The Most Extraordinary Trial of William Palmer, for the Rugeley Poisonings, which lasted Twelve Days

by Anonymous

The other medical authority to whom I said I should refer is Dr. Christison. He says that the symptoms produced by strychnine are very uncommon and striking—the animal begins to tremble, and is seized with stiffness and a starting of the limbs. Those symptoms increase, till at length the animal is attacked by general spasms. The fit is then succeeded by an interval of calm, during which the senses are impaired or are unnaturally acute; but another paroxysm soon sets in, and then another and another, until at last a fit occurs more violent than any that had preceded it, and the animal perishes suffocated. Now, who can say that that description at all tallies with the account of Mr. Cook’s symptoms? I know exactly what Dr. Christison means by this description, because I have had the advantage of having had several experiments performed in my presence by Dr. Letheby, which enable me to understand it. One of these experiments was this:—A dog had a grain of strychnine put into his mouth, and for about 20 or 25 minutes he remained perfectly well. Suddenly he fell down upon his side, and his legs were stretched out in a most violent way. He was as stiff as it was possible to be. In that state the dog remained, with an occasional jerk, for two or three minutes. In a short time he recovered and got up, but he appeared to be dizzy and uncomfortable, and was afraid to move. If you touched him he shrunk and twitched, and after another minute down he went again. He got up again and fell down again, and at last he had a tremendous struggle, and then he died. That is what Dr. Christison means by his description. If the dose had not been sufficient to kill the dog it would have been longer in producing an effect; the paroxysms would have occurred at more distant intervals, and they would have been less and less severe until the animal recovered. But if the dose be strong enough to kill, the interval between the paroxysms is short, and at last one occurs which is strong enough to kill. Just before the animal dies the limbs become as supple and free as it is possible to conceive the limbs of an animal to be. Whichever way you put the limbs of the animal after it is quite dead, the rigor mortis comes on after a time, and they remain in any position in which they are placed. I saw an experiment performed also upon two rabbits. The symptoms were substantially the same; the limbs of both of them were quite flaccid immediately upon death; and during the intervals between the paroxysms the animals shuddered and were extremely “touchy.” Now, gentlemen, I will give you my reasons for saying that, according to their own principle, as adduced in evidence by the Crown.

Mr. Cook’s death cannot have resulted from strychnia poison. I object to the theory of it having resulted from strychnia poison—first, on the ground that no case can be found in the books, in which, while the paroxysms lasted, the patient had so much command over the muscles of animal life and voluntary motion as Mr. Cook had upon Monday and Tuesday night. The evidence is, that he was sitting up in his bed beating the bedclothes, calling out, and that, so far from being afraid of people touching him, he actually asked to have his neck rubbed; and it was rubbed. I now come to the next reason why we say that death in this case did not result from strychnine poison; and I assert that there is no authentic case of tetanus from strychnine in which the paroxysm was delayed so long after the ingestion of the poison as it was in Mr. Cook’s case. Dr. Taylor says, in page 74 of his book, that from five to twenty minutes after the poison has been swallowed the tetanic symptoms commence; and then, in support of this statement, he proceeds to cite a number of cases. One young lady was “instantly deprived of the power of walking, and fell down.” In the next case, which was that of a girl, “tetanic symptoms came on in half an hour.” The next is a German case, taken from the Lancet, and there a young man, aged 17, was “attacked in about a quarter of an hour.” Then there is the case of Dr. Warner, who took half a grain of sulphate of strychnine, and died in fifteen minutes. Then there is the case of a young woman who took two or three drachms of nux vomica, and died in between thirty and forty minutes. Another case is given by Dr. Watson in his book, which he himself observed in the Middlesex Hospital, where strychnine pills, intended for paralytic patients, were taken by mistake. One-twelfth of a grain was intended to be administered every six hours; but unluckily a whole grain was given at one time, about 7 o’clock in the evening, and in half an hour it began to exhibit its effects. Dr. Watson says, that “any attempt at movement—even touching the patient by another person—brought on a recurrence of the symptoms.” It is clear, then, from all these cases, that the interval which elapsed between the supposed ingestion of the poison and the commencement of the paroxysm was much too long—three times too long to warrant the supposition that strychnia poison had been taken in this case. Thirdly, I submit—and I shall prove—that there is no case in which the recovery from a paroxysm of strychnine poison has been so rapid as it was in Cook’s case upon Monday night, or in which a patient has endured so long an interval of repose or exemption from its symptoms afterwards. In this case of Mr. Cook, according to the theory of the Crown, the paroxysms would not have been repeated at all if a second dose had not been given. There was an end of it when Elizabeth Mills left Palmer sleeping by the side of his friend in an arm-chair; how easy would it have been then, if he had been so disposed, to administer another dose, and to have hurried into Elizabeth Mill’s room, and called out that Cook was in another fit?

Dr. Taylor says in his book, that the patient is suddenly seized with spasms affecting the whole system, and that after several such attacks, increasing in severity, the patient dies asphyxiated. Dr. Christison holds precisely the same language; but I submit that here there is a broad distinction between the case of Cook and that which these gentlemen state to be the distinguishing feature of the disease. I now come to the post-mortem examination. Dr. Letheby was good enough to dig up from his garden, in order that I might see it, an animal which had been killed by strychnine, with a view to this inquiry, a month before, and to examine the heart before me. The heart of that animal was quite full. The heart also of the dog that was killed in my presence was quite full, and so were the hearts of both the rabbits that I saw killed. Now, I am told by a gentleman, whom I shall call before you, who is not afraid of dogs—and remember that this is rather a matter for experiment than of theory,—I am told that the result of an enormously large proportion of such examinations—and, indeed, of all of them if they be properly conducted—is, that the heart is invariably full. At the same time, I am told that if the examiners do the thing clumsily, they may contrive to get an empty heart. If there be any doubt in your minds, however, as to the heart being full in these cases, I hope that some morning you will desire that a reasonable number of animals should be brought into one of the yards here, and that you will see them die by strychnine, and examine their hearts, and form an opinion for yourselves. I have now discussed what may be said to be the theory of these matters; but I have not yet met the strong point which was made by the Crown of the evidence of Elizabeth Mills. I, upon all occasions, am most reluctant to attack a witness who is examined upon his or her oath, and particularly if he be in a humble position of life. I am very reluctant to impute perjury to such a person; and I think that a man who has been as long in the profession as I have been must, in most cases, be put a little to his wits’ end when he rushes upon the assumption that a person whose statements have, after a considerable lapse of time, materially varied, is therefore necessarily, deliberately perjured.

The truth is, we know perfectly well that if a considerable interval of time occurs between the first story and the second story, and if the intelligent and respectable persons who are anxious to investigate the truth, but who still have a strong moral conviction—upon imperfect information—of the guilt of an accused person, will talk to witnesses and say, “Was there anything of this kind?” or “anything of that kind?” the witnesses at last catch hold of the phrase or term which has been so often used to them, and having in that way adopted it, they fancy that they may tell it in court. This might have been the case with Elizabeth Mills; and let me point out to you what occurs to me to be the right opinion that you should form of that witness. I submit to you that in this case of life and death—or, indeed, in any case involving a question of real importance to liberty or to property—that young woman’s evidence would not be relied on. In the ordinary administration of justice in the civil courts, if a person has upon material points told two different stories juries are rarely willing to believe that person; and in criminal cases the learned judges, without altogether rejecting the evidence, point out to the jury the discrepancies which have taken place, and submit whether, under all the circumstances, it would be safe to rely upon the testimony last given, differing from the statement which was made when the impression was fresh upon the witness’s mind. It cannot be said in this case that Elizabeth Mills was not fully and fairly examined. I submit that my learned friend the Attorney-General really made a false point—the most unfortunate in the course of the prosecution—in attacking, upon this ground, the coroner, Mr. Ward. Just place yourselves, gentlemen, for a moment in the position of the coroner; and, to enable you the better to do so, just recollect what has passed in the course of this trial in this court; recollect, if you can, how many questions have been put by my learned friends and by me on account of which it has been necessary for counsel to interpose and to ask the learned judges whether the question was a proper one. Our rules of examination are strict, but they are most beneficial, because they exclude from the minds of the jury that loose and general sort of information which, in country towns especially, is the subject of pot-house stories and market gossip, and substitute for it the evidence of actual facts which have been seen and are deposed to by the witnesses. Imagine the coroner in a large room at a tavern, just under the bed-room where poor Cook died—a crowd of excited villagers in the room, all full of suspicion produced by the inquiries of the Prince of Wales Insurance-office about Walter Palmer—and Inspector Field there, and Inspector Simpson—and all impressed with the belief that whatever the London doctor said must be true, and that if Dr. Alfred Swayne Taylor had made up his mind that it was poison, poison it was. The whole town was in a state of uproar and excitement. Every question that occurred to everybody must be put before the coroner—“Didn’t you hear so and so?” “Didn’t somebody tell you that some one had said so and so?” and so on. How is it possible under such circumstances to conduct an inquiry with the dignity and decorum that are observed in the superior courts?

There was a celebrated trial some years ago in France, in which I remember to have taken great interest, of the ministers of King Charles X. Upon that occasion one witness actually proved that he had read all the pamphlets that had been published on the subject, and he came forward to state what, upon the whole, was the result which those pamphlets had made upon his mind. It is true that that was in revolutionary times, but it shows to what an extent the introduction of a loose system of questioning may go. I don’t say that Dr. Taylor suggested any but proper questions, but you must consider the difficulties under which the coroner had to labour, and I am told that he is an exceedingly good lawyer and a most respectable man. Dr. Taylor said that the coroner’s omission to ask questions arose, in his opinion, rather from want of knowledge than from intention. Of course the coroner would not be likely to know the proper questions to put in such a case, but when he did know them he seems to have put them. He was right in refusing to put irrelevant questions to gratify an inquisitive juryman; we are ourselves constantly being rebuked by the learned judges, and told to adhere to the rules, and not to put questions which are irrelevant. I have now pointed out such discrepancies in the evidence given by Mills before the coroner and before you as will, I think, make it clear to you that you cannot rely upon her testimony. Since she first gave her evidence she has had the means of knowing what is the case on the part of the Crown. I do not mean to say she has been tutored by the Crown; I believe that my learned friend would not have called her if he thought she had; but she has had an opportunity of discovering by interviews with several different people that the case for the prosecution is, that Palmer having first prepared the body of Cook for deadly poison by the poison of antimony, afterwards despatched him with the deadly poison of strychnine. Their case is, that there was an administration of something which had the effect of producing retching, nausea, and irritation of the stomach. Those symptoms are therefore attributed to the persevering intention of the prisoner to reduce Cook to such a state of weakness that, when once ingestion of the poison occurred, he was sure to be carried off. In her evidence before the coroner she was asked whether she had tasted the broth? She said she had, and she thought it very good. She did not then say anything about the ill effects the broth had produced; but she has since learnt that it is part of the case of those out of whose hands the Crown has taken the prosecution, and that it is the theory of Dr. Taylor that all this retching and vomiting was the result of a constant dosing with antimonial poison. She has probably been frequently asked whether she was not sick after drinking the broth; perhaps she may have been sick on some Sunday or another, and she has persuaded herself—for I do not wish to impute perjury to her—that she was made sick by the two table-spoonfuls of broth which she drank.

Is it not to the last degree incredible that a shrewd, intelligent man like Palmer should have exposed himself to such a chance of detection as sending broth which he had poisoned from his house, to stand by the kitchen fire of the Talbot Arms, when, sure as fate, the cook would taste it? Did you ever know a cook who would not taste broth sent by another person and said to be particularly good? It is not in the nature of things. A cook is a taster, she tastes everything, and Palmer must have known that as sure as ever he sent into the kitchen broth containing antimony the cook would take it and be ill. Her statement is not credible and cannot be relied on. Then she said in her evidence before the coroner that on Saturday Cook had coffee and vomited directly he swallowed it, and that up to the time she gave him the coffee she had not seen Palmer. She was not then aware that the theory of the gradual preparation of the body by antimony was to fit into the theory of death from strychnine, but by the time she came here she had become acquainted with that part of the case. My learned friend stated that, “Palmer ordered him coffee on Saturday morning; it was brought in by the chambermaid Elizabeth Mills, and given to the prisoner, who had an opportunity of tampering with it before giving it to Cook.” There is all the difference between this statement of my learned friend and that first made by Mills before the coroner. But the young woman did not go quite so far as that. She went however to this extent:—“Palmer came over at 8 o’clock and ordered a cup of coffee for Cook. I gave it to him. I believe Palmer was in the bedroom at the time. I did not see him drink it. I observed afterwards that the coffee had been vomited.” Her statement was not so strong as that of my learned friend, but a great deal stronger than the one she made before the coroner. The two statements are essentially different, and the difference between them consists in this—the one supports the theory suggested by the prosecution, the other is totally inconsistent with it. Can you rely on a woman who makes such alterations in her testimony? That is not all. The case suggested for the Crown now is, that Cook expressed reluctance to take the pills ordered for him, and that his reluctance was overruled by Palmer. Mills’s first statement was that Cook said the pills made him ill. Here she said that the pills which Palmer gave him made him ill. Before the coroner, too, she did not say that Palmer was in the bedroom between 9 and 10 on Monday night, as she has stated here. She makes him more about the bedside of the man, she gives him a greater opportunity of administering pills and medicine, she shows an animus, the result, according to the most charitable construction that can be put upon it, of a persuasion that Palmer must be guilty, but still an animus which shows that she is not to be relied on. How easily may persons in her condition make mistakes without intending to deceive! It is the just punishment of all falsehood that when a lie has once been told it cannot be retracted without humiliation, and when once this young woman had been induced to vary her statement in a material particular she had not the moral courage to set herself right.

But the particulars I have mentioned are nothing to those to which I will now call your attention. I impeach her testimony on the ground that she here gesticulated and gave her evidence in such a manner that if it had been natural and she had adopted it at the inquest it must have attracted the attention of Dr. Taylor. The remarkable contortions into which she put her hands, her mouth, and her neck would, if they had been observed at the inquest, have been reduced to verbal expression, and recorded in the depositions. I am told by Dr. Nunneley, Dr. Robinson, and other gentlemen, that the symptoms she described are inconsistent with any known disease. There was an extraordinary grouping of symptoms, some of them quite consistent with tetanus produced by strychnine administered under peculiar circumstances, others quite inconsistent with it. Now, in the last week in February a frightful case of strychnine occurred in Leeds. A person having the means of access to the bedside of a patient, was supposed to have administered small doses, day by day, and after keeping her for some time in a state of irritation, to have at last killed her. The person who attended the patient spoke of her symptoms for about a week before her death, and said she had “twitchings” in the legs, that she was alarmed at being touched in the intervals between the spasms. I will now call your attention to the evidence of Mills. She states:—“Cook said, ‘I can’t lie down; I shall be suffocated if I lie down. Oh, fetch Mr. Palmer!’ The last words he said very loud. I did not observe his legs, but there was a sort of jumping or jerking about his head and neck and the body. Sometimes he would throw back his head upon the pillow, and then raise it up again. He had much difficulty in breathing. The balls of his eyes projected very much. He screamed again three or four times while I was in the room. He was moving and knocking about all the time. He asked me to rub his hands. I did rub them, and he thanked me. I noticed him ‘twitch.’ I gave him toast-and-water. His body was still jerking and jumping. When I put the spoon to his mouth, he snapped at it and got it fast between his teeth, and seemed to bite it very hard. In snapping at the spoon he threw forward his head and neck. He swallowed the toast-and-water, and with it the pills. Palmer then handed him a draught in a wineglass. Cook drank this. He snapped at the glass as he had done at the spoon. He seemed as though he could not exactly control himself.”

The expressions she used, particularly the word “twitching,” are remarkable. It may well be that when this case became public she may have had her attention called to it, and then had questions put to her with regard to the symptoms of Cook which induced her to alter the evidence she had before given. I cannot otherwise account for the remarkable variance in her evidence. From the time she left the Talbot Arms till she came here she seems to have been a person of remarkable importance. She went to Dolly’s, where Stevens visited her five or six times. What for? Stevens was unquestionably—and within proper limits he is not to be blamed for it—indignant at the circumstances of Cook’s death. He is not in the same condition of life as Mills. Why did he call on her? Why did he converse with her in a private room? He came, she said, to inquire after her health and see how she liked London. Mr. Gardner also saw her in the street, but he only asked her how she was and talked of other things. I do not say that these gentlemen went to her with the deliberate intention of inducing her to say what was false; but they did go with the deliberate intention of stimulating her memory upon points as to which they thought it required stimulating. Mr. Hatton, the police officer of Rugeley, also saw her a few times. They could have gone to her for no purpose but that of taking her evidence. I may mention a circumstance which shows how differently minor matters may be stated by witnesses who do not wish to assert what is false. When Palmer went into the bedroom after being called up, he remarked, “I do not think I ever dressed so quickly in my life,” and it is suggested that he never went to bed, but waited up for the commencement of the paroxysm. Mills answered the question I put to her upon that point pretty fairly; she said, “He came in his dressing-gown, and I do not recollect that there was anything like a day shirt about his neck.” On the other hand, Lavinia Barnes, who gave her evidence in a most respectable manner, said that he was quite dressed; that he wore his usual dress. People get talking about what they have witnessed, the real image of what occurred becomes confused or altogether obliterated from their minds, and they at last unconsciously tell a story which is very different from the truth. Mills was examined three times before the coroner, and if that officer acted improperly on those occasions it was quite competent for the Crown to bring him here and give him an opportunity of vindicating himself, but he ought not to be blamed upon the evidence of a witness like her. In the course of her examination, however, there came out a fact which is worthy of remark. Is there not something extraordinary in the periodicity of the attacks she described in their recurrence on three nights nearly at the same hour? There are numerous cases in the books in which attacks of this kind occurred at the same distance of time after the patient had gone to bed.

Without going into unnecessary details, I will now state what I intend to prove upon this part of the case. I shall call a great number of most respectable medical practitioners and surgeons in general practice, with a large experience in great cities, who will support the theory that these fits of Cook were probably not tetanus at all, but violent convulsions, the result of a weak habit of body, increased by a careless mode of life—by at least a sufficient amount of disease to render violent mineral poisons, in their opinion, desirable, and by habits which led to a chronic ulceration of the tonsils and difficulty in swallowing. They will prove that men with constitutions weakened by indulgence have often, under the influence of strong mental excitement and violent emotion of any kind, been suddenly thrown into such a state of convulsion that symptoms have been exhibited in the voluntary muscles of violent disease, and that persons suffering from those symptoms have constantly died asphyxiated or of exhaustion, leaving no trace whatever as to the cause of death. In addition, I will call several gentlemen who will speak to experiments they have made upon animals, and who will be ready to show you those experiments in any yard belonging to this building, if my lords should think fit. They will tell you, on the authority of Orfila, that no degree of putrescence will decompose strychnine, and that if it is in the body they would be sure to find it even now.

Lord Campbell said that the Court could not see the experiments made, but witnesses might be called to prove them.