The Hampstead Murders – Part eight (the last)
THE EXECUTION OF MRS. PEARSEYA STRANGE REQUEST
Shortly after 10 on Monday morning Mr. Freke Palmer had a parting interview with the prisoner. Her first desire was to ask Mr. Palmer to distribute certain of her articles and trinkets, all of very small value, among her relatives and friends.
Mrs. Persey next requested that Mr. Palmer should cause an advertisement to be inserted in the Madrid papers addressed to certain initials, with these words, "Have not betrayed." Surprised at this commission, Mr. Palmer asked whether it had to do with the case. "Never mind," said she. He then asked, "Do you admit the justice of the sentence?" "No," was the reply; "I do not. I know nothing about the crime." "But," it was argued, "even if you did it in a trance, you must have some idea or shadowy recollection of the matter?" "I know nothing about it," she reposted. "If you have any facts to reveal, and will let me know them, even at this late hour, I will lay them before the Home secretary in the hope of obtaining mercy." "I have nothing more to say; don't forget about those things. Good-bye." And she went again across the yard to her cell."
THE WISH TO SEE FRANK HOGG
At the convict's particular and reiterated request permission was given to the man Frank Hogg to visit her between two and four on Monday afternoon, and it was quite evident that she had built upon seeing him once more. As the time passed on and he did not come she grew somewhat nervous and impatient, and when it was evident that she would be doomed to disappointment a terrible fit of dejection seized her. She lay on her bed with her hands over her face for some time sobbing, but not speaking. When this was over, and she rose again, her face was calm, her voice had recovered its quiet low tone of speaking, and she resumed her reading at the table, without giving any sign of the storm of emotion she had just passed through. The wretched woman seemed to have hardened her heart, and determined to maintain the strictest silence.
THE EXECUTION
The execution took place at eight o'clock. The condemned woman was removed from the cell in which she had been imprisoned into the condemned cell in the male wing, which is in close proximity to the execution shed. Mrs. Pearsey was attended by three women warders, and on the way was in tolerably good spirits, but complaining of the dense fog. Soon after 10 o'clock the Rev. Mr. Duffield, the chaplain, returned to the prison, and proceeded immediately to her cell. He had an earnest conversation with her for more than half an hour, and urged her, "Do not be launched into eternity with anything on your mind which you can now explain." She replied calmly, but faintly, "I have nothing to explain. I am not guilty."
It was about six o'clock when the chaplain next visited her, and she received him in a languid manner always evading conversation on the subject of the murder. the chaplain had hoped to have received from her at that trying moment some confession in regard to the part she bore, and in solemn words pointed out her position once more. He urged her to make some reparation to her fellow creatures by letting them know the truth, but all he could get form her was that it was absurd to suppose that Hogg was connected with it. For more than an hour this painful interview was maintained, but no change was made in her obdurate contention that she was not guilty.
At length, just as the clock pointed to five minutes before the hour he said, "The foot of the executioner is almost at your door. Now I ask you, for the last time, is there anything you have to say to me?" "No." "Do you admit the justice of your sentence?" "Yes; but the greater part of the evidence was false." "Then you mean to say by that that you are guilty?" asked Mr. Duffield, in anxious expectation of a reply. But no reply came; she shook her head and sat down upon a form.
The prisoner was pinioned, the white cap drawn over her eyes, so that she saw not the instrument of death. Guided by Mr. Berry, the executioner, the warders led her directly under the rope. The shed was lighted by gas, and the front, which on occasions of execution is generally raised, remained closed. The chaplain meanwhile had placed himself just in front of the wretched woman, reciting passages from the burial service.
Arrived upon the drop, the female warders left her and two make warders took their place while Berry fixed the rope. Not a word was spoken after leaving the cell by the prisoner or anyone else, save the solemn phrases of the liturgy. So even as the strap was affixed round her dress just below the knees. Berry touched the warders, who stepped back, then laying his and on the lever he pressed it down, the floor opened, and Mary Eleanor Pearsey passed way almost instantaneously from sight. Death must have been imediate, there was only but the smallest vibration of the rope–which gave a drop of 6ft.
HAVE NOT BETRAYED
Mr. Freke Palmer was interviewed with reference to the request made by Mrs. Pearsey to insert in the Madrid papers a certain advertisement containing the words "Have not betrayed." As will be seen by the appended conversation Mr. Palmers's replies open up quite a romantic story.
"What did Mrs. Pearsey really say, Mr. Palmer?"
"She asked me to have inserted in the London papers, and in any other paper that would be read in Madrid, the following message: 'M.E.C.P.–Last wish of M.E.W.; Have not betrayed."
"Did that refer to the crime?"
"Not at all. I asked her that, and she said, 'No.' "
"Did you ask her what it referred to?"
"Yes; I said to her, 'Does it refer to the marriage you have told me took place between you and a certain gentleman?' She replied, 'Yes.' "
"What are the facts?"
She had told me she was a married woman, but would not divulge the particulars."
"How much do you know about it?"
"Only this. She told me she was married in some chambers at Piccadilly to a gentleman in the presence of his valet, by a clergyman in robes."
"Did she give you the name of her husband?"
"No; she said she could not, as she had taken an oath never to divulge it."
"How long did she live with him?"
"Not long. He left her shorty after the marriage, but contributed to her support for a few months. Since then she has not heard of him."
"I suppose you have often pressed her for further particulars?"
"Yes, but she would never give them. She would only repeat, 'I have taken an oath never to divulge.' I have tried to trace the marriage, as it might have been very important in reducing the supposed motive for the crime."
"Did you say anything to her about the marriage?"
"I expressed to her my doubt as to the legality of the marriage, and suggested that it might have been only a form gone through for the purpose."
"What did she reply to that?"
"She said she believed the marriage was perfectly legal, and appeared to be depressed by the idea that it could not be legal, and that she might have been deceived by the man she supposed to be her husband."
"Had she any idea where her husband was?"
"She believed him to be in Madrid."
"Do you know when the marriage took place?"
"It was some years ago."
"Before she saw Pearsey, I suppose?"
"Yes, when she was 16, from what I could gather. She was 24 when she was tried. That is all I can tell you bout the marriage."
"What is your personal opinion about 'Mrs. Pearsey,' to use the name by which she was commonly known?"
"It always seemed to me that her lot had been a very hard one, that she had been badly treated by many people. In fact, the whole world appeared to be against her and no one for her. She was a woman of some character and of great intelligence. She was not a common low character, as people make out, although her character will not bear investigation."
"Did she express to you a wish to see Hogg?"
"She did, and I strongly persuaded her not to do so. But she seemed very anxious to see him and to give him some message–I don't know what it was."
Mr Freke Palmer concluded by saying: "I felt very much disappointed with the Home secretary's decision because of the extraordinary mass of reliable evidence which I collected to show that the prisoner must be insane. I was also disappointed by his decision to allow three experts to see her on one side and no one at the same time from our point of view."
Mrs. Wheeler (Mrs. Pearsey's mother) was asked if she knew anything of her daughter's strange request to her solicitor to insert an advertisement in Madrid papers–"M.E.C.P.– Last wish of M.E.W. Have not betrayed." the mother said, "It was quite a mystery to her, and she could not understand it." She recollected that when Nelly (as her mother called her) was about 16 years of age she was a good deal among the Jewesses and she obtained a place to clean and mind chambers somewhere by Lewman-street for a rich old gentleman. When she heard that there was no one there but this old gentleman she took her away. He then came, and sadly wanted to persuade her to let her go back; but she told him that she should positively refuse to let her go any more. Her daughter always told her most positively that she was really married, and to a gentleman. She always in speaking of him called him Charles. Her daughter at one time had splendid clothes, and she frequently spoke of the tours she had been with her husband, especially of her enjoyment when travelling up the Pyrenees. Her daughter used to say she had one child born while she was abroad, but it died.
