They Hanged My Saintly Billy

The Attorney-General's questioning of Jeremiah Smith's relations with old Mrs Palmer, and his previous questioning of George Myatt, the saddler, as to whether he ever slept in the same hotel bed as Dr Palmer, were both by way of revenge. Serjeant Shee, to throw discredit on Elizabeth Mills's testimony, had suggested that she was a woman of loose morals. Elizabeth Mills, however, answered with jaunty and mocking defiance, whereas Jeremiah Smith vacillated—torn between the fear of losing his character if he owned to being the bedfellow of a rich woman over twenty years his senior, and fear of offending her if he denied the imputation too indignantly. Very few of his answers were given without hesitance and a decided embarrassment, which left its imprint on the jury's mind.

Serjeant Shee tried to make good the damage when he reexamined Smith.

SERJEANT SHEE. How long have you known Mrs Palmer?

SMITH. For twenty years. [In answer to further questions:] I should think she must now be about sixty years of age. 'William Palmer is not her eldest son. Joseph, the eldest, resides at Liverpool, and is a timber merchant. He must be forty-five or forty-six years of age. George, the next eldest son, resides at Rugeley and was frequently at his mother's house. John, the youngest, a clergyman of the Church of England, lived there until two years ago, except when he was away at college. There is also a daughter, who lives constantly with her mother; and three servants are kept. The house is a large one, and contains many spare bedrooms. I slept in the room nearest the old church.

SERJEANT SHEE. Is there any pretence for saying that you have ever been accused of improper intimacy with Mrs Palmer?

SMITH. I hope not.

SERJEANT SHEE. I repeat: is there any pretence for saying so ? SMITH. There ought not to be.

SERJEANT SHEE. Pray answer me directly! Is there any truth in the suggestion ?

SMITH. People may have made it, but they had no reason for doing so. SERJEANT SHEE. But was there any truth in such a statement if made?

SMITH. I should say not. There ought not to be any pretence for

anything of the kind. [Laughter.]

MR BARON ALDERSON. NO, Brother Shee. It was only two or three

times a week he slept there! [Loud laughter.]

The Attorney-General thereupon made a telling speech for the Crown, the ablest in his career, speaking without notes in a firm and resonant voice for eight hours or longer. He was secure in the knowledge that he had the last word, and need fear no rebuttal— though why the Prosecution always should have the last word in murder trials, we have been unable to fathom, unless the theory may be that the Judge in his summing-up will speak in the prisoner's defence, pointing out any false logic or distortion of facts contained in this final oration. Well aware, however, that the Lord Chief Justice could not be counted upon to do anything of the kind, Sergeant Shee boldly contended that since the Attorney-General had raised the new matter of Walter Palmer's life insurance, and the proposals for it made to various offices, the Defence was entitled to reply. But the Lord Chief Justice ruled: 'We are of opinion that you have no right to reply,' and Mr Baron Alderson supported him in this.

Dr Palmer, while in the dock, wrote a facetious note to his Counsel:

I wish there was two and a half grains of strychnia in old Campbell's acidulated draught—solely because I think he acts unfairly.

The Lord Chief Justice summed up in a sense which left the jury no choice but to find a verdict or Guilty'; yet Serjeant Shee courageously ventured on a final protest:

SERJEANT SHEE. The question which your Lordship has submitted to the jury is whether Cook's symptoms were consistent with death by strychnia. I beg leave . ..

THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE (in a tone of vexation). That is not the question which I have submitted to the jury; it is a question! I have told them that unless they consider the symptoms consistent with death by strychnia they ought to acquit the prisoner.

SERJEANT SHEE. It is my duty not to be deterred by any expression of displeasure; I stand before a much higher tribunal than even your Lordships', and must therefore submit what I believe to be the proper question. I submit to your Lordships that the question whether Cook's symptoms are consistent with death by strychnia is a wrong question, unless followed by the phrase:'. . . and inconsistent with death from other and natural causes.' I submit that the question should be whether the medical evidence has established, beyond all reasonable doubt, that Cook died by strychnia. It is my duty to make this submission, as it is your Lordships', if I am wrong, to overrule it.

MR BARON ALDERSON. It is done already. You did so in your speech.

THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE (addressing the jury). Gentlemen, I did not submit to you that the question upon which alone your verdict should turn is whether the symptoms of Cook were those of strychnia. I said that this is a most material question, and I desired you to consider it. I said: if you think that he died from natural disease—and not from poisoning by strychnia—you should acquit the prisoner. Then I went on to say that if you believed that the symptoms were consistent with death from strychnia, you should consider the other evidence given in the case to sec whether strychnia had been administered to Cook and, if so, whether it had been administered by the prisoner at the bar. These are the questions which I now again put to you. You must not find a verdict of 'guilty' unless you believe that strychnia was administered to the deceased by the prisoner at the bar; but, if you do believe that, it is your duty towards God and man to find the prisoner guilty.

At the conclusion of this address the jury retired from the Court, at eighteen minutes past two o'clock. They filed back into their box at twenty-five minutes to four, after an absence of one hour and seventeen minutes. The prisoner, who had meanwhile been removed, was simultaneously placed in the dock.

A buzz of excitement which ran round the Court on the reappearance of the jury was instantly hushed by the Clerk of the Arraigns' question: 'Gentlemen of the Jury, are you all unanimous in your verdict?'

The Foreman replied with a downright: 'We are.'

Whereupon the Clerk of the Arraigns asked: 'How say you, gentlemen: Do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty, or not guilty?'

The Foreman rose and announced in distinct and firm tones: 'We find the prisoner guilty.'

Dr Palmer, who exhibited some slight pallor and the least possible shade of anxiety upon the return of the jury to the box, almost instantly won back his self-possession and his demeanour of comparative indifference. He maintained his perfect calm; and when sentence was being passed, he looked an interested, although utterly unmoved, spectator. We may truly say that during the whole of this protracted trial his nerve and calmness have never for a moment forsaken him.

The Clerk of the Arraigns then turned to him with: 'Prisoner at the bar, you stand convicted of murder; what have you to say why the Court should not give you judgement to die according to the law?' This question is of a formal nature; and the prisoner neither made, nor was expected to make, any answer.

Thereupon the Judges assumed the black cap, and Lord Chief Justice Campbell pronounced sentence in the following terms:

'William Palmer, after a long and impartial trial you have been convicted of the crime of wilful murder. In that verdict my two learned brothers, who have so anxiously watched this trial, and myself, entirely concur. The case is attended with such circumstances of aggravation that I will not dare to touch upon them. Whether this be the first and only offence of the sort which you have committed is certainly known only to God and your own conscience. It is seldom that such a familiarity with the means of death can be achieved without long experience; but for this offence, of which you have been found guilty, your life is forfeited. You must prepare to die; and I trust that, as you can expect no mercy in this world, you will, by a repentance of your crimes, seek to obtain mercy from Almighty God. The Act of Parliament under which, at your own request, you have been brought here for trial, allows us to direct that the sentence shall be executed either within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, or in the county where the offence was committed. We think that the sentence ought to be executed in the county of Stafford, and we hope that this terrible example will deter others from committing such atrocious crimes: for it will be seen that, whatever art, or caution, or experience may accomplish, yet such an offence will surely be found out and punished.

'However destructive poison may be, it is ordained by Providence, for the safety of its creatures, that there are means of detecting and punishing those who administer it. I again implore you to repent, and to prepare for the