Part 9

Examination continued: After this interruption the opening of the stomach was pursued. The stomach contained about three ounces of a brownish fluid. There was nothing particular in that. Palmer was looking on, and said, “They won’t hang us yet.” He said that to Mr. Bamford in a loud whisper. That remark was made upon his own observation of the stomach. The stomach, after being emptied, was put into the jar. The intestines were then examined, but nothing particular was found in them. They were contracted and very small. The viscera, with their contents, as taken from the body, were placed in the jar, which was then covered over with two bladders, which were tied and sealed. I tied and sealed them. After I had done so I placed the jar upon the table by the body. Palmer was then moving about the room. In a few minutes I missed the jar from where I had placed it. During that time my attention had been withdrawn by the examination. On missing the jar I called out, “Where’s the jar?” and Palmer, from the other end of the room, said, “It is here; I thought it would be more convenient for you to take away.” There was a door at the end of the room where he was. He was within a yard or two of that door, and about 24 feet from the table on which the body was lying. [Before making this last statement the witness referred to a plan of the room which was put in by the Attorney-General.] The door near which Palmer was standing was not the one by which he had entered the room. I called to Palmer, “Will you bring it here?” I went from the table and met Palmer half way coming with the jar. The jar had, since I last saw it, been cut through both bladders. The cut was hardly an inch long. It had been done with a sharp instrument. I examined the cut. The edges were quite clean. No part of the contents of the jar could have passed through it. Finding this cut, I said, “Here is a cut; who has done this?” Palmer, and Mr. Devonshire, and Mr. Newton all said that they had not done it, and nothing more was said about it. When I was about to remove the jar from the room, the prisoner asked me what I was going to do with it. I said I should take it to Mr. Frere’s. He said, “I had rather you would take it to Stafford than take it there.” I made no answer that I remember. I took it to Mr. Frere’s house. After doing so, I returned to the Talbot Arms. I left the jar in Mr. Frere’s hall, tied and sealed. Immediately upon finding the slit in the cover, I cut the strings and altered the bladders, so that the slits were not over the top of the jar. I resealed them. After going to Mr. Frere’s I went to the Talbot Arms. I went into the yard to order my carriage, and while I was waiting for it the prisoner came across to me. He asked me what I had done with the jar. I told him that I had left it at Mr. Frere’s. He inquired what would be done with it, and I said it would go either to Birmingham or London that night for examination. I do not recollect that he made any reply. When I re-covered the jar, I tied each cover separately, and sealed it with my own seal. During the first _post-mortem_ examination there were several Rugeley persons present, but I believe no one on behalf of the prisoner. At the second examination there was some one there on behalf of Palmer.

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant SHEE: In the course of the _post-mortem_ examination Palmer said, “They won’t hang us yet.” I am not sure whether that observation was addressed to Dr. Bamford, or whether he prefaced it by the word “Doctor.” I think that he first said it to Dr. Bamford in a loud whisper, and afterwards repeated it to several persons. I had said to him that I had heard that there was a suspicion of poisoning. I made notes in pencil at the time of the _post-mortem_, and I wrote a more formal report from those notes as soon as I got home. The original pencil notes are destroyed. I sent the fair copy to Mr. Stevens, Cook’s father-in-law, the same evening. They were not produced before the coroner. At the base of the tongue of the deceased I observed some enlarged mucous follicles; they were not pustules containing matter, but enlarged mucous follicles of long standing. There were a good many of them, but I do not suppose that they would occasion much inconvenience. They might cause some degree of pain, but I think that it would be slight. I do not believe that they were enlarged glands. I should not say that deceased’s lungs were diseased, though they were not in their normal state. The lungs were full of blood and the heart empty. I had no lens at the _post-mortem_, but I made an examination which was satisfactory to me, without one. The brain was carefully taken out; the membranes and external parts were first examined, and thin slices of about a quarter of an inch in thickness were taken off and subjected to separate examination. I think by that means we should have discovered disease if any had existed; and if there had been any indication of disease, I should have examined it more carefully. I examined the spinal cord as far down as possible, and if there had been any appearance of disease I should have opened the canal. There was no appearance of disease, however. We opened down to the first vertebra. If we had found a softening of the spinal cord, I do not think that it would have been sufficient to have caused Cook’s death; certainly not. A softening of the spinal cord would not produce tetanus--it might produce paralysis. I do not think, as a medical man investigating the cause of death, that it was necessary carefully to examine the spinal cord. I do not know who suggested that there should be an examination of the spinal cord two months after death. There were some appearances of decomposition when we examined the spinal cord, but I do not think that there was sufficient to interfere with our examination. I examined the body to ascertain if there was any trace of venereal disease. I did find certain indications of that description, and the marks of an old excoriation, which were cicatriced over.

Re-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL: There were no indications of wounds or sores such as could by possibility produce _tetanus_. There was no disease of the lungs to account for death. The heart was healthy, and its emptiness I attribute to spasmodic action. The heart being empty, of course death ensued. The convulsive spasmodic action of the muscles of the body, which was deposed to yesterday by Mr. Jones, would, in my judgment, occasion the emptiness of the heart. There was nothing whatever in the brain to indicate the presence of any disease of any sort; but if there had been, I never heard or read of any disease of the brain ever producing tetanus. There was no relaxation of the spinal cord which would account for the symptoms accompanying Mr. Cook’s death, as they have been described. In fact, there was no relaxation of the spinal cord at all, and there is no disease of the spinal cord with which I am acquainted, that would produce tetanus.

Mr. CHARLES JAMES DEVONSHIRE, undergraduate of University of London, late assistant to Dr. Monckton, examined by Mr. HUDDLESTON: I made the first _post-mortem_ examination of the body of Mr. Cook in November last. The body was pale and stiff; the hands were clinched, and the mouth was contorted. I opened the body. The liver was very healthy. The heart also seemed healthy, but it was perfectly empty. The lungs contained a considerable quantity of dark fluid blood. The blood was perfectly fluid. The brain was healthy throughout. I examined the _medulla oblongata_, and about a quarter or half an inch of the spinal cord. It was perfectly sound. I took out the stomach, and opened it with a pair of scissors. I put the contents in a jar, which was taken to Mr. Frere’s, the surgeon. I obtained the jar from Mr. Frere’s on Monday, in the same state as it was before, and I gave it Mr. Boycott, clerk to Mr. Gardner, the attorney. I examined the body again on the 29th, and took out the liver, kidneys, spleen, and some blood. I put them in a stone jar, which I covered with washleather and brown paper, and sealed up. I delivered that jar also to Boycott. Palmer said at the examination that we should find syphilis upon the deceased. I therefore examined the parts carefully, and found no indications of the sort. I also took out the throat. The _papillæ_ were slightly enlarged, but they were natural, and one of the tonsils was shrunk.

Cross-examined by Mr. GROVE, Q.C.--Tetanic convulsions are considered to proceed from derangement of the spine, and from complaints that affect the spine. These derangements are not always capable of being detected by examination. In examining the body of a person supposed to have died from tetanus, the spinal cord would be the first organ looked to. About half an inch of the spinal cord, exterior to the aperture of the cranium, was examined on the first occasion. I was not present when the granules were discovered on the second examination. The learned counsel was proceeding to cross-examine this witness upon some minute points of a scientific nature, when

Baron ALDERSON, interposing, said,--When you have all the medical men in London here, you had better not examine an undergraduate of the University of London upon such points, I should think.

Dr. MONCKTON, examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I am a physician in practice, and reside at Rugeley. On the 28th of January I made a _post-mortem_ examination of the spinal cord and marrow of the deceased, J. P. Cook. I found the muscles of the trunk in a state of laxity, which I should attribute to the decay of the body which had set in; but that laxity would not be at all inconsistent, in my opinion, with a great rigidity of those muscles at the time of death. The muscles of the arms and legs were in a state of rigidity, but they were not more rigid than usual in dead bodies. The muscles of the arms had partially flexed the fingers of the hand. The feet were turned inwards to a much greater extent than usual. I carefully examined the spinal cord. The body was then in such a condition as to enable me to make a satisfactory examination of it; and if prior to death there had been any disease of a normal character on the spinal cord and marrow, I should have had no difficulty in detecting it. There was no disease. I discovered certain granules upon it. It is difficult to account for their origin, but they are frequently found in persons of advanced age. I never knew them to occasion sudden death. I agree entirely with the evidence which has been given by Dr. Harland.

This witness was not cross-examined.

Mr. JOHN BOYCOTT, examined by Mr. WELSBY: I am clerk to Messrs. Landor, Gardner, and Landor, attorneys at Rugeley. On the 26th of last November, I received a jar from Mr. Devonshire, covered with leather and brown paper, and sealed up. I took it to London, and delivered it on the next day to Dr. Taylor, at Guy’s Hospital. On a subsequent day I received another jar, similarly secured, from Mr. Devonshire, and I also brought that to London and delivered it to Dr. Taylor. I was not present at the inquest on Cook’s body, and did not fetch Newton to be examined there. On Tuesday last, when at the Rugeley station, previous to my departure for London, Newton came and made a communication to me. He knew that Mr. Gardner was not there; and when we reached London I took him to Mr. Gardner, and heard him make the same communication to Mr. Gardner which he had made before to me.

This witness was not cross-examined.

JAMES MYATT, examined by Mr. JAMES: In November last I was postboy at the Talbot Arms at Rugeley. I know Palmer, the prisoner, and I remember Monday, the 26th of November last. I was ordered on that night, a little after five o’clock, to take Mr. Stevens to the Stafford station in a fly. Before I started I went home to get my tea, and on returning from my tea to the Talbot Arms I met the prisoner. He asked me if I was going to drive Mr. Stevens to Stafford. I told him I was.

What did he say to you then?--He asked me if I would upset them.

“Them?” Had anything been said about a jar?--He said he supposed I was going to take the jar.

What did you say then?--I said I believed I was.

What did he say after that?--He said, “Do you think you could upset them?”

What answer did you make?--I told him “No.”

Did he say anything more?--He said, “If you could, there’s a £10 note for you.” (Sensation.)

What did you say to that?--I told him I could not. I then said, “I must go, the horses are in the fly ready for us to start.” I do not recollect that he said anything more about the jar. I said, that if I didn’t go, somebody else would go. He told me not to be in a hurry, for if anybody else went he would pay me. I saw him again next morning, when I was going to breakfast. He asked me then who went with the fly. I told him Mr. Stevens, and, I believed, one of Mr. Gardner’s clerks.

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant SHEE: Were not the words that Palmer used, “I wouldn’t mind giving £10 to break Stevens’s neck.” I don’t recollect the words “break his neck.”

Well, “upset him.” Did he say, “I wouldn’t mind giving £10 to upset him?”--Yes; I believe those were the words. I do not know that Palmer appeared to have been drinking. I don’t recollect that he had. I can’t say that he used any epithet, applied to Stevens: he said it was a humbugging concern altogether, or something of that. I don’t recollect that he said Stevens was a troublesome fellow, and very inquisitive. I don’t remember anything more than I have said. I do not know whether there was more than one jar.

SAMUEL CHESHIRE, formerly postmaster at Rugeley, who has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for tampering with letters in connexion with this affair, was brought up in custody, and examined by Mr. JAMES. He is an extremely respectable looking man, above the middle age, and was dressed in black. He deposed as follows:--I was for upward of eight years postmaster at Rugeley. I come now from Newgate, where I am under sentence for having “read” a letter. [The question was “opened” a letter.] I “confessed” to having done so. [The question was, “Did you plead guilty to that charge?”] I knew the prisoner William Palmer very well--we were schoolfellows together; and I have been three or four times in my life at races with him. I never made a bet but once in my life; but I was very intimate with Palmer. I accompanied him to Shrewsbury Races in November, 1855. I returned to Rugeley on Tuesday, the 13th, the same day on which Polestar won the handicap. On Saturday, the 17th, I went to see Mr. Cook, who was in bed at the Talbot Arms, at Rugeley. I lived at the post-office, which was 300 or 400 yards from Palmer’s house. On the Tuesday evening, the 20th, I received a message from Palmer, asking me to go over to him, and to take a receipt stamp with me. In consequence of that message, I went to Palmer’s house, and took a receipt stamp, as requested. When I reached Palmer’s, I found him in his sitting-room. He said that he wanted me to write out a cheque, and he produced a copy, from which he said I was to write. I copied the document which he produced. He said that it related to money which Mr. Cook owed him; and he asked me to write it, because, he said, Cook was too ill to do it, and Weatherby would know his (Palmer’s) handwriting. He said that when I had written it he would take it over to Mr. Cook to sign. I then wrote as he requested me, and I left the paper with Palmer.

Mr. WEATHERBY was here called, in order to trace this document. In answer to Mr. JAMES, he said: I am secretary to the Jockey Club, and my establishment is at Birmingham. I keep a sort of banking account, and receive stakes for gentlemen who own racers and bet. I knew the deceased, John Parsons Cook, who had an account of that nature with me. I knew Palmer slightly; he had no such account with me. On the 21st of November I received a cheque or order upon our house for £350. It came by post. I sent it back two days afterwards--on Friday, the 23rd. I sent it back by post to Palmer, the prisoner, at Rugeley.

BOYCOTT was recalled, and proved that he had served notices upon the prisoner, and upon Mr. Smith, his attorney, to produce the “cheque or order” referred to; and that it had not been produced in pursuance of those notices.

Prisoner’s counsel did not now produce it.

Examination of Samuel Cheshire continued: As far as I can remember, what I wrote was, “Pay to Mr. William Palmer the sum of £350, and place it to my account.” I do not remember whether I put any date to it. I left it with Palmer, and went away. That was on Tuesday. On the Thursday or Friday following Palmer sent again for me. I do not remember what day it was, but it was after I had heard of the death of Mr. Cook at the Talbot Arms. I went to Palmer in the evening, between six and seven o’clock, in consequence of his having sent for me. When I arrived I found him in the kitchen, and he immediately went out, and shortly after returned with a quarto sheet of paper in his hand. He gave me a pen, and asked me to sign something. I asked what it was, and he replied, “You know that Cook and I have had dealings together; and this is a document which he gave me some days ago, and I want you to witness it.” I said, “What is it about?” He said, “Some business that I have joined him in, and which was all for Mr. Cook’s benefit; and this is the document stating so.” I just cast my eye over the paper. It was a quarto post paper of a yellow description. I looked at the writing, and I believed that it was Mr. Palmer’s. When he asked me to sign it I told him that I could not, as I might perhaps be called upon to give evidence on the matter at some future day. I told him that I had not seen Mr. Cook sign it, and I also said that I thought the Post-office authorities would not approve my mixing myself up in a matter which might occasion my absence from my duties to give evidence. In fact, I did not give any exact reasons for refusing to sign it. Palmer said it did not much matter, as he dared say they would not object to Mr. Cook’s signature. I left the paper with Palmer, and went away. I believe there was a stamp upon it. I did not read it all, but I cast my eye down it. [Notices had also been served upon the prisoner and his attorney to produce this document, but it had not been produced.]

Witness continued: I remember the effect of it--it was that certain bills--the dates and amounts of which were quoted, although I cannot recollect them now--were all for Mr. Cook’s benefit and not for Mr. Palmer’s. Those were not the exact words, but that was the purport of them. I know that the amounts were large, although I do not remember them all. I remember, however, that one was for £1,000 and another for £500. There was a signature to that document. It was either “I. P.” or “J. P. Cook.” I don’t think the word “Parsons” was written, but either “I. P.” or “J. P. Cook.” Palmer was in the habit of calling at the post-office for letters addressed to his mother, who resided at Rugeley. I cannot remember that during the months of October and November, 1855, I gave him any letters addressed to his mother; nor can I say whether in those months I gave him any letters addressed to Mr. Cook; but Cook has taken Palmer’s letters, and Palmer has taken Cook’s letters. I remember the inquest upon Cook. I saw Palmer frequently while that inquest was going on. He came down to me on the Sunday evening previous to the 5th of December--the date to which the inquest was adjourned--and asked me if I saw or heard of anything fresh to let him know. I guessed what he wanted, and thought that he wanted to tempt me to open a letter. I therefore told him that I could not open a letter. He said that he did not want me to do anything to injure myself. I believe that was all that passed on that occasion. The letter for reading which I am now under sentence of punishment was from Dr. Alfred Taylor, of London, to Mr. Gardner, the solicitor of Rugeley. I read part of the letter, and told Palmer as much as I remembered of it. This took place on the morning of the 5th of December. I told Palmer that the letter mentioned that no traces of strychnine were to be found. I can’t call to mind what else I told him. He said he knew there would be no traces of poison, for he was perfectly innocent. The letter I hold in hand, signed “W. P.” and addressed to “W. Ward, Esq., Coroner,” I believe to be in the prisoner’s handwriting.

Captain HATTON, examined by Mr. JAMES: I am chief constable of Stafford. The letter now produced I obtained from the coroner.

The Clerk of Arraigns read the letter in question. It bore no date, and was to the following effect:--

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

“Ever yours,

“W.P.”

The witness Cheshire was then cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant SHEE: I knew Cook very well. I did not know his handwriting. I have seen it, but am not sufficiently familiar with it to be able to identify it. I have seen him write. When I refused to sign the document which Palmer presented to me for signature he observed, “Oh, it is no matter, I daresay they will not call in question Mr. Cook’s signature.” What Palmer asked me was, “whether I had seen or heard anything?” I said that I had seen something, but that it would be wrong for me to tell him what. He then inquired what I had seen. I think the phrase he used in speaking of his own innocence was that he was “as innocent as a baby.” I remember having been told by Palmer, the Saturday before Cook died, that the latter was very ill. On that day I saw Cook. He was ill and in bed. I saw Palmer about midday of Wednesday, the second day of the Shrewsbury races. I saw him at Rugeley on that day.

To Mr. JAMES: The duration of the journey from Stafford to Shrewsbury is upwards of an hour.

ELLIS CRISP, examined by Mr. JAMES: I am inspector of police at Rugeley. On the 17th of December I assisted in searching the prisoner’s house. There was a sale of his furniture, &c., on the 5th of January. The book now produced I found in his house, and took it away. It was being sold, and I took it away. (A laugh.)

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant SHEE: It was brought out at the sale with a lot of other books. There were several medical books in the house. There was no attempt to conceal the volume I seized.

The Clerk of Arraigns read from the book referred to this sentence, proved by the witness Boycott to be in Palmer’s writing--“Strychnia kills by causing tetanic fixing of the respiratory muscles.”