For the Defence: Mr. Serjeant Shee, Mr. Grove, Q.C., Mr. Gray, and Mr. Kenealy.
William Palmer, surgeon, of Rugeley, Staffordshire, aged 31, was indicted for the wilful murder of John Parsons Cook.
HISTORY OF THE CASE.
Connection between Cook and Palmer.
Mr. Cook, having been originally brought up as a solicitor, on coming into a fortune of from £12,000 to £13,000, abandoned his profession, and took to the turf, where he became acquainted with the prisoner, who had for some years kept racehorses. Originally in good local practice, Palmer had of late transferred the majority of his patients to a Mr. Thirlby, who had previously been his assistant, retaining only two or three more immediately connected with him or his family. His father, originally a working sawyer, had, by his industry, gradually risen to be a timber merchant in a large way of business, and, on his sudden death in 1837, left a fortune of £70,000. As he died intestate, the eldest son executed a deed by which each of the children took £7,000, and the remainder was left to the widow. Of these children, seven in number, the prisoner was the fourth. As a child he was known for his amiability and kindness, but also for his shy and underhand manner, and his partiality for trying experiments of a cruel nature on animals. “He was just and generous,” said one of his early friends, “when he grew up, and he never forgot an old face.”[28] Originally apprenticed to a firm of druggists in Liverpool, he had to leave them in consequence of a scandal in money matters; was then put with Mr. Tylecote, a surgeon, near Rugeley; walked the London hospitals, living the gay life of so many of that class of students; passed his examinations; married the illegitimate daughter of an Indian officer, who left her a small property; and set up in Rugeley as a surgeon. Of his five children only the first, a son, was living at the time of his trial, the others all dying suddenly of convulsions within a few weeks after their birth. He was an indulgent husband, a kind father, a regular attendant at church, and apparently a religious man.
On his marriage, Palmer commenced to live in a handsome style, keeping his carriage, and soon after began training and breeding racehorses, and occupying himself on the turf. As his wife’s fortune was only for her life, in 1854 he insured her life for £13,000, the premiums on which exceeded the income he derived from her, further insurances of a greater amount being declined by other offices. Within nine months after this, his wife was dead, and the insurance money received, relieving Palmer from difficulties that were already pressing on him. Again, within three months after his wife’s death, Palmer was endeavouring to effect insurances on the life of his brother Walter, a confirmed drunkard, to the enormous extent of £80,000. Only one of these policies, that in the Prince of Wales’ office, was accepted, the other offices being put on their guard by the hint that “his wife had died after the first payment of the premium had been made.” Pressed by his pecuniary difficulties, he then tried to effect an insurance for £10,000 on the life of one George Bate, a decayed farmer, whom he employed as a kind of farm bailiff, and represented as a gentleman and an esquire, with a famous cellar of wine, but the insurance offices were now thoroughly awake; a detective was sent to interview the esquire, whom he found hoeing turnips, and the scheme fell through.[29]
Since 1854, Palmer had been in the hands of the bill discounters, and especially of a money-lending attorney in Mayfair of the name of Pratt, with whom he from time to time discounted what purported to be the acceptances of his mother, some of which were renewed on partial payment, others cleared off by the money received from the insurance of his wife’s life.
“This,” said the Attorney-General, “brings us to the close of 1854. In the course of that year he effected another insurance in his brother’s name, but Palmer was the real party, and corresponded with Mr. Pratt on the subject of effecting it, and the policy for £13,000 was assigned to Palmer. On the strength of that policy, which remained in the hands of Pratt, who paid the first premium out of a bill he discounted for Palmer at 60 per cent., they proceeded to discount further bills, this policy being kept as a collateral security. The bills, in the whole, discounted in the course of that year, amounted to £12,500—two in June, which were held over from month to month to keep them alive—two of £2000 each in March, 1855, with the proceeds of which Palmer bought two racehorses, Nettle and Chicken. These bills were renewed from time to time, and eventually came due in January, 1856. Another bill for £2000 was discounted in April, 1855, renewed like the others, and became due on the 25th of October. On the 9th of July another bill for £2000 was discounted, renewed, and became due on the 12th of January. On the 27th of September another bill for £1000 was discounted to pay for the renewal of the bills due and then coming due. So that when the Shrewsbury races took place in November, 1855, bills were due or rapidly maturing to the extent of £11,500, every one of which bore the forged acceptance of the prisoner’s mother. You will therefore understand the pressure which naturally and necessarily arose upon him; the pressure of the liabilities for £11,500 which he had not a shilling in the world to meet, and the still greater pressure which arose from the consciousness that the moment he could go on no longer, his mother would be resorted to for payment. The fact of his having committed these forgeries would be known, and would bring on him the penalty of the law for that crime so committed. The insurance company having refused to pay the policy effected on his brother’s life, no assistance could be derived from that source.”
Already, in May, 1855, Cook, with whom he had become intimately acquainted in racing transactions, had lent him his acceptance for £200 to meet a small claim, and had had to pay it on Palmer’s default. In August of that year, Palmer again asked the money-lending attorney of Mayfair to discount a bill of Cook’s for £500, representing that Cook required the money. It was, however, declined without further security, and then Cook assigned two of his racehorses—Polestar, the subsequent winner at Shrewsbury, and Sirius—as a collateral security, and obtained only £375 in money, and a wine warrant for £65, the rest being swallowed up in discount and expenses. This money and warrant Cook never got, Palmer asking Pratt to send it to the post-office at Doncaster, whence he obtained it; and as it was made “to order,” and bore a receipt stamp, Palmer, it was alleged, forged the name “John Parsons Cook,” and took the cheque and the warrant, and appropriated the proceeds. That bill would be due on the day of Cook’s death. In the same month it was that he attempted to effect the insurance on Bate’s life and failed; and though Cook had, at Palmer’s request, attested this proposal, which referred to Palmer as the usual medical attendant, beyond that he had nothing to do with this attempt.