The trial of William Palmer for the Rugeley poisonings / [William Palmer].

  • William Palmer
Date:
[1856]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The trial of William Palmer for the Rugeley poisonings / [William Palmer]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    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 1 called to Palmer, Will you bring it here ? I went from he table and met Palmer half way, coming with the jar. The jar had since I last saw it been cut through boih bladders. The cut was hardly an inch Ions. It had been done with a sharp instrument. I examinee! the cut The edges were quite clean. No part of the contents of the iar could have passed through it. Finding this cut, I sa;d, ' 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. 1 took it to Mr. Frere's house. After doing so I returned to the Talbot Arms. I left the jar in Mr. Frere's ball, tied and sealed. Immedi- ately 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 we 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 that 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 eacli cover separately, and sealed it with my own seal. During the first post-mortem examination there were several Rugeley persons present, but I Relieve 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. Bamtord, or whether he prefaced it by the word Doctor. I think that he first said it to Dr. Bamford in aloud 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 ot 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. 1 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. ton-ue 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. Iney 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, although they were not in their normal state. The lungs were full of blood and the heart empty.
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