them will be intelligible in the light of the examinations and cross-examinations as given, which, not less than the speeches, are classic examples of the forensic art.

There is a tradition that Palmer, a racing man, expressed his sense of the deadly effect of Sir Alexander Cockburn’s examination, cross-examination, and speech in racecourse language, “It was the riding that did it.”

With the Lord Chief-Justice’s summing up I have dealt freely. It occupied two days, and the form of it, to a great extent, was this. Lord Campbell would say to the jury, “Now, gentlemen, I will take the witness So-and-So and read you his evidence. It is for you to say what the effect of this evidence is.” Then would follow comments directing the jury’s attention to this or that feature. What the jury thought is not important now, but what the reader thinks with the evidence before him. Where Lord Campbell made special comment on any particular evidence the passages are given. Nothing material is omitted, and the general effect of his address is preserved.

The events occurred in November, 1855, at Rugeley, in Staffordshire, where Palmer, who was about thirty-one years of age, had been a medical practitioner until two or three years previously, when he transferred his business to the Mr. Thirlby mentioned in the report. He had abandoned medicine for the turf, kept racehorses, attended race meetings, and betted. By the year 1853 he was in pecuniary difficulties, and was raising money on bills with moneylenders.

Mr. John Parsons Cook, whom Palmer was charged with poisoning, was a young man of about twenty-eight who had been articled as a solicitor, but he inherited some £12,000, and did not follow his profession. He also went on the turf, kept racehorses, and betted, and it was in this common pursuit that Palmer and Cook became acquainted.

Palmer’s pecuniary circumstances in 1854 are important. He had raised money on a bill for £2000, and discounted it with Padwick, a notorious moneylender and racing man of the day. He had forged his mother’s name as acceptor, and, as she was wealthy, the bill had been discounted on the security of her name. It was this bill and others similarly forged which, according to the prosecution, led to the murder of Cook.

Previously to this Palmer had only been able to pay off debts to the amount of £13,000 on bills which were in the hands of another moneylender, Mr. Pratt, who figures so conspicuously in the trial, out of money received on the death of his wife, whom he had insured for £13,000.

At the close of 1854 he took out another policy for £13,000 on the life of his brother Walter. This policy was deposited as security with Pratt to cover a series of bills which began then to be discounted. These, by November, 1855, amounted to £11,500. His mother’s name as acceptor had also been forged on these bills by Palmer.

In the month of August, 1855, Walter Palmer died, but the office refused to pay on the policy, and the question was still in dispute in November when the death of Mr. Cook occurred. If the policy were not paid Pratt would sue Mrs. Palmer, as Palmer himself had no means, so that Palmer was in the same peril of being shown to be a forger both by Pratt and Padwick.

This policy was never paid, and we may add that when Palmer was tried for the murder of Cook there were two other indictments against him for the murders of his wife and brother, but they were not proceeded with as he was convicted on the Cook charge.

What happened about the bills was this. On the 6th of November Pratt issued two writs for £4000 against Palmer and his mother, but withheld them from service pending arrangements that Palmer might make. Pratt wrote to him on the 13th of November, a memorable day in the history of the case, when “Polestar,” Cook’s mare, won the Shrewsbury Handicap, that steps would be taken to enforce the policy on Walter Palmer’s life; so that Palmer’s problem was to keep paying portions of the bills until the question of the policy was settled, and thus keep Pratt quiet.

The pecuniary position of Cook is quickly explained. He had practically nothing but what came to him through the winning of “Polestar” at Shrewsbury on the 13th of November. His betting book showed winnings which amounted, with the stakes, to £2050. It was proved that he had £700 or £800 in his pocket at Shrewsbury from the bets he actually drew there, and £1020 remained to be settled at Tattersall’s on the following Monday, the 19th November.

The evidence will show how Palmer obtained payment of the bets with the exception of £120, and applied them to paying instalments on Pratt’s bills.

We now come to the circumstances of the illness and death of Cook. Palmer and Cook went together from Rugeley to Shrewsbury races, and stayed at the Raven Hotel. On the night of the 14th of November, and the day after “Polestar” had won the race, Cook was taken ill at the Raven with severe retchings and vomitings in consequence of having taken a glass of brandy and water into which the prosecution alleged Palmer had put antimony in the form of tartar emetic. The only direct testimony as to this was that of a Mrs. Brooks, who attended races. She knew Palmer, and called on him at the Raven on some business connected with racing. She swore that, as she turned into the lobby, she saw Palmer holding up a tumbler to the light of the gas, looking at it “with the caution of a man who was watching to see what was the condition of the liquid,” according to the Attorney-General’s statement. Having looked at it so he withdrew to his own room, and presently returned with the glass in his hand, and then went into the room where Cook was, and where he drank the brandy and water. There was much evidence from other witnesses as to what happened in connection with the brandy and water incident.

The state of Cook’s health previous to the incident at Shrewsbury was of the utmost importance. It was admitted by the prosecution that Cook was delicate of chest, but otherwise he was asserted to be hale and hearty. In May of 1855 he had consulted Dr. Savage for supposed syphilitic symptoms. He suffered from his throat, and had some eruptions about his mouth, and he had been taking mercury. Dr. Savage stopped this treatment, and advised that the symptoms were not those of syphilis. The post-mortem showed the cicatrised wound of an old chancre, but not of anything recent. The defence sought to show that Cook’s death was connected with his history of ill-health.

When the races were over Palmer and Cook returned together to Rugeley—a curious fact, seeing that Cook had accused Palmer of putting something into his glass. Cook stayed at the Talbot Arms, which was opposite to Palmer’s house, and it was at this inn that Cook’s death occurred. Their arrival was on the night of Thursday, the 15th of November. When asked how he was Cook said that he was better than he had been at Shrewsbury. Cook dined next day with Palmer, and nothing happened that night. Early on Saturday morning Palmer saw Cook in his bedroom, and ordered him some coffee, which was brought there by Elizabeth Mills, the chambermaid, who gave most important evidence as to the various episodes of the illness until the death on the night of Tuesday, the 20th November. The coffee was given to Palmer, and he gave it to Cook, Mills having left. “Immediately after that the same symptoms set in which had taken place at Shrewsbury, and throughout the whole of that day and the next day” (Saturday and Sunday) “the prisoner constantly administered everything to Cook.” One incident was a bowl of broth being obtained by Palmer through a woman named Rowley. She was sent for it to the Albion, an inn in Rugeley. She took it to Palmer’s house and put it in a saucepan on the kitchen fire to warm. Palmer, whilst she was absent in the back kitchen, poured the broth into a basin, brought it to her, and told her to take it up to Cook, and say Smith had sent it. This was Jeremiah Smith, an attorney in Rugeley, a common friend of Palmer and Cook. A spoonful of the broth made Cook sick. But the full significance of this intended inference is not seen until we take the evidence of Mills that she drank a spoonful and became sick in about half an hour, and had to go to bed.

And here we may refer to the evidence of this Jeremiah Smith, who was called as a witness on behalf of Palmer. His cross-examination was the most dramatic scene of the trial. He was shown to have been concerned with Palmer in the insurance schemes, and not a rag of his credit remained. But Sir James Stephen remarks, “No abbreviation can give the effect of this cross-examination. The witness’s efforts to gain time, and his distress as the various answers were extorted from him by degrees, may be faintly traced in the report. The witness’s face was covered with sweat, and the papers put into his hands shook and rustled.”

During Saturday and Sunday Cook was attended by Mr. Bamford, a medical man in Rugeley. As Mr. Bamford’s age gave rise to some observation, I may mention that he was eighty. He was told by Palmer on the Saturday that Cook had had a bilious attack owing to having taken too much wine at the dinner the day before, but when Mr. Bamford mentioned this Cook replied that he had only two glasses of champagne, and Mr. Bamford, in fact, found that the symptoms were not bilious.

On Sunday, as the sickness continued, Mr. Bamford prepared two opiate pills containing half a grain of morphia, half a grain of calomel, and four grains of rhubarb. The ingredients are important. The following Monday is a crucial day. Palmer went to London and saw Herring, a betting man, gave him a list of Cook’s winnings, and instructed him to attend Tattersall’s and settle. Herring was not Cook’s regular agent, but Fisher, the man to whom Cook had entrusted his money at Shrewsbury whilst he was ill. Fisher declared that he had, in fact, advanced £200 on the strength of the money which Fisher expected to draw at Tattersall’s. This £200, at the request of Cook, in a letter written by him from Rugeley on the 16th of November (Friday), was applied by Fisher to one of Pratt’s acceptances. This letter was used by the defence to show that, as Palmer alleged, the bills were for the joint transactions of himself and Cook, and by parity of reasoning that Palmer had probably Cook’s authority to draw his bets. Herring drew £900 of the £1020 at Tattersall’s, and, as Palmer had instructed him, he paid £450 to Pratt. He was also instructed to pay Padwick £350 for a bet which Padwick had won, partly from Palmer and partly from Cook, but for which Palmer was liable: again a suggestion of joint transactions between Palmer and Cook. This payment was to be made, according to the prosecution, to keep Padwick quiet over his £2000 forged acceptance, half of which remained unpaid. Herring, however, did not pay Padwick. If he had done so he would have been out of pocket, as it had been agreed between him and Palmer that part of the money he was to draw should be applied to debts of his own due from Palmer.

Palmer finished his business in town by going to Pratt. He paid him £50, so that this, the £450, and Fisher’s £200, with £600 Palmer had previously paid, wiped off £1300. He then returned to Rugeley, arriving there at an hour which was certainly mistaken by the prosecution, and which derived its chief importance from the story told by Jeremiah Smith of his meeting Palmer returning much later, and the account he gave of their movements together. If his story were true, that of the witness Newton, who spoke to the purchase by Palmer from him of strychnia that night, would be suspect. As it was, doubt was cast upon it by Newton never mentioning it until the day of the trial. Cook during Palmer’s absence had no sickness, though in the morning Palmer, who had gone early to the hotel, had given him coffee, and Cook had vomited. But after Palmer left for London Mr. Bamford had come, and given him a new medicine. It was arguable, therefore, that the irritation of the stomach was soothed by the new medicine. Cook dressed, got up, recovered his spirits, and saw and talked with several people, and so he continued till night. This has the most important bearing, as will be seen by the medical evidence, on the vital point whether Cook’s symptoms were either those of strychnia poisoning, or idiopathic or traumatic tetanus, or of some other form of nervous disease with tetanic convulsions.

On Palmer’s return to Rugeley he went to see Cook, and he remained, going in and out of his room, until about eleven o’clock. He then left, and about twelve the house was alarmed by violent screams from Cook’s rooms. I shall refer the reader for the details of this illness to the evidence.

According to the prosecution Palmer had gone previously on that night to Newton, who was the assistant of a surgeon at Rugeley named Salt, and had purchased three grains of strychnia. This was Newton’s statement. Whilst Palmer was away in London Mr. Bamford had sent to the Talbot Arms the same sort of pills, in which were morphia, calomel, and rhubarb. They were taken by the maid upstairs, and put in the usual place for Palmer to administer, as he had done before.

The Attorney-General put his case thus to the jury, “It will be for you to say whether Cook took the pills prepared by Mr. Bamford, and which he had taken on the Saturday and Sunday night, or whether, as this accusation suggests, the prisoner substituted for the pills of Mr. Bamford some of his own concoction in which strychnia was mixed.”

On Tuesday morning, the 20th, the day of his death, Cook was comparatively comfortable after his violent attack.

That same morning Palmer went to the shop of a druggist at Rugeley, Mr. Hawkins. He asked for six grains of strychnia, with some prussic acid and some liquor of opium. While Hawkins’ assistant Roberts was putting up the prussic acid Newton came into the shop. Palmer took him by the arm, and saying, “I have something I want to say to you,” led him outside, and began to talk to him about an unimportant matter. While they were talking a man Bassington came up, and when he and Newton were fully engaged in talk Palmer went back into the shop, and stood in the doorway. Palmer went away with what he had bought, and then Newton went into the shop and inquired what Palmer had bought, and was told.

At the preliminary inquiry before the coroner Newton only told of this incident at the shop. He did not tell of Palmer having purchased strychnia from him on the Monday night until the day before the Attorney-General was making his speech for the prosecution. An explanation will be found in Newton’s evidence.

Before coming to the actual circumstances of Cook’s death on Tuesday night two other facts must be mentioned. On the previous Sunday Palmer wrote to Mr. Jones, a medical man living at Lutterworth, with whom Cook lived when he was at home. He said Cook had a bilious attack with diarrhœa, and asked Jones to come and see him as soon as possible. On Monday he wrote to him again desiring him to come.

The Attorney-General said, “I should not be discharging my duty if I did not suggest this as being part of a deep design, and that the administration of the irritant poison, of which abundant traces were found after death, was for the purpose of producing the appearance of natural disease, which could account afterwards for the death to which the victim was doomed.”

The irritant poison referred to is antimony, but one of the main facts, if not altogether the most important one, on which the defence relied, was that no strychnia was found in the body of Cook.

Mr. Jones came on the Tuesday about three o’clock, and was with Cook throughout till his death.

The other fact referred to is that during the same day (Tuesday) Palmer sent for Cheshire, the postmaster at Rugeley. Palmer produced a paper and asked him to fill in a cheque on Messrs. Wetherby (of Tattersall’s) in Palmer’s favour for £350 (the amount of the Shrewsbury Handicap stakes), saying “Poor Cook is too ill to draw the cheque himself, and Messrs. Wetherby might know my handwriting.” Palmer was a defaulter at Tattersall’s. Cheshire did what he was asked to do. Palmer took the cheque away. It was sent that night, and returned to Palmer by Messrs. Wetherby. Notice to produce the cheque was given to the defence. This was not done, and the prosecution in these circumstances insisted that Cook’s signature was forged by Palmer. If the cheque had been produced, and Cook’s signature proved genuine, the defence would have had a strong case that Palmer drew the bets by Cook’s instruction for their joint transactions.

Cheshire was brought from prison to give evidence. Palmer had induced him to intercept letters addressed to Palmer’s mother to prevent her becoming aware of the forged bills. Besides this, Cheshire informed Palmer of the contents of a letter from Dr. Taylor, the analyst, who tested the remains for poison after the post mortem on the coroner’s inquiry. This letter informed Mr. Stevens, Cook’s stepfather, that no strychnia had been found, and Palmer was sufficiently audacious and foolish to write to the coroner, a Mr. Ward, a lawyer, emphasising this fact. More foolishly still he sent the coroner gifts of game. The prosecution asserted that much of the evidence given by some of the witnesses, Mills, for instance, at the trial, but not found in the depositions at the inquest, had not been given there because the coroner had conducted the inquiry so laxly. The defence, of course, disputed this.

We come to the actual scene of Cook’s death on the Tuesday night. There was a consultation of the three doctors in Cook’s presence at seven o’clock. Cook suddenly said to Palmer, “Palmer, I will have no more medicine to-night; no more pills.” It was arranged that the pills should be made up as before without Cook knowing what they contained. Palmer went with Mr. Bamford to the latter’s surgery for the pills, and Mr. Bamford was surprised at Palmer’s asking him to write the directions on the box, as Palmer himself was to give the pills, but he did so. Palmer took the pills, and they were in his possession three-quarters of an hour before he returned to the Talbot. On opening the box he called the attention of Mr. Jones to the directions, saying “How wonderful it was that a man of eighty should write so good and strong a hand.” Cook at first refused to take the pills, but Palmer insisted, and Cook took them. They were taken about half-past ten. A little before twelve o’clock Jones, who was to sleep in Cook’s room, came in and undressed, and went to bed. In fifteen or twenty minutes he was roused by a scream from Cook, who called out, “For God’s sake, fetch the doctor, I am going to be ill as I was last night.”

I shall not set out the symptoms of Cook throughout this attack which ended in his death. They were the battle-ground of the case, and the scientific evidence must be referred to the reader’s consideration. But the length of time from the administration of the pills to the first outcry of Cook must be particularly noted. The defence urged that strychnia could not possibly be so long in taking effect. This and the non-detection of strychnia in the body were the two chief difficulties of the prosecution.

On Thursday or Friday, the 22nd or 23rd, after Cook’s death Palmer sent again for Cheshire, and, producing a paper with Cook’s signature, purporting to be an acknowledgment by Cook that £4000 worth of bills had been negotiated for Cook’s benefit, asked him to sign it as witness. Cheshire refused, exclaiming, “Good God! the man is dead!” The prosecution asserted Cook’s signature to be a forgery; they gave notice to produce the document, and this was not done.

We come to the appearance in Rugeley of Mr. Stevens, Cook’s stepfather. His conversations with Palmer on money matters, his suspicions aroused by the appearance of the body, Palmer’s ordering a coffin without his orders, and especially the fact that Cook’s betting book and other papers had disappeared, with Palmer’s evasions about them, all put him on the alert. Besides, at the time, the inquiries by the insurance office were going on in the neighbourhood about Walter Palmer’s death. On Saturday, the 24th, both Stevens and Palmer had left Rugeley to go to London, Stevens to consult his London solicitor, Palmer to pay Pratt another £100, he, as the prosecution pointed out, not having had any money at Shrewsbury, and having lost on the races there. Stevens and Palmer met in the train on the return journey, and Stevens told Palmer that he was determined to have a post-mortem and to employ a solicitor to investigate.

The post-mortem, the chemical analysis, the coroner’s inquest, and the trial followed. In the meantime Padwick had arrested Palmer for the debt on his bills, the story of his mother’s forged acceptances became known, and the Palmer case of 1855-6 became as intense a source of popular curiosity and excitement as the Crippen case of 1910. To the circumstances of the Cook case were also added the exhumations of Palmer’s wife and brother, and the public inquiries relating to them, and the rumours that Palmer had poisoned many others.

I shall not attempt to give the facts as to the post-mortem and the analysis. It would be a futile effort. Not a fact was undisputed either by one side or the other, and the value of the evidence, for the reader, consists in the exercise of the patience and memory and judgment required to master their complicated details, and to see the relations of one fact to another. In the speech for the defence by Mr. Serjeant Shee, and the final speech by Sir Alexander Cockburn, he will further see how the same facts may be rendered for opposite purposes by advocates of the first rank.

The trial marked an important step in English criminal procedure. In the ordinary course Palmer would have been tried by an Assize Court in Staffordshire, but the prejudice against him there was so strong that it was felt he would not have a fair trial. An Act was therefore passed, the 19 Vict. cap. 16, for enabling the trial to take place at the Central Criminal Court in London. Since then that Act has been available in any similar circumstances. To the magnitude and difficulty of the Palmer case must be assigned the reason for three judges, Lord Chief Justice Campbell, Mr. Justice Cresswell, and Mr. Baron Alderson being appointed to try it: a very rare occurrence in England. The bar on each side was remarkably strong. Sir Alexander Cockburn became the successor of Lord Campbell; Mr. Edward James, Q.C., was one of the most brilliant advocates of his day, and was only prevented from rising to the highest professional honours by certain private incidents in his career which happened subsequently; Mr. Huddleston became Baron Huddleston; Mr. Bodkin and Mr. Welsby were the leading men of their time in the special practice of the Old Bailey. Mr. Serjeant Shee, the leader for the defence, became Mr. Justice Shee, and Mr. Grove, Q.C., who was one of the most distinguished physicists of his day, and wrote a famous book on “The Conservation of Energy,” became Mr. Justice Grove. Mr. Kenealey was subsequently the famous Dr. Kenealey, the counsel for the Tichborne claimant, a man of great learning and natural genius, inferior to none of his professional contemporaries.

In an English criminal trial an inquiry into the family history of the accused, or into his personal character and previous career, has no place unless insanity is in issue. Such matters were rigidly excluded from the trial of Palmer. This trial as it stands is simply a great forensic contest famous in the records of the criminal law. The criminal himself is, as it were, an abstraction or automaton, his acts are only taken into account as part of certain outward events which enter into the general body of circumstances connected with the particular case. The motive is investigated, but strictly in relation to the particular crime; and in atrocious crimes the pecuniary motive always seems inadequate. Deadly hate or fierce passion, or an access of unreasoning fear in some circumstances, may be more intelligible. Yet such crimes seem always inexplicable, unless we can refer them to some abnormality in the character of the criminal himself, and either ascribe it to his ancestry or deduce it from his own doings outside the culminating crime which he commits. The normal man, we say, does not become base at a stroke.

In Palmer’s case there is available evidence of both kinds bearing on abnormality. It may not amount to insanity. It may be only the “wickedness” of which Sir James Stephen speaks in a quotation given below. Whatever it may be called, it is traceable in Palmer throughout his life.

Palmer’s father was a wealthy man who died worth £70,000, at Rugeley, in Staffordshire, Palmer’s birthplace. The origin of this fortune began with his maternal grandfather, who had been associated with a woman in Derby whom he deserted, taking with him some hundreds of pounds said to belong to her. In Lichfield he became prosperous and respectable. His daughter married the elder Palmer, who was at the time a sawyer, a rude, uneducated man. A previous suitor of Mrs. Palmer had been the steward of the Marquis of Anglesea. The two men were intimate after the marriage, and associated in dealings with the Anglesea timber; and to these dealings, and similar ones with stewards of other estates, the elder Palmer’s wealth was attributed by the country tradition. After her husband’s death Mrs. Palmer used her freedom in several love affairs that caused scandal. One of these was with Jeremiah Smith, the attorney, Palmer’s associate in many nefarious transactions, who was called for the defence, and was cross-examined mercilessly by the Attorney-General on his relations with Mrs. Palmer.

William, the Palmer of this trial, was the second son in a family of five sons and two daughters. Of these, William, his brother Walter, and a sister lived badly and died miserably. Walter would have died from drink if his brother William had not hurried him away by poison for his insurance money. Other members of the family were reputable citizens.

William Palmer was first apprenticed to a firm of wholesale druggists in Liverpool. After a time considerable amounts of money sent through the post by customers to the firm were lost, and, after much inquiry, Palmer confessed he had stolen them, and his indentures were cancelled. His mother then for the first time began to cover up her son’s misdeeds by advances of money. This story runs throughout the trial, and Palmer fleeced his mother without compunction.

At the age of eighteen he was next apprenticed to Mr. Tylecote, a surgeon, near Rugeley. In consequence of discreditable conduct with women, and in money matters, Palmer left, and Mr. Tylecote refused to take him back. He was then admitted into the Stafford Infirmary as “a walking pupil.” Four years after, in 1846, he was back at Rugeley, and there, at an inquest held on a man named Abley, it was proved that Palmer had incited the man to drink large quantities of brandy. There was talk of Palmer’s connection with Abley’s wife, and a suspicion that the affair was something more than a “lark.”

In this year Palmer went to London and joined Bartholomew’s Hospital. He obtained his diploma of surgeon in August, and returned to Rugeley as a medical practitioner. A year after he married Annie Brookes, a ward in Chancery, the illegitimate daughter of a Colonel Brookes, of the Indian Army, who had settled in Stafford, and had as housekeeper Mary Thornton, Annie Brookes’s mother. By his will Colonel Brookes left Annie Brookes (or Thornton) considerable property in money and houses, but his estate was administered in Chancery. The guardians were opposed to the marriage, but it took place in 1847 by order of the Court. One of the love-letters written by Palmer and read by Serjeant Shee during the trial appears elsewhere.

Whether Palmer intended or not at first to settle down to his profession, he was almost without practice in two or three years after his marriage. Horses and racing occupied him in place of medicine. He had means without practice, and, as Rugeley is a great horse-dealing centre, he was always familiar with men connected with horses and racing, and they were his chosen company. In 1853 he was in pecuniary difficulties due to his racing transactions, and was raising money on bills with moneylenders.

Withal he kept up an appearance of great outward respectability. Church-going sixty years ago was more than now one of its marks. In the diary, some extracts from which will be found in the Appendices, there are references in the year when he poisoned Cook to attendances at the Sacrament. It is not necessary to read into this church-going anything more specific than the radical falsity of Palmer’s character. Great formalism and profession of rigid theological dogma were the usual mental furniture of the middle classes of Palmer’s day. After all the disclosures of the trial Palmer used the customary pietistic phrases, and it was characteristic of the times that, after his conviction, his counsel, Serjeant Shee, sent him a beautifully bound copy of the Bible. The profession of religion, indeed, as a cloak to evil seems to have been purposeless, as he was notorious for seductions, as well as of bad odour in other details of his life.

One intrigue of illicit gallantry, which began probably in the lifetime of Mrs. Palmer, and was certainly going on at the time of Walter Palmer’s death, has a sinister connection with the death of Cook. It is not mentioned in any account published of Palmer. Jane Burgess, a young woman of respectable position living in Stafford in 1855, left, at the house where she resided, a bundle of thirty-four letters written to her by Palmer. They show that a practitioner in Stafford, chosen by Palmer, and described by him as one “who would be silent as death,” had performed an illegal operation. On the 13th of November the day notable in the trial, when “Polestar,” Cook’s racehorse, won at Shrewsbury, there is a letter to her from Palmer, which shows that she had made a demand for money as a condition of returning his letters. He was surprised, he wrote, to learn that she had never burned one of his letters. He says, “I cannot do what you ask; I should not mind giving £30 for the whole of them, though I am hard up at present.” Another letter is dated the 19th November, the day on which Palmer was accused of administering strychnia for the first time to Cook. He offers £40 “to split the difference.” On the 21st, the day on which, in the early morning, Cook had died, he sends the halves of eight £5 notes, and on the 24th the remainder. The letters were probably never returned, because the trouble threatened about Cook’s death became common talk in Rugeley and Stafford.

Shortly after his marriage began a series of suspicious deaths which were attributed to Palmer after investigation started into the circumstances attending the death of Cook. An illegitimate child he had by a Rugeley woman died after it had visited him. Mrs. Thornton, his mother-in-law, was persuaded to live at his house, and she died within a fortnight. Palmer acquired property from her by her death. In 1850 a Mr. Bladon, a racing man, stayed for several days with Palmer, who owed him £800 for bets. Bladon died in circumstances very like those attending Cook’s death, and Palmer buried him with the haste he attempted in the case of Cook, and he narrowly escaped a similar accusation.

In 1854 Palmer effected insurances to the amount of £13,000 on his wife’s life. Within six months she died much as Bladon had died, and as Cook was to die. Dr. Bamford, a medical man of eighty-two, whom Palmer seems to have hoodwinked into serving his purposes, certified the death of Mrs. Palmer, as he had done the death of Bladon, and as he was to certify a year later that of Cook. Palmer drew the insurance money from the offices concerned. They were influenced by the popular suspicions and rumours in Rugeley and in the sporting circles Palmer frequented, but they paid after some hesitation and suggestion of inquiry, and Palmer was freed from the most pressing of his liabilities. His diary contains this entry—“Sept. 29th (1854), Friday—My poor, dear Annie expired at 10 past 1.” Nine days after this—“Oct. 8th, Sunday—At church, Sacrament.” Nine months after his maidservant, Eliza Tharm, bore an illegitimate child to him. Within three months of his wife’s death Palmer, with the assistance of Pratt, the moneylender, whose claims had been met by the insurance on Mrs. Palmer’s life, was making proposals to various offices, amounting to £82,000, on the life of his brother Walter. Ultimately an insurance for £13,000 was effected, and the policy was lodged with Pratt to secure advances. After this the rest of Palmer’s life-history is directly connected with the story of the trial. The account we have given will suggest the, perhaps unprecedented, interest with which the trial was anticipated throughout the Midlands, and afterwards with what absorbed attention it was followed by all England as well as on the Continent.

I conclude this sketch by quoting a characteristic description by Sir James Stephen, who knew Palmer, had studied the criminal type, and himself presided at one of the most famous trials for poisoning. He says of Palmer—“His career supplied one of the proofs of a fact which many kind-hearted people seem to doubt, namely, the fact that such a thing as atrocious wickedness is consistent with good education, perfect sanity, and everything, in a word, which deprives men of all excuse for crime. Palmer was respectably brought up; apart from his extravagance and vice, he might have lived comfortably enough. He was a model of physical health and strength, and was courageous, determined, and energetic. No one ever suggested that there was even a disposition towards madness in him; yet he was as cruel, as treacherous, as greedy of money and pleasure, as brutally hard-hearted and sensual a wretch as it is possible even to imagine. If he had been the lowest and most ignorant ruffian that ever sprang from a long line of criminal ancestors, he could not have been worse than he was. He was by no means unlike Rush, Thurtell, and many other persons whom I have known. The fact that the world contains an appreciable number of wretches, who ought to be exterminated without mercy when an opportunity occurs, is not quite so generally understood as it ought to be—many common ways of thinking and feeling virtually deny it.”

Leading Dates in the Palmer Trial.

THE TRIAL.

Within the Central Criminal Court,
Old Bailey, London.
Wednesday, 14th MAY, 1856.
The Court met at Ten o’clock.

The prisoner, William Palmer, surgeon, of Rugeley, aged thirty-one was indicted for having at Rugeley, county of Stafford, on 21st November, 1855, feloniously, wilfully, and with malice aforethought, committed murder on the person of John Parsons Cook.

On being called upon the prisoner pleaded not guilty.

The jury having been duly empanelled and sworn, the Attorney-General opened the case for the Crown.[A]

Evidence for the Prosecution.

Ishmael Fisher

Ishmael Fisher, examined by Mr. James—I am a wine merchant. I attend races occasionally, and knew the deceased, John Parsons Cook, for about two years. I was at Shrewsbury Races in November, 1855, and I remember the race for the Shrewsbury Handicap won with a mare called “Polestar,” the property of Mr. Cook. That was on Tuesday, the 13th of November. I saw Mr. Cook, the deceased, that day upon the course. He appeared in his usual health and spirits. At Shrewsbury I stopped at the Raven Hotel. I know Palmer, the prisoner, very well. I have known him a little longer than I have known Mr. Cook. Mr. Cook and Mr. Palmer were also stopping at the Raven Hotel, and were occupying a room near me. There was only a wooden partition between my room and theirs. Between eleven and twelve on the night of Wednesday I went into the sitting room, in which Mr. Cook and Mr. Palmer and Mr. Myatt were. Myatt is a saddler at Rugeley, and is a friend of Palmer. They each appeared to have some grog before them. In my presence Mr. Cook asked Mr. Palmer to have some more brandy and water. Mr. Palmer said, “I shall not have any more till you have drunk yours.” Mr. Cook said then, “I will drink mine,” and he took up his glass and drank it at a drop, or he might have made two drops of it. After he had drunk it he said, “There is something in it.” He also said, “It burns my throat dreadfully.” Mr. Palmer then got up and took up the glass. He sipped up what was left of the glass, and said, “There is nothing in it.” There appeared to be certainly not more than a teaspoonful left by Mr. Cook. At that time a Mr. Reid, whom I knew, came in. He is a wine merchant, and attends races. After Palmer had put his glass to his mouth and said, “There is nothing in it,” he handed the glass to Reid, and asked him if he thought there was anything in it. The glass was also handed to me. We each said the glass being so empty we could not recognise anything. I said I thought there was rather a strong scent upon it, only I could not detect anything besides brandy. About ten minutes after this Cook retired from the room. Cook then came back and called me out of the room, and I went with him into my sitting room. Cook at that time was very ill. He had been sick. He said he had been very sick, and he thought that Palmer had dosed him. On that occasion he handed me over a sum of money, between £700 and £800 in bank notes. It was given to me to be taken care of. He did not say till when. Mr. Palmer and Mr. Cook jointly occupied a sitting room. They occupied different bedrooms. After Cook had given me this money he was immediately seized with sickness. I saw him in the same room and in his own bedroom. He again complained of suffering during the time he was absent, and said he had been again very sick. He asked me to go with him to his bedroom, which I did. A Mr. Jones, a stationer, went with me to his bedroom. While we were there he was violently vomiting again, so much so that we thought it right to send for the doctor, Mr. Gibson. We left him that morning in his room about two o’clock or a little after. Mr. Gibson came about half-past twelve or a quarter to one. I again sent for Mr. Gibson, as Cook was so ill. The second time I sent was about one, as near as I can remember. After taking some medicine Cook became more composed. The medicine was sent by Mr. Gibson, but he did not administer it himself. Mr. Jones and myself gave him the medicine. The next morning about ten o’clock I saw Palmer in my own sitting room. He was in the sitting room when I got downstairs. He said that Cook had been stating he had given him something last night, that he had been putting something in his brandy, or something to that effect. Palmer said he never played such tricks with people. He said, “I can tell you what he was; he was very drunk.” Cook certainly was not drunk. I did not see him at dinner, but I saw him some time after, and from what I observed of him he was certainly sober. On the same morning Mr. Cook came up to my bedroom after he had got up. He was looking very ill. I gave him back his money. On that day (Thursday) I saw Mr. Cook on the racecourse at Shrewsbury. It would be about three o’clock. He looked very ill. I frequently had been in the habit of settling his bets for him when he did not settle them himself. I was in the habit of paying and receiving for him at Tattersall’s and other places. At Shrewsbury I saw Cook’s betting book in his possession. It was a little more than half the size of this (a small memorandum book). As nearly as I can remember, it was very nearly this colour (a dark colour). On the 17th, which was Saturday, I paid to Mr. Pratt, by direction of Mr. Cook, £200 in a cheque. As his agent I expected to settle his Shrewsbury account at Tattersall’s on the following Monday, and I should have been entitled to deduct the £200. That was the course of dealing between us, but I did not settle that account, as it turned out.

[A] See Introduction, p. 2.

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—I have known Mr. Palmer a little longer than Mr. Cook. I knew that they were a good deal connected with racing transactions. They appeared to be very intimate, and were a great deal together. They generally stayed at the same hotels. I knew that Cook won considerably at Shrewsbury. I knew that “Polestar” was his mare. I do not know whether Palmer also won. I saw Mr. Cook after the race on the course. He appeared very much elated and gratified. “Polestar” won easily. In the room to which I went in the evening, in which Mr. Cook, Mr. Palmer, and Mr. Myatt were, I remember seeing a glass before Mr. Palmer and before Mr. Cook. I could not answer for Myatt’s glass. I believe there was one decanter on the table. I did not observe sufficiently the glasses to see whether both had been drinking. Mr. Cook asked me to take some brandy. I do not recollect drinking any, but I cannot positively remember. I was not tipsy. I do not think I drank anything. I believe I am a good judge of brandy by the smell. I smelt this glass, and said that it had a strong smell about it, but I thought there was nothing in it unlike brandy. The glass was perfectly empty, and had been completely drained. I had been in the Unicorn in the evening before this occurred. I saw both Cook and Palmer at the Unicorn on Wednesday night about nine o’clock, or between nine and ten. I cannot say if he was drinking then. I do not know that a good number of people happened to be ill at Shrewsbury on that Wednesday or Tuesday. I had a friend who was rather poorly there from a different kind of illness to Mr. Cook. Wednesday was rather dull. I do not know that it rained, but it was damp under foot I remember. I saw Mr. Cook about the racecourse several times on Wednesday. On Thursday I remember the weather was rather cold and damp, but I cannot say whether it rained or not. On the 16th or 17th of November I received a letter from Mr. Cook, dated Rugeley, 16th November, 1855—

Dear Fisher,—It is of very great importance to both Mr. Palmer and myself that the sum of £500 should be paid to Mr. Pratt, of Queen Street, Mayfair, to-morrow, without fail. £300 has been sent up to-night, and if you will be kind enough to pay the other £200 to-morrow on receipt of this, you will greatly oblige me. I will settle it on Monday at Tattersall’s. I am much better.

I received this on the 17th at No. 4 Victoria Street, London. I considered that Palmer and Cook were for some time jointly connected with racing transactions, but there is no proof of it. Cook was not more elated after winning than people usually are.

Thomas Jones

Thomas Jones, examined by Mr. Welsby—I am a law stationer, and was at Shrewsbury Races last November. I stayed at the Raven. On the Monday night Cook supped with me and some other friends. He appeared well on that occasion, as he also did on the Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday night, between eleven and twelve, Mr. Cook came into my room at the Raven and invited me into his. I went there, and found, amongst other people in the room, Palmer. After the party broke up Mr. Fisher said something to me about Cook, in consequence of which I went up to Cook’s bedroom. I found him there, and he complained of a burning in his throat. He was vomiting. Some pills and a draught were brought. Mr. Cook refused to take the pills, in consequence of which I went to the doctor, Mr. Gibson, and got some liquid medicine from him, which I brought back and gave to Mr. Cook. He drank about a wineglassful of the medicine, and after that he also took some of the pills. Next morning, between six and seven, I again saw him. He looked pale, and appeared to be unwell.

George Reid

George Reid, examined by Mr. Bodkin—I was acquainted with the deceased Mr. Cook and the prisoner Palmer. I saw them at Shrewsbury Races in November. On the Tuesday and Wednesday Cook appeared to be in his usual health. On Wednesday night I went into the room at the Raven where Palmer and Cook were. There was another gentleman present. We had a glass of brandy and water before the time to rest. Almost immediately after I arrived there I noticed that Cook was in pain. I heard him say to Mr. Palmer there was something in the brandy and water. Mr. Palmer handed me the glass to taste from it. I said, “What is the use of handing me the glass when it is empty?” The next time I saw Cook was about eleven o’clock the next morning. He said he was very ill.

Cross-examined by Serjeant Shee—I should consider that Cook’s general state of health was delicate. He always had a pallid complexion, and did not look like a strong man.

W. S. Gibson

William Scafe Gibson, examined by Mr. Huddleston—I am assistant to Mr. Heathcote, surgeon, at Shrewsbury. On 14th November last, between twelve and one at night, I was sent for to the Raven Hotel, and saw there Mr. Cook in his bedroom. He was not in bed. He complained of pain in his stomach and heat in his throat, and said he thought he had been poisoned. His pulse was about 90; his tongue was perfectly clean. I advised him to take an emetic, which he did, and he was then very sick. Nothing came away but water. I sent him two pills and a draught. The pills consisted of rhubarb and 3 grains of calomel. The draught consisted of mistura sennacum. Later on in the same night I gave Mr. Jones some medicine for Cook. I never saw Cook after that occasion.

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—I treated Cook as if he had taken poison. I took him at his word, that he had taken poison, not from his symptoms. He seemed a little excited by drink.

E. Mills

Elizabeth Mills, examined by Mr. James—I was chambermaid at the Talbot Arms at Rugeley in November last. I had been there about two years. I knew the prisoner. He was in the habit of coming to the Talbot Arms. I remember on Thursday, the 15th, between nine and ten at night, Mr. Cook, along with Mr. Palmer, came to the Talbot Arms. He retired to rest between ten and eleven. He said he had been poorly, and was feeling poorly then. The next morning he got up about twelve o’clock, and said he felt no worse, but still he was not well. That night he retired to bed about half-past ten. He said he had been to Mr. Palmer’s and had dined there. On Saturday morning about eight, Palmer, who lived opposite to the Talbot Arms, came over. He ordered a cup of coffee for Mr. Cook, which I believe I gave to Mr. Cook in his bedroom. Mr. Palmer was in the room at the time. I did not see Cook drink it, but about half an hour afterwards I returned into the room and found that the coffee had been vomited. On that occasion I observed a jug in the room which did not belong to the Talbot Arms. It was sent down to me by Lavinia Barnes to make some more toast and water. During that Saturday I saw Palmer perhaps four or five times in Cook’s room. I heard him say to Mr. Cook that he would send over some broth. I did not see it brought over, but I saw the broth in the kitchen. The cook told me that it had come over from Mrs. Rowley. The broth had not been made at the Talbot Arms. Later in the day I took up the broth to Mr. Cook. About a quarter of an hour after the broth came over I met Palmer coming up the stairs to Cook’s room. He asked if Cook had had his broth. I told him I did not know that any was come for him. During this conversation Lavinia Barnes came forward and said she had taken up the broth to Mr. Cook as soon as it had come, and he had refused to take it, saying that it would not stay in his stomach. Palmer said that I must go and fetch the broth, which I did, and took it into the room. Mr. Palmer was there, and I left the broth in the room. About an hour and a half afterwards I went up to the room again and found that the broth had been vomited. About six o’clock that evening some barley water was made for Cook. I took that up to him, but I cannot remember whether that stayed in his stomach or not. At eight o’clock that evening I took up some arrowroot to Cook. The first time I saw Mr. Bamford [the doctor at Rugeley] was about three o’clock on the Saturday afternoon. Between seven and eight on the Sunday morning I went into Mr. Cook’s room. During the night Mr. Smith, a friend of Mr. Cook, had slept in the same room. I asked Mr. Cook if he felt worse. He said he felt pretty comfortable, and had slept well since twelve o’clock. Upon the Sunday a large breakfast cup of broth was brought to the Talbot Arms by Charles Hawley. I took some of it up to Mr. Cook’s room in the same cup in which it was brought. I tasted about two tablespoonfuls of the broth before I took it up. It was between twelve and one, before my dinner, that I tasted this broth. About half an hour afterwards it made me very sick, and I vomited violently all the afternoon till about five o’clock. I was obliged to go to bed. Up to that time I had been quite well. I had taken nothing that I am aware of that had disagreed with me. In the evening and on the morning of the Sunday I saw Mr. Cook several times. He appeared to be better during that evening, and to be in good spirits. The last time I saw him on the Sunday night might be about ten or a little after that. I saw him between seven and eight on the Monday morning. I took him up a cup of coffee. He did not vomit that. Palmer was there that morning about a quarter or half-past seven. I saw him coming downstairs as though he had been to see Mr. Cook. Mr. Cook got up at one o’clock on that Monday. He appeared a great deal better, and he washed and dressed and shaved himself. He said he felt exceedingly weak. On the Monday Ashmall, the jockey, and Mr. Saunders, Cook’s trainer, visited him. As soon as Cook got up at one o’clock I gave him some arrowroot, which he retained in his stomach. I believe he had a cup of coffee about four or five. About eight o’clock that night Miss Bond, the housekeeper, gave me a pillbox to take upstairs to Mr. Cook’s room, which I did, and placed it on the dressing-table. It was wrapped up in white paper. I do not know whether the box contained pills or not. After I had placed the pillbox on Cook’s dressing-table Palmer came, and went into Cook’s room. I saw him sitting down by the fire between nine and ten. I retired to rest between ten and eleven. About a quarter or ten minutes before twelve Lavinia Barnes, the waitress, called me up. I heard a noise of violent screaming whilst I was dressing. The screams came from Cook’s room. My room is on the floor above Cook’s room. I heard the screams twice, and went down to Cook’s room. As soon as I entered the room I found him sitting up in bed. He desired me to fetch Mr. Palmer directly. I walked to his bedside, and I found the pillow upon the floor. There was one mould candle burning. I picked up the pillow and asked him would he lay down his head. At that time he was sitting up and was beating the bed-clothes, with both his arms and hands stretched out. He said, “I cannot lie down. I shall suffocate if I do. Oh, fetch Mr. Palmer.” His body, his hands, and neck were moving then—a sort of jumping or jerking. His head was back. Sometimes he would throw back his head upon the pillow, and then he would raise himself up again. This jumping and jerking was all over his body. He appeared to have great difficulty in breathing. The balls of both the eyes were much projected. It was difficult for him to speak, he was so short of breath. He screamed three or four times while I was in the room. He called aloud “Murder” twice. He asked me to rub one hand. I found the left hand stiff. It appeared to be stretched out as though the fingers were something like paralysed. It did not move. It appeared to me to be stiff all the way up his arm. I did not rub him very long. The stiffness did not appear to be gone after I had rubbed him. During the time I was rubbing his hands Palmer was in the room. Cook was conscious while this jerking of the body was going on. He recognised Palmer when he came in, and said, “Oh, Palmer, I shall die,” or “Oh, doctor, I shall die.” Palmer replied, “Oh, my lad, you won’t.” Palmer then left to fetch something, and asked me to stay by the bedside with him. He returned in a few minutes, during which time I merely stood by the bedside. He brought back with him some pills. He gave him something else, but whether he brought it with him or not I do not know. He gave him a drop from a wineglass after giving him the pills. Cook, when he took the pills, said he could not swallow them. At Palmer’s request I gave Cook a teaspoonful of toast and water, which he took. When I gave it him from the spoon his body was then jerking and jumping. He snapped at the spoon like that [describing it] with his head and neck, and the spoon was fast between his teeth. It was difficult to get it away. He seemed to bite it very hard. While this was going on the water went down his throat and washed the pills down. Mr. Palmer then handed him the draught from the wineglass. It was something liquid, and the wineglass was three parts full with a liquid of a dark, heavy-looking nature. Cook drank it. He snapped at the glass just the same as he did at the spoon. He swallowed the liquid, which was vomited up immediately. I supported his forehead with my hand while he vomited. The stuff he vomited smelt, I should think, like opium. Palmer said that he hoped the pills were not returned, and he searched for the pills with a quill. He said, “I cannot find the pills.” After this Cook seemed to be more easy. This second attack lasted about half an hour, or it might be more. He appeared to be conscious during the whole of that time. He asked Palmer to feel his heart after he had got more composed. I do not know whether he did so or not. Palmer made some slight remark as to its being all right, or something of that kind. I left Cook and Palmer about three o’clock in the morning. Cook was dozing when I left him, and Palmer was asleep in the easy-chair.

E. Mills

I next saw Cook again about six o’clock on the Tuesday morning. I said, “Has Mr. Palmer gone?” and he said, “Yes; he left a quarter before five.” I asked him how he felt, and he said he had been no worse since I left him in the morning. He asked me if I had ever seen any one suffer such agony as he was in last night, and I said no, I never had. I asked “What do you think was the cause of all that, Mr. Cook?” and he said the pills that Palmer gave him at half-past ten. When I saw Cook on the Tuesday morning I did not observe any of those jerkings or convulsions about him. About twelve o’clock he rang his bell and desired me to send the boots over to ask Palmer whether he might have a cup of coffee. The boots returned and said he might have a cup of coffee, and that Mr. Palmer would be over immediately. I took the coffee up a little after twelve. Palmer was in Mr. Cook’s room at that time. I gave the coffee to Mr. Palmer, who tasted the coffee in my presence. I then left the room. Mr. Jones arrived by the three o’clock train that afternoon. He went and saw Mr. Cook upon his arrival. About four, or it might be between four and five, I took up to Mr. Cook’s room another cup of coffee. At that time I saw Palmer in the room. I left the room, and afterwards I saw Palmer, who told me that Mr. Cook had vomited the coffee. He spoke from the door of Cook’s room, but did not call me in. I saw Cook several times that evening before I retired to rest. He appeared to be in very good spirits, and talked about getting up the next morning. I believe I gave him some arrowroot that evening about half-past ten. Palmer was with him in his bedroom when I left him. I gave Palmer a jug of toast and water for Cook. Mr. Palmer asked Cook if I could do anything more for him that night, and Mr. Cook said he would want nothing more. That was about half-past ten. I did not go to bed that night, but I remained in the kitchen, as I was anxious to see how Mr. Cook went on. While I was in the kitchen the bell of Mr. Cook’s room rang violently a little before twelve [Tuesday night]. Mr. Jones was sleeping in Cook’s bedroom, which was a double-bedded room, and where a bed had been made up for him. I went upstairs to Mr. Cook’s room on hearing the bell. He was sitting up in bed, and Mr. Jones appeared to be supporting him. Mr. Cook said, “Oh, Mary, fetch Mr. Palmer directly.” He was conscious at the time. I went over for Mr. Palmer. I rang the surgery bell at the surgery door. I expected him to come to the window and as soon as I stepped off the step into the road he was at the bedroom window. He did not put up the sash. At that time I could not see whether he was dressed or not. I asked him to come over to Mr. Cook directly, as he was much the same as he was the night before. I then went back to the hotel. Palmer came two or three minutes afterwards. I was in the bedroom when Palmer came, and he remarked that he had never dressed so quickly in his life. That was the first thing he said when he came into Cook’s room. Mr. Cook was sitting up in bed, supported by Mr. Jones. After Mr. Palmer came I remained on the landing, just outside the door. After I had been waiting a short time Palmer came out. I said to him that Mr. Cook was much about the same as last night, and he replied that he was not so ill by the fiftieth part. He then went downstairs as though he was going into his own house, and after a very short time he came back to Cook’s room. After Palmer had returned I heard Cook ask to be turned over on his right side. I was at the door at the time, which was open. I did not go in. I was not in the room when Cook died. I went in, I believe, just before he died, but I came out again. I saw Mr. Jones supporting Cook. Mr. Palmer was then feeling Mr. Cook’s pulse, and he said to Mr. Jones, “His pulse is gone.” Mr. Jones pressed the side of his face to Cook’s heart. Mr. Palmer asked me to fetch Mr. Bamford, and I did so. From the time I was called up, about ten minutes before twelve, till Cook’s death would be about three-quarters of an hour. Mr. Bamford came over, and I saw him when he came downstairs. He said, “He is dead. He was dead when I arrived.” Mr. Jones came out of the room and told me that Mr. Palmer wanted me. I went into the room and saw Mr. Palmer. There was no one with him. I said, “It is not possible Mr. Cook is dead,” and he said, “Oh, yes, he is dead.” He asked me to arrange about laying out Cook. I had seen a book in Mr. Cook’s room, a dark book with a gold band round the edge. It had a pencil going into it on one side. Cook stopped at the Talbot Arms perhaps two or three months before this time. I saw the book on the Monday night before Mr. Cook’s death. He wrote something in it, and took from a pocket in the book a postage stamp. I placed the book back at the looking-glass on the dressing-table. I have never seen that book since Cook’s death. I have searched everywhere for it. When I went into the room where Cook’s body was lying Palmer was there. I noticed that Cook’s clothes were placed on a chair. I saw Palmer searching the pocket. That was on the Tuesday night about ten minutes after Cook’s death. He also searched under the pillow and bolster. After Cook’s death I saw some letters on the mantelpiece which were not there before.

The Court then adjourned.

Second Day, Thursday, 15th May, 1856.
The Court met at ten o’clock.

E. Mills

Elizabeth Mills, cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—I had been at the Talbot Arms about three years at the date of Mr. Cook’s death. He first came to the Talbot Arms about three months before he died, and up to the time of his death he was constantly coming back and forward. During the time he was there I never heard him complain of anything except a sore throat or something of that kind through cold. I never noticed that he had any soreness about his mouth or that he had difficulty at all in swallowing. I have seen him with a foul tongue about once or so. He never complained in my hearing of the tongue being sore so as to render it difficult to swallow. I do not know of caustic having been applied to it while he was there. Before he went to Shrewsbury he had not been ailing at all to my knowledge. When he came back he said he was poorly. After Cook’s death I stayed at the Talbot Inn till the day after Christmas. I then went to my home in the Potteries, Shelton. Since then I have been in service in Dolly’s Hotel, Paternoster Row, London. I stayed six weeks there as chambermaid. About a week after I came to London I saw Mr. Stevens (the stepfather of Cook) about six or seven times. Two or three times I saw him alone; at other times perhaps Mrs. Dewhurst, the landlady of the inn, or Miss Dewhurst was there. It was not always about Mr. Cook’s death that he spoke to me. He would merely call to see how I liked London, and whether I was well in health, and all that.

E. Mills

Mr. Stevens is a man not in your station. He is a gentleman. Do you mean to say he called to see how you liked London?—Just to see whether I liked the place. I had some conversation with him at the Talbot Inn just before the funeral. I really cannot remember what he spoke about beyond Mr. Cook’s death. During the time I was at Dolly’s Hotel I never received a farthing from him, and he never made me any promise to get a place. The last time I saw him out of Court was on Tuesday last at Dolly’s Hotel. He never spoke to me about Mr. Cook’s death. When I saw him at that time there were other people present, including Lavinia Barnes, Mr. Gardner, and Mr. Hatton, the chief officer of police in Staffordshire. Mr. Gardner is an attorney at Rugeley. I cannot say what all the talk was about. Mr. Cook’s death might be mentioned. I daresay it was. I will undertake to say that there were other subjects of conversation between us besides the subject of Cook’s death. I do not wish to mention what they were. They did not, so far as I heard, talk about the evidence I was to give. They did not ask me what I could prove, nor did they read my depositions before the coroner to me. There was nothing read to me from a newspaper or anything else. Mr. Stevens never at any previous interview read anything from a newspaper to me. He never talked to me about the symptoms which Mr. Cook exhibited before his death. Before last Tuesday I had seen Mr. Hatton about twice. I saw him once at Dolly’s, when he dined there. I did not wait upon him. I merely saw him there. He might have talked about Mr. Cook’s death, but I cannot remember. I have seen Mr. Gardner there three or four times since Mr. Cook’s death. I have seen him at Dolly’s, and have met him in the street. I have merely said, “How do you do,” or “Good morning.” I have had no other talk with him. I do not remember to have read the case of a Mrs. Dove in the newspapers, but I may have done so. I have heard spoken of a case that lately occurred at Leeds of a lady who was said to have been poisoned by her husband, but I did not read it. It was not mentioned to me by Mr. Stevens, nor by Mr. Gardner, nor by Mr. Hatton.

Were you told when you heard of it what the symptoms of Mrs. Dove were?—I think not. I merely heard there had been strychnine used at Leeds, another strychnine case.

Were the symptoms of strychnine ever mentioned to you by any one?—No, never.

When, and to whom, did you first use the expression “twitching,” which you mentioned so repeatedly yesterday?—To the coroner, I did. If I did not mention twitching, I mentioned something to the same effect. I will not swear I used that word at the coroner’s. I cannot remember when I first used the word “twitching.” I cannot remember when I first used the word “jerking” to anybody. I will undertake to swear it has never been used to me by anybody.

You stated yesterday that on the Sunday some broth was brought in a breakfastcup between twelve and one o’clock; that you took it up to Cook’s bedroom; that you drank about two tablespoonfuls; that you were sick the whole afternoon, and vomited till five o’clock. Did you state one word about that in your deposition before the coroner?—It never occurred to me until three days afterwards.

Did you state before the coroner that there was nothing peculiar in the taste of the broth?—I believe I was examined three times before the coroner. My attention had been called to the fact of broth having been sent over on one occasion, but I do not remember whether it was the first. I was asked if I had tasted it, and I stated I had tasted it, and thought it was very good. It never occurred to me to mention that I was sick and vomited frequently in the course of the afternoon.

You went to bed in consequence of the vomiting?—Yes.

E. Mills

I suppose sickness of that kind repeated frequently in the course of an afternoon is not a very common occurrence with you?—No, I have a bilious attack sometimes, but not such violent vomiting as I had that afternoon. I could not at all account for it at the time. I only took two tablespoonfuls. The vomiting came on from half an hour to an hour after I took them.

On the Saturday morning did Cook express a wish to have coffee for breakfast, or was it from Palmer the first you heard that his breakfast was to be coffee?—I do not know whether Palmer told me to bring coffee or whether it was Cook. I never knew Mr. Cook to take coffee in bed before. He generally took tea.

I understood you to say yesterday Palmer came over at eight o’clock and ordered a cup of coffee for Cook. Do you adhere to that?—I cannot remember whether Palmer ordered it or not. If I said it yesterday it is correct, but I cannot remember whether Palmer ordered the coffee or not now. I will swear now that Palmer ordered the coffee, and I took it and gave it into Cook’s hands, and Palmer was there.

You swear to it now?—Yes.

You doubted it a moment ago?—If that was stated yesterday I do not doubt it was correct.

Is that your only reason for stating it to be correct?—I believe it to be correct.

Will you swear that it is correct?—Yes; it is no doubt correct if I said so.

Why should that make it more correct if you cannot say it now from your own recollection?—I cannot remember as well to-day as I did yesterday. I cannot remember that I stated before the coroner that Cook had coffee for breakfast at eight o’clock, that he ate nothing, and that he vomited directly he had swallowed it, and that up to the time I had given him the coffee I had not seen Palmer. I cannot remember whether I stated before the coroner anything about the pillbox on Monday night. It was sent over wrapped up in paper. I will swear that Palmer was there between nine and ten o’clock. He brought a jar of jelly to the Talbot, and I opened it. I should say he was there nearer to ten than nine. I do not recollect whether he was there when I left Cook at half-past ten.

You stated yesterday that you asked Cook on the Tuesday afternoon what he thought the cause of his illness was, and he said, “The pills which Palmer gave me at half-past ten”?—Yes.

Did you say that before the coroner?—No.

E. Mills

Have you been questioned by any one since Mr. Cook’s death respecting what you did say before the coroner as to when these pills might have been given or respecting anything you have said about these pills before the coroner?—Yes; I was questioned by Dr. Collier at Hitchingly. I did not tell him that the gentleman in London had altered my evidence on that point, and that my evidence was now to be that “Cook said the pills which Palmer gave him at half-past ten made him ill.”

Did he state anything about your evidence being altered since?—Yes; he said he had not got that down in what I had given to the coroner in the coroner’s papers. I said “No, I thought it was down in some of the papers. I had given it to a gentleman in London.” The evidence has been altered by myself since. I do not remember who the gentleman was that I had given it to. I gave it to him at Dolly’s. The gentleman came to me at Dolly’s and asked if I would answer him a few questions. I said I would, and I saw him in a sitting-room. I was with him about half an hour. He asked me not very many questions, and during the time I was answering the questions he was writing. He did not tell me who he was or whom he came from, but he mentioned Mr. Stevens’ name.

What did he say about Mr. Stevens?—Mr. Stevens was with him. He called Mr. Stevens by name.

Why did you not tell us that before?—You did not ask me.

Then, although you did not know who he was, you knew he was an acquaintance of Mr. Stevens because he came with him?—He did. All that I said then was taken down. I do not remember saying before the coroner that when Cook was ill on Monday night and sitting up in bed beating the bed-clothes he said, “I cannot lie down; I shall suffocate if I do.” I do not remember whether I mentioned the word “jerking” before the coroner.

Did you say before the coroner, “He would throw his head back and raise himself up again”?—Yes.

You will say you said that?—Yes. I do not know whether I mentioned the word “jerking.” I said the whole of the body was in a jumping, snatching way. I believe I mentioned it was difficult for him to speak, he was so short of breath. I did not mention about him calling “murder” twice. I do not remember whether I mentioned before the coroner that Mr. Cook said the pills stuck fast in his throat and he could not swallow them. I did not answer the coroner anything more than he asked me. If he had asked me I should have answered him as I am answering now.

The first time that you were examined before the coroner was Dr. Taylor present?—I believe he was.

E. Mills

Were you not recalled after you had been examined once for the purpose of describing the symptoms for Dr. Taylor to hear?—I was not. I was never examined as to the symptoms when I knew the medical gentlemen were there. I cannot remember how Mr. Palmer was dressed when he came over on the Tuesday night. He had a plaid dressing-gown on, but I cannot remember what sort of cap he had. When Mr. Jones asked me to go into the room after Mr. Cook’s death I went in at once, and it was then that I saw Palmer searching the pockets of the coat. When I went in he did not seem at all confused.

Re-examined by Mr. James—I was under examination before the coroner perhaps a couple of hours on different occasions. The coroner put the questions to me, and the coroner’s clerk, I believe, wrote down my answers. The coroner asked me if the broth had any effect on me, and I said not that I was aware of.

By Mr. Serjeant Shee—What brought to your mind afterwards the vomiting after taking the broth?—I do not know. I believe it was some one else in the house that mentioned my sickness first. It did not occur to me until some one else mentioned it about a week after the coroner was there.

Re-examination resumed—I cannot remember who it was, but it was some of my fellow-servants in the house. A person of the name of Dr. Collier called upon me and represented that he was for the Crown. He asked me questions about the inquest and about the death of Mr. Cook. That would be about three weeks or a month ago, at Hitchingley.

J. Gardner

James Gardner, examined by the Attorney-General—I am an attorney, and attended for Mr. Stevens at the inquest. The inquest lasted five days, and on each of these days I had several times occasion to expostulate with Mr. Ward, the coroner, as to questions which he put or omitted to put, and I observed that the clerk omitted to take down answers given to the questions which had been put.

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—A great many questions were put by the jury after the examination of the professional men.

By the Attorney-General—The jury made very strong observations as to the necessity for further questions.

Objection to statement of these observations allowed.

Anne Brooks

Mrs. Anne Brooks, examined by the Attorney-General—I live in Manchester, and am in the habit of attending race meetings. I was at Shrewsbury races in November, 1855. About eight o’clock in the evening of Wednesday, the 14th, I met Palmer in the street. I had some conversation with him as to horses that were running during that week at Shrewsbury. About half-past ten the same evening I went, along with some friends, to the Raven, where I knew Palmer was staying. I had been there frequently before. I left my friends downstairs and went upstairs to go to Palmer’s room, which I knew. As I approached Palmer’s room a servant called my attention to Palmer himself, who was standing at a small table in the passage. When I first saw him he had a glass tumbler in his hand, in which there appeared to be a small quantity of liquid like water. I did not see him put anything in the glass. I saw him shaking up the fluid that was in it. There was a light in the passage. It was nearer to me than to him. He held up the glass as if he were looking at the light through it. He then said to me, “I will be with you presently.” He noticed me the moment I got to the top of the stairs. After he made that remark to me he stood for a minute or two holding the glass in his hand up to the light once or twice and shaking it now and then. The only observation he made was about the fine weather we had. After this he carried the glass into a sitting room adjoining his own. The room, I imagined, was empty, as I heard no one speaking. He remained there two or three minutes, and came out with the glass still in his hand, and carried it into his own sitting room, shutting the door after him. Three or four minutes afterwards he came out to me, bringing me a glass—it might be the same one, it was very like it—with some brandy and water in it. I took the brandy and water, and it produced no unpleasant consequences in me. We had some conversation regarding the next day’s racing, and he said he should back his own horse “Chicken.” “Chicken” lost. Palmer never told me afterwards whether he had won or lost on the race.

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—I am a married woman, and am in the habit of attending race meetings, but my husband does not sanction my going when he knows about it. Several people were taken ill in Shrewsbury on the Wednesday. One of my company was dreadfully ill, and there was a wonder what could cause it; we made an observation. We thought the water might have been poisoned. We were all affected the same way by sickness.

Can you tell me in what way it affected persons?

By the Attorney-General—Any person you saw. Whom did you see yourself affected in that way?—There was a lady that came to meet me there; she was one; and there was another party in my company who was so ill that he could not go to the races on Thursday.

By Mr. Serjeant Shee—They were affected by sickness and purging.

You saw Palmer with the glass in his hand?—I did.

Anne Brooks

Did he put it up to the light?—He held it just carelessly up. I did not see any substance in the glass. He was doing this in a passage that led to a great many rooms. I could not say if there was more than one light in the passage. I think it was a chandelier. He said, “I will be with you presently,” when he carried the glass into the room which I supposed to have been unoccupied.

Did he also say that while he was holding it to the light?—Yes, just in this manner, quite carelessly.

And at that time you thought nothing of it?—I thought he was mixing up some cooling draught, and was waiting for some water. I was not examined before the coroner.

By the Attorney-General—The brandy and water he gave me was cold, not hot. I have known Palmer for a great number of years as a racing man.

L. Barnes

Lavinia Barnes, examined by Mr. James—In November, 1855, I was in service as waitress at the Talbot Arms. I knew both Palmer and Mr. Cook. I saw Mr. Cook on 12th November on his way to the Shrewsbury Races. He seemed quite well then. I saw him on Thursday, the 15th, on his return from the races. On Friday I saw him between nine and ten, when he came back after having dined with Palmer. He was quite sober. I saw Mr. Cook twice on Saturday. On that day I remember some broth being sent over, which I took up to Mr. Cook. He could not take it, as he said he was too sick. I brought the broth down to the kitchen. I saw Palmer, and told him that Cook would not take the broth, as he was too sick. Palmer said he must take it, and it was taken up again to him by Elizabeth Mills. I did not see any broth being brought over on the Sunday. Between twelve and one on the Sunday Elizabeth Mills was taken ill, and had to leave her work and go to bed. I saw her; she was vomiting violently. Between four and five she returned to work, and complained to me of having been ill from the vomiting. I saw some broth in a basin in the kitchen on the Sunday. I do not know where it was made. It was in a sick cup with two handles. The cup did not belong to the Talbot Arms, and it went back to Palmer’s. Between seven and eight on Sunday morning I heard Palmer say he was going to London on the Monday. On Monday I saw Cook after dinner. Mr. Saunders, the trainer, visited him, and I took up some brandy and water to them. On that night I slept in the room next Mr. Cook’s. I saw Palmer between eight and nine that night going upstairs in the direction of Cook’s room. I saw him in the room afterwards between twelve and one o’clock. About twelve o’clock I was in the kitchen, when Mr. Cook’s bell rang violently. I went up to his room, and found he was very ill. He asked me to send for Mr. Palmer. He was screaming “murder,” and was in violent pain. He said he was suffocating. His eyes looked very wild, and were standing a great way out of his head. He was beating the bed with his hands. I sent the boots for Palmer, and went and called Elizabeth Mills. After Palmer came I went up to the room again. Cook seemed to be more composed. Palmer told him not to be alarmed. I saw Cook drinking a darkish mixture in a glass. I cannot remember who gave it to him, but Palmer was in the room when it was given. When Cook put the glass to his mouth he snapped at it. I both saw and heard him do it. He vomited the black-looking draught. I left the room between twelve and one, and he seemed more composed then. I saw him again on the Tuesday, and he seemed to be much better. A few minutes before twelve o’clock on the Tuesday night Elizabeth Mills and I were in the kitchen. Mr. Cook’s bell rang, and Elizabeth Mills went up to answer it. I followed her upstairs, but did not go into the room. I heard Cook scream. Elizabeth Mills went for Palmer, and he came. He was dressed in his usual way, with a black coat on. There was nothing peculiar about his dress. He wore a cap. After Palmer went into the room I remained on the landing. I did not hear what was going on inside. Palmer came out and went downstairs for something. When he came out Elizabeth Mills asked him how Mr. Cook was, and he replied, “Not so bad by a fiftieth part.” She and I were both together when he said this. I went into the room before Mr. Cook died. Mr. Jones was there in attendance upon him. Before I went into the room, and when Palmer was there, I heard Cook ask to be turned over. After I went into the room I do not remember hearing anything. I came out again before Cook’s death, and did not see him die. I returned to the room afterwards, and saw Palmer there with one of Cook’s coats in his hands. He was feeling the pockets. I also saw him feel under the bolster I left him in the room with the dead body. On the Thursday following I met Palmer in the hall of the hotel. He asked me for the key of Cook’s room, and I fetched it from the bar. He said he wanted some books and papers and a paper knife, which were to go back to the stationer’s where he had them from, or he should have to pay for them. I went into the room with him. While there he asked me to go to Miss Bond, the housekeeper, for some books she had. I brought them back with me to the room, and found Palmer there searching on the chest of drawers among some books and clothes belonging to Mr. Cook. I thought it was the paper knife he was looking for, as he said, “I cannot find the knife anywhere.” Miss Bond then came into the room, and I left. I saw Mr. Jones, who had visited Cook on the Tuesday, on the Friday with Palmer. I heard him ask Palmer if he knew where Cook’s betting book was. I cannot remember what Palmer replied. He said it would be sure to be found, and asked me and the chambermaid to go and look for it. He also said, “It was not worth anything to anybody but Cook.” This would be between three and four o’clock, and Mr. Stevens, who was at the Talbot Arms that day, left about half-past four. We went to look for the betting book. Palmer did not go with us. We searched under the bed and all round the room. We did not look in the chests of drawers, of which there were two in the room, both unlocked. We went downstairs and told Palmer we could not find the book. He said, “Oh, it will be found somewhere; I will go with you and look myself.” He did not go, but went out of the house, and I did not see him afterwards. I cannot say how long Palmer was in the room on the Thursday. There was no reason why we did not search the drawers for the betting book. There were some people in the room with Mr. Cook’s corpse, nailing the coffin, and they stood at the side of the drawers.

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—Shortly after Cook refused to take the broth, saying he was too sick, Palmer came over and said, “He must have it.”

Did he say why he must have it?—No.

Did he say anything to the effect, “Why, he has eaten nothing for several days”?—I cannot remember that he did.

Did he ask whether anything had been eaten by him?—Not of me.

You know, in fact, that Mr. Cook had had no substantial food?—He had some coffee and cocoa, and something like that.

You say that on the Monday evening you saw Palmer between eight and nine o’clock going upstairs. Are you sure it was before nine o’clock?—I am not quite certain.

Are you sure it was before half-past nine o’clock?—No, I did not pay particular attention to what the time was.

Are you quite sure it was before ten o’clock?—Yes, I knew he had been to London.

Did you know what hour the train came back from London?—I did not. An omnibus goes from the hotel to the station, starting from the hotel about half-past seven. It is not one mile from the station. I can give no notion of what time the express train comes into Rugeley from London, nor do I know if it stops at Rugeley.

Do you persist that it must have been before ten o’clock that you saw Palmer come in?—I think it was.

May it not have been a quarter past ten o’clock? You can easily have been mistaken about an hour; are you quite certain it was before ten o’clock?—I cannot remember now.

You have stated that when Palmer left on the Monday evening he gave Cook something to drink in a glass; he snapped at the glass, and you said, “I cannot remember who gave it to him”; did you see the glass in Mr. Cook’s hands?—I cannot remember whether I saw the glass in Cook’s hands.

L. Barnes

Did you see his hand up to the glass?—I think I did. I think it was as if he was going to catch hold of it, but somebody else was holding it.

Did you see the hand touch the glass?—I cannot remember that. I remember some one was holding it for him.

Might he not be holding it too?—He might.

Anne Rowley

Anne Rowley, examined by Mr. Welsby—I live at Rugeley, and have been employed by Mr. Palmer as charwoman. On the Saturday before Mr. Cook died I remember being sent by Palmer to Mr. Robinson, of the Albion, for a little broth for Mr. Cook. The Albion is an inn in Rugeley, and a small distance from the Talbot Arms. I brought the broth, which was not warm, to Palmer’s house and put it by the fire. I left it at the fire and went back to my work in the kitchen. When the broth was hot Mr. Palmer brought it to me in the back kitchen. He poured it into a cup, which I held while he did so. He told me to take it across to the Talbot Arms for Mr. Cook, and to say to whoever I gave it to to ask Mr. Cook if he would take a little bread or a little toast with it, and to say that Mr. Smith had sent it. I took it to the Talbot Arms. He did not say why I was to say Mr. Smith had sent it. Mr. Jeremiah Smith is an attorney in Rugeley. He goes under the name of Jerry Smith, and is a friend of Palmer. I gave the broth to Lavinia Barnes.

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—Mr. Smith was in the habit of putting up at the Albion, and took his meals there a good deal. He was intimate with Mr. Cook. I have not known them to dine together, but Mr. Cook was to have dined at Mr. Smith’s that day, but was unable to do so. The time between the broth being brought in to me and the time it was taken to the Talbot Arms would be about five minutes.

C. Hawley

Charles Hawley, examined by Mr. Bodkin—I am a gardener in Rugeley, and was occasionally employed by the prisoner in that capacity. I was in his house on the Sunday before Mr. Cook died, between twelve and one, and Mr. Palmer asked me whether I would take some broth to Mr. Cook. He gave me some broth in a small cup with a cover, and told me to take it over to the Talbot Arms. I gave it to one of the servant girls, either Mills or Lavinia Barnes. I cannot tell whether the broth was hot or not.

Sarah Bond

Sarah Bond, examined by Mr. Huddleston—I was housekeeper at the Talbot Arms in November last. I saw Mr. Cook on the Thursday after he returned from Shrewsbury Races. I heard him say he was very poorly. About eight o’clock on Sunday evening I saw him in bed. He said he had been very ill, but was better. Soon after I came into the room I saw the prisoner. I asked what he thought about Mr. Cook, and he told me he was better. On the Saturday night I spoke to him about the advisability of having some one to be with Mr. Cook during the night. He said that either he or Jerry Smith would be there. I also spoke to him about it on the Sunday night, but he said that Cook was so much better he would not require any one. He would be much better without it. I asked him if Daniel Jenkins, the boots, should not sleep in the room, but he said he would much rather not. On Monday morning, a little before seven, he came into the kitchen to me. He said Cook was better, and asked me to make a cup of coffee for him. I made the coffee. He remained in the kitchen while I was making it, and took it from me to give to Mr. Cook. He said he was going to London that day, and he had asked Mr. Jones to come to be with Cook while he was away. Between eleven and twelve on Monday night the waitress came and told me that Mr. Cook was very ill. I went up to his room. There was no one with him. He was sitting up a little on the bed, and seemed disappointed when I came in that it was not Palmer. He said it was Mr. Palmer he wanted. I did not remain in the room above two or three minutes. I did not go downstairs, but remained on the landing, and was still there when Mr. Palmer came. I could see into the room from where I was standing. Palmer went into the room, and I heard he was giving him some pills. He then came out to fetch some medicine, and was not many minutes away before he came back. After he returned, I heard Mr. Cook was very sick and very ill. He told Mr. Palmer he thought he should die, and he must not leave him. Mr. Palmer came out again, and I asked him if Cook had any relatives. He said he had only a stepfather. I saw Cook on Tuesday, between three and four, when Mr. Jones came. I took him a little jelly shortly after six. He seemed very anxious for it, and said if he did not have something he thought he should die. He seemed a little better. I did not see him again alive.

Sarah Bond

Cross-examined by Mr. Grove—I did not see Palmer on the Monday evening until a little before twelve. The last train, which stops at Rugeley at eight o’clock, is not an express train. The express does not stop at Rugeley, and passengers coming by the express have to take some conveyance from Stafford. I cannot say when they would arrive in the ordinary course. On the Monday night when I went up to Cook’s room he seemed disappointed that it was not Mr. Palmer. He seemed to be worse than he was. At that time Barnes had gone to fetch the doctor. Mr. Palmer came directly I left the room. I was led to ask what relatives the man had as he seemed so very ill, and I heard him telling Mr. Palmer he thought he should die.

W. H. Jones

Mr. William Henry Jones, examined by the Attorney-General—I am a surgeon and medical practitioner at Lutterworth, and have been in practice for fifteen years. I have known the deceased, Cook, intimately for nearly five years. I have known of his acquaintance with William Palmer for over a year. He looked upon my house at Lutterworth as his home, and I attended him if there was anything the matter with him. His health was generally good, but he was not very robust. I think he hunted and played cricket. On the Tuesday of the Shrewsbury Races, the day on which his horse “Polestar” won, I spent the day with him at his invitation. We dined together in the evening at the Raven Hotel. He accompanied me when I left for the station. On our way there we called at the house of Mr. Fraill, the clerk of the course. I was present during a conversation they had along with Whitehouse, the jockey. Cook produced his betting book and calculated his winnings. He had seven to one. Cook was with me till I left the hotel at ten o’clock. He was not in the least the worse of liquor, and seemed to be in his usual health. On the Monday I received the following letter from Mr. Palmer:—

November 18, 1855.

My dear Sir,—Mr. Cook was taken ill at Shrewsbury, and obliged to call in a medical man; since then he has been confined to his bed here with a very severe bilious attack, combined with diarrhœa, and I think it advisable for you to come and see him as soon as possible.

W. H. Jones

I was ill on the Monday when I received the letter, and did not arrive at the Talbot Arms, Rugeley, till half-past three on Tuesday afternoon. I saw Cook there, and he expressed himself as very comfortable, but said he had been very ill at Shrewsbury. I examined Cook in Palmer’s presence. His pulse was natural and his tongue was clean. When I remarked upon this to Palmer he said, “You should have seen it before.” I prescribed nothing for Cook at that time. I visited him several times in the course of that afternoon, and he seemed improved in every way. I gave him a little toast and water, which was in the room, and which he vomited. There was no diarrhœa as far as I was aware. Mr. Bamford, who I learned from Palmer had been attending, came about seven o’clock. He expressed his satisfaction with Cook’s improved state of health. Whilst Bamford, Palmer, and I were consulting what we should prescribe for him, Cook objected to the pills he had had the previous night. He said they made him ill. The three of us then withdrew, and Palmer proposed that Mr. Bamford should make up the morphine pills as before, but not to mention what they contained, as Cook objected so much to morphine. Mr. Bamford agreed to it, and went away. Palmer and I went into Cook’s room. I was in and out of the room during the whole evening, and he seemed very comfortable. I observed no more vomiting nor any diarrhœa. There were no bilious symptoms whatever, nor were there any signs of his having recently suffered from a bilious attack. About eight o’clock I went with Palmer over to his house. I returned to Cook’s room in about a quarter of an hour. Palmer came back about eleven o’clock with a box of pills. He opened them in my presence and showed me the directions on a slip of paper round the box. He remarked, “What an excellent hand for an old man upwards of eighty to write.” It was very good writing indeed. Palmer proposed to Cook to take the pills, but he protested, as they had made him so ill the previous night. Ultimately he did take them, and he immediately vomited into the utensil. Both Palmer and I, at his request, searched the utensil for the pills, but we found nothing but the toast and water, so that the pills were retained. After he vomited he lay down very comfortably, and we left him. Before he had taken the pills he had expressed himself stronger, and had got up and sat in a chair. During the evening he had been very jocose, speaking of what he should do during the winter, and of his future plans and prospects. After he had taken those two pills, at eleven o’clock, I went downstairs and had some supper. I returned about twelve to his room, had some conversation with him, and then went to bed, it being arranged that I should sleep in his room, which was a double-bedded one, that night. At the time I last talked to him he seemed rather sleepy, but quite as well as usual, and there was nothing to excite any apprehension in my mind. I had been in bed ten minutes, and had not gone to sleep, when he suddenly started up in bed and called out, “Doctor, get up; I am going to be ill; ring the bell for Mr. Palmer.” I rang the bell, and the chambermaid came to the door. He himself called out to her, “Fetch Mr. Palmer.” He asked me to rub his neck. I rubbed the back part of his neck and supported him with my arm while doing so. There was a stiffening of the muscles; a sort of hardness about the neck. Palmer came very soon indeed; two or three minutes at the most. He made the remark, “I was never so quickly dressed in my life.” I did not observe how he was dressed, as I was so engaged. He gave Cook two pills, which he said were ammonia pills. Directly he swallowed the pills he uttered loud screams, threw himself back in the bed, and was dreadfully convulsed. As the pills had immediately before been taken, it certainly could not have been from their action. He said to me, “Raise me up or I shall be suffocated.” The convulsions lasted five or ten minutes. It was at the commencement of the convulsions that he called out to raise him up or he should be suffocated. All the muscular fibres were convulsed; there was a violent contraction of every muscle of the body, and a stiffening of the limbs. When he called out to me to raise him, I endeavoured to do so with the assistance of Mr. Palmer, but found it was quite impossible owing to the rigidity of the limbs. When he found I could not raise him up he asked me to turn him over, which I did. He was quite sensible. After I had turned him over I listened to the action of his heart. I found it gradually to weaken. I requested Palmer to fetch some spirits of ammonia in the hopes of reviving him. Palmer fetched a bottle from his house. He was not away above a minute. When he returned, Cook’s heart was gradually sinking, and life was almost extinct. He died very quietly. He was not able to take the ammonia, and it was very soon after Palmer returned that he died. From the time when he raised himself in bed and called upon me to go for Palmer to the time when he died would be from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour. In my judgment, as a medical man, he died from tetanus, or, in ordinary English parlance, lockjaw.

Does it involve, ordinarily speaking, a mere locked jaw?—Yes, that is the common term. Locked jaw is one of the symptoms of tetanus. Every muscle in the body was affected in the same manner.

How would you express in ordinary English the general symptoms of what you call tetanus in one word?—Violent spasmodic affection of all the muscles of the body. That effects the immediate cause of death by stopping the action of the heart, and also the breath, from its effect on the diaphragm. It affects the respiratory muscles and stops respiration. It is that spasm of the respiratory muscles which causes the sense of suffocation. When death took place he was still upon his side. He remained in that position after death. I did not turn the body upon its back. The outward appearance of the body after death was very dark. As there was only one candle in the room, I could not make the observation I otherwise should have made. Both his hands, the left hand particularly, which I had in my hand, were clenched. I observed the clenching of the hands immediately the attack took place, when he threw himself back immediately after taking the pills Palmer brought over. When I was rubbing his neck I did not see the hands clenched.

Did you observe either before or at the time of death, or immediately afterwards, anything in the position of the head and neck?—Yes; the head was quite bent back.

When you say bent back, do you mean bent back into an unnatural position?—Yes; by spasmodic action. The body was twisted back like a bow; the backbone was twisted back.

W. H. Jones

By Lord Campbell—When did you observe that appearance—immediately after death, or all the time?—Indeed, after throwing himself back, he was immediately drawn back.

Examination resumed—If I had placed the body at that time upon the back, on a level surface, it would have rested upon the head and heels. As his face was turned away from me, I did not observe anything immediately after or at the time of death about the jaw. After death I saw the jaw was not in its natural condition; it was all affected by spasmodic action. I spoke to Palmer about the laying out of the body, and left him alone in the room while I went downstairs to see Miss Bond. I returned in a few minutes and found Palmer with Mr. Cook’s coat in his hand. He remarked that I, being Cook’s nearest friend, should take possession of his effects. I did so, and took possession of his watch and his purse, containing five sovereigns and five shillings. That was all I could find. I did not find any betting book or any papers. After that, before Palmer left, he said something to me upon the subject of affairs as between Cook and himself. He said, as near as I can recollect, “It is a bad thing for me, as I was responsible for £3000 or £4000, and I hope Mr. Cook’s friends will not let me lose it. If they do not assist me, all my horses will be seized.” Nothing was said by him about securities or paper.

By Lord Campbell—In the consultation which we three medical men had on Tuesday night nothing was said about the symptoms, the spasms, which had occurred the night before.

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—I know that Mr. Cook had been under treatment by Dr. Savage for some time.

You knew he had treated himself a good deal with mercurial treatment?—No, not a great deal. I know that he had had a sore throat for two or three months. In the summer it was bad. It was slightly ulcerated; not a very extreme case; the back part of the tongue. He could swallow, but it gave him a little pain occasionally. It depended upon what he did swallow. I knew he had found it necessary to apply caustic to his tongue. For two months before his death he had ceased to do it. After that he never complained of occasional pain in his throat or his tongue. I did not see much of him during these two months. He was attending most of the races.

W. H. Jones

Was he apprehensive about some spots which appeared upon his body?—I never heard him mention it. I had heard him express apprehensions of his being affected by secondary symptoms of venereal disease. His habits were, generally speaking, correct, though he may occasionally have gone astray, and perhaps was not very particular. I do not know that he had a chancre at the time he died, although I believe he had one twelve months ago. I was not present at either of the post-mortem examinations. I was at Shrewsbury Races with him on the Tuesday, and I knew he was very anxious, as the winning of the race was of great consequence to him. After the race was run he was so excited that for two or three minutes he could not speak to me. He was elated and happy the rest of the day, but he was not at all intoxicated. He was a very temperate man. That night when he was first attacked, and when Palmer came, Cook said, “Palmer, give me the remedy you gave me the night before.” I was rubbing his neck for about five minutes, I should think. After I turned him over on his side to the time of his death three or four minutes would elapse. He died so very quietly that I could hardly tell when he did die. I have seen cases of tetanus before.

You said nothing about tetanus at the inquest?—Yes, I did; convulsions and tetanus.

Did you not say at the time it was from over-excitement that he died?—I could not tell the cause. I was so much taken by surprise. I said I had no idea of the cause of death.

Whatever you said about “violent convulsions,” did you say, “I could not tell the cause; I imagined at the time it was from over-excitement”?—Yes.

[The deposition of the witness before the coroner was read.]

You say in your deposition you had been in your bed a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Was it not as much as twenty minutes?—I do not think it was. I had not begun to dose. I do not remember ever having stated I thought he died of epilepsy. Mr. Bamford said it was apoplexy; I said it was not. I could not make up my mind what sort of fit it was. I said it was more like an epileptic fit than apoplexy.

Re-examined—There was a partnership between Cook and Palmer about the mare “Pereine,” but it was discontinued some months before Cook’s death, and the mare became the property of Palmer. I have only seen one case of traumatic tetanus.

Was that from a wound?—From a wound in the thumb. It ended in death.

How long was the patient in dying from the time he received the wound?—Three days. The patient died of lockjaw. I have seen cases of epilepsy.

Are there any such symptoms in epileptic fits as those convulsive spasms of the muscles?—No; the consciousness is lost, and there is none of this rigidity of the muscles. In apoplexy consciousness is generally lost too. I am satisfied in my own mind that this case was not apoplexy.

W. H. Jones

By Lord Campbell—Supposing he had any secondary symptoms of syphilis, do you think they could have produced the symptoms you saw on the Tuesday night?—No, I say not, decidedly, and for two months before death he was clear of them, and the throat was well.

E. Mills

Elizabeth Mills was recalled and said that on the Monday morning Cook told her that during the night he had been disturbed. He said, “I was just mad for two minutes.” She asked him why he did not ring the bell, and he replied he thought we should all be fast asleep, and it passed over. He said he thought he was disturbed by hearing a quarrel in the street.

By Lord Campbell—What did he say about the street?—He thought he was disturbed by hearing a quarrel in the street. He was not sure that it was that which had made him ill; that he might have been asleep, and the quarrel might have disturbed him. I cannot positively recollect whether he said so or not.

H. Savage

Henry Savage, examined—I am a physician. I have known the deceased man Cook for about four years. He was not a man of robust constitution, but his general health was good. In the spring of 1855 he consulted me about some spots on his skin—one on his arm and one on his forehead. He had two shallow ulcers on the tongue corresponding to bad teeth. He thought these spots and ulcerations were secondary syphilitic symptoms, and had been undergoing a mild mercurial course. I recommended its immediate discontinuance, and prescribed him quinine as a tonic, and an aperient containing cream of tartar, magnesia, and sulphur. I never at any time gave him antimony. He was quite well by the end of May. He still continued to see me, as he was not quite sure about the correctness of my notions of his not having syphilis. I examined him from time to time, and the only thing the matter with his throat was that one of his tonsils was slightly enlarged; it was red and tender. There was nothing of a syphilitic character in the appearance of his throat. I saw him about a fortnight before his death, when I recommended him to go abroad for two years, as I wished to get him away from his turf associations. I examined him thoroughly at that time, and beyond a very shallow scar of some former excoriation, to which he told me he was liable, there was nothing venereal about him. There was no chancre nor any sore on any other part of his body.

Cross-examined—He was a weak man, and apt to take the advice of any person he might be in company with. The last time I saw him he had a redness over one tonsil, showing there was tenderness. He had three or four superficial ulcers on his lips.

C. Newton

Charles Newton, examined—I am assistant to Mr. Salt, practising surgeon at Rugeley. On Monday, 19th November, about nine o’clock in the evening, Palmer came in to Mr. Salt’s surgery. He asked me for three grains of strychnia, which I gave to him. I do not think he was in the shop above two minutes. Between eleven and twelve on the next day I saw him again in the shop of Mr. Hawkins, a druggist. He was in the shop when I went in. He put his hand between my shoulders and said he wished to speak to me. I went to the door with him and out into the street. He asked me when Mr. Edwin Salt, the son of Mr. Salt, was going up to his farm at Sudbury. Palmer had nothing to do with that at all. While we were talking, a Mr. Brassington came up and entered into conversation with me about some bills for money he had against my employer. Palmer left us and returned to the shop, and came out again while we were still talking. He went in the direction of his own house, which is between 200 and 300 yards away. I went into the shop after my conversation with Mr. Brassington and saw Roberts, who was serving. I know Mr. Thirlby, who deals in drugs. He was formerly an assistant to Palmer, and succeeded to his business. He dispenses all Palmer’s medicines for him. About seven o’clock in the evening of Sunday, the 25th November, I went to Palmer’s house in consequence of being sent for by him. There was no one else there. He asked me what dose of strychnia would kill a dog, and whether it would be found in the stomach. I told him a grain, and that there would be no inflammation, and I did not think it would be found. I think he said, “It is all right,” as if speaking to himself, and snapped his fingers. I heard the next day that the post-mortem examination of Cook’s body was to take place. On my way to the post-mortem, about ten o’clock in the forenoon, I saw Palmer at Bamford’s, and I told him where I was going. He, Dr. Harland, and I went down together to the Talbot Arms for the examination. Palmer and I were left alone together in the entrance to the hall. He remarked it would be a stiff job, and asked me to go over to his house for some brandy. We did so. While we were taking the brandy he said, “You will find this fellow suffering from diseased throat; he has had syphilis.” We then returned to the Talbot Arms. I was examined before the coroner, but I said nothing about giving Palmer the three grains of strychnia on Monday night.

C. Newton

Cross-examined—When I was first examined on behalf of the Crown I mentioned the circumstance of the conversation about poisoning the dog. Before that I mentioned it to Mr. Salt, but I cannot remember when. I gave a statement to Mr. Gardner some time after the inquest. I mentioned about the dog, but did not speak about the 3 grains of strychnia. I made no mention about these matters at the inquest. I gave evidence about my conversation with Palmer at the door of Hawkins’ shop. I knew my evidence was with reference to the supposed purchase of strychnia by Palmer at the shop. The first time I informed the Crown with reference to the purchase of the 3 grains on the Monday was on Tuesday last. At the post-mortem examination I did not point out any chancre to the medical men there. It was not mentioned at all, and I did not see one nor the marks of one.

Re-examined—The reason why I did not mention about the purchase of the 3 grains of strychnia before last Tuesday to the Crown was because Mr. Salt was not on speaking terms with Mr. Palmer, and I thought Mr. Salt would be angry at my letting him have it. I communicated the fact of my own accord.

The Court then adjourned.

Third Day, Friday, 16th May, 1856.
The Court met at ten o’clock.

C. J. Roberts

Charles Joseph Roberts, examined by Mr. James—In November last I was an apprentice to Mr. Hawkins, a chemist at Rugeley. I remember that between eleven and twelve o’clock on Tuesday, 20th November, Palmer came into the shop and asked me first for 2 drachms of prussic acid. Whilst I was putting it up for him Mr. Newton came in. Palmer said he wanted to speak to him, and the two of them went out of the shop together. I saw Brassington come up and speak to Newton when Palmer left them and came back into the shop. I was putting the prussic acid into the bottle, and he asked me for 6 grains of strychnine and 2 drachms of Batley’s solution of opium. While I was making the things up Palmer stood at the shop door with his back to me, looking into the street. He then took them away and paid for them. After he left Newton came into the shop, and I had some conversation with him. It would be two years before this transaction that Palmer bought drugs in our shop. He always dealt with Thirlby, who previously was his assistant, and is now practising as an apothecary in Palmer’s name.

Cross-examined—I did not make any entry of the transaction in our book. I am not in the habit of doing so when things are sold over the counter.

W. V. Stevens

William Vernon Stevens, examined by the Attorney-General—I am a retired merchant living in the city. I am the step-father of John Parsons Cook, having married his father’s widow eighteen years ago. He did not live with me, but we were always on friendly terms. He became entitled to property worth about £12,000. The last time I saw him alive was at Euston station at two o’clock on the afternoon of 5th November. He looked better than I had seen him for some time, and I said, “My boy, you look very well; you do not look anything of an invalid now.” He struck himself firmly on the chest and said he was quite well. The next time I saw him was after his death, information of which I received from Mr. Jones, who came to my house on the Wednesday. I went to Lutterworth on the Thursday to search for a will and any papers he had left. I found a will. When I reached Rugeley the next day I went to the Talbot Arms, and met Palmer in the passage. I had only seen him once before. Mr. Jones introduced us in the inn, and we then went up and viewed the body. I was greatly struck by the appearance of the countenance, the tightness of the muscles across the face. We all then went down to one of the sitting rooms, and I said to the prisoner that I understood from Mr. Jones he knew something of my son’s affairs. He replied, “Yes, there are £4000 worth of bills out of his, and I am sorry to say my name is to them; but I have got a paper drawn up by a lawyer, signed by Mr. Cook, to show that I have never had any benefit from them.” I told him I feared there would be no money to pay them, and asked if he had no horses or property. He replied that he had horses, but they were mortgaged. He mentioned one debt of £300 that was owing to Cook. It had nothing to do with sporting matters, and was a personal debt from a relative of his. I then turned round to Palmer and said that, whether Cook had left anything or not, he must be buried. Palmer immediately said, “Oh! I will bury him myself if that is all.” I replied I could not hear of that. Cook’s brother-in-law was there at the time, and he also expressed a wish to bury him. I said it was my business, as executor, to bury him, and that I intended to bury him in London in his mother’s grave, and that the body would have to be at the inn for a day or two. Palmer said that would be of no consequence so long as the body was fastened up at once. Some short time afterwards I asked Palmer for the name of some respectable undertaker in Rugeley, so that I might order a coffin at once. He replied, “I have been and chosen that. I have ordered a shell and a strong oak coffin.” I expressed my surprise, and said he had no authority to do so. At my invitation, my son-in-law, Mr. Jones, and Palmer all dined with me at the inn. We dined about three, as I was going back to London by the quarter-past four train. Before I left I asked Mr. Jones to go upstairs and bring me Cook’s betting book and any papers. He went along with Palmer, and in about ten minutes he returned, saying he could find no book or paper. I expressed my astonishment, and Palmer said, “It is of no manner of use if you find it.” I said I was the best judge of that, and I understood my son won a great deal of money at Shrewsbury. Palmer replied that when a man dies his bets are done with, and that Mr. Cook had received the greater part of his money on the course at Shrewsbury. I said that the book must be found, and he replied in a much quieter tone, “Oh, it will be found, no doubt.” The body was in the shell, and I noticed that both the hands were clenched. I then returned to town. The next morning I communicated with the uncle of the deceased and with my solicitor, who gave me a letter to Mr. Gardner, of Rugeley. I returned to Rugeley by the two o’clock train, arriving there about eight. Palmer travelled by the same train. I met him first at Euston station, when he told me he had been summoned to London by telegraph. I saw him again in the refreshment room at Wolverton. We had some conversation, and I remarked that it would be as well to know something of the complaint of which Cook died, and that I should like his body opened. Palmer replied, “That can be done very well,” or “That can be easily done,” or something of that sort. I saw him again in the refreshment room at Rugby, and mentioned to him my determination to see a solicitor in Rugeley about my son’s affairs. From Rugby to Rugeley we travelled in the same carriage, but no further conversation took place. When we arrived at Rugeley he again spoke about me employing a solicitor, and offered to introduce me to one. I refused his offer, and said I would find one myself. I then immediately purposely changed the tone of my voice and manner, and said, “Mr. Palmer, if I should call in a solicitor to give me advice, I suppose you will have no objections to answer him any questions he might choose to put to you?” He replied, with a spasmodic affection of the throat, which was perfectly evident, “Oh, no, certainly not.” I also expressed my desire of taking a solicitor to Hednesford, where Cook’s horses were kept. I ought to say that, when I first mentioned the post-mortem, there was not the slightest change in Mr. Palmer’s manner; he was perfectly calm and collected. We then parted, he to go home and I to go and look for Mr. Gardner. Later in the evening Palmer came to me again, and the first thing he spoke about was the bills. He said, “It is a very unpleasant affair for me about these bills.” I remarked that I had heard a different account of Mr. Cook’s affairs, and that his affairs could only be settled in the Court of Chancery. All he replied was, “Oh, indeed,” in a lower tone. The next day, Sunday, I saw him again in the coffee room of my hotel. He advised me not to take a solicitor to Hednesford, but I told him I should use my own judgment upon that. Later in the evening, I think, I saw him again. I asked him who the Mr. Smith was who had sat up with my son, as I wished to make inquiries regarding the missing betting book. He replied he was a solicitor of that town. I asked him if he attended my son medically, and he said no. He then asked me if I knew who was to perform the examination, and I told him I did not. On the Friday, when I twice saw the body, I did not perceive any decomposition or anything which called for its being speedily put into a shell; on the contrary, the body did not quite look to me like a dead body.

W. V. Stevens

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—The last time my stepson stayed in my house was for about a month, in January and February of last year. He had a slight sore throat then, but I do not know that it was continuously sore. He did not complain of it. I never noticed any ulcers about his face. Between that time and the 5th November I saw him several times, and he did not appear to be more delicate than usual. The reason why I mentioned to him on 5th November that he was looking very well was because he had complained of being an invalid the winter before. His brother and sister were rather delicate, and his father died at the age of thirty or thirty-one.

J. T. Harland

Dr. John Thomas Harland, examined by Mr. Bodkin—I am a physician residing at Stafford. On 26th November I made a post-mortem examination of Mr. Cook. I called at the house of Mr. Bamford, and on my way there I was joined by Palmer, whom I had frequently seen and spoken to at Rugeley. He said, “I am glad you have come to make a post-mortem examination; some one might have been sent whom I did not know; I know you.” I asked him what the case was; that I heard there was a suspicion of poisoning. He replied, “Oh, no! I think not; he had an epileptic fit on Monday and Tuesday night, and you will find an old disease in the heart and in the head.” Palmer offered to lend me instruments, as I had brought none with me. He said a queer old man seemed to suspect him. He also said, “He seems to suspect that I have got the betting book, but Cook had no betting book that would be of use to any one.” After we reached Bamford’s house, Mr. Bamford and I went to Mr. Frere’s, a surgeon in Rugeley, and from there to the Talbot Arms, where the post-mortem examination was proceeded with. Palmer and several others were in the room. Mr. Devonshire operated and Mr. Newton assisted him. The body seemed to me to be stiffer than bodies generally are six days after death. The muscles were strongly contracted and thrown out, which showed there was a strong spasmodic action in the body before death. The hands were clenched; firmly closed. The abdominal viscera were the first parts of the body examined internally. They were taken out of the body, and were in a perfectly healthy state. The liver was healthy. The lungs were healthy; there was blood in them, but not more than could be accounted for by gravitation. The brain was quite healthy. There was no extravasation of blood nor serum on the brain. There was nothing in its appearance that would cause unnatural pressure. The heart was contracted, and contained no blood. This did not appear to be the result of disease, but from spasmodic action. The stomach was taken out. At the larger end there were numerous small yellowish-white spots about the size of mustard seed. These would not at all account for death, nor would they have any effect on the health of any one. There may have been numerous follicles, nothing more. The kidneys were full of blood that had gravitated since death, and had no appearance of disease. The blood was in a fluid state, which is a rare occurrence even in cases of sudden death. About the whole body generally there was no appearance of disease that would account for death. The lower part of the spinal cord was not minutely examined on this occasion. The upper part presented a perfectly natural appearance.

J. T. Harland

On the 25th of January the body was again exhumed, so that we might examine the spinal cord with more attention. Dr. Monckton and I jointly made a report on the matter. I am still of the opinion that there was nothing in the appearance that I have described to account for the death of the deceased. When the stomach and intestines were removed from the body in the first examination they were separately emptied into a jar by Mr. Devonshire and Mr. Newton. Palmer was standing at the right of Mr. Newton. When the intestines and stomach were being placed in the jar, and while Mr. Devonshire was opening the stomach, I noticed Palmer pushed Mr. Newton on to Mr. Devonshire, and he shook a portion of the contents of the stomach into the body. I thought a joke was passing among them, and I said, “Do not do that,” to the whole. Palmer was the only one close to them when Mr. Newton and Mr. Devonshire were pushed together. After this interruption the opening of the stomach proceeded. It contained about, I should think, 2 or 3 ounces of brownish liquid. It was stated that there was nothing particular found in the stomach, and Palmer remarked to Mr. Bamford, “They will not hang us yet.” The stomach was then emptied into the jar along with the stomach itself. The intestines were then examined, and nothing particular found in them. They were contracted and very small. They were placed in the jar, with their contents, as they were taken from the body. I then tied the jar over with two bladders and sealed it, and placed it on the table beside the body. At that time Palmer was moving about the room. My attention had been called away by the examination, and I missed the jar for a few minutes. I called out, “Where is the jar?” and Palmer, from the other end of the room, said, “It is here; I thought it more convenient for you to take it away.” Palmer was standing a yard or two from a door at that end of the room. I got the jar from him. I found there was a cut, hardly an inch long, through both bladders. The cut was quite clean, as if nothing had passed through. I asked who had done this, and Palmer, Mr. Devonshire, and Mr. Newton all seemed to say they had not done it. I told Palmer I should take the jar to Mr. Frere. He said, “I would rather you take it with you to Stafford, if you would take it there,” but I took it to Mr. Frere’s house, tied and sealed in the way I have told. When I noticed the slit in the bladders I immediately cut the strings and replaced the bladders, and tied them separately again, so that the slit was not at the top. When I returned to the Talbot Arms Palmer asked me what I had done with the jar. I said I had left it with Mr. Frere, and that it would go to either London or Birmingham that night for examination.

Cross-examined by Serjeant Shee—On the occasion of the first examination you say you observed follicles under the tongue; are those pustules?—Not under the tongue, on the tongue. They are not pustules; they are large mucous follicles, not containing matter.

Is it a sort of thickening, then, of the skin?—Of the mucous follicles at the base of the tongue. They appeared to be of long standing, and were very numerous.

Do they indicate that there had been much soreness there?—I have no doubt they would produce inconvenience. They must have given some slight degree of pain in eating and speaking.

Will you undertake to say they were not enlarged glands, enlarged by the irritation of disease?—I do not believe they were; I have seen them frequently.

Do you adhere to your opinion that the lungs were healthy?—Yes.

Did not Mr. Devonshire, in your presence, express a contrary opinion, and say they were unhealthy?—He said he thought there was emphysema, as well as congestion of the lungs.

Is that not a diseased state of the lungs?—Yes, it is an abnormal state. I examined the white spots on the wider part of the stomach.

How did you examine them?—By removing the mucous that was on the surface of the stomach by the finger or scalpel. I had no lens, no glass. I should have examined them with a lens if I had had one.

Was your examination of these appearances satisfactory to you without a lens?—Yes.

You said that the brain was healthy; what sort of examination did you make of the brain?—The brain was carefully taken out; the external part was first of all examined; the membranes were examined, and slices were taken off from the apex to the base of the brain. These slices were, I should think, a quarter of an inch thick.

Is that as thick as it should be to make a full examination?—I think that would show any disease if there was any. The spinal cord was examined down to the first vertebra, and we found no appearance of disease.

Supposing you had discovered a softness of the spinal cord on that occasion, after a full examination, might not that have been sufficient to account for the death of Mr. Cook?—No, certainly not; softening would not produce tetanus at all; it might produce paralysis.

J. T. Harland

Do not you think in the case of a man dying by convulsions, in order to ascertain with any degree of certainty what the cause of his death might be, it was necessary shortly after his death to make a careful examination of the spinal cord?—No, I do not. It was afterwards thought desirable. It was first suggested on 26th December.

It was in January the second examination took place; supposing there had been a softening, do not you think, in order to discover it, it was necessary to examine the spinal cord at an earlier period after death than two months?—If there had been a softening it would have been detected at the second examination; the body remaining unexamined for a long time would not produce hardening of the spine.

That is your opinion; might not any softening at that late period be the result of decomposition?—The spine was very little soft indeed. There were some appearances of decomposition upon it. I examined him to see if there was any disease on him of the venereal kind. I observed there was a loss of substance from past disease. It was cicatrised over, and on the cicatrix there was a small abrasion.

Then it must have been in a sore state?—The excoriation might be a little sore. It was very small. It was a mere excoriation; merely a little of the excoriation rubbed off.

Re-examined—There were no chancres, nothing beyond what I would term an excoriation, except the cicatrix from the old disease. There was no symptom of ulcerated throat, nor any appearance of anything syphilitic there. The follicles in the tongue are often produced by a disordered stomach, and are of no serious consequence to health. The congestion of the lungs, which Mr. Devonshire spoke about, was due, in my opinion, wholly to the gravitation of blood after death. There was nothing whatever in the brain to indicate the presence of any disease. Even if there had been, I have never heard or read of any diseased state of the brain occasioning death by tetanus. There is no disease of the spinal cord with which I am acquainted which produces tetanus and that form of death. Sometimes with inflammation of the membranes of the spinal cord there is tetanus; but there were no appearances of inflammation whatever.

C. J. Devonshire

Charles John Devonshire, examined by Mr. Huddleston—I am an undergraduate of London University. I performed the post-mortem on 25th November at the Talbot Hotel. The body was pale. The fingers were clenched firmly; the thumb of the left hand was thrown into the palm, and the fingers were clenched over. The mouth was a little contracted. The body was stiff, much beyond the usual stiffness of death. I took out the stomach and opened it with a pair of scissors. As I was opening the stomach there was a pressure or push from behind. I did not pay any attention to it, and I do not think any of the contents of the stomach escaped. I punctured the anterior surface of the stomach, and a spoonful of the contents fell out on the chair. I tied up where it was punctured, and it was put into a jar and sealed by Dr. Harland. On the same day I got the jar at Mr. Frere’s, and gave it, on the 28th, to Mr. Boycott, Messrs. Lander & Gardner’s clerk. The body was opened again on the 29th to get the liver and kidneys and spleen. They were taken from the body with some blood, placed in a stone jar, which I sealed and handed to Mr. Boycott on the 30th. In consequence of something Mr. Palmer had said, I examined the body to find if there were any indications of syphilis, but I found none. I also took out the throat, and found there were natural papillæ there; they were larger than usual at the base of the tongue.

John Myatt

John Myatt—I am postboy at the Talbot Arms at Rugeley. On 28th of November last I was engaged to drive Mr. Stevens to Stafford station. Before I started Mr. Palmer asked me if I was going to drive them to Stafford. I told him I was. He asked if I was going to take the jars. I said I believed I was. He said there was a £10 note for me if I would upset them. I told him I should not. I saw him next morning, and he asked me who went with the fly. I said Mr. Stevens, and I believed one of Mr. Gardner’s clerks.

Cross-examined—How did you know what he meant by “going to drive them to Stafford”?—I knew I was going to take some one to Stafford.

Did he use the name “Stevens” before he used these words to you?—He mentioned Mr. Stevens afterwards.

You understood the word “them” to mean Mr. Stevens and his party?—Yes.

Were the words used not to this effect, “I should not mind giving £10 to break Mr. Stevens’ neck”?—I do not remember that.

The “£10 to upset him”?—These were the words to the best of my recollection.

When he said “to upset him” did he say anything about him at the time?—He did say something about it, that it was a humbugging concern, or something to that effect. I do not recollect him saying he was a suspicious, troublesome fellow.

S. Cheshire

Samuel Cheshire—I was for upwards of eight years postmaster at Rugeley. I am now from Newgate suffering punishment for having opened a letter as postmaster. I know the prisoner very well, he and I having been schoolfellows together. I was with him at Shrewsbury Races the day “Polestar” won. I saw Mr. Cook at the Talbot Arms on the Saturday, 17th November. He was in bed at the time. On the Tuesday following Palmer asked me to meet him at his house and bring a receipt stamp with me. I did so. He said he wanted me to write out a cheque, which, he said, was for money Mr. Cook owed him. He produced a copy from which I was to write, and I copied it. He gave me as a reason why he wanted me to write it that Mr. Cook was too ill, and he said Wetherby would know his writing. After I had written it I left it with him, and he said he was going to take it over for Mr. Cook to sign.

The Attorney-General—We know that it went out of his possession afterwards, and therefore perhaps we ought to follow it.

[Evidence was then given to show that this cheque for £350 was sent to Mr. Wetherby, the secretary to the Jockey Club, that it was returned to Palmer, that notice to produce it was given by the prosecution, and that it was not produced.]

S. Cheshire

Samuel Cheshire, recalled—After Mr. Cook’s death, on the Thursday or Friday, Palmer sent for me again. I went to his house and saw him there. He had a sheet of quarto paper in his hand, which he asked me to sign.

Lord Campbell—Was there anything written upon this quarto sheet of paper?—There was.

Examination resumed—I asked him what it was, and he said, “You know that Cook and I have had some dealings together, and this is a document which he gave me some days ago, and I want you to witness it.” I asked him what it was about, and he replied, “There is some business that I have joined him in, and which was all for Mr. Cook’s benefit, and this is a document stating so,” or something of that kind. The paper was a post quarto paper of a yellow description. I observed the writing on it, and thought it was Mr. Palmer’s. I told him I could not sign it, as I might perhaps be called upon to give evidence in the matter at some future day. I said I had not seen Cook sign it, and that the post office authorities would not like me to be called on to give evidence as to a document which took place while I was absent. Palmer replied that it did not matter my signing it, and he dared say they would not object to Mr. Cook’s signature. I gave the paper back to him and left.

(Notice to produce this paper was given, but it was not produced.)

S. Cheshire

Palmer was in the habit of calling for letters addressed to his mother, and which I gave to him. I cannot remember whether during October and November, 1855, I gave him letters addressed to his mother or addressed to Mr. Cook. I remember seeing Palmer while the inquest was going on. He came to me on the Sunday evening previous to 5th December, and asked me to let him know if I had seen or heard anything fresh. I understood that was a temptation for me to open a letter, and I told him I could not do that. He said he did not want me to do anything to injure myself. The letter which I read, and for which I am suffering, was a letter from Dr. Taylor to Mr. Gardner, the solicitor. I did not give nor send that letter to Palmer. I merely told him in few words of its contents. I only read part of the letter, and told Palmer the contents as much as I remembered. That was on the morning of the 5th of December. I told Palmer that I found in Dr. Taylor’s letter that there were no traces of strychnia found. I cannot recollect what else I told him. He said he knew they would not, for he was perfectly innocent.

J. H. Hatton

Captain John Haines Hatton—I am chief constable of the police of Staffordshire.

Did you obtain this letter, which I have just proved to be in Palmer’s handwriting, and envelope from Mr. Ward, the coroner?—I did; I endorsed it.

My dear Sir,—I am sorry to tell you that I am still confined to my bed. I do not think it was mentioned at the inquest yesterday that Cook was taken ill on Sunday and Monday night in the same way as he was on the Tuesday night when he died. The chambermaid at the Crown Hotel, Masters, can prove this. I also believe that a man by the name of Fisher is coming down to prove he received some money at Shrewsbury. Now here he could only pay Smith £10 out of £41 he owed him. Had you better not call Smith to prove this? And again, whatever Professor Taylor may say to-morrow, he wrote from London last Tuesday night to Gardner to say “We have this day finished our analysis, and find no traces of either strychnia, prussic acid, or opium.” What can beat this from a man like Taylor, if he says what he has already said, and Dr. Harland’s evidence? Mind you, I know, and saw it in black and white, what Taylor said to Gardner, but this is strictly private and confidential, but it is true. As regards his betting book, I know nothing of it, and it is of no good to any one. I hope the verdict to-morrow will be that he died of natural causes, and thus end it.—Ever yours.

S. Cheshire

Samuel Cheshire, recalled, cross-examined—I knew Cook very well, but I could not speak to his handwriting. I am sure that when Palmer came to me he used the words, “seen or heard anything.” He did not simply ask if I had “heard anything.” On the Saturday before Cook’s death I dined with Palmer and Mr. Smith. Cook was expected to dine also, but he was too ill. Palmer said he must call in Bamford.

G. Herring