Part 8
It will be remembered that, previously to the final committal to Newgate of Bishop, Williams, and May, for the murder of the Italian boy, the entire dress of a woman was found in the privy of the house adjoining to that which Bishop and Williams occupied at the time of their apprehension. The articles so found were, on Saturday, the 26th of November, fully identified as having belonged to a poor woman named Frances Pigburn, who suddenly disappeared about six weeks ago; and a warrant, charging Bishop and Williams with her murder, was lodged in Newgate on the evening of that day. Mr. Thomas was since that time unremitting in his exertions to procure additional evidence; and on Monday night Michael Shields, the porter, who was discharged from custody on the previous Friday, came to Mr. Thomas at the station-house; and having declared that he wished to do all in his power to forward the ends of justice, made a voluntary statement, which Mr. Thomas took down in writing, and of which the following is the substance:--
He said he was employed by Bishop and Williams early in the morning of Sunday, the 9th of October last, to go, along with Bishop's sister (Rhoda Head, alias Williams), into the Borough to carry a trunk. Bishop and Williams called upon him at his lodgings in Eagle-street, Red Lion-square, and called him up. He then accompanied them to Bishop's house in Nova Scotia Gardens, and when he got there, Bishop placed a trunk upon his knot. It was the same trunk which Mr. Thomas produced at Bow-street, in the late inquiry. They all left Nova Scotia Gardens together, namely, Bishop, Williams, Mrs. Williams and himself, and proceeded to St. Thomas's Hospital in the Borough. Bishop and Williams walked on one side of the way, and Mrs. Williams walked by the side of informant, carrying a band-box, tied up in a handkerchief, for the purpose, as informant verily believes, of giving the journey the appearance of a servant going to her situation. On arriving at St. Thomas's Hospital, he was joined by Bishop and Williams, and they entered the hospital together, while Mrs. Williams stopped outside. The trunk having been deposited in the hospital, they all went together to a public-house to have some refreshment. Bishop, not being able to sell the body at St. Thomas's Hospital, resolved on going to Mr. Grainger's dissecting-rooms, and he (Shields) walked with him, leaving the trunk behind. When they reached Mr. Grainger's anatomical theatre, Bishop held a private conference with Mr. Appleton, the porter to the dissecting-rooms, which lasted a few minutes. They then returned to St. Thomas's hospital, and fetched the trunk from thence to Mr. Grainger's rooms. On arriving there, Bishop took a body from the trunk for Mr. Appleton's inspection. It was that of a middle-aged female. It was a particularly fresh subject, and had not the appearance of a body taken from a grave. There was no dirt upon it, and informant observed, that the hair of the corpse was dark and short, and that the subject altogether was thin, and remarkably light in weight. Mrs. Williams was not present then, but remained at the public-house as a kind of pledge for what was drank, until the money should be procured. Mr. Appleton and Bishop bargained for some short time, and a price being agreed on, Mr. Appleton paid Bishop part of the money, and promised to pay the remainder on the following day. Gin was then sent for, and Mr. Appleton and all of them partook of it. Bishop, Williams and informant then went back to the public-house, and found Mrs. Williams crying, on account of her having been questioned about the reckoning. Bishop went into a great rage, and paid it, saying he never would enter the house again, nor should any of his friends. They then went away together, and returned over London-bridge as far as Bishopsgate-street, and had some gin at a public-house there, where coaches stopped. Bishop paid for the gin, and informant then went away. Mrs. Williams still retained possession of the band-box, and it was just in the same state as when she took it from home. Bishop paid informant ten shillings for the job, and said if that did not satisfy him, he might have more to-morrow.
Shields, having made this statement, said he was so frightened when in custody, that he did not know what to say, and was fearful if he let slip any thing it might implicate himself. He now, however, wished to atone, as far as lay in his power, for the part which he had taken in that and the other transactions.
Mr. THOMAS, perceiving that the statement of Shields corresponded not only with the time of the disappearance of Fanny Pigburn, (she having been seen last alive on the night of the 8th of October, and Shields dating the above transaction on the 9th,) but also with the description of her age and personal appearance, as described by her sister, and other witnesses, felt that the information was important, and that Mrs. Williams was sufficiently implicated in the transaction to warrant her apprehension. He accordingly proceeded to Newgate on Tuesday the 29th of November, and having taken her into custody there, while she was waiting to see her husband, immediately conveyed her to Bow-street police-office, and charged her before Mr. Minshull, as an accessary after the fact, in the wilful murder of Frances Pigburn, adding, that he took the prisoner into custody, in the lodge at Newgate, about half an hour before; and that, on a future day, he expected to produce further evidence against her.
The prisoner wept bitterly while the clerk was writing down the charge against her, and when it was entered,
Mr. MINSHULL asked her if she wished to say any thing, at the same time cautioning her that whatever she said would be taken down in writing, and might be made evidence against her.
The prisoner replied, 'I thank you, sir, but I want to say what I know--I wish to speak the truth. She went on to say, that her father (meaning Bishop, but there must be here some mistake in the report, for Mrs. Williams is the sister of Bishop, not his daughter) called her up on Sunday morning at six o'clock, about six or seven weeks ago. They were then living at No. 3, Nova Scotia gardens. He asked her if she would carry a bandbox for him; she asked in reply, where did he want her to take it? He replied to the Borough. She then went along with Bishop, her husband and Shields over London bridge, and when they got a little way over the bridge they came to a public-house, and Bishop told her to go in there and wait until they returned. They came again in about half an hour, and then they went together to another public-house, and had a pot of half and half, and some pipes. There was no money to pay the reckoning, and her father left her there, and told her to stop until he should return. He came back and paid for the beer, and then they all went to Bishopsgate-street, and called for some gin in a public house there. Shields then left Bishop, her husband and herself, and, after that, they all went home together. The prisoner added, that is all I wish to say. I have nothing more to add.
Mr. MINSHULL.--It will be my duty to commit you for further examination upon this charge, to this day fortnight.
Mr. THOMAS said, he thought he should be able to produce further evidence in a week.
Mr. MINSHULL.--Then let the re-examination of the prisoner stand for this day week. As the prisoner was about to be removed, Mr. Thomas said, he believed she had not had any food that day, and as she was now about to leave his custody, he hoped that she would be allowed some refreshment.
Mr. MINSHULL.--Most certainly; the jailer shall provide her with what is necessary. No prisoner shall want food, whilst I sit here as a magistrate.
The prisoner was then removed in custody.
While these proceedings were carrying on, the public alarm was increasing in every direction; the medical profession was visited with the most severe, and we think, unjust indignation, inasmuch as it was believed to be the secret encourager of a system by which human life was sacrificed with the most heartless indifference, and the detection of the crime became a matter of extreme difficulty, almost amounting to impossibility, on account of the secrecy with which the proceedings are carried on in the hospitals and the private dissecting-rooms. It is at once evident that, from the present mode of supplying subjects for dissection, no man's life is secure. The murderer may disguise his victim by laying out, and for a time burying the corpse, by cutting off the hair, or by knocking out the teeth, and then his market is as safe as it is sure; or, if the assassin be more timid than usual, he has only to dismember the subject, and the sale by piecemeal will turn in an equal profit, and defy detection.
This is a state of danger to the public, the toleration of which would be criminal. The medical profession must arouse from its equivocal silence, and take such measures as may prevent its being, in a secondary sense, accessary to murder.
That the medical profession feel sore at the imputations which are cast upon them is not to be wondered at, and they very industriously throw the blame upon the existing laws, which, on account of their pretended impolicy, are themselves the cause of the different murders which have been committed, for the purpose of supplying the anatomical schools with subjects for the pupil. Thus Dr. Southwood Smith, in concluding that branch of his lectures on forensic medicine, which includes the extinction of life by intentional human agency, and illustrating the several points which demand the attention of the medical witness, on the examination of the body after death, from poisoning, drowning, hanging, strangulation, bruises and wounds, adverted to the real position in which the medical profession and the public are placed by the present state of the law relative to the study of anatomy, and after drawing a strong picture of the consequences that would result to the community, from the general neglect of this pursuit by the profession, spoke nearly as follows:--
'You dare not practise without a knowledge of anatomy,--you cannot prescribe for a patient, you cannot undertake the management of any surgical or medical case without a direct violation of the law, until you have adduced, before legally appointed authorities, evidence that you have studied anatomy with such effect, as to be able to stand a searching examination. But the same law that makes it imperative on you to study anatomy, in order to acquire a legal right to practise your profession, renders the possession of the means of pursuing the study illegal. Human anatomy cannot be known without the dissection of the human body, yet the possession of a body that has been exhumed, for the purpose of dissection (no body except that of the murderer being obtainable in any other mode) is penal. So that you are to be punished for not conforming to a law, which you cannot qualify yourself for obeying without breaking! Did ever any civilized country witness such a situation as that in which the law has placed you and the public? It has contrived to raise the price of a dead body to such a height, as absolutely and appallingly to endanger the safety of the living. Of this danger, both the public and the legislature have been long and earnestly warned. Several years ago, before any instance of the actual perpetration of the crime had been discovered, the temptation and the consequent danger were fully brought to view in a pamphlet, entitled "The Use of the Dead to the Living." Investigation was set on foot, a parliamentary inquiry was obtained, the medical profession performed its duty in the fullest manner, and stated, without reserve, all the odiousness and all the danger of exhumation. It laid open the true character of the hardened and the desperate men engaged in this employment. It had not yet occurred to those men, that it might be more easy to murder the living than disturb the dead, but the possibility of the occurrence of such a thought, and the probability of their acting upon it, were distinctly foretold. Over and over again it was stated, that the price always to be obtained for a subject, from ten to fifteen guineas, was a temptation to murder not likely to be resisted, and with an earnest voice the profession implored that this risk might be no longer incurred. The administration was impressed--the public was excited--something was promised--a little was attempted, but nothing was done. Then came on the Edinburgh horrors; and now we are thrown into a state of intense alarm, lest the same horrors should be perpetrated, and are perpetrating, at our own doors. And knowing this, it is said, it behoves the teacher and the medical profession in general to be extremely cautious, to examine with the utmost vigilance, whether any thing suspicious appear, and if it do, to investigate it to the bottom; and that it is now become an imperative duty, there can be no more question than there can be that it will be faithfully and rigidly observed in all schools, and throughout the profession. But when you come seriously to consider what it is in the power of the anatomist and physiologist to do--when, from the preceding statements, you see the utmost they can do, the truth is not more true than it is dreadful. If then it be made worth while to pursue murder as a trade, it can be carried on to a prodigious extent without detection. But men, even the desperate men, called body-snatchers, will not murder without a motive; but they will murder upon system, and to an extent to which no limit can be fixed, if the temptation be great, and the chance of escape considerable. It is in vain to look for protection to the law--no law can restrain them; no punishment will deter them:--the only effectual remedy is the removal of the temptation, the taking away of the motive, by rendering the dead body so cheap, as to be in fact without value as an article of sale; and the mode of doing this is simple. All that is necessary is, to repeal the existing law, which renders it illegal to possess a dead body for the purpose of dissection; and to enact a law, rendering the possession of a body for the purpose legal. Every thing would then be accomplished without exhumation, without danger, without any feeling being shocked, without any injury or indignity being done to any human creature. Those who from ignorance or childish prejudice--prejudice now confined to the highest and the lowest vulgar, raise a clamour against this and all similar expedients--assist and aid every future murder of this kind that may be committed, as really, though not as intentionally, as though they assisted at the strangulation.'
On this highly-interesting subject, and which now embraces the attention of all ranks of the community, we shall not be accused of diffuseness in giving the sentiments of another most celebrated surgeon, especially as many hints are there thrown out, by which the present system of obtaining dead bodies may altogether be exploded.
Mr. Brodie (for we ascribe the following remarks to him, although he has not affixed his name to them) says, 'Such is the importance of anatomy, that those who are engaged in the study of medicine and surgery will always endeavour to learn it, as far as it lies in their power to do so; and if subjects for dissection cannot be procured by decent and legal means, they will be procured by means that are indecent and illegal. The present system of procuring them by the robbery of churchyards, is attended with very great mischief in various ways. It disgusts and alarms not only the surviving friends, but the whole of society. Some are rendered miserable, because they know that the bodies of their friends have been stolen from the grave, and carried to the dissecting-room; and others, because they are apprehensive that the bodies of their friends may be served in the same manner. The men who are employed to exhume bodies are of the very worst description; they are outcasts of society, who being pointed at as resurrection-men, are unable to maintain themselves by any honest employment; and are thus driven to become thieves and house-breakers, because, when not actually employed in stealing bodies, they can do nothing better.
'The price of subjects at this moment is as high as eight, ten, or twelve guineas, and it has been as high as fifteen guineas. But many a person has been murdered for a much smaller sum than the least of these. Here then is an inducement to commit actual murder; and in addition to the mere gain, there is this further inducement, namely, that the murder is committed under circumstances peculiarly calculated to effect its concealment: as the bodies in the dissecting-room soon become disfigured, so that they cannot be recognized, it is not to be supposed that the teachers of anatomy, except under peculiar circumstances, can distinguish the bodies of those who die a natural death. It may be observed further, that it is impossible for the teachers to spare, from their other occupations, the time necessary to make an accurate examination of each individual subject that is brought into the dissecting-room, and that if such examinations were made, they would have the effect of preventing the students making some of the most important and useful dissections afterwards. The subjects must be handed over to the students untouched; the teachers and senior students may and ought to be as vigilant as possible, but it is equally absurd and unjust to suppose, that an absolute responsibility can rest upon them.
'The commission of murder for the purpose of obtaining subjects for the anatomical schools, is now found to be no imaginary evil. But the public need not be surprised that it has occurred. It has been foreseen by medical men, whose attention has been directed to these inquiries for some years, and the danger has been long ago pointed out to many members of the legislature; nor can all the activity of the police, nor all the watchfulness of the teachers of anatomy, prevent it recurring some time or other, if there be no easier method of supplying subjects for dissection, than that which is now resorted to, and if they continue, in consequence, to produce the enormous sum which they produce at present.
'One effect of the existing difficulty of procuring subjects in this country is, that a large proportion of medical students visit the Continent, and reside in Paris, or elsewhere, for the purpose of dissection. It may not be very creditable to us as a nation, that we should not possess among ourselves the means of instruction in so important a branch of knowledge as anatomy; but there is another and a stronger reason for lamenting the emigration of medical students. There is no class of society, in whose honour and integrity, and good principles, the public are so deeply interested, as in those of the medical profession. The members of it are admitted to a degree of confidence which is not given to any other individuals; circumstances are of necessity made known to them, which are not intended for the world, and the disclosure of which would, in many instances, destroy the peace of a family. They visit their fellow-creatures, labouring not only under the bodily, but the mental weakness of disease, and a depraved or dishonest person will easily convert those opportunities to some base purpose of self-advancement or self-gratification. We need not insult our neighbours by asserting that there is more vice in Paris than in London. Be that as it may, there is still good reason to suppose, that a number of young Englishmen are more likely to fall into vicious and dissipated habits in the former city than in the latter. Even if their parents reside in a distant county, they have in all probability relations, and at any rate they have acquaintance in London, and while in London, they are in constant communication with their families in the country, and they are in a greater or less degree under the _surveillance_ of their friends. But while they reside in Paris, these restraints are removed; they are left entirely to themselves, and that at a period of life when temptations are new to them, when their passions are strong, and when good counsel and good example are of more importance than at any other period, either earlier or later. Can any one regard this as a favourable condition for young men, who, in the subsequent part of life, are to have such trust reposed in them, as necessarily must be reposed in medical practitioners?
'Anatomical knowledge is necessary to a right understanding both of medicine and surgery. But the law declares that the having a dead body in your possession is a misdemeanour; and the judges lay it down as a maxim, that there is only one legal way of possessing a body for dissection, namely, by procuring that of a man hanged for murder. The anatomical students are compelled to deal with people who steal bodies from churchyards, and who are liable to be punished for so doing. But the College of Physicians, the College of Surgeons, and the Company of Apothecaries, all require that those who present themselves for examination, should have attended anatomical lectures, and should have performed dissections. Thus it appears, that the laws forbid the student to dissect, and the constituted authorities, under the sanction of the laws, require that he should dissect. The medical student, in the first instance, is persecuted on account of his endeavours to obtain knowledge; and afterwards, when he is engaged in practice, he is persecuted for not having obtained it, and, to make the inconsistency still greater, there is not an individual amongst those who make the laws, nor amongst those by whom they are administered, who hesitates, when his life is in danger, to apply for assistance to those individuals, who would not have it in their power to relieve him, if they had not devoted a considerable portion of their lives to these forbidden studies.
'But it is to no purpose to point out the evils which exist, unless it can be shown at the same time that those evils admit of being removed. The next question then is, how can a more abundant supply of subjects be procured, in a manner less offensive to the community?
'As the laws are now construed by the law authorities, the possession of a body for the purpose of dissection, is in itself a misdemeanour, except it be that of a person hanged for murder. The first thing then to be done, is to declare, by an act of the legislature, that dissection, for the purpose of procuring knowledge, that may be useful in medicine and surgery, is legal and proper.
'2. That a dead body should be dissected, is of no consequence to the individual who is no more, but a knowledge of it being so may be distressing to the feelings of the sorrowing friends and relations.
'This sufficiently points out what are the proper subjects for dissection; namely, the bodies of those who die without any friends or relations. In small towns and villages, probably, there are none who die under those circumstances; but in large cities, and especially in the metropolis, there are a great number. Whoever will take the trouble of referring to the Anatomical Committee, will find that, in London, the number of those amount to many more than would be required for the supply of all the anatomical schools. These bodies are now buried at the expense of the public; and, if authorised to do so, the churchwardens and overseers would, in most instances, readily give them up to the teachers of anatomy.