Part 29
At another examination of the prisoners, Mr. J----y attended voluntarily, as he alleged, to speak to the magistrates. The prisoners, it being then early in the forenoon, were not yet brought up for examination; and Lea informed Mr. J----y that, if he wished it, he might then communicate to the magistrates what he had to say, as, most probably, several hours might elapse before the prisoners would be brought up. Mr. J----y, however, declined the offer, saying he would wait until the prisoners came; and he did actually wait in and about the office for nearly four hours. That a conduct of this kind was calculated to excite suspicion, may be easily conceived; for an individual seldom enters into the defence or justification of an accused person, without some ostensible motive being displayed. Friendship, or a long acquaintance, or personal interest, may induce a person to come forward and exert himself to obtain the exculpation of the accused party; but in the present instance the question was asked, what connexion could possibly exist between Mr. J----y and the Cooks, to sanction the zealous manner in which he presented himself to espouse their cause, at the same time that, on a previous occasion, he had publicly stated that he knew nothing at all about them? Mr. J----y has been heard to declare that he could always get plenty of cheap subjects, if he had the means of paying for them; and it has been ascertained, that although Mrs. Cook may be regarded as one of the most finished Burkers of her time, yet that she never disposed of any of her victims in those quarters where it was supposed she would most readily apply, and where the greatest prices were to be obtained, namely, the hospitals and the anatomical schools. She appeared to be contented with almost any sum she could obtain, to satisfy the immediate necessities of the day; and therefore the probability exists that she did actually dispose of her victims in that quarter, where confidence was established, and where cheapness was a primary object.
On one occasion Mr. J----y presented himself to the magistrates during the time that the prisoners were under examination; and although he was very pointedly asked the cause of his thus presenting himself so voluntarily before the magistrates, yet he sheltered himself under the plea of a love of justice, and therefore that he considered himself bound to come forward and state, in common justice to the accused parties, that he knew nothing at all about them, nor did he possess any knowledge of the manner in which they had disposed of the body of Mrs. Walsh. Having given this statement, Mrs. Cook turned to him, saying, 'Thank you, Sir; thank you, Sir.'
No doubt whatever exists that great suspicion attaches to this individual in regard to his dealings with the Cooks; for he was frequently heard to say, that he knew where to obtain cheap subjects, if he had but the means of purchasing them. In justice to him, it must, however, be stated, that no direct proof has ever been adduced of any of the victims of Mrs. Cook having fallen into his hands, nor during any part of the examination of Mrs. Cook or her husband was the name of this individual ever implicated. It is not to be supposed that at this remote period any clue will be obtained as to the actual disposal of the body of Mrs. Walsh, but of its ultimate fate, no doubt whatever rests on the public mind.
The police establishment of Worship-street had, however, scarcely finished their labours with Mrs. Cook and her associates, than the attention of the Worship-street officers was directed to other circumstances, which afforded strong grounds for suspicion that several Burking murders had been committed by some persons who had recently taken a house in Severn-place, Three Calfs'-lane, Bethnal-Green, described as a lonely spot near the fields between Bethnal-Green and the Whitechapel-road. A search-warrant was accordingly issued, and executed by the Worship-street officers, who apprehended three persons whom they found on the premises.
The prisoners, George Bradley, a young fellow about twenty years of age, Sarah Skinner, a young woman with whom he cohabited, and Louisa Covington, alias Carpenter, his sister, were placed at the bar for examination before Mr. Broughton; and Sarah Bradley, an elderly Irishwoman, mother of George, who had gone to the office to see the prisoners, was taken into custody, and placed at the bar with them.
Mrs. HANNAH SMITH, a respectable-looking, middle-aged widow, deposed that she lived at No. 6, Severn-place, and the two young women at the bar lived in the next house, No. 7. She had also seen a young man there, whom she believed to be the prisoner, George Bradley.
The prisoner, who wore a fustian jacket, was ordered to put on a white great-coat produced, and his hat, and the witness then said she was sure he was the person whom she had seen go in and out of No. 7.
The witness proceeded to state, that they were very small houses, only one story high, and the partition between them so thin, that in her apartment she could hear any talking or noise in the next house. On Wednesday evening she was sitting at work in her lower room, close to the partition, and heard a female voice faintly but distinctly cry 'Murder, murder!' and she then heard one man say to another, 'Hold the b----h, hold her!' Some boys then tapped at the window of No. 7, and called out 'Burkers,' and a female went and opened the door, but they had ran away.
The prisoner Covington here went into hysterics, and the examination was suspended until she recovered.
The witness, in continuation, said, that after what she had already stated took place, all remained quiet until about half-past eight o'clock, and she then heard a noise in the same room, like persons cording a box, and after that there was a stamping noise upon the pavement before the door, which was then opened.
Mr. BROUGHTON.--Was it a stamping of feet, as of persons carrying a load, or by way of signal?
WITNESS.--It was the signal used by the persons who went to that house. They always stamped upon the pavement, instead of knocking at the door. She then heard them carrying something out, and she went to her own door and looked out, and saw a box put upon a lad's head. She could not positively say that it was the prisoner Bradley. Three men then came out of the house and went after him, and two women followed. Witness then went back into her room. She did not give any alarm.
Mr. BROUGHTON.--You appear to be a respectable woman, Mrs. Smith; but how did it happen, that, having heard the faint cries of 'murder,' and some hours afterwards the cording of a box, which you saw carried away, you did not take any measures for having the parties stopped, by alarming the neighbourhood, or calling the police.
The witness said she did not know what to do. She felt some alarm for herself, and did not like to venture out; and she had not heard or seen a policeman pass between the time of her hearing the cry of murder, and the carrying off the box. Her niece, who lived with her, was at home at the time, and heard and saw the box, but had returned home after the cries of murder.
Mr. BROUGHTON.--You are badly off, indeed, in such a lonely situation, if you had no policeman pass all that time.
Mr. YOUNG, a police inspector, of K division, said that policemen were on duty, and must have been frequently past; but the witness might not have heard them, as they did not call the hour, like the old watchmen.
Mr. BROUGHTON.--Did you hear anything more of the people at No. 7 that night?
The witness said, that at nine o'clock, or shortly after, she heard a tap at the door, and the stamping of feet again; and looking out, she saw another box brought out, and put upon the lad's head by a tall man, who had on an old Witney white coat, and a dirty white hat. The box was followed by the men as before.
In reply to various questions, the witness said, she had reason to believe that the two young women at the bar occupied the room in which all this took place. They were at home, and in the room, that evening, for she heard and knew their voices; and it was the impression upon her mind that they were the two who followed after the box. They had lived there about a fortnight. The box appeared to her to be about a yard in length; but her niece saw it more distinctly than she did.
MARY HARDING, the niece, stated, that she lived with her aunt, and knew that the two young women at the bar lived at No. 7; and she had seen the young man go in and out, but did not know that he lived there. She had been out on Wednesday, and upon her return home, soon after four o'clock, her aunt told her that she had heard the cries of 'murder.' She afterwards heard the cording of the box, and saw it carried away as described by the last witness. She did not like to follow it. It was a larger box than her aunt described. She thought a person might be put into it. Three men and the two females followed it; and about an hour afterwards she saw a second box carried out in the same way.
Neither of the witnesses knew anything of Sarah Bradley, the mother.
JAMES BROWN stated, that he and the other officers went to No. 7, Severn-place, on Friday evening; and he, with another, got in by a back way, while Attfield went to the front. They found the three younger prisoners together. He produced two men's coats, with some other apparel, a very thick pair of men's shoes, and an old pair of women's shoes.
THOMAS EAGLES said that the prisoners made no explanation of any kind to him. He saw the produced coats lying upon a bed, and he found a long stout cord, and a bundle, containing some ragged articles of apparel, all tied up together.
WILLIAM ATTFIELD stated, that he went to the front door, which was opened by Sarah Skinner, and he asked if Mrs. Smith lived there? She said no. He afterwards asked the three prisoners where they had lived before they came there. Skinner said that they came there from No. 16, Foster-street, Whitechapel, but Covington said, from No. 10, Luke-street. He did not know where Luke-street was, and she would not tell him; but upon inquiry at the place mentioned by Skinner, he found it was three months since they lived there. He had heard that they came from No. 12, Thomas-street, Whitechapel, which they, however, denied. Upon searching up stairs, in a box were the clothes produced, and a bottle, labelled 'poison,' and containing oxalic acid in solution, which the prisoners said was for cleaning boot-tops. The box had no cover, and upon the top of the clothes in it was the drab-coloured hat produced, with a broad crape band upon it.
It was remarked in the office that it was precisely such a hat as the boy Newton had described to have been worn by the tall man whom he saw run from the spot where the body of Margaret Duffy was found in Cowheel-alley.
JAMES HANLEY produced a small tin box, which he found in the room with the prisoners. It contained six pawnbrokers' tickets; one of them for a shawl, and two for other articles of female apparel, all pawned on Wednesday, the day mentioned by Mrs. Smith.
Police-inspector YOUNG produced a small phial which, he said, had been found in the house that morning, by a constable who had been placed there, but was not now present. It contained some oil of vitriol.
It appeared that Mrs. Smith had intimated her suspicions to the police, and a constable had been placed in her house since Thursday, to watch the next, and a written statement made by her was now shown to the magistrate.
Mr. BROUGHTON recalled Mrs. Smith, and asked if she had seen any females at the house besides the prisoners, or seen or heard anything suspicious previously to last Wednesday.
She said, that on Monday week an old woman, leading a young person who was intoxicated, knocked at her door, and asked for Covington. She directed her to the next house, No. 7, and saw her go in there with the girl. She afterwards heard people going in and out, and thought at the time that they were fetching liquor from the public-house. The girl afterwards ran up stairs, and witness heard her run about the upper room, followed by a man. The girl said, 'Oh! you'll kill me, you'll kill me.' The old woman remained in the lower room, and the witness heard her say, 'Oh, my dear,' when the girl cried out, but she did not appear to move, or take any further notice. Witness heard the girl fall when she cried out. It was then late at night, and about two in the morning she heard a rustling in the passage, as if two persons were carrying something out.
Mr. BROUGHTON, after some further inquiries, had the prisoners placed at the bar separately, to hear if they wished to make any defence or explanation; but he repeatedly cautioned them that they were not obliged to say anything, and that if they did, it might be used against them.
They all protested very earnestly, that what Mrs. Smith and her niece saw carried out was nothing but a bedstead and a table, and other things, which had been carried away by night. The noises and crying out which she had heard were laughing, which ended in a quarrel; and an old woman, named Smith, who had lived with them, moved away in consequence. It appeared, in fact, that the prisoners had been shifting about, from place to place, and bilking their landlords.
The witness Harding being again questioned, declared that what she saw were boxes. She was near, and saw them distinctly, and was certain she could not be mistaken.
It was stated, that a daughter of Mrs. Smith's, who is married to a policeman, also saw the boxes, and she actually followed the party some distance; but seeing that they were going across the fields, she was afraid to proceed further. She was not then present, however.
Mr. BROUGHTON said, that from the positive swearing of the witnesses, he must believe that it was a box which they saw carried out; and it was exceedingly to be regretted that means had not been taken to stop the party, and ascertain what the box contained. God forbid that he should say that it did contain a body; but the circumstances stated by Mrs. Smith as to what had occurred on Monday week, when she heard the girl running about, followed by a man, and crying out, 'you'll kill me,' and her hearing the faint cries of murder on Wednesday, and seeing the box carried off some hours afterwards, made it a case of strong suspicion, and he would give ample time to search for further evidence.
Sarah Bradley was discharged, nothing having been stated against her. The other three prisoners were remanded for a week.
Accordingly, on that day, the prisoners were again brought up; but no conclusive evidence being adduced against them, they were discharged.
On taking a summary view of the chief subject connected with the crime of Burking, and which has particularly engaged our attention during our progress through this work, we are fully aware that we have, in several instances, laid ourselves open to the animadversions and the opprobrium of the surgical profession at large, inasmuch as we may have been supposed to attach to it a positive degree of stigma, as having been the encourager, and in some cases, the actual parent of the Burking system, which, without their co-operation and connivance, would never have been known in this country. In this respect, however, the charge against us is unfounded. We have adhered to a strict line of impartiality in recording the different arguments which have been adduced, publicly and privately, against the practices of the anatomical schools in general, and particularly in regard to the culpable ignorance which has been manifestly displayed by several persons connected with the purchase of dead bodies, in their discrimination between a murdered person and a corpse that has been exhumed. It would be an affected display of sensibility to condemn altogether the sale and purchase of human corpses; for it is a practice which must and will prevail, so long as a knowledge of the anatomy of the human frame constitutes a part of the education of the medical student. Our great aim, however, has been, by a collision of arguments, and an impartial exposition of facts, to devise those measures by which the science of anatomy may be encouraged, facilitated, and maintained, without having recourse for its support to midnight murders, and to the reckless sacrifice of life, on account of the tempting gain which is held out to those whose consummate villainy can lead them to the commission of such dreadful crimes. It is on record in the preceding pages that several individuals have fallen under the murderous grasp of the Burker, whose bodies have been conveyed to the hospitals and the anatomical schools, and there disposed of with the utmost facility, and apparently without the slightest suspicion, as if they were the carcasses of so many pigs; whilst at the same time the experience of the purchasers of the subjects, leaving the extent of science out of the question altogether, should have enabled them at once to decide upon the manner in which the subject came by its death, or, in other words, whether it was violent or natural. In the illustration of this part of our argument, let us, for instance, take the cases of Mrs. Walsh and Sarah Vesey. It was proved in evidence, that on the morning after the murder of the former, her body was carried out of the house by the husband. Of its destination no doubt whatever can exist. What opinion, then, can we form of the surgical professor, who can have a human corpse offered to him before it is scarcely cold, destitute of all the distinctive marks of exhumation, and without any of the concomitant signs of corruption, coolly and deliberately purchasing the same, without instituting the slightest inquiry into the suspicious nature of the subject, and whether he was not himself actually abetting and encouraging a human wretch in the crime of murder? We have never been told by any of the surgical professors of the anatomical schools, that their science, or, more properly speaking, their knowledge, is still so far in its infancy, that they do not know of any criteria by which to judge of a murdered subject, and one that has undergone the ceremony of exhumation, and been torn from the grave by the resurrectionist. The public, however, must take it for granted that such ignorance on the part of the professor does actually exist; or what is the natural inference that must be drawn? that he must be conscious to himself that some deed of violence has been committed upon the body, so as to occasion death, but that it does not become him to institute any inquiry into the business, as he is not supposed to entertain the slightest suspicion but that the body has been clandestinely obtained from the grave. We cannot designate this conduct by any other term than a bonus held out for the crime of murder; and it is on this account, and on this account only, that in our arguments we have dwelt particularly on the necessity of the interference of the legislature to devise those legal means, by which the science of anatomy may be supported, without being obliged to have recourse to the dreadful crime of murder, or even to the disgusting avocation of the resurrectionist.
It appears that, notwithstanding the greater facility which is offered in France to the surgical student in the prosecution of his anatomical knowledge, owing to the removal of many of the impediments which exist in this country in the procuring of human corpses for the purpose of dissection, yet that the attention of some of the most enlightened men of that country has for some time been directed to the devising of those measures, by which the human body may, in a great degree, be dispensed with, whilst, at the same time, the promotion of science is neither frustrated nor impeded. Amongst those men, who have chiefly signalized themselves in these laudable endeavours, stands conspicuously M. Auzouz, who, by perseverance, industry, and skill, has succeeded in the construction of an artificial skeleton, which promises to answer almost all the purposes of the human body. In the preparation of this extraordinary piece of mechanism, if it may be so called, he has been employed for several years. It has received the sanction and approbation of the principal medical professors of Paris, and it is now brought to this country as an exhibition, with the intent of promoting the science of artificial anatomy, and the removal of those abuses and inconveniences with which the dissection of the human body is attended.
We have been favoured with the pamphlet of M. Auzouz, descriptive of the uses and plans of his ingenious invention, as well as with the Report of the Royal Academy of Physic at Paris on its peculiar merits and advantages. We give the following translation of it.
'Since, in 1822, after a number of experiments, and several years of incessant application, I published my first work on artificial anatomy, a kind of excitement arose in the schools of medicine, and amongst those individuals who are supposed to guide the public opinion. Hitherto the study of anatomy was confined to the amphitheatres; and it was not considered possible to perfect the study of it in any other manner. On the other hand, so many ineffectual attempts had been made to procure a regular and sufficient supply of subjects, that artificial anatomy became the subject of very contrary and dissimilar opinions.
'Some individuals, by a method of reasoning wholly divested of proof, beheld in artificial anatomy nothing less than the means of encouraging the idleness of the students, and a fallacious resource for the practitioner; whilst, on the other hand, others, exaggerating the benefits of it, beheld in it the means of dispensing with dissections; others, as is always the case when anything of a novel nature appears, declared the thing to be both impossible and impracticable; and the remainder were content with decrying it altogether, or they became the servile imitators of it.
'The academies, where judgment is always the result of profound deliberation, having announced the importance of this discovery, encouraged me to prosecute my plans and experiments, pointing out to me at the same time some imperfections in them. These learned societies scrupled not to place artificial anatomy above everything which had been hitherto done in France or in other countries, and to regard it as the means of facilitating the study of that particular branch of natural history.
'In the report which M. Le Baron Desgenettes made to the Academy of Medicine, on the 5th of September, 1823, he says, "If this work be continued, it cannot fail to be useful to those who devote themselves to the study of the medical science, and more especially to those who practise surgery and physic at a distance from the great cities."