Lucinda Sly (12 page)

‘Examine the gun and see if it has been fired recently,’ the captain ordered.

‘It isn’t long since this gun was fired,’ Hudson replied, ‘and whoever put the bullet back into the gun didn’t do it properly.’

‘That is what I need,’ the captain declared.

He knew immediately that it was one of the two people who lived in the house who had murdered Walter Sly.

‘We will have to finish this investigation in the police barracks as this case is very clear and an attorney will have to be present before we can proceed any further,’ the captain said.

In the following few days the police collected all the evidence they needed in order to charge a person, or persons, with the
murder
of Walter Sly. They waited until the funeral was over on the Tuesday, 11 November, before they arrested anybody for the crime.

Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey were walking out of the
graveyard
when two policemen in plain clothes came up to them. They identified themselves outside the graveyard gate and directed them to a coach that was waiting. The crowd stood outside the
graveyard
staring at Lucinda and Dempsey being escorted into the coach. They were taken to Carlow town where they were charged with the murder of Walter Sly and locked up in two cells.

In the weeks that followed the murder, every kind of rumour was doing the rounds of the neighbouring parishes. Nothing like this had happened in Carlow in living memory. Everybody had
their own version and the story grew with the telling until it was said that Lucinda was a witch who lured her simple servant boy into helping her to murder Walter Sly.

The Crown was not satisfied that the police had a strong enough case yet. A day didn’t pass that Captain Battersby didn’t visit Lucinda in her cell to break her so that the police would have a clear case to put before the judge.

One day he said to Lucinda, ‘John Dempsey has admitted that you two murdered your husband. We have enough evidence to charge both you and Dempsey. As well as that he has said that the two of you had been planning the deed for a month and you were only waiting for the right moment. He admitted that Sly came home from the fair drunk and that one of you hit him on the head. Then, in case he wasn’t dead, you put a bullet in his brain with his own gun. You should admit it to me here, then before the
minister
that you did the deed. God will forgive you and you will go straight up to heaven. John Dempsey has confessed to the priest. His soul is clean before God. Do the same thing and the two of you will be together in heaven.’

But Lucinda was taking no notice of him. Battersby
understood
eventually that she had lost her mind because the policeman who was guarding her told him that she spent most of the day
talking
gibberish to herself.

Even the day before the trial began, the minister visited her but she paid no attention to him only to tell him that Walter Sly was a blackguard. ‘Yes, go home and do what your husband tells you,’ she said. Then she turned her face to the wall.

When Captain Battersby had finished with Lucinda, he
questioned
John Dempsey again. He admitted that he and Lucinda had killed Sly with his own gun. He wanted to beg God’s
forgiveness
so that he would go to heaven. He had said the same thing, word for word, to the priest who visited him. He even made his confession to prepare his soul to go before God.

By the time the Crown was ready to try the case, the poor woman had already been tried and hanged by the people.

The Crown fixed the date for the trial of Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey for 16 March, 1835. It was to be held in Deighton Hall in Carlow town. From the day they were arrested it was the event most spoken of among the common people since the coming of Cromwell. It was written about in the national papers and it was the topic of conversation at all the fairs and outside the churches both Catholic and Protestant all over Ireland with every farmer, tailor and tinker adding to it. It was no wonder, then, that early on the morning of 16 March all the roads leading to Carlow town were black with people, some of them on foot, more on horseback and the rich people in coaches, all of them traveling to Deighton Hall to see the witch and the servant boy who murdered a poor farmer cruelly and without pity. Since the murder took place four months earlier there were so many rumours going about that it would have been difficult to separate the truth from the lies that were told about the couple by windbags who had nothing better to do.

At eleven o’clock on the morning of 16 March, the clerk
opened the doors of Deighton Hall for the trial of Lucinda and Dempsey. The space outside the hall was overflowing with
ordinary
people from all over.

As soon as the officers of the court and the judge were inside the courtroom, the constable who was standing at the door let in some of the crowd. When he thought that enough people were inside, he closed the door.

When the judge was seated, the clerk of the court read the charges that were to be brought against Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey and the attorneys questioned the members of the Grand Jury and the Petit Jury. When both sides were satisfied, every member of the jury swore on the Bible that they would listen
carefully
and give a verdict without favour. The Petit Jury was put into its own box. Landlords and wealthy farmers who were well known among the important people of Carlow sat on both juries. All of them were men and there wasn’t one Catholic among them.

The trial of Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey would be a
different
matter in the eyes of the Crown. Lucinda was a Protestant and Dempsey was a Catholic. In the eyes of the common people of Carlow, Lucinda was a kind of witch but this was not said
officially
. The case that the Crown was to put before the court was that Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey had conspired to murder Walter Sly and that they had had sexual relations while she was married to Sly. This was very serious at that time particularly when it resulted in murder. The Crown would put the case before the court that they conspired to murder Walter Sly and that they planned to live together afterwards.

The judge spoke to the jurors before the prisoners were brought in. He told them to listen carefully to the evidence, not to talk to anybody but through the bench; if they weren’t clear about a question or answer, they were to let him know and he would seek clarification.

The two prisoners were brought into the court. The crowd who were in the courtroom began to scream and shout at them. The judge brought down his gavel on the bench and threatened to clear the court if the crowd did not stop shouting.

‘Everybody who comes before the court has a right to a fair trial,’ he said in annoyance. ‘A person is not guilty until a guilty verdict has been brought before the judge.’

Lucinda was trembling in her shoes, she was as white as a sheet and she looked as if she were about to faint. Even though Dempsey was afraid, he didn’t show it as much as Lucinda. They both swore on the Bible that they would tell the truth. Dempsey walked to his seat. Lucinda sat in the chair beside him with her head down.

The attorney, Seeds was to put the case for the Crown and defending Lucinda and Dempsey was their attorney, Job L. Campion – both Protestants. Dempsey assumed that he wouldn’t be treated fairly as he was a Catholic. The Penal Laws were still in force.

The court clerk stated that everything was in order and that the trial could proceed.

Frances Campbell was the first witness. She told the court about Saturday, 18 November, 1834. She said that she left the Carlow Fair with Walter Sly and a neighbour named Ned Radwell.
The three were on horseback. When the attorney for the Crown questioned her as to whether Walter Sly was drunk on that night, she replied that both Sly and Radwell had had a lot to drink but that was not unusual. This always happened with men on fair days, she said. She further testified that on the road home the three of them stopped in Bilboa and went into a tavern to have a drink before they parted and went their separate ways. In the tavern Sly was talking to a man named Thomas Singleton, Lucinda’s son by her first marriage, and he introduced him to Radwell and herself. When the attorney for the Crown asked her what kind of man Walter Sly was, she had no hesitation in answering:

‘He was a contrary, unscrupulous, bold man who would tear the head from an enemy or anybody who tried to separate him from his property; a person who was not too contented in his mind but, that said, he was always mannerly towards me. He often told me that he had a few enemies, in particular the Brennans, a family he evicted from the land they had rented from him.’

The counsel for the defence had only one question for her.

‘Is it true,’ he demanded, ‘that there once was more than
friendship
between you?’

She jumped to her feet.

‘There was nothing between Walter Sly and me,’ she insisted, ‘only that we had to travel the same road home from the fair. I am a married woman and a smart alec from the city like you will not destroy my reputation.’

She demanded that the attorney withdraw his remark, which
he had to do as he was only going on hearsay. She finished her statement:

‘When Walter and I parted that night he was ready to go home to Oldleighlin.’

She was discharged from the witness box not too happy in her mind.

According to Dr Thomas Rawson, who was in the box after Frances Campbell, it was he who examined the body of Walter Sly in Oldleighlin on Sunday, 9 November, 1834. He testified that a bullet had been fired at Sly’s head and that it had come out at the other side. He let the court know that the person who fired the shot would need to have been very close to Sly and that the bullet was the cause of his death even though there were a few other marks on his head as well. Campion did not cross-examine him. Following a few other questions from the attorney for the Crown, the doctor was discharged from the witness box.

Ben Stacey, the Slys’ nearest neighbour in Oldleighlin, was called next. He wasn’t too happy with the long walk from his chair at the back of the courtroom up to the witness box beside the judge. He was sworn in. Apart from Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey, he was the first to have seen Walter Sly’s body. Seeds asked him to tell the court about that morning’s events in his own words.

He began: ‘I saw the body five or six yards from the stable door and the door of the house was six or seven yards on the other side. Lucinda Sly told me that she had heard her husband’s horse
coming
into the haggard and, shortly after that, she heard another
horse coming after him at speed. She heard a shot and a thud as if something heavy had hit the ground. Then a couple of shots were fired at the door and anybody who would come outside the house before morning was threatened with death.’

‘It is peculiar,’ Seeds observed, ‘that no trace of those bullets was found in the wall of the house. But, pray, continue.’

‘Lucinda was crying when she told me,’ Stacey continued. ‘She told me to search Sly’s pockets because she thought he should be carrying a large sum of money as he had sold two yearlings at the fair. When there was nothing in his pockets she told me to search his waistcoat for his pocket watch which was very valuable. But there was neither a watch nor chain in his waistcoat.’

Before Stacey left the witness box, he answered a few more questions for the Crown.

‘Some of his moustache was singed by the bullet and the side of his head was black …’

And, ‘He was a comfortable farmer with a reasonably large holding …’

The attorney asked him if he had ever seen Walter Sly with a gun.

‘I never saw him with a gun,’ Stacey answered, ‘but it was said that he had bought one as he had many enemies. Trouble follows anybody who has land for rent nowadays. If it isn’t the Whiteboys looking for revenge on behalf of the small farmers, it is the horse buyers complaining about a bad animal you have sold them.’

Campion didn’t question Stacey as he felt that he had done little to damage his case.

Four more witnesses were called but the Crown’s case was not completed yet by Seeds. The clerk of the court called Catherine Landricken, another neighbour of the Slys.

She was not long giving evidence when the case turned
tragically
against Lucinda and Dempsey. She testified that she had seen Dempsey pulling a sheaf of oats from the stack that was furthest from the stable and putting it back in its place. She became
suspicious
and informed the police. A policeman named Joseph Flanagan found Walter Sly’s watch in the stack on 10 November, she said. When Flanagan was put in the witness box a doubt was put in the jurors’ minds when he answered a question Campion put to him concerning the watch. He informed the court that two men were helping him to search the stack in Sly’s haggard – Tobin and Brennan. It was Tobin who found the watch in the stack, he said. It was only afterwards he found out that Sly had evicted Brennan from his holding a few years previously.

Flanagan’s evidence put another twist in the story because there had been bad blood between Sly and Brennan. Some of the jurors had a different opinion, particularly those who thought that they knew beforehand that Lucinda and Dempsey had murdered Sly. The attorney for the Crown was not pleased and, without more comprehensive evidence, he felt that the two would go free on some technicality or other.

One thing was certain – Walter Sly and the local police knew each other very well and were friendly towards each other. A
couple
of weeks before the Carlow Fair, John James, a policeman, had gone to Sly’s farm to kill a pig. When he was cross-examined, he
testified that on the day of the pig killing he saw Lucinda and Dempsey touching hands behind her husband’s back. That left the jury in no doubt that there was a sexual relationship between them. But it was pointed out to the attorney for the Crown that more evidence was needed in relation to the murder. If so, they would be depending very heavily on the two witnesses who were yet to appear. These were Bridget Massey and Michael Connors, both neighbours of the Slys.

Bridget Massey and her husband were living two fields above the Slys. They were of the tinker tribe but they had their own
little
house by this time. Bridget told the court that she knew the Slys very well. She said that they had a stormy relationship from the time they first got married.

‘Many times Lucinda told me about the lashings of the horse’s whip she got from Walter,’ Bridget informed the court. ‘When we were cutting the turf last summer she showed me the marks on her back she got from Walter’s whip.’

She said that she also knew the servant boy, John Dempsey. Sly had hired him as there was no girl available at the time. One evening when she visited Sly’s house she came upon Lucinda and Dempsey in the bedroom together. When the attorney questioned her as to what she thought they were doing in the bedroom she looked at him as if it were a simpleton who put the question to her. She continued with her evidence without answering his question as everybody in the court knew the answer. She said that she often saw Lucinda with her arms around Dempsey’s neck. She said she saw things happening that she couldn’t describe before a crowd of
people when the two of them were digging a meal of potatoes in the field. As she put it, ‘The learned man can take a hint.’

Bridget also testified that Lucinda visited her the day that a man named Potts was killed in a quarry on the other side of Carlow town. It was Lucinda who told her the news.

‘“Did you hear about a man named Potts who was killed in the quarry yesterday?” Lucinda said to me,’ Bridget reported. ‘“I did not,” I replied. “It is a pity it wasn’t Walter who was killed,” Lucinda remarked, “because if any man deserves to be killed, it is him.”’

‘Another morning,’ Bridget continued, ‘Lucinda came to my door asking me to go gathering potatoes. While I was getting ready to go with her, she saw rat poison on the settle. She asked me to give her some of the poison but I asked her had she any rats. Lucinda told me that she had one big rat, Walter, in the bed with her and that she would give him the poison.’

Seeds instructed her to tell the court what time of year it was when that happened.

‘It was last October,’ Bridget replied.

Then John Dempsey was put into the witness box.

It took the attorney for the Crown only ten minutes to get him talking. Dempsey blurted out exactly how they had murdered Sly. He said he would have to make his peace with God as he couldn’t go to his death with such a grave sin on his soul. Lucinda fell in a weakness listening to him. From that moment on, the beatings and whippings she received from Sly from the day they married were of no account. The attorney said that he wouldn’t put Lucinda in
the witness box as he felt that the case was lost.

The court was adjourned until eleven o’clock the following morning. Michael Connors was yet to be questioned as was Captain James Battersby, the County Inspector. Michael Connors gave his evidence precisely. He stated that he could neither read nor write and that there were a few times in his life that he had hard words with Walter Sly, but that the thing that most upset him was the evening he was eating supper in Sly’s house after spending the day working for him. It happened that Sly was away at a fair and Dempsey was milking the cows.

‘While we were eating a bite of food,’ he began, ‘Lucinda let me know that she was half killed by Walter and that he was forever threatening that he would take her name from his will and leave her with nothing. She told me that if I could take Sly from this life that I would get a couple of acres and that I would have the land I was renting free from rent as long as she lived. I told her to shut up immediately and that I would pretend I hadn’t heard a word.’