They Hanged My Saintly Billy (22 page)

I
know
not
whether
Walter
told
you
that
I
had
advanced
him
£
85
on
the
drawing-room
furniture—of
course,
I
was
well
aware
that some
of
it
belonged
to
you,
but
he,
poor
fellow,
told
me
that
you would
repay
me
the
money—which
I
feel
sure
you
will
do,
now
that I
have
told
you.
There
was
also
another
item
that
you
must,
if
you please,
assist
me
to:
viz.:
£
40
for
a
bill,
which
you
knew
well
of
the circumstance,
and
I
must
be
excused
going
into
particulars.
This amount
I
should
not
ask
you
for,
but
Walter
said
that
if
I
would
only take
up
the
bill
you
would
pay
me,
and
I
feel
sure
you
will,
after
all the
money
I
have
paid
on
his
account.
I
have
also
received
bills amounting
to
£
200
which,
I
suppose,
must
be
paid
by
someone. What
say
you
to
this?
You
cannot,
for
one
single
moment,
but
think that
I
ought
to
have
assistance
from
someone,
and
I
crave
yours, because
I
feel
certain
that
Walter
must
have
told
you
how
very,
very often,
and
on
very
many
occasions,
I
had
stood
his
friend;
and
I believe
that
I
and
his
dear
mother
were,
except
yourself,
the
only friends
he
had
on
earth.
I
only
wish
his
career
on
earth
had
been
a different
one.
He
might
then
have
still
been
alive;
but,
poor
fellow, he
is
dead
and
buried
and
I
hope
and
trust
he
is
gone
to
Heaven.

With
kind
regards,

Yours
very
truly,

Wm
Palmer

It
seems
that
in
breaking
the
news
to
his
sister-in-law,
Dr Palmer
had
blamed
her
for
not
having
come
back
with
Walter
to Stafford
and
there
resumed
conjugal
relations.
Walter,
he
said, had
visited
her
in
Liverpool,
sober
and
hopeful,
yet
she
disdained this
sincere
reformation;
therefore
his
death,
which
was
a
sort
of suicide
due
to
despair,
must
be
for
ever
after
on
her
conscience. The
argument
profoundly
affected
Agnes
for
a
while;
but
at
the funeral
she
heard
talk
which
persuaded
her
that
Dr
Palmer,
not she,
stood
in
need
of
reproach.
She
answered
his
demands
with some
asperity:

Edith
Lodge,
Great
Malvern, Sept.
28th, 1855

Dear
William,

I
have
just
received
your
note,
and
must
say
that
I
am
much
surprised
at
its
contents.
What
right
had
you
to
lend
your
money, supposing
that
I
would
repay
it,
without
consulting
me
on
the
subject?
Poor
Walter's
explanation
to
me,
over
and
over
again,
was that
you
had
insured
his
life
for,
I
think
he
said,
£1000;
and
that you
had
promised
to
advance
him
£500
of
this
sum,
but
that
you had
put
him
off
from
time
to
time
and
were
just
giving
him
a
few pounds
now
and
then
to
go
on
with,
until
you
could
find
means
to pay
him
the
whole.
Now,
if
that
is
true,
and
I
am
much
disposed
to believe
it,
you
are
the
proper
person
to
pay
all
he
owes;
but
if
you make
that
out
to
be
incorrect
(and
I
have
no
way,
I
am
very
sorry
to say,
of
proving
it)
I
still
do
not
consider
that
I
am
the
person
to
be looked
to
for
paying
his
debts,
never
having
received
a
farthing
from him,
or
been
kept
by
him,
in
the
whole
course
of
our
married
life.

I
should
not
think
your
mother
can
be
aware
that
you
are
applying to
me
for
payment
of
her
son's
debts,
and
I
will
not
have
it
for
a moment
supposed
that
I
am
the
person
responsible.
In
conclusion,
I beg
of
you
to
remember,
and
beware
how
you
belie
the
dead.

I
am,
truly
yours,

This
letter
goes
to
prove
that
neither
Agnes,
nor
Walter
himself,
knew
of
Dr
Palmer's
insuring
the
latter's
life
for
fourteen thousand
pounds,
and
proposing
to
insure
it
with
other
offices
for a
further
sixty-eight
thousand
pounds.
He
must
now
practise extreme
caution,
because
Pratt,
when
he
went
to
visit
The
Prince of
Wales's
solicitors,
had
admitted
that
though
the
insurance
supposedly
covered
money
advanced
by
Walter
to
old
Mrs
Palmer, the
actual
beneficiary
from
the
death
would
be
Dr
Palmer,
to whom
total
payment
had
been
assigned
by
Walter
in
consideration
of
a
four-hundred-pound
loan.
This
confirmed
The
Prince of
Wales
in
their
determination
not
to
pay;
whereupon
Pratt
laid the
case
before
an
eminent
counsel,
Sir
Fitzroy
Kelly,
who
gave his
opinion
that:

Want
of
consideration
is
not
the
ground
on
which
William
Palmer has
failed
to
recover;
but
it
is
my
advice
that
some
other
member
of the
family
should
take
out
administration
to
the
estate
of
the
deceased.

The
first
person
legally
entitl
ed
to
do
so
was
Agnes
who
had, however,
already
told
Dr
Palmer
that
she
washed
her
hands
of Walter's
debts.
Dr
Palmer
consequently
foresaw
no
difficulty
in making
her
sign
a
formal
surrender
of
the
right
to
administer
the
estate—so
long
as
she
did
not
guess
how
much
insurance
money was
at
stake.
The
next
natural
administratrix
was
old
Mrs
Palmer, whom
Jeremiah
Smith,
her
lover,
could
easily
persuade
to
sign away
her
rights.
Pratt
therefore
produced
two
copies
of
a'
Renunciation'
form
from
Doctors'
Commons,
and
Dr
Palmer
instructed Jeremiah
Smith
to
secure
Agnes's
signature
on
one,
and
the
old lady's
on
the
other.
These
two
documents
would
be
offered
to The
Prince
of
Wales
as
evidence
that
all
was
fair
and
above
board.

Smith
first
travelled
to
Great
Malvern,
where
he
asked
Agnes Palmer
to
sign
the
'Renunciation',
as
Walter's
widow,
and
with
it a
surrender
of
her
interest
in
the
insurance
policy.
This
she
almost did,
but
on
second
thoughts,
said:
'I
should
prefer
my
own solicitor
to
look
over
this
document
before
I
sign,
Mr
Smith. According
to
poor
Walter,
no
less
a
sum
than
one
thousand pounds
is
in
question!'

He
pricked
up
his
ears
at
this
remark,
not
having
hitherto
heard of
Dr
Palmer's
pretence
to
Walter
that
the
insurance
was
for
a mere
thousand
pounds;
and
smelt
danger.
Saying
merely:
'Very well
then,
Ma'am,
I
shall
acquaint
your
brother-in-law
with
your decision,'
he
took
the
papers
away
again.
On
the
return
journey to
Rugeley
he
must
have
come
to
suspect
that
he
was
being
used as
an
instrument
of
fraud,
if
not
worse.
Dr
Palmer
had
privately told
him
that
because
the
Prince
of
Wales,
which
had
paid
him thirteen
thousand
pounds
for
Annie's
death,
might
not
otherwise have
accepted
the
risk,
the
policy
was
taken
out
in
old
Mrs
Palmer's name,
not
his
own,
and
by
the
agency
of
Pratt.
He
further,
no doubt,
explained
that
Walter's
drunkenness
was
incurable;
and that
he
would
take
long
odds
against
his
lasting
more
than
another couple
of
years.

Thinking
the
matter
over
carefully
and
piecing
together
scraps of
conversation,
Smith
convinced
himself
that
Palmer
had
hastened
Walter's
death;
and
that
to
raise
the
money
for
the
premium he
had
probably
forged
old
Mrs
Palmer's
signature.
The
situation appalled
him;
yet
he
shrank
from
confiding
his
suspicions
to the
old
lady,
who
adored
her
scapegrace
Billy,
and
from
whose financial
innocence—in
return
for
certain
favours—he
made
so substantial
a
profit
himself.
He
therefore
resolved
on
a
roundabout way
of
freeing
himself
from
embarrassment.

At
this
point,
Inspector
Field
took
up
the
tale:

INSPECTOR
FIELD

My
colleague,
Inspector
Simpson,
has
marshalled
the
facts
very clearly,
though
he
should
perhaps
have
emphasized
that
Mr
Smith's motives
are
presumed,
rather
than
certainly
known.

At
all
events,
Mr
Smith
wrote
to
The
Midland—a
company which
had
not
been
approached
when
Dr
Palmer
wished
to
insure first
his
wife's
and
then
his
brother's
life—and
told
them
that
he could,
he
believed,
find
them
good
business
in
Rugeley.
They accordingly
appointed
him
their
agent,
and
being
asked
to
suggest the
names
of
referees,
he
sent
in
th
ose
of
Dr
Palmer's
close friends:
Samuel
Cheshire,
the
Postmaster,
and
John
Parsons
Cook, a
solicitor.
Yes,
Sir,
the
very
man
for
whose
murder
Dr
Palmer
is now
standing
trial!
What
is
more,
when
asked
to
suggest
medical referees,
Mr
Smi
th
proposed
the
name
of
Dr
Palmer
himself,
and of
Thirlby,
his
assistant!