The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-05-26 00:00:00

him to be affected by anything which that most disreputable
witness Jeremiah Smith, has stated. Certainly such a
tifSerat:le spectacle as that witness inethe box, I have never
seen surpassed it, a court of justice. There was not one
who heard his evidence who was not satisfied that the man
came here to tell a falsehood—not one who was not con-
vinced that he was not mixed up in many of the villanies
which, if not perpetrated, were, at all events, contemplated,
and that he care here to save the life of his companion
and friend, ann the son of the woman with whom he had
that intimacy the nature of which he sought in vain to
disguise. I cannot but think that, looking to the whole
of this part of the case, you must believe the evidence
of Newton, and if you do so believe it, then that evidence
is conelusiee of the ease. But the case does not stop there,
because we have the meet ihditputable evidence that on the
following day Palmer purchased moill strychnine at the shop
of Mr. Hawkins. You remember the circum*nCe con-
nected with that purchase, Palmer's first asking for some
prussic acid, and then ordering some strychnine to be pnt
tip for him, Newton coming in, and the prisoner calling him
out of the shop to speak to him of the most unimportant
matters. Why did the prisoner take Newton out of the
shop Evidently because he wished to avoid exciting sus-
pieione which would very naturally be raised in the mind of
Newton, from the fact of the prisoner having purchased
strychnie on two occasions. and who would very naturally
enquire for what purpose it was that the prisoner wanted
nine. grains of strchntne. Why did the prisoner go to Ilaw-
kins's shop to purchase the poison ? The reason was clear.
If he had gone to Thirlby's, who was his former assistant,
he would naterally have asked Palmer for whom the strych-
nine was intended. Why the prisoner shduld have gone On
two successive days and pitroliastcl the pole m is one of those
mysteries attending tithe case which I cannot explain. But
if there is some difficulty in this part of the case, there is,
on the other hand, a still greater difficulty arising from
the use to which this poison was put. My learned friend
passed over this part of the case in mysterious but signifi-
cant silence. Account for that six grains of strychnia
Throw a doubt, if you please, on the purchase of the strych-
nine on the Monday night, but upon Tuesday it is unques-
tionably true that six grains were purchased. If these six
grains were required for the use of any patients, why were
they not produced, and if for tiny other purpose why was it
not explained ? Has there been the slightest shadow
of attempt to show the use to which the poison was
applied ? Alas ! No. Soniething was said at the out-
set about dogs which were tfoublesome in the paddock
to the prisoner's mares and foals, but that was proved
to have been in September. If it were used for the purpose
of destroying dogs some one must have assisted him in the
act. Why were not these persons called ? they were not
even named: I ask you what you can draw from these
circumstances, except this bee, that the death of Cook took
place with all the symptoms of poison by strychnine—death
in all the convulsions and throes which the deadly poison
produces in the frame of man. Well, then, it has been
said, that the fact of the prisoner having called in two
medical men was strong presumptive evidence to negative
his guilt. It is true that he called in Dr. Bamford,
and wrote to Dr. Jones to come and see Cook. Now, as
medical men, they would be very likely to know the sym-
toms of death by strychnine. But there is one point in this
part of the ease which deserves notice. If these symptoms
exhibited were not those resulting from strychnine, but were
referrible to that multiform variety of diseases to which the
witnesses have referred, there is no reason why the prisoner
should have any credit for sending for these medical
gentlemen. It is quite true that he called on old Dr,
Bamford. I speak of that gentleman in no terms of die_
respect; but I dd net think he was a person likely to make
any very shrewd observations as td the eatise of the death
of Cook, and the best proof of this is to be found in what
he did and in what he wrote on the sahject. As regards Mr.
Jones, these observations do not apply, for he was a man in
the possession of the full powere of mind. The prisoner
selected Jones, and the result showed how wise he was in
making that selection. The death of Cock occurred in the
presence of Jones with all those painful symptoms which
you have heard described, and yet Jones suspected nothing,
and if the prisoner had succeeded in introducing Cook's
body into that " strong oak coffin which he had had made
for him, the body would have been consigned to the grave
and nobody would have known anything of these proceed-
ings, while the presence of Jones and Dr. Bamford would
have been used to prevefit lanes suspicion. On the other
hand, it is not at all improbable that the prisoner may have
thought that the best mode of disarming all suspicions
would be to take care that some medical Men should
be called in, and should be present at the time of
death. There is nothing to show that the prisoner
entertained the Most distant notion that ,Tones would have
to sleep in the same room as Cook, and if this had not
been, the case. Cook would have been found dead the
next morning, and the old man would have said he
died of apoplexy, and the young man that he died of
epilepsy; and had any suspicion been awakened, it would
have been urged in reply, as it has been by my learned
friend, that two medical men were called in by the prisoner
previous to his death. Bat the case does not end
here. We have had a great many witnesses who have
told us a great deal about strychnia, but none that
have said a ward about antimony. On the Wednesday
night, at Shrewsbury, when Cook drank a glass of brandy
and water, he said that there was something in it which
burned his throat, and was afterwards seized with vomit-
ing, which lasted for several hours. On that same night
Mrs. Brooks saw the prisoner shaking something in a
glass. It is a remarkable fact that, when Cook drank that
brandy and water he was taken ill a few minutes after.
There were, it is true, other persons taken ill at Shrews-
bury about the same time, but still you will have to bear
in mind that scene of the shaking up of the fluid in the
glass in the passage, the fact that Cook was somewhat in
liquor, and in that state he ought not to have been told by
the prisoner that he would not drink any more unless he
finished his glass. Pass on, however, to Rugeley. You
still find that Cook was under the influence of the same
symptoms as those which he suffered at Shrewsbury.
You have the fact of the prisoner sending him over toast
and water, and broth, and that no sooner had the poor
man taken these things, than he is seized with incessant
vomitings of the most painful character. Then, too,
there was the broth, said to have been sent by Smith,
from the Albion, which was sent, however, not to the Tal-
bot Inn, but to the prisoner's kitchen. The broth was taken
over to the Talbot by the prisoner himself, and, as soon
as it was touched by Cook, vomitings followed; there is,
too, the fact that the servant at the Talbot, after taking
two spoonfuls of the broth, was ill for several hours, and
vomited something like twenty times. Then, again, on
the Monday when the prisoner was absent, Cook was
found to be better, but upon the Tuesday, when he
returned to Rugeley, the vomitings again returned. Now
the important fact is that antimony was found in the
tissues of the poor man's body and in his blood, and the
presence of the antimony in the blood, shows that it must
have been taken within the last 48 hours before death.
Something has been said about Cook having taken the
antimonylin " James's Powder,' but not a tittle of evidence
has been given that he ever took any of these powders,
while the presence of the antimony in the blood proved
that it had been administered within 43 hours of
death. I believe you will feel that antimony had
been administered to Cook in a mode and in
quantities which showed that it could have been
given for no legitimate object; and further, that it
must have been administered by the prisoner. But let us
take into consideration the conduct of the prisoner in the
after-stages of the case, and let us look at what took
place on the day of Cook's death. On the preceding night
he had suffered from what was indisputably a most severe
attack. Dr. Bamford sees Palmer on the Tuesday morn-
ing, and not a word is said to him about that attack.
The prisoner manifests an anxiety that he should not see
the deceased ; he states that Cook is quiet, and is dozing,
and that he does not wish to have him disturbed. If
Dr. Bamford had seen Cook in the morning, Cook would,
in all probability, have made known to him his frightful
sufferings of the night before, as they must then have
formed the subject which was, of all others, the most
present to his memory. Dr. Bamford, however, did not
see the deceased until seven o'clock on the Tuesday
evening, wheu he was much better. Palmer had then
talked of his having suffered from a billions affection ;
and it is a remarkable fact that he had more than once
represented the illness of Cook as one arising from a
bilious attack, both to Dr. Bamford and Dr. Jones,
although the patient had exhibited none of the symptoms
which ordinarily accompanied a bilious constitution. The
moment Dr. Jones saw him he made the observation that
his "tongue was not that of a bilious patient," and the
answer he got from Palmer was, " Oh, you should have
seen him before." But not one word did Palmer say to
Dr. Jones about the fit of Cook on the night before. Well,
the three medical men consulted together, by the bed side
of the patient, and then Cook turned round and said,
" Mind, I will have no more pills and medicine to-night,"
remembering, as he no doubt did at the time, his illness
of the preceding night. No observations was made even
then by Palmer as to what had been the nature of Cook's
attack on the night before; but, the medical men having
withdrawn into the adjoining room or lobby, Palmer
immediately proposed that Cook should again take the
same pills he had taken on the previous night; but he
desired Jones not to say anything to him about what
they contained lest he might object to take them. It
was then arranged that the pills should be made up, and
Palmer proposed that they should be compounded by Dr.
Bamford, although it was then early in the evening, and
he might easily have prepared them on his own premises.
He accompanied Dr. Bamford to the surgery of the latter;
and after the pills had been made up there, he asked Dr.
Bamford to write the address on them, and the address
was so written. An interval occurred of an hour or two,
during which the prisoner had abundant opportunities of
going to his surgery, and doing what he pleased in the
way of changing the pills. He returned to the hotel, and
before he gave the pills to Palmer he took care to call the
attention of Jones, who was present at the time, to the
remarkable hand-writing of an old gentleman like Dr.
Bamford, by whom the direction of the medicine had been
written. What necessity was there for that ? Might it
not have been a preconceived design to save himself from
any subsequent suspicion by his being able to state that
the pills had been prepared by Dr. Bamford'? and might
it not have been done for the purpose of disarming any
immediate suspicion on the part of Dr. Jones himself? 1
will now pass over for a moment the remainder of the
history of the Tuesday night, and I will take you to the
circumstances which immediately followed Cook's death.
On the Thursday, Mr. Strevens, the stepfather of the
deceased, went over to Rugeley, on receiving intelligence
of the sad event. Be applied' to Palmer for information
upon the subject of Cook's affairs ; and in the course of
• he communications which passed between them, Stevens
said, "rich or poor, the poor fellow should be burled."