They Hanged My Saintly Billy (68 page)

Sergeant
testified
that
at
the
Liverpool
Races,
a
week
previously, Cook
had
asked
him
to
look
at
his
ulcered
throat,
and
that
he
had made
the
same
request
on
several
other
occasions.
'He
also
went to
Dr
Palmer,'
Sergeant
continued,
'and
in
my
hearing
applied for
a
mercurial
lotion
called
"black
wash".'
From
Sergeant's furth
er
evidence
it
seems
probable
that
Cook's
remark,
'It
burns my
throat
dreadfully,'
did
not
refer
to
the
brandy,
but
was
a retrospective
complaint
about
an
injury
done
him
at
Liverpool railway
station.
Gingerbread
nuts
were
sold
on
the
course— some
innocuous,
others
containing
cayenne
pepper—and
when the
races
had
ended
Dr
Palmer
humorously
gave
Cook
one
of
the latter
sort.
At
The
Raven,
Cook
drunkenly
suspected
Dr
Palmer of
dosing
the
brandy
too—the
peppered
ginger-nut
being
still active
in
his
memory.

Jeremiah
Smith
testified
to
Cook's
not
possessing
enough money,
after
the
Shrewsbury
Races,
to
pay
him
more
than
five pounds
of
the
£
41 10s.
debt
due,
and
saying:
'I
can't
let
you
have the
remainder,
Jerry,
because
I've
given
most
of
my
winnings
to Palmer,
but
you
shall
be
paid
when
I've
been
to
Tattersall's
on Monday.'
Smith
also
testified
that
he
had
waited
for
Dr
Palmer's return
to
Rugeley
on
the
fateful
Monday
night,
and
met
him at
ten
minutes
past
ten
outside
The
Talbot
Arms
Hotel.
Cook, whom
they
then
visited
briefly,
in
his
bedroom,
complained: 'You're
late
tonight,
Doctor.
I
didn't
expect
you
to
look
in.
So I
took
Dr
Bamford's
pills'—the
inference
being
that
he
would
not have
taken
them,
had
Dr
Palmer
come
earlier.
When
Cook
told them
both:
'I
was
up
this
afternoon
talking
with
Saunders
and Ashmole,'
Dr
Palmer
answered:
'You
oughtn't
to
have
done
that.'

Afterwards,
so
Jeremiah
Smith
testified,
Dr
Palmer
and
himself walked
to
The
Yard,
a
few
hundred
paces
away,
and
spent
half
an hour
in
the
company
of
old
Mrs
Palmer,
who
had
important business
to
discuss.
He
th
en
left
Dr
Palmer
at
The
Yard,
and
went home.
As
for
the
allegedly
poisoned
broth,
he
had
sent
it
as
a
gift to
Cook,
who
was
not
well
enough
to
accept
an
invitation
to dine;
this
broth
being
the
liquor
in
which
his
own
leg
of
mutton had
been
boiled
at
The
Albion
Inn.
That
Mrs
Rowley,
the
cook, should
take
it
along
the
street
in
a
saucepan,
to
be
warmed
up
at Dr
Palmer's
and
there
poured
into
the
invalid-cup,
was
very natural,
considering
the
distance
and
the
state
of
the
weather. Jeremiah
Smith
also
testified
to
having
once
watched
Ben
Thirlby, Dr
Palmer's
assistant,
dress
Cook's
ulcered
throat
with
caustic.

Nevertheless,
the
good
impression
thus
made
on
the
jury
was entirely
swept
away
by
the
Attorney-General's
cross-exami
nation of
Jeremiah
Smith,
on
matters
irrelevant
to
the
trial.
Serjeant
She
e knew
that
any
objections
to
these
he
might
lodge
would
be
vain. Indeed,
Smith
gave
such
a
lamentable
exhibition
of
cowardice that
the
spirit
of
tragedy
which
had
for
days
brooded
over
the Old
Bailey
gave
place,
at
times,
to
farce.

the attorney-general
.
Have
you
known
Palmer
long
?

smith
.
I
have
known
him
long
and
very
intimately,
and
have
been

employed
a
good
deal
as
an
attorney
by
Palmer
and
his
family.
the attorney-general
.
In
December,
1854,
did
he
apply
to
you,

asking
you
to
attest
his
brother
Walter
Palmer's
proposal
for

£13,000
in
The
Solicitors'
and
General
Insurance
Office?

smith
.
I
cannot
recollect;
if
you
will
let
me
see
the
document
I
will

tell
you.

the attorney-general
.
Will
you
swear
that
you
were
not
applied
to
?

smith
.
I
will
not
swear
either
that
I
was
not
applied
to
for
that
purpose,
or
that
I
was.
If
you
will
let
me
see
the
document
I
shall recognize
my
writing
at
once.

the attorney-ge
neral
.
In
January,
1855,
were
you
applied
to
by Palmer
to
attest
his
brother's
proposal
for
£13,000
in
The
Prince of
Wales
Office?

smith
.
I
don't
recollect.

the attorney-general
.
Don't
recollect?
Why,
£13,000
was
a
large sum
for
a
man
like
Walter
Palmer,
wasn't
it,
who
hadn't
a
shilling in
the
world?
Didn't
you
know
that
he
was
an
uncertified
bankrupt
?