The Attorney-General could not, it seems, forget his private conversation with Frank Swindell, who had accused Dr Palmer of 'doctoring him for death' at Wolverhampton Races.
Among the witnesses, other than medical, called for the Defence and present in Court, were George Myatt, the Rugeley saddler; John Sergeant, a racing man; and, finally, Jeremiah Smith. Myatt testified that he had been at The Raven Hotel on the night when Cook complained of the brandy, and that nobody could have doctored Cook s brandy and water without his knowledge. He also testified that a great many people fell sick at the Shrewsbury Meeting, and that Dr Palmer himself had vomited violently out of the carriage window on his return to Rugeley by the six o'clock express. Cook, Dr Palmer, and himself had then discussed the prevalence of these symptoms and thought that the Shrewsbury water supply must have been tainted. Myatt swore that Cook had been very drunk, even before he took the brandy and water; and that Cook's words were not: 'It burns my throat dreadfully,' but: 'There's something in it.'
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 further 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 then 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-examination of Jeremiah Smith, on matters irrelevant to the trial. Serjeant Shee 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-GENERAL. 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 ?
SMITH. I knew that he had been a bankrupt some years before, but not that he was an uncertified bankrupt. I knew that he had an allowance from his mother, and I believe that his brother William [the prisoner] gave him money at different times.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. During 1854 and 1855, where in Rugeley did you live?
SMITH. In 1854, I think, I resided partly with William Palmer, and
sometimes at his mother's.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. Did you sometimes sleep at his mother's ? SMITH. Yes.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. Did you sleep in his mother's room—on your oath, were you not intimate with her?—you know well enough what I mean.
SMITH. I had no other intimacy, Mr Attorney, than a proper intimacy.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. HOW often did you sleep at her house, though having an establishment of your own close by?
SMITH. Frequently. Two or three times a week.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. Explain how that happened.
SMITH. Sometimes her son Joseph or other members of her family were on a visit there, and I went to see them. We used to play a game of cards, and have a glass of gin and water, and smoke a pipe perhaps; and then they would say: 'It is late—you had better stop all night.' And I did.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. Did that continue for three or four years?
SMITH. Yes; and I sometimes used to stop there when nobody was at home—when they were all away, the mother and everybody.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. And you have slept at the house when the sons were not there and the mother was ?
SMITH. Yes. Two or three times a week.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. But since there was no one to smoke and drink with, you might have gone home. Will you say on your oath that there was nothing but a proper intimacy between you and Mrs Palmer?
SMITH. I do.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. NOW, I shall turn to another subject. Were you called upon to attest a further proposal for ?13,000 by Walter Palmer, in The Universal Assurance Office?
SMITH. I cannot say; if you will let me see the proposal I shall know.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. Answer me, Sir, as an attorney and a man of business: did William Palmer ask you to attest a proposal for a ?13,000 assurance on the life of his brother Walter?
SMITH. If I could see any document on the subject I daresay I should recollect.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. Do you remember getting a five-pound note for attesting an assignment of such a policy by Walter Palmer to his brother?
SMITH. I don't recollect positively.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SMITH
I have some doubt about it.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. Read the document and tell me, on your
solemn oath, whether it is your signature.
SMITH. I have some doubt whether it is mine.
