“How did he really escape on the night of the murder?” I asked.
Mrs. Thompson replied—
“I have never breathed this to any one. I have had people try and try, and try over again.
“According to what he has told me, he climbed over a wall opposite Mr. Dyson’s house, and walked deliberately over a field.
“He has told me the name, but I do not remember. I got a lot out of him through his dreams, but he never told me he had committed murder. He said it was something else he had to run away for.
“He went direct to his aunt’s house. Having first cut off his beard, he dressed himself in a fustian suit, and went across country, committing little depredations to help him on his journey, for he had no money until he arrived at Bradford.
“He did not personate a one-armed man then; that device he did not carry into effect until he was at Hull. He took a room at Bradford and kept two women there, who used to assist him in burglaries.
He has often boasted to me of his achievements in that town and others, and he seemed to find a particular sort of pride in the fact that in one case it took him and one of his accomplices three days to remove some things from a furnished house which the tenants had temporarily left, and which, so far as articles of value were concerned, he literally cleared out.
“He has told me a good deal about his earlier career, but I can’t recall it to mind just now. First of all, he told me he was a sort of worker in the iron trade; that ever since he was fourteen he was a thief. Sometime between 1852 and 1854 he resided with Mrs. Peace at Manchester. He was brooght up for trial on a charge of burglary about that time, and Mrs. Peace had to sell the things in the house they lived in—most of them being stolen—to procure him professional advice upon his trial. He was committed for seven years, and while he was in prison he communicated with her, and always know of her whereabouts.
“He managed to write more than the police officials knew of, for he had a way of pasting up his letters which he has shown me. When he had regained his liberty, which he told me was in 1858, he rejoined Hannah and resumed his old courses. When he went out on his exploits he wore stockings over his boots to conceal his footmarks.”