The female prisoner said, that she got up about half-past six o'clock, and prepared breakfast, and gave Walsh some tea and bread and butter. While they were taking breakfast, her husband, who had been out since five o'clock, came in, and had his breakfast. She then left her husband and Walsh together, smoking their pipes, and went out; and on her return, in about half an hour afterwards, the latter was gone. The husband, on the contrary, said, that he came home to breakfast on the morning in question about eight o'clock, and found no person in the house but the old woman; and he was not certain whether he had left her there when he came away, or she had left before him; but he was satisfied that he had not seen his wife from the time he came home to his breakfast until he went away again.
A lad, who lodged in the same house with the prisoner, said, that on the morning of Saturday, the 20th of August, at five o'clock, he saw Mrs. Cook come up the stairs leading to a cellar, and closing a trap-door. This she positively denied, and said that she was not up before half-past six o'clock.
It was also stated that coffins had been frequently seen in Cook's room; and one witness swore positively, that in the month of July last, at two o'clock in the morning, he saw the three prisoners come down the Minories, the boy with a sack on his shoulders, with what appeared to him to be the body of a child of eight or ten years of age in it, and the mother assisting him to carry it, by holding it by the bottom; and they all turned into the court where they lived.
After an examination, which lasted for upwards of four hours, Mr. Norton remanded the prisoners until the following Wednesday, and at the same time gave strict injunctions that they should be kept apart in prison, and not allowed to have any communication with each other.
Accordingly, on Wednesday, the 2nd of November, they were brought up for further examination. The boy, since the previous examination, had made such disclosures to his fellow-prisoners at the House of Correction, as left no doubt of the guilt of his parents of the horrible offence alleged against them; but his statement, which was committed to writing, and which was handed to the magistrates, was unconnected and unsatisfactory. While in one of the strong rooms belonging to the office, Lea, the officer who had apprehended the prisoners, sent for the master and mistress of Aldgate Parochial School, at which the boy was in the habit of attending for two or three years past, and left them with him for some time, when he disclosed to them the outline of the appalling statement of the occurrence which he subsequently made on oath before the magistrates in the presence of his parents.
At three o'clock, Cook, and the female Ross, who had always passed as his wife, were placed at the bar, before the Hon. G. C. Norton, and J. Hardwicke, Esq.; and their astonishment on perceiving that their own child was about to be admitted as a witness against them, was quite apparent.
The magistrates asked the boy if he was quite willing to make a full disclosure of what he knew as to the disappearance of the old lady, Elizabeth Walsh, and he having answered in the affirmative, he was sworn, and made the following statement, which was taken down by Mr. Osman, the chief clerk:—'He recollected the old woman, Elizabeth Walsh, coming to his father and mother, at No. 7, Goodman's-yard, Minories. About ten o'clock on Friday morning (Friday the 19th of August last), and bringing some bread in a basket, a part of which she gave to him for his breakfast. She went away shortly afterwards and returned about tea-time in the evening, when she as well as himself and his mother had some coffee. His father was not present at the time, though he was when she came in the morning. They had coffee about half-past nine o'clock on the same night for supper. He, witness, took part of it, and it made him sleepy, but not sick. The old woman also took some of it, and it seemed to make her drowsy, as she shortly afterwards stretched herself on his father and mother's bed, and placed her hand under her head. She did not at the time complain of illness, on the contrary, she appeared in good health. Some time after he saw his mother go towards the bed, and place her right hand over the mouth of the old woman, and her left on her body. (The boy here burst into tears, and said he was sorry to be obliged to state such things against his own mother.) When his mother placed her hand on the old lady's mouth, her arm fell down, and she laid flat on her back on the bed. And his mother continued to keep one hand on her mouth, and the other on her person for at least half an hour. The old woman did not struggle much, but her eyes stared, and rolled very much. He (witness) stood by the fire at this time, and his father, who was in the room at the time, stood looking out at the window. His father stood so all the time, and he was sure he never once turned round to see what was going forward, and that he had nothing to do with it. In about an hour afterwards, his mother raised the body of the old woman from the bed, and carried it down stairs, but to where he did not know. The body was not undressed at the time. He and his father went to bed some time afterwards, and he could not say what time his mother returned, as he had not seen her again on that night after she left the room with the body in her arms, nor did he see where she had taken it to. On the following morning he got up about seven o'clock. His father and mother were then up, and in the room. He had occasion, previous to his going to school at eight o'clock, to go into the cellar to the privy, and while searching through the cellar he saw the body of the old woman in a sack which was placed underneath the stair, a portion of the head was out of the sack, and the body appeared to be partly bent, and reclining against the stairs. There was sufficient light in the cellar for him to discern the colour of the hair, on the head. It was partly gray and black; but he could not say whether or not the body was dressed or otherwise. The sack which it was in was one belonging to a person named Jones, with whom his father worked. He had frequently seen it in their room, and he thought it was there on the night before. He went to school shortly afterwards, and never mentioned a word then or since about what had occurred, or his seeing the body in the cellar. On returning home at twelve o'clock in the day, he found his father beating his mother. He thought the cause to be that the latter had been out drinking with a young woman, the granddaughter of the old lady who had called to inquire after her. His mother, he believed, while his father was beating her, called him a villainous murderer, but he had no recollection of her threatening to give any information of him. He (witness), after getting his dinner, went out to play, and did not come home until late. Himself, his father, and mother, supped together on the Saturday night, and at about ten o'clock his mother left the room, and in about half an hour afterwards he was standing at the window, and saw her go past with the body in the sack on her shoulder. It was in the same state in which he saw it on that morning, except that the mouth of the sack was tied; the body appeared to be partly bent. (The female prisoner, in an audible voice, here exclaimed—'Good God! how could I have borne a son to hang me?') The lad again burst into tears, and said he could not help it; that he was telling the truth. He then proceeded with his statement. He did not know at what time his mother had returned on Saturday night, as he and his father, who remained in the room, went to bed, and he was asleep when she came in. On the Sunday morning his mother told him that she had taken the body to the London Hospital. The boy here, as in many parts of his statement, said his father had nothing whatever to do in the business. The magistrates examined him very minutely as to what had taken place on the Friday night, and what conversation, if any, had taken place between his father, mother, or himself, previous to and after the horrid deed had been perpetrated. He said that no words or quarrel had taken place; the old woman and his father and mother were on good terms, and nothing particular had occurred during the evening, until his mother placed her hand, as he had before described, on the mouth of the old lady; nor did she say a word to him or his father, while she so held her hand on her mouth. He recollected she had been saying something to herself about taking the body to an hospital. He did not see his father lay a single hand on the old woman.
The magistrates expressed some surprise that the prisoner should for a whole day leave the body in the cellar of the house, which was accessible to all the inmates; but this was satisfactorily explained by the landlady, who said, that in consequence of it being so dark, and so infested with rats, the lodgers very seldom indeed entered it. This witness also deposed to having seen the old woman Walsh enter the house on the Friday, and go up to the apartment occupied by the prisoners. This was the last time she was seen alive.
Other witnesses deposed to the old woman taking her bed and bedding to the prisoners' room, and to the prisoners having solicited her to go and lodge with them for a length of time before she went.