PLUNGER AND POISONER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1911, 6 July 1888, Page 25

PLUNGER AND POISONER.

Thk Career op William Palmbr. (Licensed Victuallers' Gazette.)

The stories of the remorseless poisonings by the Borgias "and the Marchioness of Brinvilliers might read like the exaggerations of romance, sp cold, cruel, and utterly inhu : man were they ? but for an extraordinary parallel which is to be fqund in the criminal records or our own time. We allude to the Palmer case, which, in the days when we were young, thrilled all England with horror and created a sensation that has probably never since been equalled. William Palmer was the son of well-to-do parents, and was born at Rugeley, in Staffordshire, in the year 1824. Vice was innate in him ; at 16, we are told, he robbed, to a very considerable amount, the letters of the firm of chemists and druggists to which he was apprenticed at Liverpool, and was only saved from the felon's 1 dock by his mother repaying the money. After this he was sent to a surgeon at Hayward, near Eugeley, where he pursued a course of borrowing, swindling, cheating, and vicious habits that soon compelled him again to shift his quarters. This time it was to the Stafford Infirmary. Here the only branch of pharmapy that seemed to have any attractions for him was that connected with the more deadly drugs ; indeed, so marked was this proclivity that it excited attention, and some restraint was put npon his access to them. But not effectually, to judge by what followed. He had lost a bet to a man named Abley, and, before paying it, invited him to come and have a glass of brandy-and-water. Abley had not swallowed the liquor many minutes before he was]seized with a 1 violent vomiting. He was conveyed home, and in a few hours afterwards was dead. It would seem that there was some suspicion of foul play, but no steps were taken to investigate the cause of death. Soon after this event we find Palmer in London, walking the hospitals, and leading

The Usual Wild Life of the medical

Student of those days — giving champagne suppers, gambling, betting, and doing everything except study. Examinations were not so strict at that time as they are now, and with the aid of tips and bribes Mr William Palmer, profoundly ignorant of everything appertaining to medicine, except, maybe, toxicology, obtained a certificate to illustrate his ignorance upon any unfortunate patient that that might fall into his hands.

In spite of his notorious profligacy, which had already involved him in 14 illicit amours, on Palmer's return to Rugeley, where, as soon as he had obtained his license to kill, he set up as a medical practitioner, he contrived to engage the affections of a very charming and amiable young girl, named Anne Brookes, the illegitimate daughter of a Colonpl Brookes, from whom she inherited a very respectable property. They were married in 1847. Five children were the fruit of the union ; the eldest survived both its parents, but the rest died when only a few weeks old, all under similar circumstances, and in strong conversions. Upon the last occasion the nursemaid spoke out pretty plainly : " I'll never gq back to that wretch Palmer's hous.e again," she cried, running into a shpp close by. "He came into the nursery just now, took the dear baby from me, and sent me out on gome errand saying he'd nurse }t for me while I was gone, and when I came back the blessed darling was in convulsions, and now its dead, and they've all gone the same way.-' ? Nobody, however, seemed \.o attach any importance to these utterances. Mr Palmer wjais a regular churchgoer; no m^ia gave the responses during

service with more earnestness; he always took notes of the sermon, and scribbled pious commentaries upon the margins of his Bible and prayer-book — which showed how thoroughly he understood English cant. But it is time we gave Some Account of Palmer's Racing

Career,

which was made a great deal of at the time of the trial, certain journals trying hard to show that therein lay the root of all his crimes, and to graft a very pretty moral upon the text. Nothing can be further from the truth. While walking the hospitals he was known to bet heavily, and as a rule to be pretty fortunate. It was in 1817, just after his marriage, that he became an owner. The first horse he ran was a colt called Ferry Hill, and this was at Warwick Spring meeting, where it won a small sweepstake, and in the same year took the Stand Plate at Newport. He made a grand coup in 1849, when he backed Flying Dutchman for the Derby to a very large amount, and invested most of the money thus gained in buying steeplechasers; with one of these he took the Leamington Stakes, worth £955, and netted £2800 in bets. At" the Warwick meeting he made altogether, bets included, close upon £7000. In 1851 the Great Shrewsbury Handicap fell to him, as well as the Wolverhampton Stakes, while'at Manchester he took, either in that year or the next, the Great Autumn Handicap. In 1853 was his best year, when he won the Chester Cup with Goldfinder, and by that win realised £12,000. So far from "Palmer being a loser by the turf, he was an enormous gainer, and had he confined himself to his own horses he would have made a fortune. He seems to have run them pretty straight, but as a betcing man he was not above suspicion ; indeed, he was twice posted as a defaulter, and thereby excluded from being a member of Tattersall's ; no good class men would associate with him on the racecourses, and he was usually to be found among the black sheep. . When his own horse, Nettle, ran for the Oaks it was supposed he stood to win £10,000 on her. She was second after passing the milestone on the brow of the hill, then she suddenly bolted, fell over the chains, threw her jockey (Marlow), and fractured his thigh. Some people said Nettle had been dosed, and that her owner made more by her accident than he would have done by her winning.

Palmer had Large Stables

outside llugeley, went in pretty extensively in breeding and training, keeping two or three trainers at work. The best known among his horses were Gold finder, Doubt, Mermaid, Rip Van Winkle, Polestar, Chicken, and Nettle. But he had a passion for buying hcrses, so that his winnings were expended as soon as made, and he was continually obliged to borrow of a bill discounter named Pratt at 60 per cent. ; it was this and not his loss.es upon the turf which ultimately drove him to destruction. Let us pause for a moment to endeavour to sketch the portrait of this modern Borgia at 30 years of age. It will be familiar enough to many an old turfite who remembers that sphinx-like face that never betrayed the least emotion, whether he won or lost. He looks considerably older than he really is ; he is short, being only §ft 7in, and thick set; the face is plebeian, the features insignificant, the complexion florid, the hair lightish brown, scanty, and very thin on the top, the whiskers reddish in hue, the eyes small, cold, and cunning. He wears a tall, straight hat, a frock coat closely buttoned, and rather baggy trousers. There he is just beneath the grand stand, book in hand, watching the race as calmly as though be had not a penny upon it. But to resume our narrative. Mrs Palmer's mother had been housekeeper to Colonel Brookes, and he had left her well provided for. Her son-in-law had long urged her to come and live with him, but for a considerable time she lesisted all his persuasions ; at length he seems to have worried her into consenting. " I know I shall not live a fortnight afterwards," she said, and her words prqved prophetic. Soon after the old lady's death a man by the name of Bladon, with whom Palmer had been repeatedly associated in turf transactions, went with him to Chester races. Palmer proved unfortunate on this occasion, and is supposed to have lost rather heavily to his friend, who won about £400. The two went back to Rugeley, ate a hearty supper, and had some brandy-and-water afterwards. In the night Bladon was taken with vomiting, Palmer prescribed for him, and in a few hours he was dead. No intimation was sent to the wife until the body was in its coffin and screwed down. Of the £100 only £15 were found in the dead man's pockets. The wife of one of Palmer's uncles, from whom he had some expectations, being unwell he sent her some pills. Now, whether the lady distrusted her physician, or was of Macbeth's opinion as to the uses of medicine, we cannot say, but she threw the physic, not to the dogs, but to a couple of greedy chickens, who gobbled up the pills, fell into convulsions, and died. Another racing friend named Bly, who had been so unfortunate as to win of Palmer, was

Invited into the Spider's Web ; he also, after partaking of brandy and-water, fell ill and died at this fatal house. Yet still only a few wicked and malicious persons suspected that this good church-goer could harm a fly ; and then, he was so generous, always ready with his guinea at a tale of distress, so liberal in hjs vails to servants, so hospitable to his friends, never suffering them to depart until they were reeling drunk, and such a good-tempered, jovial, boon companion that he continued to be on as good terms with the Publicans as with the Pharisees. In 1854 Palmer sought toinsure his wife's life for no less a sum than £22,000, but only succeeded in effecting policies to the amount of £13,000 ; the immediate cause of this move was the discovery that, through a flaw in her father's will, Mrs Palmer's fortune at her death would lapse to her father's family ; but the sum he had to pay yearly on the £13,000 'actually exceeded the income his wife drew from her property, a fact damnatory in itself. In September, soon after he had paid the first instalment, Mrs Palmer was taken ill, and thpngh her food was prepared by the servant her loving husband always gave it her. An octogenarian doctor, 82 years old, and another who had just completed -his fourscore years, were called in, and when, after fiye days of great suffering, the poor lady

expired these two old twaddlers signed certificate to the effect that she hai died English cholera. A most horrible circum stance in connection with this event is that exactly nine months afterwards Palmer's servant gave birth to an illegitimate child. Even the street boys in Eugeley used to call after him that he'd poisoned his wife, and still no stir was made. Having been so fortunate in one insurance speculation, he tried another ; his brother Walter was the victim this time, and while he thought that William was arranging for £1000, the miscreant was actually endeavouring to negotiate policies amounting to £82,000. Having_succeeded to about half that amount, he invited Walter to his house, with the usual result— illness, and a painfu. l death. By way of a ghastly joke, all the victims were "interred in one grave, the four children, Bladon, the mother-in-law, the wife, and the brother. t Rendered Daring by Success, Palmer now tried, throngh his discounting solicitor, to insure the life of a broken-down farmer, described as a gentleman of property, for £25,000. But the insurance offices had begun to entertain suspicions, so they refused to pay upon Walter's death, and sent detectives down to Eugeley. They called upon Palmer and told him that they intended to investigate the circumstances, not only of his brother's, but of his wife's death. He was at dessert when he received them ; he listened to what they had to say, cracked his walnuts, sipped his wine, and never moved a muscle, simply replying, " Quite right— quite right and proper.'' In the meantime Palmer's money difficulties were daily increasing ; the strain of GO per cent, was exhausting every resource, and he knew not where to turn for means. He had of late been a good deal associated with a young sporting man named John Parsons Cook, who had at one time been a man of property. In 1856 the two went down together to Shrewsbury races. Cook won about £800; Palmer lost. On the strength his winnings Cook gave a dinner to some friends at the Raven Hotel. About 11 o'clock that night a woman, who kept an establishment for jockeys, for whom she acted as a kind of registrar, came to the hotel to see Palmei about a lad that was to ride for him next day. The waiter directed her to the dining room, and as she was coming along the corridor she saw^Palmer holding up a glass of liquid, that looked like brandy and water, to a gas jet, as though to examine its condition. After dismissing the woman Palmer went back to the room, and called xjpon Cook to drink up his brandy and have another glass. Cook had no sooner emptied his tumbler than he cried out, " There's something in it — it burns my throat. That d d Palmer has given me a dose." He was very ill all night. Yet two days afterwards we find him accompanying Palmer to Rugeley, where he engaged a room at the Talbot Inn, just opposite Palmer's house, and on the night of his arrival d'ned with the man whom he had suspected of adminintering poison to him 48 hours before. The next morning he was very sick ; and when he seemed h\ extremis Palmer went up to London with a forged authority to obtain a settlement of Cook's racing transactions. He succeeded in getting a large portion of the money due to his victim into his hands and then hurried back to Rugeley. As soon as he arrived there he bought three grains of strychnine of a surgeon's assistant, and the next day six grains of strychnine and two grains of prussic acid, lie now called in the octogenarian iEsculapius, made him prepare a box of pills and write the directions on the box. As he was giving Cook one of the pills he called the attention of some one in the room to " the wonderful hand for a man of 80," in order to impress the conviction that dt was not his own prescription he was administering. After enduring the most frightful agony for several days poor Cook followed his. predecessors. Before his remains could be hurried into a coffin, however, his stepfather appeared upon the scene. Neither money nor betting book could be found, although ib was known that he had had several hundreds in his possession at Shrewsbury ; and Palmer, when questioned, asserted that the deceased owed him £4000. The scoundrel, however, had

At Last Found His Match.

The stepfather insisted upon a pout mortem examination. As far as could be seen, the intestines were* healthy, and no trace of poison could be discovered. They were sealed up in a jar, however, and sent to Dr Taylor, the famous analyst. Palmer made one or two attempts to tamper with the vessel, and offered the post boy who drove the chaise which was conveying it to the railway station £10 to upset the vehicle ; but the lad refused. He seems to have been more fortunate, however, with certain postal officers, for it was believed that every letter that passed between Dr Taylor and the solicitor at Rugeley was opened by the criminal. Whether Palmer would "have attempted to escape it is impossible to .say, but just at the critical moment he was arrested for debt. He was at that time ill in bed, and before he could be removed the bolt fell, and a warrant for his arrest for the Wilful Murder of John Parsons Cook was issued. Yet so blinded and infatuated were his fellow townsmen that many of them were indignant at the charge, and would have resisted the police. A bill of sale which he had given for £10,000 was now put into execution, and all he possessed — house, furniture, horses — were sold up. Everyone knows the result of that long and famous trial which in the May of 1856 was the absorbing topic of the hour. Palmer remained silent and impenitent to the last. When, on the morning of the 14th of June, the gaoler opened the cell door to announce to him that his last hour had pome, he marched on to the scaffold with a jaunty air and a tripping gait, stepped lightly up the stairs, and for one moment confronted without emotion or bravado the vast surging multitude, the huge panoramaof 50,000 upturned faces that met his gaze. A roar of curses, howls, and groans burst from the myriad throats ; he turned away his head, but showed no more emotion than he would an a racecourse had the wrong number gone up. He made a brief prayer With the chaplain, shook hands with the executioner, the rope was adjusted, the bolt shot back, the drop fell, there was o,ne convulsive movement, all was over; and Palmer, the poisoner, had passed, into 'eternity.