Part 4
CORONER.--How long have you known Bishop?
PRISONER.--About eight or nine months, I should think. I don't know, in particular, how he got his livelihood. I don't know as he dealt in dead bodies before now; I was never employed 'in this way' by Bishop before. I was to be paid half-a-crown for this job. I can swear that May and Williams never employed me to carry dead bodies. I can't say that I never worked for a resurrectionist before. I had no reason to suspect, prior to this event, that Bishop, May, and Williams were resurrectionists. I do not know where they lived. It was on London Bridge that I met Williams, who had an empty hamper, which I took from him, and carried it to Guy's Hospital, and some person there took it from me and brought it in, and I then went to the public-house. I have carried hampers and boxes before to hospitals and dissecting-rooms.
Mr. CORDER.--Were you at the Fortune of War public-house on Friday last?
PRISONER.--I might have been.
Mr. CORDER.--Did you not see Bishop and May there?
PRISONER.--They might be there. (The prisoner, on being further pressed, admitted that they were there; and said, that Bishop told him he should want him the next morning to do a job for him.) I very often go to the Fortune of War. I remained there for about half an hour, and I met Bishop and May there by accident. They went away before I left. When I said that I met Bishop and May in Covent Garden at ten o'clock on Friday morning, I did not speak the truth. I now state that I met him at the Fortune of War, on the Friday morning, at eight o'clock.
Mr. CORDER.--I suppose that you know that the Fortune of War is a sort of house of call for resurrectionists?
PRISONER.--It may be. I have seen several respectable persons there.
Mr. CRIBB.--Now, Shields, answer this question truly. Do you know anything relating to the death of the deceased?
PRISONER.--Bishop said, while coming to Bow-street, in the van, that the body was got from the ground, and that he knew where it was got from. He smiled as he said so, adding, that if he was brought before the Jury he would give them ease about it.
The examination of Shields having been concluded, the prisoner Bishop was brought before the Jury; and the Coroner cautioned him as to the awkward situation in which he stood, there being no doubt but that the boy had been unfairly dealt by.
BISHOP.--I dug the body out of the grave: the reason why I decline to say the grave I took it out of is, that there were two watchmen on the ground, and they intrusted me, and being men of family, I don't wish to 'deceive' them. I don't think I can say anything more. I took it for sale to Guy's Hospital, and, as they did not want it, I left it there all night and part of the next day, and then I removed it to the King's College. That is all I can say about it. I mean to say that this is the truth. I shall certainly keep it a secret where I got the body. I know nothing as to how it died.
CORONER.--You have a right not to implicate yourself; and certainly I must say, that the account which you have given is by no means satisfactory.
Bishop was then removed, and the prisoner May was brought forward, and cautioned in the same way as the other prisoners. He was told that the result of the inquiry might affect his life, and if he said anything, it would be produced as evidence against him.
The prisoner said he wished to say what he knew, and would speak the truth. He then said, that his name was James May, and that he lived in Dorset-street, Newington. He went into the country on Sunday week, and returned on the evening of Wednesday, and went to Mr. Grainger's, in Webb-street, with a couple of subjects. On the following morning (Thursday) he removed them to Mr. Davis's, at Guy's; and, after receiving the money, he went away to the Fortune of War, in Smithfield, and stayed there about two or three hours. Between four and five o'clock, to the best of his recollection, he went to Nag's-head-court, Golden-lane, and there he stopped with a female until between eleven and twelve o'clock the next day (Friday). From Golden-lane he went to the Fortune of War again, and stopped drinking there until six o'clock, or half-past. Williams and Bishop both came in there, and asked him, if he would stand anything to drink? which he did. Bishop then called him out, and asked him, where he could get the best price for 'things?' he told him where he had sold two (meaning Guy's); and he (Bishop) then told him, that he had got a good subject, and had been offered eight guineas for it. He (May) replied, that he could get more for it; and then Bishop said, all that he could get over nine guineas he might have for himself. He agreed to it; and they went from thence to the Old Bailey, and had some tea at the Watering-house there, leaving Williams at the Fortune of War. After tea they called a chariot off the stand, and drove to Bishop's house. When there, Bishop showed him the lad in a box or trunk. He (May) then put it into a sack, and brought it to the chariot, and conveyed it to Mr. Davis, at Guy's. Mr. Davis said, you know, John, I can't take it, because I took two of you yesterday, and I have not got names enough down for one, or I would take it. He (May) then asked him if he could leave the body there that night? and he said he might. Bishop then desired Mr. Davis not to let any person have it, as it was his subject, but to deliver it to his own self. He (May) also told Davis not to let the body go without him, or he should be money out of pocket. May then went on to state, that he went to his own house, and slept there that night, and the next morning he went to Guy's, and Bishop and Shields came in with a hamper, which was taken to King's College, where he was taken into custody. The prisoner said that he had spoken the truth, and nothing else. He was then removed, and the other prisoner,
JOHN WILLIAMS, was brought in; and being cautioned not to say anything to criminate himself, he stated that, in the first place, he met Bishop on last Saturday morning, in Long-lane, Smithfield, and asked him where he was going? He said he was going to the King's College. They then went into the Fortune of War public-house, and after that Bishop went to Guy's Hospital, and then to the King's College. May and the porter met them against the gate. Bishop went in, and he (Williams) asked him to let him go in with him. That was all he had got to say, except that a porter took a basket from the Fortune of War to Guy's Hospital, and he (Williams) helped him a part of the way with it.
The prisoner was then removed.
JAMES SEAGROVE, a cabriolet driver, swore positively, that a quarter before six o'clock on Friday evening he was sitting in a public-house in the Old Bailey, when two men (May and Bishop) came in, and the taller of the two told him that they wanted him to do a job. Witness answered that there were a great many jobs, long and short ones. May then said, that he wanted him to carry a 'stiff un.' Witness asked what he meant to pay him for it. The witness then went on to state, that he declined the offer of May and Bishop, and afterwards saw them trying to make a bargain with a coachman on the stand. May had previously offered witness a guinea for the job. The witness added that he meant to do them, and appeared to consent at first merely for the purpose of hearing a little of the tricks of body-snatchers.
The room was about to be cleared, when
WILLIAM HILL, the porter at the dissecting-rooms, King's College, begged to add to his former evidence, that when there was a delay in paying Bishop and May for the body, the former said to Mr. Partridge, Give me what money you have got in your purse, and I will call for the remainder on Monday. It was very unusual for persons selling dead bodies to go away with part payment only, unless something was wrong; they generally wait for their money.
The room was then cleared, and at half-past ten o'clock the Jury came to the following verdict:--
We find a verdict of WILFUL MURDER against some person or persons unknown; and the Jury beg to add to the above verdict, that the evidence produced before them has excited very strong suspicions in their minds against the prisoners Bishop and Williams, and they trust that a strict inquiry will be made into the case by the Police Magistrates.
We understand that Mr. Corder received directions from the Home Office to forward the result of the examination before the Coroner to the Secretary of State, as soon as it should be made known; and it was further stated, that a reward would be forthwith offered for such evidence as might tend to fix the crime upon the guilty parties. The prisoners still remained in custody on the charge, namely, suspicion of murder, for which they were brought to Bow-street on the previous Saturday night; and Mr. Minshull, before whom the examination then took place, expressed his determination to pursue the inquiry to the utmost.
Previously to entering into any further statement of the measures adopted for obtaining the necessary evidence to bring the commission of the crime home to the accused parties, we may be allowed to offer a few reflections on the indelible disgrace which is attached to this country, by the tacit encouragement which is given to the horrid vocation of the resurrectionists, and which has now become such a settled system, that not only the sanctuary of the grave is violated, but human life is sported with as if the laws had no restraining hand upon the criminals, and they were to be allowed, in the open face of day, to carry on their murderous trade, in defiance of humanity, religion, and the laws. Would it be credited, were it not obviously true, that after the discovery of such till then unheard-of depravity as that exhibited in the crimes of Burke and Hare, two years should elapse without any measure being adopted by the Legislature to amend the system which tempts to such horrors, and that the subject should be forgotten until similar atrocities are repeated in the metropolis of the kingdom, at the very source of legislation, and under the very eye of a police supposed to be the most efficient in Europe? People talk, or rather used to talk, of some species of crime not being English--Alas! that England should now stand indelibly stained by guilt of so foul, so unnatural a blackness, that all other 'detested sins' which, when exposed, 'stood bare and naked, trembling at themselves,' compared with this, are blanched into the complexion of natural, perhaps generous impulses, culpable only in their misdirection and excess! It seems reserved for the British schools of anatomy to offer a premium for murder not prompted by passion, not provoked by injury, not justified even to the murderer by revenge, but premeditated with cold, diabolical, mercantile calculation, as to the price which will be given for the corpse of the victim.
The depravation of the actors of these crimes appears to us almost inexplicable. It has been said, that all are not men who bear the form of men; and the resurrectionist, in his horrid vocation, bears no alliance to humanity; 'the common damned shun his society;' but can we acquit of blood guiltiness, those who having authority to legislate on the subject, and knowing such practices to exist, try not every possible means, and we may almost say impossible ones, to prevent them? There existed formerly in Portugal an officer of state whose duty it was to ask pardon formally for every person condemned to death, whatever were the nature and number of his offences. It is recorded, that when the officer was interceding, as usual, in favour of a person condemned to die for his twentieth murder, the king refused the pardon asked, on the plea that the number of the crimes rendered the criminal an object unfit for mercy. 'He is as fit an object now, replied the officer, as he was at first. He is only guilty of the first murder: your Majesty, by overlooking that, is responsible for all the others.'
The senseless clamour which was raised against Mr. Warburton's Bill, on account of the pain which it would cause to the feelings of a few paupers, provokes us to wish, that all those who excited it may be haunted with the anguish of that unutterable dread which led Mr. Hare to view the body of the murdered stranger boy, in the horrid expectation that it might be that of his lost son. In regard to the outrage on the feelings of the pauper, we suspect that, were a law to be enacted, giving the body of every pauper, not claimed by any relative, for dissection, it would have a very salutary effect in thinning the workhouses of a number of paupers, who throw themselves on the parish as being too idle to work, and who would never think of entering a workhouse if they thought dissection was to be their fate after death.
We shall have occasion, in the progress of this work, to enter more fully into the important question of the great encouragement which is given to murder by the facility with which the corpse is disposed of to the hospitals and the dissecting-rooms; and therefore, for the present, we shall merely ask, whether a study carried on by means, which, setting the murders out of the question, deteriorate the moral sense, has prolonged life beyond the limits of human existence in the days of Galen and Hippocrates? Whether, if it have, a degree of science sufficient for general utility might not be obtained from those perfect representations in wax of the internal machinery of the human frame, such as are found on the Continent, and from bodies which might be legitimately obtained? And whether, if the answer be in the negative, the preservation of the perishable part of one being for a few days longer than it might otherwise enjoy or suffer, be not too dearly purchased by the depravation of the spirit which is to live for ever? Perish the science of prolonging life, if we are constrained to maintain it at such a cost!
From the day on which the Coroner's inquest terminated, to the 18th of November, Mr. Corder was most actively employed in obtaining that information which could trace the commission of the murder to the four men who stood charged with the crime; and, on the above day, they were brought to the Public Office, Bow Street, and placed at the bar, before Mr. Minshull, the presiding magistrate, who was assisted by Dr. Robinson and Mr. Mallard, county magistrates, and Mr. Swabey, late of Union Hall. The office was crowded to excess long before the examination commenced, and the greatest anxiety was exhibited to get a view of the prisoners, and hear the evidence produced against them. The bench was also crowded by gentlemen, many of whom were surgeons.
Mr. CORDER, who appeared on behalf of the Parish of St. Paul's, Covent-garden, said, he should, in the first instance, call evidence to show that the prisoners had not met in the manner they had described when before the Coroner's jury, and with this view he called
HENRY LOCKER, who deposed that on Friday, the 4th of November, instant, he was waiter at the Fortune of War public-house, in Giltspur-street. He knew the prisoners, who used to frequent that house. Bishop, May, and Williams called in between eleven and twelve o'clock on Friday morning, and had something to drink; they remained in the tap-room about an hour and a half, and then went away. They returned about three o'clock, and remained until it was dusk, when they went away again, and came back again at eight o'clock or past. They had with them a strange man, who appeared to be a hackney-coachman. They said they had had a ride, and went into the tap-room and had something to drink. Shortly after, the prisoner May came out of the tap-room and went to the bar. He had a handkerchief in his hand, which seemed to contain something. He poured some hot water on the handkerchief, and began to wipe its contents, which proved to be human teeth. Witness remarked that they seemed to be the teeth of a young person, and that they were worth something. May answered, that they were as good to him as two pounds. The prisoners and the other man soon after went away. On the following morning (Saturday), Bishop, Williams, and Shields called again, and had some beer to drink. Bishop asked what they should do for a hamper, and Williams said, there was one inside the railings of the hospital (Bartholomew's). The prisoner Shields went and fetched it, and all three went away.
Mr. MINSHULL asked the witness to describe May's dress when he first saw him.
WITNESS.--I do not exactly remember.
Prisoner MAY.--How can you tell the hour when you first saw me?
WITNESS.--Although I cannot speak to your dress, I am certain as to the hour.
The WITNESS, in reply to a question by Mr. Minshull, said, that when May was engaged in washing the teeth, he had on a dark-coloured smock-frock.
Mr. CORDER said, that as it was not intended on this examination to offer any evidence with respect to the exchange of clothes in Field-lane, it was not very material as to the dress of the prisoner. With respect to that circumstance, evidence would be produced on a future occasion.
JAMES SEAGROVE, the cabriolet driver, who gave evidence before the coroner, was again called forward. He stated, that on the Friday evening, about six o'clock, being at tea in a watering-house in the Old Bailey, he was called out to the prisoners Bishop and May. The latter asked him if he wanted a job, and added, 'I want you to carry a stiff un,' adding, 'we will stand a guinea for it.' Witness declined the job, and left the prisoners apparently making a bargain with a hackney-coachman.
Mr. MINSHULL asked the prisoners if they wished to put any questions to the witness.
MAY.--No: the man answers perfectly correct.
THOMAS TAVERNOR, the waterman at the stand in the Old Bailey, proved, that he was directed by two men to call out the last witness from the Watering-house: they said, they wanted to hire his cab. Witness, however, could not identify the man, as the night was dark.
Mr. MINSHULL asked, if the men were carrying anything, and whether the witness saw the coach in which they drove off?
The WITNESS replied, that the men were not carrying anything when he saw them, and he did not see in what manner they left the place, for he went away as soon as he had called the witness Seagrove.
GEORGE GISSING, a boy about fifteen, proved that he was the son of a publican, who lived in Birdcage-walk, Bethnal-green. On Friday evening, between six and seven o'clock, he was standing at his father's door, when he saw a yellow-bodied chariot stop at the corner of Nova Scotia-gardens. The prisoners, Bishop, May, and Williams, jumped out of it, and the two former went up Nova Scotia gardens; they were dressed in smock-frocks, and May had a pipe in his mouth. Williams, who had on a light fustian jacket, remained leaning against the fore-wheel of the chariot, in conversation with the coachman. Bishop and May returned in a short time, carrying a sack containing something heavy. May had the sack on his back, and Bishop was holding it up behind; the sack was placed in the chariot, and after the prisoners had taken their places, it drove off through Crabtree-row, in the direction of Shoreditch Church.
THOMAS TRADER, another boy about the same age as the last witness, gave similar evidence, having seen everything which Gissing had witnessed. Mrs. Cannell, who was also present, told witness that something strange was going forward, and she told him to go down the gardens and watch the motions of the two men (May and Bishop), but witness declined to do so.
ANN CANNELL corroborated the statement of the last witness, and added, that she saw two men jump out of the coach. They both wore dark smock-frocks, and one of them had a pipe in his mouth. (The witness was here directed to look well at the prisoners Bishop and May, and after doing so, she declared that she could not identify them as the two men whom she had so seen.) The last witness stood by, and she (witness) said to him, 'This looks strange; see where they are going so quick.' The lad replied, 'I am sure I won't go after them, for if I did, they would not mind giving me a topper.' The coachman never got off his box until the men returned, and this circumstance excited her suspicions the more.
JOHN CHAPMAN, having been sworn, stated that he was porter at Guy's Hospital. At seven o'clock on the evening of Friday, the 4th instant, the two prisoners, Bishop and May, drove to the Hospital in a hackney-coach or chariot. They came to his (witness') lodge, and he let them in. They had a sack with them, which the shorter man (Bishop) carried. Witness did not know what the sack contained: they went towards the dissecting-room.
By Dr. ROBINSON.--The sack appeared to contain something heavy. It is usual for coaches to draw up to the gate of the Hospital, and no questions are asked. I knew the persons of the men before, but did not know their names.
BISHOP.--Now, John, are you certain that it was I who carried the sack?
WITNESS.--Yes, I am.
MAY.--Why it was I who carried the sack, and not Bishop. It is a matter of no moment, but it only shows how careful men ought to be when on their oath.
JAMES DAVIS, the porter to the dissecting-room at Guy's Hospital, repeated the evidence which he gave before the Coroner, as to the body having been offered for sale to him, by Bishop and May, on the night of Friday; and after he had declined to purchase it, Bishop requested him to take charge of it all night, which he did. Witness observed a human foot protruding from the sack, (a previous witness has sworn that it was the knee,) and from the size of the foot he concluded, that the subject was either a youth or a female. The body was removed from the Hospital on the following morning, James Weeks, the assistant porter, having delivered it to May and Bishop. Witness saw them both at the Hospital in the morning, in company with the prisoner Shields, and another man.
JAMES WEEKS, the person referred to, proved that he delivered the body to May and Bishop. When they were at the Hospital the previous night, May said, 'The fact is, the subject belongs to Bishop and not to me.' Witness was positive that when May and Bishop came for the body in the morning, the prisoners, Shields and Williams, accompanied them.
MAY.--When we were going to leave 'the thing,' did not Bishop say it belonged to him?
WITNESS.--No, not to my knowledge.
Mr. MINSHULL.--Had anything been said that you remember?
WITNESS.--Yes; May said, 'Don't let the subject go, unless I am here with Bishop.' Bishop said so likewise.
JAMES DAVIS recalled.--I don't recollect that May said, Don't let the body go; but some conversation having passed to that effect, the impression that it left upon my mind was, that the body was not to be removed from the Hospital, unless both prisoners were present.
JOHN APPLETON, porter to Mr. Grainger's Theatre of Anatomy, Webb-street, Borough, proved, that on Friday night, after May and Bishop had left Guy's, they came and asked if he wanted a subject. Witness answered in the negative, and they went away.