They Hanged My Saintly Billy (55 page)

Re-examined
by
Mr
Attorney-General
Cockburn:

the attorney-general
.
You
have
said
that
you
gave
information
to the
Crown
on
Tuesday
about
this
fact
of
the
three
grains
of
strychnia.
How
was
it
you
did
not
give
that
information
before?

Newton
.
On
account
that
Dr
Palmer
had
not
been
friends
with
Dr Salt;
they
never
speak
to
each
other.

the attorney-general
.
What
had
that
to
do
with
it?

newton
.
I
thought
Dr
Salt
would
be
displeased
at
my
letting
Dr Palmer
have
anything.

the attorney-general.
Y
ou
say
they
did
not
speak?

newton
.
No;
Mr
Thirlby
lived
with
Dr
Salt
for
nineteen
years
.
.
.

the attorney-general
.
Was
it
in
consequence
of
Mr
Thirlby
going to
Dr
Palmer's
that
this
difference
took
place
between
Dr
Palmer and
Dr
Salt?

newton
.
Yes;
Dr
Salt
did
not
speak
to
Dr
Palmer,
or
Mr
Thirlby either.

the attorney-general
.
Was
there
any
other
reason
besides
that
for

your
keeping
it
back?

newton
.
That
was
my
only
reason.

S
erjeant shee
.
Will
your
Lordship
ask
this
witness
whether
he
has not
given
another
reason:
the
reason
being
that
he
was
afraid
he should
be
indicted
for
perjury?

newton
.
No,
I
did
not
give
that
as
a
reason,
though
I
mentioned
it to
the
gentl
eman
sitting
there
[Mr
Greenwood].
I
stated
that
I had
heard
about
a
young
man
from
Wolverhampton
whom
Mr George
Palmer
had
indicted
for
perjury
because
this
young
man could
not
produce
a
book
to
show
that
he
had
sold
Dr
Palmer some
prussic
acid.

the attorney-general
.
In
what
case
was
that?

newton
.
The
inquest
upon
Walter
Palmer.

The
Defence
did
not
challenge
Newton's
reliability
as
a
witness,
but
it
has
since
been
revealed
that
he
was
Ben
Thirlby's illegitimate
son
by
one
Dorothy
Newton
of
Bell's
Yard,
Long Row,
Nottingham.
His
half-brother
John
was
sentenced
to
four years'
penal
servitude
for
picking
pockets
at
Lincoln
Races;
and he
himself,
as
a
boy,
had
been
caught
breaking
up
a
stolen
silver spoon
belonging
to
his
employer
Mr
Crossland,
a
wine
merchant, and
thereupon
spent
three
days
in
the
Nottingham
House
of Correction.
The
records
show
that
his
mother,
a
charwoman, begged
him
off
from
the
magistrates
who
examined
the
case, promising
to
make
good
Mr
Crossland's
losses.
A
second
offence has
been
mentioned,
but
we
lack
for
details.
Newton
later,
after
attendance
at
the
National
School,
assisted
a
Nottingham
surgeon; and
was
then
cunningly
insinuated
by
Ben
Thirlby
into
Dr
Salt's employment.
Dr
Salt
did
not
know
of
the
blood-relationship
between
these
two.

When
the
trial
was
over,
the
same
obliging
Newton,
prompted perhaps
by
certain
insurance
company
officials,
called
on
the Attorney-General.
He
said
that
if
Sir
George
Grey
considered granting
a
reprieve
(on
the
ground
that
Dr
Palmer
did
not
have time
to
make
up
the
strychnine
pills
in
his
own
surgery,
and
then adm
inister
them
at
the
hour
stated
by
the
Prosecution)
he
would willingly
swear
to
having
given
Dr
Palmer
the
strychnine
in
the form
of
pills
already
made
up—a
fact
he
had
hitherto
forgotten! The
Attorney-General
undertook
to
bring
this
new
evidence
before
his
fellow-Minister,
should
Dr
Palmer's
lawyer
sue
for
a
reprieve.

Ch
apter XX

ABSENT
WITNESSES

S
ERJEANT
SHEE'S
main
ground
of
defence
was
that
Dr Palmer
did
not
stand
to
gain
financially
by J
ohn
Parsons
Cook's death,
since
it
made
him
liable
to
repay
debts
which
th
ey
jointl
y incurred,
in
an
amount
far
exceeding
such
small
sums
as
the Prosecution
accused
him
of
robbing.
He
had,
indeed,
bought
six grains
of
stryclinine
on
the
Tuesday
morning
from
Hawkins's shop,
openly
and
for
a
legitimate
reason;
Serjeant
Shee,
however, preferred
to
deny
his
having
procured
any
from
Newton
on
the Monday
evening.
Therefore,
the
convulsions
reported
by
Elizabeth
Mills
that
night
were
not,
he
argued,
attributable
to
strychnine
poisoning,
but
rather
to
tetanus
or
epilepsy,
or
some
other ailment,
as
were
also
those
of
the
Tuesday
night
winch
carried Cook
off
early
the
following
morning.
Furthermore,
had
Dr Palmer
planned
to
murder
Cook,
he
would
never
have
sent
for his
friend,
Dr
Jones
of
Lutterworth
,
an
experienced
physician,
to sleep
in
the
same
bedroom
and
witness
his
death
agonies.
Nor would
he
have
dared
to
rob
Cook
of
the
Shrewsbury
winnings when
Dr
Jones
was
aware
of
their
exact
value
and
when
Cook, being
perfectl
y
conscious,
would
have
complained
to
him
if
Dr Palmer
had
stolen
his
hoard.