The from Erdington to Mr. Holden's. He was going towards the house. It was as near as I can judge, then about half past four. I had no watch with me. We milked a cow a piece in the yard after we saw him, which might occupy us ten minutes. My wife then asked Jane Heaton what o'clock it was. prisoner was walking very leisurely. My wife saw him as well as I." Cross examined by Mr. Clarke. "I was standing in the lane within about thirty yards of Mr. Holden's house on the great road when I first saw Thornton. I had been standing there about ten minutes. When I first saw the prisoner, he was within twenty yards of us, coming down the lane between Mr. Holden's house and the canal He was Jane Heaton.-"I live servant with Mr. Holden. I was getting up at half past four on the morning of the 27th of May. My bedroom window looks into the lane which leads from Erdington to Castle Bromwich. I saw a man, whom I supposed to be the prisoner, walking towards Castle Bromwich. walking quite slow. About a quarter of an hour after, Jenning's wife came and asked me what time of the day it was. I looked at the clock, and observed that it wanted seventeen minutes of five. The clock was not altered for several days after that." when Mr. Twamley came to examine my clock. I believe it to be a very good one. Mr. William Twamley. "I live at Newhall Mills, near Sutton Coldfield, and within three miles of Castel Bromwich. I caused the prisoner to be apprehended. I compared pared my watch and Holden's clock on the 28th of May; they were exactly alike as to time. From Mr. Holden's I immediately went to Birmingham, and my watch agreed exactly with St. Martin's Church clock there." John Haydon. - "I am gamekeeper to Mr. Rotton, of Castle Bromwich. I left my own house about ten minutes before five of the morning of the 27th of May. As I passed by Mr. Z. Twamley's, I heard Mr. Rotton's stable clock strike five. About five minutes after I saw the prisoner. He was then coming towards Mr. Twamley's mill, as if from Erdington to Castle Bromwich. I knew him very well. I asked him where he had been. He said, 'To take a wench home. was abundance of other proof to show the impossibility of the defenJohn Holden. "I was at dant's having committed the crime home on the 28th of May last, charged against him. It appeared from the replication that about quarter past four Mary Ashford left the house of Mary Butler. She had then a mile and a half to go to the pit; and he thought he should not be allowing too much time for a woman to go such a distance in saying twenty minutes. Then she reached the pit at twenty-five minutes before five. He would now ask according to the replication, where was Thornton at that time? The answer would be, taking the latest moment, that at twenty-five minutes before five he came up with another person a mile and a half from the pit. When Mary Ashford arrived at the pit, the circumstances of rape and murder, according to the counterplea, were yet to happen; events which, according to the experience of courts of justice, must have occupied at the smallest computation a quarter of an hour. This brought them to ten minutes before five, at which precise moment they had Thornton meeting another person, namely, John Haydon, a mile further from Holden's farm, and two miles and a half from the pit. From thence he was traced still departing from the pit until he reached Castle Bromwich; so that in point of fact, it was utterly impossible for Thornton to have committed the acts imputed to him. . . . 64. FRANK ROBINSON'S CASE. MINS. Remarkable Trials of all Countries. [On Saturday night, April 9, 1836, Helen Jewett, an inmate of a house of ill fame, was murdered in her room; the body was discovered about 4 A.M.; a man who had been with her that night had disappeared; the accused was said to be the man]. Rosina Townsend, after being sworn, deposed as follows: "I was acquainted with Helen Jewett. The last time that I saw Helen Jewett alive was on Saturday night, the 9th of April last [in my house]. The prisoner at the bar was known to me by the name of 'Frank Rivers' and by no other name. . . . I saw the prisoner at the bar on the night that Helen Jewett was murdered. A person knocked at my hall door; I went to the door and asked who was there? This was about nine o'clock, or it might have been as late as half past nine. When I asked who was there the door was still locked - I asked a second time the same question.. The reason that I wished to ascertain this was that Miss Jewett had requested me in the course of the evening not to admit a certain young man by the (T. DUNPHY and T. J. CUM- name of Bill Easy to see her if he last that I saw of the prisoner at were two visitors at my house who called themselves Frank Rivers, the prisoner at the bar being one of them.. 'Shortly after I admitted Mr. Rivers (Robinson) and he had gone upstairs, I retired to The defense was opened by Mr. Ogden Hoffman in one of those brilliant effusions, which in the course of his long and extensive practice justly acquired for him. an imperishable celebrity. . . . In conclusion the learned gentleman stated, that he and his associate counsel should rely greatly for the complete exculpation of their client by proving by the testimony of a highly respectable tradesman a positive alibi, showing that the prisoner up to past ten o'clock, on the night of the 9th of April last (the night of the murder), was smoking cigars in a grocery store in this city situated full a mile and a half from the house of Rosina Townsend, in Thomas Street. Robert Furlong, on being sworn, was examined by Mr. Hoffman, and deposed as follows: "Keep a grocery store at the corner of Nassau and Liberty streets. . . Know the prisoner at the bar by sight. He has often been in my store to buy cigars. . . . The prisoner was in my store the Saturday night previous to the murder. He came there, as near as I can remember, about half past nine o'clock. He bought at the store a bundle of cigars, containing twenty-five. After he bought the cigars, he lighted one, and took a seat on the barrel and smoked there until ten o'clock. When the clock struck ten, that gentleman (the prisoner) took out his watch and looked at it. He said that his watch, which was a small silver lepine, was one minute past ten o'clock. I also took out my watch, which I had regulated on that day by Mr. Harold of Nassau Street, and compared my watch with his. When the clock struck, my partner said, "There's ten o'clock, and it is time to shut up.' That was our usual time and the porter went out to put up the shutters. . . When we got completely shut up, Mr. Robinson remarked to me that he was encroaching on my time. I replied, 'Oh, no, not at all; I shall remain at the store until the boy returns.' . . . Before he went away, he stood a short time on the stoop, and afterwards said, 'I believe I'll go home; I'm tired,' and then bade me goodnight. It must have been full ten or fifteen minutes after ten when he left my store. . . . I am now positive that the prisoner here is the person who was in my store on the ninth of April. I cannot be mistaken in this. Am not related to the prisoner, nor to any of his connections, in any way, even in the most distant manner. Henry Burnham, examined by Mr. Phenix for the prosecution.— "I am deputy keeper for Bellevue. I know Mr. Furlong. . . ." By a Juror."I have the utmost confidence in Mr. Furlong's integrity and oath. I have known him for eight years, and I never knew anything of him but good." At the close of this witness's examination, the juror who proposed the last material question stated that the object of his asking it was merely to satisfy some of the jurors who did not know Mr. Furlong as well as some of the others. [The accused was acquitted.] 65. THE POPISH PLOT. [Printed post, as No. 342.] [Printed post, as No. 335.] 69. DURRANT'S CASE. [Printed post, as No. 386.] |