Hello Buggyite my newly self appointed assistant,
Welcome on board, Sir.
I think the amount of monies and lack of transport are two of the mysteries within the case. William could have bought his own carriage and team of horses if he wanted; but then again was it all his money?
And maybe even stranger, at least to us who actually live in this country, is the description of the properties around where the body was found:
John Johnson, of Disley, stonemason, sworn.
“I live near the Bull's Head Inn, on the old road between Disley and Whaley, about half a mile from the place where the body was found.
Has anyone any idea where the Bull’s Head is/was half a mile from the Murder Stone?
Joseph Hadfield, of Disley
“I live on the side of the old road between Disley and Whaley.
The distance from my house to the place where the body was found, is about a quarter of a mile.
Which house is Joe Hadfield talking about that is situated a quarter of a mile from the Murder Stone?
Edmund Pott, of Kettleshulme
I returned along the old road from Disley to Whaley. When I came opposite to William Goodwin's house (which is about a quarter of a mile from the road,) I saw the body of the deceased.
Where was/is William Goodwin’s house?
Anyway back to the business in hand: yesterday we left the case the judges had retired to consider legal arguments presented by Dale’s defence team.
Well now they are back with their verdict.
And I’m afraid it’s not good news for Dale and we all know what that means; so here goes:
Macclesfield Courier, Stockport Express and Cheshire General Advertiser.
24 April 1824
Sentence of death on joseph dale.
The Judges took their seats precisely at eight o'clock, and immediately the prisoner was placed at the bar to receive the judgement of the Court. He is a young man, apparently about eighteen years of age, and has evidently been suffering much illness since his imprisonment. He was borne into the Court by the Governor of the gaol, and was so weak and tottering, as to make it necessary to support him the whole of the time the Judge was addressing him.
A solemn silence having prevailed, Mr Justice warren addressed the prisoner in nearly the following words: "Joseph Dale, you were tried at the last Assizes on an indictment charging you, together with John Platt and Charles Taylor, with the wilful murder of William Wood on the 16th July, 1823, at Whaley, by casting stones on his head, by which he was so dreadfully wounded as to occasion his death. At the time you were tried, Platt was not taken into custody, and another of your associates, named Charles Taylor, who was apprehended, destroyed himself in prison before he was brought into Court. You were, therefore, the only person tried, and after a minute and painful investigation of many hours, the Jury found you guilty of the crime with which you were charged. Upon your guilt being established, the Court were about to pass that awful sentence on you which the law had said that persons convicted of the high crime of murder should suffer when your Counsel submitted, in arrest of judgement, that the indictment had not stated, with sufficient legal accuracy, the precise manner in which the murder had been committed.
The Court considering that the life of a fellow creature depended on the objection, thought proper to submit the point of law to the judgement of a higher authority, and having made a communication to the proper quarter, the opinion of twelve Judges had been obtained, which opinion was, that there was no validity in the objection, and that the indictment was good. You are now, therefore, brought up to be informed of that decision, and to receive the sentence of the law. The learned Judge who assisted me on that trial is now no more, but it is, perhaps, correct that you should know that he was fully persuaded by the Jury, as men of sense and honour, and could return no other verdict that than that which they had done.
The Learned Judge who now sits with me has also most minutely and attentively read over the depositions and evidence which were brought forward on your trial, and he concurs in the opinion that no other verdict could with justice be found.
It appears that the barbarous murder was perpetrated by beating the unfortunate Mr Wood's head with stones, taken either from the ground, or from a wall made of loose stones, near which the unhappy man was attacked. Some of those Stones were produced in Court, clotted with blood, and having still the hair of the deceased sticking about them, and the whole circumstances developed in the course of the evidence marked as being, perhaps, the most horrible murder that was ever committed.
A short time before the murder was effected you were seen with your two companions, in the company of the deceased, and soon after you were seen running from the spot where the foul deed had been done, and traced to your retreat, and there you were taken with some of the property of the murdered man in your possession: for it appears that you had in view the double crime of murder and robbery.
You and your companions were also proved to have purchased clothes in Macclesfield with part of the money you had taken from the deceased's pockets; and as a further confirmation of the evidence, you prevaricated so much in the statements you made, as to make it impossible not to believe you were guilty of the crime you were charged with. It is a painful and most lamentable thing to observe a young man of your early life thus broken from your present existence, through you having associated with the most abandoned characters; and your unhappy and disgraceful fate, will, it is hoped, be a warning to all young men to take care of the company they fall into.
The last advice that can be given to you is seriously to prepare yourself for your transit to another world, for no hopes of mercy can be given you in this. A Clergyman will attend you to give you that spiritual assistance which your unfortunate situation requires. In this world your hopes are closed, and on Wednesday next your mortal existence must end”.
The Judge then, in the solemn words of the law, sentenced him to be hung on Wednesday, and his body to be given over to the surgeons for dissection.
When the concluding words of "the Lord have mercy on your soul" were pronounced, the prisoner looked fervently up to Heaven, and in a trembling voice said “Amen”.
Hey Fedup this is an absolute must read for the hang ’em and flog ’em brigade; not only is he going to be hanged he’s going to be hanged in public and then he is going to be dissected.
Ouch.
Tomorrow a look at life in the condemned cell and the execution. Fedup you seem to have accepted the trauma without the need for the Bells so I shall not put you off on this occasion. But beware the Gunpowder Mills explosions are coming soon.
R. S-S
