Part 24

ANN BUTIN.--Is a married woman. Her husband travels in the country. In August last had a grandmother of the name of Caroline Walsh. She was sixty-four years of age, and very tall. She was a robust and hearty woman. Witness had only known her to be ill one week during the last six years. She lodged with witness in July last, and got her living by selling tapes and laces, which she carried in a basket. She was very cleanly in her appearance. She last saw her on the 19th of August. She then wore a dark gown and light blue shawl, with part of the colour washed out; also a black willow bonnet, broken in the crown, and pinned with two pins. Her petticoat was made of figured stuff. It had the pattern of a leaf. She had an old shift, very much pieced, but of a good colour, also a pair of grey worsted knit stockings. Witness knitted those stockings, which were quite different from what are sold in shops. They were very much broken at the heel, and had been mended. She had on a small pair of men's shoes, which were too large for her, and by slipping wore out the stockings at the heel. Shortly before the 19th of August witness had obtained a lodging-for her grandmother at Mrs. Shaw's. Witness made a pocket for her, which she wore on the 19th of August. Witness saw her grandmother on the 19th of August, about twelve o'clock in the day. Saw her again at five o'clock, in the street, and then found out that she was going to Cook's. On that day witness had called at Cook's at twelve o'clock. Saw a bundle tied up in the room, and found it to contain her grandmother's nightgown and night-cap, small mattress, a rug and sheet. Knows it was the 19th of August, because that was the day on which her sister's child went to nurse. Saw the boy Cook there. He was in the daily habit of seeing her grandmother. Left a message with the boy for her grandmother. At five o'clock met her grandmother in Cutler-street, and was angry with her for going to Cook's. Had tried to persuade her not to go there. Appointed with her to call at Cook's next morning, and told her not to go out till witness came. Her grandmother agreed not to go out. Mrs. Cook had frequently said that she wished witness's grandmother to come and lodge with her. She was very inquisitive. The prisoner knew her to be the granddaughter of Mrs. Walsh. Has never seen her grandmother since the time she parted from her in Cutler-street. Has a sister named Lydia Basy. At nine o'clock went to Mrs. Cook's. Saw the female prisoner in the room. Witness asked her where the old lady was; the prisoner told her that she had just gone. Witness said that she was very much surprised, as her grandmother expected her. Prisoner replied that the old lady had told her so; that she had gone out soon to be soon home, and that they all had a jolly good supper. Witness observed, that she was very glad they had enjoyed themselves, and should take the liberty of asking what they had. The prisoner answered, that they had potatoes and meat, and Cook went out to get something short, to make the old lady comfortable; that Cook seemed very partial to the old lady, and that she slept on the bedstead last night. Witness said that she was very much surprised, as her grandmother had her own bed to sleep on, and had never been in the habit of sleeping with any other person. Witness observed the bundle in the room lying in the same state in which she had left it. The prisoner said that Cook had doubled up that piece of sacking to put the old woman in last night. There was a coarse piece of sacking in the room. Witness expressed her surprise, and asked what she meant. The prisoner replied, that Cook doubled it up, and put it underneath the old woman. The prisoner also said that the old woman had got no shift on; but if witness brought one, she would wash it for the old woman. Witness said that she did not think her grandmother wanted a shift; but if she did, witness offered to give her one. A week before, witness had given her a clean shift and clean cap. Witness asked the prisoner how she came to know that her grandmother had no shift? and said, 'You must have examined her person very close to know that.' The prisoner afterwards said, that witness had a coffee-pot, a frying-pan, and a tub, to give to the old woman. Witness said she would give them to her grandmother when she saw her. Witness and the prisoner then went to Bishop's, a gin-shop, at the corner of Goodman's-yard. They drank some gin and beer. Witness began again to talk of her grandmother. The prisoner observed, 'From what you say, you seem to think that we have murdered the old woman.' Witness said, 'I hope not.' The prisoner repeated, 'From what you say, you think we destroyed her at our place.' Witness said, 'Mrs. Cook, you put the words in my mouth; what I suspect I don't say now, but you shall know of it hereafter.' Prisoner wanted witness to go to her house to have something to eat. Witness refused: but prisoner asked so often, that witness gave her threepence-halfpenny to fetch a loaf and cheese, and promised to take some of it in the public-house. The prisoner went away, and never came back. Witness waited two hours in the public-house, and then went searching for her grandmother for about three quarters of an hour. Witness afterwards pledged a gown, in the name of Welsh, at a pawnbroker's, named Austin. Witness returned to Cook's lodgings about five or six o'clock; both prisoners were present. Witness asked whether the old woman had come home yet. The female prisoner gave no answer to the question; but put up her hand, and told her not to speak. The male prisoner had gone to the window, and this sign was made behind his back. The female prisoner then said softly, 'You must not tell Cook that I was in your company to-day.' The male prisoner in a few minutes after went down stairs. The female prisoner then told witness, that Cook had beaten her most unmercifully.--(She had marks of having been beaten.) The prisoner said that Cook had beaten her for having gone out with her; that Cook had said she had no business to go out looking for the old lady. Witness went several times to Cook's, to inquire for her grandmother; also went to the hospitals and poor-houses, and found nothing of her. Mrs. Cook went with her to one of the poor-houses. On the Monday night saw the man Cook at his house, between six and seven o'clock. The female prisoner was present at the time. Witness told them what she had been doing; and the man said that she had better wait till the month was up, and it was very likely that she might hear of her grandmother, dead or alive, then. The female prisoner asked witness several times to stay all night. The husband could hear what the woman said. The female prisoner said that she (witness) must be tired, and that she might sleep on her grandmother's bed; and perhaps, while she stopped there, her grandmother might come home. Witness replied, that she had her sister's house to go to, and did not wish to stop at Cook's. Witness made some complaint to the police-office; but it was not till October that Lea, the officer, took up the matter. When the prisoners were at Lambeth-street police-office, witness heard the female prisoner say something about 'hot and cold.' What the prisoner said was heard by the magistrate.

Cross-examined.--While her grandmother was living at Shaw's, witness was in the habit of seeing her every other day. The female prisoner told witness that Cook had beaten her unmercifully for going out and getting drunk with her.

WILLIAM AUSTIN.--Is a pawnbroker, living in Houndsditch. He received a gown in pawn, in the name of Welsh, on the 20th of August.

JOHN DRAPER deposed that he took the child of Mrs. Butin's sister to Norwood to be nursed, on the 19th of August.

LYDIA BASY.--Is Mrs. Butin's sister. On the 19th of August went with her grandmother (Mrs. Walsh) between six and seven o'clock, to Mrs. Cook's room. It was on the same day that her child was taken to Norwood. Her grandmother wore a black willow bonnet, rather broken on the top, a blue shawl with a border, and the colour rather washed out, a black stuff gown, a purple-figured stuff petticoat, a pair of grey knitted stockings, and a pair of men's shoes, of a small size. Witness had a child in her arms when she accompanied her grandmother to Cook's. As they were going there, her grandmother put her hand into her pocket, and gave the child a biscuit. Her grandmother in doing so lifted up her petticoat, and witness saw the pocket. Witness's sister made the pocket. There was an iron-mould on the pocket, and a stain on the shoulder of the shawl. Witness left her grandmother at the door of Cook's room; and she had at that time her basket in her hand.

Cross-examined.--Witness's grandmother had never, to her knowledge, been a pauper in a workhouse. Never gave information to the magistrates of the absence of her grandmother.

Mrs. BUTIN recalled, and deposed that she gave information of the absence of her grandmother at the Mansion-house, about a week after the 19th of August.

---- LEA.--Is an officer at Lambeth-street. In consequence of information he received, he went, on Friday, the 28th of October, to White Horse-court, where the prisoners had removed to. He saw the female prisoner coming out of the court, and witness followed her to Rosemary-lane. Mrs. Butin was with the witness, and pointed her out to him. Witness went up to the female prisoner, and told her that she must go before a magistrate respecting an old woman. Then prisoner said, 'that the last she saw of her was on Saturday morning (witness had not previously mentioned the name of any person); that the old lady had given her some halfpence to buy sugar: that she had given the old lady her breakfast before her husband came home, that he might not know it. Witness asked at what time Cook got up? The prisoner replied, between four and five o'clock. She then said, 'Have you got Cook?' Witness asked her where Cook was. She answered, at a tea warehouse at St. Katharine Docks. Witness asked the prisoner at what time she went to bed on the Friday night? She replied, that they all went to bed at nine. Witness inquired what they had for supper? She said, cold meat and coffee. As they were going along, Mrs. Butin asked what they had done with the old woman? She observed, that if she had done anything with her, God burn her soul in h--l's flames; and added, that after giving the old woman her breakfast, she went out and left her and Cook smoking by the fire; and that when she returned she found the room swept up, and the old woman gone. Witness afterwards went to St. Katharine Docks with Mrs. Butin, and called the male prisoner out. Witness pointed out Mrs. Butin, and the prisoner acknowledged that he knew her. Witness told him he must go before a magistrate respecting an old woman who was missing. The prisoner said, 'Very well; it is very proper that it should be inquired into;' he admitted that the old woman was in his room on the Friday night, and said, that she made her bed in the corner of the room. Witness asked at what time he went to bed? He replied about a quarter past eleven o'clock. Prisoner added, they had hot meat and tea. He said, that he saw the old woman at breakfast next morning: he had got up early to go to look for work, and returned about seven o'clock, but he did not recollect whether the old woman was gone before or after he returned. Witness went and apprehended the prisoner's son. The prisoners were confined in three separate cells. A conversation took place between them while so confined. The woman began the conversation. She called out, 'Ned! ask little Ned who told him to say what he has been saying about me?' The man then called to the boy, 'Ned, your mother wishes to know who told you to say what you have about her?' The boy answered, 'Nobody.' The man returned the answer to the woman. She again said, 'Ask Ned how he came to say what he has?' The question was repeated by the man; and the boy called out aloud, 'Why, because she did it.' The woman then said, 'Oh! that we should have to suffer for what we know nothing about.' The man said, 'God knows that I had no hand in it; never mind, there is nothing in this world that we should wish to live for; there will be forgiveness by God at the last moment.' That was the whole of the conversation which took place at that time. On other occasions, the male prisoner said to witness, 'You have had a great deal of trouble about this affair;' and the woman added, 'With all your trouble you have not found the old woman's body yet. All the things which I have sold, the granddaughter brought in a bundle to me.' She said, that that was the old woman (alluding to Mrs. Walsh) who had been taken to Bethnal-green workhouse. He also deposed to having found upon the premises, certain fragments of black stuff, which there was reason to believe had formed part of the apparel which had been worn by the deceased. The discovery was made nearly a month after the prisoners themselves had been taken into custody. He also described at length the depositions of the boy after his apprehension, which did not differ in any material particular, from those which were elicited at his examination in the police office.

MARY LABEL, a clothes-woman in Rosemary-lane, (Rag-fair) proved that the female prisoner had offered her various articles of wearing apparel, immediately subsequent to the date of the murder, and more particularly a pair of home-made lead-coloured worsted stockings, much darned in the heel, which she purchased for fourpence. Stay-laces, a plum-coloured petticoat, a cap, and a shawl, were among the items enumerated. Some were purchased by witness, and others by neighbouring dealers in a similar line of business. The prisoner testified great apprehension lest the goods which she offered for sale, should be seen at the time by any one but the purchaser.

SARAH COTTON, HANNAH CHANNEL, CELIA BURKE, WILLIAM THOMAS ELDER, MARY HAYES, SARAH BRADLEY, MARY GOLEBURGH, and ELIZABETH DUNHAM, respectively corroborated the testimony of the former deponent, all of them earning their livelihood by following the same vocation.

The articles purchased were then produced and identified by the granddaughter, as having constituted part of the personal property of the deceased.

At this stage of the case the counsel for the prosecution called a number of witnesses, for the purpose of showing that one Caroline Walsh, who died a pauper in the London Hospital at the period of the murder, was not the one suspected to have been destroyed by those described in the indictment.

JOHN SKEIG, a parish beadle, stated in evidence, that he found, on the 20th of August, an Irishwoman, named Caroline Walsh, lying on the steps of a hall-door in London-street, Fenchurch-street, apparently so exhausted by sickness and distress, that he resigned her to the care of the superintendent of Hoxton Workhouse, not being able to discover the residence which she mentioned to him as her temporary address.

The surgeon and several nurse-tenders in that establishment deposed, that the old woman so confided to their care, was in a state of such squalid filth and nastiness, that it was found necessary to dispose of all her raiment, by depositing it in the burying-ground. It was also ascertained that her hip-bone was fractured, whereupon she was transferred as a patient to the London Hospital, and shortly afterwards expired.

A professional gentleman and one or two domestics in that institution described minutely her personal appearance, which did not at all correspond with that of the deceased Caroline Walsh. The one was found in a state of loathsome squalidness, whereas the other was particularly cleanly and neat in her appearance. The one wanted her fore teeth, whereas those of the other were wholesome and un-decayed. The feet of the pauper were deformed by bunions and such-like excrescences, but the female supposed to have been murdered was entirely free from such a defect. The one was about sixty years of age, and the other upwards of eighty; and, to leave no doubt whatever upon the subject of identity, the body of the pauper was disinterred in the presence of the granddaughters, who, at once, denied that it bore any resemblance to that of their relation.

The case here closed on the part of the prosecution.

The prisoners, on being called on for their defence, severally put in written papers, asseverating their innocence of the crime with which they were charged, and maintaining that the evidence of their son was a tissue of unnatural and nefarious falsehoods.

Mr. Justice PARKE then proceeded to address the Jury, and summed up the whole of the evidence, having previously explained the state of the law affecting accessories and principals as it applied to cases of murder generally, and more particularly to that which it was their duty to decide upon.

The Jury retired for half an hour, and returned a verdict of _Guilty_ against the female prisoner, acquitting her companion, who was detained for the purpose of being indicted as an accessory after the fact.

The woman was immediately sentenced to death by the Recorder, and ordered to be executed at the usual hour on the following Monday. She did not testify any such emotion as might have been expected, but persevered in protesting her innocence, without, however, offering any plea for the postponement of the execution of her sentence. This wretched woman is Irish, if we may judge by her accent, and her paramour is apparently a native of the metropolis.

Eliza Ross, was on Monday the 9th, executed for the wilful murder of Catherine, alias Caroline Walsh, in front of Newgate. The unhappy woman, though convicted on the evidence of her own son, persisted in asserting that she was innocent of the diabolical act for which she was about to suffer.

All necessary preparations had been made the night before, and a considerable number of constables sworn in to preserve the peace and prevent any accidents. The persons assembled, however, did not exceed the number on ordinary occasions. Shortly after six, the sheriffs and under-sheriffs arrived, for the purpose of visiting the criminal, who had declined all religious consolation from her priest, and begged the attendance of the Rev. Mr. Cotton, the ordinary.

On Sunday, she expressed her wish that Cook and her son should be allowed to visit her, which, however, from motives of prudence, was refused. She retired to rest at an early hour on Sunday night, two females having been placed in the cell with her, but her slumber was frequently broken by half-uttered ejaculations; one of which was--'Oh! Cook, you could have cleared me if you had liked;' another was, 'Oh my child, my deluded child, thus to hang her who suffered for you!'

Upon her being led into the bread-room on the morning of her execution, by Slarks, accompanied by the reverend Ordinary, to be pinioned, she in a firm tone of voice exclaimed, 'Oh, my God! am I going to be hanged for what I am innocent of!' She then walked firmly to the yeomen to be pinioned; and while they were engaged in their sad office, she said, 'Oh, my God! why did I leave my country to be thus treated! Oh, Mr. Wontner, I thought you were more of a Christian than to suffer a poor innocent woman to be hanged. I left my husband and boy sitting with the old woman, and I never saw her after. You have now in your custody one who can prove me innocent, and quite clear me of the charge. Oh, my poor, my deluded child!' Mr. Cotton, at the request of Mr. Sheriff Pirie, again addressed her with a view to elicit an admission of the justice of her sentence, but the only answer returned was, 'I am innocent: I never touched the old woman. Oh, my God, why did I leave my native country, thus to die in a foreign land for what I am guil--innocent, I mean! Oh dear, oh dear!'

On arriving at the foot of the scaffold, she said to Mr. Cotton, 'Pray, Sir, am I going out in the street?' Mr. Cotton answered in the affirmative, and again conjured her, in the name of God, to make her peace with the Father of all mercies; 'All hope of mercy on this earth is past, and a few moments will place you in the presence of him who knows the secrets of all hearts.' She replied, 'I'm innocent;' which she persisted in declaring until the fatal drop fell. She died without a struggle.

A short account of the extraordinary life of this woman, who may with the strictest propriety be stigmatized as a human fiend, may not be without its attendant uses. Her ultimate fate may operate as a serious lesson to those who addict themselves to an indiscriminate use of spirits, for to that revolting and disgusting habit may, in a great degree, be traced all the crimes which the wretch committed, for rather than not satisfy her inordinate passion for drink she would commit the pettiest theft, and she has even been known when her husband has brought her home an ounce of tea, to hurry off to some neighbour and dispose of half of it, in order that she might have the immediate means of purchasing a glass of gin.

She appears to have been early instructed in the crime of murder, for about twenty-six years ago we find her living in a brothel in East Smithfield, at which time a respectable tradesman, a master tailor was missing, and for some time no tidings could be obtained of him. Through the medium of one of the girls who frequented the house, some clue was obtained respecting the fate of the unfortunate man, and in searching the house, he was found dead in one of the cupboards. The master and mistress of the house, with Cook, the servant, were immediately taken into custody, and committed for trial for the wilful murder of the tailor. The trial came on at the Old Bailey, and the evidence, although entirely circumstantial, was so conclusive against the keepers of the brothel, that they were both condemned and executed. Cook was, however, acquitted, although at the time it was the general opinion that she assisted in the murder, and the circumstance of her being known to be in possession of some money immediately after the murder, was in some degree corroborative of her having partaken of the booty which was obtained from the murdered man, to obtain which, it was supposed that his life was sacrificed.