3 DECEMBER 1831, Page 5

OLD BAILEY Srssioxs.—These sessions commenced on Thursday, with a calendar

of 283 prisoners, of whom the ages were as follows-1g

Above DP years and not exceeding iX1 ... 100

30. 3040

.. 50 ... 20

. . . 15

Under 10 and exceeding • 0 ... 8

Thirty-five of the charges are capital. The only trial, however, which has occasioned any interest, was that of the persons charged with the murder of the Italian boy, which took place yesterday. The entry in the calendar was as follcws- " John Bishop, :33, labourer ; James May, 30, butcher; Thomas Williams. -.S; bricklayer ; committed by G. R. Minshull, Esq. for the wilful murder of Charles Ferrier.

"Bishop and May detained for the wilful murder of Frances Pickburn."

At nine o'clock, Mr. Sergeant Arabin and Mr. Alderman Atkins took their places on the Bench ; when several prisoners, among whom were Bishop, Williams, and May, were placed in the dock to be severally arraigned. At ten, the Judges, Lord Chief Justice Tindal, of the Common Pleas, Justice Littledale, and Baron Vaughan, entered the Court, attended by the Lord Mayor. The Bench was completely crowded by persons of rank, among whom was the Duke of Sussex. Messrs. Adolphus, Clarkson, and Bodkin conducted the prosecution; and Messrs. Curwood and Barry appeared on the part of the prisoners. After the Judges had taken their seats, the prisoners were immediately placed at the bar.

The following are the names of the Jury: Messrs. William Houghton, Richard Hyam, John Cooke, John Holland, George Hudson, Thomas Hall, William Hodgkinson, Charles Askew, Edward Hatcher, Murray Hollis, Thomas Richard Harrison, James Hodges. No challenges we made by any of the prisoners.

The indictment charged the prisoners that they,

" John Bishop, Thomas Williams, and James Slay, being malicious and evil-dis- posed persons, and not having the fear of God before their eyes, but being under the instigation of the Devil, did, on the 4th of November last, in and upon the body of Charles Ferrair, otherwise called Carlo Ferrair, in the parish of St. Matthew, Bethnal Green, feloniously and maliciously, and of malice aforethought, commit an assault, and that they with a certain wooden staff of no value, there the said Charles Ferrair, otherwise Carlo Ferrier, did strike and beat on the back of the neck, and that they did, by such striking and beating, feloniously, wilfully, and maliciously, give to the said Carlo Ferrair (livers wounds and contusions, of which wounds and contusions the said Carlo Ferrair then and there did die."

There was a second count framed to save the point of identity, if it should not be clearly made out, charging them, in the same form, with the murder of a certain male person, name unknown.

The ordinary questiou of " Guilty or not guilty ?" the three men an- swered, with much apparent firmness, " Not guilty."

Mr. Bodkin opened the trial, and Mr. Adolphus addressed the Jury. After reminding them of the necessity of dismissing from their minds all preconception on the subject, and paying a merited compliment to the extraordinary zeal of Mr. Thomas, and the other official persons by whom the ease had been so sifted as to fit it for public investigation, Mr Adolphus proceeded to give a minute and careful and unexaggerated narrative of the facts, such as they were afterwards detailed at length by he witnesses. lire extract this part of the speech from the Chronicle eport—" It would be proved, that the prisoners had possession of the ody of the deceased within less than twenty hours after the boy was een alive near Bishop's house, and that Bishop and May treated the ody as their joint property. A body had been taken away in a coach om Bishop's house on Friday morning the 4th of November, the murder having taken place during the previous Thursday night. A suit of clothes had been found in Bishop's garden, which a witness would prove were the actual clothes the poor sufferer must have had on when he was murdered. The body of the deceased was offered for sale on the Friday by May and Bishop; and on the Saturday it was in the posses- sion of all the prisoners, and sold at the King's College. The medical gentlemen would establish the fact beyond doubt, that the boy died from violence, from blows inflicted by some weapon on the back of the neck, which, injuring the spine and brain, produced sudden death. This view of the cause of the boy's death was confirmed by the unusual circum- stance that the stomach contained a full meal, ball-digested, and the heart was entirely empty. It would be also proved, that same of the prisoners purchased a quantity of rum at twelve o'clock on the Thursday night ; and the surgeons could prove that, on examining the contents of the stomaclinthey discovered a smell of rum. There was another cir- etemstance, of very considerable importance, to show that the boy had been itt the house of the prisoner Bishop, in which Williams has also resided up to the time of the murder. Ile was seen veer Bishop's house, on Thursday afternoon, with o revolving cage before Lin:, in which were two white mice, which he usually earritZ about to exidlat ti:e streets; and it would be proved that one of Bishep's children Lad oiTered to sell two white mice to a neighbour's child, who would be prodeced. These were the circumstances tending to show the guilt of the :teemed. Witli respect to May, there was one feet which was important ; he had sold the teeth of the boy to a dentist, and in doing so he declared that he took the. teeth out of a boy whose bag had not boon burie,i." Hill, the porter of King's College, described the conduct of the pri- soners on their first appearance there ; the bargaining for the body ; its extreme freshness, and the maths observable on it, which necasioned his suspicions of some foul play; and the communicatioe of his suspicions to ale. Partridge, the Professor of Anatomy at the Colin; to Only May and Rishop made the bargain. Mr. Partridge descl'ih .i t at: suspicious the tam id state of the Iles, the blood-shot eves, the cadet me fresh-

tees of generally, and its ri:; iity. I :e a!so ct state of 2_ I', on dissection; in • s . ;deuce was

c:::.-r■,.drat( .1 I.,- r'"r. T!d, wound

trn.: u.i Cie -" '.• Z:Ild Inquest

ee; ; ie 0- H ': that this

woule ...;; ceeeeiened hy ; teeth, air. r the hoy's i the • tht, :attempt of i'day ;01,.

dead body for them. :aim e c.

terms " kocus :eel 'Burke • the hotly into a hectmet-negit ;e d-T, was al .-o sword to; the witncss,.s c:;u1,1 o;:ly s; to 1;1,J. ,t to lit, The

porter of Guy's, the parties thin conveyed it thi ;iota ntehe petticulariy to

the request of _Vag, ihnt the nen; eleothi not be given up unless

Nay were present. d:.-ntist, described the purchase of the teeth ; and the seltele dealaration of r■fay, who sold them, that they were Caked from a !nay that had never been buried. The two Italians, Peragalli and Itnetn, spoke to the identity of the body ; and reragaili's wife described the squirrel cage and the -white mice be was in the habit of carryieg about. Peragalii, and several other witnesses, spoke to the identity of the clothes and cap found in Bishop's garden; hut the evidence on these points was not absolute, for obvious reasons. Tice fact of the boy s being seen in Bird-cage Walk, near Bishop's house, was distinctly made out. The landlord of the Feathers public-house, Castle Street, Bethnal Green, swore to the purchase by Bishop, and another man, whom he be- lieved to be Williams, of a quartern of ruin, and a gallon of ale, at about twelve o'clock on Thursday night (the :id November). A man named Wcodcoc•:, who lived next house to Bishop, spoke to a scuffling noise having occurred in Bishop's house about one o'clock on Friday morning —of the footsteps of three men in the room, and the running out of two men from the house, soon after—and of their voices, of which Williams he knew was one. A very little boy, named Edward Ward, about six years of age, was examined with respect to the very remarkable fact of the mice being in possession of Bishop's children. The child—who was examined touching his knowledge of the distinction between truth and falsehood, and sworn I—gave his testimony very clearly. It was as fol- lows - "I remember my mother giving me a hair holyday shortly before Guy Faux day. I went to Bishop's house in Nova Scotia Gardens on that day, and I saw his three children. I went with them from the front room to the back, and played with them. They showed me two white mice iu a cage, and we played with them. The cage went round and round. I never saw the children with white,mice before, though I bad often played-with them ; I had never seen the cage before. when 1 got home after playing, I found my brother John, and I told him what I bad seen.° The brother, a lad of seventeen, corroborated the child's statement.

• ■••:;.;

e , : the neirdee were tic-

ten ma:: ;Id her.

• e '; el ea Swore to irearder - t a, e au

i 4", ' • to carry a end isioloe. i a :Odell the lb teiled. a'ae enttintt of house, and just behind where they sat there was a printed bill posted, referring to the supposed murder of the boy ; Bishop looked at the bill, and then sat down next to Williams, May heingstill further off; Bishop leaned over 1Villeams towards May, and whispered to him—" It was the blood that :told us."

Mr. Cuewood took an exception on behalf of Williams, that the eel- deuce went only te implicate him as an accessary after the fact, but not as a prime Ind. The Court, however, overruled it. The Chief Justice thought the fact that he lived in Bishop's house, which was proved by the landlady, was quite sufficient to send the case to the Jury.

The pritoners put in written defences. Bishop's simply asserted that he got the body after it was dead, and denied that either Williams or May knew whence or how he got it. The cap, he affirmed, was pur- chased in lloxton Old Town, and be himself sewed the shade on it. described himself as merely a sharer with Bishop ; lie knew nothing of the way in which the boy came to his death. May repeated the declaration that he made at the Inquest, that he knew nothing of the body until he met Bishop at the Fortune-of-War.

May called one witness, a female, to prove an alibi. She swore that he was in her company from nine o'clock on Thursday night to eleven o'clock on Friday forenoon. Mrs. Truby was recalled, to .explain if possible the question of the white mice. She denied ever having seen any about Bishop's premises.

Bishop—" What I Mrs. Truby, don't you remember their running out of my garden into yours ?"

Mrs. Truhy—" Nu, Mr. Bishop, never."

Bishop—" And the cat catchiug them ?"

Mrs. Trudy—" No, I don't remember any thing of it." Bishop—" Not about six *meths ago ? Bid not the cat catch them ?" Mrs. Trully—" No, Bishop, I know nothing of it."

A shopkeeper in Boxton was called to prove the sale of the cap; but she also contradicted. Bishop's declaratien ; she bad only sold his wife a cloth cap, and it had a shade attached to it when :told. Two other wit- nesses were called, hilt their evidence was wholly unimportant. Some blood h:;;;I:ce:1 pe..-,..;?ived on Thiy's trousers, the cause of whck lie was enxioes to explain. Mr. Thomas, the Superintendent, admitted, that from the freelmess of the stain when lie first perceived it, he thought it must have 1,0:11 I'LlaC alter May's apprehension. The Lord Chief Juttice anished suinming up about eight o'clock in the evening; when the Jury retired. In half an hour they returned, with a verdict of G 17ILTY against all the prisoners. The Recorder having addressed to the unhappy men a few words such as are commonly made use of on such occasions,—calling on them to repent of their sins, and promising them every religious comfort that Hair eon:titian admitted,— sentenced the whole of them to be executed en .lionday.

The behaviour of the prisoners, during the tidal and at its close, was calm and ilrm. Itiehop once interrupted the a:!dress of the Recorder, beam exclamation Ilea ti:e evidence wes (else ; and May. when ordered to he renlet'ea, I ised his voice, and, iu a firm tone, " I am a mud.-

dered luau, gentlemen, and that man (pointing to knows it."

The pr:N(.IWr 1111t;IIIS " e all naird;..red

The _,omit Ilet 1111,:;1! t !,cen e%peeted,—from the e:ztrem, cupidity of its doorkcuc-rs; a guinea was act,,•.'ly charged, and, WV in stilt:0 instances;Oven, for a seat in the gallery. The crowd wi;hoot the office was colleitierable, ;Ind the Recorder's address or twiee interrupted by the sheuts rah:e.l. on its being known that a Ver;:lvt of nuilty !eel heel: returned.

Et.t.Ntas PE.:;t:Itx.-1 bonnet, which has lean identified as belonging to this tie forte:tete woman, was found among seine ruble:di near Bishop's house on duteloy after:men. It appears that there was a legrel of water he 't smile in a coiwealud spot of the garden, into which victims, who

had !Ifs; of all been stul■W.cd 'liquor, were thrust, Ilati-Mremost, and thus The lem.du Piohurn was seem it is sahl, in company. ;with ILICl/ Ott the eight of lair disappearance. The p:,rty \vent into

publiedidese, where the;- drank togeti.er, and then It the house in

company. Oa the same night, Bishop and Imams wen' stoil dragging

female towards the cottage of the forater, and :afterward-' cries of murder a-ere heart!. The next morning, as appears from a deeieretion vaun- t:milt, made by Shields, the porter who carried the body of the boy Per- rier to King's College, lie was employed by Bishop to convee a body from Nova ham: tin Gardens to St. Tionnas' Respite!. Bishop, 't't imams, Mrs. iii... s, and Shields, left the house together, Iites. Williams car- rvilti: a band-hex, in order to give to the affair the appearance of a sere Vrelt girl removing. Shields detailed their negotiations with the porter of St. Thoneee' where they did not succeed in making a bargain, and their subsequent visit to the dissecting-rooms of Mr. Grainger, to whom the body was ultimately sold. Shields said the body was that of a mid- dle-aged female ; it was extremely fresh, end he did not think, from ap- pearances, it hail ever been in any grave. On this information, Mrs Williams was charged at Bow Street, as an accessory after the fact to the murder of the woman. Bighorn; and being examined, she corro- b....tted substantially the facts sworn to by Shields,—denying, however, all knowledge of the nature of the burden which Shields carried. As the account seemed to implicate the establishment of Mr. Grainger, two persons from that establishment attended on Thursday, with a view to their exculpation from the charge of carelessness. Mr. Filcher, a colleague of Mr. Grainger, after observing to the Magistrate, that the account, he had reason to believe, was an accurate one as far as the pur- chase was concerned, stated, that it was not an uncommon thing for resurrection-men to steal bodies previous to interment ; and, from Bishop's leaving part of the price in Mr. Grainger's hands until next day, not the slightest suspicion was entertained of his having come by the body in any other way than the ordinary one. Mr. Filcher could of course give no description which might tend to identify the body; there were no marks of violence on it.

On the subject.of Barking, a strange, Mrs. Radcliffe sort of a story, has appeared in the Post. The name is not given, but the party is described as highly respectable. He accompanied a young lady to her

lodgings, he knows not where. There he went to sleep, or doze, rather. While. dozing, he saw the lady disappear through a sliding pannel ; and

in one minute after a gentleman made his appearance by a trap-door. The latter bundled up the dozing gentleman's clothes, and tossed them down the trap, and then laid hold of the dozer's Iegs, with a view to

toss him after them ; when the gentleman, gathering up his fist, gave the intruder a stomacher, and down he went headlong through his own trap. The gentleman then ran out, and the Police ran in ; but the birds were flown, and part of the bundle with them; and after giving the Police a false name, the hero of the tale flew away after his intended assassins. The Times has his name, though the Police has not ; and we suppose we shall hear more of him by and by.

111ns. Watsu.—The body of the female who died in the London Hos- pital in September last, and who is supposed to have been the same Mrs. Walsh whom Cooke and his wife are charged with Bucking, was disin- terred a second time on Monday, with a view to its identification. But- ton, Mrs. Walsh's granddaughter, was positive that it was not the body of her grandmother ; but her reason was not very strong—her grandmother had a good set of teeth, and the body had none. There is a great deal of doubt on the question. There is a story of a girl named Vasey dis- appearing about twelve months ago, after a visit to Mrs. Cooke. Young Cooke, who seems to have an excellent memory, recollects the girl call- ing; and he believes she slept on the stairs all night.

Mn. Gaanar.--The Grand Jury have ignored the bill against this gentleman. It now appears, that the alleged theft took place three years and a half ago.