Higgins, a police constable of the F division, produced a heavy iron instrument, one end of which was bent and nearly as sharp as a chisel, and the other thick and round. He also produced a brad-awl clotted with blood. A question arose as to the use to which the latter had been applied, when May at once said, 'I took the teeth out with that brad-awl.'
The other instrument was then handed to Mr. Partridge, who gave it as his opinion, that the sharp end might have inflicted the wound on the forehead of the deceased, and that the thick rounded end was likely to have inflicted the blow on the back of the neck, and which, in his opinion, was the immediate cause of death.
The witness Higgins said, that he found these instruments, together with a rope with a noose at the end of it (which he produced) at the house of Bishop. He also found the pair of breeches now produced, belonging to the prisoner, and he discovered the marks of blood upon them. He saw some fresh blood on the floor of the room, where he found the breeches.
May explained that the blood was that of a jackdaw, which cut its leg, and afterwards hopped upon the breeches.
Mr. Thomas said, that, in fairness, he must say, that as the breeches were not found until a week after the prisoner was taken into custody, he thought that the blood was entirely too fresh to connect it with the murder.
Kirkman, a police constable, proved that he was in plain clothes, in the station-house at Covent Garden, on the evening of the 10th inst., when the prisoners were brought there, for the purpose of appearing before the inquest, which was then sitting. He observed the prisoner Bishop reading a bill pasted upon the wall, announcing that a boy had been murdered, and was then lying for examination at the bone-house. As soon as he had read the bill, Bishop observed to May, in a low tone of voice, 'It was the blood that sold us.' He then got up and read the bill again, repeating the words 'Marks of violence on the body;' then turning to May again, he said, 'There were no marks of violence on the body, but only a few breaks in the skin;' and as he said so, he sat down, smiling.
Bishop admitted that he had read the bill over, but denied the expressions imputed to him.
Margaret King, a decent-looking woman, in an advanced state of pregnancy, was then called forward and sworn. She stated, that on Thursday fortnight, about one o'clock, she was standing with her children in Birdcage Walk, near Nova Scotia Gardens, when she saw an Italian boy, whom she had frequently seen before in the neighbourhood of Bethnal Green, standing at the corner of Nova Scotia Gardens, with a little box slung before him. He stood about thirty yards from where she was standing. She never saw that boy since. He had his back to her, but still she was sure he was the same boy whom she had seen so frequently before. He had either a box or a cage with him.
Mr. Minshull.—Are you sure it was on a Thursday you saw him where you have just described?