They Hanged My Saintly Billy (35 page)

Gentlemen,
I
wish
that
this
were
the
only
transaction
in
which Mr
Cook
had
been
mixed
up
with
the
prisoner
Palmer;
but
there is
another
to
which
I
must
refer.
In
the
September
of
1855,
Palmer's
brother
having
died,
but
the
profits
of
the
insurance
not having
been
realized,
he
induced
a
person
by
the
name
of
Bate
to insure
his
life.
Palmer
had
succeeded
in
raising
money
on
former insurances
and,
I
have
no
doubt,
pressed
or
induced
Mr
Cook
to assist
him
in
this
transaction;
his
object
was,
by
representing
Bate
as
a
man
of
wealth,
and
producing
a
policy
on
Bate's
life,
to
get further
advances
upon
this
collateral
security.
I
put
it
no
higher, nor
do
I
suppose
Mr
Cook
would
have
been
a
party
to
any
other transaction.
It
seems
that,
on
the
5th
of
September,
Mr
Bate,
the prisoner,
and
Mr
Cook
were
together
at
Rugeley
.
Mr
Bate
was a
hanger-on
of
Palmer's,
a
person
who
had
before
been
better
off in
the
world,
but
who
had
fallen
in
decay
and
was
now
compelled to
accept
employment
from
Palmer
as
a
sort
of
superintendent
of his
stables.
He
had
run
through
everything,
and
had
nothing
left; though
he
remained
a
healthy
young
man.
Palmer
proposed
to insure
his
life,
and
handed
him
that
common
form
of
proposal with
which
we
are
all
familiar.
Mr
Bate,
however,
said:
'No,
I do
not
want
to
insure
my
life,'
and
declined
the
notion
of
such
a thing.
Palmer
pressed
him,
and
Mr
Cook
interposed
with:
'You had
better
do
it,
Bate;
it
will
be
for
your
benefit;
you
are
quite safe
with
Palmer.'
They
pressed
him
to
sign
the
insurance
proposal,
which
Cook
attested
and
Palmer
filled
in,
for
no
less
a
sum than
twenty-five
thousand
pounds.
In
it
Palmer
was
described
as the
medical
attendant,
and
his
assistant,
Thirlby,
as
the
referee
and friend
who
would
speak
to
Bate's
habits;
and
these
proposals
were sent
off,
I
think,
to
The
Solicitors'
and
General
Office.
That
Office not
being
disposed
to
effect
the
insurance
on
Bate's
life,
they
sent up
anothe
r
proposal
for
ten
th
ousand
pounds
to
The
Midland Office,
on
the
same
life.
In
each
case,
further
information
was required
as
to
Bate's
position;
but
instead
of
it
turning
out
that
he was
a
gentleman
of
responsibility
and
means,
it
turned
out
that he
was
a
mere
labourer
in
Palmer's
employ.
The
Office
was
not satisfied,
and
the
thing
dropped.

lord Campbell
.
Whatever
you
have
stated
so
far
bears
on
the
question the
jury
are
to
try.
I
suppose
that
this
will
have
the
same
tendency?

the attorney-general
.
If
your
Lordship
trusts
me,
I
will
take
care not
to
state
anything
that
is
not
important.

lord Campbell
.
By
our
law
we
cannot
allow
one
crime
to
show
the possibility
of
another,
but
whatever
may
bear
on
the
charge
to
be tried
is
strictly
admissible.

the attorney-general
.
I
trust
your
Lordship
will
give
me
credit
for the
greatest
anxiety
not
to
bring
forward
anything
unimportant. This
seems
to
me
a
matter
which
may
have
a
most
important
bearing
by
and
by.

Gentlemen,
th
e
prisoner's
attempt
failed;
and
no
money
could be
obtained
on
the
security
of
that
policy.
The
affair
may
be important
in
more
ways
than
one,
but
it
is
important
in
this
respect:
that
it
shows
the
desperate
pecuniary
straits
to
which
he had
by
that
time
been
reduced.

Now
we
go
back
for
a
moment
to
the
insurance
on
the
brother's life.
I
find
by
the
correspondence
between
Palmer
and
Mr
Pratt, which
will
be
produced
to
you,
that
Mr
Pratt,
having
applied
to the
office
at
which
the
insurance
on
Walter
Palmer's
life
had
been effected,
experienced
difficulty
in
getting
the
money,
and
thereupon
began
to
press
Palmer
for
immediate
payment
of
his
bills. These
letters
are
here
in
my
hand;
and
before
reading
them,
I
will state
what
I
shall
by
and
by
prove—that
Palmer
had
the
Post
master
at
Rugeley
completely
under
his
influence,
and
that
the letters
addressed
by
Pratt
to
his
mother,
Mrs
Sarah
Palmer,
were intercepted
in
the
Post
Office
and
handed
over
to
Palmer
himself.