The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-19 00:00:00

APPREHENSION OF A GANG OF

RESURRECTIONISTS.

On Friday morning, between six and seven
o'clock, as the police were coming off duty, James
Jefferies, police constable, No. 185, R division, and
Luke Kenney, No. 29, of the same division, observed
a chaise-cart driven by a man at a very slow pace,
along the New Cross-road, Deptford, and two men
walking on each side of the horse. The Moment

they saw the countenances of the men, they iden-
tified all three as belonging to a desperate gang of
resurrectionists, who have for this long time past
been a terror to the inhabitants of Deptford, Green-
wich, Camberwell, Peckham, Woolwich, and the
whole of the west of Kent. Having procured addi-
tional assistance, they pounced upon the fellows,
who, after a most determined resistance, were hand-
cuffed, and conveyed to the station-house of the R
division, in Orchard-place, Greenwich. The cart,
upon being examined, was found to contain the dead
bodies of two men, one aged 84 years, and the other
65. A rumour instantly spread like wild-fire that
two men had been Burked, and that the three men
who perpetrated the murder were in custody. A
crowd of several thousand persons soon assembled
round the station-house, and in the most menacing
and outrageous manner called upon the police to let
the Burkites out, saying that they would soon be re-
venged upon them. At one period it was thought
that the station-house would be completely pulled
down by the infuriated and incensed assemblage.
About eleven o'clock the men were led out of the
place of their confinement, escorted by about forty
policemen, to be conveyed before the Magistrates at
Deptford, when the mob commenced an attack upon
them with stones, bricks, and missiles of every
description, several of which struck them and the
police in divers places; and the hootings, execra-
tions, and yellings of the mob, might have been
heard nearly half a mile 9ff. On arriving at the
office where the magistrates were sitting, the police
had the utmost difficulty to prevent their prisoners
being sacrificed by the indignant multitude, which
was most anxious to inflict such punishment upon
them as it thought they deserved.
Mr. STANFIELD and Mr. YOUNG, the sitting
magistrates, after hearing the evidence against the
three men, who gave their names Cornelius Fitz-
gerald, an Irishman of respectable appearance, aged
35, Robert Self; a wooden-legged man, and a pen-
sioner, aged 35, and George Belt, a shabbily-
-dressed man, aged 45, remanded them until Satur-
day, in order that the corpses, which were removed
to the station-house, might be identified.
On the day appointed the prisoners were taken
before the magistrates of Greenwich, Capt. SMITII
and Colonel FOREMAN, for re-examination, in order
that they might avoid being again attacked ; but
notwithstanding this precaution, they did not escape
molestation. The boatswain of the Justitia convict
ship, lying off Woolwich Dock-yard, identified both
bodies as c)tivicts of the vessel to which he be-
longed, who died on board on Thursday night, and
were interred at Plumstead. The bodies, according
to the direction of the magistrates, were again in-
terred in the same spot, but were soon taken up
again. The three men were again remanded until
yesterday. On Monday morning, while Jefferies
and Kenney were on duty at the came spot as
when they apprehended the prisoners (Fitzgerald,
Self, and Betts) they stopped a man in a cart with
the same two bodies in his possession,
and took him
before the Deptford magistrates, who had him con-
veyed before the Greenwich Justices. He gave his
name Hollis, and appeared about 48 years of age.
Yesterday the whole four prisoners, for the reasons
above assigned, were removed to Woolwich, bef,,re
Mr. Rae, the Ticasurer and Commissioner of Police,
Mr. Stacey, and a full Bench of Justices, for final
examination, and were all fully committed to take
their trial for the offence at the next Maidstone As-
sizes. Several instruments for executing their nefa-
rious practices were found upon each of the prisoners
upon their removal to Maidstone gaol. The appre-
hension of these fellows has caused the most lively
interest throughout the county of Kent.