Singular case

SINGULAR CASE. - MURDER. - MAIDSTONE. - John Any Bird Bell, aged 14, was charged with the murder of Richard Taylor, aged l3.- Robert Taylor, the father of the deceased, receiving an allowance from the parish, proved, that, on the 4th of March, he sent his son Richard to Aylesford, for the weekly sum. His dress was, a cap lined with flannel, a blue jacket, brown trousers, light worsted stockings, and low shoes, a belcher handkerchief round his neck, and a pair of worsted gloves. “I gave him a bag to bring the money home in. Before he started, he asked me for my knife, to cut a bow and arrow, which I gave him. I never saw my son alive again. Not having come home at his regular time, three o'clock, I made inquiries, but heard nothing of him until the 11th of May, and, in consequence of information I received on that day, I went to Bridgewood, three miles from my house at Stroud. When I got into the wood, I saw the body of my son. I recognized it by his dress and his marks. The body was about twenty rods from the road. There was a path leading to the spot, but it was not much used. A particular mark by which I knew the body, was the mark of a bunch of currants on his breast, with which the boy was born. I afterwards saw a knife in the hands of Patterson, the constable; that knife was the knife I lent my son, and I saw a glove, which was my son's glove.

Cross-examined. My son left my house at nine o‘clock that morning. We had breakfasted before. I was then at home. The dress was buried with the body. The body was in a state of putrefaction, and greatly consumed. The features of the face were not visible, but the hair remained perfect, and worms were crawling all about it. The eyes were not discernible; the body Had not the appearance of having been under the ground. There was a blind path leading to the body, which was about a foot only from the path. The trunk of the body was perfectly sound, but the thighs and legs were consumed by worms. The only knife I saw was the knife I lent my son, and it was found in the pocket. The body was not shown to any of my friends when it was found, but several persons who knew the boy from a child saw it. My son was a very spirited little boy; though small, he would be very apt to resent an insult, and take his own part. He was not near the size of the prisoner. He was a delicate small boy, but very active. He was a boy that never would go into a wood, unless seduced there. Bows and arrows might be cut by the road side, without going into a wood. A “bender” is generally  used, which might be found either by the road or in the wood.

Re-examined. The clothes were on the body when I first saw it in the wood. I had previously described all the marks on the body before the body was found. I have no doubt whatever that it was the body of my son. When found, the glove on the right hand was turned down to the wrist.

Mary Ann Taylor, sister of the deceased, a child seven years old, after answering satisfactorily as to her knowledge of the nature of an oath, stated, I went with my brother three times to Aylesford to get money. I always saw John Any Bell when I went. I recollect my brother going the day he was lost. I went with him the time before that. We went about nine o'clock. We went down Stoney-lane to Aylesford. We went on to Aylesford, and saw Mr. Cuthbard there, and got 9s. from him; as we were coming back, we saw the prisoner and his little brother, James Bell, by the lime-kiln, as you go down the hill. The prisoner said to my brother, “I have got some sticks, come away Dick, and don't mind her." My brother said he should mind me. It was up the wood he asked my brother to go. We then went home, and John Bell, the prisoner, went part of the way with us.

In cross-examination, she said, she knew that the prisoner's father worked near the lime-kiln, where they met the prisoner. The wood is not far from that lime-kiln, but you must go round a little to get to the wood.

George Cuthbard, assistant-overseer of the parish of Aylesford. On the 4th of March, the boy, Richard Taylor, came to my house at Aylesford, about eleven o’clock; I gave him three half-crowns, one shilling, and six pence; I put the money into the boy’s bag myself; the boy was usually accompanied by a little girl, but not on that day.

Henry Lewington. I am a warrant-officer on board his majesty’s ship Warrior, at Chatham; I was going, on the 4thof March last, from Rochester to Chatham, about ten o'clock in the morning; I met the boy, Richard Taylor, on the road, and walked with him part of the way towards Aylesford, and left him (the boy) going on to Aylesford. As I was returning again in the afternoon, I saw the deceased again on the road, in company with the prisoner and his brother, near the Bell public-house, but lost sight of them very soon. I heard afterwards of the loss of the deceased boy, and told his father what I had seen of him. On the Tuesday when the boy was missing, I met the prisoner with his brother, and asked him if he knew any thing of young Taylor, and the prisoner replied that he parted with Taylor in the turnip field, and that he saw him go towards Master Hawkes’s, on the Benham-road. I recollect the 11th of May, when the body was found; I went there about one o’clock, and saw the body, which I immediately recognized. He wore a smockfrock, a blue jacket, and blue trousers, as I believe, and a south-wester cap: this was the same dress the boy wore when I met him on the 4th of March. The body had a glove on one hand, the right turned down at the wrist. The road to Hawkes’s leads from the Benham wood towards the turnpike, from the common. Bell’s father, and the boys themselves, constantly worked near that spot to grub roots, and take them to sell at Rochester. On the day in question, I saw the prisoner working there, and he continued to work there until the body was found.

John Izard. On the 11th of May I went into a wood two miles from Rochester, on the left hand of the road from Rochester to Maidstone. I was going to a field beyond this wood. There was a path or track for labourers to pass, near which I found a body. It had a cap on, lined with woollen, and a blue jacket, dark trousers, and a canvass frock. The body was lying on the back, with one hand across the breast, and the other extended, with a glove made of worsted on it turned down at the wrist, and the hand partially closed. Having heard that young Taylor was lost, I went, on finding this body, and gave information to Mr. Taylor, the father.

Edward Seaton, a surgeon,deposed to the cause of the death, and was confirmed by another medical practitioner.

Geo. Farrell examined, clerk to the magistrates at Rochester. I was present on the 21st of May, when the prisoner was before the magistrates. The prisoner then said something which I reduced to writing. There was neither threat nor promise held out to him. What he said, after it had been taken down, was read over to him, and he made his mark, and the magistrates signed it. The paper produced is the same they then signed. An objection was made to the admission of this statement in evidence against him; but the judges, after consulting with lord Tenterden, held, that the confession, as a statement, should be received. The paper was as follows:- “John Bell, the prisoner, said to his brother James, on seeing the deceased, "there goes young Taylor, James, let us kill him and take his money, and let us lay him under these stones, that we can't count over." He then addressed the magistrate, and said, "It was I, Sir, that did the murder, and, while I was doing it, my brother Jem watched at back." He did it, he said, at one cut; and the deceased was not long dying. The little boy lost his way in the wood, and lay down to cry; and, while the boy was lying down, he cut his throat. He took the money from the boy's glove, and gave part to his brother. His brother gave him his knife to cut the boy's throat. The boy squeaked, when his throat was cut, as a rabbit squeaks. He only squeaked once. He gave him two cuts. He took the boy into the wood to murder him. He had on the frock his brother Jem then wore, and the blood went on it, and was on it still. He would not tell this, he said, but Jem told first.

The witness said, that the brother contradicted the prisoner in a violent manner; upon which the prisoner said, “Do you mean to say, Jem, that you did not give me your knife to cut the boy‘s throat; and did not you have part of the money?”

Charles Patterson, constable. I had the prisoner in my custody, and was taking him from Rochester to Maidstone gaol, and, in passing a pond, the prisoner observed, “That is the pond where I washed my hands and the knife after I did the crime;” and he remarked, on seeing a path that led to the road, “That is the road that leads to the spot where I killed the poor boy. Don’t you think, Sir, he is better off than I am?” The prisoner also showed me a place where he came out of the wood, with the bloody knife in his hand, he said, and also a place where he and the deceased went into the wood: he stated, that before that the had been together in a turnip field, and pulled a turnip, which the deceased pared with his knife; that then he took the deceased into the wood, under the pretence of showing him a short way home; but, after they had got some distance, he told the deceased he had lost his way, and the deceased, on hearing that, sat down and began to cry, and on that he jumped on the deceased, and in an instant cut his throat. He then took the money, partly from the deceased's hand, and partly from the purse. He had great difficulty in getting the money from the hand, it was closed so fast, and, after, getting the money, he rushed out of the wood, greatly alarmed. He said also, that he was sure, if the body of Taylor was dug up, the knife and the glove would be found in his pocket, for he (the prisoner) saw it put there. On taking him to gaol, the prisoner said, he need not be ironed; he knew he should be hanged, and would not attempt to escape. He said he had spoken to a boy of the name of Evendon, on the road that evening, who asked him if he had passed his father’s horse and cart. The body, the witness said, was dug up, after it had been buried, and the witness saw the brother of the prisoner take the knife and glove from the right hand breeches pocket of the deceased. Here the witness produced the knife and glove, and also another knife, which he got from a boy named Henry Perrin, who had purchased it from the prisoner’s brother. This last knife was the one with which the murder was committed; it was a large new clasp knife, exceedingly strong and sharp.

John Railton,a linen draper at Rochester, recollected the prisoner coming into his shop to ask for change of half-a-crown. This was after the boy Taylor was missing.

George Ellis. I went to meet my father on the Rochester-road, about the time Taylor was lost, but I don’t recollect the month. I met the prisoner and his brother near the wood, about half a mile from where the body was found. The prisoner asked me if I had seen his brother, whom I had met just before, and I told him I had; and I asked him if he had seen my father, and he said he had.

After a few minutes consultation the Jury returned a verdict of Guilty, but recommended the prisoner to mercy on account of his extreme youth, and the profligate and unnatural manner in which it appeared that he had been brought up.

The Judge proceeded to pass judgment of death on the prisoner, and held out not the slightest hope of mercy.

The prisoner was remarkably short in stature, but thick-set and strong built, with an almost infantine countenance, being of exceedingly fair complexion, rather sunburnt,and flaxen hair. During the trial he showed no marks of feeling, though the steadfast manner, in which he fixed his eyes on each witness while under examination, proved his attention to the proceedings. The hardihood which the culprit had displayed at his trial, and even when sentence was passed, deserted him as he entered his cell. He wept bitterly; and when his mother visited him on Sunday afternoon, he accused her of being the cause of bringing him into his “present scrape.” On Sunday evening after the condemned sermon had been preached by the rev. chaplain, he made a full confession of his guilt. His statement did not materially differ from that which was given on the trial; but he added some particulars of the conduct of his victim before he murdered him. He said, that, when he sprung upon Taylor with the knife in his hand, the poor boy fell upon his knees before him, offered him all the money he had, his knife, his cap, and whatever else he liked, and said he would love him during the whole of his life, and never tell what had happened to any human being. This appeal was lost on the murderer, and with out making any answer to it, he struck the knife into his throat.

On Monday morning, after the operation of pinioning, &c., had been completed, the culprit, attended by the chaplain, &c-, walked steadily to the platform. When he appeared there, he gazed steadily around him. After the rope was adjusted, he exclaimed in a firm and loud tone of voice, “Lord have mercy upon us. Pray good Lord have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us. All people before me take warning by me!" Having been asked if he had any thing farther to say, he repeated the same words, and added, “Lord have mercy upon my poor soul.”