The Cantor Dimension (21 page)

Officer Brimley offered a theory. "Hey, maybe they swiped her to make the place seem more haunted! You know how people are scared of black cats and witches and all that. It fits right in, it's perfect! A black cat to go with the witch-trees."

"Oh my poor little Pookey. I hope those bad guys didn't hurt my little girl. We're gonna get those bad guys, we are!"

"Come on, man, we've got to get out of here. We don't want to tip off the bad guys that we're on to them."

The two men started down the stairs, Officer Stokes cradling Pookey in his arms but as they neared the bottom of the stairs, Pookey balked, jumping out of his arms and running back up the stairs. Ed trotted off behind her calling in a plaintive voice, "Here Pookey Pookey, come on Pookey, come to daddy."

Officer Brimley sighed, waiting nervously at the bottom of the stairs. They'd been here far too long. Stokes' voice called joyfully out to Brimley.

"Hey Brimley! Come back up here, you've got to see this!"

"We've got to go, man! Get your cat and let's go!"

"No, just come here a minute."

Brimley went up, muttering loudly under his breath, hoping to get Stokes out of there by playing along.

"What?"

"Look!"

He peered inside a box and eight glowing orbs greeted him amidst shredded newspaper. Pookey stood by proudly as the sound of tiny
mews
cried mournfully for their mother.

"Yeah, so she's got kittens. Cute. Now let's get outta here."

Ed Stokes laughed and lifted the box, Pookey following closely at his heels. The seven of them made their way down the stairs. Burglars or no burglars, he wasn't leaving the cats behind.

"The Chief's gonna be real pleased with us," Brimley said, a huge grin evident by the sound of his voice. "He might even recommend us for a promotion for cracking this case. The burglars thought they was real smart, too! How many counties have been hit by these guys?"

"I don't know. Three, I think."

"No wonder they never got caught."

"Until now..." Officer Stokes laughed.

They tiptoed carefully out of the farmhouse taking care to leave everything just as they'd found it, except for Pookey and her kittens.

Table of Contents

Another theory in the death of Edmond Halley involved the Rye House Plot. In 1683, the year before Halley was found dead, an elaborate plan was underway to assassinate King Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York.

It was a period of great political and religious unrest where the political parties known as the Whigs
¹⁵
and the Tories
¹⁶
were battling it out for control of England. The Whigs, who were considered the
Country Party
, opposed the Duke of York for being Roman Catholic. They saw how the Catholic king in France was ruling and feared the same for England. As King Charles had no heir, the Duke of York was next in line for the throne. The Whigs attempted to legally block the Duke of York from ever taking the throne through a bill known as the
Exclusion Bill
.

At the same time, a group formed whose purpose it was to replace the Duke of York as heir to the throne with the king's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, who was a Protestant. The Exclusion Bill would have opened his way to the throne but every time the Exclusion Bill was about to be passed by Parliament, the king would block or dissolve the Parliament. Those who opposed the
Exclusion Bill
became known as the
Court Party
or
Abhorrers
which eventually evolved into the Tory party. In 1681, legal attempts to block the Duke of York from ever taking the throne ultimately failed after King Charles was able to successfully label the Whigs as being subversives.

With the legal avenue an abysmal failure, a plot was then hatched by a group of men including Richard Rumbold, who owned Rye House. The plan was for one hundred men to hide on the grounds of Rye House and ambush King Charles and the Duke of York as they returned from the horse races in Newmarket.

Rye House was the perfect spot for such a plan having a high-walled garden, a tower from which one could see for a mile in all directions, and a moat. To pass Rye House you had to first travel through a narrow causeway, then a toll-gate, then another gate, and then a lane so narrow that only one coach could traverse it at a time.

The narrow lane had a thick hedge and a ditch on one side, and a row of stables and farm buildings on the other with doors and windows where ambushers could easily lie in wait. Past the buildings were the moat and walled garden, the walls having holes through which additional men could shoot. Beyond that were two rivers which could only be crossed via bridges. It was the ideal location for an ambush, which the conspirators had scheduled for April 1, 1683.

On March 22, a fire destroyed half the town of Newmarket thereby foiling the perfect ambush they had planned. The races were canceled and King Charles and the Duke of York returned early, thereby avoiding the ambush.

Word got out regarding the assassination plot and King Charles quickly arrested several suspected plotters. Convicted of treason, the plotters met with various gruesome fates. Punishments included beheading with an axe, being hanged at the gallows, fines and imprisonment, and the heinous death of being drawn and quartered
¹⁷
. The king's illegitimate son Monmouth fled to his birth country of Holland and a lucky few others were able to escape to foreign countries as Monmouth had done.

The king was determined that all perpetrators of the Rye House Plot be brought to justice and he set out a reward for the apprehension of the conspirators who were still at large including James Burton, one of the primary conspirators. Burton had gone into hiding with the help of Elizabeth Gaunt, an ancient matron known for her compassion and charity. She had procured his passage to Amsterdam and had given him a large sum of money. Instead of remaining safely in Amsterdam, however, Burton later returned to England with the Duke of Monmouth in an attempt for Monmouth to take over the throne from the Duke of York after King Charles died. When the takeover failed, Burton hid out in the house of a barber named John Fernley.

One hundred pounds had been offered as a reward for Burton. When the reward failed to procure Burton for his due punishment, the newly crowned King James II who had been the Duke of York, declared that harboring a rebel was also treason and as such, unpardonable. Burton realized that the gig was up and turned himself in, giving testimony against Fernley and Gaunt who had helped him in exchange for a pardon. For their roles in helping Burton, Fernley was sent to the gallows while the aged Elizabeth Gaunt was burned at the stake. The onlookers burst into tears when they witnessed Elizabeth using her feet to redistribute the straw to make the fire burn quicker and end her own fiery suffering.

Whereas Burton had escaped the king's wrath by turning his comrades in, others involved in the plot were not as lucky. When the Rye House Plot was first discovered during the reign of King Charles, several of the plotters had saved their own skins by turning their comrades in. In addition, the king had seized the opportunity to use the assassination attempt to rid himself of other, non-involved enemies. The executions took place at the Tower of London.

Among the conspirators was the Earl of Essex, who was being held at the Tower of London in private quarters in a house set apart from the main prison and which was used for the more distinguished prisoners. Before he could go to trial, however, the Earl of Essex was found dead in his room with his throat cut from ear to ear.

According to Lord Ailesbury, the death of Arthur Capell, who was the Earl of Essex, was suicide. Ailesbury wrote, "The Earl asked very coldly for a razor to cut his nails, and being accustomed so to do gave no manner of suspicion. He went into a small closet
¹⁸
where his servant afterward found him dead and wallowing in blood."

As Ailesbury was a Tory, he would have reason to cover for the murder of an imprisoned Whig. The king exclaimed upon hearing of Capell's death, "Alas! Lord Essex might have trusted my clemency, for I owed his family a life." Considering the brutality of some of the punishments meted out to his fellow conspirators, one would have difficulty believing in clemency. Making such a statement would, however, support Ailesbury's claim of suicide and surround the king in an aura of innocence.

In spite of Ailesbury's statement, many believed that Capell had been murdered in prison. Arthur Capell was being kept in the Gentleman Gaoler's
¹⁹
quarters in the Tower of London under the watch of Captain Hawley when he was found dead on Friday the 13th.

During an inquiry into his death, two boys on their way to school reported that they had seen a bloody razor thrown from the window. They took a close look at the razor and described the steel as being red and wet with blood. Before they could study the razor further, Captain Hawley's servant-maid ran out crying, "Murder! Murder!" She then picked up the razor and ran back in again. The official story was given out that Capell had cut his own throat and that the bloody razor had been found where he dropped it on the closet floor, creating a discrepancy of facts.

His throat had been cut from ear to ear in a manner as to almost behead him. Both jugular veins were slashed, his windpipe and gullet were cut clean through and the blade had struck into the spinal column, hardly an act that could be done to one's self.

Two yeoman warders had been assigned to watch over Capell: Nathaniel Munday
²⁰
and Thomas Russell. One was to stand at his chamber door or inside his room, the other was to guard the foot of the stairs to prevent intruders from speaking with Capell without permission from Captain Cheek. A third man stayed with Capell during his imprisonment, a serving-man named Paul Bomeny.

The night before Capell's death, his brother-in-law visited him and later reported that he had been "firm in spirit" and had no mood or motive for an act of self-destruction. King Charles and the Duke of York had visited London Tower on the day of Capell's death spending a good deal of time with Captain Cheek shortly before the deadly deed occurred.

During a coroner's jury, Bomeny, Russell and two surgeons gave their evidence. Munday, whose job it was to watch the door, was not called to give evidence, and neither Cheek nor Hawley appeared that day. The official verdict was suicide. Lawrence Braddon, a fanatic in the cause of justice who did not believe the suicide verdict, spent years gathering evidence in the case. He found and interviewed the two schoolboys and several other witnesses who had not appeared at the official coroner's inquest.

Among the witnesses that Braddon spoke to was a soldier by the name of John Lloyd. He reported that two men had gone into the house where Capell was being held just before the murder. Lloyd had been on duty in front of Capell's room with orders not to allow anyone in unless they were with Hawley or Russell. At half past eight, two strangers came to Hawley's door and were admitted by the yeoman warder. Shortly after, Lloyd heard a scuffle in the room above and then heard the cry, "My lord is dead!"

Edmond Halley the soap-boiler was also thought to be a yeoman warder at the Tower of London in some of the later accounts, and this is where Edmond Halley crosses paths with the murder of the Earl of Essex. Yeoman warders, also known as Beefeaters for receiving generous rations of beef, mutton, veal, venison and geese, were exempt from certain public duties and taxes. In addition they were paid wages but in 1675, the king was in arrears for payment and had cut off the generous food rations.

A series of petitions followed and in 1680, a law was drafted exempting the warders from all public and parish duties, from serving on juries or in the militia, and from working on highways. Serving as a yeoman warder offered privileges which made the positions highly desirable and according to some reports, Halley was only required to fulfill his duties when the king was personally present at the Tower of London.

As the king was present on that fateful Friday the 13th when the Earl of Essex was murdered, Halley would have been on-duty at the Tower. Several who had been on duty that day did not believe the verdict of suicide and began to raise questions after which they were mysteriously murdered. Captain Hawley told others that he was in fear of his life and was planning to travel to some faraway place where he would be safe. Shortly after, his body was found beaten and strangled.

In 1689, five years after the murder of Edmond Halley, a 75-page anonymously written pamphlet appeared which was published in English, French and Dutch and widely distributed. The pamphlet gave vivid details of the day of the murder, including pointing a finger at Captain Hawley who had let the murderers enter, along with others who had surrounded the Earl that day. In other words, supporters of the dead Capell considered Hawley an accomplice to the murder.

The pamphlet listed Hawley as "Captain Haulle" and "Captain Hawley" in various places. Other accounts listed him as "Major Hawley" and stated that in February 1689, the House of Lords opened another inquiry into the death of Capell and as a result, several were arrested including Major Hawley who was later released on bail. As the 1689 proceedings included letters and testimony which had originally been given in 1683, it is possible they were referring to Hawley being arrested and released in 1683 and not 1689.

An 1816 publication detailing the state trials from 1682-1684 cleared up the confusion as to the relationship between Hawley and Halley and their subsequent deaths. Major Hawley figures prominently in the testimony of a number of people, his role in the events portrayed differently depending on the witness. In some accounts, he let the murderers into the room and in other accounts, someone else let them in.

Major Hawley's serving-maid, Mary Johnson, gave testimony in 1689 that she had assisted a man named Webster in stripping Capell's body after his murder and in washing the body as well as the room he'd been found in, for payment of 10 shillings, by the order of Major Hawley. She described Capell's neck as having been cut into three pieces. As Mary was deceased, her husband gave the testimony on her behalf based on what she had reported to him at the time. Others corroborated the testimony adding that Major Hawley had told her that she must clean the body and that she would come to no trouble for it.