Mr. Minshull directed Dodd, the jailer, to place the prisoners at the bar, and in a few minutes afterwards they entered the dock, and answered to their names. Bishop appeared to be considerably depressed in spirits, and as the examination proceeded and new facts came out against him, his countenance fell, and his eyes, which are full and prominent, assumed a glassy appearance, as he listened apparently with intense anxiety to the witnesses. The prisoner May appeared also to pay particular attention to the evidence, and it was observed, that during the examination, he displayed, except on one occasion, none of that indifference and levity which marked his former conduct. Williams, who has evidently less nerve than either of his companions, betrayed a restless anxiety as the case proceeded, and on several occasions his colour changed, and his lips grew white and dry. As to the old man, Shields, who was placed rather apart from the others, and against whom no other evidence has yet been produced, except the fact of his having carried the body in a hamper to the King's College, with a full knowledge of its contents, he stood upright in the dock, in a sort of half stupor, without once changing his position during the three hours and a half which were occupied in the examination.
As soon as the prisoners were ranged at the bar,
Mr. Corder said, that it would be merely requisite at present to produce such further testimony as would be necessary to fill up the links in the chain of evidence already brought forward.
John Atkinson was then sworn, and identified the hamper.
Edward Chandler deposed, that he was waiter at the King of Denmark watering-house, Old Bailey. On the evening of Friday, the 4th of November, he saw the prisoners May and Bishop, both of whom he had previously known, at that house. They came there about five o'clock, and witness served them with some tea. The witness Seagrove was there at the same time. The prisoners called for half a pint of gin, with which he (witness) served them. He drank a glass of the gin himself, and his fellow servant had another. May also drank a glass of the gin, and chucked a glass into Bishop's tea.
Mr. Corder.—Did Bishop make any observation when the glass of gin was put into his tea by May?
Witness.—Yes, Bishop said to May when he did this, 'Are you going to hocus me, or burke me?'
Mr. Minshull asked the witness if he knew the meaning of the word 'hocus?' (This word has been erroneously spelt as locus.)
Mr. Harmer, who attended this and the former examination, to assist the prosecution, explained that the word was well known, in cant language, to describe the act of putting a man in a state of stupidity.