They Hanged My Saintly Billy (77 page)

The
tissues
are
rubbed
with
distilled
water
in
a
mortar
to
a
pulp, and
then
digested,
after
the
addition
of
a
little
hydrochloric
acid,
in an
evaporating
basin.
They
are
then
strained,
and
evaporated
to
dryness
over
a
water
bath.
The
residue
is
digested
again
in
a
spirit filter,
and
once
more
evaporated
to
dryness.
We
next
treat
it
with distilled
water,
acidulated
with
a
few
drops
of
hydrochloric
acid,
and filter
it.
We
thereupon
add
excess
of
ammonia,
and
agitate
in
a
tube with
chloroform;
the
strychnia
in
an
impure
condition
being
thereby entirely
separated
with
the
chloroform.

This
chloroform
is
to
be
carefully
separated
by
a
pipette,
poured into
a
small
dish
and
evaporated
to
dryness;
the
residue
being
moistened
with
concentrated
sulphuric
acid,
and
heated
over
a
water
bath for
half
an
hour.
We
then
add
distilled
water
and
excess
of
ammonia —again
agitated
with
chloroform—and
the
strychnia
will
have
thus been
again
separated
by
the
chloroform
now
in
a
state
of
sufficient purity
for
testing.
The
test
is
made
by
evaporating
a
few
drops
on
a piece
of
white
porcelain,
adding
a
drop
of
strong
sulphuric
acid
and a
minute
crystal
of
bichromate
of
potash.

J.
E.
D.
Rodgers, Lecturer
in
Chymistry, at
the
St
George's
School
of
Medicine

John
Smith
wrote
from
London
to
Sir
George
Grey
at
the Home
Office,
two
days
before
the
execution:

To
The
Right
Hon.
Sir
G.
Grey: Sir,

Notwithstanding
the
unabated
anxiety
which
exists
in
the
public mind
relative
to
the
fate
of
William
Palmer,
I
have
hitherto
postponed
addressing
you
on
this
subject.
Long
since
his
relations
and friends
would
have
rushed,
in
the
intensity
of
their
grief,
to
the
Home Office;
but
as
I
have
been
charged
with
this
matter
of
life
and
death, the
arduous
duty
of
making
an
appeal
falls
upon
me.

Let
me,
then,
claim
your
largest
indulgence.
I
have
now,
when the
sand
of
William
Palmer's
life
has
run
until
the
eleventh
hour— when
only
a
few
days
stand
between
him
and
the
grave,
unless
your clemency
be
exercised
on
his
behalf—to
address
you
as
the
head
of that
department
which
is
recognized
as
the
last
sanctuary
of
injured justice.
Although
since
the
period
of
your
administration
the
records of
mercy
adorn
it
more
than
at
any
other
time—notwithstanding murder
in
its
blackest
form
was
committed,
its
perpetrators,
under your
merciful
and
wide
dispensation,
have
been
allowed
to
make atonement
in
exile
or
in
solitude—still
I
shall
not
appeal
to
your
sense of
mercy.

I
shall
merely
ask
that
a
respite
should
take
place
in
the
execution of
William
Palmer
until
the
serious
doubts,
medical
and
circumstantial,
connected
with
this
case,
are
laid
at
rest.
No
matter
how
popular passion
may
have
been
excited
to
its
late
state
of
madness
against
my client,
your
spirit
of
justice
must
examine
into
the
obscurities
that
do exist.
Sir,
I
trust
you
will
not
reverse
one
of
the
first
principles
of
our criminal
code,
but
allow
my
client
the
full
benefit
or
doubt,
if
doubt be
well
founded. I
therefore
ground
this
application
for
my
client's
respite—
First:
Upon
the
character
of
Charles
Newton,
the
principal
witness for
the
Crown;
as
also
upon
the
character
of
Elizabeth
Mills;
both
of whose
antecedents
were
unfortunately
hidden
from
me
at
the
time of
the
trial.

Secondly:
Upon
the
absence
of
two
witnesses
who
could,
as
I
believe,
have
given
satisfactory
proofs
as
to
the
disposal
of
the
poisons purchased
by
the
prisoner,
as
well
as
to
the
disposal
of
Cook's
money.

Thirdly:
Upon
the
discrepancy
of
the
medical
evidence
as
to
the finding
of
strychnia.

Lastly:
Upon
the
judge's
charge
to
the
jury.

The
importance
as
to
Charles
Newton's
testimony
in
procuring
a conviction
for
the
Crown
cannot
be
over-rated.
Newton
said
he
sold strychnia
to
the
prisoner
on
the
Monday
night
before
Cook's
death; and
upon
that
night
Cook
was
first
seized
with
symptoms
of
illness. The
medical
evidence
for
the
Crown
pronounced
this
illness
to
have been
connected
with
the
administration
of
strychnia;
but
there
was sufficient
in
Charles
Newton's
evidence
to
render
him
a
witness unworthy
of
belief.
The
hour
which
he
fixed
for
the
delivery
of
the poison
was
incompatible
with
the
hour
when
the
prisoner
was
seen at
Stafford
on
the
same
night.
The
suppression
of
this
incident
(if
it took
place)
before
the
Coroner;
the
consultation
relative
to
the effects
of
strychnia,
which
he
said
had
occurred
between
Palmer
and himself;
and
the
unfeigned
joy
with
which
he
represented
Palmer
to have
been
seized
when
he
lent
him
his
boyish
knowledge
of
the powers
of
strychnia—all
these
circumstances
and
incidents
rendered his
evidence
at
the
trial
such
that
even
the
consummate
ability
of
the Attorney-General
could
not
deal
with
it
as
he
wished.
Yet
the
jury gave
implicit
faith
to
this
witness.